Mr. Valen looked upon Carla, who had begun walking towards him.
"You did well," Carla scoffed, stopping in front of him as she bent over, meeting his gaze. "You did exceptionally well."
'A strange reaction to being brutalized. What is that, (anger? Disgust?) I'm unsure,' Mr. Valen thought, his face returning to his look of eerie calm.
Carla, in the absence of an answer from the kneeling man, did not rush; rather, she walked past him and towards the bookshelf.
"You killed him, you know that right?" Carla spoke as she cleaned her face with a rag she had gotten from the corner of the shelf.
"So it would seem," Mr. Valen spoke without faltering. "What is this thing on my chest?"
To that question, there was no answer as Carla scoffed, discarding the rag, her face a tapestry of open wounds and broken flesh. It was disheartening.
Mr. Valen remained unable to move, so he could not look at the state of the man behind him, but he did not care.
Rather his attention was focused on the shadowy humanoid who had materialized in front of him, peering at the strange inscriptions on his chest.
It then reached out and touched him, its fingers unclear because of the shadowy mist that radiated from it.
The sensation was cold, different; it was the first time he'd ever physically interacted with the shadowy humanoid, and it was horrible.
The coldness only lasted for a fraction of a second as it soon transitioned to whirlpool sensations he was not ready for.
It was hard to describe.
It felt like toddlers poking at his shirt, like teachers knocking on head, like dogs biting at his legs, like ants crawling under his skin, and when he looked up he saw the humanoid smiling again, (that horrific ghastly smile that exposed too many teeth) and he could tell it meant something, but now that something was nothing and it was maddening to him.
'Wait...' Mr. Valen suddenly thought as he felt a hot stream circulate around him, steaming not just from his surroundings but from the mark on his chest, and it confused him, but he could feel it, that hold on him preventing him from moving, weakening by the second.
'I could break free and finish what I started,' Mr. Valen pondered, but just as he was about to follow through with action, he stopped and tried to calm or at least slow the absorption process.
"Pa!"
A loud sound shocked him back to the present moment, as Carla struck him on his cheek. "Pay attention when I'm speaking to you," she spat.
Mr. Valen was suddenly forced to become aware of the woman now in front of him, sitting on a light wooden chair she had dragged from the reading area of the room.
The shadowy humanoid stood behind her, its head tilted as it observed the tentacles that seemed to follow Carla.
Mr. Valen was unsure, but he could swear that the shadowy humanoid had a look of hunger in its void-like eyes. That feeling was mutual, a craving that puzzled him as he was unsure what it was for.
'Where is her tail?' Mr. Valen then thought quizzically, curious as to how she had hidden such a noticeable limb.
Take off your pants, Carla spoke, and as she did, Mr. Valen realized that he had regained the ability to move freely, so he narrowed his eyes. 'She's horribly wounded and still wants sex?'
"Don't try anything," Carla scoffed, her voice light as she took off her low heels, wiggling her foot.
'If I act now, I'd have to kill her, but then they'd be two dead bodies,' Mr. Valen pondered as he undid the button of his pants, lowering them down to reveal his black briefs.
In this instant, he felt something on his crotch, and upon paying attention, he noticed that it was Carla's right foot.
The sensation was foreign, her toes clumsily playing with him, tracing the lines of his limp dick through his briefs.
"You're an insect," she breathed, pressing her foot down harder, her toes climbing higher, clasping down on the rim of his underwear.
In all this, Mr. Valen remained quiet, his gaze trailing from her misty blue eyes to her V-neck suit, which she had begun unbuttoning.
With each button she worked on it became clear that she was not wearing anything underneath, and the only thing stopping her from exposing her breasts was a single unconscious movement.
His eyes followed her fingers, which undid her palazzo pants, and as she pulled down the zip, he saw her underwear, or a sliver of it, black, like the rest of her attire.
Slowly, she slid her right hand down her stomach and to her crotch, her breath coming in sharp exhalations.
Mr. Valen had long since hardened, enjoying the sensation as Carla moved her two feet, along his shaft, up and down, clumsily.
Still kneeling, Mr. Valen let out a misty breath, his eyes never leaving Carla's.
"Y-you know, of all my patients,' Carla breathed, her form squirming slightly as she played with herself. "You're my absolute favorite, because no matter what I did to you, you rearly complained."
"Hmm," Mr. Valen grunted, his tone tensing as he answered. "Before or after you sold me out to Amethyst-"
"Hush, insects shouldn't speak before their masters," Carla responded, increasing her pace, the motions of her fingers visible from outside her pants as she drove them into her sex.
"Argh," Mr. Valen groaned slightly as he came, thick strands of cum shooting out of him, landing on Carla's foot and staining her pants.
Around that time, Carla also seemed to have reached her breaking point, her back arching as she giggled. "Heal!"
A purple glow then lit up on her chest, the same circle that was present on Valen's, pulsing faintly with a devilish sheen.
But something was different about it this time, 'something's not right,' Mr. Valen thought as he observed the wounds on her face visibly begin to reconstruct themselves, healing.
At the same time, he felt an intense amount of nausea rush over him, one that almost sent him to the floor.
Luckily, he managed to catch himself, his palms firmly planted on the ground.
"That's better," Carla stretched, her voice rosy.
"W-what was that?" Mr. Valen stuttered, the feeling of weakness subsiding. As he asked this question, he wore his underwear and redid his pants, his arms trembling slightly.
To his question, Carla smiled slightly, raising as she walked closer, "Is that fear I sense?"
Mr. Valen scooted back as she approached, his breath hitching, his eyes shaking.
Noticing this, Carla stopped and commanded. "Come!"
In response, the mark on Mr. Valen's chest pulsed faintly, compelling him to move forward against his will.
"No," he grunted, his eyes widening as he took a step, then another towards Carla's direction.
"It's no use, you have my mark, with enough energy, I could order you to kill yourself," Carla scoffed.
"Is that how you healed yourself?" Mr. Valen grunted, trying his best to resist, his heart pounding against his chest in sheer horror.
To his question, Carla giggled and answered. "You thought I'd spend my time pleasuring an insect like you for any other reason?"
By this point, Mr. Valen was standing right in front of her, his breath coming in light gasps as he asked. "What do you want?"
"To drain you of energy for as long as you live but other than that, nothing much," Carla answered, grabbing his hands and guiding them to button her suit.
As he did that, she looked at her sleeves, which had been torn by the table Mr. Valen threw at her. "You know," she looked towards him. "The only reason you're alive is because she wants you alive, you really want to go after Amethyst with your measly strength? Do you even remember what she looks like?"
"What are you talking about?" Mr. Valen muttered, the fear in his voice palpable.
Carla sighed at the sight of him. "To think I had to waste one of my marks on this dimwit."
Mr. Valen was forced to think about Carla's words, 'of course I remember what Amethyst looks like, a blonde woman with brown eyes, she was wearing a yellow gown that night.'
"Take this," Carla's voice cut through forcing Mr. Valen back to attention once more.
She had walked to the corner of the room and opened the drawer where she kept her usual black hoodie, throwing it at him.
Mr. Valen caught it and looked towards her, saying. "I-I can leave?"
"Yes, get out, but make sure you find your way here once a week," Carla responded. 'I may not be able to kill you, but I'll drain you half to death.'
The look in her eyes sent a chill down Mr. Valen's spine, so he wore the black hoodie over his torn shirt.
He then picked up the file that Carla signed from the ground, and hurried to the door.
But just before he reached the door, he felt a presence behind him. Glancing back, he saw Carla swinging a pocket knife toward him, moving faster than he could react.
"Sii!"
She drove the knife into his back, the pain coursing through him, and as he reacted to defend himself, she commanded. "Still!"
The mark on this chest pulsed, freezing him as Carla whispered to him. "This is for the useless stunt you just pulled, don't worry, you're a hellspawn now, your body can take it."
Mr. Valen felt himself tremble at the pain, his eyes widened as Carla opened the door and pushed him out.
But the moment the door shut behind him the look in Mr. Valen's eyes transitioned from terror and fear to utter emotionlessness.
'Hellspawn huh?' Mr. Valen thought to himself as he moved, his shoulders trying to get used to the stinging pain that coursed through him. 'She seems to have had recent contact with Amethyst and was instructed to keep me alive, interesting.'
He was bleeding badly, but the dark color of his hoodie made it less noticeable, so he walked down the hall, bearing the pain in his back and throughout his body.
He thought back to his interaction with Carla and organized what he was able to determine. 'It seems her abilities are those marks she creates, which need energy to both create and operate, and she gains that energy from sexually assaulting people? Though unclear, I now know more.'
With that thought, Mr. Valen rode the elevator down and stopped suppressing his body, allowing it to absorb the energy from the mark on his chest, feeling its hold on him weakening with each moment.
By the time Mr. Valen was walking through the reception, the mark was half gone, and by the time he walked on the streets, the mark was completely gone.
He then felt a gaze on him and looked above, his expression unchanging as he thought. 'You felt that, huh? What do I do with you?'
---
A few moments ago, Carla stood in the middle of her room going through her phone, intent on contacting her people to clean up the mess, but then she felt something.
"My mark!" She muttered, feeling one of her more recently created marks simply disappear. The feeling was sickening.
Following the feeling, she walked to her window and looked out. There she saw Mr. Valen walking on the street; the sensation was coming from him.
As though sensing her, Mr. Valen raised his head and met her gaze, his eyes emotionless, even from this distance, lacking the fear it bore earlier.
It was unnerving. Carla suddenly felt a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, warning her against letting the young man leave.
"Valen! Come back here!" She screamed from her location in the building, attracting the attention of passersby who looked towards her, but she did not care. Mr. Valen was not responding to her command.
He just looked down and resumed walking away.
Thinking of how fearfully he acted just moments before, Carla realized her mistake. 'I fell for his person suit,' she thought angrily.