You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em

Dawn waited until she had put significant distance between herself and Team Virgin before finally letting out the breath she’d been holding.

Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! What were you thinking!? She berated herself, smacking her hand against her head repeatedly. She stumbled forward and crouched down next to the river, staring at her reflection.

“I did what I had to do,” her reflection replied. “It’s not like I could just give them the Two, after all. I need those points!”

“But I didn’t have to be so mean about it!” She protested. Of course, she wasn’t really debating with her reflection. She wasn’t crazy. But there were two sides of her that were at war right now, and it didn’t help that her usual razor-sharp wit was failing her. “I should have just asked for the Seven. As long as I have a Seven, Gina won’t be able to complete her set. Those cards would have been dead to her… If I’d done that, then it would have been fine…”

Dawn stared at her reflection, waiting for it to say something back. But it didn’t. It just stared back at her, because it was a river. Not a magic mirror.

“Willowbrook? No, she’s no good. She’s got a brilliant mind for medicine, but when it comes to getting along with other people, she just doesn’t have it.”

“But you don’t need to have good bedside manner if you’re going to be a surgeon, right?”

“That’s true, but consider who would hire her. Genius only goes so far. No hospital is going to want someone who can’t play well with others.”

Ripples across the water distorted Dawn’s reflection.

Am I… crying? She removed her glasses and wiped her eyes. When she pulled back her sleeve, it was wet.

When the water cleared, her reflection spoke to her again.

“Didn’t I really want to be friends with those girls?” Her reflection asked herself.

“Shut up!” Dawn shouted, smacking her image away. “Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

She caught her breath, wiping her forehead. The river settled once more but she didn’t take another look. She’d come to a decision.

Fine then. That’s what I’m going to do. Dawn stood up and turned back the way she came, and ran after Mary and Kim. Hopefully they hadn’t gotten too far.

She froze when she saw two people walk out onto the path in front of her.

“…Oh, it’s just Dawn,” Gina said, sighing in disappointment. “Never mind.”

“…Gina,” Dawn said, keeping her tone polite but curt. “Dakota.”

The two girls made an odd couple. But Dawn had a pretty good idea what was going on here.

“Why are you two soaking wet?” She asked. Both girls were drenched from head to toe.

“Long story,” Gina said, waving dismissively. “Anyway, we gotta get going.”

Dawn tensed, feeling Dakota’s intense glare. Her hand slipped to her side to protect the Queen she’d taken from Mary, and she braced herself, preparing to escape.

Gina blinked. “Ah, hey. Come on. We’re not going to take your cards from you!” She laughed. “Dakota here is hunting bigger game.”

Dawn raised her eyebrow. “Bigger game? And by that, you mean…”

“Dani, of course,” Gina said, pointing at the board. “We were hoping you were her, actually. Take a look.”

Dawn took a second to check the board. She didn’t need to be a genius to figure out what Kim was talking about. Dani had one of the highest scores on the board. Along with the Eight she’d stolen from her, Dani had managed to pull the King of Diamonds as well, bringing her point total up to over forty.

“You’re pretty bold,” Dawn said, glancing at Dakota’s hand. “You’re really trying to go for a set of Kings, huh?”

“I tried to warn her,” Gina sighed, shaking her head. “But she’s adamant. Gotta say though, I’m a little excited. Her going up against Dani? With that girl’s brute strength? There’s a reason she has the most points, you know. This game favors people with good bodies. I bet she’s found a whole bunch of boxes and tossed the cards aside because they were too low.”

“It’s the winning hand,” Dakota said simply. “That’s all there is to it. And you should count your numbers again, Gina.”

She held up the Nine of Clubs.

“Dani and I have the same number of points.”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Well, sooo-ooorry, I’m not good at math.”

Dawn groaned, smacking her forehead in frustration. “The point totals for each person are up there on the board, you moron.”

“…Oh, are you still here?” Gina smirked. Dawn scowled back at her.

“So that’s what this is, huh?” She said finally, lowering her head. “You’re teaming up with Dakota and helping her win so she’ll pair up with you.”

Dakota blinked. “No, she’s an idiot who refuses to leave me alone. I have nothing to do with this.”

“Uweh, Dakota, why are you so cruel?” Gina wailed, pretending to cry.

It makes sense… after all, those two are old friends… of course they’d team up together. Dawn felt a sting of bitterness in her chest. Her pride had kept her from teaming up with Rose, and just now it had screwed her over with Mary and Kim as well. She could have worked with them, and not made any enemies. Instead, she’d just made her position worse.

Why can’t I just be honest and say what I mean? She hated that side of herself. The part of her that hated showing weakness.

“…If you want Dani, the last time I saw her, she was headed away from the forest,” Dawn muttered. “Back towards the hotel, I think.”

“Hey! That’s real decent of ya, Dawn!” Gina clapped her on the shoulder. “Thanks a bunch!”

“Yeah. Whatever.”

Dawn headed the other way as the duo headed down the path. Maybe it wouldn’t be too late to catch Mary and Kim… but would it even matter at this point?

Gina glanced over her shoulder at the shorter girl’s retreating figure and sighed. “Man, she’s in trouble, isn’t she?”

“She still has more points than you at the moment,” Dakota reminded her. “I’d be more worried about yourself.”

“Oh come on, I kept you from falling over the side of the river!” Gina whined. “You can’t seriously say you’re going to let me get eliminated after that, are you?!”

“Don’t lose your immunity if you don’t want to find out,” Dakota coldly replied.

“Mean…”

The two girls kept following the river, using the hotel as a landmark. Like the floating screen, it was pretty much impossible to miss no matter where you were on the island. They walked quite a distance, but the river seemed to keep going on forever, and it didn't feel like they'd gotten any closer. The forest was just as thick as always.

“It’s weird, it feels like the higher-value cards are being found faster,” Gina mused. “Like, I haven’t seen many Threes or Fours.”

“There’s one right there, actually,” Dakota said, pointing to a card lying in the dirt. The Three of Clubs.

Gina gasped.

“Score!” She cheered, grabbing the card. Dakota stared at her.

“…What?”

“Never mind. It’s the same as with that Ace, I guess. Filling your hand with worthless crap.”

“Well, that’s the way you see it,” Gina shrugged. “But if you ask me, I think Dani’s got the wrong idea. Finding these cards all over the place and then tossing them away the second she does. I would keep holding onto them for as long as I could! I’d only throw ‘em out when I found a lower card, you know? But she’s keeping her hand pretty empty.”

“I can see either way,” Dakota shrugged.

“Hey, look, there’s another one!” Gina pointed a few feet down the path. She skipped over to the card and picked it up. This time it was the Ace of Hearts. “…Feh. Just another Ace.”

“And now your hand is full. See the conundrum?” Dakota raised her eyebrow.

“Well, yeah, but if we run into Mary, then I can take her cards, and then I’ll have three Sevens and three Aces!” Gina pointed out.

“…You realize you can only hold five cards in your hand, right?” Dakota reminded her. She also doubted whether or not Gina could do that to the other girl.

“Yeah but I can just have you hold onto some of ‘em, right?” Gina laughed.

Dakota stared at her and slowly shook her head.

“Ah. Forget it, then,” Gina sighed, tossing away the Ace. “Trying to get four Aces just sounds like a pain in the ass. Besides, there’s another card right over there, and it’s gotta be worth more!”

Dakota couldn’t believe Gina’s strategy was seriously to get points out of collecting Dani’s cast-offs. But even as she said it, Gina was heading over to grab the Four of Spades. When she picked up the card, her eyes widened. “Holy shit! Dakota, look!” She gasped, pointing at a tree a few yards down. A black box was sitting underneath it.

“Hey, wait a second!” Dakota called. That looked way too suspicious. A box just sitting there? No way would Dani have missed it.

But Gina wasn’t exactly the sort of girl who thought ahead. She tucked the Four into her belt and ran towards the box, grabbing it. The box crumbled away to reveal the Eight of Hearts. Gina didn’t hesitate for a second to throw away her other Ace and add the Eight to her hand.

Her joy lasted about two seconds before a rope tied tight around her ankle and she was hoisted up into the air.

“Hey! What the hell?!” Gina exclaimed, pressing down on her skirt to keep from flashing her underwear. She dangled in the air by one leg, thrashing against her restraints. “This isn’t funny! I know I like being tied up, but this is ridiculous!”

Dakota immediately tensed. A booby trap, huh? Someone was really using their head here. I’d have expected that from Dawn, but someone else? Or was this part of her plan? Send us in this direction after Dani, and then catch us by surprise?

She grabbed her scanner and checked. A dot was heading straight towards her. She whirled around just in time to see Rose charging out of the forest.

“Oof!” Dakota fell back, getting the wind knocked out of her. She didn’t expect to be hit that hard; it felt like the other girl had struck her with the **** of a semi-truck!

“Dakota!” Gina cried.

Dakota picked herself up, scowling. She wasn’t injured, so Rose must have held back. But there was something off about the blonde girl.

“You seem different. Work out?” Dakota sneered, glancing at Rose. Her figure had plumped considerably. Her boobs were bigger, her ass was wider, and her hips were thicker. She practically burst out of Nick’s clothes.

“Consider it my secret weapon,” Rose tittered. “I saved my daily transformation for exactly this sort of situation, you see. I borrowed Dani’s Softer than Silk. After all, it comes with a nice little bonus, or did you forget?”

“Amazon,” Dakota scowled.

“She got two transformations for the price of one!” Rose chortled, placing her hands on her hips. “It’s just not fair! Of course… now I do, too.”

Rose had the same superhuman strength as Dani now, thanks to her transformation.

“You were the one who tossed those cards away, not Dani,” Dakota said.

“That’s right,” Rose nodded. She picked up the two Aces Gina had discarded. “See, we lost out on a good card about an hour ago since I couldn’t get there fast enough. So I figured now was as good a time as any. I grabbed as many boxes as I could find, and as I expected, all of ‘em had crap. So I left the cards out as bait. See, when someone picks up a card, it shows on that screen. So by leaving them out like that, I would know how close someone was to springing my trap based on when they picked up a card! Then when Gina got the Eight, I knew it had to be the card in the box, and, well… it was the perfect trap for an idiot, anyway.”

“Hey!” Gina scowled.

“I didn’t expect a city girl like you to know how to build a rope trap, though,” Dakota said, narrowing her eyes. “Personal hobby?”

Rose laughed. “Ah, that’s a secret, sorry.”

Dakota nodded. “Holly, then. Figures she’d be into that. Does she read a lot of books about bondage in her spare time?”

“…Huh?” Rose flinched. She hadn’t expected to be found out that easily. “What… what are you talking about?”

“Holly,” Dakota repeated. “You’re working with her, right? You’re helping her win the game, so she’ll pick you as her buddy. A fairly predictable decision.”

“Yeah, I am,” Rose scowled. If Dakota had already figured out that far, there was no point in denying it. “So what?”

Dakota shrugged. “So nothing. But I thought you were smarter than that. You should have teamed up with me.”

Rose’s eyes widened. “Team up… with you?”

“Hey!” Gina shouted. “What about me?! Aren't we teamies, Dakota!?”

“You shut up for now.” Dakota waved her off, not taking her eyes off Rose. She approached the girl calmly, even though Rose could snap her like a twig now. “Think about it. You and me, teaming up. Holly wouldn’t have a chance competing against the both of us. Heck, she wouldn't even want to. She'd be way happier seeing you and I tag-teaming Nick together once I pick you as my buddy. If you ask her, I bet she'd agree to forfeit on the spot if she got a front row seat to that.”

Rose winced. “That’s…”

“You're really gorgeous. And just Nick's type. Did you know, when we were kids, Nick said his ideal girl was blonde, with blue eyes, and an accent?” Dakota laughed. “Just like his stepmother, actually. Someone should write a book.”

“Uh…” Rose didn't know what to say to THAT.

“On the topic of mothers, does he know about yours?” Dakota asked. “What was her name… Madelyn Sunlight, I think it was?”

Rose gasped. “You… you know about maman?!”

“Of course I do,” Dakota replied. “I’m a film major now. But more than that, I’m Nick’s childhood friend. When we were little, I used to watch Madelyn Sunlight movies with him all the time. His father loved them. And you look just like her. Nick may be blind, but I’m not. I knew who you were the second I laid eyes on you.”

Dakota grinned. “So what do you think?” She asked, holding out her hand. “Forget about Holly, and then you and I can team up! We’d have a lot of fun as buddies, I bet!”

Rose eyed Dakota’s hand warily. “…You make a tempting offer,” she admitted. “But no. I joined with Holly over you for a reason. And I’m not going to stab her in the back.”

Dakota sighed. “Negotiations failed, then.” She tensed, preparing for a fight.

Holly didn’t actually want Rose to steal Dakota’s Kings. After all, then she wouldn’t be able to complete the set. But Rose was actually thinking with her brain, not whatever parts Holly was using to come to her decisions. Rose had to press her advantage.

“Are you serious?!” Rose exclaimed. “You honestly think you can fight me off?”

“Well, you can’t actually hurt me,” Dakota reminded her. “And even though you are strong, that won’t necessarily be enough. I’m guessing you were hoping to intimidate me into backing down and handing over my cards, right?”

Rose glowered at her.

“But I’m not backing down. So what’s your next play?” Dakota asked curiously. “I mean, it’s not worth it for me to steal those Aces from you. I suppose I could just let you go, if you'd like to go back with your tail tucked between your legs like a certain cat girl…”

“I’ll show you!” Rose scowled. She lunged at Dakota with her hands extended. Her powerful legs gave her quite a long leap, and she snagged two cards off of the other girl’s belt.

Unfortunately, Rose wasn’t used to her new strength. She stumbled a little, nearly falling over. That was when Dakota seized the initiative and grabbed her by the arm. The last thing Rose saw was the pale girl’s cold smile as she was flipped into the river.

“H-Hey!” Rose scrambled to the surface, but Dakota was already gone.

“Damn that woman!” She seethed. Rose didn’t mind her ruined makeup or the fact that her hair had been messed up, but Dakota made a complete fool out of her!

Well… at least I got two cards off her. That's worth something.

Rose checked her belt. But she only had the Six and the Nine. Dakota had kept both her Kings. Which might have been good news for Holly, but not good news for her.

“DAMN IT!” Rose screamed, taking great care to not yell a cliché “sacré bleu”.

“Um, hey.”

Rose turned to see Gina, still hanging from the tree.

“Cut me down please?” She asked, waving at Rose. “Pretty please?”

“Maybe I’ll just take your best cards,” Rose replied, walking over to her with a cold glare.

“Hey, come on!” Gina pouted. “You don’t want to do that! If you do, you won’t be able to hear what I have to offer!”

Rose blinked. “Offer? You can’t offer me anything. You're stuck up there.”

“I’m talking information, blondie,” Gina said, rolling her eyes.

“You’re blonde too, you know,” Rose reminded her.

“Meh. Whatever. Come on, you're gonna wanna hear this. You’re looking for Dani, right? Well, I happen to know where she is!” Gina pleaded. “Come on! You can’t leave me up here for the whole game! I’m already getting head rush!”

“Why do you think I would be looking for Dani?” Rose raised her eyebrow.

“Because you have three Nines now, between you and Holly?” Gina chirped. Rose frowned.

“I’m right, aren’t I? You want to get that last Nine from Dani. Well, Dakota and I were looking for Dani too, only we know where she was going.”

Gina offered Rose a shit-eating grin. “Come on! Cut me down, and I’ll lead you right to her!”

It was a tempting offer. But Rose wasn’t going to be fooled that easily.

“If I cut you down, you’ll just run off,” she replied. “I’ll go get Holly, and have her decide what to do.”

“What?! No, come on! You can’t just leave me here!”

“I should be back in about twenty minutes.”

“ROSE!”

Rose stopped at the edge of the trail, and turned back to Gina.

“Can I ask you something?” She asked.

“I think you just did.”

Rose wasn’t amused. “That girl… Dakota… is she really aiming for all the Kings?”

“Yup,” Gina nodded.

“Even though she could get a really bad punishment?!” Rose couldn’t believe the other girl was that daring.

“Dakota’s just like that,” Gina sighed in exasperation. “Now come on, cut me down!”

Maybe I should have picked Dakota… no, it’s too late for that now. Rose turned and ran into the forest, her boosted strength and speed causing the trees around her to blur together as she ran for the clearing where Holly was waiting.

I’ve come this far! There’s no way I’m backing out now! Not when I'm this close! She decided, leaping down a hill and landing in the grass. I’m going to use my strength and come out ahead! For the sake of my brother!

Dakota weaved through the forest, trying to put as much distance between herself and Rose as possible. The other girl’s strength wasn’t something to make light of.

I lost my Six and my Nine… but I didn’t really need those. And Gina’s a bit tied up at the moment, but I didn’t really need her. Altogether, not that bad of a situation. I cut out a lot of dead weight.

Part of her considered going back for Gina, but she couldn’t risk it. Rose might be waiting to trap her. She couldn’t outfight the other girl.

And here I thought Dani would be the only major roadblock to my goal.

Dakota hadn’t let on to Gina, but the fact that Dani had one of the Kings was kind of a problem for her. Like with Rose, she didn’t have the strength to take it by ****, so she would need to be sneaky if she wanted to get her hands on it. But Dani wasn’t some actress playing a part for the day. She’d worked hard to master her new body these past few weeks, and if Dakota tried the same thing again, it would be her going in the river.

And that wasn't happening.

I was going to abandon Gina as a decoy so I could get away, but that won’t work now. I could probably snag the King if I sneak up and catch her off-guard, but I wouldn’t be able to keep it. Then she’d take my Kings when she overpowered me, and I can’t have that. Which means there’s only one choice.

Dakota would have to save Dani for last. She needed to find the last King, and then she could go after the King of Clubs. If she snagged the fourth King from Dani, she'd bank the points before the other girl knew what hit her.

Suddenly, the forest broke out into an empty field. The sunlight was so bright without anything to hide it that Dakota nearly lost her footing, stumbling forward.

An empty field in a place like this? Dakota looked around curiously as she resumed running. Then she skidded to a stop as she realized where she was.

That’s right… so that’s it.

She was in the park. The same park from her childhood. The park she’d gone to with Nick on their date.

Dakota slowed down to take in the scenery. It was just like she’d remembered. And knowing how twisted Sylvia’s personality was…

Yeah. There it is. Right on the swing.

Two boxes were sitting on the swings. Dakota got both of them.

The first contained the King of Diamonds.

The other contained the Ace of Spades.

High and low, huh? She mused.

She flicked the Ace away. It landed among the woodchips. She didn’t give the low-ranking card another thought and continued on. The hotel was just ahead of her.

At the moment, Nick and Carly were a lot closer to the hotel than anyone else. Not that it really mattered, because they were lost.

Well, one of them knew they were lost.

“I know exactly where we are!” Carly huffed. “We’re in the garden maze!”

“No, we are LOST in the garden maze!” Nick corrected her.

“We just have to keep following the Radar System!” Carly pointed out, holding up the device.

“It’s not that simple!” Nick protested. “You can’t solve a maze that way! And it’s not like we can just break down the walls!”

“Why not?” Carly scowled. “Aargh, I knew I should have bought that Mastur Tool! I could have turned it into Ruby’s scythe, and we could have hacked our way to the boxes by now!”

“Come on, Carly, it can’t be that hard to get through the maze,” Nick sighed. “You know the old trick, right? Hold your hand on the wall?”

The two continued navigating the maze. Surprisingly, the further they got, the easier it became.

“I wonder why the maze is getting so much less complicated as we get closer to the center?” Carly wondered. “Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Unless… wait, that’s it! I’ve just become super-good at mazes, haven’t I?”

Nick doubted that. But he was just as curious as she was.

“It’s strange,” he nodded. “Why would they even have a hedge maze in a botanical garden in the first place?”

“Hmm…” Carly considered. Then her face lit up with mischief. “You remember what those words said, right? ‘Flowers of the Demon World’? Well… maybe the reason why the maze is so complicated on the outer layers is to keep those flowers inside!”

A chill ran down Nick’s spine. He remembered a book from his youth, about a giant maze and a minotaur.

He really hoped they wouldn’t run into anything like that down here.

Carly’s Radar System began beeping.

“Yes! Awesome! That means we’re almost there!” She picked up the pace, and Nick was **** to run after her.

“Come on, Carly! Slow down!” He cried. “Don’t be so reckless!”

“Don’t be so slow!” She called back. “Last one to the cards is a rotten egg!”

Carly ducked around the corner and Nick followed her. As he turned, the sight ahead of him made him skid to a stop.

They had reached the heart of the maze. The hedges split out to reveal a massive plaza that was crammed full of different plantlife. None of which looked familiar to Nick.

One was a massive red flower with wriggling vines. In the center, surrounded by petals, he was pretty sure he saw teeth. The sign read “Vampire Flower”. He shivered and backed away, nearly falling over the fence of another exhibit.

This one was a plant with black leaves and large pink flowers that seemed to be oozing a strange nectar. A pleasant scent wafted from the flowers, drawing Nick in. He reached towards one of them, just to bring it closer so he could get a better smell. He leaned in over the railing.

“Hey, you coming?” Carly’s voice called him back to his senses. He shook his head, confused and flustered. Then he felt his pants tightening.

Am I getting hard right now!?

Carly glanced at his crotch and smirked.

“Well, I had no idea that flowers were your thing,” she laughed.

“It-It’s not like that!” Nick exclaimed, covering his erection. “It’s just this flower, it’s…”

Nick glanced at the sign and turned pale.

Succubus Sapling

“…I think maybe we should stay away from the plants here,” Carly suggested, taking a step back.

Nick couldn’t agree more.

They walked through the alien garden. Neither one of them could believe their eyes.

Are these plants really from the demon world? Is the demon world a real place? Nick wondered. With what Sylvia had showed him, anything was possible.

The more he thought about it, the worse he felt. He was relieved beyond belief when they finally reached their destination.

The boxes were sitting in an enclosure, nestled in the dirt at the base of a giant plant. It looked like a flower but, but the petals were a sickly white. Even the leaves looked more white than green. The flower was tightly shut, refusing to open. And it was massive, easily dwarfing either of them.

“This… I guess this really is a flower from the demon world…” Nick mumbled.

Carly gulped. She definitely hadn't expected anything like this. She was **** to get too close to the flower.

But she didn’t really have a choice. There were FOUR boxes, and they were sitting right in front of it! How was she supposed to resist?!

Carefully, not wanting to damage anything, Carly ducked under the railing and tiptoed closer to the bud. It seemed to shake with each step she took, and as she looked closer, she thought the petals looked kind of wet and sticky.

Gross. She reached down and grabbed one of the boxes. It flashed, revealing the first card, the Ten of Hearts.

“Nice!” She cheered.

“You get something good?” Nick asked.

“I got a Ten!” Carly grinned, flashing him the card. She grabbed the next box. Amazed, she discovered it held another Ten, the Ten of Clubs. “TWO Tens?”

“That’s… really lucky,” Nick mumbled. Was it really luck? Or was it…

He had a very bad feeling all of a sudden.

“Carly, I don’t think-”

“DUDE! This one’s a Ten, too!”

Carly now had three of the four Tens in the deck. And only one box left. Nick didn’t need Dawn’s brains to guess what was inside.

“Carly, don’t-!”

Too late. Carly grabbed the last box, which crumbled away to reveal the fourth and final Ten, the Ten of Spades. The other three Tens on her belt began to glow, and the four cards combined together into a single orb of light. The orb flew towards the flower, and the bud began to glow.

“Huh?” Carly took a step back, shocked. The bud began to shake, throbbing and twitching and apparently growing bigger.

“Carly, we need to get out of here!” Nick shouted, rushing towards her. But before he could get to her side, the bulb burst open and a sticky white liquid that looked like jelly oozed out. The white gunk washed over Carly, covering her in slime.

Nick braced himself to get swallowed as well, but he wasn’t. That stuff, whatever it was, stopped when it reached Carly, clinging to her in a solid mass like jello. Sticky, white jello. It wrapped around Carly's legs and her boots started dissolving.

“My costume!” She cried as the slime slid up her legs, melting off her boots and tights and moving onto her skirt as it began to swallow her whole. It moved faster than they expected, as if it knew exactly what Carly was and what it wanted from her. By the time Nick reached her it was already up to her shoulders.

“Nick!” She shouted, reaching out to grab him. But her hands were covered in the muck and they slipped off his sleeve, leaving holes in his shirt. Nick stared helplessly at her as she was swallowed up to her chin.

“Carly!” Nick reached in to grab her, but it was too late. The last thing he saw was her **** expression before her head was sucked in, and the last thing he heard was her cut off cry of “Hel-!”

Carly was absorbed into the thing, a naked girl floating helplessly in a giant white blob with the consistency of semen.

“CARLY!” Nick shouted.

Then the slime started to rumble. It slowly slid towards him and he stumbled backwards, bumping against the railing and landing on his ass. The hulking mass pulsed, looming over him and he braced himself, expecting to be absorbed as well.

Instead, the slime shifted again, and a small tendril stretched out across the cobblestones. The tendril was about the size of Nick himself, and flattened out on the ground in front of him. As he stared at the white puddle of plant splooge, the concoction began to bubble. The bubbles stretched and grew, taking on a new shape that semeed to rise from the puddle.

It almost looked like a head. It was still made of the strange substance, pale white and lacking definition, but as Nick looked closer he thought he could make out features. Ears. A nose. A shadowy gap resembling a mouth. And two blank circles that vaguely looked like eyes. Clumps of slime hung down around its features like short hair, dripping liquid as the head rose out of the sludge. Then the rest began to form. Arms, a torso, legs, even fingers, all slowly began to take shape as if an unseen hand was molding a human body out of clay. And what a body it was. The thing had a narrow waist that flared out into wide hips, giving it a perfect hourglass figure when combined with the thing’s best feature, its enormous chest. Giant breasts made out of the sticky substance inflated before Nick’s eyes, forming a slimy pair of tits that would only be rivaled by-

Nick gasped.

Carly.

The slime creature had turned into a perfect replica of Carly.

Sylvia sat back in the throne and munched on popcorn.

“I warned them,” she sighed, shaking her head like a disappointed parent. “Didn’t I warn them? ‘Don’t go near the flowers.’ And what do they do? They go near the flowers. What a shame… well, I hope you enjoy your reward, my girl! The Mimic Jelly swallows a person whole, and then replicates their appearance to lure in prey. Not the sort of creature you want to run into. Although this one only dissolves clothing, of course.”

She glanced at the board.

“…But on the plus side, you’re in the lead now!”

With no one around to maintain her decorum for, Sylvia cackled like a hyena.