Chapter 14

I opened my eyes, feeling rejuvenated and ready to head down to the pool party. However, I was no longer looking up at the strangely transparent ceiling and roof. Instead, I was looking at the strange stone that made up the floor, walls, and ceiling of the vault.

I sat up. Scarlet was gone. The bed was gone. I was on the cold stone floor. A wave of frustration and anger flashed through me. I wanted to go to that pool party. I wanted to see all of those women in their swimsuits and bikinis.

I looked around and found the blanket on the floor next to me. I picked it up and hugged it as if hugging all the women in Boobtopia. I had the strongest urge to go back, to get to that pool party before anyone missed me.

Then I remembered that Boobtopia was a pocket dimension with its own residents, and running at a different time increment. Not to mention, I had my own responsibilities here, in my own world. Yes, several situations in Boobtopia had reminded me of home and my desire to return was stronger than before, but I had problems I had to deal with first. Problems that I had quickly forgotten about when I found out that Ruby wasn’t the person looking for me.

I set the blanket aside and looked around, expecting to find Rho and Maria waiting for me. Jade should be there too, but I was alone. I didn’t think about it too much and took the opportunity to clean myself of the fluids remaining from the incredible rounds of sex with Scarlet, so I used my cleaning spell, only without the splash effect.

I heard the click of heels on the stone floor and knew someone was coming. It was probably Jade and the last thing I needed was for her to find me like this. I rolled up into a crouch and reached for my jeans, only to realize none of my clothes had returned with me. Before I could pull them on, a voice reached me. “Well, well, well. Look who’s back.”

The voice was sensuous, warm, and a good bedroom voice. It was also not Jade’s voice.

I stood up, pulling up my pants as I went. I quickly zipped and buttoned them before turning around.

“Oh, poo!” said Ruby. “You don’t have to get dressed that fast.” She stood in the doorway and leaned against the frame.

I grabbed my shirt from the floor and pulled it on too without saying anything.

“Now, Seth,” she said, sounding disappointed, “How am I supposed to show you how a real woman makes love if you aren’t willing to remain naked for more than a few seconds?” Her deep red hair gleamed in the soft light of the vaults, and her ruby-red lips curved in a beautiful smile. Her eyes took me in like I might taste succulent. Maybe she used magic to make herself look that good. Maybe not.

I looked around the rest of the room. Nothing else had changed since I got sucked into the blanket. Then I looked down at the floor. The blanket lay there, along with the leather jacket Liliya and Sophie gave me, as well as the sandals Stacia gave me. I felt as if I should have still been there, in Boobtopia. I had only spent two days there. Had someone else pulled me out early?

I pulled on the jacket and slipped into the sandals. Ruby watched me, but I ignored her.

I looked around the room again, recalling what happened before I was pulled into the blanket. I remembered rescuing Maria from a camera, but she wasn’t there. I remembered Rho following me around wanting to give me all the information she had on the vaults and the contents, but I didn’t see her either. I didn’t believe for a second that Walker had found Rho, but he may have taken Maria. As my thoughts returned to the present, I looked at Ruby. “Where is everyone?”

Ruby nodded in the direction of the hallway. “They left about ten minutes ago. If we hurry, we can catch them.” Then she pushed off the wall and slowly strode toward me, putting a sway in her hips that made me look her over. “But we don’t have to hurry,” she said. “We could take our time.” Then her eyes dropped and slowly rose back up. She licked her lips and I could practically feel more than just her eyes on me. “We could take all the time we want.”

I blinked at her and shook my head. “No, we can’t,” I said. “If Walker doubles back and finds us doing the mattress mambo, my mother would pay the price.”

Ruby pouted, and said, “Such a mama’s boy.” She stopped in front of me and ran a finger down my chest. “Makes me wish I was your mama. Then maybe you’d want to suck on my titties.” She even thrust out her chest, making the offer.

Her catsuit had cutouts at strategically placed locations to give off glimpses of her skin. One of those cutouts was on her upper chest. It was a large heart shape, spread wide over her chest as well as dipping down low to show off a long line of cleavage. I had watched her magically enhance her size, simply because she thought I was only attracted to super-large busts. While I loved big boobs, such as what she was currently sporting, I was not about to rip off her clothes and ravage her.

I looked down at the fantastic display she provided, but I frowned because I didn’t want her to think that I was that interested. After a second, I looked up into her eyes.

Her smile turned wry. “You frown, but I know what you like.”

I rolled my eyes and turned from her. I looked around again. The blanket lay on the floor at my feet. I picked it up and quickly folded it into a small square. Then I tucked it up under my jacket at my back. I used a minor spell to make the blanket stick to the inside of the jacket until I intentionally pulled it out.

“What are you doing?” Ruby asked.

“What does it look like?” I asked in return.

She smirked. “You don’t get enough sex from your girls?”

I shook my head. “That has nothing to do with it,” I said but I wasn’t going to tell her how much my time in Boobtopia had made me long to return home.

She frowned. “You don’t want to fuck me, you’re not interested in sex in the blanket, what the hell is wrong with you?”

I smiled at her and shrugged. “I haven’t figured that out yet.” Then I stepped past her toward the open doorway. “But I will, eventually.” I looked back at her and gave her an intentional once-over. “And you’re wrong. I would love to fuck you. If only you weren’t working for Walker.” Then I stopped at the open doorway and looked down the hallway.

The hallway was empty, but it had the same dim lighting and moldy air as all of the previous hallways. I remembered the other rooms and also recalled why Jade had disappeared: Maria. She was a ghost, but when I broke the camera holding what I thought was her soul, she not only escaped but turned out to have been held as if in some kind of suspended animation. She hadn’t aged at all while imprisoned. There were other aspects to that same room that would have scared just about anyone. Yet, it made me wonder just how frightened had Ruby been.

I looked at her and found her standing next to me. “What happened earlier?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes and nodded. “Something in that room down there scared the shit out of all of us.” Then she poked a finger into my shoulder. “And your precious mother raced off like a scared mouse. Walker and I chased after her only to watch her disappear when she touched that blanket. Walker knew you would blame him for something if he didn’t keep her safe, so he tried to pull her out, only to get sucked in too.”

I studied her face. She was keeping something back. “If you knew what was going on, and that I would blame Walker for my mother’s disappearance, why didn’t you stay behind and explain the situation?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I was alone in this damned room with God-only-knows-what in that room down the hall. All I needed was for it to come creeping down here and do who-knows-what to me.”

I didn’t smile, though I wanted to. I suspected that Ruby was the one who ran, not Mom. Mom would have expected Walker to keep her safe - due to the spell he cast on her. Ruby would run down here and instinctively go for the blanket. She couldn’t have known what the room held, but the blanket was meant to offer a place to hide, and that would have drawn all of them, potentially.

So, Ruby went in first. By the time Walker and Mom arrived, she would have been gone, or they might have seen her leave. Then Walker would investigate the blanket after not finding Ruby. He might have gotten drawn into it, leaving Mom behind. She would have picked it up and - with her fear growing due to being left alone - triggered the blanket again, pulling her in.

I looked down the hallway again. “Well, as long as the door to that room is closed, we should be able to slip past it and catch up to the others.

She looked down the hallway too. From the edge of my vision, I was pretty sure I saw her shudder before she nodded. I let it go.

“C’mon,” I said. “We need to go.”

She nodded and followed.

I thought we got through fairly quickly, considering the Spirit room and the room of silence were the only other rooms in the hallway. I also enjoyed being able to move more quickly due to having sandals, not to mention more and heavier clothes rather than running around in only my pajama pants.

We returned to the hallway where the illusion of the fissure had been. Now, it was just a broken hallway. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all cracked as if the ground around the stone had shifted several times over the years, but there was no chance of getting hurt unless one happened to be unlucky enough to fall just right on a crack and get cut open by a sharp edge.

We moved through that hallway and stopped at a T-intersection. We can come in from the left. I pointed to the right. “Do we go that way?”

She nodded. “Walker gave me directions to the next room he’s getting an item from.” She stepped past me and I glanced back at the broken hallway. The fissures weren’t present. Maybe, once the illusion was broken, it didn’t bother trying to work again.

I caught up to Ruby and for a moment, we walked in silence. When we turned a corner, she smiled at the dim light and torches in sconces on the walls. This hallway didn’t have the soft self-manifested light that filled the rest of the hallways. She stood at the end of the hall, taking in the detail. “This reminds me of the houses and mood back in Slave-Ville.”

I frowned and looked at her. “Slave-Ville?”

She nodded. “It was the name of the town I found myself in while in the blanket. There was nothing but men. All of them lean muscled hunks. They enjoyed oiling themselves up and showing off for me.” Then she looked at me. “And everyone was well-hung.”

I waved at the hallway in front of us. “How does this remind you of that?”

Her eyes lost focus and her smile turned feral. “At night, they used torches to light everything. They enjoyed holding muscle shows for me by torchlight.”

I knew the blanket could cater to the deepest desires of anyone that visited the cities inside, but that was a little much. I simply shook my head.

Ruby looked at me. “You were probably surrounded by babes with huge tits and wearing next to nothing most of the time.”

I fought not to react.

“I knew it,” she said with a smile. “Don’t feel bad. I’ve never enjoyed having such beautiful men willing to fulfill my every little whim. Damn! If I wanted one to lick my toes clean after I stepped in a dog’s mushy droppings, they would have fought over the opportunity.”

I grimaced. “A dog’s mushy droppings?”

She nodded solemnly. “And oh, could they lick.” And with a dreamy look on her face, she stepped out into the torch-lit hallway.

I heard the click of her heel on the stone floor, but I also heard another click. I looked at the floor and noticed that one of the stones was lower than the others around it. Then I heard the grinding of stone on stone and noticed a section of the ceiling open up.

Other than the illusion, nothing in the vaults had been truly dangerous. I didn’t want to believe that this was a danger either, but I couldn’t take a chance. I raced forward and pushed Ruby out of the way.

Something dropped from the ceiling and I called forth my body armor.

A heavy iron portcullis dropped on me. Sparks lit up the hallway and it knock me to the floor. My armor held, however, so I hadn’t suffered anything worse than being knocked down.

Ruby spun around on the floor and looked me over. “What the...?” she spat, probably believing that I had decided to attack her. Then she spotted me pinned to the floor and drew back. She blinked at me and looked up at the ceiling. She stood up and looked around. “What triggered that?”

I pointed back at the edge of the hall. “You stepped on a trigger stone.”

She shook her head and crossed her arms. “And you decided to act the hero?”

I shrugged. “I was sure of my armor. I just thought you might be better skilled at taking this thing apart than I would be.”

She looked up at the ceiling and smirked. “Well, I should be able to reset it. If nothing else, that would free you.”

I shrugged but didn’t dare drop my armor. “Or turn the metal into nerf material. Something light enough to lift, even at this size.”

She smiled. “I like that.” Then she waved at the portcullis, and I felt the weight lift off me.

I pushed up from the floor, but I still felt something pushing down at me. It was nowhere near as heavy as the iron portcullis, but there was something. I shifted around to stand up while holding whatever replaced the portcullis. true to my suggestion, Ruby turned the iron to that squishy nerf material which made it light enough for me to lift. “Nice,” I said as I pushed it up over my head, and with a wave from Ruby, the portcullis shot back up into the ceiling. Then the opening closed and the stone reset.

I turned to face Ruby again. “Excellent. Now it’ll only scare the crap out of the next person to trip it.”

She nodded and turned to look down the length of the hall. “If that was set up at the beginning of the hallway, then we should expect more until we reach the end.”

I looked down the hallway too. “This is a long hallway.”

She shrugged. “It’s the direction Walker said to go.”

“Makes me wonder if they tripped any traps through here,” I said quietly.

“We’ll ask them when we catch them,” she said and we moved on.

We ended up dodging two more traps in that hallway before turning left at the next intersection. As we walked, something bothered me. It wasn’t anything I could put my finger on specifically, just a nagging sensation in my gut that something was wrong. “Are you sure we’re going the right way?” I asked.

“Of course, I’m sure,” Ruby said. “Walker needs you to get out of here, so there’s no reason for him to give faulty directions.”

“Granted,” I said, feeling grumpy, “but wouldn’t that also include waiting for a few minutes for me to show up from the blanket?”

She smiled. “No, it doesn’t. As he put it, there was the distinct possibility that you ran back to the entrance to get help.”

“And leave my mother to his tender mercies?” I asked, anger beginning to boil in me.

“I pointed that out to him,” she said, “and he countered with the possibility that you would return to save your mother.”

“Yet, he moved on anyway?” I asked, feeling ill-natured.

She nodded. “He knew you would show up, whether to save her or from the blanket. Either way, you would likely return to the last place you knew him to be.”

“Which is why he left you,” I said with a groan.

She nodded and then came to a stop.

I stopped too, looking up and down the hallway to find the source of that something that continued to bother me. “What is that?” I asked.

She looked back and forth too. “I don’t know, but I take it you’ve noticed something wrong too?”

I nodded. “I can’t figure it out. I thought it was just me.”

“No,” she said. “Not just you.”

I waved and we continued forward. The further we progressed down the hallway, the more troublesome the itch grew, until we arrived at the next intersection. It was a four-way intersection. I looked back along the hallway we just traversed and asked, “Which way now?”

“Right,” she said

We went right and that feeling of something being wrong drained away almost instantly. I looked at Ruby. “That hallway was making us paranoid.”

She shrugged. “I suppose not everything down here has to do with sex, huh?”

I shrugged too and we kept moving. And moving. And moving.

The hallway felt exceptionally long. I finally stopped and looked back at the intersection and found that we hadn’t moved more than a foot or two.

Ruby looked back and forth too, comparing where we were against the intersection. “There has to be a trick to it,” she said, exasperated.

“We were both walking,” I said. “What if one of us stands here and watches the other try to walk the hallway?”

She gave me a funny look. “What have you been smoking?”

I shrugged. “Everything down here is about altering your perspective - time, invisibility, spirits. Why not our spatial perceptions too?”

She gave me a sideways look and then stepped past me along the hallway. I watched her. She took another step and another, moving along the hallway as if nothing in the universe could stop her. Before long, she was at the next intersection and it was my turn to walk it.

With that hallway behind us, we stood at the intersection looking back at the last one. It looked like it was off in the distance, just as it should have. She shook her head. “That had to be the weirdest experience I’ve ever had.”

I shrugged and looked to the left and right. “Which way now?”

“Which way indeed?” asked another voice from a great distance.

We both spun about, looking for the source. There was nothing there - not even an object that might be talking. I looked at her. “Did you ask that?”

She frowned. “In that voice?”

I looked around again and was thankful that the intersection was a T-intersection because otherwise, I would have been turned around and not sure which way to go.

Ruby looked past me and pointed with her chin. “That way,” she said.

The next hallway was frozen. It wasn’t blocked, we could walk along it, but the temperature was very, very low. Both of us chose to move quickly, to nearly run to the end of the hall to the next intersection, only to find it blocked.

We came to a stop at a pile of rubble that filled the hallway to the ceiling. Ruby reached out and tried to shift some of the rocks around. “Walker said we had to go this way,” she said, sounding desperate.

I shook my head and looked back along the frozen hallway. “He acts like he’s been here before. If he gave you directions based on his memories, then it stands to reason that he didn’t know about this blockage either. Chances are, he went back and took a route that would lead to the next room.”

Ruby’s head snapped around as she glared at me. “Nice work, Sherlock. If that was the case, why didn’t he wait for us or leave some kind of sign to tell us which way to go?”

“He didn’t want to wait,” I said, remaining calm, thinking. “He’s too arrogant to care about what happens to either of us.”

“He still needs you to get out,” she said and stood up, hugging herself and shivering.

I nodded. “Which suggests he believes he can find me down here anywhere at any time.”

“How can he do that?” she asked.

I looked at her. “How indeed?” Then I looked down the hallway. “We need to get back to the last intersection so we don’t freeze.”

She nodded, her teeth chattering, and we trotted back to the last intersection.

Instead of going back the way we came, we agreed to follow the only other path available. There was a chance, albeit a slim one, that Walker had left us a message or some kind of sign to tell us which way to go.

This hallway didn’t seem to have any active effects. At least, that’s what I thought until I heard Ruby mumble a curse. I looked at her, only for her to return a harsh glare. Her hands rubbed at her breasts and belly as if her skin itched or she had some other form of irritation. With an angry curse, she pulled a hidden zipper down her front, from the bottom point of the large heart cutout. Her flesh spilled out of the opening. I knew she had increased her breast size to entice me, but this was ridiculous.

“What did you do?” I asked.

She shook her head and threw a wide-eyed glance at me. She pulled her top open and exposed her massive breasts. All four of her breasts.

She stopped to look at herself. “What the hell?” She asked with a perplexed expression. She pushed her upper breasts aside and looked at the lower breasts. She shook her torso, making all four of her unnaturally large love melons shimmy and shake.

I watched her, somewhat mesmerized by what I saw. As I watched, I realized that her breasts were expanding.

Ruby realized it too. “Seth? What’s happening to me?” she asked with a rising note of panic. Then she gripped the sides of her head as if a headache hit her suddenly. She bowed at the waist as if trying to escape the pain. When she rose again, she held small, curled horns on either side of her head.

I shook my head and stepped closer. Something flicked behind her, and I looked down to find that she had a tail. She was being physically changed, very rapidly. I reached out a hand and hefted one of her boobs. It was massive yet still growing. The nipple was fully distended and looked moist. I looked closer and noted a white film on it. What I thought was the opening, for when she expressed milk, widened and then split. Ruby let out a low moan - something that sounded like one of my girls while riding a long, deep orgasm - and she grabbed at me. When I looked at her nipple again, it was easily three times its original size and leaking.

“Damn,” she said, “It hurts and feels so good all the same time.” Then she looked at me. “I need your help. The pressure is too much.”

I looked up and down the hallway. We were about in the middle. “Let’s try to get to the end first, otherwise, we could be stuck here for a while.”

She nodded, holding onto me, and I led her down the hallway to the next intersection. It seemed, as we went, the pressure let up on her. However, when we reached the intersection, Ruby continued to sport all four breasts with bulging, moist nipples on each. They also all remained the same size.

She stopped and felt herself. Then she looked at me with a pleading expression. “Seth, you have to do something. Please.”

I noticed additional, subtle changes in her. Her irises and pupils were larger, covering more of her sclera - the whites of her eyes. There was also a subdued patched tone to her skin. If I was right, something about the magic in that hallway was turning her into a cowgirl - literally. Then the thought took a sharp turn as I realized, “Mom and Jade went through this too.”

Ruby stared at me. “What are you talking about?”

I shook my head and turned a small circle, trying to think. “Walker had to contend with the same problem if he came this way. What did he do?”

Ruby shook her head and pinched one of her nipples. Milk spray out, heavy and warm. She shuddered and said, “He milked them.”

I looked at her and realized that if she had to be milked, and something in the hallway had turned her into this, then it stood to reason that something in the hallway would help relieve her condition too. “Stay here,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”