Melanie was used to slacking off on the weekends with just a single-mile run, but she ended up doing three or four, and a bit of meditation once she'd gotten to a clearing with a nice view. The cool breeze was mercifully light, taking her time to try and temporary detox from everything happening. The bigger problems weren't solved, but time to herself kept it from weighing on her heavily. Many nagging questions were shuttled to the back of her mind, but some were still loud enough to echo and make her think. The big mystery of who had brought the pants with them in the first place nagged like no other. But approaching the huge cabin, she put it aside, not even bothering to look where she'd stashed the pants that morning.
Figuring her friends would be preoccupied or resting, a long shower, and a snack from the fridge, enjoying a quiet moment in the kitchen area wrapped up the morning. By the time she was finished, Melanie found herself a little concerned about the lack of noise coming from anywhere, even towards their bedrooms. Logic told her they should be sleeping after another round of sex, and probably didn't need disturbing. Curiosity winning out, she quietly opened the door, afraid knocking would wake them in-case they were sleeping, or looking to ambush her; that last thought was quickly dismissed as paranoia, as soon as she found them in bed like she had earlier that morning, until something shiny from the floor caught her eye.
Covered up amongst what Gerry was wearing earlier, Melanie audibly gasped as she'd found the supernatural pants exactly where they shouldn't have been, back inside the house and recently worn. Standing in near-shock in their doorway, she tried to put it together how this happened again. Questioning how they'd found them, what happened while she was gone, and was it Sasha that wore them recently with how she cradled Geraldine rather dominantly for once, Melanie's head was flooded with unsolvables.
"Like deja vu, isn't it?"
Melanie nearly yelped, hearing Serpentina's voice as soon as she picked up the pants.
"How the hell did you get back here?" Melanie's sharp whisper was loud, but fortunately not loud enough to wake up either.
"I told you that you'd be hearing from me sssssooon."
"What did you do?"
"Me? They put on the pants, their hearts wanted guidance towards their deepest desires. I was just obligated to assist whomever put them on."
"Sasha?"
"Oh yes, a ravenous spirit beneath that shyness; how happy she was to make her debut. Honestly they both were."
"Shut up; you coerced them somehow."
"You give me too much credit, and not enough to your friends. All of you are brave enough to explore your deepest desires in a way most of humanity won't ever indulge in. Wearing pants like these isn't that far a next step."
Melanie moved to wake them up to help prove Serpentina wrong, until she received a sharp warning.
"I might not do that if I were you."
"What?"
"Waking suddenly sex-crazed young women with hypnosis skills, turned ravenous with a little help from yours truly? They'd eat you alive. And you don't seem ready for that kind of attention."
Wide eyes scanned their bodies, the level of comfort she'd found them in that never matched the deepest trances either had reached. Imagining them aggressively taking her under wasn't that far-fetched, especially if the suspected coercion lingered in them.
"But by all means, wake them up, and see what they might...awaken in you,"
the voice snickered.
The words made Melanie take a step back, and then other, and finally made their solely-awake friend quietly close the door behind her, grab her car keys, and drive the path they'd taken to get there. As she started the engine, she could still hear the Serpentina spirit still present.
"Do you think taking me further out will truly get rid of me this time?"
The invisible spirit queried, obviously smiling as she asked.
Next to her in the passenger seat was the shiny pants, but it might as well have been Serpentina herself in the seat.
"That's my hope," the scientist freely admitted.
"I wonder if that will work this time,"
the mirth in her voice, knowing it likely wouldn't, annoyed the driver to no end.
"I wonder if you ever shut up."
"In all the time I've existed, no one's truly ever wanted that from me."
"All the time?"
"Exactly my point, Melanie. The scientist in you, or your latent curiosity, you have so many questions that could go unanswered, and yet all you have to do is have the courage to ask."
"And you'll just tell me?"
"If knowledge is what you desire, I will be happy to give that to you."
Oddly enough, Melanie believed that statement, or the curious scientist deeply wanted to believe. But either way, it was a long, silent trip out to a cliff area around the mountain path it took to get there. The pair of pants laid in that seat undisturbed, and yet the Mel could feel the spirit of Serpentina sitting in the seat in place of the pants. It was weird, wanting to glance to her right ever quarter mile or so, sensing driving with a passenger, invisible but clear-as-day enjoying being there. Just as clear was also how much Serpentina enjoyed the silence, grinning knowingly, waiting for the silence to break finally, surely knowing it would happen, and that the extraordinary presence would have so many fascinating things to educate her on.
Before getting to that cliff she remembered, Melanie decided to stop by the convenience store nearby, satisfying her lust for snack food, silently still trying to ignore her hunger for knowledge. Locking the car and leaving it unattended, she looked back to make sure the pants stayed there, and that no one else was around. The only person around seemed to be the cashier reading a magazine, doing something with her nails. Grabbing a basket, the still-relenting scientist start loading it with random tweets she and her friends loved.
"All those goodies, and yet I still think none of them will satiate your true hunger." Serpentina's presence whispered, almost giggled near me. Irritated disbelief rose up in how the presence could extend away from the pants direct proximity. "Especially when you try to convince people they're starving for what you're serving," the biologist countered.
"Sssilly Ssscientist, everybody wants this. Everyone. I've yet to meet a living being that wouldn't instinctively seek out the greatest pleasure they're senses could barely contain. No matter what upbringing, culture, or station you occupy, everyone seeks out exactly what I serve, even our little store attendant over there."
"No she wouldn't," Melanie declared, looking towards the cashier that turned her head away quickly. She grimaced at how Serpentina was making her look crazy in-front of complete strangers; she tried to bring her cellphone up to her ear to make it seem like she wasn't just talking to herself. Once finished with her shopping, the basket was set near the register, items pulled out to be rung up. She smiled nervously at the cashier, hoping to not seem like some kind of weird customer, and hoping it the spirit could be heard by anyone else.
"I love your nail polish," the cashier commented, "what color is that?" The question shook Mel from her reverie. "W-uhh, prism blue, I think."
"Where do you get that from? All the local places barely stock any of the sparkly stuff."
"See?"
the spirit wheedled, "I told you she liked it. She might like it more if she saw how sparkly it really is."