Numb

Rosalind was like a racehorse bolting straight out of the gate. She brought the spoon into her mouth with no hesitation and closed her lips around it. She was in competition mode right now, and she always gave her all to anything she was challenged to. The spoon exited her lips clean, and she immediately felt a burning hot sensation on her tongue. She had never eaten anything like this before. She had eaten raw peppers in the past, and they weren’t nearly this hot.

The shock to her system prevented her from swallowing the mouthful. She had planned to chew as little as possible, and swallow as quickly as she could, but the back of her mouth refused to let it through. After the initial shock, she took a few seconds to acclimate herself to the opponent she was facing, and managed to get it down. The burning didn’t stop as it went down her throat, leaving a trail of fire in its wake.

Rosalind didn’t give herself time to think, and quickly brought a new spoonful to her mouth. This one went down faster, and she started a quick rhythm. As she continued, the heat continued to build in her mouth, getting hotter and hotter. She could feel her body start reacting, as her whole upper body started to feel hot. Her heart was beating faster, and she started to sweat at the forehead. She didn’t want to stop her pace to wipe it away, so drops of sweat slowly rolled down her face as she continued on.

She had made sizable progress into her bowl, when she started to notice the burning sensations slowly start transforming. The hot pain gave way to tingly numbness, and each spoonful became easier than the last. This is what she thought would happen with the numberries, and was honestly thankful that it was helping her. She continued with renewed vigor, as she was sure of her victory now.

The numbness continued to grow in her mouth, and progressed down her throat to her stomach. She had to be careful not to bite her tongue or cheeks as she had less fine control over them now. Still, she kept pace, and before she knew it, she had nearly reached the bottom of the bowl. She mercilessly polished off the last few bites, and put her bowl down. While she was eating, She avoided looking at her competitors, instead focusing on herself. She could check now, and found that all three had barely made a dent in their meals, and were visibly suffering. They were red in the face, pouring sweat from the forehead, and panting with their breaths.

“Done!”

Rosalind noticed that the words came out funny, given the numbness of her mouth. The three took that as a signal of relief, and immediately started to pass the water flask around, filling their mouths and passing it to the next person. They continued until it ran out, and looked like they could still use more water. Ricard was the first of them to speak.

“Haaaa, it still hurtssss. Ahhhh, what the hell did ye’ put in ‘ere Barnabas?”

Barnabas couldn’t even answer, as he looked like his entire being was dedicated to survival at the moment. Thomlin looked like he had handled it the best out of the three, but wasn’t even close to competing with Rosalind. She had won by a clean and clear margin, but it looked like Ricard wasn’t up for congratulating her yet. Everyone was still seated, as they still recovered. Rosalind was the only one seated in an actual chair with a back, a courtesy from the misfit boys to their guest she supposed. She leaned back into the chair, and relaxed, satisfied with her victory.

As Rosalind sat there, she noticed that the heat in her body was also gradually fading as well. After a few more moments, she noticed that it wasn’t fading, but instead turning to numbness, just like what had happened with her mouth, throat, and stomach. She felt her sense of touch dull as the numbness continued to spread. She wasn’t alarmed though, since she was still able to move her mouth even though it was fully numbed. Surely the same would apply to the rest of her.

While thinking of this, she also noticed a sort of haziness with her head as well. Even though her heart had been beating so quickly, she felt tired. Her eyelids were heavy and she felt drowsy. It was strange, so strange… She nodded off for a second, but woke back up with a start. But at this point, she knew that sleep was inevitable, as she nodded off once more.

…

Ricard finally recovered from the burning in his mouth. He never thought that the food would actually be this bad. He was pissed off at Barnabas for not saying anything about it. It was his fault, after all, since he was the one who found the recipe in one of his books. Ricard looked at Rosalind, who was asleep in her chair, then looked at Thomlin and Barnabas, who seemed to be fine at this point too.

“Thomlin, go poke her, see if she wakes up.”

“Okay boss”

Thomlin went over to her sleeping form and gently poked her on the cheek.

“No, no, like, try to wake her up ya know?”

Thomlin grabbed Rosalind by her shoulder and gave her a firm shake. Not a stir.

“Alright, looks like the plan worked. What did I tell ye?”

“Yeah, boss, but did we need to eat that stuff?”

“Shut up, yes, it wouldn’t have worked without it, obviously. Anyways, Barnabas, next step, get to it.”

Barnabas still didn’t speak, but he got up and went to the crate at the foot of the bed. He brought back the journal in one hand and the burnt wicked branch in the other.

“Good, Barnabas, now do what ye need to as quick as ye can.”

Barnabas opened the journal to the page which recorded the magic circle that he was going to draw and held it in one hand. His other arm approached her forehead with the black charcoal, before stopping.

“Uh, Ric- boss, she’s sweating.”

Ricard took a look at Rosalind’s forehead, which was still wet from the time she started the spicy food challenge. He looked over to Thomlin.

“Go bring me a cloth real quick.”

Thomlin did as he was asked, and handed it to Ricard who wiped Rosalind’s skin dry.

Barnabas then positioned his hand again, before stopping once more.

“Uh, boss, can… can you hold the book for me? I, uh, can’t draw it… with one hand.”

Ricard looked at Barnabas incredulously.

“Thomlin you hold it for him okay?”

Thomlin rolled his eyes, but did as he was told, holding the journal open next to Rosalind. Barnabas used his free hand to hold Rosalind’s forehead, stabilizing himself. He paused for a second, then started the careful process of drawing the magic circle. He frequently referenced the journal, looking back at it multiple times before drawing another line or curve. Even though Barnabas was a nervous wreck, one of his positive traits was that he was very careful. Ricard watched at the start, but quickly grew bored at the slow process. He went to the wall where his wooden sword was mounted, and took it. He played around with it for some time, before growing tired of it too, and opting to sit back down and resume watching.

After what felt like way too long, Barnabas stopped drawing. He looked closely between the pattern on Rosalind’s forehead and the one in the journal. He double, triple, quadruple checked that it matched exactly. He knew that a mistake was dangerous, easily lethal when it came to dark magic. Ricard noticed Barnabas’s change in pace, and spoke up.

“Is it done yet?”

Barnabas gave the pattern one final look, before responding.

“Yes, I- I think so.”

Thomlin stopped holding the journal up, closing it and putting his arms down.

“Finally. My arms hurt.”

Ricard faced Thomlin.

“Don’t worry about that Thomlin my friend, you won’t be feeling your arms at all soon enough.”

Thomlin seemed pleased with this, as he handed the journal back to Barnabas, who then went to store the journal and charcoal back in the crate. At the initial stages of the plan, Ricard wanted to be the first one in, but upon further thought and consideration of the great risks, he preferred someone else go first.

“Boss, I just have to headbutt her right?”

“Yeah, right on the mark I think, jus’ don’t miss.”

Thomlin positioned himself over the still **** form of Rosalind, slumped back in the chair. He grabbed both sides of her head and held her steady as he lined his head up an inch away from hers. He drew his head back and smacked it against hers.

Thomlin went limp and his body collapsed on top of Rosalind’s. It looked like Thomlin had knocked himself out. Well, magic pattern or not, a bonk to the head that hard would knock anyone out, even someone as thick skulled as Thomlin. Ricard and Barnabas watched intently, unsure what would happen. Well, they weren’t sure exactly what would happen, but they were expecting something. But there was nothing, the two bodies laid still, only moved by their slow breathing. Barnabas eventually spoke up.

“Uh… I think… it might take a while, ‘cuz the berries…”

“Oh, I see. Okay then. Can you tell if it worked?”

Barnabas took a look at the two, as well as the now smudged symbol that remained on Rosalind’s head.

“I… I don’t- I can’t tell.”

“Hmm… Okay. Clean that stuff off o’ her and move Thomlin to the bed. If it didn’t work, I don’t want her finding anything we can’t explain okay?”

Barnabas retrieved the cloth again and cleaned the black material off of Rosalind, only leaving a swollen bump that was forming from the earlier impact. He put the cloth away and looked at Thomlin who was still on top of Rosalind.

“Boss… I don’t think- I definitely can’t lift Thomlin… Can you help me?”

“Y’know what? I don’t think both of us could lift ‘im together. Just push him to the side an’ lower ‘im down.”

Barnabas looked at Thomlin again, and pushed and pulled at him. He barely moved, but after enough effort, Barnabas was able to get him off of her.

“Yeah, this works. Ya see if it didn’t work, we’ll tell ‘er that she fell asleep an’ Thomlin tripped, hitting his head on ‘er’s by accident an’ all.”

They could only wait at this point, and see who woke up. Barnabas eventually went back for the journal, rereading some sections of it while Ricard played with his wooden sword again.

…

After a few hours, Rosalind stirred. Ricard took notice and got Barnabas’s attention too. They watched her as she woke up.

“Haaa man, I feel… weird…”

Ricard couldn’t tell if the spell worked or not, so he prepared to act as necessary.

“Rosalind? Ye’ okay there?”

Her eyes slowly opened. She looked at Ricard, then moved her arms. She moved her hands in front of her face, flexing and manipulating the fingers. She seemed disoriented, but that could have been from the numberries. Ricard asked again.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Rosalind looked back at Ricard, and answered.

“Uh, yeah, I think I’m okay boss.”

Ricard paused for a second, then couldn't help himself from smiling as he beamed at Rosalind.

“Good. So it worked. It really worked. Good one Barnabas, y’know this makes up for the spicy shit earlier. Thomlin, stand up already.”

Rosalind started to stand up, but nearly fell over. She stumbled forwards, but managed to regain her balance. She stood up and turned to face the two misfit boys.

“It’s weird, really weird. The balance is different, everything is different. Like, her boobs are heavy.”

She cupped two hands around her breasts, pushing them up. She seemed surprised as she did so.

“That was weird! Boss, That felt really weird! They’re kinda… sensitive…”

“Stop hogging it all for yourself!”

Rosalind removed her hands from herself as Ricard went over to her. He grabbed her breasts, causing her to flinch.

“Hey! Stop it, that feels weird boss.”

Ricard continued to squeeze them for a bit, then decided to let go.

“Alright, Thomlin, this is yer turn, so ye get to do what ye want.”

Barnabas spoke up from behind Ricard.

“Uh, maybe- maybe we should, uh, move… Thomlin”

He indicated towards the **** body still slumped on the floor. Rosalind spoke up.

“Hey! What did you guys… what happened?”

“Nothin’ Thomlin, don’t worry about nothin’. Just help us move ye okay? Yer real heavy ya’ know?”

Rosalind walked over to Thomlin’s **** body, seeming to get the hang of walking as she went. She crouched down, and put one arm under both of Thomlin’s knees, and the other behind Thomlin’s back. She lifted him into her arms and stood up, arm and leg muscles flexing as she lifted the heavy load. She began to walk to the bed, carrying Ricard and Barnabas’s gazes behind her as well. She laid Thomlin in the bed gently, and turned to face the two that were ogling her.

“That was cool. I feel really strong!”

“Yeah, but remember, don’t do anything dumb! Don’t hurt her, once your turn ends, it’s mine next! She’s shared between all o’ us now, so take care of her body alright?”

“Yeah sure boss, I’ll take real good care of her. It’s my turn after all”