Addiction

Chapter 16
Inside the Fire

Tonight: Early Evening

15. Give your soul to me

For eternity

Release your life

To begin another time with her

End your grief with me

There’s another way

Release your life

Take your place inside the fire with her.

- Disturbed; “Inside the fire”.

“ ‘Thcuse me, pardon me, comin’ through,” Damien shoved his way to the front of the line, outside of Eden. Business had not slowed down at all since Damien had first came to this place. If anything, the line had gotten longer than Damien remembered it being. “I’m a perthonal friend of Mithter Athan’s.”

“Yeah, you and everybody who’ve been to the club before pal,” an annoyed young man turned around to face Damien. His eyes drank in Damien’s wrinkled button up shirt, not so baggy sweatpants, and the bulge around his midsection. His nose wrinkled a little bit as he sniffed the air. Damien was wearing what had to be a close to 8 hour used diaper (and not a very good one at that). Damien did his best to flash his biggest hill-billy grin, showing off his teeth that could be counted with one hand.

“Y’know what, man? Go on ahead,” the dude said letting Damien pass. “Talk to Gary. See if I care.”

No one else put up a fight about Damien getting to the front of the line.

“Here to thee Mithter Athan about thome weird dreamth I’ve been having.” Damien said when he reached Gary the Goliath. Gary didn’t react. “Tho?”

“You’ve got no Re-Lease.” Gary bellowed. How would Gary know unless the person who had all of Damien’s pills was already inside? That let Damien know all he needed to know, and Damien quickly found his mettle.

“Oh don’t I?” Damien withdrew the little red pill from his pocket. He held it daintily between his thumb and forefinger holding it up so that the giant could see it was what Damien claimed. Then, with a flourish, Damien popped the Re-Lease into his mouth.

“Open mouth.” Gary instructed. Damien did as he was told and lifted his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Gary leaned forward and peered inside. Without the majority of his teeth, and his tongue at the roof of his mouth, there wasn’t much to see.

“Close mouth.”

Damien obeyed.

“Upstairs.” Gary bellowed. “No tricks.”

“Yeth thir!” Damien gave a mock salute before slinking past the guard of Eden’s gates. Damien went into the old bank and took a sharp left up the stairs instead of proceeding straight into the receiving room.

When he was halfway up the stairs, Damien dug the little red pill out of two of the remaining teeth he had left in the back of his mouth. There had been just enough room to lodge the Re-Lease between the two teeth. Thank goodness the big goon hadn’t told him to lower his tongue. Seriously though, hiding the pill under your tongue was the oldest trick in the book. Damien wasn’t that stupid.

“Firtht thmart thing I’ve done thinthe I came here,” Damien said to himself after he spit the pill onto the ground and stomped on it with his shoe. He began to creep up the stairs, shifting his weight so that the old wood wouldn’t creak and groan under it. His diaper continued to sag and droop, the load in his pants threatening to drag him down. Had Damien wet again recently? He didn’t think so, but it was getting harder to tell.

When the door marked “Office” was in sight, Damien reached into the front of his Depends and drew out the weapons he had successfully smuggled in. Then, with one final pause, he charged through the door and into the fray.

“Aaaaah! The power of Chri-…. Wuh?” Damien stopped dead in his tracks just as he slammed the door open. Gone were the worn out easy chairs that he and Levi had sat in a month ago. In their place were four oversized high chairs, all of them occupied. Three men and a woman sat, strapped in, each with a bowl of little red pills in front of them.

“Damn, but you’re noisy kid,” Damien heard Levi from behind him. He spun around and caught the barest glimpse of Levi leaning behind the open door, his arms smugly crossed. Before Damien could react, a black leathery palm on the periphery of his vision slapped him across the face. It was like a hammer, and sent Damien’s mind spinning as his body sprawled to the floor.

Two sets of meaty hands picked Levi up off the floor. Gorillas, like the ones that tended held Damien up. Those definitely weren’t costumes. Levi spit out one of his few remaining teeth from the back of his mouth.

“Thank you, Darwin,” Levi addressed one of the Gorillas propping Damien up like a drunkard.

“No problem boss,” the ape grunted. The world was beginning to stabilize as Levi strode over and pried Damien’s eyes open, examining each pupil. This time, Levi wore a flowing green robe, open at the chest, which was clean shaven with an intricate tattoo of a snake wrapping around it. But, he still wore the same snake skin shoes.

“Doesn’t look like you’ve got a concussion,” Levi said. “Good.”

“If you’re gonna kill me,” Damien huffed, “Do it now.”

Levi thought about it for a moment, theatrically stroking his chin. “Okay,” he shrugged. Damien clenched his eyes shut and braced for the killing blow. He had tried, and failed miserably. Let death claim in and if there was a God, may He have mercy on his soul.

Nothing.

Damien opened one eye- the other one had started to swell shut-looking for where death may come from and what form it might take. Levi just stood there, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“I guess that means I’m not gonna kill you,” Levi smiled. “Though, I suspect you came with different intentions. Dawkins, pick those up off the ground.” The silverback on Damien’s right, the one that hadn’t hit him shifted his weight to the gorilla on Damien’s left. He picked up the items that Damien had managed to smuggle in.

“Let’s see, what do we have here?” Levi looked at the objects and turned them over in his hands. “Really?!” he remarked. “A sterling silver necklace with a tiny cross at the end, and a pocket Bible?” he tossed them over his shoulder like so much garbage. “It takes priests years of training and the strongest of faith to even attempt a routine exorcism.” Levi shook his head as in pity. “And yet, you come into my place of power with only a few hours prep time with a pamphlet and some jewelry? The Re-Lease must’ve really hit you hard for your critical thinking skills to be that low, kid. Don’t insult me, yourself, or the Church; at least come at me with a gun. You want me to let you go so you can go get a gun and try again? I’ll tell Gary to let you through. Shit, I’ll even loan you some cash. I’m betting you’re a little low with all the impulse buys you’ve been makin’.”

“Go to Hell!” Damien spat.

“And it begins guys. He can’t win, so he resorts to the most clichéd words of defiance he can muster.” The gorillas holding Damien chuckled grimly. Damien didn’t bother to try and get away. Either one of the sentient apes could snap him like a twig. His ankle was throbbing too. He must have twisted it when he fell, so there wasn’t much hope of escaping. Still, though defeated, his survival instinct was strong. Maybe he could last a little longer if he could keep this freak talking.

“What are you doing to these people?” Damien asked, jerking his head backwards to indicate the so far silent figures trapped in the giant highchairs.

“The first, and least interesting question to answer, I regret.” Levi told him. “I’m helping them cross the threshold to innocence of course.” Levi walked out of Damien’s line of sight towards the high chairs. Without instruction, the gorillas turned Damien around to face Levi’s victims. “Most people can’t make themselves cross over all the way while they sleep, so they come to me one last time to finish the transformation.”

“You’re turning them into giant babies,” Damien said. It wasn’t a question, but an accusation.

“So?” Levi retorted. “It’s a better option than their lives are now. Isn’t it gang?” All four in the highchairs nodded glumly. They were a sorry lot, that was for sure. One of the men was wearing nothing but a stained, wrinkled t-shirt and underwear, and looked as if he hadn’t had a proper bath in days. He was pale like he hadn’t been in the sun for a while and his yellow stained underwear was on full display below the feeding tray and the yellow liquid dripping down his legs attested to the wearer’s lack of control. He wasn’t even wearing any shoes.

A large, muscular black man sat in the adjoining highchair, wearing a wife beater tank top and black sweatpants, similar to Damien’s. He didn’t have quite the same bulge in the middle, but Damien thought he saw something. The big guy was probably too proud to go full on diaper, and so resorted to the men’s incontinence pads that you stuffed down the front of your underwear.

The man at the end had scraggly hair and had a wrinkled button up dress shirt and some dirty black slacks on. It was kind of what Damien had intended to wear to work this morning. He, too, was wet, and obviously undiapered, as evidenced by the wet spot on his crotch.

The one woman in the group had black hair in a pixie cut, and wore a yellow t-shirt and no pants. She was obviously wearing a diaper, yet also wore a pair of panties over the bulky thing. It concealed her diaper…poorly. Possibly the saddest state of her attire was that she was wearing socks and a pair of untied sneakers, as if she had actually planned to go outside looking like that.

All of them appeared to be in their right minds. There were no dumb goofy smiles or infantile cooing and babbling, but something wasn’t quite right about them either, Damien noticed. They all looked worn out. They all appeared tired. They were all defeated.

“You fucked our liveth up,” Damien said. “They don’t thee any other choithe.”

“And you do?” Levi shot back. Damien was silent. “Did I take these pills and force them down your throat, kid? Did I? No, I didn’t. I gave you one and told you that if you wanted to get into my club, you had to take it. You didn’t have to go to my club. You could have gone to any other place to try and have a little fun.”

“Then,” Levi went on, “I gave you a whole bottle of the stuff for you to do with as you wished. I gave all of you that free sample. Any of you could have had your one night of fun, gone home, and maybe come back every few months. Those pills could have lasted you over a decade if you had taken them in moderation. You could have woken up in your little wet beds after you dreamed of being a big baby and then dumped the rest of them down the toilet. But instead, all of you kept coming back here, or taking them at home. Damien here,” he gestured to Damien addressing the other prisoners, “even shared them with his girlfriend and supported her addiction, and then dumped her when she became inconvenient.”

“You told me to dump her!” Damien shouted. He felt the ape’s grip on him tighten a little bit.

“No,” Levi whirled around, wagging his finger in Damien’s face, “I said that you had a choice! I said you could either go back to her empty handed and find out if she really liked you for you, or you could dump her and get more pills. I tried to cut you off for your own good, but you begged me not to. So you abandoned her. No phone call, no text, no nothing. You left her in your car to figure things out while you got high, got naked, chugged apple juice, and played in a sandbox.” Levi pointed back at the figures in the highchairs. “And all of these people did something more or less just as despicable. Only it wasn’t a Delilah. It was a Michael, or a Gabby, or a Mary, or a David.” They all sunk lower in their high chairs.

“I’m giving all of you a fresh start, which believe me, considering your behavior, is more than any of you deserve.”

“You really are the Devil,” Damien whispered.

Levi chuckled to himself at that. “I’m a Devil, kid. Calling me the Devil is like calling someone the General of the U.S. Army. I’m a pretty big deal, newbie, you’re probably familiar with some of my work, but don’t be confused. I’m not the head honcho.”

“How?” Damien asked. “How ith any of thith possible?”

“The second and more interesting question!” Levi remarked, his tone brightening considerably. “Oh Lucy!” The door marked “Changing Room” opened. Levi heard the sounds of tinkling bells, rattling toys, and infantile babbling coming from non-infant lips as the woman came in.

She was the woman who had been haunting Damien’s dreams. Well, one of them anyways. They all had the same face. This wasn’t the one who had been dressed like a 1950’s housewife. This was the one in the nursery scrubs with the safety pins and rattles decorated on them. She was the one that diapered and spanked Damien in that first bizarre dream of his. And most of all, while all the other “Mamas” called each other “Lucille,” this one was “Lucy” and seemed to command a degree of respect from all the others.

“Coming Mr. Athan,” Lucy half-sang. She carried with her a tray with four large baby bottles. They looked closer to the double serving “Big Chugs” that were sometimes sold in gas stations and grocery stores than actual baby bottles.

“Everyone, meet Lucy,” Levi introduced her. “She looks familiar to all of you, I know, but don’t worry about that.” he added. While he talked, Lucy set a bottle down on each highchair tray. She went to Levi’s side.

“Lucy, here, is a fallen angel,” Levi explained, “She used to work in Limbo, caring for all the unbaptized babies. Then, she and the management had a falling out.” Lucy’s eyes briefly glowed a blood red. She was shaking and muttering something to herself. Damien couldn’t read lips, but he thought he could make something out. But, what the hell was a “don tay?”

Levi put his hand on the woman’s shoulder, and she stopped. “Long story, trust me, but not important to you.” He smiled. “Thing is, I’m a make lemons into lemonade guy. God says crawl on your belly, I say work on your abs till you can crush somebody to death with them. So, I find Lucy here, and the one thing she’s good at is taking care of babies. So I build an operation around her to put her skills to use.”

Levi turned to his four captives in the highchairs. “What are you waiting for, to be spoon fed? That’s after, not before.” The four people in the highchairs started shoveling little red miracle pills into their mouths by the handful. Before they had likely finished swallowing, they pressed the bottles to their lips and began to drink.

“Re-Lease will never show up in a blood, urine, hair, or any other test,” Levi explained while his captives gorged themselves. “That’s because as soon as you swallow it, it doesn’t actually enter your body. It enters your soul. Re-Lease is actually nothing more than super condensed artificial innocence. It’s not quite the same as the real deal, but it’s close enough for my purposes.”

“I orgathmed way too much for that thtuff to be innothenth,” Damien spoke up.

“Then you don’t know what innocence really means, newbie,” Levi countered. “Innocence isn’t good or bad. It’s a blank slate; a fresh start. Just like a newborn babe.” He added as an afterthought.

“Babieth don’t climacth in their diaperth,” Damien persisted. Damn it he felt stupid having to talk with no teeth.

“You don’t think they would if they could?” Levi replied. “Little kids try to touch themselves all the time before some grown up kills their fun and tells them it’s wrong.” Damien couldn’t think up a response to that.

“Like I was saying,” Levi continued, “because our users still have the tricky situation of having their souls connected to their bodies, the transformation is relatively slow. Fortunately, I’ve got Lucy and her little copies to help nudge the process along. They’re getting better at it all the time, too.”

“Copieth?” Damien wondered aloud.

“All in good time, kid,” Levi told Damien. “All in good time. If we get lucky, like with your little junkie girlfriend, they cross the threshold when they dream and their mind and soul wander around. Then we make sure they stay there with a little ritual that is almost universally associated with babyhood.”

“The diaper change,” Damien realized.

“You’d be surprised how many people snap after just one change,” Levi told him. “It’s more symbolic than anything. Apparently you can hold down a job, have sex, pay taxes, and do drugs, but if you can’t wipe your own ass, you’re less of a person. Fucked up priorities you people have.”

“The rest of the time,” Levi went on, “We have to do this. That’s a cocktail of Re-Lease and certified ‘Grade A’ Angel Milk.” Lucy shot Levi a look. “Fallen Angel Milk,” Levi corrected himself. “The reaction is better than pop rocks and soda. Check it out.”

Damien watched in fascinated horror as the changes took place. Any hair below the top of their heads withered away and retreated inside of them. Blemishes, pimples, and minor imperfections literally melted away. One of them took a gasp for air, and Damien literally saw one of the few remaining teeth they had sucked up into their gums.

Their clothes began to change, too. The strong looking black guy was losing muscle tone quickly while the material from his sweat pants slithered off of his legs and onto his torso. Whatever undergarment he was wearing underneath thickened and bulged out as his pants and tank top melded into an oversized black onesie with the words “Mama’s Boy!” stenciled on it.

The man in his t-shirt and underwear changed the least, with his wrinkled t-shirt somehow becoming fresh, with a picture of a teddy-bear emblazoning itself onto the front, and his tighty-whities becoming a proper diaper.

Damien caught a glimpse of the woman’s adult diaper bulging out and babyish cartoon devils stenciling themselves onto her crotch. Her panties, no doubt a denial induced pride saver, stretched out into a diaper cover with frills. The shoulders of her shirt puffed up and the ends flowed down to make a very cute baby dress.

“Once the innocence floods their system so fully, about seventy-five percent of them take to it forever. Their souls even start producing the stuff. It’s not quite as pure as the first time rockin’ around the cradle, but it’s good enough.”

“Produthing?” Damien echoed.

“Yeah, buddy. Eden isn’t just a garden. It’s a farm.”

The third man, the one who was dressed as Damien had been that morning, spat out his bottle and lurched forward in his highchair. Milky pink vomit poured out of his mouth, dripping onto the floor as he wretched. Levi stopped talking and looked over.

“The other twenty five percent, well, they have a different reaction to it,” Levi narrated. “Their souls not only stop producing anything remotely resembling innocence, but they purge it completely out of their systems. And then something else…rushes into the vacuum of their being.”

The last man’s features began shifting and roiling around like a pot boiling over. Bones cracked and popped rearranging themselves into new, smoother, features. Fat rearranged and migrated near the chest, or evaporated all together. Hair changed color to a bleached blonde and grew out till a piece of fabric migrated from a shirt collar to tie it up into a pony-tail. Ragged, dirty clothes cleaned themselves and transmogrified into khakis with a sweater wrapped around the waist and a tasteful blouse; “Soccer Mom chic”.

Suddenly, he didn’t look like a “he” anymore.

“Hello, Mr. Athan. Hello, Lucy,” the thing sitting in the highchair said.

“Hello, Lucille.” Levi greeted it. The thing in the shape of a woman called “Lucy” walked over and released its mirror image from the high chair.

“Damien,” Levi gestured to what used to be just another prisoner. “Meet Lucille: A creature that feeds off innocence and any one of my big babies are more than enough to satisfy them. They make a great workforce caring for the rest of them too.”

“Oh my goodness!” The Lucille brought her hands up to her mouth. “Awwww, these three are just sooo cute. Can I have one, pleeeease?”

Levi shook his head. “Maybe later, Lucille.”

“But you can get them changed if you like,” Lucy commented. “All three of them need it. Badly.”

“All…three?” The Lucille looked around the room. “What about this little guy?” She walked over to Damien. She grabbed his Depends and gave it a squish. “He definitely needs a new diaper. Yes you do!”

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!” Damien screamed. He leaned forward and thrashed, trying to head- butt this abomination’s nose. The two gorillas yanked him a step back.

“Not now,” Lucy instructed the thing that had once been human. “Levi’s having fun with this one.”

“Huh, fine,” the thing in the soccer mom getup sighed.

“You’ll have to excuse, her,” Levi spoke to Damien. The Lucille was unbuckling the big babies and carting them off, one by one past the door that said “Changing Room.” “Lucilles are kind of like the store brand of otherworldly nannies. They get the job done, but they’re not what really what you were craving. Still, I gotta work with what I got.”

“Wanna know how we get the innocence out of our babies?” Lucy asked, holding up Damien’s head by the chin. “Let’s just say those diapers absorb more than bodily fluids. It’s a great way to recycle, actually.”

Now it was Damien’s turn to wretch. He had been putting that down his throat? Stomach bile mixed with apple juice leaped out of him and into the air.

“Awww, poor baby did spit ups!” Lucy cooed in mock sympathy for Damien. She pulled out a wet wipe and cleaned his mouth for him.

“Why?” Damien asked. “Why do thith?”

“The final and most important question, Damien.” Levi smiled.

“I was there, Damien,” he said. “At the original Garden of Eden. I saw Adam and Eve lose their innocence. I convinced them to do it. And they lost paradise because of it. I mean, I did what I had to do. I was under orders. But I’ve regretted it ever since.”

“You’re kidding,” Damien remarked in cynical disbelief. He spat a bit of leftover vomit on the floor at Levi’s feet.

“Not at all,” Levi grinned. “You humans have been royally fucked up ever since, and I aim to correct that mistake.”

“What about God?”

“What about God?” Levi countered. The snake tattoo seemed to move, now, as Levi talked, winding and slithering around his body. “Don’t get me started about God. Our Father this. Our Father that.” The head of the snake tattoo peeked out from under one side of Levi’s robe and flicked its tongue before slithering under the other side.

“You know what?” Levi asked, clearly rhetorically. “Fuck it. God has got to be the worst Father ever. First, he makes Adam and Eve. He places them in this perfect little place. Anybody today would give two ribs just to spend a little time there.” As fast as Levi’s tongue was moving, Damien could have sworn it was forked now.

“But these two kids, Adam and Eve, they don’t know how good they’ve got it. They’re spoiled rotten, because God is trying to buy their love, or something. But does God educate them? Does God let them know how good they’ve got it and how much worse things could be? No! Like some sicko, He goes out of His way to make sure that they are completely innocent. That they have NO concept of right and wrong. He wants them to stay children forever; unsupervised children at that!” Levi’s hair started thinning. His nails were growing long.

“Then, out of nowhere, this little red fruit pops up!” Levi spat with disgust. “God knows that if His two little pet monkey children eat this fruit, they’ll gain the knowledge of good and evil, and then His precious babies won’t be innocent anymore. So He forbids them.”

“BUT,” Levi rambled, “they don’t know right from wrong in the first place. It’s all too easy to convince them to take a little bit.” Levi’s robe dropped to the floor. That tattoo seemed to be not only moving but growing.

“And what does God do?” Levi ranted, “Does He fix it? No! Does He give them another chance now that they actually know better? Hell no! He kicks them out and punishes them and all of their descendants for all time, all while demanding tribute! Never mind that any rational discussion about their intellectual and emotional state of mind would lead you to absolve them of any wrong doings. Not only had they not known right from wrong at the time, but they had never known right from wrong till after they had disobeyed Him!” Levi’s eyes could no longer be identified as human. They were black on a field of gold.

“THAT’S NOT PARENTING, THAT’S ABUSE!” What stood in front of Damien was no longer a man, but a large man sized snake with arms and legs. A man who felt he had something to lose wouldn’t have said anything.

“Tho why are you trying to change uth back? Let uth grow up.”

“I FUCKIN’ DID!” the thing that was Levi roared. “AND IT DIDN’T WORK!” The thing eyed Damien with a mixture of rage and hunger. It looked to Damien as if it were considering its next move. The thing snorted, and steam came out its nostrils. Scales began to melt away as it took the form of man again.

“I’m a pretty bad dude,” Levi said. “I was part of the crew that first rebelled against Heaven. I helped invent lying and emotional manipulation and yeah, I guess also war. But humans..oh boy.” He sighed and began to tick off crimes on his fingers. “Humans invented murder, and theft, and rape. Everything that any Devil has perfected, a human did it first.”

“You guys…” Levi hesitated as if considering his next words. “You guys just weren’t made for knowing things. I see that now.”

Levi paced the room.

“Other Devils in my place,” Levi thought out loud “they’d be happy with themselves.” Damien felt he didn’t need to hear this as much as the old snake himself did. The king of liars might just be lying to himself. “They’d rub their claws together and just cackle that they broke another one of God’s toys. A few might even try to steal and corrupt souls for their own personal gain; build an army down below to rival the one up above.”

“Me?” Levi said, picking up his robe, “I was there. I understand the truth. You’re all children, and I’m going to take care of you. I understand responsibility. I make sure my kids get taken care of. I make sure they’re fed and sheltered and loved. And unlike some people, I ask for nothing in return. Humanity won’t be able to thank me when I get done, but they would if they could. ”

“You’re inthane,” Damien said.

“I’m an old bleeding heart idealist,” Levi replied.

“Tho…” Damien asked. “what now?”

“Now, you make a choice.” Levi told him. “Do you go in there?” he pointed to the door where all the other big babies had gone through. “Or out there?” he pointed to the way out of the office.

“Out there.” Damien said, not even hesitating.

“Don’t be so hasty, you haven’t thought it through, kid.” Levi tsked.

“Yeth I have.” Damien responded flatly.

“No,” Levi countered, “you haven’t. When taken continuously, Re-Lease really fucks you up. Even going cold turkey at this point won’t save you.”

“I’ll wear diaperth,” Damien said.

“Diapers are the least of your concerns out there. In here, they’ll be your biggest one. Let me help make things clear, Damien. If you can answer even one of my questions, my boys will let you go.”

“If I can’t?”

“We just keep talking. I’ve never coerced an action out of anyone, and I don’t intend to start now.”

“What’s the name of the office where you work?”

“Offith? Ummmm…” Damien didn’t know. It was just the office.

“What’s your boss’s name?”

“Bothth?” Damien didn’t know that one either. The man had just been his boss.

“Too hard?” Damien asked. “I’ll lob one at you: What’s your home address?”

Damien wracked his brain but couldn’t bring up the information.

“How about your phone number?”

Damien was drawing another blank.

“What city are we in? Fuck it. What country are we in?”

Silence from Damien.

“What’s your last name?”

Damien snorted like a petulant child before saying, “Okay. Keep talking.”

“You’ve forgotten all of that basic stuff and didn’t even realize it. How are you going to function out there in the cold cruel world? Best case scenario, you end up in some kind of group home for the mentally deficient. Worst case scenario in my little corner of the world, you maybe get diaper rash and a loving Mama Lucille to make it all better.”

“No.” Damien stated coldly, defiantly. “Don’t wanna.”

“You walk out that door, and you’ll never see Delilah ever again, in this life or the next.”

Damien looked up. That got his attention.

“I’ll sweeten the deal kid,” Levi offered. “Say yes, and I’ll make it so that you and Delilah are cared for by the same Mama Lucille. You won’t be fuck buddies anymore, but you’ll be like brother and sister. Hell, maybe your Mama will beat you both off in your diapers at the same time. Whaddya say?”

Damien thought long and hard. But it wasn’t the kind of long and hard thought where you weighed your options. It was the kind where a decision had already been reached long ago, and now you were just mustering up the courage to speak it.

“Deal,” Damien said.

“Excellent!” Levi smiled broadly. “You’re not going to regret it. Now, I’ll excuse you, and let Lucy finish up the transaction. This little get together has made me late for the next crowd.” Levi’s form twisted and shifted. His snake-skin shoes hardened into hooves as his pants fused to his legs and grew hair. His chest became at least half as hairy while the snake tattoo faded from sight. Levi trotted out of his office while the horns were still sprouting from his head, and his hoof beats echoed all the way down the stairs down the stairs.

The demon in the nursery scrubs came up to Damien. She addressed the big apes holding Damien captive. “I’ll take it over from here, boys. You two go get into place down below to tend bar. Without a word, the gorillas released Damien and the boy dropped to his knees.

“Poor baby,” the infernal caretaker cooed as she caressed Damien’s face. “Let’s get you ready. Say ah!”

Damien opened his mouth and Lucy tossed in two or three little red pills of Re-Lease. Damien swallowed the pills. The fallen angel took off her shirt to reveal a nursing bra. She opened the bra on one side, revealing a large, round, nipple dripping with milk.

“You’re a lucky little guy,” she told Damien. “You get to drink straight from Mama Lucy’s titties.” She kneeled down and guided Damien’s head to her breasts. Damien felt her teat brush against his cheek and he turned his head towards the source of nourishment and latched on.”

“Now while Mama Lucy is fixing you up,” she instructed, “just say goodbye to all of your big boy problems. It’ll help you feel better. I’ll get you started. Goodbye big boy responsibilities. Goodbye big boy job. Goodbye big boy bills.”

“Goodbye feeding myself.” Levi thought as the warm milk filled his mouth and his body, almost on instinct, swallowed it as his mouth suckled for more. He felt a tingle in his mouth as the last of his teeth receded into his gums. He felt a cooling sensation on his face the blow dealt to him by the gorillas healed itself.

“Good baby,” Mama Lucy cooed, as she picked Damien off the floor, and held him in her arms.

“Goodbye walking”, Damien thought as he was carried through the door. Just as Damien expected, it lead right to the daycare Damien had dreamt of, and likely beyond that to the world where anyone who wasn’t a “Lucy” or “Lucille” was a giant baby.

Damien’s legs felt a breeze as his sweatpants bunched up at his hips and merged with the adult diaper he wore. “Depends Adjustable Underwear With Velcro Closures: Maximum Absorbency,” morphed into a “Hades’: Ages 18 - ∞” diaper. His shirt likewise smoothed out and wrapped around his crotch and back up as a onesie.

“Goodbye dressing myself,” he thought remorsefully. Regardless of what type of diaper he was wearing, Damien still squished with every movement, smelled terrible and was well past due for a change. Mama Lucy took him off the tit and laid him flat on the changing table

“Goodbye potty training,” he sighed to himself. This time, he wasn’t struggling. This time, whatever magic the changing table may have had, didn’t stop him from moving. He stuck a thumb in his mouth and massaged his own toothless gums while he licked the salt off of his finger. His onesie was quickly unsnapped and his diaper was opened.

“Goodbye wiping my own ass.” Damien thought as the demonic daycare worker began to clean him with a score of baby wipes. Actually, that part wasn’t so bad.

“Hello fresh, comfy diaper.” Damien thought cheerfully as Mama Lucy carefully balled up the old diaper and slipped a new one underneath him before carefully lowering him onto the soft, fragrant padding. Mama Lucy gently pulled the diaper up and fastened it on to the little boy, without incident. One tape. Then the other.

Damien lulled his head to the side of the changing table and saw. She looked like Mama Lucy, but she was dressed differently. Instead of nursey clothes with rattles and paci’s and safety pins, this lady wore a bright yellow dress with a pretty pearl necklace. And most importantly, she had eyes that shone with love for Damien. It was his Mama!

“Hello Mama,” Damien thought as he grinned a big toothless grin up at her. Soon he’d get to suck on her titties and get all the milk for himself! That’s when he saw her. She was holding Mama’s hand as they walked over to greet Damien.

She looked familiar to Damien. She had pretty, curly, red hair that Mama had put up into pig-tails. And even though she walked like a big kid, she was wearing a diaper just like his under that pretty pink sun dress.

“Hello big sissy!” Damien thought as he babbled “BABABABABABABABABA!”

“Here to stay at last,” Mama told her baby boy. “Home, with both of my babies,” she beamed and nuzzled both brother and sister. Had either of the babies understood the emotion, they would have recognized the looks of envy that every other Mama had been throwing at their Mama. Fortunately, they were innocent, now, with such wretched thoughts beyond them; and they always would be.

 

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