Chapter 4
Elysia and Jimmy

	The three by two meter mirror reflected not the place it was in, but the place it linked to. The partly cloudy dawn, stained red and purple, stood in stark contrast to the constant midnight of the actual locale. Though the mirror showed the roped off circle, oval table, and chairs, of the battlefield arena, it showed not anyfur occupying said area. That the mirror showed its place of origin but not the inhabitants thereof said something of its creator—though said creator wouldn’t know what.
	A wide, padded black paw with massive claws reached through the mirror, rippling its surface like water. Elysia Rosenberg stepped through the portal and immediately furrowed his brow and looked about. The portal should not have taken him here. Ely inhaled sharply and tensed as a he saw the mirror ripple again from the emergence of a lanky, bony pink paw with hooked claws. He took the paw in his own and led it forward, or at least intended to. Ely pulled Jimmy Hicks so hard through the portal that the rat tumbled forward and crashed headfirst into the Wolverine’s gut. Such force didn’t budge Ely. He grabbed Jimmy’s shoulders to right him. Jimmy pushed back.
	“The fuck you doing yanking me around like that?” Jimmy shouted. “That was not comfortable in the slightest.”
	Ely cocked his head and blinked, taking a moment to realize what Jimmy meant, and then nodded. “I’m sorry. I sometimes have no awareness of how much strength I’m exerting. Compound that with the strength of a wolverine and, well—“
	“Shit happens, yeah,” Jimmy finished and gave a thumbs-up. “Whatever you say Mr. Professor Science TV Announcer Commentator Narrator guy!” Jimmy looked about. “Where the fuck are we? I thought you said you were taking us to a dining room.”
	Ely looked about, unconsciously following the motions off Jimmy’s head and eyes with his own until Jimmy grimaced and lightly smacked Ely’s arm with the back of a paw. Jimmy waved a finger at Ely’s nose and shook his head. Ely replied with a shake of his own head and a shrug with upturned paws. Jimmy rolled his eyes and slumped forward. They both went back to looking around.
	“I thought I was taking you to a dining room,” Ely said. “But this is my shower.”
	Ely raised his brow and whistled. “This is one holy hell of a shower. Then again, what else should I expect from CastleVania. Why are we here anyway?”
	“I don’t know,” Ely answered. “But I wonder more why the others aren’t here with us.”
	“To hell with them,” Jimmy squealed. “I want to see this baby in action!”
	Ely walked slowly down the descending steps of the giant quartz-floored basin, grabbing a meter long whole loofah sponge in one paw and what seemed to be a wine bottle full of clear wash from the porcelain tables encircling the outer steps of the basin. Meanwhile, Jimmy ran around opal columns onto a florally carved porcelain balcony surrounding the shower that Ely had not discovered on his first visit. With wide eyes and a wide smile, he almost leapt with each step as he took in the balcony’s view: of the castle spreading several kilometers in every direction, the wilderness beyond, and the amber orange full moon twenty times the size of said sight on Earth. A gust of wind blew Jimmy’s silver nightshirt above his head, revealing his wiry frame. Jimmy flailed his arms about to push his shirt back down. All his extremities chilled and Jimmy whimpered and shivered, his tail shaking and feeling the worst. Jimmy sprinted back into the basin, toward Ely, who was already at the center of the basin, turning the ship wheel and prying the levers to spray boiling hot mist down from the domed ceiling.
	Jimmy’s eyes lidded from the feeling. His body slumped and his tail fell limp onto the floor. Ely hadn’t turned the temperature to max, like last time. From the fall, the water cooled just enough not to burn. It soaked Ely’s pajamas, which stuck to his body, outlining his lanky body, at which Ely raised an eyebrow at in curiosity. Even at twelve, and even with his own billowy coat slicked against his skin, Ely was easily three times stouter than the rat.
	Jimmy looked around to see a row of porcelain lounge-seat on the topmost step encircling the shower. They were curved to conform to a body, and needed no upholstering. Jimmy flopped back onto a lounge-seat and splayed out his arms and legs, soaking up the mist’s luxurious heat. His eyes drifted closed and his tongue rolled out his snout.
	Ely picked the bottle and loofah off the floor next to him and climbed the steps to lay on a lounge-seat next to Jimmy. He set the loofah and bottle back on the floor. The sound startled Jimmy’s eyes open. Jimmy looked at Ely. The hot mist pouring over his face quickly made his eyes lidded again.
	“This place is amazing,” Jimmy whispered. “I thought the video games had great sights, but this blows away everything I’ve ever even imagined. How’d you build it?”
	“I don’t know,” Ely answered.
	Jimmy sat up sharply. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
	“My concierge—“
	“HellGuardian,” Jimmy interrupted.
	“I’ll call him that when he confirms the title himself,” Ely grumbled. “He said my hyperbolic imagination created this place, and that I had no conscious control over it.”
	“Yeah, you said that before. What is a hyperbolic imagination?” Jimmy asked.
	Ely shrugged. “It wasn’t explained to me fully. All I was told was that when I created my room, the process of creation took on a life of its own that I couldn’t stop. He had to stop it for me to keep the room from taking up too much space.”
	“It already does take up too much space as far as I can tell,” Jimmy said. “And he let you keep it that way?”
	“He said he had no right to force me to change it,” Ely answered.
	“He might not, but a committee of HellGuardians would. And they usually put an end to these things after just a few hours. So again, why did they let you keep your room this way?”
	Ely narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth. He clenched his opposable toes as he felt his throat ball up. The powers that be in Hell violated their own rules, be they written or unwritten, by letting him keep his room unchanged? Why? It frustrated, and then frightened Ely. He held his breath involuntarily. Hell seemed a place of logic, of consistency, however bizarre that consistency was. Why then would he be singled out as an exception to its rules? Razielphustar said there was something extraordinary about Ely. Was that a privilege granted due to his, thus far, unknown endowments? It seemed unfair, criminal even! Anger welled up in Ely’s gut, making him clench his fists. ‘No’! he thought. ‘Don’t fall victim to idiocy! Don’t speculate! Investigate and question... when the opportunity arises.’ Ely desperately tried to quell the anger within him with deep breaths. Fortunately, the hot mist running through his fur provided the most soothing distraction. Ely soon relaxed.
	“Dude... what the fuck’s wrong?” Jimmy whispered.
	“A possible contradiction, which happens far too often,” Ely answered. “I have to stop myself from losing my temper whenever I notice one.”
	“Well, maybe the best sex in all three universes’ll fix that problem. Kaphirez’ll give that to you, that’s for damn fucking sure.”
	Ely growled. The leftover anger from the possible contradiction combined with that from hearing yet another absolute claim from the rat. It was too much, and overrode Ely’s desire to avoid conflict. “Those words are irrational. You don’t know that about her for sure.”
	Jimmy smirked and nodded. “You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”
	Ely flung himself up to sit and turned toward Jimmy with pursed lips and a furrowed brow. “I never said that.” ‘How did he know?’
	Jimmy laughed and fell back into the lounge-seat. “That’s okay. A lot of people think I’m stupid when they first meet me. I’ve gotten used to it. No, I’m just way too impulsive is all.”
	“Explain,” Ely said.
	“Sometimes my mouth works faster than my brain,” Jimmy said. “I say things without ever thinking about them first. But I can think. And I’m a hell of a lot smarter than most people think.”
	Ely didn’t show it, but the words formed a hungry pit in his gut. The same often happened to him, though assuredly for different reasons than it did to the rat.
	Jimmy continued. “That was actually the reason I was originally sent to Jerks.”
	“Jerks?” Ely asked.
	“Level three,” Jimmy answered. “It means you’re an asswad, but technically still a good person, or at the very least you want to be.”
	“What was it like?” Ely asked.
	Jimmy shrugged. “It’s different for everyone who goes there, but when I first got there I thought it was paradise city—heaven on a bun drenched in nacho cheese. It looked just like some billionaire’s penthouse apartment with four master bedrooms, a fifteen hundred square foot kitchen with a wall spanning fridge, and a ninety inch LED TV in twenty-one sixty P with ten point two surround, two thousand channels, half of them dirty, and more video games than you could ever count. I was stuck in there with three super-tall nineteen year old beach-model bunny girls who were just the totallyest, completest, most hopeless sluts ever. As often as they could, they’d pin me down on the coffee table, and have one of them rim me, one of them eat me out, and one grind her pussy into my muzzle. They took turns!”
	‘Eat him out?’ Ely thought, furrowing his brow. ‘Must have been a slip of the tongue.’ Ely would never realize the pun he just made.
	“And for work, all we had to do was sort and file this never-ending pile of paperwork for other HellGuardians. While we were at it, they’d tell the most disgusting speciesist rat jokes ever, and I’d laugh so fucking hard. And I’d tell the most disgusting speciesist rabbit jokes ever, and they’d laugh so fucking hard. I thought that was the best kind of death anyone could ever ask for.”
	“What changed?” Ely asked.
	“It got boring eventually,” Jimmy said. His voice then became low and somber. “Eventually I wanted different kinds of sex than they wanted to get from me. And it got annoying hearing hundreds of filthy fucking rat jokes every day. And it got annoying telling hundreds of filthy fucking rabbit jokes every day. I told them I wanted something different, but they never listened. After a few months it got more than annoying.” Jimmy began whispering and tearing, though through the shower only he could tell. “It hurt. It’s like I was just a rat joke, and I was just a fucking blow-up doll for them to hump their brains out on. And it’s like they were just rabbit jokes, and just brainless whores. I got so pissed, but they’d just say I was whining like a baby. I was just a thing to them, and they were just things to me, to each other, to themselves. No one cared about anything. We were all just things. And that’s what they wanted. Then one day I snapped. I grabbed a cleaver and hacked them all to pieces, screaming every cussword in the book at them, and plenty that weren’t. And they just bitched about how whiny I was the whole fucking time!”
	“What happed then?” Ely asked.
	Jimmy’s chest fluttered as almost sobbed. But somehow, Ely’s question calmed him. “I locked myself in my room for a week with the stereo blasting so I couldn’t hear them laughing at me. Then I realized... I was doing that to everyone I ever knew when I was alive.”
	“Doing what?” Ely asked.
	“Putting everyone down,” Jimmy answered. “Hurting them, by saying things without thinking about them beforepaw. Like my mom always told me, if words couldn’t hurt people then there’d be no such things as lawyers. I never knew what she was getting at until then. And I never felt so horrible, like someone just sucked out my guts and left me a corn husk. Then the next day, Kaphirez came and congratulated me for graduating to the naughty level. She said I’d normally have to practice watching what I say for a while before going, but that there was no way I could do that with the bunny bitches, so she graduated me early.” Jimmy paused. “That’s why I never had a friend here besides her. I still say assholish things all the time ‘cause I don’t think before I talk. But at least now I know I do it. That’s why I cruise the cosmic orgies, ‘cause I never know anyone I’m fucking, so I don’t have to worry about what I say.”
	Ely sat up and turned to Jimmy. “I’m still waiting for the definition of cosmic orgy.”
	Jimmy sat up and grinned. “Like hell I’m ruining that surprise.”
	Ely sighed, slumped his shoulders, and drooped his head. He recomposed himself and looked at Jimmy. He saw the rat’s watering eyes and pained smile even through his aloofness to mannerisms. Ely cocked his head in curiosity and blinked.
	“I’ll be your friend,” he whispered.
	“Must be the giving force at work,” Jimmy sighed. “You know, I could use a good fuck right about now.”
	Ely looked down at the giant loofah and bottle on the floor. “I was going to wash but—”
	Ely sighed. He dropped his face into a paw. Yet again, a male he just met offered him casual sex. Should he accept? Yet again he remembered wandering to the gay areas of porn tubes, and staring at the sheathes, balls, and assholes of his peers in the school locker room from the corner of his eye. What would he be if he accepted? Would it make a difference? It’s not who you are underneath; it’s what I do that defines you. Ely furrowed his brow and wondered why he thought of that movie quote. Then he wondered why he didn’t think of it when Bartleby offered him sex earlier. Ely agreed with the quote, meaning to accept or decline would make what he is. Ely lifted his head and furrowed his brow at Jimmy. In Hell, casual bisexuality was the norm. So if he accepted Jimmy’s offer, he’d be merely fitting in, which he had never done in life. All hesitation vanished with that thought
	“Sure,” Ely said. “I can give that. Just don’t pin me down or anything.” Why did he say that? The rat couldn’t overpower the likes of him in a million years.
	Jimmy shook his head and waved his paws. “No, no, no! However you want!”
	Ely grabbed the bottle from the floor, stood, and threw it down, shattering it. The hot mist rinsed away the wash in piles of foam. Jimmy sneered and backed against the rear of the lounge-seat.
	“The fuck are you doing?” Jimmy whispered.
	Ely reached down for a long, narrow shard of glass and pondered it in his paw. “You said however I want. I told you my fetish was blood.”
	Jimmy giggles nervously. “Blood, huh? I think bloody should be kept to steaks.”
	“What do you mean?” Ely asked.
	“I don’t like blood,” Jimmy said. “Call me squeamish, but it’s just how I died.”
	“How did you die?” Ely asked.
	“Leukemia,” Jimmy answered.
	Ely winced and wriggled his fingers and opposable toes. “Eww.”
	“You’re damn right eww! Needing blood transfusions every day is a bitch, especially when the nurse drops an open bag on you stains your whole face and chest red. I never screamed so loud in my life. Though I guess you can play with mine since the shower’ll wash it away; but I’m not playing with yours.”
	Ely sneered, but quickly rocked his head and smiled. Jimmy’s blood alone would be enough for the time being. By then, the shower had washed away the smaller bits of glass. Ely sat down next to Jimmy, who flung his legs over the side of the lounge-seat and leaned against the wolverine’s chest. Such a huge, powerful male, and even at three years his junior! Ely grabbed the rat’s collar and pulled, tearing the shirt down the middle and exposing his dainty body. He rubbed Jimmy’s chest. Hot water flattening his coat, Jimmy felt almost as if the giant padded paw kneaded through his fur against his skin. He groaned and sighed and grabbed Ely’s hips, digging his claws through the fur.
	Ely slid his paw down and slipped it into Jimmy’s pajama bottoms where he found something he didn’t expect. Ely paused, his paw lying still between Jimmy’s legs. He stood up and stepped back.
	“What is that?” Ely asked.
	Jimmy narrowed his eyes and grinned. “It’s exactly what it feels like.”
	“But you’re a boy,” Ely said.
	Jimmy raised a wagging finger. “You’re half-right. I’m a cunt boy!”
	Ely reared his head back, blinking and biting his lip in surprise and confusion. A cunt boy?! He’d seen drawings of such things online, on fantasy porn sites. He knew also that it was possible, as there were certainly pre-op FTM transsexuals, but a teenager like Jimmy? No country on Earth allowed minors to undergo sex reassignment. So how did she become a he? Ely stood still for a time.
	“You wanna know why?” Jimmy asked.
	Ely nodded.
	“’Cause I wanted to be one,” he said. “It was my virtual self-image.”
	“Virtual self-image?” Ely asked.
	“It’s not your body, but it’s the body you think of when you think of your body,” Jimmy answered. “And when you die, your body turns into your virtual self-image.”
	Ely turned his head and narrowed his eyes. ‘That’s why my dick is so much bigger here!’
	“Most furs’ virtual self-images are just idealized forms of their original bodies. But there are exceptions. I was a hundred percent boy in life, even though I secretly wanted to be a boy with a cunt.”
	“Can you change your body back?” Ely asked.
	Jimmy shrugged. “Some people can change their shape just by thinking. It’s pretty hard for me, and takes a while. And some people need machines to do it for them. But everybody turns back into their virtual self-image when they fall asleep. So, you still wanna fuck a freak of nature like me”
	Did he? He’d fucked carmine plenty of times, and she had a pussy. He never had a problem with that, emotionally or intellectually. But Jimmy didn’t have breasts, or a feminine curves, or nipples larger than dimes. His voice was clearly male, and with a typically masculine Bronx accent. Even if he were bisexual, would he want to fuck a male with female genitals? Then Ely remembered his conversation with Bartleby the day before. They talked about bestiality, vore, piss and scat, mutilation, cub yiffing. His memories blurred past a certain point, but included things like herms and mutants and demons, and a bizarre fixation on being cooked. At the time, Ely wanted to try them all. He since realized almost half those things disinterested him. However, remembering that conversation tore away his inhibitions.
	“Yes,” Ely said, “I do.”
	Ely placed his shard of glass between his lips. He lifted Jimmy by his armpits and placed the rat on his lap. Ely turned and laid down on the lounge chair with Jimmy lying atop him. Jimmy tilted his head back to rub his muzzle through bushy wet fur on Ely’s throat. The hot water intensified the smells of cigar, leather, patchouli, and yeast so endemic to wolverine fur, a hyper-masculine smell that even female wolverines exude.
	Ely reached his paws down to grip Jimmy’s silver pajama bottoms. A grip with his claws and tug tore them down the middle into separate leggings. Jimmy wriggled his legs and kicked them off. Ely stared at Jimmy’s pussy. It was huge! His mons was like a grapefruit bulging from between his legs, his clit like a pacifier nipple. Extreme as it was, it did not surprise Ely, who had seen more than one rat girl on streaming porn sites. Such was typical for them.
	Ely cupped Jimmy’s pussy in his paw, kneading and rubbing a claw across the underside of his clit. Ely sighed, groaned, and arched his back up, pressing his head harder against Ely’s neck. With his bulbous, squishy mons and huge clit, groping Ely’s crotch felt more like squeezing a breast than a pussy. But knowing he did just that, and the sight as he parted the giant lips, and Jimmy’s wriggling and squeaking, quickly brought Ely’s cock to its full eight inches. It nestled itself nicely between Jimmy’s labs.
	“You look hard enough,” Jimmy said. “What are you waiting for?”
	“I’m not feeling it enough,” Ely mumbled. “I need a little something more.”
	Ely took the glass shard from his mouth and cut a shallow line vertically over the bottom of Jimmy’s clit, making his tail squirm and his teeth clench as he whined.
	Ely stopped. “Does that hurt?”
	“Of course not!” Jimmy said. “It just tickles really bad! Just get it done quickly.”
	Ely nodded and swiped the glass over and across the topside of Jimmy’s clit, cleanly slicing into it. Jimmy jittered and squealed at the sensation. Ely put the glass back between his lips and observed. Blood trickled from the wound onto Ely’s cock, not quite soaking the fur of his crotch and balls before the shower washed it away. Jimmy looked away, but Ely’s glazed eyes fixated on the sight. It was only the second time Ely got to indulge his blood fetish, and the first time he did so sexually. Seeing the blood wash over his charcoal gray shaft made Ely feel like his skin was ice despite soaking in near scalding water. His hackles would stand on end if he wasn’t soaked. His heart and breath fluttered, and he felt as if in free-fall. He couldn’t help but gape his jaw and let his tongue hang out. He flinched as Jimmy grabbed that tongue in his muzzle and slid it between his lips.
	Jimmy laughed. “You look like you’re staring at an angel. Is my bloody clit really that awesome?”
	Ely only then noticed he was drooling. He swallowed so he could talk. “The most I’ve ever done before was getting my teacher to lick a cut on my finger.”
	Jimmy grinned. “She must’ve been a great teacher.”
	Ely nodded.
	Jimmy whispered in Ely’s ear. “So stop gawking and fuck me already!”
	Ely nodded again. Again, he lifted Jimmy by the armpits and lowered the rat onto his lap, slipping his length easily inside the rat boy’s cunt. Ely sniffed and blinked, surprised as just how tightly Jimmy’s labs and pussy gripped his cock.
	“Shit!” Jimmy whined, wriggling atop Ely.
	Ely pressed his paws against Jimmy’s chest to stop him. “Calm down! What’s wrong?”
	“My clit tickles so fucking bad right now!” Jimmy squealed.
	“Should I scratch it while I fuck you?” Ely asked.
	Jimmy clenched his muzzle and eyes shut, squealing again while nodding hard.
	Ely rocked his hips up and down, sliding his member through Jimmy’s pussy. He brought a claw down to scratch hard over the slice in Jimmy’s clit with his thumb and middle-finger. Jimmy calmed and sighed with a growl as he thrust his hips into Ely’s paw. The scratches relieved the itch and replaced it with a burning pleasure. The claws pried the wound open to drizzle more blood onto Ely’s crotch. The blood ran down his cock as he pulled out, and then leaked out of Jimmy’s pussy as he thrust in.
	The sight became too much for Ely. He whimpered, and then gave a single sob. He felt the pleasure oozing through his upper shaft as it freely leaked pre. Ely thrust harder into Jimmy, and harder, and harder until Jimmy had to sit up because Ely threw him into the air with each hump. Jimmy landed each time back on Ely’s lap after ever thrust, slamming the wolverine’s cock back into his pussy. Ely panted and clawed into Ely legs, which he propped himself up on.
	“Holy shit Ely!” Jimmy whimpered. “You fuck so hard! You’re only twelve?”
	“That’s right,” Ely panted.
	“I gotta fuck me some more wolverines!” Jimmy sighed.
	Ely growled and bared his teeth. 
“You gonna cum?” Jimmy asked. Ely answered yes with another growl. “Scratch my clit harder!” Jimmy growled back.
	Ely dug his claws into Jimmy’s huge clit as he bounced the rat up and down on his cock. His claws tore the clit’s flesh open further, causing blood to leak steadily from it. The sight made Ely’s lungs and spine chill, and his skin and muscles burn. He again gave a single sob from the sensation. Liquid pleasure climbed the wolverine’s urethra.
	“Just a few more seconds,” Ely growled.
	“I’ll heal myself now,” Jimmy answered.
	The next time Jimmy landed in Ely’s lap, the wound on his clit had sealed, and the blood washed away. It disappointed Ely, but he hadn’t time to ask why Jimmy healed his clit. He cummed inside the rat. Ely gasped with eyes clamped shut and jaw agape. This orgasm was different. The overwhelming hypersensitive feeling was there, like in life. But it was no longer unpleasant to Ely. He could keep stimulating as he cummed. And he did. Ely thrust shorter and faster, squirting hot white ropes into Jimmy’s pussy. Ely began to tear, never having experienced such a thing, nor comprehending what it could be like. His orgasm kept going, and he kept cumming, the hypersensitivity now just another form of pleasure. Ely rumbled deep inside his throat. He began counting seconds as he pumped Jimmy full: five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, fifty-five seconds! For nearly a minute Ely had shot his load into the rat. He collapsed back onto the lounge-seat, gasping for breath.
	Jimmy grinned and turned around, Ely’s cock still inside him. Ely looked with a furrowed brow as Jimmy sat up on his knees, pulling the wolverine’s cock from him and gushing cum from his pussy. The cum, almost enough to fill a glass, pooled over Ely’s crotch and stomach. Jimmy leaned over, shielding the spunk from washing away entirely. He bared his incisors with an ear-to-ear smile.
	“Never had an undead orgasm, huh?” Jimmy asked. “And that wasn’t even a big one! Just think of the eternity you’re gonna have here.”
	Ely shuddered, considering Jimmy’s words.
	Jimmy fell onto his hands and knees and turned around, exposing his still dripping pussy to Ely as he began to lap the cum from the wolverine’s crotch and stomach. Seeing and smelling the puffed up pussy in front of his nose, still drooling his own spunk, Ely’s instincts took over and he shoved his muzzle against it. Ely pushed his long wolverine tongue into the deepest reaches of Jimmy’s tunnel and used it to shovel his own cum out to swallow.
	“Oh yeah!” Jimmy sighed at Ely’s oral work. “When you’re sucking your cum out of my cunt, and when my lips are squeezing your muzzle, and when you’re pressing your nose against my clit to get that smell, I just want you to remember... that I’m a boy!”
	Those words made Ely shudder, making Jimmy grin as it gave his pussy a nice buzz. Ely’s cock pulsed and began hardening again, and he wanted. Was Ely bisexual? No. At that moment he became omnisexual, and he loved it.
	“I see you’re ready for more!” Jimmy cooed. “Oh, and sorry about healing my clit without asking first. But I just didn’t want to see any blood in all that cum when I ate it up.”
	Jimmy healed his clit without asking! Ely was so caught up in the moment that he forgot about that. The explanation kept him from angering though. He noisily sucked the last gobs of his cum from Jimmy’s pussy and pulled his head back to finally breath.
	“It’s okay,” Ely said.
	Jimmy nodded. “So how do you want it this time?”
	“How do you?”
	“Well, I kind of want to suck that cock of yours,” Jimmy said. “How ‘bout we sixty-nine? If you want, you can keep me bleeding this time since I’m not gonna be looking or licking back there.”
	“Sure,” Ely sighed.
	Ely reached to his muzzle for the shard of glass, only to realize he’d dropped it onto his neck while gasping during sex. He pulled it from his fur and grabbed Jimmy’s ass in his other paw. Ely suddenly gasped again and thrust his hips up at another brand new experience. His teacher, Ms. Cameron, had sucked him off plenty of times, and even swallowed! But he never imagined he would be deep throated. Jimmy gulped as he bobbed his head, massaging Ely’s cock with his throat muscles and taking in that wolverine scent where it was strongest.
	Ely sliced another clean vertical wound across Jimmy’s clit, making the rat squeal and squirm again. But Ely didn’t stop there. He spread Jimmy’s lips open with one paw and pushed the shard of glass inside. Ely sliced another clean wound lengthwise through the inside of Ely’s pussy, cutting open the bulbous base of his clit beneath the tissue deep inside him, his g-spot. Jimmy squealed and squirmed again at that. Ely dropped the glass shard to the floor.
	Blood streamed from Jimmy’s pussy and clit onto Ely’s muzzle. The sight of it, the smell of sugar, salt, and iron made Ely drool again. His cock dripped precum, which Jimmy gulped down into his stomach. The blood clouded Ely’s mind and set his own veins on fire.
	Without a thought, Ely dove into Jimmy’s pussy, licking and tonguing, teething and sucking, desperate to free up and slurp down as much of that delicious, erotic blood as he could. The taste coated his mouth like wax. The smell saturated his nose. And his consciousness slipped further away.
	Ely didn’t notice Jimmy whimpering and grinding his crotch in circles into his face. He certainly didn’t notice his own prehensile toes clinging to the legs of the lounge-seat and scratching the porcelain. So lost in his blood thirst, he didn’t even notice the liquid pleasure climbing his urethra again, and his body tensing from it.
	Jimmy sighed and whined with a smile as Ely cummed again, this time shooting an almost constant stream of cum down the rat’s throat. Jimmy gripped Ely’s legs harder and gulped quicker, determined to fill his belly with wolverine spunk.
	The orgasm snapped Ely back to his senses. He rumbled at the feeling, buzzing Jimmy’s pussy again. Ely kept up the intensity of his bloodsucking despite this. He would not give that up for anything. The blood now stained his snout and throat despite the shower. Unlike Jimmy, Ely loved it.
	As he kept sucking blood, Ely began counting again: ten seconds, twenty, forty, sixty, sixty seven! He had cummed down the rat’s throat for over a minute before his cock began to settle! It was astronomically greater than Ely had ever imagined an orgasm could be! Ely’s whole body felt like liquid, but he couldn’t stop eating out Jimmy despite the fatigue.
	Jimmy pulled Ely’s cock from his mouth, spilling a glassful of cum from his throat as he did so, but he moaned in contentedness as a far bigger glassful settled in his stomach.
	Jimmy grinned ear-to-ear again and whimpered as Ely devoured his pussy like his namesake to a carcass. After a few more minutes, Jimmy ground his hips faster into Ely’s face.
	“Yeah, that’s it,” Jimmy growled. “Now dig that tongue into my g-spot and chew on my clit!”
	Growling in turn, Ely obeyed. Jimmy rocked his body in rhythm to his own panting. After a few more minutes, he felt as if he had to piss, but knew he would do anything but. Jimmy arched his back and threw his head down, clenching his jaw shut and whining through his nose. His tail tried to wrap around Ely’s chest, but couldn’t handle its girth. His clit tingled and burned, and his g-spot ached. Both throbbed in pleasure.
	Jimmy could barely talk through his moans. “Just remember... Ely... when I hose you... down with my... girly cum... that… I’m a boy!”
	Ely shuddered again at those words just as Jimmy cried out and sprayed sweet, sticky, clear nectar into his mouth. Ely tried to swallow as much as he could, but Jimmy’s pussy kept squirting, and spilled all over his face, neck, and chest. As Jimmy’s body quaked and he cried, Ely counted seconds: ten, thirty, sixty, ninety! The rat had squirted his girly cum into Ely’s jaws for a minute and a half before finally easing down to a trickle, and then a drip. The male rat’s female cum may have drenched his whole body if not for the shower!
	Ely opened his eyes to see Jimmy’s pussy heal itself. After some minutes, the shower washed them both clean of blood. It was okay. This had been a greater pleasure, and thrill, than Ely could have ever previously imagined.
	Jimmy sat up on his knees and stretched backward, his arms out, before falling onto his back onto Ely’s chest and burying his snout in Ely’s neck again.
	“That was great,” Jimmy sighed, absentmindedly. “You were great. But you’re still shit compared to Kaphirez though.”
	“What?!” Ely shouted.
	Jimmy gasped and tensed, then relaxed and grit teeth and clenched his paws in anger and shame. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry. I really am sorry, okay? That was an example of me talking before thinking.”
	“How much does it hurt when you say that?” Ely asked.
	“Nowhere near as much as when I first found out I did it,” Jimmy said. “But almost as much as those bunny bitches hurt me.”
	“Do you think they’re still in level three?”
	Jimmy snorted. “If they got out, Kaphirez would’ve told me. They probably still don’t have a clue why I went ballistic on their asses.” Jimmy calmed and whispered. “You know, no one’s ever reacted when I do that by showing sympathy. Feels weird.”
	“How so?” Ely asked.
	“I don’t know, but it kind of makes me want to...” Jimmy paused and looked up into Ely’s eyes. “Do you think we could cuddle here for a while?”
	“Okay,” Ely answered.
	“Thanks.”
	Jimmy laid his head back against Ely’s neck, comforted by the wolverine’s hyper-masculine scent. He wrapped his arms and legs around Ely’s torso and wriggled to scrunch himself further against his new friend. Ely held a paw against Jimmy’s head and another on his back, stroking the rat with both.
	Jimmy smiled and gave tiny squeaks at the sensation, not only of Ely’s affection, but the hot mist soaking his fur and lapping over his tail, and of Ely squeezing sheets of water out of his fur on every stroke, only for it to soak again.
	Ely brought his paw from Jimmy’s head to his neck and stroked up and down it. Then he furrowed his brow and paused. He pressed his finger pads against Jimmy’s neck and felt his pulse.
	“How long have you had your second heart?” Ely asked.
	Jimmy gasped and threw himself up, looking wide eyed and jaw agape into Ely’s eyes. Ely looked back in confusion. Not understanding body language, he wondered, again, if he had hurt the rat, even though he knew that was impossible. Jimmy’s jaw quivered and his paw shook like a leaf as he brought it to his neck to feel his pulse. His eyes suddenly poured tears, and he threw himself against Ely, shoving his muzzle against the wolverine’s.
	Ely hollered into Ely’s throat and pushed him off. “You fucker!” he screamed. “Don’t ever do anything like that without my permission or I’ll rip your fucking larynx out!”
	Jimmy yelped and fell backwards against Ely’s legs. Both pushed themselves up and looked at each other, Jimmy sobbing. “I’m sorry! It’s just... I just... It was right now!”
	“Right now what?” Ely asked, shaking his head.
	“My second heart,” Jimmy sobbed. “I never got... I must’ve got it... right now. Ely, please, can I... may I ask your permission?”
	Ely paused, blinked, and then slowly nodded. Still sobbing and shaking, Jimmy gripped Ely’s ruff and lowered his muzzle onto the wolverine’s. He slowly pried Ely’s lips and teeth open with his tongue and slipped it inside. Holding Jimmy’s face, Ely returned the kiss as best as Ms. Cameron taught him, slowly transitioning from rubbing lips, to rubbing tongues, and finally corkscrewing tongues while drooling into each other’s mouths.
	Jimmy calmed and broke the kiss. His sobbing subsided, and he hugged Ely again, this time with one paw free to feel the pulse on his neck. Ely continued stroking Jimmy’s neck and back.
	“Ely,” Jimmy whispered. “I love you.”
	Perhaps it was odd that Ely’s spent such a brief time pondering the words I love you. But Ely was an odd fur. He furrowed his brow at the declaration. He remembered something about almost everyone in hell being polyamorous from his conversation with Bartleby and his friends. Jimmy would certainly fall in love with many furs at once. No one would have any problem with that. He shouldn’t either. But something pained him. He felt the love Jimmy had for him, and it felt good. But as fond as he was of the rat, he knew he didn’t truly love Jimmy back. The longing and the desire to give joy was absent. He knew so, for he felt these things for both his cat Sipha and Ms. Cameron in life. Now he didn’t feel it for Jimmy, and had lost it for them. He eagerly gave joy to the rat, but only out of conscience, not desire. Ely reached a paw to his own neck and felt no pulse. He felt hollow. And he would keep feeling hollow until he found Sipha. That was what Razielphustar assured him.
Ely then realized, despite his previous assumption, that Jimmy could not have fallen love with Kaphirez, though he certainly would now. The realization that he had assumed pained him, but not as much as not being able to sincerely say I love you, back to Jimmy. Ely remained silent and stroked Jimmy as the rat cried into his neck.

	The image reflected in the three by two meter mirror suddenly changed from that of the dusty meat market to CastleVania’s largest shower. Ely walked calmly through it, paw-in-paw with Jimmy. So fixated on the room, none of the others noticed the change in the mirror. It shattered, and its pieces evaporated upon hitting the ground.
	Ely once again wore his caramel button up shirt, blue jeans, and tailored black chucks sans logo, and Jimmy once again wore his knee length silver shirt and silver pajama bottoms.
	They stood in a dining room ten by forty meters long. Gothically carved black granite arches held up the ceiling painted as a cloudy sky. A fractal mosaic of cut marble in all colors tiled the floor. Columns of opal with gold-leaf along their florally carved tops and bases hugged the long sides of the room. The table was carved from a single piece of snakewood into floral and gothic patterns, like Ely’s bedframe. The entire far wall was an arch-topped casement window leading to a porcelain balcony overlooking the castle and wilderness.
	Most of the table’s eighteen seats were empty. Bartleby, Xander, Lexi, Crystal, Gillian, the Mink girl whose name Ely remembered to be Myra, and Jimmy’s HellGuardian Kaphirez, all sat. They looked around every which way with wide, glazed eyes, marveling at the incredible size and detail of the room they were in.
	They heard the mirror shatter and all looked toward Ely. The room was still and silent for a time until the table burst into applause. When they had calmed, Ely raised a brow at them and cocked his head in curiosity.
	“What was that for?” Ely asked.
	“For making such an amazing room.”
	A figure leaning against a column by the back window drew Ely’s attention. Ely snarled and his hackles rose as a heat rose in his chest and anger swelled within him. ‘No!’ he thought. ‘Control it! Don’t lose your temper in front of others!’ Ely looked down and bit his tongue until it drew blood, savoring it to calm himself. He healed his tongue by rubbing it against his teeth, and looked back up.
	“I, of course, have seen it, and many others like it” Razielphustar said. “But to the uninitiated, rooms built from hyperbolic imaginations are places to dazzle the mind.”
	“I have questions for you,” Ely said, still with a hint of anger.
	“Of course you do,” Razielphustar replied. “So let’s sit and eat, and you can ask me anything.”
	Ely took his seat, a five meter tall throne of snakewood and gold-leaf with green leather at the head of the table opposite the window. Jimmy and Razielphustar took the last remaining seats.
	“Before that,” Bartleby said, waving a paw at Myra the mink. “Sorry about all the empty seats, but Myra here was the only one of my opponents who accepted my invitation.”
	“By the way,” Gillian said. “You were naked at the Dusty Meat Market. Why are you wearing clothes now?”
	Ely shrugged and nodded “Given how long I was away, I don’t think that question is valid.”
	“What are you talking about?” Gillian asked. “You walked in here right after we did.”
	Ely cocked his head to the other side. “But I spent hours in the shower.”
	Razielphustar chuckled under his breath. “That was the Giving Force, most likely. It must have sensed you were apart from us and sped up time in your location so we could all begin our festivities together.”
	“That answers that question,” Ely said. “But I have others for you.”
	Razielphustar nodded and smiled. “Ask whatever you wish.”
	“I suppose my question about the title of HellGuardian has already been answered,” Ely said. “So I’ll ask you, why wasn’t I forced to alter CastleVania by a committee?”
	“CastleVania, as you call you’re room, is a pseudo-soul,” Razielphustar said, catching Kaphirez’s attention. “I violated its sentient rights once by forcing it to stop growing, and only because I was afraid it would never stop. Forcing it to change again would be inhumane.”
	“Pseudo-soul?” Ely asked.
	“A pseudo-soul is an otherwise inanimate object given consciousness by being given a sliver of the soul of another,” Razielphustar answered. “But given that it has only such a small fragment of a soul, it’s dependent on the presence of the donor of said fragment to remain conscious. Without that presence, your presence in this case, it would slip into hibernation until your return.”
	“Like my plushie!” Bartleby shouted.
	“Yes,” Razielphustar chuckled. “Like your plushie. The ability to create a pseudo-soul is a rare gift.”
	“That’s why we ended up in the shower!” Jimmy shouted. “I was always told that the Giving Force can’t act against your will, or at least not in Nice and Naughty. CastleVania did that!”
	“Most likely,” Razielphustar said “Any more questions Ely?”
	“Yes. Bartleby told me a lot of things you left out in your little introduction to my death. Why didn’t you tell them to me yourself?”
	Razielphustar bit his lip and lowered his head. “For the same reason I forgot my nametag when we first met. I may not have seemed it, but I was in such a tizzy of excitement to concierge my first guru that I... forgot many standard protocols. Anything more?”
	“I had a question about hearts, but Jimmy answered it for me,” Ely said. “I have nothing more.”
	“Then, shall we eat?”
	“Fuck yeah!” Jimmy shouted.
	“Bring on the food!” Lexi yelled.
	Bring on the food? According to Razielphustar’s words, CastleVania had a will of its own. That would explain why it grew a room devoted Sipha when he didn’t want one. Ely was more than a competent cook. If CastleVania contained a sliver of his soul, perhaps it too could create delectable dishes. He closed his eyes and whispered under his breath, “CastleVania, my castle, if you can hear me, I would greatly appreciate a feast suitable for this occasion.”
	Everyone, including Ely and Razielphustar, yelped and recoiled as the ten meter high double arched doors opposite the window burst open and crashed into the wall. Dozens of suits of gothic full-plate armor, empty and three meters tall, engraved in dollaresque patterns and painted in blue, red, and green, stood in rows, holding planks. They marched into the room, metal clanking and boots pounding against the floor. They stood above the diners and set the planks on the table.
	Upon the planks were florally carved silver and gold platters and bowls and giant chalices filled with spicy and greasy grilled fruits and nuts wrapped in or topped with sizzling meats, breads and crackers and cookies of all kinds, with an even greater variety of spreads, all varieties of hot things stuffed with sweet things, fizzy drinks of every color, cauldrons of bubbling soups in all colors and with all imaginable ingredients, sliced sausages of all possible varieties, mushrooms cooked and raw in a hundred shapes and colors, and blocks and wheels and dishes of cheese of every texture and color. The smell was overwhelming, especially to Ely, who felt almost as if in orgasm from the aroma.
	“Just like the Axe-Armors from the games!” Jimmy shouted. “Kick ass!”
	An armor handed a snakewood knobbed scroll to Ely. The armors then marched out of the dining room, just as noisily, and shut the doors behind them.
	Ely unrolled the scroll, and read its gold writing. “This is the first of three courses, the appetizers. It says we should just eat with our paws and not worry about any mess.”
	“Dig in!” Xander shouted.
	With that, everyone at the table clamored and clawed and grasped and fought off other paws to shovel foods in front of them, and into their gullets. Muzzles dunked themselves into fizzy drinks to suck them right out of the bowls. Cupped paws scooped up soup, boiling hot but neither harmful nor painful in the Naughty level, to pour down their throats. Paws grabbed huge breads and cheeses to stuff into faces and devour as fast as possible. And everywhere a ruckus of paws, muzzles, dishes, and flying food fell onto Ely’s eyes, the only one not participating.
	Ely stared, wide eyed and jaw agape, at the chaos of eating, for several minutes before he finally gave in and dove into the food himself with the same reckless abandon.
	For the second time in Hell, Ely partially blacked out, and could only vaguely remember what happened later. All he could recall, aside from the divine feast and feasting, were snippets of conversation. “And I thought the servings at the Dusty Meat Market were big. I’m gonna get a hundred times more stuffed here than there!” “You may not believe it, but I actually felt ashamed off beating you when I was in D class for only three months and you were there for I don’t know how many years. If you ever want something from me, don’t hesitate to ask.” “You know what, Kaphirez? I think I’m gonna give up that little strip-club of mine and see if I can move into CastleVania here with Ely. The place isn’t that much fun anyway since you’re the only stripper I can ever get to dance there.”
	After hours of scarfing, the planks emptied, the dishes toppled, and the only things more covered in food than the table and floor were the diners. Then suddenly, the floor fell out from beneath the table, sending it, and everything upon it, plummeting into a gray-brick dungeon below with thunderous crashes. None could stop laughing for almost five minutes after that.
	Then the trap door closed and the doors burst open again. The armors marched in with another table and set it down atop the trap door, and took their leave again. The entre course presented roasted turkeys, whole pigs, whole roasted lambs, whole sides of beef, and other roast beasts that Ely could not identify. All were smothered in, stuffed with, or otherwise inundated with spices, sauces, fruits, and flavorings. Dozens of oaken barrels full of sides were spread between them. Again, a chaos of grabbing, eating, and chatting commenced for hours until the table cleared. Again, the trap door dropped the table into the dungeon, and again everyone laughed.
	The armors brought the desert course, cakes the size of bathtubs, pies as big around as hula hoops, barrels filled with ice cream, fizzy drinks, and cookies and fudges and confections. The chaos commenced again, until Jimmy threw a handful of ice-cream in Bartleby’s face. Before Ely knew what happened, Gillian screamed “foot fight!” and all the others clamored not through the table, but on it, throwing deserts at each other or shoving each other into deserts. Even Ely could not help but laugh until he cried.

	Ely stood at the porcelain balcony outside the dining room, propped up by his arms on the railing. He looked out over CastleVania and the wilderness beyond, and at the giant orange moon. Jimmy stood beside him with both his arms wrapped around one of Ely’s, and his head against the arm. They listened to the calls of the loons and owls and wolves and bats and crickets, the perfect menagerie for the Halloween themed castle inspired by the Halloween themed game. Food still caked them both, but neither wanted to clean themselves off anytime soon, their filth reminding them of the great time they had.
	Most others had left by then. But three, besides Ely and Jimmy, remained. They walked onto the balcony. Their footsteps startled Ely, who spun around to meet them with claws extended and teeth bared. Seeing who they were, Ely calmed, and then noticed that he had thrown Jimmy to the floor and dragged him in a circle. Ely gasped and tensed as his fur briefly stood on end.
	“Oh shit!” Ely shouted. “I’m so sorry Jimmy!”
	Jimmy slapped himself repeatedly on the temple to regain his composure. “We all got our bad habits.”
	Jimmy Stood, and he and Ely looked at Razielphustar and Kaphirez standing before them. Bartleby stood behind them, biting his lower lip, looking down, and twiddling his thumbclaws. Only after seeing that did Ely notice the direly serious expressions on the faces of the HellGuardians.
	“What is it?” Ely asked.
	“I did not know, when I pushed you through your first portal, that you would land in the company of Bartleby Fletch. I left its destination to the Giving Force, but what it did shocked me.”
	“Why?” Ely asked.
	“Do you remember the extraordinary cub I spoke of when we first met?” Razielphustar asked. “The one I concierged, who regrew his heart in only one day?”
	Ely nodded.
	“That was Bartleby,” Razielphustar said.
	Ely looked at Bartleby with narrowed eyes and a furrowed brow, alarmed, though not entirely surprised, by the occurrence. He knew, after all, that because of the Giving Force, any strange event may or may not be coincidence, and Razielphustar has just plainly said that meeting Bartleby was not.
	“There’s more though,” Kaphirez added. “The fact that Bartleby became acquainted with Jimmy through the Battlefield game, and you with him through Bartleby, is far more complex an action than even the Giving Force almost ever undertakes.”
	“Why’s that so strange?” Jimmy asked.
	“Because aside from you and many others, I’m also the HellGuardian of Bartleby’s father,” Kaphirez answered.
	“What?” Ely and Jimmy shouted at once.
	“Do not ponder the meaning of this, because neither of us can understand it,” Razielphustar said. “Just listen to Bartleby.”
	The two HellGuardians stood aside and let Bartleby approach. He fidgeted and jittered the entire way, gulping and whispering, still twiddling his thumbclaws. He couldn’t look Ely or Jimmy in the eyes, or speak a word apart from uh and um. He tried hard to forget this matter, but it kept rearing its face. By now, Bartleby wondered if he would ever be rid of it, of him. But there was no end in sight, and as the duct-tape gray bat’s breath fluttered, and he stammered to get out any sound, he knew, somehow, that Ely was meant to help him through this particular painful time.
	Bartleby continued stammering uhs and ums. Ely cocked his head and blinked in curiosity.
	“Who’s your father?” Jimmy asked.
	Bartleby gave a wince and a pained whimper, but Jimmy’s question finally broke him out of his stupor.
	“He was... very abusive, verbally and physically,” Bartleby whispered. “I’ve seen him do some pretty ace-like things with our house’s wiring, electrician’s work, but he never tried to get a job. He was convinced he was never good at anything. So he spent all mom’s money on whiskey, and beat her, and me, and my brother, because he was jealous, because he thought we all had talent and he didn’t. One time he got so bad I thought he would kill me, so I stabbed him in the hip and ran away. When he found me, he really did kill me, by running me over with his car.”
	Jimmy snorted, frowned, and turned his head. “Now if that’s not the most stereotypical family ever.”
	Bartleby raised his head, eyes wide and watering in shock, a fanged snarl spreading across his shaking face. “H-h-how c-c-could you?” was all he stuttered.
	Jimmy once again winced and clenched his paws, nearly tearing up himself. He opened his mouth but yelped through his nostrils when Ely’s paw clamped it shut.
	“Please don’t take offense to his comments,” Ely said. “He is extremely impulsive while speaking and often doesn’t realize what he has said until it’s too late. He initially arrived at level three because of this.”
	Ely released Jimmy’s muzzle. “I think you just explained it better than I ever could.”
	“Please continue,” Ely said.
	“Well, he was killed in jail and sent to level six.”
	“Complete Assholes huh?” Jimmy said. “There’s a party inside his asshole I can guarantee you that.”
	Ely and Bartleby both shot his grimaces briefly. Seeing them, Jimmy growled and repeatedly smacked his forehead with his palm. Ely and Bartleby turned back to each other.
	“He’s asking to see me,” Bartleby said.
	“Why should he get that privilege?” Ely asked.
	“Because he just graduated to level five,” Bartleby answered. “I want you there with me Ely.”
	Jimmy looked back and forth between Ely and Bartleby several times. “I don’t think you need protection from—“
	“It’s not for protection!” Bartleby shouted. “Another thing my dad never believed he was good at was arguing. But I’ve never seen anyone win an argument with him... ever.”
	“It’s true,” Kaphirez added. “On occasion, he’s even got the best of me when we come to purely verbal blows. And that’s really saying something considering how many thousands of millennia I’ve been bickering with my tenants.”
	“That’s why I want you there with me—just you, me, Razielphustar, and Kaphirez, and no one else.” Bartleby said. “It’s just that, the way you talked when we first met, I don’t think dad’s ever met anyone who would argue in quite the same way you would. And when I found out all the crazy ways the Giving Force connected all of us, well, I knew I needed you with me.”
	“I should wash and put on fresh clothes,” Ely said “I’ll be ready to assist you as soon as I’m done.”