A story that was commissioned, and I was happy to write.
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The man looked down at the address on the small piece of paper. He was down on his luck. He had finally spent his whole inheritance, and now not even getting a job would allow him to keep up the lifestyle he had led for the past few years. It was on his dealer's best interests that he had money for drugs, so it wasn't a surprise when the dealer had a "solution" for him.
'Go see these people. They'll help you out.' the dealer said.
He was expecting something shady, but the statues, the people in robes, and the candlelight were all a surprise. They listened to him in silence. The more time went on, the more silly he felt talking about wanting money. Probably they would turn him away, if they didn't kill him. He couldn't believe it when, towards the end of his request, the leader of these people showed a grin on his face.
'Our Dark Master can save you. He'll give you anything you want. Riches. Women. Power. All you have to do, is help us bring him back into our world.'
They sent him away with an amulet in his hand. They said it would help him fulfill the task they had given him. He was skeptical for now. Getting the girl with the deepest navel he could find, and give the cult access to her for them to perform a ritual to resurrect some devil wizard? He wanted to send himself to a psychiatric hospital just from recalling that conversation. But when he stepped into a bar, and all of the women turned to look at him like the room had just lighted up, his skepticism started to die down.
He picked a seat by the bar, so he could check out girls through the mirror behind the bartender. Many of them wore revealing clothing, but that didn't mean their bellies were exposed. Would he have to sleep with tons of girls until he found an appropriate navel? Not that it sounded bad, but he wanted the money quickly. He was downing a shot of gin, when he saw a girl coming through the front door.
Wearing just a white lace crop top with blue jeans, this girl dressed in a more humble manner than most of the women there, with their flashy dresses. That didn't mean she was less impressive. Not at all. Heads turned to look at her, as her silhouette caught their attention. Rounded hips, tiny waist, and two abundant breasts resting on top, the edge of her crop top threatening to flash everyone at any moment. Her big, dark eyes scanned the place, and she chose a seat by the bar next to a very fortunate fellow, maybe pulled subconsciously by the amulet in his hand.
When she approached the bar stool, the man had to drag his eyes away from her chest, only to be caught by her juicy lips. He let his gaze wander down the cascade of her black hair. It went down to her waist. And there, in the middle of her midriff, a glorious sight: a deep, long slit, with fleshy sides that went into a dark cavern. This girl here was sporting the deepest bellybutton he had seen in the bar. He wondered if this was the deepest navel he had seen in his entire life. How had he not paid attention to such a glorious beauty mark up until now?
'Hi.' The girl spoke timidly. He had been smiling to himself while looking at her, so the girl thought he was meaning to say hi too. He was used to talking with beautiful women -although so far he had always had to pay for their attention- so we wasted no time chatting her up.
Aiko, as he found out her name was, enjoyed a sweet cocktail before taking shots with him. She told him she was studying to be a physical therapist, but college was expensive, so she worked as a waitress in order to cushion the expenditures. Because of this, she liked going out to drink, to feel like she was the one being pampered for a change. She also had a few gigs as a model, but those were hard to come by, specially if you weren't a model by profession, and constantly searching for that kind of work.
They drank together until the night started getting blurry. He wasn't too aware of how it happened, he only made sure to always keep the amulet on him, but at some point they ended up tangled up in the sheets. He woke up in the middle of the night, his ceiling staring back at him, and he was out of it for a second, until he noticed Aiko laying next to him, and he remembered the night's happenings. He smiled to himself, proud of having scored such a beauty. The moonlight highlighted the curves of her shoulders, her breasts, and the delicate muscles of her stomach, the dark hole of her navel looking pitch black against its white edges.
The sight of her bellybutton brought him back to reality. He threw some pants on as he wondered how the hell was he going to contact the cult, now that he had a beautiful girl with a deep sexy navel asleep on his bed. He turned around, and his soul almost jumped out of his body when he came face to face with a robed figure. How did they know where he lived? He blurted out this question, but the robed man ignored him. The cultist slid towards the bed, and brought up a little stone, that shone red against the moonlight. It had a black sigil carved into it. He placed the stone aligned with the girl's delicate navel. Its shape was just perfect, as if girl and stone had been made for each other. The cultist applied pressure on the stone, and the navel sucked it inside, making it completely disappear. The robed man made a hush gesture with his hand, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
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Aiko was glad when, after waking up the following morning, she saw her one night lover was nowhere to be seen. She was used to men getting clingy, trying to force a relationship on her. And when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, he really couldn't blame her. She never commented on her own appearance, not wanting to seem conceited. But in the privacy of her own home, she could appreciate her own beauty. She stared at herself while she brushed her teeth. She'd always been grateful of having been blessed with such dangerous curves. But despite loving how she knew she could drive any man crazy just by shaking her ass, her favorite part of herself was a flat one: her stomach. And what she adored the most, apart from all the attention she got... Were the modeling gigs.
She didn't want to rely exclusively on modeling, but she couldn't deny that those job opportunities had been crucial on her being able to leave her family home as soon as she turned eighteen. And all thanks to that flat stomach of her, with just the right amount of curves, of her muscles going down and surrounding her bellybutton. She was caressing the soft skin of her stomach, filled with gratitude, when she furrowed her eyebrows. She was... A bit bloated. On any other day it would be nothing to get worried about, but she had a swimsuit photoshoot today. And these people were from a very well known brand. She was afraid, instead of rescheduling, they'd just go and get another girl. Hopefully the bloating wouldn't be too noticeable to other people that weren't her.
That afternoon, maybe the bloating wasn't the thing the photographer noticed. But what was very obvious, was Aiko's discomfort. Not only did she feel self conscious at having her belly be a bit bigger than usual, but she also could feel her insides churning. She blamed the alcohol from last night. She went home having completed the photoshoot, but knowing she hadn't put her best work forward. Hopefully a good night of sleep would make everything better.
The following days weren't better. At all. Aiko would wake up with her stomach turning from nausea, and she'd get random pangs of pain in her insides. At times, she would feel the weirdest piercing pain, as if someone had stuck a finger inside her bellybutton, and pressed hard, trying to get their finger inside of her. Her breasts were suffering changes too. The areolas of her nipples were swollen, and her nipples were constantly erect, sensitive to the constant friction of her clothes. Her boobs would pulsate, and when placing her hands over them, she could feel they were warmer than usual.
Like any woman, she started fearing pregnancy. After all, her pains had started right after a one night stand. Did pregnancy hurt right away? She'd never had the experience, so she didn't know. She dragged herself to the pharmacy, and bought a pregnancy test. It came back negative. She knew of false negatives, so she bought several more. But all throughout the week, and the following one, all of the tests came back with the same result. Even the STD ones, that she decided to throw in there out of concern. And despite this, she had to waste a lot of time resting on the sofa, trying electric blankets, ice bags, ibuprofen, anything that would make the pain go again. Except nothing worked, and she still felt like a hand was inside there, grabbing at her organs.
She was venting to a friend one night, a weird gal who was into everything new age. 'Maybe that guy had an energy parasite or something, and now it's latched onto you. You should go get a cleansing done.' Her friend told her. Aiko wasn't a fan of new age stuff. But even if her asian mom wasn't the most attached to Asian values, she had still dragged little Aiko several times to a temple in her neighborhood, where a monk had healed her from all sorts of maladies: runny nose, headaches, and of course, stomach aches. She thanked her friend, for reminding her of that monk. And then she dropped her phone when a pang of pain took her by surprise. She curled up on the sofa, swearing under her breath.
The temple hadn't changed one bit, from the one in her childhood memories. The monk was older now, so his traditional clothes fit him better. After having a conversation where she told him about everything, and being interrupted a couple of times by her intestines twisting into weird positions, leaving her out of breath and unable to speak, the monk knew what to do. He could feel an evil entity attached firmly in her stomach, coming from a place beyond human understanding, using her insides as a portal to this world.
