Trinx Ch. 05

"I imagined so."

"And I'll put you back in it if you don't tell me what's wrong."

Trinx hesitated. "You don't need to worry about me."

"I think I do."

She sighed. "I don't want to ruin the mood."

"Please."

"Alright." She inhaled and let it go gradually. "My grandmother passed on."

"Trinx." Rick wrapped his muscled arm around her back and shoulder, pulling her against him. "I am so sorry to hear that. You didn't have to come here today. I would have understood."

"I know." Her head rested on his shoulder.

He could feel a narrow, wet trail being blazed down his chest. Trinx sniffled and wiped her eye.

"I know I like to play rough." Rick caressed the hair that he had been yanking on only a few minutes previously. "But I want you to know that you can always come to me if you need anything."

"Thank you."

"Do you? Need anything, I mean?"

Trinx smiled as she pulled herself slightly away. "A kiss would be nice."

Rick gladly granted the request, fully balancing out his previous toughness with his remarkably tender touch.

*****

The viewing area was mostly empty. But not empty enough.

Trinx saw the couple in the front row as she came in through the back. The casket rested in the middle, between the two sections of chairs which split the room. She walked slowly towards it, nervously adjusting her long, black skirt as she went along the aisle.

Their eyes turned her way as she passed; she kept hers fixed on the mahogany coffin. As she neared it, she saw Francine resting within its white, cushioned walls. Her smile was set less broadly than she normally saw it, but her content appearance set Trinx slightly at ease.

"How...dare...you?"

The horrified, near-breathless query drained every ounce of comfort from her body. She knew who it was, even without looking at her or before hearing the voice. The vague hope that she could have entered the room without this confrontation seemed foolish, the result of an overwhelming need to see Frankie one more time.

"How DARE you??"

The woman's breath had returned to her in full. Trinx turned. She had stood up from her seat in the front row, her hands clenching periodically. Her blond, slightly graying hair, blue eyes and moderately-thickened version of her own form would have told Trinx who it was, even if the situation didn't make it clear by itself. The chubby, balding man next to her remained in his seat. He looked at her with shock as well, but without the woman's air of loathing.

Trinx inhaled sharply, holding the edge of the casket as if for stability. "Hello, mother."

"How dare you show your face here??"

"Jesus...she looks exactly the same." The man said.

"I've aged on the inside." Trinx said quietly.

"Tricia, look at her!"

"Hush up, Lou." She approached Trinx, slowly. "After you've disgraced this family's name...you dare to show yourself here?"

"I had to see Frankie."

"Why? What do you care?" Tricia stopped a few feet from her daughter, trembling with outrage. "How do you even know about this?"

Trinx began to take in some of the mother's energy, narrowing her eyes at her. "Who do you think paid for her home? It wasn't you."

Tricia crossed her arms. "My father's estate."

"Really? That's what you told yourself, so you would feel better?"

"How could you have paid for her stay?" Tricia asked incredulously.

Trinx exhaled sharply. "I sucked a ton of cocks. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

She didn't even see it coming. The slap threw Trinx's head towards the coffin and made her knees buckle. Trinx looked up, through the blond strands that had been sent flying in front of her face.

"You vile slut." Tricia seethed. "You haven't changed at all."

Trinx's eyes shifted to Lou. His eyes were on her as well, but they wandered south of her face. The man was detached; he seemed uninterested in either taking his wife's side or defending his stepdaughter. The vision of the young hooker turning sour at the mention of the word "mother" captured her consciousness, and the picture came into horrifying focus.

"He raped her..." Trinx whispered.

"What?" Tricia leaned in.

"He raped me." Her tone was rich in revelation.

"You bitch." Lou stood. "You wanted it. You begged me for it!"

"We've heard all your lies." Tricia added. "I've forgiven Lou. I might think about forgiving you when you tell the truth."

Trinx finally brought herself back to a fully standing position. "He...raped...me..."

"You are a lying, filthy whore." The older woman held her ground, speaking as if she hadn't heard a word.

The young blonde paused. It wasn't even her, which Trinx had seemed to have forgotten. This woman's daughter had died years ago at the hand of a vicious pimp. She could merely imagine how the real Trinx must have left home, after being violated by one parent and disavowed by the other.

But the troubles of the original Trinx were long over. As were any worries that Frankie had. Still, the thought of tearing the two of them to pieces overwhelmed her mind. For a fraction of a second, her mind dwelled on the alien creature's claws and razor-like teeth...

"No." Trinx shook her head.

"Yes, you are!" The girl's mother insisted. "Now go away. And don't show your whore face to us ever again."

Trinx started to turn, stopping before her hand left the casket. She swiveled back to the mother.

"You betrayed your own daughter." Her voice cracked subtly. "And for what? So you wouldn't be alone? Because you thought you couldn't find anyone else to FUCK you?"

"You..." Tricia sputtered impotently, her face flushed.

She swung her hand towards Trinx, who saw it coming this time around. Tricia's arm was blocked, and her head spun violently as Trinx backhanded her with her full force. The middle-aged woman twirled gracelessly and landed face-down on the carpeted floor. Silence enveloped the room for several seconds, after the echo of the thud had faded away.

"Jeeezus!" Lou got up and ran to kneel by his wife. He held her wrist, looking at Trinx with wild hostility. The younger woman breathed heavily.

"Is she alive?" Trinx asked without concern.

"Yeah." Lou stood, threatening Trinx with a motion towards her.

Trinx's hand gripped his throat in the blink of an eye. She imagined that if she wanted to turn into the rokkrath, the claws would grow directly into his neck. Lou's eyes dilated, staring at the girl with disbelief.

"I could kill you right now." Trinx said softly.

Lou nodded, believing at least that much.

"Your stepdaughter is dead. That's how you need to think about this. And you know...you know goddamn full well...what you did to her."

Hesitantly, Lou repeated the motion.

"I'm going to let you live with that."

Trinx shoved the man, sending him onto his back next to his unconscious wife. He looked up, cautiously, as if she might change her mind and come his way.

She looked at Frankie once more, straightening her hair and silently struggling to regain her composure. As she leaned down slightly, she felt her eyes begin to dampen.

"I am sorry." Trinx whispered.

Moments later, she was gone.

*****

The daylight had burned away as she had gazed out at the water. Her mind desperately tried to turn to positive thoughts, which became something of an epic battle between two halves of her brain.

"I don't have to pay her bill any longer. Now, I can find other work." Her optimistic side said.

"Not without identification." The pessimistic part of her replied.

"Then I can save up and get some identification."

"If you don't get caught and executed in the street, alien..."

And so on, and so forth. She thought of Beau, more than once, wondering if he could ever want her outside of her professional capacity. Or Rick. A thousand men had told her that they could help her, and none had ever followed through.

*****

The parade of thoughts followed its bandleader off of the surface-bus as she began the final leg of her trip back home. Her apartment building's canopy was a clear sight even a full block away. The thought of getting home, out of her stuffy clothes and into a hot bath was already soothing...

"Well, hello!"

The voice made her gasp. Her feet stopped on their own, knowing that they had little choice. She turned to see the man pull up at his belt, as if it would magically rise and cover his gut.

"Detective..." Her voice limped out of her mouth.

"My very favorite whore." Jellico strode towards Trinx, smirking. One hand lazily reached into his gray suit jacket's pocket, while the other flicked a cigarette off into the street.

"Look...not today..."

"Nice outfit. Role-playing for one of your clients?"

"No." Trinx tried not to roll her eyes too dramatically. "I was at..."

"I know where you were."

The interruption alarmed her. "You do?"

"You made the blotter." Jellico said, his tone fitting for telling her that she had won a raffle prize. He pulled a small electronic device out of his pocket and tapped the screen.

"Oh, no..." Trinx breathed out.

"LaVette, Trinx." Jellico spoke into the device as he looked at it. "There it is. Assault at a funeral parlor. We don't get that one every day."

"I did not..." Trinx felt her pulse increase. "She swung at me!"

"Yeah, yeah. I saw the video."

"Then you know! She..."

"I do know..." Jellico pocketed the device as he cut her off, "that I could make a very compelling argument to her on why she should drop the charges. And I also know that it's my sworn duty to bring your sweet little ass in, now that I have you in front of me."

Trinx brushed her hair back as she brought her hand over her forehead. "Fine. Let's go."

She started to lead him towards the alleyway, but he pulled her back. Her eyes were full of curiosity as they met his.

"I've got a room, this time. And a friend who would absolutely love to make your acquaintance."

*****

Jellico's friend happened to be balls-deep in another hooker when they entered. The man was roughly thirty years old, brown-haired and fairly average from everything that she could see. The hooker bucked and writhed as if not every part of him was average, though.

Trinx recognized the woman in a vague sort of way. She had seen her walking the area once or twice, thinking that she could probably do better than picking up men from the street. What she normally saw as finely-coiffed, raven-shaded hair was now a moist mess. Her ample breasts hung below her as she was bent over the back of the couch, getting plowed without mercy.

It wasn't the introductory sight that Trinx found jarring; an audience of ten men stood in a loosely-formed circle around the hotel suite, all of them naked and displaying their readiness to prove their sexual potency.

"Oh, no..." Trinx took a step back towards the door, only to be met with Jellico's hand on the small of her back.

"It's just a bachelor party. I'm sure you've done one or two."

"I don't do this sort of thing. I'm a call girl, not a party favor."

Jellico scoffed. "A whore's a whore."

Trinx's blue eyes blazed, but she remained silent.

"It sounds to me like the lucky guy's about to pop his nut." Jellico said, plainly. "You're going to get him hard and let him have at you, since he's the guest of honor here. Then you belong to the room. Got it?"

"You filthy..."

Trinx was cut off as Jellico violently pushed her forward. She skidded on her knees until she hit the carpeted area, at which point she fell onto her face. The man who was pounding the hooker turned and looked at her in surprise, just as he began his climax. He pulled out and shot high-arching streams of cum all over the woman's ass and back, grunting loudly.

Applause and cat-calls filled the room, and it was difficult for Trinx to tell if it was for her humiliating entrance or for the paint job that the hooker had just received.

"Holy shit." The man stroked himself to ensure that he had nothing more to give the woman before kneeling down by the new guest. "And who are you?"

"Trinx." She said with a beautifully-faked smile, pushing herself up onto her knees. "And you?"

"Jimmy." He held his hand out, shaking her hand cordially. "You're a friend of Milo's?"

Jimmy had nodded towards Jellico.

"We go way back." Trinx smiled cryptically.

"Well, any friend of Milo's is certainly a friend of mine." Jimmy smirked. "Let's have someone take your jacket for you."

One of the naked men grabbed her black suit jacket and pulled it off of her within seconds. Trinx gasped at the efficiency of the movement; it was as if this was something they did on a daily basis. Another nameless man ripped her navy blue blouse open from behind, exposing her breasts.

"Gorgeous." Jimmy grinned appreciatively.

Trinx was on the verge of telling them to ease up, when she heard the woman make a muffled cry. One man had stuffed her mouth with his notably thick rod, while another was pushing his way into her puckerhole. The man inserting himself into her ass had her arms crossed behind her and was using them for leverage. The concept of gentleness was clearly unwelcome here.

"Jimmy...I hate to ruin your party, but this really isn't my kind..."

His hand crossed her face almost instantly. The smile on his face was gone in half that time.

"You're not going anywhere, whore. Are we going to have a problem with that?"

"Jimmy..." Trinx's voice cracked softly. "Please..."

Another slap sent her onto her back. The room twirled briefly as she oriented herself. Out of the corners of her eyes, she could see the two men who had begun to strip her down. The sounds of the nameless hooker getting savagely reamed and face-fucked nearby rattled on her eardrums.

Trinx felt herself snap.

Closing her eyes, she pictured the creature. The claws and teeth all but sparkled in her imagination as she concentrated on taking its form. Thoughts of the ramifications were washed from her consciousness. If she had to hide as an old homeless man again for a while, so be it. If she had to leave the city and find another place to start anew, fine. She briefly considered that she might have to get rid of the hooker, just because she would be a witness to her species of visitor. As much as she sympathized with the black-haired working girl, Trinx was putting herself first. This day was not going to end with getting gang-banged by...

Trinx's thoughts were cut off by the sound. Not of people panicking or stumbling over themselves to escape, but of laughter. Her breath froze in midstream within her throat. There had to be some reaction to the metamorphosis; she listened intently, and in vain, for their collective song of horror.

She could have never imagined that the sound of the absence of screaming could be so alarming.

"Are you going to cry?" Jimmy chuckled cruelly.

She opened her eyes. Her fingers were still fingers, the nails reddened only by polish and not human blood; her skin was as smooth and flesh-toned as it was before she thought of changing her form.

"Oh my God..." Trinx gasped aloud.

"Just relax and go with it." Jimmy said as he kneeled over her head with his thick, now-throbbing cock aimed towards her mouth. "And we're all going to have a good time tonight."

*****

"Is that you, love?" Lorra's melodic voice followed the squeak of the entrance door's hinge.

"Yes." Trinx said numbly.

"I was starting to worry. I figured you were someplace thinking about Frankie for a while, but it's so late n..."

Lorra gasped as she came into Trinx's view. The young blonde's hair was mussed and her clothes rumpled. Her blouse was still open, creating a narrow window of flesh in the middle. Subtly reddened cheeks became the resting place for the streaks of her mascara. Their eyes locked as Trinx shut the door behind her.

"Jesus humping Christ..." Lorra quickly went to her, instantly gripping her into a firm embrace. "What happened to you?"

Trinx simply returned the hug and pressed her face against the redhead's shoulder.

*****

Lorra sat patiently on the tiled floor as Trinx soaked in the hot bath. Occasionally, she would glance Trinx's way, gently reminding her that her closest friend was waiting to hear her speak.

"How are you and Dex?" Trinx offered.

"Great." Lorra smiled softly. "I was worried that there might be some tension after that birthday present, but we're better than ever."

"I'm very happy to hear that." She smiled sincerely, yet weakly.

Lorra nodded and promptly proceeded to wait further. She glanced over at her roommate again, leaning her head against the wall.

"It was Jellico." Trinx finally muttered.

"I thought it might be." Lorra sighed. "I've never seen you come back this rough, though."

"Apparently, he has friends. That never occurred to me as a possibility."

"Trinxie..." Lorra stroked Trinx's drenched hair lightly. "I am so sorry. Can I do anything? Shoulder rub? Make you a gin and tonic? Find the motherfucker and hang him with his own entrails?"

The blonde snickered briefly. "All of those sound wonderful."

"I'll get right on that." Lorra smiled.

Trinx paused. "There's something else. Something worse."

"Worse than Jellico and his friends?"

She nodded. "I can't...I can't change."

"I don't want you to change."

"I mean...my form."

Lorra's eyes widened with sudden understanding. "What?"

"I can't. I tried. I tried a hundred times while those men..." Trinx closed her eyes.

"Don't think about that." Lorra caressed Trinx's shoulders.

Trinx breathed deeply. "Right. But...I just don't know what's happened to me."

Lorra pondered. "Does it ever...go away if you spend too much time in one form?"

"No." Trinx responded immediately. "Nar'freth, one of our people's heroes, spent what you would think of as thirty years as a Bekjerine. That wasn't an issue when the mission ended."

"Hmm." Lorra thought, then realized. "I just realized something. I've never asked you what your actual name is."

Trinx shook her head. "It's awful."

"Awful? That is an unfortunate name." Lorra grinned at the mere hope of making her smile.

A slim smirk crept over Trinx's face. "You're a twit. And nobody needs to know my name."

"I think I do. I'll still call you 'Trinx', of course."

Trinx sighed as she looked at her roommate. Even while she enjoyed showing off her alien abilities for Lorra's amusement, she wanted to maintain her sense of belonging as much as possible. Thinking of herself as 'Trinx' was the bare minimum in that regard; it was the last stronghold in her inner battle to be seen as human.

But Lorra thought that this might be a good time for her friend to feel a little less human, to be separated from those who had displayed the most atrocious aspects of their race on that particular day. Trinx smiled subtly at that realization.

"Alright. My name is Jem'neesh." The 'j' was soft, almost to the point of becoming its own syllable.

"That is a beautiful name." Lorra said softly.

"It means 'one who conquers'." Trinx giggled.

"Oh." Lorra shrugged. "I think that might still fit you."

"Oh, hush."

Lorra's smile faded as she returned to her previous line of inquiry. "How about illness? Are there any sicknesses or symptoms that go along with being unable to change your form?"

Trinx shook her head, while thinking of potential answers on her own.

The redhead twirled her curly hair around a finger as she contemplated.

"You're fully human right now." She suddenly stated.

"Yes."

"Your organs and everything, as far as you know."