This is the final chapter of Visions of Sugar Plums. Comments welcome!
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Ken held Melanie in his arms as he sat on the maintenance room floor.
They had laid their soaked clothing over the packed janitor's shelves to dry.
Something had been in the water that drenched them, Ken was sure of it. Not only from the convulsions they suffered after exposure - he simply felt different. He was even stronger than before, but calmer. He loved having Melanie naked in his arms and part of him hoped the clothes took a long time to dry. He caressed the long thick nipple of her left breast.
The whole time, she kept stroking him.
This was the Melanie he fell in love with. The outside might have been different, but inside she was the girl he first met so many years ago.
And, he was younger inside as well. Not childish as he had been before but younger. He felt like someone who's entire life was ahead of him, not fading in the rearview mirror.
He felt alive.
"What did they do to us?" He whispered in the darkened room.
She snuggled closer. "I don't know, but... it's wonderful. I'm still scared but it's wonderful."
"We have to get out of here," Ken whispered and kissed her.
***
The back door of Mattress Kingdom, like all the non-anchor stores in Galleria Minnesota led to a maintenance and delivery hall.
The door was chained with the same thick chains as the mall entrances.
Todd grasped the chains in his thick hands. "Here goes nothing."
Tara was leaning over his shoulder. "You can do it."
He stretched the chain tight.
His mind was telling him that the chain would only give so much. It was thick steel. It could only be stretched so much.
But the links clinked together and kept stretching.
He watched as the links stretched wider and wider, the metal twisting, the links separating.
And, finally, the links breaking, stretched past their limits, the chain undone.
The links clattered on the tile floor.
Tara kissed the top of his head. "Told ya."
Beside him, Colleen smiled. She was back in the overalls, but she had left them unzipped almost to her navel. Shyness was no longer a trait for any of them.
As for his own clothing, Todd was also wearing a pair of the Mattress Kingdom overalls; however, his chest was bare - he had tied the sleeves around his waist.
The chest and arms were far too small for his upper body.
Rich turned the doorknob. He opened the door a crack and peeked outside. "I don't see anybody."
Todd nodded. "We go to the right. The loading dock is only a few hundred yards in that direction. I'll go first. Colleen, Rich, and Beth in the middle. Tara, you're at the rear. Make sure nobody sneaks up on us."
Rich frowned. "Shouldn't I do that?"
Todd shook his head. "No offense, man, but she's the toughest one of us and I'm the strongest."
Rich rolled his eyes. "Being an elf fucking sucks."
Todd laughed. "If shit goes south, run. We'll meet up back here."
Tara saluted. "Yes, Whoremaster."
Todd shook his head. "Don't call me that."
"But, you are the Whoremaster. This is your coven."
"This is
our
coven. Nobody is the master of anybody," Todd said.
Tara frowned. "That ain't the way it works."
Todd took her hands. "This is how it works: sometimes I'm in charge, sometimes it's Colleen, or Beth, or Rich. Sometimes it's you. This is about fighting and brute force, so you and I are in charge. But, only for now. Understand?"
She contemplated his words for a moment. "I like that!"
"We need weapons of some kind," Rich said.
Todd pointed at Tara. "She's our weapon."
Tara giggled and flexed her biceps.
***
The nurse stopped and administered injections as she followed along behind Ole and the other security guards.
So many underdeveloped men and women littered the hallways.
It felt good to help the poor things reach their full potential.
Of course, a lot of them sure were screamers. Jabbing a guy in the nuts with a two inch long needle must have hurt like a motherfucker, but they sure were happy when they ended up with bull balls and a horse cock from the meds.
Seemed kind of unfair that Titty Grow made women a little dumber but Cock Grow didn't make guys stupid.
The master must be a miso... myso... that word that meant 'not a feminist'.
She jiggled her own boobs. G cups were probably too big for her body, but they sure looked good!
It wasn't a perfect process. She had made some mistakes.
There was that girl in front of Circus Fries she had accidentally given K cups. She was happy, but, man, she was dense afterward.
She injected a woman's little 36 C breasts up to an H cup as she hummed Jingle Bells.
Ole was shoving people away from the front of Mattress Kingdom.
Somebody inside had covered the windows with mattresses.
***
Todd stopped at the doors to the loading dock. The double doors had small windows in the top half. He leaned over and took a peak inside.
Security guards were moving big drums marked Ambrosia around and connecting pipes from the drums to the red sprinkler feed pipes.
There must have been a dozen barrels hooked to the water line with more being rolled into position.
"They're hooking more barrels into the water system," Todd whispered. "I think they're almost ready to turn it on."
"What do we do?" Rich asked.
Todd looked back through the window. There were a lot of guards, but none of them appeared to be armed. He looked back at his 'coven'. "I... I'm not sure."
"
Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise,
" Tara whispered.
"Huh?" Todd asked.
"Sun Tzu. You know, the guy who wrote The Art of War?"
Everyone else turned and looked at her.
"You read The Art of War?" Colleen asked.
"Yes. Part of my training. I read all the works of Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Mark Twain, and I studied battle tactics including Sun Tzu..."
"Honey, why would you have to study that?" Colleen whispered. "I mean, you're supposed to be a..."
"Prostitute," Tara said. She shrugged. "Sometimes guys just want to talk. I can play chess at a grand master level, and I can lose at strip poker without looking like I meant to lose. Anywho... Sun Tzu wouldn't like this plan too much, but at least we'll take the enemy by surprise, and they're distracted so that makes them weak."
Todd blinked. "So, you're saying?"
"We should just rush them."
***
They burst through the double doors and the security guards froze in place.
Todd and Tara came through first and then split up.
Tara took out the closest guard with a right hook and then quickly moved to the next.
Todd had one goal, reach the sprinkler valve and hold it.
Beth, Colleen, and Rich followed quickly, ganging up on the security guards who were overcoming their initial shock and running after Tara.
The guards were going down fast.
The lights and computer monitors in the loading dock began to blink.
The guards suddenly spun around and ran toward Todd.
Tara looked at the monitors. "The blinking is telling them what to do!" She ran after them as they chased Todd.
The guard nearest to the valve dove for it intending to open it.
Todd caught him by the ankle and flung him away when the guard's fingers were within inches of the valve.
The man flew twenty feet through the air and fell off the end of the loading dock into a snow drift.
Todd stopped and turned.
Ten men were running straight at him with Tara and the others behind them.
Todd spun.
The red sprinkler feed pipe was about six inches thick.
He drew back and kicked it.
The pipe bent.
He kicked again as a security guard tackled him.
And, this time the pipe burst.
Water jetted out in an arc and sprayed against the wall.
It flowed across the concrete loading dock.
Todd shrugged off the man clinging to his back and he fell in the Ambrosia, instantly going into convulsions.
"What the fuck have you done?"
Everyone stopped and turned toward the entrance.
Ole stood in the double doors with the pistol drawn.
Todd held up his hands. "It's over. Ole, come on, man, it's me. It's Todd. Me and you talk every morning. You know me."
Ole shook his head. "You ruined the master's plan."
Tara stepped between Ole and Todd. "Hey, Ole? Listen, this is all a big mistake. None of this is 'sposed to happen. We aren't supposed to have guns. We don't do that. We're supposed to love each other."
"You lovin' me when you broke my wrist, bitch?"
"No, I was defending myself and my coven. I didn't hurt you bad. You'll be okay. Like I was saying, this is all a big mistake. See they made you wrong. You're supposed to be like us. You're supposed to be nice."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"When the Church gets here? They'll make you nice. They'll send the white witches and they'll fix your brain." She pointed at the floor. "Just don't touch the Ambrosia, 'cause it will make you stay mean like this."
Tara smiled and held out her hand. "Give me the gun."
"Stay back," Ole said.
"Tara, don't!" Colleen said.
"It's okay, Colleen. Ole isn't going to shoot me."
"The fuck I won't. Stay back!"
Tara took another step forward.
The gunshot echoed through the loading dock.
***
Ken and Melanie froze in their maintenance room.
"Was that a shot?" Melanie whispered.
Ken started to stand. "I should go look..."
She clung to him. "No. No, we're staying right here."
***
Santa stood up from his throne.
Mrs. Claus looked at him and smiled. "The loading dock."
***
The two guards at the main entrance turned toward the doors when the shot rang out.
"Should we go in?" The taller of the two asked.
"No," the other guard said. "Kayla said to guard the entrance, no matter what."
They turned back toward the parking lot.
The snow was coming down furiously and their visibility was only a few yards.
The taller guard squinted into the snow.
