Tipping the Scales

Tipping the Scales, Chapter 15

According to Odelia's nice new iPhone, it was 6:30 am. Time to think about getting to sleep.  She removed her glasses. They looked like wrap-around sunglasses with earbuds dangling from their temples, but were actually an imaging device that plugged into the iPhone, replacing its itty-bitty screen with a virtual version of a wide-screen TV. The resulting picture was larger than, and nearly as crisp as, that of the television Melanie had stolen.

Maybe she shouldn't think of it as stealing.

While technically it had been just that, it had turned out to be more of a gift than a loss. If Melanie had never taken her TV, Odelia might never have thought of secretly creating a smartphone for herself.  She was still learning how to use the thing, but it had already opened up a whole new world of possibilities to her.

The chance to finally navigate the internet at her leisure felt like the discovery of a magic portal. Now that she didn't have to spend every on-line moment frantically racing to find whatever it was she needed, she could explore. It was as if her tiny room had sprouted an infinity of extra windows, ones that looked out on every vista imaginable.

Sternly reminding herself that Melanie would indeed soon be up, she tapped the power buttons of both her devices to off.

It had been a good night, spent mostly with the Marx Brothers, men whose company could make almost anything bearable. God bless Hollywood, she thought, unhitching her ribcage and stretching the top section of her torso into an upright position.

The terror and awe engendered by her new ability had begun to wear off. Being able to move a little again was such a relief, not to mention a sensual pleasure, that the segmentation of her torso which facilitated it hardly mattered. Still, she was glad the room had been stripped of mirrors so she couldn't see herself looking like a giant worm with woman parts grafted onto it here and there, a heaving, undulant, horrifying impossibility.

She stretched toward the ceiling until her midsection was thin enough to twist. Then, swiveling at the waist until she faced fully backwards with her arms and legs outstretched in opposing directions, she bent, curving her chest like a swan's neck, bending low to grasp the corner of her mattress. A tug curled it off the floor so she could lay her viewing equipment underneath beside the Barbie.

How wonderful it was to have possessions again.

Her things safely hidden from greedy eyes and fingers, she once again stretched, this time for no other reason than the sheer physical satisfaction of it. Suppressing a groan of pleasure, she arched her back as far as possible in every direction and manner her unnaturally malleable flesh could bend. Twisting to the right and right and right again, she tried to coil herself, noting with satisfaction that she had managed an extra quarter of a rotation this time.

It was a strange thing to take satisfaction in... It wasn't as if she had achieved some fitness goal. In fact, the more limber she made herself, the less fit she was because the more inhuman she became.

Annoyed with herself, she deliberately turned her mind away from the thought. The hell with that nonsense... She did feel pleased with the accomplishment and she would keep right on feeling it. Considering how few sources of pleasure she had left, it would be plain stupid not to pursue each and every one.

Damn the deviance, full steam ahead!

She twisted. She curled. Again and again, she tried to tie herself into an actual knot, like a snake, only stopping when she heard the faint sound of a door snicking open. Someone in the family was up for the day and that someone was almost certainly Melanie, so Odelia reluctantly squashed herself back into a semblance of human height. Ready or not, she needed to settle down and try to sleep away as many daylight hours as possible...