Synopsis: Confronted by someone who knows her secret, Terri's rage gets the better of her. she doesn't spill blood, but words, revealing a little more to the story.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Four
Circles on the ground.

---

Terri entered classroom one-eighteen as quietly as possible, even though the cheer coach and Cindy were sitting in chairs behind the large oak desk on the far side of the room. School had let out almost an hour before and the halls were empty.

They both looked up, the coach bore a bit of surprise, but Cindy stood up, she was expecting this.

"Hello Terri."

"Uhm, one of the girls said you wanted to see me?"

Cindy walked up to Terri, her face as expressionless as a stone slate. Her eyes seemed to bore into Terri's, making her uncomfortable, despite being taller.

After a very pregnant pause, Cindy quickly snapped. "Vacuous prattling?"

"Uhm."

"Didn't think I'd know how to pronounce them, much less know their meaning?"

"Uhhhh..."

Cindy's expression suddenly changed, a half pout crossed her face.

"You still hate me, don't you?"

"What? Wha..? I... I don't understand?"

Cindy's expression changed back to being unreadable as she seemed to study her.

"Uhm..." Terri said. "I just came cause I figured you wanted me to pay for the top I ripped in that fight yesterday."

Cindy was still staring into Terri's eyes. She inhaled, then paused and exhaled.

"Terri, last night, after the police left and I went home, I thought so hard about how brave and strong you were, and I have to admit, it turned me on. I was lying there in bed, thinking of how beautiful you were and how strong and I said to myself out loud, 'But what about her penis?' and suddenly I was hit with a headache I can't describe. but I knew something was wrong and I fought it out and finally I beat it, and I suddenly could remember Everything."

"Oh shit." was Terri's response, as she began backing up.

"Terri, I remember everything, even though the magic wanted me to forget. The coach told me what happened to you this morning after I nearly screamed at her that you were a boy."

Terri just stood there, one foot planted behind her, ready to bolt if need be.

"Terri. I'm sorry, for everything."

"As long as you aren't going to hit me now that you know."

At hearing this Cindy began to cry. She squeezed out words between sniffles. "No... I'm not... going... to hit you."

Cindy grabbed for one of the desks next to them and sat down to collect herself.

After a few minutes she looked up, but as the desk had been facing the other side of the room, she faced the chalkboard.

"No, I'm not going to hurt you, ever again."

The coach, who had been sitting silently watching the drama unfold, cleared her throat and spoke.

"Terri, I want you to know that I had no part this decision, but the school board was told of the attack during your tryout and they want me to offer you a position on the team."

Terri was going to snap back with a negative response, when she felt a bundle pressed into her arm. Cindy had retrieved the pile from a counter along the side wall and was pushing them toward her.

Terri sighed. "This isn't what I had in mind. No matter what it will look like to them, I wasn't interested in being on the team. It was just something I had to do."

"Why Terri?" Asked Cindy. "Were you trying to find out if you really wanted to be a girl?"

"No, I was there because you and rest of the squad wouldn't leave me alone until I promised I would show up. I put on the uniform, and I did the dance as best I could. And no amount of magic is going to make me more coordinated. I did it because I knew those boys would be there, and I wanted to stop them."

Cindy set down the bundle on the desk next to her, then looked back up to look back into Terri's eyes again.

"Terri, tell me the truth? You don't seem to be freaking over being a girl. Do you want to be..."

And Cindy's sentence was torn apart with a screaming, "YES!" Terry gritted her teeth together as the rest of the words came out. "Alright, does it make you happy? Yes, I do. I got changed last Friday night at six pm. I had two days and an evening including the sleepless nights to freak out over this and you can better believe that I already did. I made myself sick with worry and panic. I had a headache all of Sunday afternoon and I didn't sleep a wink until Monday at two am, and I had to be back up at seven.

I can vividly recall every minute of last weekend and I thought that it was a personal hell. But about an hour before I fell asleep, I realized that both my parents thought I had always been a girl. My mother, not understanding what was really wrong nearly called a doctor after my seventh vomiting attack.

Even my neighbor, who has always called me his next door prankster had called me a princess. I suddenly realized that everyone everywhere thought I was always this way. And then, finally I got calmed down. My head was finally clear enough to tell me that I could still go to school and not be laughed at over this.

Sure, being in this body is taking some getting used to, but it's worth it. I'm not in pain anymore."

Cindy, who was still shocked at Terri's audible declaration, found herself saying, "What pain?"

Cindy motioned for the coach to come over. "Terry, what pain are you talking about?"

Terri leaned over and gripped both sides of a desk. "No, you wouldn't understand. I barely understand it."

Cindy was about to ask, when Terri stood up again, tossing the desk to the other side of the room, while screaming in rage.

Terri turned to face the cheerleader, who was about to put hands on her shoulders. "You want to know?" She asked, looking into Cindy's eyes. Cindy became frightened at what she saw.

"I was a freak before, which you should remember now, thanks to breaking that spell. You should remember that I got teased in Junior high. As long as I can remember, my whole body has hurt all the time, even while I slept, until Friday night when I changed into this. Ever since I got this body, I haven't hurt at all. I'd rather deal with being a girl the rest of my life than that pain. Do you understand?"

"Terri, please calm down." the Coach pleaded, but Terri just got angrier, pushed Cindy out of the way and stomped to the door.

She didn't even open it, just roared at it as she came near, slammed both hands against it and the hinge pins snapped, sending the door off the frame and across the hall into another doorway alcove, with a thunderous banging.

She stormed off down the hallway, still growling.

As Cindy and the coach went to the door to follow her however, a magical circle ignited in the center of the doorway, and the door soundlessly floated back over, reconnected with it's hinges, the pins mended and the door locked firmly shut on them.

"Nice trick." Said the coach, as she fiddled with the handle. "She locked us in, despite that the door is only made to lock to the outside."

"It's probably better we didn't follow her. She was mad, and that's never happened before."

"Nonsense." said the coach. "I'll call my mother. She's a user too, she can get us out. You just have to keep quiet about magic, okay?"

The coach went to her desk and dialed on her cell phone. "Hello, mom? You aren't going believe me, but I'm stuck in a room at the school and a magic circle locked the door on me. Yes I'm quite sure about it being a magic circle, it singed the carpet... Thank you. See you shortly."

Cindy was still looking at the door however, mumbling. "But you don't understand." She quietly to herself. "Terri's never gotten angry before."

---

Beatrice and three men were standing next to the locked door, one was acting as a lookout, the second was chanting as a green vapor rolled off his palms and onto the floor, repairing the carpet damage the circle had left. The third was working on the door lock, finally breaking the magic and allowing it to open.

As the Coach stepped out and over the circle, another woman, whom appeared to be older than Beatrice, appeared out of thin air.

"No one saw anything. We're clear as soon as that is cleaned up."

"Thank you mother." Said the coach.

"Now, tell me what the hell just happened here? Who did that?"

The coach gave Cindy a hand out of the door, around the two men still working.

Cindy piped in. "Wow, to think she has only been doing magic since Friday night and it takes three men to undo her work."

The woman turned toward Beatrice. "Is this our Accidental User problem?"

"Yes Augustine. It appears so."

"And what timing too, if I remember, just before the phone call to come down here, you were trying to squirm your way out of spilling some information about our accidental user, weren't you?"

"Yes Augustine. We have the registered owner of the book that Allyssa got the serial off of."

"What book mother?" asked the Cheer coach.

"Not now Jody dear. Beatrice is still trying to weasel out. It's like she doesn't want to say who it is. You'd think that they wouldn't want me to know. Like they are trying to prevent me from flying off the handle."

"Well Augustine, the doctors did say..."

"I KNOW BLOODY WELL what the doctors said. Hmph, You'd think you were trying to keep me from finding out it was Agatha Winston." she said as she turned away.

Augustine then stopped mid step. A long pause as she evaluated what she had just said. "Tell me.... Tell me right now. It. Isn't. Agatha. Winston. TELL ME!"

She spun around, looking at Beatrice, who was becoming pale.

Augustine stomped over and glared Beatrice in the eyes.

Augustine was a formidable presence in and of herself, but when angry, there were few who could stand up to her, much less near her.

Her tone this time, came out softly, and almost musically. Her fingers dancing in the air on either side of the smaller woman's face. "Lie to me Beatrice dear. Tell me it isn't Agatha Winston."

Beatrice, shaking, could not utter a word.

"But didn't you already send users out here to evaluate her abilities?"

"Yes... Augustine." Beatrice managed to reply.

"Martha, Cathryn, and the rest, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Augustine sighed, and calmly turned toward her Daughter, Jody Meyers, the cheer coach and chemistry teacher.

"Well, I guess I can't say I'm surprised. Tell me, since I don't know for sure, but I want to take a stab at this one. Is the girl's name Terri?" Augustine mused, looking at her daughter.

"Yes mother. It is. How did you know?"

"That's not important now." She replied matter of factly. "We have nothing more to do here. Lets go. Jody, can we trust this girl or does she need a memory wipe?"

"You'll have to trust her, she broke Terri's charm on herself."

"Bother." commented Augustine again. She turned to tower over Cindy. Light seemed to dance in her eyes and chill rattled the girl's bones as Augustine addressed her. "You understand that if you speak of us, or Terri's charm to others, you risk breaking it, and if you think she was mad, wait till you see what I can do. If I have to come clean up an entire school to hide a girl who wasn't a girl last week, I'll have you erased from existence. Even your own parents won't remember you."

"If you want to be on my good side. The only people you can speak to about this is my daughter, and Terri herself."

"Yes Ma'am." replied Cindy, very meekly.

"Good, lets go." And with that, Augustine Meyers, Beatrice and the three men vanished into the air without a sound.

Jody looked down at Cindy. "Don't worry too much. Mother wouldn't actually erase you, she's just stressed."

Cindy however, collapsed to the floor, having passed out several seconds earlier, her knees had just then buckled.

---

[Meanwhile, at Terri's home.]

"Martha, did you get it?" Asked Stephanie, one of the house borders."

"The door was only locked..." Martha replied. "She didn't magic it or trap it."

"So, what does it look like?" Cathryn piped in. "It's all just a burning glow to me."

Martha was becoming pale. "No, this can't be right."

"So Terri did somehow screw up the spell."

"No." replied Martha. "From the first word she was compelled to read this through to completion. She did it perfectly. Which only makes this line here all the more disturbing."

Martha was pointing at the fourth line down. The other women peeked at it out of habit, but turned their eyes away quickly.

"Dammit, you forget none of us can read Glyph. It burns the eyes just looking at it."

Another of the women looked up. "Terri just hit the end of the block, and is coming in fast and upset."

Martha paled again. "Stall her, I need to show this to the council. They need to see this."

"What's so important?"

"There was another part to this spell. said Martha. "Several parts actually, and this one is the most important."

"What did it do?" asked Cathryn.

"Martha looked at the page again, then up at the rest. "It unsealed a Vortex."

And Martha vanished from the room with a soft pop, leaving the rest to stare slack-jawed at where she had just been.

"Did... did she just say Vortex?"

Cathryn nodded. "I believe she did and WE are supposed to be testing her abilities? Damn, a fine time to leave us alone."

"Wait, Terri just passed the house and is still moving fast. She wasn't going home."

"Someone follow her." snapped Cathryn. "Find out where she is going."

---

Martha suddenly appeared in a well lit room with plenty of lighting from shining in from windows that surrounded the walls on all four sides. The walls were covered in shelves full of old books and still more shelves lined either side of the large open space in the center.

Sitting along one side of a long table, facing Martha, was the council. Seven members consisting of five woman and two men, with Allyssa's Aunt Bernice in her chair second from the left.

"Elders. I pardon my hasty interruption."

"Go ahead." replied Augustine, the chief elder, who was sitting in the center.

"I come with information on our Accidental user." Martha spoke.

"You mean Agatha Winston's Granddaughter, Terri, who just happened to become a user. Am I correct."

Martha was shook by this, seeing Augustine's almost feral grin, she shuddered and nodded vigorously. "Yes Augustine."

"We just returned from a cleanup at her school, a magic circle that surprisingly just appeared on the floor locking two people in a room, thankfully Jody happened to be one of them." Augustine replied.

Martha's eyes were wide. "You think Terri did it?"

"No, we do not, but I want to know why you are here, as I'm sure the rest of the council does."

Martha held up the notebook, with the rows of incomplete spell in glyphs.

"Elders. I was able to procure the notebook that Terri was copying the glyph spell into. I do not bring good news. Upon seeing this and translating it, I have come to the worst possible conclusion."

Augustine frowned. "Enlighten us please."

Martha sighed. "Elders, forgive me. There is another part to this spell that we were completely unaware of."

As she held up the page, and pointed to the top. "The first part of this spell is not transfiguration, nor is it charm, it is a breaking of seals, and I believe that the seals were upon Terri herself."

Looks and whispers were exchanged and surprised faces were quickly replaced by stoicism.

"You have our undivided attention." Continued Augustine.

"I believe that I can fill the gaps that Terri cannot remember, but if I am to be believing what I read here, then Terri had no less than four seals placed upon her."

"Four?" Another council member gasped out loud.

Martha nodded. "A mana seal, an incidental spell seal, one that I have not yet deciphered its purpose and one more..."

"And that is...." Augustine took the reins again, pushing the question. She did not like the suspense Martha was deliberately adding.

"A vortex seal."

The collected group gasped as a single unit. The council members discussed quietly among themselves for several seconds before returning to face Martha.

"Are you fully certain."

"If you wish me to have another glyph reader confirm this, I certainly will. I do wish this not to be the case."

"Do it. Take it the library in Queens. And tell the rest of your co-conspirators to not mention a word of this to the girl, and tell them my orders are to prove or disprove if she is a vortex or not.

"Yes elder. I was also going to ask when do you want to see her?"

"It will have to be this weekend. That will give the Library time to authenticate your findings. True or not, We can no longer just try to hide things from her. She needs to hear everything."

"Yes elder, we will make sure she is here."

"Anything else to report?"

"Yes, she is progressing in magic rather quickly, and is already casting spells silently. Allyssa, niece of Elder Beatrice observed her doing it."

"All the more reason she needs to be set down and have things explained." said Augustine. Saturday, two o'clock."

"Yes Elder."

Martha tapped her watch and popped from the room without making any noise.

The elders turned toward Augustine, who was sitting there, crushing several sheets of paper in one hand. "Agatha. Damn you. You always knew, didn't you. You made that spell and that circle on the floor, I am sure of it, and you knew you would have a grand-daughter, who 'Became' a user. Fitting that your dying wishes come to haunt us."

"Augustine, try to control you temper." Said Beatrice.

Augustine jumped to her feet, knocking her chair over behind her. In a fit of rage she snarled as she grabbed the edge of the table and threw it over onto it's side, spilling paperwork and several beverage cups onto the floor. "Damn Agatha." She turned to the rest of the council. "Don't you get it?"

"Yes, I think we all do." said Beatrice. "Agatha has once again proven that she had abilities more than what she ever claimed. I think she knew her grandchild was a vortex, and sealed him up until now, so that as an adult he could be more prepared to enter our world, than as a powerful child. It will be much easier to deal with her now. She did do us a great favor."

"But why did Agatha add a charm and a transmutation spell to it?" Augustine nearly shouted, her voice tinging on becoming horse. "Why did Agatha turn her grandson into a female and practically force her to have to live that way?"

There was no response from the other council members.

Augustine then lowered her head. "All the clues are here somewhere, but like a good old puzzle some of the pieces are still missing."

---

Allyssa walked along a narrow path that snaked its way through the trees. The neatly trimmed grass on either side of her gave off the aroma of being freshly cut. The patches of perinea tulips and daises that adorned the path at regular intervals were blooming in brilliant color.

She stopped as the narrow path came to a crossroads. She could see her target up ahead, sitting on a bench facing away from her.

Allyssa mused that the park near the school was an excellent place if one needed a little time to oneself, though her own Gothic attire seemed out of place.

She approached the bench from behind, careful not to make any sudden moves. "Terri, is that you?" A pair of beefy muscular arms lay across the back the bench, from one side to the other.

Allyssa walked around the bench and sat down next to him.

He was easily twice her size, with a well toned chest to go along with his arms. A tight T-shirt tucked into denim jeans allowing him to show off all the contours of his physique.

Terry was also sporting a Vandyke goatee which was was a bit lighter in color than the now short spiked style on top of his head. "I suppose you are wondering why I'm male."

Allyssa shook her head. "Not really. I saw Cindy and Ms. Meyers leaving the school. She said you had gotten upset and run off. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Well, I got the cheerleader job now, no thanks to yesterday, plus Cindy knows my secret. She got in my face about being a girl and I snapped."

Allyssa nodded. "I got told you said you freaked out all last weekend. Did you?"

"Yes." replied Terry. "Yes, I did. I didn't know about the charm until early Monday morning so I was dreading school much more than usual. When I came to my senses though, I managed to get enough sleep for Monday, just so I could freak out again on you after class."

"I'm sorry Terry, if I had known what you were going through..."

"What? What could you have done? I still have to face life as a girl. I honestly don't know why I ran here and changed back into a guy."

Allyssa turned to look at him. "What I wonder is, why did you change yourself into THAT male form and not your old one? You didn't..."

Terry interrupted. "I am quite aware I did not look this masculine before, I'd rather not say why."

Allyssa turned back to facing forward. "There was a rumor once that you shaved parts of your body, but in a weird pattern."

Tery sighed. "You have got it half right. I didn't shave, but I had the strangest lack of hair. I was a freak."

Terry pointed to his left arm. "This had little blond peach fuzz, never more, but my right arm looked like a gorilla. Same with the right side of my face. My chest had this line on it..." drawing a line down across his shirt from his left armpit to his right hip. "... from here to here. I was hairless below the line and fine floor rug above it."

Allyssa chuckled softly. "I see, so that is why you shaved your legs?"

"Yeah. They looked kinda like a barber pole. Plus any part that didn't grow hair also lacked muscle tone. I wish I understood it."

"That sounds serious. I wonder if there was something magical to due with that."

"I'm certain of it." stated Terry.

"How do you know?"

"Because I have never felt this way before now. Both when I was female, and now like this, something inside me has aligned itself up and I feel... something that I have lacked before."

"I see. Anyway, The coach wanted me to ask you something else."

"What?"

"She said that during your conversation with Cindy, she let slip she might have hurt you..."

"In junior high, she and a bunch of other kids beat me up pretty bad. I had bruises all over and I stayed home for a few days to recover. I had been growing hair above the line on my chest already in eighth grade, and one of them saw it and thought I was a freak, and I agreed with them. I just let them beat the snot outta me. I couldn't seem to get mad at them."

"Have you ever gotten mad, I mean before, well you know..."

"I don't remember."

Allyssa continued to stare forward. Cindy had been there and told her that she had never known Terri to get angry, not ever. Allyssa had asked why she knew this and Cindy had just clammed up.

Allyssa just leaned back and settled in against Terry's body, closing her eyes.

"Uhm, what are you doing?"

"Can't I just nap on your impressive manliness for a minute?" she replied with a smile.

"Are you saying that just to get a rise out of me, or do I make you wet?"

Allyssa grinned. "Hey now, you aren't a girl at the moment, no talking like that. How about if we meet in the middle somewhere and I say you are handsome. Is that good?"

"I think you are pretty too."

"Thank you. May I also say that If this course goes any further, I want equal dating time with both your male and female sides."

"Uhm what?"

"You need to get out a bit more. I think that you and I need to go clubbing sometime, just us girls."

"I suppose that I've have to find myself some fishnet stockings and a spiked collar."

"Hey, that sounds like a good start. But you got that great suit now, remember. It would probably save you the money of buying that stuff. Those boots you were wearing at lunch almost made me want to ask where you got them till I realized it was the suit."

"That reminds me." Terry commented. He looked down at his T-shirt. "Methinks this needs a jacket. Black leather."

He then began to look down and after his eyes darted around to see that there were no witnesses except Ally, he kissed his shoulder.

The material seemed to flow up from behind him and solidified into a jacket which seemed to satisfy him. "Nice work."

"You are getting the hang of that symbiont, and fast too. Jen said you were imitating a Jungle Feline this morning." said Allyssa with a smile. "She was worried you would ask the suit for ears and a tail to complete the outfit."

"Really? Can it do that?"

"Oh yes, and the tail would act like part of you, moving and curling around. It would disturb quite a few people."

"Next you'll be telling me that It can give me wings."

"They would be costume only, you wouldn't actually be able to fly with them." replied Allyssa.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"So are you feeling better?" she asked him, as she put an arm across his chest.

Terry was about to reply when shouting from behind them interrupted his train of thought.

At the intersection of the footpaths about fifty feet behind him and Ally, a woman was starting to scream at a man who was clearly trying to assert control over her. His hand was tightly gripping her wrist and she was struggling to free herself.

"Let me go. I said NO!" The woman cried out.

"Cmon baby, I bought you drinks and dinner. Don't I get something in return?"

Allyssa turned toward Terry to see if they should intervene when she noticed he was already on his way to do just that.

Terry snapped his fingers and black shades appeared in his right hand, he flipped the bows open and slipped them on.

At the same time the man was getting more aggressive and the woman was switching to crying, the pressure on both wrists he now held was becoming painful. His back was toward the bench and did not see Terry coming.

Allyssa swore she saw light reflecting off the knuckles on Terry's hand, but as it formed into a fist, Allyssa realized it was the same effect as in the locker room. This time, Terry's arms and legs were bulking up at incredible speed. His hands were also increasing in size, the glowing blue only served to make him look like a hulk wannabe.

Allyssa pulled her cellphone out of her pocket, dialed a number and waited for the other end to pick up.

"Hello." Came the voice from the other end.

"Aunt Beatrice. I have a problem. Terry is making carpet stains and dirty floors and is about to ruin our party. I don't think I can take care of this myself."

"Understood, we're on our way."

---

"Beatrice, what's going on." Asked Augustine, sitting at her place in the center of the table.

"That was Allyssa. We need cleaners and sweepers on the double. Our accidental user problem has just gone to the next level."

Augustine sighed. She rapped the tabletop with her knuckles, and a phone appeared there. She picked it up, and shouted into it.

"Mobilize all cleaner and sweeper teams. Set touchdown locks on Elder Beatrice's niece Allyssa. Prepare for worst possible scenario."

---

Allyssa had just finished casting a confinement spell, and was working on putting the woman to sleep, while Terry's left hand had wrapped itself around the throat of the man and was picking him up by his neck. Terry's hands were easily the size of Allyssa's head now and the arms attached were no less impressive.

The man found himself flying through the air, only to strike the containment shield with a resounding 'Whudd.'

Allyssa heard a popping behind her and turned to see enough users teleporting in to form a regiment.

They quickly began casting spells to put everyone in the entire park to sleep to prevent scared people from fleeing and alerting outsiders. Then Augustine stepped forward, to face Terry, in his over-sized muscular state. He seemed to be radiating a berserker quality.

He turned and finally saw them and reacted by charging at the group, his fists cocking back and an almost inhuman growl escaping his throat.

Only twenty feet from Augustine however, his footfall ignited another ring of glowing runes in the grass, and suddenly the blue glow began to bleed off him and into the air, so quickly that by the time he reached Augustine, he was back to his previous size and passed out into her arms.

"What the heck was that?" asked one of the cleaners.

Augustine peered over at the burnt patch of grass, the symbols still easy to make out. "Someone take photos of that from every angle possible then get it repaired. I want this park spotless in an hour."

The teams went to work, while Allyssa took the still unconscious Terry and laid him on the ground.

"Elder, I saw that before, on Tuesday when he was a she and fought off two boys. I saw it falling away like that."

Augustine put a hand on her shoulder. "I think this weekend will be too late. I think we need to set Terry down Tonight."

---