The Infernal Machine

"Do you want to fuck or are you still crushing on me?"

Yes, I was staring at Carmencita, staring at her body, with lingering feelings for her long after she had rebutted me. And this could have occurred under perfectly normal circumstances, for me to stare, or at least frequently look her way. No amount of grief could change that she was in every inch and fibre pleasing to behold. However no phantom romantic impulse was felt this time. The cause of my fixation on her now was shock. When she barked at me for clarification, her words only added to the crisis.

Carmen's was the first remotely humanoid form I saw all morning but for my own shadow beneath lampposts. The streets on the way to school from home, although not lifeless were empty. The road and pavement were all pink, buried under inches of snow. There was not one footprint to sign a single presence before my own. When I reached school, roughly 07:45 am, there was no one about, but the gates and hallways were unlocked, the first evidence of people. The non teaching staff were around therefore. They would emerge at the entrances only after 8 o'clock, when the bulk of pupils were expected. My waking time and commute were specifically adapted to take advantage of this. I would be alone on school grounds for a while before class, a ritual to reclaim the impression of not having my entire day invaded by education. Given that, her new appearance overwhelmed me beyond my undying passions' habitual stirring.

I scrambled recent memory for clues to herald anything like the sight before me, but to no avail. Screaming teachers, Mother ranting about the City's lopsided infrastructure, my driving instructor filing her fangs amid lessons and other elements popped up fruitlessly. Everyone had acted as normal until Carmen this moment - where everything went nuts.

The skeleton of normality was there, I suppose. She wore her black woolen overcoat, her slim blue jeans and her black high heel boots. Her eyes continued their eternal dance from green to blue, never consistent. She still walked the same unwavering gait moving precisely to her preferred spot right in front of the classroom door. Barely glancing at me she fished her phone out to pass the remaining time. My dumbfounded stare, like any excessive attention from me nowadays instantly drew her ire and she spoke flames at me. She was the same old Carmencita Ibanez I had had the misfortune of falling for. Only...

The upper frontal part of her coat had been carefully cut out, and whatever she wore underneath it had undergone the same treatment, such that there was not a shred of fabric across her chest. The lower frontal part of her coat, which extended several inches beyond her hips, had been cut away in an inverted V. Beyond that, the crotch area of her jeans had been excised. There was no sign of any undergarments. Carmen had come to school with her attire modified to brazenly expose her breasts and genitals.

She was glaring at me now. Her lips were very slightly parted and I could just make out her teeth. She would blow her top soon. My eyes started watering and I noticed my heart racing. I blurted out: "Shite! Um... What...? Sorry I didn't mean to stare - to be weird."

She raised an eyebrow, unsatisfied. Just then sounds of footsteps down the corridor heralded some more of my classmates arriving. I tore my gaze briefly from my interlocutor's jade rays to scan their approach. A glimpse containing three heads of blonde, and corresponding purple splotches of uncovered skin told me Melanie, Françoise and Sheridan were here, and in the same bizarre state of undress. It took nearly all my mental strength not to gawp at them rather than locking gazes again with Carmencita. Although no less perturbed I was now able to inform this split second choice: opting not to openly confront her - or anyone - about the inexplicable new dress code.

"Sorry about that, Carmen. I didn't sleep last night. I must have been seeing something that wasn't there."

She ceased silently casting the Avada Kedavra at me and her glare softened. In fact, she bared her teeth again, though not for a snarl this time. She said, smiling, "Well, we still have a few minutes. Do you think you can get it up? I don't expect you'll be much use for anything else..." She nodded to a point somewhere below. "Perhaps it would help you sleep, actually, I'd let you copy my notes from class in that case."

She was stepping already closer as I registered her glance was aimed at my crotch, but she herself faltered in her next words. "Just," she frowned, "Don't get any ideas about romancing me, we've been over that. Game? I know you want me."

Now, I was listening carefully, and slowly realizing the enormity of the first thing she had asked me not a minute ago. She was offering sex? It was barely ten minutes or so before the teacher would arrive and class would begin; more than a third of our classmates were there, casually waiting just a few feet away. Yet she was willing to get cracking right then and there, and with me?

It was my turn to stare her in the eye as I weighed my options.