Rude Awakening

Ji-Woo Summers

Ji-Woo stood in front of the closed bedroom door, her heart heavy with a mix of emotions. She hesitated, her hand hovering just above the door.

Taking a shaky breath, she mustered the courage to speak, her voice barely above a whisper. “Master, are you awake?”

The question hung in the air, surrounded by deafening silence.

She leaned against the door. “I know that was... a lot. Would you like to discuss any of it?”

Ji-Woo closed her eyes for a moment, feeling tears threaten to spill. “You wouldn't even have to say anything. If you just wanted to listen... I...” Her voice trailed off.

“Master? Can I come in?” she asked again, her voice trembling slightly.

After a moment of silence that felt like an eternity, Ji-Woo sighed. “You're right. Forget I said anything.”

Levi, lying in his bed, listened as Ji-Woo walked away, before pulling the covers over his head.

---

Olivia Booker

Three-Sixty-One looked around the void, taking stock of the audience for her tale. "This would be fun with more people, but those spoilsports are still awake. Seriously, what could be better than a good nights rest? Even Azure is snoozing now."

"You can sense her?" Olivia asked.

Three-Sixty-One shook her head. "Nope! Everyone in the forest just knows she sleeps from two to five in the morning. Back when she monitored us more, that was the only time we could let loose!"

Olivia's eyes lit up, very interested by this piece of information. "You don't say?"

"Very interesting," Sophia agreed.

"Well, you'll just have to do," Three-Sixty-One shrugged. "But I gotta warn you, it's a really sad story! Try not to cry."

The listeners resisted the temptation to roll their eyes, doubtful they could ever feel sorry for Azure.

"So, a couple days after time started, a super special cosmic entity was born with amazing powers!" Three-Sixty-One began. "No one knows what it looked like, but it was really big."

She spread her arms to show its size. "Like, really, really big. Like, galaxy size. And strong. Strong enough to reshape existence if it wanted."

"That's insane," Elena exclaimed.

Three-Sixty-One nodded. "Anyway, a couple hundred years ago, it got really bored of being around forever, so it created three awesome daughters from its soul. It gave them names before bouncing away from reality forever!"

Three-Sixty-One waved her hand, causing a screen to appear. On it was a picture of three women, each with a different hair color: red, blue, and green. "These three were the Trinity Sisters."

'Oh god, there are more of them,' Olivia thought, blood turning cold.

Three-Sixty-One pointed to the three. "From left to right, we got Azure, Fern, and Scarlet."

Sophia narrowed her eyes. "The blue-haired sister is Fern, the green-haired one is Scarlet, and the red one is Azure?"

"Yup!" Three-Sixty-One nodded.

"Was their mom colorblind?" Olivia asked.

Three-Sixty-One tilted her head in confusion. "I don't get it."

"Never mind," Olivia sighed.

---

Lauren Peterson

Lauren rolled over in her bed as she pretended to sleep, ignoring Olivia's annoyed grumbling as she dreamed. 'Is it time yet?' Lauren asked.

'Yes, I believe so,' Nineteen responded. 'Azure should be asleep by now.'

'Finally,' Lauren sighed. She reached for her covers to throw them off.

'Wait! Don't get up.'

'Why not?'

'There's a possibility there's still a backup camera,' Nineteen warned. 'It's unlikely she'll look at them unless something goes wrong, but let's not take any unnecessary risks.'

Lauren bit her lips in annoyance. 'Then what the fuck was the point of waiting?'

'The cameras were never the issue,' Nineteen informed her. 'Rather, it was the risk of Azure sensing if we used magic.' She chuckled. 'However, she won't be sensing anything while she slumbers.'

'Then, what's the plan?'

'We astral project, of course,' Nineteen said smugly. 'We're lucky Jezebel's room is so close to yours. Well within the distance to do so.'

'What the hell are you talking about?' Lauren snapped.

'Sit back and observe what I can do.'

Before she could ask any questions, Lauren felt warmth envelop her. In an instant, she felt herself being drawn away from her physical self, as if an unseen force was lifting her. Moments later, she materialized as a ghostly phantom of herself, wreathed in invisible flames.

She looked down at her own body, which laid motionless, but breathing. Behind her, the angel Nineteen materialized in her own astral form, radiating an otherworldly golden glow.

Nineteen raised an eyebrow, noticing that the astral form of Lauren was wearing her dress. "You manifested your goth outfit," she pointed out, speaking out loud, rather than through their mind.

Lauren looked away. "Shut up, it looks nice." She turned back. "So, what do we do now?"

"Just walk through that wall to Jezebel's," Nineteen explained, pointing to the wall. "Once we're in range, I'll enter his mind and try to free him."

"To eliminate Olivia," Lauren confirmed, nodding. She then hesitated. "Though, now that I think about it, if this works, we may not need to do that last part."

Nineteen's eye twitched. "I beg your pardon?"

Lauren shrugged. "I just mean, you said you can't free sis because you don't know if it will melt her brain. But if you can free John without mindfucking him, then we could probably do the same to Katelyn."

Nineteen forced a smile, having been hoping that Lauren would be too dumb to consider this. "Let's not jump to conclusions. Let's see what happens."

Lauren stayed silent a moment before shrugging again. "Fine, but you better give it your all." With that, she walked towards the wall.

"Let's get this over with."

---

Three-Sixty-One

The dream master took a deep breath before continuing her story. "Anyway, even though they were much weaker than their mother, all three sisters were still super-duper strong!"

She pointed to the blue-haired sister. "Fern was really powerful, but her real strength was politics. She knew how to play the powerful people like chess pieces and could topple a universe with just an email!"

Three-Sixty-One began to giggle. "She used to joke that even if she lost all her magic, she’d still be the strongest of the three!" Her smile suddenly dropped. "Mom didn’t like it when she said that, though!"

She shook her head, then pointed to the other sister. "Scarlet, on the other hand, was a hedonist. She thought working for more in life was stupid, since she was already strong, so had everything she wanted anyway. Mom said she was lazy, but I thought she was fun."

The dream master began fiddling with her hair, absentmindedly slipping into memories. "She liked to go to realities the multidimensional government didn't care about, or ones that Fern was able to gift her by pulling some strings. Once she got one, she'd make them her playground. Sometimes she was the evil queen, tormenting billions. Other times she was their savior, and made a paradise." She shrugged. "And sometimes, she just got super weird with it. It depended on what she felt like playing."

Three-Sixty-One broke into a nostalgic smile. "Back before the barrier, we used to visit. Scarlet had this one planet she had turned into a vacation spa and brothel. I was one of only three Mom would take. It was nice."

"I see," Elena said cautiously, trying not to think of the disturbing connotations of that.

Three-Sixty-One snapped out of her reminiscing. "Anyway, Mom tried to do politics like Fern and was pretty good, but I don’t think she found it very fun. She had to take up hobbies in her free to unwind."

"Like what?" Sophia asked, knowing that the answer wouldn't be anything pretty.

"Experiments on mortals," Three-Sixty-One replied simply. "Occasionally, she'd make something worth keeping. Usually ones that developed some powers. Those got a special number, based on when they were made."

She pointed to herself, excited. "Guess when she made me!"

"Three-hundred-and-sixty-first?" Elena replied.

"Hey, Good job," Three-Sixty-One applauded.

"Uhg," Olivia groaned.

"But there was one experiment that was really different," Three-Sixty-One said nervously, expression darkening. "The oldest one still around. Mom's only mistake. Nineteen."

She stopped and shuddered at the name. Around them, the fog grew darker.

---

Nineteen

Lauren looked down at the sleeping Jezebel, her mammoth melons rising and falling with each breath. "God, they look bigger every time I see them," Lauren observed in disgust.

The goth turned to Nineteen. "Well, get to it—time to prove your worth."

Nineteen bowed. "Of course, my child."

The angel approached Jezebel and gently placed a ghostly hand on her forehead, phasing through so that her fingers touched the inside of her head. Jezebel closed her eyes and concentrated. Then, a golden glow enveloped her as she transformed into light. It entered Jezebel's brain at the point of contact, as Nineteen pierced into her being.

Moments later, Nineteen felt herself rematerialize within an expansive dark void. "Lauren, can you hear me?" she asked cautiously, looking around.

Nothing but silence replied.

She licked her lips, letting out a relieved sigh at finally being away from the teen. Her face then contorted with irritation.

"You annoying, wretched, spoiled cunt! When I'm done using you, I'll boil your blood and flay your flesh while keeping you alive!" She shook her head. "No, that's far too good for you. Centuries of life, and I've never encountered anything so intolerable."

She let out a long, suppressed groan of frustration. Lauren's entire plan was stupid; it depended on too many unlikely factors, including the assumption that Olivia would react exactly as intended.

Nineteen had gently tried to inform Lauren of this ever since she proposed the plan, but the stubborn girl had responded to any objections with suspicion, accusing Nineteen of being against her.

More troubling, though, was where Nineteen saw this headed. If Lauren got a glimpse of John being set free, she would definitely start looking for a way for Nineteen to do the same for Katelyn, skipping the original plan altogether.

'I should have thought of a better excuse for why manually freeing their minds wasn't an option,' she thought. 'As things stand, portraying myself as the benevolent angel here to save her sister, I cannot simply refuse to do something that might help her. And if do nothing, the bitch will think I'm useless, and it'll be harder to control her.'

She shook her head in disgust, before looking down at her angel body.

"Whatever. Guess I don't need this anymore," she remarked with a sly grin, her fingers gripping the fabric of the robe tightly. With a violent movement, she ripped at the material, which in turn tore away at her false body. The air cackled with all the dark energy she had suppressed as her true form burst free.

"Now then, let's see what I can find," she chuckled with sadistic excitement as she flew off into the void.

---

Three-Sixty-One

"So why does Azure consider Nineteen a mistake?" Sophia asked. "Was he really weak or something?"

"She, not he," Three-Sixty-One corrected. "And no, she was strong! Very strong. Unlike the rest of us, who were made from mortal souls and bodies, she was made from Mother herself."

"From Azure?" Elena exclaimed.

"Yup!" the storyteller confirmed. "Mom wanted an awesome assistant who could keep up with her mega power, so she took a piece of her soul to make her, just like her own mother had done!"

"That couldn't have gone well," Olivia remarked.

"It did at first," Three-Sixty-One said. "They were really close when I was born. But over time, she developed a dark side, despite her soul coming from Mom.

"Despite?" Olivia repeated, snorting back a laugh.

"First it was small stuff. She killed the eighteen before her so she'd be the oldest," Three-Sixty-One explained.

"That's small?" Elena asked in disbelief.

Three-Sixty-One ignored her. "Then she stopped asking permission before torturing mortals. But the worst of all was the rebellion."

"Rebellion?" Olivia asked, uncrossing her arms in interest.

Three-Sixty-One bobbed her head. "She got half the siblings, about three hundred of them, to agree that she should be the leader. They went on a crazy rampage, destroying entire planes of reality. And not backwater ones that no one cared about. Realities that important people protected."

Three-Sixty-One rubbed her hand against her mouth, clearly upset. "It was a huge mess. A bunch of pantheons were super mad at Mom for unleashing such a troublemaker. She had to burn every favor she'd made to try and fix things, but it still wasn't enough."

She sighed. "It was only when Fern stepped in that they were finally able tie up the loose ends."

"Well, that was nice of her," Elena commented.

"Nice!?" Three-Sixty-One shrieked. "Mom was furious. She knew Fern only did it to hold it over her head, knowing that she could never pay it back."

"Of course Azure would assume that," Elena said bitterly.

"She assumed nothing!" Three-Sixty-One retorted. "Fern was always showing off how much better she was than Mom. Don't you dare say it was kindness!"

"Ok, ok," Elena held up her hands.

"So what happened next?" Sophia interjected, not wanting their informant to lose her temper.

"Even though the other half of us stayed out of it, we all had to be punished," she replied sadly. "Mom sealed us all in the woods. She still makes more of us, but they can never be as strong as the first few hundred."

She let out a forlorn sigh, flopping down onto the couch next to Sophia. "Mom's political career was over. Even if it wasn't, I think she was super burned out from it anyway. She wanted to make up for all the years she wasted working, and do something more fulfilling."

"Which was?" Sophia asked.

"Show business," Three-Sixty-One smiled. "She was tired of doing politics in the shadow. She wanted the spotlight. For millions of people to see how great she was."

She leapt to her feet. "She made a name for herself at a big studio. She even got to work on her favorite show, Bimbo or Billionaire."

"The hell is... never mind," Olivia began, before deciding she'd rather not know.

"She became a big-time writer there, but the whole time she was aiming to become the show's assistant." Three-Sixty-One's expression fell, as she began to tear up. "But then, the studio betrayed her. Despite Mom being the most qualified, they gave the role to some floozie who didn't even work there."

She brought a finger to her eye to wipe away her growing tears. "I'm sorry," she whimpered. "I don't mean to cry. This part is just so sad."

"That wasn't sad at all!" Olivia exclaimed, too aggravated to even keep up the bit.

"Huh?"

"So what, her tragic past was that she lost her government job, had a midlife crisis, and missed out on a promotion?" Olivia cried.

"She's just kidding, Three-Sixty-One," Elena offered. "What happened next?"

Three-Sixty-One began to pace, her sadness gradually transforming into outrage as she continued her story. "She switched to Harem Hotel, but they betrayed her again by rejecting her season. They strung her along for years, even giving that same floozie a season before her. Then, when they finally offered her a season, they said she could only have seven contestants."

She stomped her foot. "Why?! Why do they have to be so mean to her?"

Olivia managed to hold back from laying into her again. "Oh, no. What a miscarriage of justice," she said flatly.

"And that brings us to today?" Elena inquired, to which the green-skinned girl nodded.

"What happened to Nineteen?" Sophia asked.

Three-Sixty-One gulped. "She's still around, sealed with the rest of us. The only one of the rebellion to survive."

She trembled, looking around the void as if scared she would jump out of the mist at any moment. "She has powers none of us can dream of, like reading mortals minds through their fear, or summoning fire hotter than hell. And she's only grown more unhinged over the years."

Three-Sixty-One hugged her chest. "We all stay away from her. She's wild, impulsive, and insane."

---

Nineteen

The demon delved deeper into the labyrinth of John's mind, gliding through a cascade of memories that swirled around her as she approached the core of his being.

Visions began to unfold. She witnessed John attacking children of all ages—each too weak to defend themselves. But amidst those scenes, she also saw him on the other side, battered and beaten from when he picked the wrong enemy. One memory in particular shone brightest: his sister, no older than nine, punching him the face after he taunted her about being an accident.

"Boring," Nineteen sighed, flying past it into deeper memories.

The imposing figure of his father materialized, filled with rage, as he chastised John for having been overpowered by his sister. "How could you lose to a girl?!" he thundered. "Are you a man or not?"

"Boring!" Nineteen repeated, annoyed.

A sharper image crystallized around her—a recent memory. John could be seen standing frozen as his father slammed the door, expelling him from the house. "You're eighteen! You should be living on your own," he had shouted.

Hours passed instantly, and Nineteen watched John, pride swallowed, standing at his sister’s doorstep. He looked pitiful, pleading with Olivia for a place to spend the night.

Weeks sped by, with John still crashing at Olivia’s, his former humility already gone.

“Where the fuck were you all night?” Olivia asked

“Getting laid. What do you care, bitch?” John replied, with a shit-eating grin.

Olivia's eyes flared. “The hell did you say?!”

Nineteen groaned, totally uninterested in this family drama. She tried to fly through it, but the memory was too fresh, having been replayed too many times by John—his last moments before coming to Harem Hotel.

“I said I was getting laid,” he responded, his smirk somehow having even gotten wider. “Not that you’d know anything about getting action, with those gorilla arms of yours making everyone think you're a man, regardless of how big your rack is.”

“These ‘gorilla arms’ as you put them are the only thing paying for your lazy ass right now," Olivia reminded him.

“Yeah yeah," John rolled his eyes. "That dyke sport you pretend is MMA."

"Fuck you!"

Olivia lunged forward, wrapping her arms around John’s neck in a swift headlock. However, Nineteen did not see the end of the fight, utterly fed up.

"STOP BORING ME!" Nineteen screamed. With a surge of her power, she banished the phantom memories away, leaving her path forward unobstructed.

In the far distance, a dark silhouette emerged—a towering black monolith. "Hello, what do we have here?" she mused aloud, licking her lips.

As she drew closer, the shapes became clearer. There, at the base of the monolith, lay John, naked, motionless, and bound in heavy chains.

"So, that's where she was keeping you," she smirked as she flew up to get a better look at him. "Look at you, so vulnerable. You have no idea the number of tortures I want to put you through." Bringing his face closer, she licked his cheek. "But we're on a schedule," she whispered.

Leaning back, she placed her fingers on his forehead. Visions of runes and intricate magical seals unfolded in her mind as she explored the web of enchantments ensnaring him.

"This is definitely your style, Mother. I can see you decided to do it all yourself, rather than borrow from your Harem Hotel masters."

She withdrew her hand, having a full vision of the spell. "I could fully restore you, boy. But then that insufferable girl would expect the same for her sister. And if I do nothing, she'll only grow suspicious of my intentions."

Her lips curled into a wicked smile, eyes gleaming with dark anticipation. "No, this has to play out spectacularly wrong. Wrong enough that she’ll know repeating it isn’t an option. "

Nineteen drove her hand back to John, jumping deeper into the spell, down to its base foundations. "Such a haphazard number of transformations you have stacked on him," Nineteen commented, observing that the curse was a half dozen separate spells mashed violently together.

"And an ambitious spell too," she continued, unable to deny a small spark of respect for her mother’s handiwork. "Most transformations would settle for simply changing his body and altering his mind. Instead, you've created an entire artificial personality while suppressing his true self and ensuring he remains aware."

She shook her head. "A single mistake would have made the whole thing unstable. Of course, you didn't make a mistake. But what if..."

Her eyes lit up, an irresistibly vile idea forming in her head. She began making the tiniest of tweaks to the sigils, ones so small that only the greatest of experts would have noticed.

"If I just inverted the sign here. Removed the limiter there," she muttered to herself as she made her changes, excitement growing with each edit.

"Oh yes, this will be good. Tell me, mother, how will your masters react when they learn you were too incompetent to make a simple elimination spell?"

She let out a cackle; the thought of shattering her mother's dreams for a second time filled her with a delight that was worth any risk. Her sadistic joy at the idea only grew as she realized the hell she was about to unleash on John.

"This is going to be so much fun!"

---

John Booker

The blonde's eyes bolted open from their slumber! A primal scream of fury erupted from their throat. It was a raw, visceral cry—the culmination of days steeped in unending torment.

"What's happening? Did it work?" The astral form of Lauren asked, stepping back. She watched as the figure bolted upright, looking around the room wildly, their blue eyes having changed to John's natural brown.

Panting and shivering, John slowly looked down at his own, feminine hands. "I can move..." he gasped, flexing his fingers. "I... freedom... I..." He let out a groan, clutching his temples. "Ahh... my head... hurts..."

Suddenly, his eyes glazed over as his iris returned to its cool hue. "Ooh, who are you?" the girl asked. "I'm Jezebel, hi!"

"No! Shut up! SHUT UP!" John screamed. "I'm not Jezebel! I’m John! Get out of my head!"

"John? Nice to meet you," Jezebel greeted cheerfully. "You wanna make out?"

"SHUT UP!" John screeched, punching himself across the face. "Ow! Gah! Damn it! Hey, that hurt! Good! I'm glad! Why are you such a meanie? STOP TALKING!"

As Lauren watched, Nineteen manifested beside her. "It is done, my child. How is he?"

John pulled at his hair, trying to hold on to himself with his mind split in two, barely able to hear his own thoughts over Jezebel's. "Levi! He did this to me! Him and that witch!"

"I see," Nineteen muttered, imitating concern.

John clenched his soft, manicured fists. "How dare he! That gay, spineless freak! I should have known he wanted to fuck me over all this time! I was too soft on him! I should have stopped him when I had the chance. All of this is his fault!"

"Oh, Levi," Jezebel moaned, expression changing instantly. "He's so hawt. I wanna ride him so bad."

"Don't you dare, you fucking whore!" John declared, wrestling control back. "I hate him! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM! HATE! HATE! HATE! Love! HATE! HATE! HE'LL PAY FOR THIS!"

He got to his feet before stumbling, out of practice controlling his body, especially one with his new proportions. He let out a grunt of frustration as he stood once more, and walked forward awkwardly, passing straight through the unseen spirit of Lauren.

"Where is he?! Where is he hiding!" He bellowed, looking around as if expecting to find Levi in the very room.

"Uh, upstairs in his tower," Jezebel answered. "But why you wanna..."

"I'll kill him! I'LL KILL HIM!" John slammed the door open and stumbled into the hall. "Wait, I don't like this plan! Shut up! You hear me, Levi! I'm coming for you!" he screamed into the dark hall, in a way that would have awoken the others, had they not been in an enchanted dream.

"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM ME! YOU'RE ALL MINE!"

Lauren watched as John slammed the door behind him. She silently looked over to Nineteen, and then back to the door.

"Well, shit," she muttered under her breath.

---

Bonus Image