Seeds of Fear

BLACK AND WHITE AND BED ALL OVER James Crawford

They were wild and crazy times. Hollywood was still new and stars were being born every day. You couldn't turn around without bumping into someone who had just made a film. Studios formed and disappeared. Cameras cranked nonstop and movie productions were multiplying like rabbits.

There were actors and then there were the Stars. The brightest of the stars weren't just found, they were made for the camera. An actor might be typecast, but these new players could do anything. No stunt too dangerous, no pratfall too outrageous — they were like the early gods of film.

There was jealousy, of course, but most of us were in awe of them. Many a live actor would have sold his soul to be able to do the things the Animates could. Director didn't like your looks, you changed them. Got flattened in a bad fall, reinflate yourself and do something else. They were amazing.

They made us laugh and that was a good thing, because some of them were not so comical in private. Some of them could be downright nasty. I'd heard stories about pranks Animates had pulled on Reals, stunts that put the less resilient Reals in the hospital. They were wild, and there wasn't anything anyone could do about them. I mean, how do you lock up someone who can turn into a pool of ink and pour himself down a drain?

There was also talk about what happened to Reals who had sex with the Animates. No one had any specifics, but the word was, it wasn't anything you'd ever forget. A friend of mine had heard there was a special wing at the laughing academy reserved for those Reals crazy enough to do it with an Animate. He said they were all checked into the rubber room wearing the latest in straitjacket fashions. I told him he was full of it, but I was curious.

My name is Josh Merriweather and I come from a small town in the East and made my way west by working odd jobs till I got to California. Once there I found HOLLYWOODLAND and my fate was sealed. It was magic and I wanted to be part of it.

There were jobs all over the place. No one knew what they were doing, so everyone was making it up as they went. I worked behind the scenes on a couple of pictures and even did some work as an extra.

I had heard some of the others talk about the Animates, but hadn't actually seen one. Sure I'd seen them on the screen, but I'd never met one on the street.

Then my life changed, maybe not for the better, but it changed.

The word was out that one of the newer studios was looking for help. No big deal; until I heard it was a studio that only produced Animated films. That's all I had to hear. I think I knocked a couple of guys over as I ran out the door and made a beeline for the Fletcher Studio. It wasn't far, so I ran all the way. When I got there, I was so out of breath that I couldn't even tell them why I had come.

Finally I caught my wind and told them I wanted a job. They sent me to talk to the head man. Mack didn't much look like a tycoon, but he had given a start to some of the biggest Animates in the business. I admit I was a little in awe of him when we first met.

"Well, kid, what do ya want?" Mack looked up from a viewer as I came into the room.

I knew what I wanted to say, but my tongue had gone on strike.

"You want a job?"

I took a deep breath. "Yes!"

"A man who knows what he wants. Good. Okay, you're hired. What's your name?"

"Josh, and I just want to say —»

"Enough talk; you think I've got time to interview every little schmuck that comes along? You can thank me later. Now I want you to run these pages over to that big building over there. Can you do that?" I nodded my head so hard, I could hear my brains rattling around. "Then go already."

Off I went, and that was the beginning of my time with the Fletcher Studio. Wild times and a couple of scary times. I got to work with the Animates, and for the most part they were a swell bunch of guys. Maybe «guys» is too loose a term; they were a swell bunch of clowns, dogs, creatures, and things. It was amazing.

My job description varied from day to day. One day I was a gofer, the next the light man. I never knew where Mack would send me next, but for him I would do anything. Which is what got me into the biggest trouble of my life, because one day Mack asked me to do something that again changed my life.

It started out like any other day. I was running errands and stopping to watch the filming whenever possible. Mack had three Animates he was grooming for stardom. Two had really good careers in radio and comics, and one had something that Hollywoodland had patented. sex appeal. I had seen the studio's other stars, the mumbling merchant marine and the big blue Boy Scout, but I had yet to catch a glimpse of her.

It was about time to do a deli run when Mack saw me and called me over. "Hey, Josh, I got a job for ya."

"Yes, sir, anything you want." Mack liked enthusiasm.

"Great, I want you to get your ass over to Stage Five. Tell the director you're to talk to Tiffany about the matter she and I discussed."

"Tiffany?" My blood started pounding. I was finally going to meet her.

"Yeah, Tiffany. Josh, you do this for me and I'll make sure you go far in this business." Mack clapped me on the shoulder and pushed me toward my destiny.

Tiffany had it. She had already done a couple of films for Fletcher Studio, and the audience loved her. There was a bit of innocence mixed with a whole lot of lust. You saw her up there in a short little skirt and garters and you had thoughts that could get you thrown in jail in most states. I'd seen her on the screen, and now I was going to see the real thing. Hooray for Hollywoodland.

I found the director, Mack's brother Morrie, and delivered the message.

"Thank God!" Morrie seemed genuinely happy to see me. "That little tootsie has been driving me nuts. I want you to go to her dressing room and help her."

"Me?" My throat closed up and my knees developed a rhythm all of their own.

"Listen, kid, Tiffany likes them young and handsome. You play your cards right and this could be the day you become a man." Then he looked around to see if anyone else was listening and said under his breath, "Just watch out for yourself, and if things get too weird, don't be afraid to run for it."

"You mean, she might.?" I began to wonder if this really was a good idea.

"I mean the little honey has a libido the size of Texas. She's tired of the Animates she usually hangs around with and wants a Real to play with. Sometimes it can get a little hairy. You got a problem with that?"

"A problem?" Sex toy to an Animate? What if the stories I had heard were true? Would I ever have another chance to find out? Curiosity got the better of me and I shook my head no.

Morrie took my shoulder and guided me on my journey. "You're a great conversationalist, kid. That'll come in handy. Now, get in there and make her happy."

Tiffany had her own private dressing room, with a big star on the door. I found a shiny surface to give myself a quick brushup and then I went to tap on the door.

"What do you want, punk?" a voice snarled as I raised my hand. I looked around, but didn't see anyone. "Right in front of you, you stupid Real."

I dropped my hand and stared into the rather belligerent expression of the star on Tiffany's door.

"Are you going to tell me what ya want? Or are you just going to stand there with your dick hanging out?" My mouth opened and I looked down quickly to check my fly, but before I could answer, the star said, "Trying to cop a peek at the Star? Hoping maybe you'll see her in the altogether?"

"No!" I blurted out. "I was sent by the director to see if… if… I could… I mean… if she needed…"

"I know what you think she needs!" snarled the star. "What she doesn't need is some Real hoping to get lucky."

Its little mouth twisted up to spit, but suddenly the door swung open. "What is all the noise out here?"

She was amazing. About five feet tall and with so many curves, I didn't know how they all fit. Everything about her was black and white. Her dress, what little there was of it, was jet black. Her eyes and lips just as black as the dress. The most amazing thing was her skin — there was no shading, no hint of color; it was the whitest thing I had ever seen. Put them all together and they spelled Tiffany.

Tiffany looked at me and then her attention swiveled to the door. "You! I told you it was over between us."

"But, Tiffany…" The voice had dropped down to a whine.

"Leave my butt out of this. I'm sick and tired of your jealousy. Now, get the fuck off my door before I call security."

If the star had a tail, it would have been between its legs. It slid down the door to the floor. Two points acted as legs and two others gestured like arms. "Honey, listen to me. I can change. I promise you."

"It's time for a change and you're not it." With one shapely little foot, in an ebony stiletto, she kicked him down the hall. "And I'm warning you, turn up on my door again and I'll nail your little glittering butt there for good."

The star gave me one more sullen look and then slunk off down the hall. Tiffany watched him for a second and then turned her attention to me. "And just who might you be, tall, dark, and fleshy?"

I was about to do a repeat of my earlier stammer, but Tiffany put her slim finger to my lips. The finger was cool and soft. My eyes crossed as I tried to get a good look at it. Tiffany smiled with her sweet, kissable, Cupids'-bow sable lips and took ahold of my lapels. Then she pulled me into her dressing room.

The room was like Tiffany. It was all in black and white and there wasn't a straight line anywhere. Every wall, piece of furniture, and accessory seemed to flow gently into whatever was next to it. That and the fact there didn't seem to be any shadows made the whole thing fairly disorienting.

"What'sa matter, honey, the room too much for your Real mind?" She reached up and patted me on the cheek. "Let Tiffany fix."

Abruptly everything seemed to run together. One moment I was looking at curves, and the next, the room looked like any other. I staggered to a chair, hoping it wouldn't talk to me, and grabbed hold of it.

"First time?" Tiffany purred as she moved over to me and rested her hand on my chest.

"Yeah, what happened to the room?" Reality didn't seem to be playing by the usual rules, and I was trying to figure out the new ones before the next game.

"Ooh, a virgin!" Tiffany pushed me down onto a couch that might not have been there a moment before. "Let me try to explain, sweet pants."

Tiffany straddled my lap. My first thought was that she didn't weigh as much as I had expected. My next thought went into a whole new area as she moved around to make herself comfortable. I opened my mouth to ask a question that had become very important.

"Excuse me, Miss…"

"Call me Tiffany. And I'll call you sugar pants."

"Excuse me, Tiffany, but I wondered if you had… I mean. can you… do you have.?" How to ask this question tactfully?

"Oh, aren't you just the cutest little Real. You want to know if I have a pussy?"

"Well, it's just that when I've seen Animates in the movies, they don't seem to have any privates. I mean most of them don't even wear pants or anything."

"Baby, does it feel like there's nothing down there?"

I had to admit that right then there was absolutely no question in my mind at all that she was all woman. In fact, I got the strangest sensation that she could unzip my trousers without using her hands. She ground down on me with her hips, and I thought it was going to be all over before it even started.

"There, I like that. Now, what was I saying?" I might have been able to help her out with the question, but she did a little move and my train of thought got completely derailed. "Oh yes, I remember now. What happened to the room and do Animates have goodies?

"I'm an Animate and that means I can pretty much do what I want."

"Well, yeah, you're a star." I had to say something or this session was going to be over real quick.

"Yes I am. That's good. Move a little more like that. But that's not what I mean. I mean I can control the way things look around me, and when the need arises, I can have enough goodies for everyone."

The mind can only handle so much information at once, and my brain was slightly south of my belt buckle. Tiffany saw I wasn't paying attention to what she was saying, so she did something to refocus my thoughts.

She leaned forward and her chest began to inflate. She had a nice little set on her before, but now! They kept growing until I was engulfed in the biggest tits I have ever seen. Soft, white, and so light, you almost expected them to float her off the couch like a couple of helium balloons.

"Begin to understand, lover? I can change how I look, what I'm wearing, and the room around me, just by thinking." The tits resumed their normal dimensions.

What followed was amazing. I know I've said that a lot, but there isn't any other way to describe it. Tiffany went through a barrage of changes. She was taller, slimmer, blonder, more curves, less curves, better curves. The outfit changed from a minidress to a formal gown, to a period piece out of some swashbuckler, to a swimsuit, and for a couple of glorious seconds… it was gone altogether.

All the time she was doing this, she was rocking up and down on my lap till I began to change shape too — I was getting harder and stiffen She grinned at me, and the couch was suddenly a very big bed.

"Now, honey, why are you here?"

"Morrie sent me over to see if there was anything you needed." I was very proud that I could still put two words together.

"Morrie is such a nice man." Tiffany reached down and the buttons of my shirt got all of her attention.

I needed something to think about and I didn't like baseball. "What's the story with the little guy on the door?"

She stopped undoing buttons (by that time she had worked down to the pants) and looked at me with big black eyes. "Jealous already?"

"No, I was just wondering if you two.?"

"You don't know much about us Animates, do you?"

"I've been around." I hadn't, but I wasn't going to admit it.

"Then you should know that there is nothing like sex between two of us. We can be anything and do anything, and we never get tired."

"But he was such a little guy."

"Didn't anyone ever tell you size doesn't matter?"

"Once, but I think he just felt inadequate in the shower."

"Well, to an Animate it doesn't matter at all. Twink can do more with his five little points than you can with your one." With that she reached between her legs and gave my «one» a friendly little squeeze. "Now, let's see what you can do."

The bed gave a small shudder and I noticed, barely, that it was changing again. It now was a bit more severe and I saw what looked to be handcuffs hanging off one post. Tiffany smiled down at me and once more her chest expanded. This time the dress didn't and her breasts exploded out of confinement, so very white, though the nipples were black and tasted a little like ink. I bit down and she moaned. "Come on, lover, you can play rougher than that." I reached up and grabbed her other tit and squeezed hard.

She retaliated by grinding down with her hips. I shifted my grip and caught hold of her hips. Still wearing some of my clothes, I thrust up at her. Tiffany yelled and her dress shifted to a bra with nipple cutouts and garter belt and stockings. I could feel the heat between her legs. All I wanted now was to get out of my shorts and slip into something more comfortable — her.

I reached down to tug off the last article of clothing that kept me from entering paradise. Tiffany caught my hands, and with surprising strength forced them back to the bed. The cute little face shifted and the new one was a bit slimmer and definitely sexier.

"Not so fast." She bounced up and down a couple of times and a groan escaped my lips. "You're not an Animate. Once you explode, you're no good to little Tiffany."

I tried to grab her shoulders and roll her under me, but she wasn't having any of it. Her strength was all out of proportion to her size, and I was easily outclassed.

"Oh, you want to try another position?" Her features flowed around her face and suddenly I was looking at a face that looked very doglike. She had a little snout and her hairstyle was now dog ears, but you could still see Tiffany's features. My mouth dropped open and she bent down and licked my nose with a tongue like sandpaper.

"How about. doggy style?" Tiffany threw her head back and did a sort of barking laugh. The features shifted into a caricature of an African native. "Or maybe. missionary?"

The changes were playing havoc with my lust, and part of me began to wilt. It was not a pleasant look that crossed the face above me. "You better not be going soft on me, or I'll try something you might not like."

My imagination stalled at the threat, but it didn't help the little pointer. Tiffany saw the problem and the next change was much more human; in fact, it was the best look yet. Her raven black hair grew longer till it covered her face and tits. Once more I had lead in the pencil and she was a happy Animate.

"Look who's back." She slid down my legs, and the shorts went south for the winter. I, or at least part of me, sprang to attention. She peered through all the black hair and began little nibbling kisses at my toes and moved upward toward my exclamation mark.

I was thrashing like mad and trying to get ahold of her. I didn't want to wait another second. All I wanted was to be inside her and ride off into the sunset. Trouble was, I just couldn't get ahold of anything. She'd shake me off, or what I grabbed flowed between my fingers and left me empty-handed.

"Please," I said in a very strained voice, "Tiffany, hurry up or I'm going to die."

"Relax, you can't die from blue balls." She stopped torturing me for a minute and looked at me quizzically. "Do you think we Animates will ever come in colors like you Reals?"

I screamed and grabbed her. This time she stayed solid and I thrust her down on the mattress. Her legs flew open and my arrow went right into the bull's-eye. I don't know if she was fooling with reality or if it was just me, but rockets went off, there were fireworks, and for some reason, I could picture a train hurtling into a dark tunnel. It was earthshaking and over in an eternity; at least it felt like that to me.

The earth spun for a while, and when it stopped I was lying on my back gasping for air. Tiffany ran a hand over my chest and I shivered happily. I reached over to her and noticed that while I was covered in sweat, she was still dry as a bone. Inky black eyes gazed down at me and I drifted toward sleep. She shook me.

"Don't doze off on me, boobsie. That was great, but not nearly enough." She slid her hand between my legs and fondled the victim of hit-and-run sex.

"You're too much, Tiffany. Let me rest a little bit and I'll spring back for you." I started to flop down on the bed, but I hit my head on a hard surface. I turned around and saw the mattress was gone, and we were now on a wooden table.

"I said, I'm still horny. I'm horny now, and I don't feel like waiting for some limp-dicked Real to recover." Her edges looked harder and her face was becoming more severe.

"I want to, but I can't work miracles." I started to slide off the table, but she pinned me down. The handcuffs were back and ready to be used. Down at the end of the table was another pair. I figured this had to be the weirdness that Mack had warned me about. But I was wrong — this was a walk in the park compared to what was about to happen.

"Please, I have to go now." I tried to shake loose again, but no luck.

"Too late, sweetie, you've already come. too early to go. If you can't satisfy one way, then I guess you'll just have to be flexible."

Struggling wasn't doing me any good. She had a tight grip on my wrists and a leg over my waist to hold me down. Sex had retreated a long way from my mind, and fear was banging on the door to get in. Then she started to change again.

Her face stayed the same, but her body was flowing into new formations. The shoulders got broader, arms thickened, and there seemed to be more than two. I could feel her legs changing, and not for the better. It felt like she had coarse fur, and something like a claw scratched me.

It was then that I felt it — between her legs it was still hot, but now there was a bunch of writhing things growing down there.

I struggled upright to see what I already knew. The face was still the Kewpie doll I had just had sex with, but the body wasn't even remotely human anymore. My eyes popped open, and if I'd been an Animate, they would have rolled out onto the floor. Tiffany had parts I'd never seen anywhere before, and they were growing larger by the second.

"Like I said, if you can't get me off one way.. I'll have do something else to get my kicks."

She let go of one wrist to reach for a set of handcuffs. I screamed and thrashed with all my might and bucked her/it off of me. I hit the floor running toward the door. The room whirled and the exit now looked about a mile away.

"Give it up, sweetie. You're not going anywhere. Just relax. Hell, you might even enjoy it more than the last one did." A chair stuck a leg out to trip me, and a lamp cord slithered across the floor like a snake.

I just kept running and eventually got to the door. Out of breath and too terrified to look back at what might be gaining on me, I grabbed for the doorknob, but it slid across the surface of the door and out of my grasp.

"Knobby, don't you dare let him out of here till I'm through with him." The Tiffany creature was up and the room reverted to normal dimensions. It started toward me and its appendages almost reached to its chest. They were very white, very thick, and very, very frightening.

"Please," I said to the doorknob, "let me out."

It made a face and slid to the other side of the door. "No way, buddy. I want to watch this."

"Pervert!" I clutched at it again and missed. Behind me I heard Tiffany moving slowly and deliberately toward me. There was a weighty thump at each step and a sound like something heavy dragging behind it. My mind raced and an idea came to me.

I looked up at the door and cried, "What a set of knockers!"

Knobby, the doorknob, stopped sliding all over the place and tried to look up to see what door knockers I was talking about. While he was distracted, I grabbed the knob and wrenched the door open. Then I ran like a thief into the hallway.

Behind me I heard a scream of pain from Knobby and one of rage and frustration from Tiffany. Both were music to my ears.

I ran onto the lot buck naked and didn't stop till I reached my apartment, where I threw my things in a bag and caught the next train out of Hollywoodland. Didn't care where I was going, just so long as it was far away from anyplace that had Animates.

That was years ago. I settled back East in a boring, but safe and sane job. I married a nice girl who doesn't change shape when we make love, at least not any more than anyone else does.

We've been married for years and we have three great kids. I'm lucky; the three boys think I'm just about the best dad in the whole world. We do everything together; well. almost everything.

Even though it's been more years than I can count, there are just some things I'm never going to be able to do with them. I'm never going to take them to an Animated movie and I'm never going to be able to explain to them why I get the shakes every Saturday morning when they turn on the television.

And now there is a new horror — cable. All those channels, all those choices. And hidden somewhere among them, lurking, waiting for me… I know she's out there.

Maybe I can get my kids interested in reading.