Without your love (Patreon)

Evans couldn’t believe he had just gotten away with that. Not only had he managed to steal that purse, he managed to do it without even being spotted by her. Perhaps his skills as a thief were finally getting their full use.

‘Yay! A new person! A new person!’

“Let’s see what we have here.” the thief thought and opened up the purse. Peering inside, he was met with pearl string necklaces. Pulling one out, he admired it in the midday sun. Such a pretty necklace. It was bound to be worth a pretty penny once he fenced it to his usual dealer. Especially if they could look past the bone chilling feeling one got while holding it.

And yet, something about this string of pearls was calling out to be worn. But that would just be silly. There was no way it would look good on his neck. Try as the thief might to get that thought out of his head, it refused to leave. If anything, it intensified. Eventually, his hands acted on their own volition and the necklace found its way around his neck. Snapping into place, Evans felt a shiver run down his spine.

‘Give into the pearls.’

“Golly. This won’t do. I need a full outfit to go with this!” Evans announced, his once masculine voice taking on a sweet, feminine tone. The sort one might expect out of a housewife, rather than a thief. Though, he was bound to be mistaken for one if he didn’t fix this real soon.

For starters, his skin was an absolute mess. Were there any skincare products within the purse? Shoving his hand back in, Evans watched as a scale pattern began to appear. Not helping matters was the white color those parts of the skin were taking on. “Where is it? Where is it?”

Some form of skincare had to be here… right? Her wifey wouldn’t forget that. She was always making certain that she would have everything she needed should they accidentally separate. Kind of like right now. While not Evans' intention in the slightest, it very much looked that way. Hopefully, her wifey would understand what had happened and then talk to her about it. Perhaps afterwards, they could go get a bite to eat. Yeah. That sounded nice, Though, it would also be a good idea to pull her hand out. The scales were rapidly encroaching on her arms and she needed to do something about it.

‘Yes, look further into the purse.’

“Please be something…” Evans thought and pulled her hand out. What were once hands were now claws, covered in cream-colored gloves. Nail trimmed perfectly, leaving no room to accidentally hurt her wifey or anyone else for that matter. In said claws, as some wipes. Yes, this was exactly what she needed. But where to apply them? Perhaps to her face. Yeah. That sounded right.

Coming to a stop, Evans took the time to wipe her face off. With the amount of unclean things she had managed to get into here, it was no wonder she was feeling off. Yeah. That had to be it. Getting to work on her face, Evans took care to clean everything off. She had no doubt gotten something in her teeth. That was for certain. Sadly, nothing reflective was in sight. All the more reason for her to pull it out and figure out what it was that she had managed to get in there. Yeah. That sounded right. Likely a little bit further now. Perhaps luck would be on her side and her wifey would be here as well. That would be perfect. Not that luck was on her side in the slight, a pain surging through her chest.

‘Housewyrms deserve to have big boobies for their spouses to enjoy.’

Bringing a claw to that area, Evans tried to feel up what it might be. But all that accomplished was nothing. Whatever it was, she couldn’t feel in the slightest. Oh well. She was bound to notice her eventually. She was growing at such a rate that everyone could see her. A shame the same couldn’t be said about her wifey. Oh well. For now, Evans continued on. Searching for a proper place in order to see her reflection, Evans took care to not break anything. Property damage was no joke. Even as a tail began to grow out of their backside. The perfect place for bows and ribbons, perhaps even bells if you wanted to push it that much more. Not that she would. That would be far too careless of a housewyrm of their stature. Heck, if their neighbors found out what had happened, there would be a massive scandal and her reputation would be outright ruined. No one wanted that, did they? Okay. Maybe the cult. But damn them all to the deepest parts of hell. There and only there, could they suffer for all the atrocities they had committed. Death would be far too kind for them. No, their punishment needed to be worse. Irrelevancy. Yes. That was all that they deserved. So irrelevant, their victims would be remembered far more than those dared to cut them down for their sick amusement.

Coming to a stop, Evans took a moment to clear her head. Such thoughts were unbecoming of a housewyrm. Especially one who was married. Instead, her mind could focus on other things. For example, what she would make her wifey for dinner. She wasn't the biggest of eaters, which made trying to make anything for the both of them quite a challenge.  But it was certainly one that Evans felt she was more than up for.

‘You should make her meatballs. She loves meatballs.’

"Probably meatballs." Evans thought, blissfully unaware of the set of meatballs that was forming on her chest. Rapidly growing out, they brought with them even more height for her body. Which wasn't accounting for her tail's growth as well. Definitely needed to get a bell for the tail. Screw going to a shop. Perhaps instead she could go to one of those boutiques that catered to dragons. Yeah. There had to be one of those around here. This necklace absolutely needed a proper outfit to go with it. That would definitely be for the best. Perhaps before these clothes gave out on her. Definitely a good idea. Public indecency was no joke, after all. “There’s a place!”

‘Go in there. Go in there.’

Picking up her pace, Evans began humming a tune to herself. In the distance, her destination awaited. A quite large building, she should be able to fit through the doorway without ducking. Though, she wouldn’t mind ducking either. Shoving those thoughts away, she entered the building.

Inside, Evans was surrounded by vintage-style dresses. Pinafores, coords and even a handful of ballgowns. Perhaps if she asked her wifey really, really, nicely, they could pick out matching ballgowns. Maybe even go to a fancy ball. Yeah. There was bound to be one of those going on as of late.

“Miss, is there anything that you’re looking for?” a voice called out, Evans craning her neck to meet the source of the voice. Towards the back of the store, what looked to be a tiny harpy flapped their wings. “Oh! Uh… Miss Emily! Did you accidentally rip your attire again?”

‘You don’t need to answer. She won’t be able to tell anyone.’

‘Emily’s’ cheeks turned white, but nodded nonetheless. Bad enough that someone recognized her. Worse, they pointed out her inability to keep clothes on. Not her fault here. These pearls were doing a number on her here. Perhaps this kind sir or madam could give her a lead on her wifey. Perhaps with a new outfit to boot. Yeah. She could see that working in her favor.

“Yes. I may have gotten uh… a bit rough on the bed. You know how it is.” Emily answered and got a raised eyebrow from the harpy. Looking away for just a moment, it almost looked as if they were calling someone. Oh well. Emily could do her own shopping. She was a big enough housewyrm to do something like shopping for outfits. Yeah!

‘I know why the caged birdie goes insane.’

Getting to looking over the racks of clothes, Emily scanned for anything in her size. While relatively easy to find, finding the styles she was looking for was proving to be quite a challenge. A lot of the patterns on offer here were more in the reds and greens. What the housewyrm was looking for here was something blue. Cyan even. Yeah, that would be best. Weird that this place didn’t accommodate that style. Far from the end of the world, Emily was willing to compromise. Or at least, she thought she was willing to compromise. Whether or not said compromise would work out, remained to be seen.

“Here we go.” Emily announced and pulled out a pinafore. Holding it up to her body, it looked to be just her size. This was perfect. She just needed to find a changing room to accurately see what it would look like on her body.

Extending her neck out, it was quite easy to look around and find the changing rooms. Taking care to weave her way through the racks, Emily could help but feel… happy. Try as the housewyrm might to put a talon on what could be causing those feelings, but she was here for it. At the same time, something felt off. Like she was holding back something far worse as a result. Tempted as it would be to dwell on that possibility, Emily dropped it for now. Whatever dark and horrible secret she was probably forgetting could wait until the housewyrm got dressed. Shoving that thought away, Emily opened the changing room door. Stepping through, she was met with cyan walls with specks of purple thrown in. Kind of like confetti in a single color. Trying her best to pull her eyes off of this interesting paint job for the wall, all that accomplished was Emily focusing even more on the wall.

'This is wrong.'

The disembodied voice echoed across her mind. Eyes forced shut, images of a figure with a strange-looking knife stared back. Blood (likely hers) proudly covered the blade, taunting her at every turn.

"You could've made it easy." the figure taunted as they slashed yet another wound across her chest. Tearing through her clothes, Emily struggled to hang on. She didn't understand what was going. What had she done to deserve to be disembodied in such a horrific fashion. "But no! You just had to cry out for your wife in the vain hope that she might arrive. What a shame she won't make it in time!"

Tears rolled down Emily’s face.. This was how her life ended. Ready for a fancy party, only to be attacked on the way there.

“Please, let me have this moment…” Emily thought, her eyes opening back up. Still standing in the middle of the changing room, the pinafore in question still hanging in her claws. Letting out a sigh, her gaze shifted to the mirror. A tall white dragoness stared back, her heels standing in an inch of snow. She had freaked out, hadn’t she? That was probably it. “I can do this.”

‘Eat the memory away.’

Pulling off what remained of her top and bottom clothes, she held the pinafore up over her body. Bringing it down, care was taken to pull it down without ripping anything. Thankfully, she managed to accomplish that. Turning back to the mirror, time was taken to pose to see if it somehow looked right. While it did, Emily couldn’t shake the feeling she was forgetting something here. Not something small like money or where she was going. More a case of her state of being. She was supposed to be dead, but somehow wasn’t. Was this just a result of the pearls bringing her back to life, or had that mysterious figure played a part here? Likely the former. Yet, Emily wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth here. She needed to pay for the dress and find her wifey. Yeah. Now, if she could only remember her name. Definitely not wifey. No, that would be silly. She had to have a name. Would be odd if she somehow didn’t. Which made it all the odder that Emily couldn’t remember. Perhaps that harpy lady had a better idea of what her wifey’s name was. Yeah. Asking her was probably a good idea.

‘Yes, open the bird’s cage. Let it free.’

Exiting the changing room with her purse, Emily headed for the counter. The harpy was still there, but looked concerned. Had she attempted to spill the beans? Most likely.

“You need to hand me that purse. You’re dead. You can’t be hanging onto this pers-” the harpy remarked and was promptly scooped up into Emily’s claw. Tightening her grip around her, she tried her best to escape. A futile effort, all things considered.

‘Eat her.’

Raising the harpy up to her mouth, Emily swallowed it with little abandon. Drowning out the cries of the luckless bird who they had just swallowed. Taking with it the negative memories that had swelled up, only one thing mattered. Finding Wifey, of course! Then she could feast on those who had chosen to side with the accursed cult. Wait. No. She wasn’t like that at all. That voice had tricked her into doing this. Perhaps they knew where to find her wifey. Except, they were likely to try and trick her even more. Yeah. She needed to be on her guard.

‘Good wifey.’

Exiting the clothing store, Emily took a moment to compose herself. The memory of what had happened there had already faded from her mind. No, her wifey was the only thing that mattered. But how to go about finding her… Perhaps if she closed her eyes, the answer would come to her. Doing just that, she took a moment to calm her mind. An image of her wifey appeared, surrounded by a bunch of nasty cultists. All the more reason to rescue her so that they could have a fun time. Yeah! That was the perfect idea here.

‘Yes, yes, find the wifey.’

.

The woman took a moment to continue knitting. While the loss of a spouse would normally be an upsetting event for most people, it was just Thursday for her. At least, that was what she told her skeletal fingers as those stupid cultists bumbled about. None of them understood the ramifications of what the actual higher-ups were attempting here. Heck, she suspected that even a couple of them were in it more to commit atrocities than to bring her forth. Ironically, waking Jestery up would result in them being killed. She always seemed like the sort that would do that kind of thing.

“We didn’t capture you just so that you could just knit. Cough your secrets up!” one of the cultists announced, the woman choosing to ignore them. One would think a couple Friedas would come through the place and make friends of the lot, but no. Probably off dressing up their current friends and beloveds. Sounded about right.

“You do not want the secrets I hold inside of me.” the woman countered, taking the time to clear a snag she had accidentally created for herself. Curse these old hands. Been knitting for millenia and still making the same mistakes. Her mother would be ashamed. Good thing she was not in any way alive to see her make said mistakes. Definitely for the best.

“Wifey, where are you?!” a voice called out, bringing with the booming footsteps. The kind only a very pissed-off dragon could make when their mind was set on a single goal. Such a glorious cacophony of noise to the woman’s ears. Not so much her captors, but their feelings mattered little in her mind. The only sound they would add to this melody was that of the screams made upon Emily grabbing their bodies and tossing them about.

“Fine then. Have it your way then!” the grunt announced, reaching out to the woman. Before they could get a chance to grab hold and do anything, a large claw managed to rip them away. Lifting them up into the air, the luckless grunt was thrown against the wall. Afterwards, Emily looked down

“There you are, my beloved.” the woman cooed, getting lifted up to Emily’s shoulder. Taking a moment to look her over, care was taken to hand the woman’s purse over. The woman accepted the gift, cracking a smile. Oh! You even brought me my purse. You always were my favorite, Emily. Don’t you ever forget that."

Emily’s face went light gray. Looking away, her gaze came upon more cultists. Lunch could wait. She had to make them pay. Then wifey would be happy and everything would be right in the world. At least for a little bit…