Magic made the clean up process after missions much quicker, and in Ben’s case, much more bearable. No shower was needed for anyone, a spell was able to clean up all the dirt and filth they had picked up in an instant. An incredible convenience, and Ben was thankful he didn’t have to actively bathe. Seeing his naked body in its current state would undoubtedly be uncomfortable.

The body bag holding whatever was left of Antonio was put in a coffin to be given to a funeral director as Geisinger and a few other S.I.D. workers constructed a powerful magical barrier in front of the Forbidden Cave. They had to be absolutely sure this time that no one would ever step foot in it again.

***

Ben was staring at a few folders in front of him in his quarters. He knew he should probably start working on them, but he just couldn’t get himself to do it. Not as he now was.

He kept getting distracted by every little new thing about himself. Taking his mind off of it was impossible. To have one’s own body change so suddenly like this left him more disoriented and confused than he had ever been before in his life.

Finding his movement again, he switched on his computer and put on the camera. His reflection was much more clear here than it was in the water of the cave, so this was basically the first time he was really looking at himself.

He had to admit, he was an attractive woman. Very attractive in fact. College aged Ben would’ve absolutely been in love with her.

On second thought, that probably wasn’t accurate. It wasn’t as if Ben looked like an entirely new person. He still resembled his male self, to the point where he looked like his own sister. No, he wouldn’t have been in love with her. But his male friends certainly would’ve been. Some of his female friends too.

He noticed his thoughts were becoming particularly vain, and so he humbled himself. He wasn’t going to be this woman for very long anyway, so getting caught up in her beauty was useless.

He heard a knock on his door and shut off his computer.

“Come in.” He said.

The door opened to reveal Stephen. “Hey, I heard what happened.” He said, taking a seat. “I can’t believe it’s actually true.”

“You’re telling me.” Ben replied.

“God, how does it feel?”

Ben snickered. “You really had to ask that question, didn’t you? Not invasive at all.”

“Sorry.” Stephen said. “I guess that was a little out of line.”

“You think?”

“I said sorry.” Stephen defended himself. “I was just a little curious. Anyway, what’s your plan? You know, with this?”

Ben leaned back into his chair. “Well, whenever Geisinger’s done with that barrier, he’ll change me back.” He hesitated for a second. “I mean, I could try out being a woman for a while, but Jacqueline makes it too complicated. Best to just change back now and not have to deal with explaining all this.”

“That makes sense. I know someone from my high school who changed genders. They told me how much of a hassle it was. Changing IDs, documents, and drivers licenses and all that. It’s a lot.”

“‘Changed genders’?” Ben asked. “Why not just say ‘trans’? That’s what they are right?”

“Right yeah. Slipped my mind.” Stephen said. “Anyway, I want to ask, what happened after you fell down that trap?”

At that question, images of endless water and the mysterious white light sprang into Ben’s mind. The feeling of drowning, the feeling of one’s life fading away from them, and the feeling of being driven to suicide soon followed. He couldn’t help but shudder.

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

Stephen examined Ben’s face for a bit, as if trying to gauge exactly what happened through facial expressions alone. Even without an answer, he could tell that whatever happened down there had been deeply traumatic.

“Okay.” Stephen replied eventually.

Sensing Ben’s now darkened mood, Stephen decided it was best for him to leave.

“I better get back to my quarters.” He said, standing up. “See you later.”

“Bye.”

Stephen opened the door and left the room without a hitch. Ben watched as he tried to clear his mind of the awful experiences.

***

Ben was absent mindedly tapping one of his pens on his desk when he finally got the message from Geisinger to meet him upstairs on the third floor. To Ben’s disappointment, he was in the scanning room, meaning a curse and corruption check was in order.

A curse and corruption check involved analyzing a person’s entire body, mind, and soul for any magical ailments. Any curse or magical corruption would be caught, allowing for immediate medical attention. The sooner that happened, the better. The machine the S.I.D. used was one of the most accurate in the country. Ben was sure to have a thorough examination.

The problem was that the examination required him to be naked. Clothing interfered with the machine’s analysis and caused unreliable results. Ben groaned. Why couldn’t they do this after he was changed back? Life wasn’t fair sometimes.

Ben opened the door to the scanning room and made an effort to heighten his mood to an acceptable level.

Once inside, Geisinger took a long look at him, but thankfully didn’t tease him about his transformation. Or even say anything about it, for that matter.

“You know the drill.” He said.

“Is there any reason why we can’t change me back first?” Ben asked him. “You CAN change me back right?”

“Of course I can.” Geisinger answered. “It’s a simple spell, if you know how to do it. But it’s very important we check you first before putting any additional magic into you.”

Ben had to admit that explanation made a lot of sense. Really, he shouldn’t be in such a sour mood. He was only hurting himself.

“Alright.” He said. “Let’s do this.”

***

The scanning machine itself was located behind the door in the scanning room across from the entrance. Opening it revealed a small changing area before another door. This particular door was metal, and it operated electronically without a handle.

Ben stared at this door, sitting on the one chair the changing room offered. At first he had tried to close his eyes to avoid looking at his naked body, but it proved fruitless. He couldn’t stop himself from looking down.

Once he did start looking at himself, his fear and discomfort actually mostly faded. This body was certainly not what he was used to, but looking at it now, it didn’t seem so bad. It was just a body. He didn’t understand why he was dreading this so much. It was a bit silly thinking about it now.

He eventually took notice of something when looking at himself. While his body was definitely attractive, he had also lost a lot of his muscle mass. Losing muscle mass was to be expected with a transformation like this, but he had lost quite a bit more than he should have. Ben was extremely fit even for a man, but this female body retained none of that. It was actually kind of frustrating. Would he get all of his muscle back when this transformation was undone or would he have to work to get it all back? That thought made him groan.

A beep interrupted his thoughts. Looking up, he saw the metal door in front of him had unlocked and was now opening.

Time to get in.

Ben stepped inside and watched as the metal door shut and locked itself. Soon afterward an AI voice announced the start of the scanning, and the white walls and floor turned blue. Now all that was left was the suspenseful and agonizing wait.

A full scan typically took around thirty to forty seconds. At the end of it, the color of the room would change to either green, yellow, or red. Green meant no magical ailments, yellow meant magical ailments that were not serious or life threatening, and red meant magical ailments that were incredibly dangerous and needed immediate attention. Ben shut his eyes and prayed for green.

Luckily for him, his praying paid off. A beeping sound was heard and Ben opened his eyes to see green. He was clear.

He sighed in relief. A huge weight had just been lifted off his shoulders, and it felt great.

At the same time though, he couldn’t help but wonder why the white light would trap him in that room to ultimately do nothing except change him into a woman. No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t make any sense.

Well, that was all over now. No use dwelling on it.

***

After the results came in and cleared him, Ben followed Geisinger down to the S.I.D.’s library, located on the first floor. It was huge, and consisted of a ton of books spanning a variety of different topics regarding the supernatural and its history. In spite of all the knowledge it held, the room itself was usually pretty empty. S.I.D. members weren’t required to do any reading from it, as they’d all already done more than enough studying of the supernatural in their college classes. It was used mainly as a last resort, when they needed information they could not find anywhere else.

“I know you all think otherwise.” Geisinger said as he pulled out a spellbook from one of the shelves. “But I haven’t actually read every book in this room.”

“I’m not buying that.” Ben smirked. “Boss.”

Geisinger visibly flinched at that word, his smile instantly disappearing. “You guys will never stop pissing me off with that huh?”

Ben shook his head.

Geisinger groaned, but his face soon returned to a smile. “Hey you know what? Let’s play a game, like your parents did when you were five. If you call me ‘boss’ or ‘captain’ again, I won’t change you back until Monday.”

Ben retained his smirk. “You certainly make a good offer, cap… turing demons is something you do really well, do you know that?”

“Why thank you.” Geisinger replied in a mocking tone. “It’s always nice to pay your boss a compliment, right?”

“Right.”

Geisinger chuckled as he flipped through the spellbook. “I think it was page… one hundred thirty-three.” He continued to flip. “Here it is.”

He laid the open book down on a book stand. “Try to stand still for this.” He told Ben.

Ben nodded.

Geisinger concentrated down onto the book and began to read out the spell. Doing the spell properly required more than simply reading it out. It meant you had to focus and, in a sense, “become one” with your magic. It was a tricky thing to do, and practice was needed to pull it off. Gender bending spells in particular were some of the more challenging spells, as were all transformation spells. Focus and control was absolutely key here.

Geisinger finished reading off the spell and allowed his magic to run free, aiming it right toward Ben. He opened his eyes and saw Ben’s body glowing white. The white light continued to grow brighter, getting closer and closer to completely engulfing his body.

And then the white light faded and Ben was left still as a woman.

“Huh.” Geisinger said in confusion. “That should’ve worked.”

Ben looked down at his body. “Are you sure you did it right?”

“I’m pretty sure? That’s the same way I always do it.”

“Well do it again because I know for a fact I didn’t move a muscle.”

Geisinger went back to the spellbook and read out the spell again, making sure to be extra focused this time. When he was finished, he saw the familiar sight of a body glowing with a white that was getting brighter every second.

And then the same thing happened. The white faded and Ben was still a woman.

“Yeah, something is definitely wrong here.” Geisinger said

“Really? I didn’t notice.” Ben said back, sarcastic and a bit stressed. “How could you tell?”

“Shut up. Those spells should have worked.” Geisinger said. “I’ll do it again.”

And he did it again. And Ben remained a woman, again.

“What the fuck is going on!?” Ben yelled. “Are you going senile?”

“I’m forty-three. That’s not that old.” Geisinger replied, stress starting to overtake him. “And I’ve done this spell perfectly, every time. It’s like your body is rejecting it.”

“What?”

“Whenever I try to do the spell, your body doesn’t let the magic go through. It’s like it's being blocked.”

“Why is it doing that!? I was cleared right?”

“Yeah. There’s no reason why this shouldn’t be working. And yet, it isn’t.” Geisinger said. “The machine may have made a mistake. Even the best technology isn’t immune to failure. I don’t see how something as big as this could’ve been missed though…”

“So what do we do?” Ben asked, almost desperate.

Geisinger stared down at the spellbook.

“We try every spell we can.”

***

They didn’t try every spell they could, but in just one hour Geisinger must have broken some kind of record for most spells performed on a single person. He tried a huge variety of different spells, some to change Ben back into a man directly, some to simply fix ailments, some to return one to their original form, and some to try to break the supposed barrier on Ben’s body.

All the same result, nothing worked. Nothing even came close. Ben was still a woman after every single spell.

“I think I figured out the problem.” Geisinger said. “It’s not your body rejecting the magic, it’s your soul. It’s not letting you change back into a man. It’s forcing you to remain a woman.”

“Why would it do that?” Ben asked, exasperated.

“I don’t know. This shouldn’t happen. I have no idea what to do.” Geisinger said, tired from all the spell casting. “Do you remember what happened before your transformation?” He asked. “When you fell into that trap?”

Ben took a deep breath as those events came back into his mind. He didn’t want to think about them again, but right now he really needed some answers. He shouldn’t lie to Geisinger, of all people.

Plus, it wasn’t like he needed to tell him everything.

“It was the sphere of white light. The same one Antonio saw, for sure.” Ben said. “It hit me and then… this happened.”

“That’s what did it?” Geisinger asked. “The light?”

“Yeah.”

“That… could be bad…” He remarked. “But by the looks of things I don’t think anything too serious will happen. I’ll do some research and see if there’s any case of something like this happening in history.”

“What do you mean you WILL do research.” Ben asked.

Geisinger sighed. “I’m sorry Ben, I really am. But I need to get back to work. I didn’t think this would take so long. Your shift here is over anyway.”

“What, you're just going to leave me like this? It’s Friday!”

“I know, but Ben, I have work I need to get done. I’ll look into your problem this weekend, I promise.” He said. “You should go home for now.”

“But Jacqueline! What am I supposed to tell her? I can’t go home like this! What will she think!?”

Geisinger cringed, feeling a strong sense of sympathy for Ben’s situation. “Just… just wing it, okay?” He took notice of the time. “I really gotta go. Uh… good luck.”

He walked out of the library, leaving Ben alone.

***

It took a few minutes before Ben was finally ready to leave the library, and a few more before he was ready to leave the S.I.D. building altogether.

As he was walking out the front doors, he took notice of a familiar face leaving the grief counseling program. It was Johanna. Looks like she took his advice. He smiled, at least things were going well for her… relatively speaking, of course.

His smile quickly went away when he was reminded of what he would have to do tonight.

Explain his transformation to Jacqueline. How the hell was he going to manage that? It was a really embarrassing thing to have to explain, that he turned into a woman and wasn’t able to turn back. Would she accept him?

If he absolutely had to be a woman for a little while, then so be it. He could… no, she could do it. She could make a fine woman. But did Jacqueline have to be in the house too? That would just be painfully awkward.

Ben got into her car and pulled out her phone. She pulled up Jacqueline’s number and began texting her a message.

“Well, here goes nothing.”