Harvey and the pretty girl - part 4

Sandra helps Harley get ready for Halloween.

The next day was October the 31st. After Sandra and Harley had finished a leisurely breakfast with their partners from the night before and seen them off, Sandra turned to Harley and said “Right, shower for you… though I don’t think it will wash off that smirk!”

Harley purred and stretched, “I must admit, I feel a lot more relaxed about this body today!”

Sandra grinned, turned Harley around and pointed her up the stairs and swatted her behind to get her moving. “Shower!” she commanded, “Then we will see what outfit we can wear to the party tonight, I’m thinking ‘Slutty Schoolgirl’ or ‘Slutty Nurse’ or ‘Slutty Teacher’ or…”

“I’m sensing a theme?” Harley pouted.

“Well… you wouldn’t want to give the wrong idea, would you?” Sandra scoffed as she answered.

“But there’s more to me than a fabulously sexy body and the overriding urge to copulate!” Harley protested.

“Play to your strengths, honey.” Sandra said, “We don’t need to draw attention to your many weaknesses!”

Harley harrumphed and stomped up the stairs. There were only two things that stopped this from being very effective; one was that her body let her down, she was too light and her wider hips prevented a proper stomp (it looked more like a cock-eyed model’s walk), the other was that she felt too damned good this morning to put her heart into it. Last night burned all the doubt and confusion out of her. Plus, she had Fun! Harley couldn’t remember the last time she let go and enjoyed herself doing anything.

In the shower, she let her hands wander, remembering how Josh had touched her. Her orgasm, when it came, was shockingly sudden and threatened to leave her unable to stand as her thigh muscles twitched and her breath came heavily.

“OY!” Sandra shouted up the stairs “I felt that! Get a move on before you use all the hot water!”

“No privacy!” Harley muttered to herself and finished off washing.

Sandra drove them into town and took Harley to a strange little shop hidden in a little pedestrian mall. It was only about 100 feet from the High Street, but it felt like it was from another world and another time.

Sandra told Harley, “They dress this up like ‘Diagon Alley’ whenever there is a J K Rowling book release, and the bookstore over there has all their staff dress up as wizards!”

“I can believe it!” Harley agreed enthusiastically, “I never even knew this was here and I have been coming into town for years now.”

They went into the shop. It wasn’t immediately apparent what the shop sold. There was a counter, and some dark wood paneling, and a corridor that disappeared back into the depths of the shop. The shop display had two mannequins, but it wasn’t clear if it was a jewellery store, an exploration and hiking outfitters or a medieval weaponry shop. Either way, Harley was fairly confident that the female mannequin would be arrested for indecent exposure for showing that much plastic.

Sandra led Harley into the shop which opened out into an Aladdin's cave of wonders. There were costumes and accessories of every conceivable type, and some that were frankly a little inconceivable. There were mass-produced cheap plastic props made in China and full exquisitely crafted Victorian outfits that looked vintage. Some of the props were tacky, like the ‘Kiss me quick’ hats and the blow up sex dolls and some were beautiful and looked real, like someone had dropped the real Crown Jewels in a thrift shop. Also, the shop had a tardis-like effect, it seemed to be much bigger than the confines of the outside of the shop would allow for.

Suddenly, the shopkeeper appeared behind them. He had glasses, a moustache and a fez.

“How can I help you” he paused slightly, and continued “Ladies, today?”

“I would like something wickedly sexy and mildly intimidating for myself and something playful and flirty and slightly scandalous for her,” Sandra said.

“Very good, ma’am,” the shopkeeper said. He disappeared behind a door that Harley hadn’t noticed before, because it was so covered in merchandise, and he reappeared a moment later with two large brown gift boxes. He went to hand one to Sandra, shook his head, changed his mind and then handed her the other box. Harley took the remaining box.

“The changing rooms are at the back of the shop,” the shopkeeper told them.

Sandra led Harley further into the shop, the lighting got worse as they got to the back and Harley was glad that Sandra opened the door to let him into a small brightly lit room with a mirror.

“Hurry up and change and meet me out here,” Sandra told her, as she stepped into another room next door.

Harley went in and opened the box. It wasn’t clear what the outfit was meant to be, but it was too complex, too ornate and covered in gems and gold. It was mostly white silk and diaphanous crinoline. As Harley was studying the outfit she glanced in the mirror and there was a lurch, like a glitch in the Matrix, and she found that she was looking at herself, wearing the outfit.

“I’m a slutty Angel,” Harley muttered to herself, as she turned to leave the room. She noticed that there was another door on the opposite side of the changing room, but she didn’t feel like risking that today, so she took one last look at herself before heading back out of the door she had used before to come into the room.

Harley wasn’t sure what character she was meant to be, it looked a little like the stylised anime girls of Sailor Moon or some of the online computer games. There was a halo-like headpiece that shone with its own hidden light source. Her cleavage was on display like she was wearing a Dirndl. The top felt like a corset, had mated with a waistcoat and covered itself in buttons and laces. The skirt was short, split up the front so that it almost showed her panties and had masses of lace, almost like a built-in tutu. There were garter belts tied down to some thigh-high white silk stockings and ankle boots with a high heel.

She looked like a school boy’s wet dream of a fantasy virgin princess.

Sandra looked like the inverse of her outfit, where Harley’s outfit had white silk Sandra’s had black vinyl or latex. Where Harley had gold highlights, Sandra had blood-red detailing that looked like ancient runes. Sandra’s outfit had thigh-high boots with laces up the front that gapped to show the fishnet stocking underneath. Sandra’s outfit had a plunging neckline that showed off her navel, and threatened to show much more than that. She had a headpiece that was reminiscent of a pair of horns that was so black it seemed to suck the light into itself.
Sandra also had dramatic makeup that highlighted her cheekbones and deep eye sockets.

“Muhahaha” she cackled, when she saw Harley.

“Eep!” went Harley in mock fright.

“This is perfect!” Sandra told the shopkeeper, “How should we pay you?”

“The usual way will be fine,” the shopkeeper told her, “The usual enchantment is on the boxes. Will your… ward… be ok with that?”

“Harley will be fine with that,” Sandra assured him. She handed an empty costume box to Harley and told her “Hold it like this…” as she mimed opening the box with one hand while supporting it with another. In the blink of an eye, Harley was naked and the costume was neatly packed in the box.

“Oops!” said Sandra brightly “Go and change and I’ll see you back here in a moment. Sandra went into her changing room leaving Harley standing there naked and stunned.

The shopkeeper gave her an amused look. Harley shrugged, there was no one else in the store and the shopkeeper was a man, so he wasn’t going to complain about seeing her fabulous body. Harley smiled at the shopkeeper and tilted her head to one side as she sized him up. The shopkeeper began to look a little nervous. Harley shook herself, what was she thinking? That she would bang a strange shopkeeper in the middle of a store in broad daylight? She hurried off to the changing room to clothe herself and met up with Sandra a few moments later.

Sandra put her box in a carrier bag and Harley gingerly did the same.

Harley realised that while she was with Sandra her urges were not as strong.

Sandra took Harley to lunch and then the two of them did some more shopping that afternoon. When they got home to Sandra’s house she dished up some snacks from the fridge, made a cup of tea for each of them and told Harley of her plans for the evening.

They were like a couple of young female roommates. Harley couldn't get over how normal this felt. Much more normal than her previous existence of angst and dread and agonising over little slights. It wasn’t just because she had someone (something) to share her life with now… suspicion hit her…

“Did you change me?” Harley blurted out.

“D’Uh” Sandra replied after the briefest of pauses.

“I’m not talking physically, I mean… mentally. Who am I now?” Harley asked.

“Well, you are Harley Sable. And reality is trying to heal a Harvey shaped hole. So your life as Harley is going to be easier than you imagine for a while and your life as Harvey will fade from everyone’s memory.” Sandra said.

“Huh?” Harley said.

Sandra sighed. “Ok,” she said, “you may not believe this… but you have seen monsters and demons a ton of times before…”

“I have never knowingly seen a demon before, you kept yourself pretty well hidden. And what do you mean ‘Monsters’?” Harley said, interrupting Sandra while she was trying to find the words to explain what she meant.

“Monsters are what we call supernatural creatures who are too large or too weird to blend in. Demons are from another place to your universe. It doesn’t matter...whenever there is something different to what you call ‘Reality’ the Powers That Be will work to make it seem normal, partly to protect you and partly to prevent Reality unravelling,” Sandra said.

“Unravelling? That sounds… I don’t know, a bit messy?” Harley said.

“Well, yes… Where I come from… Well, you literally can’t imagine what it’s like… Time, Gravity, Light - all those things follow rules here. Where I’m from… well, they’re more like suggestions, than rules, I guess.” Sandra said.

“That’s how you can do magic, I guess?” Harley asked.

“Well… it’s more complicated than that. Where I’m from, having Tuesday consistently come after Monday would be considered Magic. Interacting with your Reality involves negotiating some complex rules, but there are some grey areas that can be exploited. But there can be a cost…” Sandra said.

“Go on,” Harley said.

“Well, you can incur the curiosity of something, a demon, something older and more powerful, or the Powers That Be” said Sandra.

“I can hear the capitals when you say that, what do you mean - Powers That Be? God?” Harley asked.

“I’ve never met Yahweh, or any kind of omnipotent, omniscient being, what you would call a God, I guess. But there are more and more powerful beings in a kind of hierarchy. But most of them seem to be completely indifferent to humanity. You should probably be thankful for that.” Sandra said.

Harley shivered as she thought of the implications.

“But there are… I guess you could call them aspects of reality that hold sway here and now that the rest of us have to answer to. That makes them sound more like people than powers. There are, I’m struggling for the right words here… beings who are far more potent than you can imagine who act as intermediaries for the powers and tell us what the powers want and what they will accept. It’s not ‘want’ or ‘need’ as you understand the terms… Look, just accept that something you will never meet and cannot understand wants the world to see and expect Harley, to forget about Harvey and completely abhors demons and the supernatural in their native forms. Can you do that?” Sandra said.

“Er… Ok? I guess. There is no God but there are things that have a more immediate impact on my reality than god or gods ever did?” Haley said.

“Like me!” Sandra said with a sunny smile, trying to break the oppressive atmosphere that had descended on the bright, sunny kitchen for a moment.

“What’s the plan for tonight?” Harley asked, doing her part to lighten the mood.

“Oh! We need to get ready! I have got us invitations to a fancy Halloween party. There will be lots of attractive rich guys there. As long as you can behave yourself until we can get a couple of them back here then we should be in for a good night” Sandra said.

“Attractive rich guys? Won’t they all have wives or girlfriends?” Harley asked, a little dejected “Wouldn’t we have more… you know… ‘fun’ at a college party?”

“To be honest, I’m still a little worried about your limits and boundaries. Let’s take it slow and try and keep it within acceptable limits so that we don’t trigger anything?” Sandra said. Her cheery grin did little to placate Harley.

“That doesn’t sound ominous, at all!” Harley said.

Sandra shooed Harley away to shower and get ready before using the magical box to get changed.

Sandra called a mini-cab and they were waiting for their ride to appear when suddenly Sandra’s face went white.

“S-sandra! What’s…” Harley started to ask.

Sandra let out a shriek - “Noooo!” which rose to octaves that only dogs, and, apparently now, Harley, could hear. Her body collapsed in on itself in multiple dimensions, which Harley was disturbed to find that she could also perceive and there was a strange tear in reality which Harley was sure no normal human could perceive and not go insane. There was a noise like a heavenly choir if the choir was made of insanely scared teen girls moaning in fear and dread in perfect harmony which was abruptly cut off as what remained of Sandra’s body was sucked through the tear like a table-tennis ball into a vacuum cleaner. The tear slammed shut with such force that it shook the house like a small earthquake.

Harley felt like a piece of her soul had been ripped away, abruptly. She could feel fear and anguish from Sandra, but it was like there was a wall or a barrier between them. She could feel the direction it was coming from, it felt like an itch she couldn’t scratch.

It was not the only itch. Harley’s libido which had been held at manageable levels while Sandra was around suddenly flared into life again. Harley whimpered as her body shook with the sudden need to take part in unfeasible acts of lust.

Just then, the mini-cab pulled up in the drive and honked it’s horn. Harley walked out of the house in a daze to find a pretty woman sitting in the driver seat. Harley thanked her lucky stars, because she wasn’t sure what she would have done if the driver had been…
Her internal dialogue stuttered over the word ‘male’ and fragmented into vividly imagined scenes from an orgy as her knees buckled.

Harley flung herself into the backseat of the cab and said “Drive”.

She didn’t have a plan, she was hanging onto the tattered shards of her sanity, but she could feel Sandra like a compass felt the north pole and she would follow that feeling and free her as if her life depended on it. Which it probably did.