Chapter 5

The old guy just gazed at me like I was an idiot. "Nobody comes here for a friendly visit, and besides. What makes you think anybody can, or even wants to help you," he just asked me blandly. I had no true answer to that. I stepped off the paved road of the world and ended up somewhere I was beginning to think I should have avoided. "No, you have a serious problem, kid and you came to the right place I'll tell you what I can, but first let's get out of the rain." He said as he began to walk away towards a old looking brown house. I didn't see that house before, what in the world was going on. "What rain?" I said as the first drop hit my head, the sky was dark and overcast. Was it before. I couldn't remember for some odd reason, but whatever.

I reached the house and entered right behind the guy, it was pretty average, but I felt like I was transferred into another time and place. "This is my place, your issue came to this town back in 1984, I'm sure you know that, you came here so the history lesson isn't needed. So tell me. What is it calling itself this time?" He never looked at me, but kept walking, I followed. "It's calling itself...Umzaro," Wait, it. What did he mean It? "It came through the internet," as I said this the guy reached for a doorknob. "Then there isnt any time to waste, come with me." We were going downstairs, into the darkness. I have to admit that I was getting a tad nervous.

"The story of Umzaro goes back a very long time. Her name is Ipos, and from what I know. She is an ancient, cursed demoness." Three steps down later... " I have researched it for over twenty years, it has pretty much destroyed everything I ever dreamed of doing." Two more steps... "You know, Ipos has a strange hate for women, I don't understand it." Four steps later..."Even though its rare, the thing can be beaten. We couldn't do it though. No. We couldn't win." There was then a sadness that seemed to just cut through me with those words. My only source of information, the people here failed? I only had my darkest images my imagination could come up with to keep me company, but none of them would come close to the truth I was going to be presented with. We reached the bottom.

"I told you we failed. I told you we couldn't win, but we knew how to. But this is the price for losing. This is what our price was." It was so dark, I had no idea what he was talking about, until the light was turned on anyway, then I saw it, and I couldn't believe it. "You see what I mean now?" And I did. At that very moment, I knew what this meant. There were no less than fifteen women chained to the walls, but they seemed to be frozen in time, and not to mention they all must have weighed at least three hundred pounds, I had to turn away. "Yeah, I thought the same thing you did when this first happened to them. It didn't take long. All of these ladies watched the TV show and they eventually turned into what you see before you," He shook his head then and continued.

"Back then, in the beginning it was a hit. The show came on the television and the women seemed to become addicted to it! Personally, I never saw the shows and the only time I did happen to glance at it. My wife was just glued to the screen that showed nothing but flashes of odd colors, I had to get to work though." He laughed then. "The weeks went by and for an hour everyday this weird show came on, and it was the hot topic of the whole town." Two chairs were near us and he sat down then. "But it was then the gaining began. All the ones you see here actually ate themselves to this weight, oh, in about six days." I was awestruck. That wasn't possible. "You are insane, right. That really didn't happen," I didn't exactly know what to say to this, who would and if they did, those might be people I really didn't want to know.

"Don't question it. That's not the worst part, I was the one who tried to complain to the people at the station, that got me nowhere, when I returned. This whole town was in chaos. The ladies, all of them who watched the show anyways. Had gone insane or it appeared that way at first. The weight gain was only a prelude to the actual event. Ipos needs a body, and she is always trying to make one from living female flesh. She was cursed to only exist in that what she hated the most by..if you can believe it..a human wizard of long ago." He laughed then, it echoed a bit.

"I don't know the name. of this curse maker, nobody does I guess, but the fact remains that the body this demoness needs, has to be made of multiple forms...if you know what I mean." I didn't want to know what he meant. I wanted to run, I didn't want to hear what I knew was coming next, but I couldn't seem to leave I had to know more.

"Anyways. The women seemed to be screaming, in some kind of pain or anguish, but they were all leaving their houses. Eventually one of them started screaming how "They couldn't stop..." It was rather chilling, morbid too. We lost sixteen people that night. They tried to stop them, and they were killing anyone who got in their way, killing them with their bare hands, and worse. They were taking bites out of their victims, and with each bite they took, their bodies seemed to grow more flab." The old man seemed to shudder with terror. " I didn't know then what I know now, but back then I brought myself to raise my gun to one of them, the bullet did nothing, it just tore through my wife like she was water." I was confused, this wasn't making any sense to me.

"You mean..they became Ghouls? Or zombies?" I had to ask, this was the weirdest conversation of my life and now everything I never knew was changing for the worst. "No, nothing like that, I don't know what they were becoming, but as we were going to make our last stand in the night, all the infected women just fell over where they stood, without motion, at first. Then the fat came to life on its own accord and the bodies began to inch towards one another. Fearing the worst possible result, the rest of the men and I acted fast. It took great courage, but their bodies seemed to lose all their former strength and we tied them up."

I was in shock to say the least. Anybody else would have been to. I gazed upon the women then, they didn't seem old to me. I wondered about it, oddly enough despite the horror they could unleash I found them attractive, I couldn't tell you why, I just did. "Look at them, they haven't aged a day since that night. The people who had been there, not many are left. This town is dying off and soon the victims of Ipos will need a new keeper, I can't do this forever and they'll still be here...eternally hungry, waiting to become one being, a vessel for the demon." He was somber, depressed and had a terrible cold voice as he spoke those words.