The first day of April always meant the same thing. April Lancaster, the most popular girl at school, would pick her 'fool' and make them follow her around carrying her books, pulling out her chair, bringing her lunch or whatever else April wanted them to do.
It didn't stop there. April was also a witch.
You couldn't 'refuse' to be April's fool, or she'd do something horrible. Two years ago, she'd turned poor Becky Snider into a rat for the day, and not just any rat. Becky had become a full on feral packrat with all the instincts, and lived in the junkyard for the full 24 hours. She'd done all kinds of ratlike things including building a nest, eating garbage, and, well, mating with other rats, according to Becky. When April returned her to human form at midnight, Becky had respawned in a storm drain and she'd been stuck for two days until the fire department could get her out.
She'd never been the same since. Her head still darted around and sometimes we caught her wiggling her nose, or staring into the trash bin at lunch.
So, as the day approached, all of us were filled with dread.
You also couldn't just stay home that day. Bruce Symonds had tried that once and April had still cast a spell on him to talk with every other word to be 'fart.' At first it was kind of funny: "Hey, Fart, shutup fart, you fart, guys, fart, this, fart isn't, fart, funny!" He'd decided not to speak at all for the rest of the day, and instead of letting him off the hook, April had given him constant flatulance for a week.
"If you're not going to speak, then you can fart!" April said, after she'd teleported into his house.
Bruce let loose the first of what would be a nearly constant urge to pass gas. And not silently, but the loudest and most smelly...well, you get the picture. His reputation took a brutal hit, and we all still sorta held our breath if we passed him.
I really didn't want to be her fool.
April and I had dated for a time, until she found me talking with Mitzy Butterfly. It hadn't been anything serious, but I was laughing, and Mitzy was laughing and the next thing I knew April was screaming at us. The hate-filled tears in her eyes as she ended our courtship will haunt me forever. She'd never said a word to me after that, but I knew revenge was coming. Mitzy wanted to drop out of school because of April's harrassment, but I'd told her not to let April win. We'd become quite close after that.
Which is why I dreaded this April First so badly. That had happened seven months ago, and I'd seen April stealing glances at me ever since. I tried to laugh it off, girls will be girls, but some of the glances were pretty deadly.
Each year she'd make her pronouncement from the steps of High Valley High School at the ten minute warning bell before school. We were all seniors this year so it would be our last April Fools day...and I knew April Lancaster was saving the best for last.
"Dude, you think it'll be you?" Jeff Farnum said, as I got into the passenger side of his 1979 International Scout.
I sighed. We'd been talking about this for weeks, of course. "You know it's against the Accords for a magic user to wield magic against a non-magic user," I said. "She'd never endanger her position in the Coven for a stupid thing like this."
"I think she'd make an exception for you."
"It's all bullshit, man," I said. "She can't."
I thought about the way her eyes looked when she'd screamed at me and shivered. "She wouldn't. Would she?"
"I dunno, Seth," Jeff said, as we sped around Broadway and headed up 35th to the high school. "I mean, she doesn't have to use magic on you to declare you her fool."
That's what I was worried about. If you played along with her games, and did everything she asked, you could get off with little being done to you. Last year, Pete Dubois did just that, and she hadn't cast a single spell, or caused a single bit of havoc with him. He'd quietly done her bidding, and she'd released him at the end of the day. End of story.
"Too bad, the full moon was two nights ago," Jeff said. "Otherwise her spells would just bounce off you anyway."
I was a werewolf. So, technically, I was in the magic-users group, but also not because my use of magic was involuntary. It was a 'grey' area in the books.
"I can't use magic," I said. "End of story. If she tries to make me her fool, I can just walk away, she won't do shit to me."
"We'll see, I guess," Jeff said. He clapped me on the shoulder. "At the very least it will be interesting."
The steps in front of High Valley High, were where everyone hung out before school. The sidewalk in front of the school was city property, so the smokers used to stand on the sidewalk, while everyone else sat on the steps and talked, threw a frisbee, ate breakfast, or did last minute homework assignments.
April had already gathered her entourage, and 'held court' primping and posing for selfies with her other friends. They were the popular crowd, full of jocks and cheerleaders while the rest of us formed into our own crowds. Jeff and I were part of the other Were's group. Mitzy was also been a part of our gang, which was why April had been so pissed.
Mitzy hugged me as Jeff and I jumped up the first of the steps. She was a petite girl with short, multi-colored hair. She was also a butterfly-were, turning into human-sized monarch butterfly with the full moon each month.
"You know, it's going to be me or you, right?" Mitzy said, sticking a cigarette in her mouth. I lit it for her, and she stood on the sidewalk.
"We are not magic users," I said.
"That's not going to stop her, Seth, and you know it."
I sighed, and scratched my head. "I'm not going to play her stupid games."
"If we're picked we just have to do as she says, and she won't so anything to us." Mitzy inhaled deeply, blowing the smoke into the breeze. "Promise me you won't do anything stupid, Seth."
"It's all bullshit!" I yelled, looking at April, who's eyes turned black as she stared at me.
"Dude, don't antagonize her!" Jeff said.
"I'm going inside," I said. "If she makes me her fool, what the fuck ever." I started to walk up the steps, when the ten-minute warning bell rang.
Everyone's eyes swung to April. She gave a cute little smile.
"It's time," she said. "And for this year, for my fool, I choose..."
Her eyes roamed over the crowd. Many of the kids were eager to be near her, and several even raised their hands. You had to be pretty pathetic in order to...
"Mitzy Butterfly!" She said, pointing to Mitzy.
I looked at her, and she shot me a look so full of terror and fright I thought she was going to faint. "Seth!"
I sighed, thinking of Mitzy being forced to do all the horrible things April was going to make her do. She would be doing this out of revenge, and she was going to humiliate the poor girl. I mean, I didn't have romantic feelings for her, or anything, but it wasn't fair that April was going to torment her just for talking to me at the wrong place, wrong time.
April walked over to us, a wicked smile on her lips. She'd adopted wearing black lipstick and mascara lately, and had colored her hair a glossy blue-black as well. The rest of her crew had followed suit with all of them looking like goth dolls.
"Well, Butterfly?" April said. "As your first act, I command you to kneel and lick my feet."
"Fuck that," I said, putting my hand on Mitzy and pulling her back. "April, stop this shit and go to class. You can't force a were to do your bidding because we're all non-magic users."
"Your father sits on the High Council, does he not?" April said.
"Yes, but..."
"But nothing!" she glared at me with such hate in her eyes, I was truly afraid. "Unless you're willing to take her place, Seth Atkins, step aside and let my fool complete her task or face the consequences!"
I shook my head. I hated bullies, hated them with every bone in my werewolf body. As a were, I was pretty powerful, but only certain nights of the month, and Jeff was right, those nights were behind me.
But I couldn't let Mitzy be treated like this, not in front of everyone, not for April Lancaster--
Not because of me.
"Yeah, I'll be your fool, April." I said. "Leave Mitzy out of this."
"Then drop to the floor, Doggy, and LICK MY FEET!" she screamed, holding out a black patent-leather pump.
Sighing, I glared at her.
And dropped.
-------------------------------
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Chapter Two
The popular girls all gave squeals of laughter as I dropped to my hands and knees in front of April. I heard groans from the rest of the students, and dimly heard Jeff say; "Aw, dude! Don't do it man!"
I refused to let myself feel humiliated. This was April's twisted sense of payback. I was protecting Mitzy from her rage and possible magical repercussions. April was a powerful witch and when in a fury, Witches had been known to wreak havoc on those less powerful. If I could become her target, even for one day, it could spare lives.
I gave her patent leather heels a lick. I knew she wanted me to feel humiliated.
I refused to give her what she wanted.
"Good Doggy!" she said, patting my head. "Now take my backpack and help me get to class."
I got up and swung her Saint Laurent white backpack onto my shoulder, along with my backpack that I'd had since I'd been in seventh grade. We didn't have a lot of money, especially for three thousand dollar backpacks.
"Good Dog!" A couple of her entourage said.
"April, can he carry -my- backpack too?" one of the girl's said.
April paused, considering. "Yes. Fool, take all of my friend's backpacks too!"
I rolled my eyes but swung three onto my back. Two more backpacks had piled up at my feet. "I can't take those," I said.
"What do you mean?" April said, batting her extended lashes at me.
"I can't carry them!" I said. "I have yours, mine, Jenni's, Stephanie's, and Charlotte's. I can't take any more."
"Leave your backpack here, then!" she said.
"But I--" I saw her eyes fade to black, and I shook my head, allowing my backpack to slide back down to the ground. I shouldered the three I had then, picked up the other two in my hands, and followed April into the building.
The backpacks were heavy and kept trying to slide off my shoulders which made me stumble as I tried to keep up with her.
"Keep up with me, Fool!" she yelled, as I increased my speed to the laughter and giggles of the girls surrounding me.
The other students all looked at me as I stumbled through the hallways. Some had snide looks on their faces, and others looked concerned or frowned. Mitzy had picked up my backpack and followed a few paces behind. When we got to her first period class, which was home-economics, April paused as I handed all her friends their backpacks and they gave me vicious grins and walked inside.
"Be back exactly when the bell rings, Fool!" she said, as I held her backpack up to her.
"Yeah," I said in response.
"You will address me as Mistress, is that clear, Fool?"
I shook my head, rolling my eyes.
"I expect to hear 'Yes, Mistress!'"
I grit my teeth. "Look, I carried your stupid bags to your stupid class. I'll be back when the bell rings." I started to walk off.
Bonds of energy seized me in a vice-grip. I was lifted up onto my toes, and turned to confront April. "You will respond by saying 'Yes, Mistress!'"
I grit my teeth, clamping my mouth shut. If this went on too long, eventually--
"What's going on here?" a deep male voice said from behind me.
Mr. Jenkins, my science teacher, glanced up at me. "That you, Atkins?"
"She--" but something stuffed my throat, and I couldn't speak.
"Seth was helping get to class and put his hand on my butt!" April said.
Mr. Jenkins frowned. "That true, Atkins?"
I tried to shake my head, but something forced it up and down.
"Look, I don't know what's going on here, but work it out and fast. It's time for class to start."
Gee, thanks for the help. I thought.
"If Seth will apologize, I'll let it go, this time," April said.
I sighed. "I apologize."
The bonds released me, and I could move again.
"See me in my office after school today, Atkins."
"Yes, Sir."
Mr. Jenkins nodded, then walked away.
The halls had emptied by this point, and I knew if I didn't get to class fast, I was going to be late. "Yes, Mistress!" I hissed out and put as much venom as I could into the words.
April nodded and looked a bit sad at me. "You hate me."
"Of course I do!" I said, walking away from her. "What did you expect?"
I took off, hoping to get to class on time. Distantly, I heard April open the door.
"He hates me now."
I shook my head and sprinted to my classroom.
Chapter Three
I made it to my Advanced Placement United States History class just as the tardy bell rang. Miss Minnick, my teacher, followed me with her eyes as she hovered above her cushion at the front of the room. Miss Minnick was an infernal, and she had tiny demon horns above her eyebrows, and a wispy angular tail. Her class always smelled faintly of brimstone.
"What do we say about being on time to class, children?"
I winced.
The class recited: "To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is to write an essay!"
"Hmm, which essay shall we have you write..." Miss Minnick went to her 'special hat' where she had writing essay prompts.
I really didn't have time today to write an essay, not with being April's fool.
"I wasn't late! I came in before--"
"Class?" Miss Minnick said.
"To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is to write an essay!"
"Dude, just take your punishment and chill out," Franklin Dell said. He and I were study partners in APUSH.
I sighed as Miss Minnick theatrically shuffled the slips in her hat. "Miss Contreras, would you be so kind?"
Anita Contreras snickered, put her hand into the slips, and drew one out.
"Analyze the causes and consequences of the Civil War."
I groaned, letting my head slump to the table.
Usually, I enjoyed APUSH, but today I was angry at the events before school. Miss Minnick began delivering her lecture on Progressivism and the Rise of American Power.
April and I had known each other since the fifth grade. Back then, she was just a funny, spunky girl that I used to play with at recess. I remembered waiting for her on the monkey bars, and she'd come running out from class and clonk me on the head with her hairbrush. "Hey stupid," she'd say.
I'd never been 'boyfriend' material until finally, as freshman, I confessed I'd had a long-standing crush on her. She laughed at first; she'd been dating the quarterback on the freshman football team, then when he treated her like shit, she and I found each other.
It was the kind of first love fumbling, tumbling, and first kisses that we remember our whole lives. At first, things were really good, and I think I was happy for the first, and maybe the only time in my life. I walked her to school, we'd spend every lunch hour together, and generally, every waking moment if I wasn't in school, doing homework, or playing baseball, it was with her.
Then her dad sold his company for big money, and they moved away. However, April threw a fit and forced her dad to allow her to remain at High Valley High with her friends. She started coming into her power around that point, the same time she entered womanhood, and she'd undergone a rather dramatic transformation.
Her mother was Desdemonia, the most powerful magic user in High Valley. She wasn't a good or bad witch; she was a chaos user who used magic when and if things aligned in their own interests. When April came into her power, she had to go through her initiation...and come out the other side as a snide, bitchy, feral witch who used magic on others in mean ways. She said it was her geas, but all I know is the spunky brown-haired girl-next-door was replaced by this gothic, black-tressed bitch we all knew and loved now.
Our relationship fell apart when she put a collar on me in wolf-form one month. That's another story for another time.
Anyway, now she was the terror of the school. She had her bitchy friends who did bitchy things to people bitchily. And I'd gone from being infatuated with her to dreading the sight of her.
"Mr. Atkins," Miss Minnick said, reminding me abruptly that I'd spaced out. "Care to chime in on our discussion?"
I blinked and looked around. All eyes were on me, and Anita even snickered. "Um, sorry, can you repeat the question?"
In a testy voice, Miss Minnick said: "What were the key goals of the Progressive Movement, and how did they try to achieve those goals?"
My brain quickly reviewed everything I knew about the Progressive Movement. "The key goals of the Progressive movement included improving social and economic conditions for all Americans, reducing corruption and inefficiency in government, and expanding democracy and citizen participation?"
She smiled at me. "Well done."
I liked answering questions correctly. It gave me a little thrill each time I did. "Thank you."
"Please see me after class."
The little thrill went away. After class? That would be a disaster since I needed to sprint to April's class to carry her books to the next class! Panic filled me, and my pulse started racing. What would she do?
Did I care what she would do? If she used magic on me, I'd call my dad. As a member of the Council of Magic in High Valley, he wanted to know when power was being abused, and since April was starting to lean toward the dark side of Magic, he'd want to know.
I took a breath and calmed my pulse. In moments of extreme anxiety, my curse could manifest, and I didn't want that to happen, not here, not in class, not in front of all my friends...
I calmed down a bit, and class resumed as normal.
------------------
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“What’s going on, Seth?” Miss Minnick always called me by my last name in front of the other students, but called me by my first name in private. She was a nice lady, a good teacher, and an awesome mentor.
“I’m April’s Fool,” I said. “In fact, she’s probably looking for me right —“
“Oh, pffft. That girl needs to be put in her place.” Miss Minnick collected the blue-books stacked on her desks. She was the only teacher who still used blue-books for our exams in this age of tablets and smart-devices.
“I don’t think I’m the one to do it, Miss Minnick.”
“You’re stronger than you think, Seth. Never forget that.” She made a sweeping motion with her hands. A breath of brimstone filled the room, and all the blue-books flipped open and started correcting themselves in blood red ink. “Now, off with you, so you can attend to the game.”
I nodded and sprinted away.
April stood in the hallway in front of her class, tapping her heel and glancing at her phone.
“About time, fool,” she said. “Carry my backpack.”
I was a little shocked she wasn’t more irate. I shouldered her backpack and followed her through the hallway. She texted constantly on her phone the entire time. Students made way for her as she stalked through the hallways, her curly black hair bouncing on her shoulders.
“I miss the way your hair used to look,” I said.
She glanced back at me, her azure eyes perfectly made up with heavy dark eyeliner and mascara.
“You wore less makeup then too.”
“I was a child, stupid.”
“I know somewhere under all that makeup and hair product, the April I loved still lurks. Why can’t you just admit you won and let me go? We don’t have to play this stupid game.”
She stopped, and I realized we were in the quadrangle between wings of the building. I noticed there was a gathering of other students, including her stupid clique of the popular girls.
She moved into her group, then turned to regard me with an icy glare.
I knew this was going to be trouble.
“Fool!” she screamed out. “You were late picking me up!”
I glared at her in return, clenching my jaw. I felt my pulse racing again, and the change wanting to sweep over me. Not the time or place, Seth.
The danger of angering a were like me was control. If I lost control of my temper, I was a little like the Hulk—I had no ability to restrain myself or my inner instincts. With this many people gathered around in this small of an area—
It would be a bloodbath.
“Ooh, he’s getting angry,” Stephanie said. She ran a finger over my bicep.
“Don’t touch me,” I said and was a little surprised at how inhuman it sounded.
My true nature with the full of the moon was over a week ago, but shreds of my inhumanity still lingered. Most people don’t realize that weres must maintain a facade of control at all times. By giving into my inner nature could spell disaster of all kinds — to those around me, and to myself. Weres going feral and being stuck in the feral state were definitely not unknown, though it had been a long time since High Valley had a feral were.
You are the song in your mind. Live through your song. My father’s voice during our training rang in my ears, and I calmed myself.
April was a child playing a child’s games in front of children.
“It’s okay,” Mitzy whispered somewhere beside me. “You’re okay.”
I nodded.
“As punishment,” April placed a perfectly sculpted fingernail on her chin, tapping softly.
Dark magic swept up from the ground, granular and black. It hissed in the confines of the quad. I heard a few gasps as people realized April was wielding magic.
April allowed it to roil over her arms, her eyes fading to inky darkness.
“You said you liked my hair,” she said in a soft voice that everyone in the area could hear.
I felt a tingling along my limbs that swept up my body and centered on my scalp. I closed my eyes. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, not at all. It felt—good but I didn’t want to let on to that fact. It swept over me, surrounding me, through me and then it was over and I was left panting from the pleasure of it. It took every force of will in my body to make sure my tongue didn’t loll out of my mouth and I needed to adjust my pants.
The area exploded in glee.
The popular girls all screamed, laughing, as Mitzy turned me around to face her.
“It’s okay, Seth, I’m here. Just look at me.”
“What?” I said. “What did she do?”
“Now!” April said. “Heel, Fool!” she pointed at her side, and I shook my head—
And felt something move. “What the—“
Looking to the left and right, I saw dark curls, the same corkscrew curls that April wore, to my left and right. I had a heightened sense of smell as a were, and the fragrance of my hair swept over me, licorice with a bit of rose petals.
“What the hell did you do to me?” I yelled, pulling at the hair somehow stuck on my head.
“Oh, don’t be a baby,” April said. “Heel.”
“We can fix it later, dude,” Jeff called out from beside me. “I got hair clippers at home.”
I shook my head, feeling the long locks dance around my shoulders and down my back.
Jenni, Stephanie, and Charlotte walked alongside her, and I walked a few paces back, clenching my jaw but not hating the fragrance of my new hair. I’d never give her the satisfaction that I liked the smell. She intended it to demean and degrade me, but I clenched my jaw defiantly and didn’t allow myself to even look at the other students who pointed and laughed in my direction.
You are the song in your mind. A symphony of instruments in perfect harmony with the world around you.
We made it to her classroom, and the other girls went in. I handed April her bag.
She ran her fingers through my springy curls, arranging them carefully, smiling.
“Does this make you happy?” I said, looking at her with my jaw clenched tightly.
She touched my cheek then, where the muscles of my jaw worked in anger and frustration. Her hand was soft and warm.
“No,” she said in a quiet voice.
Something about that made me feel even more humiliated than a few moments ago.
“Then why did you do it?” I said.
She looked at me, her azure eyes soulful and large. “I had to.”
I didn’t have an answer to that. She regarded me for another moment. “Be on time, stupid.”
I nodded. “Yes, Mistress.”
She winced at that, closing her eyes, then went into her classroom.
My next class was Differential Equations with Mr. Stewart. The bell rang as I plopped down in my seat, wincing as my long locks caught on the back of the wooden chair.
“Something to tell us today, Mr. Atkins?” Mr. Stewart said, glancing over his spectacles. Stewart was a norm, with no magic, and no supernatural abilities. He made up for the lack of magic in other ways..
“Uh…April Fools?”
He shook his head, then began to call the roll.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw Mitzi’s concerned face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“I’m so sorry, Seth.”
“Hey, no worries.” I turned around as Stewart launched into his lesson on Control Theory and how it could be used to control the flow of magical energy in a system.
I loved, loved, loved Math as it related to magic. Even though I couldn’t use or manipulate magical energy, I enjoyed studying Magic and Magical systems.
We were deep into the discussion of feedback loops and how they can control the flow of magical energy. There were different feedback loops, like proportional control and integral control. We learned that by studying the types of feedback loops, we could apply control algorithms within magical systems.
Toward the end of class, he demonstrated, theoretically, how magical systems could be stabilized by control algorithms and a few examples of unstable vs. stable magical—
“Holy shit!” I said, standing up suddenly.
I could feel the class’s attention snapping over to me.
Stewart looked at me, a frown on his face. “Mr. Atkins? Something to share with the class?”
I was panting. Control algorithms! The stability of magical systems! It all became clear to me why April had done this, why she was being such a bitch, and why—
“Uh…restroom,” I said. “May I use the restroom?”
He rolled his eyes. “There’s only five minutes of class left, can’t you—”
“I really gotta go!” I grabbed the restroom pass and headed out the door. The rest of the class snickered and pointed at me as I left.
“By all means,” Mr. Stewart said as I left, and I knew he meant that sarcastically. I’d have to make it up to him, but I needed to talk to April.
“On your way to your Mistress, fool?” A voice called. I glanced over and saw Jenni Stapleton walking out of the girls’ room.
I ignored her but kept on jogging.
I got to April’s room just as the bell rang. I pulled open the door and waded through the throng; I made my way to April’s desk, where she was packing up her things.
“Wow, stupid, I didn’t think you’d get here this—”
“I need to talk to you,” I said, pulling her toward the back of the classroom. She was in Chemistry lab. All the students were filing out of the room, and the instructor was preparing for the next class.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” she said. “My next class is in the one hundred section.
I winced. That would be a long hike, but I really needed to talk to her privately.
“I’m your control algorithm, aren’t I?”
She frowned at me. “My what now?”
“The control algorithm! I’m the…whatever…that’s making magic stable for you!”
“Shhh!” She hushed me, pulling me in closer. “Keep your voice down, you have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
“Why didn’t you just fucking tell me?”
Now it was her turn for her teeth to clench. “I don’t know what you think you’ve learned, but I can assure you that—”
“I’m the reason the black magic hasn’t overcome you, right? You’re using me as a conduit because I’m a supernatural being that can’t manipulate magic.”
She crossed her arms, and I thought she was about to cry.
“Look, just nod once. I know you have another set of algorithms working against you, am I correct?”
She nodded, once.
“And in order for the algorithms to complete, you have to act in a certain way?”
“Get my stuff,” she said, pointing to her backpack. “And let me get to my class!”
“Look, you don’t have to do this alone!” I said. “We can get—”
“Fool!” She screamed, walking back to her desk. “Take my backpack!”
I took a breath. She was right, I really didn’t know the extent of the pressure she was under. But at least -- I liked to think at least -- she wasn’t doing this…I don’t know, intentionally. She was doing it because whatever magical system she was a part of was forcing her to complete certain algorithms within a certain parameter in order to maintain the stability of the system.
“Yes, Mistress,” I said, gathering up her backpack.
She walked quickly, and I had to scurry a little to keep up. Normally she had to keep up with me because of my longer legs, but I could tell she was pissed.
“Look, I get it. I’ll stop—“
“That’s just it, Seth, I don’t want you to stop.”
I paused a moment. “I don’t get it.”
“You were obviously in Stewart’s class when you learned all this about magic right?”
“Yes.”
“So fucking ask him why I need this.”
I sighed. “When can I do that?”
She shook her head, and we continued on to her next class. She grabbed her backpack from me and walked into the classroom without looking or even acknowledging my presence.
God, she could be a bitch.
Grumbling, I realized I’d walked out of Differential Equations without my own backpack. I walked back there, and Mr. Stewart was grading papers at his lectern at the front of the classroom. I was going to be late, so I figured I might as well make it worth my while.
“Hey, Mr. Stewart, can I ask you a quick question?”
“That’s why I exist, Mr. Atkins.” He sighed and removed his spectacles.
“Yeah. So, I’m actually April Lancaster’s ‘fool.’ She’s the one who did this to me.”
He took off his glasses and frowned. “Oh?”
“Yeah, and I realized what you said about magical systems and all—“
He nodded. “Yes. A control algorithm within a feedback loop can help stabilize a magical circuit.”
“Well, I did some thinking, and I realized I’m April’s control algorithm. By using magic on me, or whatever, she’s stabilizing her magical system so she doesn’t go full dark.”
He winced a bit. “You know there’s no dark or white magic, it’s the intent behind it that—“
“Yes, I understand that.”
Atkins nodded and started drawing on the board. “So, here we have Miss Lancaster, and this dotted circle around her represents her ability to draw magic from the Universe into herself. Remember that magic permeates all living—“
“Yes, living, inert, crystalline, etc.”
“Yes.” He drew some large arrows in red. “These arrows represent the force around Miss Lancaster. Remember with Magic users, it’s not that they can’t access magic until they need it—“
“They’re filled with magic until they release it, yes, I understand the concept.”
“So yes, every April First she must have a magical system that exerts tremendous pressure on her. Pressure to be used, to be released, in larger and larger amounts.”
He tapped his chin, thoughtfully.
“She is, the most potent magic user at High Valley High, of course. Probably one of the most potent in town, actually, so that makes sense.”
“So I have to just allow her to continue to use magic on me? Why is she being such a bitch about it?”
He nodded. “Magical systems, and geas of all types have different requirements. Without performing an examination of her, I can’t comment. But I do know from experience, that the more resistance the magical being has to overcome, the more magic is consumed. It’s kind of like a firehose putting out fire…” he made another drawing on the board.
“A firehose can easily put out the fire of a candle. It’s too strong for the candle, and there’s all kinds of potential for backwash, and collateral damage…that kind of thing.”
“Okay,” I said.
“So when you resist, or act against her wishes, the fire is larger, hotter, and there’s less collateral damage.
I frowned. “So she actually needs me to resist?”
He shrugged. “No, idea. But that does align with the veracity of her argument.”
“So the more I resist…”
“The more magic she can use to overcome your resistance. You already have a large amount because you're a supernatural creature. It’s a dangerous game because she could trigger your curse inadvertently if she steps too far.”
“Yeah, I felt that.”
“Does this help at all?”
I nodded. “It helps a great deal.”
“I’m glad I could provide some assistance.”
I started to walk out the door…then stopped. “So, the more I resist, the more magic she expends. What happens if I resist too much?”
“I suspect she doesn’t know the limit to her own power. It depends on which of you is stronger, I would guess, Seth.”
I nodded and walked out the door.
So, my ex-girlfriend is the most powerful magic user at our school, and she has chosen me to be her magical toilet. I mean, that couldn’t go wrong at all, Right?
Right.
I sighed, and began running to my next class.
My next class, luckily, was study-hall. Mr. Davis, the instructor, could care less that I was almost fifteen minutes tardy.
“I was talking to Mr. Stewart about an assignment.”
Davis glanced up from his EyPad, then shook his head as if he was seeing a mirage. “What the hell?”
“What?” then my hair sorta fell forward a bit. “Oh, yeah. I’m April’s Fool, today.”
He laughed. “Looks good on you, kid.”
“Hah. Thanks.” I went and found an empty seat.
Mitzy Butterfly got up and moved seats, as did Jeff Farnum.
“So?” Mitzy said.
I shrugged, sighed, and told them about what I’d discovered about April’s magical system.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Jeff said. “She needs you to resist? You’ve already been resisting.”
“Yeah, I guess I need to try harder.”
Mitzy frowned. “That doesn’t seem fair.”
“I’d rather all this happen to me than to you, Mitzy.”
She nodded, looking downward.
Mitzy was a kind soul trapped in an unkind world. Her Were curse fed her outlook a bit. She loved flowers, dandelions, and plants of all sizes, shapes, and colors. She was a quiet girl who kept to herself, with rainbow-colored pixie short hair and a cute button nose.
I suspected she was gay, or at least bi, but never wanted to press it. She usually wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt that hid her butterfly tattoos. She had four or five tats on her shoulders and arms, and I thought they were awesome. She was a great friend and always there when I needed her.
“So, what are you going to do for lunch?” Jeff said.
Jeff was the opposite of Mitzy. He wasn’t a were, his parents were both vampires, though they had yet to turn Jeff. It always made me sad to think that the happy-go-lucky best friend would one day become a blood-sucking vampire, but there you go. I supposed I was a ravening animal three nights a month, so I couldn’t cast stones. He was more than a bit overweight from the video games he consumed constantly.
It was our study hall ritual to decide where to eat, and depending on the location, we often snuck out the back of the room when Davis wasn’t watching. He was the football coach and cared little for any students unless they were geared up in pads and a helmet.
I played for the High Valley Saints Baseball team as their starting catcher. I was supposed to head out to the weight room for pre-season conditioning, but today I figured I’d need to pretend to be April’s Fool. Jeff was our equipment manager but wasn’t needed for pre-season workouts.
“I think I should probably help her out, don’t you think?” I said.
Mitzy shook her head. “I don’t believe it, Seth. I mean, yes, maybe she needs someone to express her magic on, but come on, she didn’t and doesn’t need to treat you like that. If it is true, she takes too much joy doing it, you know?”
“So, what, we sneak off campus? I’m supposed to be doing three-a-days.”
“She wouldn’t disrupt weight-training would she?” Jeff said. “I mean, a joke’s a joke, but come on, she wouldn’t destroy your rep there, right?”
I shook my head full of ebony tresses.
“Good point.”
“What I want,” I said. “Is for her to leave everyone alone. Including me.”
“Buuuut—“ Mitzy said.
“But, if she’s going to pick on someone, I’d rather it be me than anyone else. I can take it; I’m not sure about everyone else.” I touched Mitzy’s nose. “Boop.”
“She needs you to resist, though, right?” Randy said. “What better way to resist than to ignore her completely.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Good point.”
“Yeah, stop cow-towing to her…or, well, wolf-towing…” Mitzy said.
“Hah, hah,” I replied.
“No, seriously. The more she has to seek you out, the more she has to punish you, the more—“
“The more girly you become!” Jeff said a little too loudly.
“Whatever is going on back there, you three need to be silent,” Coach Davis said.
“Sorry, Coach,” I said in response.
I winced as my hair caught in the back of the chair. “Can you at least do something with it?” I whispered to Mitzy. It’s annoying as hell like this.
“Braids or bun?” Mitzy said.
“Braids until I can get it hacked off.”
Mitzy proceeded to fix my hair into a long braided cable. She took out her phone and showed it to me.
I looked at my face…it looked a little…different. “Aw, shit.”
“What?”
I sighed. “No facial hair. By this time, I usually have at least a little scruff.”
“When was the last time you shaved?” Jeff said.
“Last night when I took a shower.”
Both of them ran their hands over my smooth cheeks.
“Hey!”
“Wow, it is smooth,” Mitzy said. “Not even a trace.”
“Maybe she stole all your testosterone!” Jeff said in a harsh whisper.
“I hope not,” I said. “Our first tournament is next week.”
I dug out my phone for the rest of the period and started typing away at the essay I needed to write for first period. Luckily, I knew quite a bit about the Civil War and had a deep understanding of the causes and consequences, so I was able to compare and contrast it fairly easily. I’ve always been a good writer, and the words sprang easily to my mind. I was halfway done when Jeff nudged me.
“Five minutes until the bell rings. What are you going to do?”
I thought about it. Mitzy was right, by ignoring her was the best way to resist her. But at the same time, I really didn’t want this feminization project to progress any further than it already had.
“Fuck,” I said. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to be girlified any more than I already am, but at the same time, I don’t want April to find another target or to magically explode or anything like that.”
“Being a girl isn’t so bad,” Mitzy said. “You might like it.”
“There sure are a lot worse things to be,” Jeff said. “A slug, a bug, a disembodied brain floating on your own tentacles—“
“Hey, don’t give her any ideas!” I said, chuckling. “Point taken.”
“And with the new rules about sports teams, you can still play,” Mitzy said. “I dunno; I think it’d be kinda fun to see how you turn out.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I get your point. Okay. I’m going to officially resist.”
“Yay!” Mitzy said, her eyes dancing a bit. “Can I come watch?”
“Sure.”
At the bell, the three of us walked out the door and moved with the flow toward the cafeteria. I grabbed a sandwich and milk, paid, then went to the weight-room.
Jeff and Mitzy followed after; eyes peeled for April and her entourage.
I ate my sandwich on the way and sucked down the milk, tossing the container into the trash. I was on the mat finishing my stretches when Stephanie Hancock, one of April’s mean girls, came in. Her face screwed up in a grimace at the odor.
“Why aren’t you attending your Mistress, Fool?” she said, her eyes wide with feigned, or maybe not so feigned, shock.
“Tell April she can fuck off,” I said as I loaded 45-pound weights onto each side the straight bar.
“Oh, you’re in for it now, Fool,” she said, stalking off. Her heels clicked purposefully as she left the weight-training room.
“And so it begins,” Jeff said, a grin on his face.
I slid onto the bench and took a grip on the power bar. Jim Swenson, our short-stop, spotted me and came over.
“Reps or strength,” he said.
“Reps.” I began pumping the bar up and down, making sure I got full extension of my muscles, taking it slowly at first. I inhaled and exhaled on each repetition, making sure to oxygenate my muscles thoroughly.
I stopped paying attention to my surroundings and started feeling the strength in my limbs. I loved weight training, testing my limits, getting my muscles to sing. I had a bit better than average strength due to my curse, and I took full benefit of it whenever possible. The physical exertion brought clarity and focus to my mind, and the deep breathing helped to make sure I was in top shape for each repetition of the exercise.
The weight-room was silenced as I continued to work. Jim looked up at something or someone, and I knew April had entered the room. An icy wave swept across us, palpable and thick. I wondered if she did that on purpose or was a side-effect of whatever chaos magic she accessed.
“Fool!” she said in a quiet voice. “What is it you think you are doing?”
I exhaled as I pushed the bar up to the apex. “What does it look like I’m doing, Witch?”
Several of my teammates guffawed at that.
“You agreed to be my fool!” she said, and I could feel her gathering power. I’m not sure why I could feel that. It was a new feeling I’d never had before.
“You will put that bar down and attend me.Now.”
I shook my head. “Guess again!”
The weight bar with two 45-pound weights wrenched itself out of my hands and embedded itself in the ceiling above me.
Where it stuck, unmoving.
That did not bode well.
-----------------------------------------
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An unseen force pulled my braid harshly, forcing me up onto my tiptoes. If I extended as far as possible with my calves, I could slightly relieve some of the pressure. I gripped the hair and engaged some of my core strength.
“Ow!” I said as she held me up in front of her with her power. The weight bar stayed firmly embedded in the ceiling, which meant she held us both with her magical iron strength.
“Fool!” she screamed in my face, her eyes were inky black orbs fastened to me. “Your job is to always accompany me and be punctual!”
“Yeah?” I said, laughing and trying not to writhe in pain. “Who gives a fuck, April? You’re nobody!”
Hey, if she wanted me to resist, I would resist, but I thought my scalp might peel off like a grape skin at some point. Did that happen? Or did it just slough off with your face? Images flitted through my mind of the bloody, gory wreck this could turn into—
My curse raged behind my will. I could feel it wanting to escape, wanting to make short work of the Witch with her accursed energy. It took all my willpower and imagining the song in my mind to hold it at bay.
The magical bonds tossed me up against a wall, then released me. “Ow, fuck!” I said, as my shoulder impacted hard against the brick surface. High Valley Saints was printed in huge letters across the wall in black and yellow, with a picture of our emblem, two crossed swords against a shield.
I think a bit of the curse sort of escaped a little. I could feel my shoulders hunching, my jaw dropping open as I looked at my attacker. I opened my hands, wanting to feel claws, as I leaped across the space and tackled her.
I rolled her onto the ground and held her there, ready to rip out her throat with my—
The weight bar came clanging down to the floor. Startled, flinched.
“Seth, come back to me,” she patted my cheek softly, looking into my eyes.
Azure eyes, looking up. Eyes I’d fallen in love with. April’s Eyes.
Wait. What just happened?—
I glanced around and saw the fear on people’s faces. I looked down at my arms and could see the shredded fabric of my shirt and the bunched muscles of my curse trying to escape, but it was fading slowly. I panted harshly, feeling her body under me, warm and writhing and…
I blinked and stood up.
Everyone regarded me with fear in their eyes.
Great.
I’d shown just enough of my curse to make everyone afraid of me.
Just great. Dad was gonna be pissed.
She’s a child throwing a tantrum.
I pulled April up. After she got on her feet, I swatted her behind sharply.
“Ow!” she squealed. “Did you just…”
“Be glad that is all I ‘just.’” My curse-filled voice echoed off the walls of the weight room.
She whispered then, and if I wasn’t filled with my curse, I wouldn’t have heard it. “I still need to punish you.”
Fuck. Closing my eyes, I turned around.
“Whatever the fuck it is, get it over with. I need to calm down and change my clothes…they’re all shredded.” I looked at my shirt, which had split in several different places. I grabbed the front and pulled it off my body like a male stripper.
Look, I’m a werewolf. And I work out. So my chest is…chiseled. And it’s pretty hairy. It’s not something I’m proud of, but yes, women seem to like it.
“And then I will attend you. Jesus fucking Christ.”
She wiped a tear away. I don’t know if it was because I hurt her or because she was glad I was helping her. At that moment, I didn’t care.
“For your punishment,” she said in a somewhat but not quite shaky voice.
I felt that strange tingly feeling again. This time I could see the magic building up inside her and flowing into my body. It was strange.
I expected it to come out of her hand, but it was like the energy slid up from the ground somehow; it didn’t spray out in front of her.
The magical energy slid up my body, and my body hair all fell away. It was like a snowfall, only with dark hair instead of flakes. In short order, my skin, arms, and, I assume, all my other body parts were slick and smooth as the day I was born.
Clothing materialized from somewhere. I was no longer wearing my jeans and not much else. A Gothic black dress wrapped itself around me, not unlike the one April was wearing.
She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Oh, and—“
I felt pulled up again, but this time only a short distance, and settled back down onto—
“Heels?” I said, stumbling a little. “Really?”
“Mhmm,” she said, and she was blushing. I rolled my eyes.
Her eyes faded to black again. “Now, go attend to yourself and meet me in the quad in fifteen minutes!”
“Yes, Mistress,” I said.
She and her entourage left the room, whispering and gossiping. Some of the girls cast glances back at me with what I’d like to think was newfound appreciation but was probably fear.
I shrugged my shoulders, then went to the back of the room where some cushioned benches had been arranged. I plopped down into one, exhausted.
“You okay, man?” Jeff said, approaching with Mitzy. Both of their eyes were wide with shock and/or fear. The rest of my team had gone back to their workout.
“Yeah, shit. That almost got away from me.”
“Dude!” Jeff said. “You were like….Holy shit, man, how close were you to changing?”
“Close,” Mitzy said, taking my hand in hers and sitting beside me.
“I’m guessing everyone knows this is all just theater now,” I said, yawning. I’d expended a lot of energy.
“Yeah,” Mitzy squeezed my hand. “You had her, though, Seth. I think you surprised her with that move. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast; it was…well--”
“Supernatural?”
“Yeah.”
“And that was just the smallest fraction of the curse that leaked through. Ugh, I have to be careful.”
“You can’t let her get you into a position where you go full feral, Seth. Have you ever considered that may be her ultimate goal here?”
“What, to turn me into an animal? Couldn’t she have done that like Bruce, or Becky?”
“Not sure it works like that on a Were. She may be trying to trigger your curse on purpose, though, so she can eliminate you as a threat.”
“The elimination would have been her when I ripped her throat out. Not the best plan if that’s what she’s trying to do.”
“By now, someone has told someone and the school administration will be gunning for you.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Which means they’ll be calling my father.”
“I’m sorry, Seth.”
I sighed, nodding. “Me too.”
Standing up was a bit of a chore. It was like trying to balance on a bicycle again, if the bicycle only had one point of contact on each foot. “How the fuck do women walk in these?” I said, nearly turning my ankle. “Ow, fuck!”
“Those are low heels, at least.” Mitzy grinned. “Getting some newfound appreciation for how the other side yet, Seth?”
I rolled my eyes, looking into the gym mirror. The black dress had a corset laced up the back that cinched my middle. It looked stupid with my male but hairless chest. I held up the skirt a bit.
“Twirl!” Jeff said.
“Fuck off,” I said.
“You okay?” Mitzy said.
“Yeah, all under control now.”
She linked my left arm in hers, and Jeff linked my right. We walked out of the weight room. It helped me to stay steady on my feet.
I think I was going to need it.
Walking into the quad, I quickly located April amongst her little group. She was holding court with about six other girls, and had her back turned to me.
Shaking my head, I approached her. I’d finally gotten the hang of the low heels she forced me to wear. It took a bit of care to make sure I didn’t step on the swishing full dress she’d wrapped around my frame. You had to kind of kick the dress out of the way, before taking a step or you risked a tumble, and I was humiliated enough already without adding that little cherry on the sundae.
I did some quick isometrics with my biceps, quads, and pectoral muscles to appear as masculine as I could. Sweat gleamed on my smooth skin, and all things considered, I didn’t hate the way the bodice enhanced my pecs.
“I’m here,” I said, trying to glower. I didn’t have to try very hard.
“Oh, fool.” She gave a little wave of her hand as if the entire incident in the weight room had never happened. “We were just talking about you.”
“That so?”
“Mhmm.” She approached me. “Kayla and Stephanie want me to go full face makeup next, but Jenni and Charlotte think I should start working on that frame to make it a bit more willowy. What do you think?”
I sighed. “What does it matter what I think?”
She gave me a bright smile. “You’re right! It doesn’t matter!”
She turned with a gleeful twirl of her hair and dress to gossip some more with her group.
I stood, feeling like an idiot, and found Mitzy and Jeff in the crowd. They spoke with each other but nodded at me and Mitzy gave me a forlorn wave.
Miss Minnick, Henry James, the SchoolMaster and High Sorcerer, along with Pete Vargas, our werewolf alpha pack leader and the chief of security approached us a few minutes later.
“Miss Lancaster,” Henry James said. “A word, please.”
April turned to them, and for a brief moment, I saw her eyes go black, but then they returned to normal. “Of course!”
The group walked off a ways, and Jeff and Mitzy took the opportunity to slide up to me.
“What do you think that’s about?” Jeff said.
“What do you think?” I replied. I felt a quickening in my guts like butterflies would come spewing out of my mouth. I wish I’d eaten more than just the sandwich, I was now ravenously hungry.
Which is not a good state for a Werewolf to be.
“Think they’re going to suspend you, Seth?” Mitzy said. Her eyes were wide. She was a severe introvert and hated confrontations, so this must have been torture for her.
“Hey,” I said, putting my hands on her shoulders. “Whatever happens, whatever they do has nothing to do with you.”
She nodded, swallowing, and I could tell she was holding back tears. “I feel—“
“I know how you feel.” I tipped her chin so she’d look up into my eyes. “Don’t worry. No matter what happens, we’ll all be okay.”
She nodded again; then her eyes darted to the group of administrators.
They were telling April something she didn’t want to hear. I could see her stamping her foot in frustration, and her voice took on a higher pitch. I used my curse to narrow the focus of my hearing, to eavesdrop a little on their conversation.
“Miss Lancaster, you have put this entire school in jeopardy with this little game you are playing with a powerful Shifter. It ends now,” Miss Minnick said.
“But he agreed to it!” April protested. “I’m just making him follow through on his commitment! Isn’t that what you want the students of High Valley High to achieve?”
“In normal circumstances, that might be the case,” Henry James said. “But I know your mother has brought you in on the situation we are currently facing. Do you want to possibly add a feral werewolf on top of all that?”
Wait. What was this now?
April’s shoulders deflated. “No.”
“This occurrence happens once every thousand years. Do you really want to be the one to undo everything we’ve brought to focus here at High Valley High?”
“Oooh, it isn’t fair!” she said, stamping her foot. “You know how bad my Cycle has been over the past few months!”
“I know, child, believe me,” Miss Minnick said. “I’ll bring in an ifrit to ground you out if needed.
“Under normal circumstances, I’d be all for you doing whatever you wanted with Atkins,” Pete Vargas said. “He’s strong and could be a future alpha, for sure, so anything to humble him is okay in my book. But right now, with the Who, who stands at the Gate, we can’t risk anything more than what will happen. We’ll need him and every single shifter we can get to combat this Thing.”
I frowned. What the hell were they talking about?
“Do you guys know anything about a Gate and someone standing at it?” I whispered.
Both of my friends shook their heads.
“What gate?” Jeff said, a little too loud.
Miss Minnick shot us a glance, and I saw her eyes focus on me. Heat waves rose off her brow, and I briefly saw her skin fade to red before returning to normal.
“Aw, shit,” I said.
“What?”
“You let the bag out of the cat.”
The group returned. Pete put a hand on my shoulder, and I’m not sure it was a friendly gesture.
“This little game you’ve been playing is over,” Miss Minnick said. “Mr. Atkins, you are no longer April’s fool.”
The crowd moaned as one at this. “Aww, it was fun, though!” Jenni Stapleton said.
“Miss Landcaster, you will return Mr. Atkins to normal this instant.”
She waved her hand, and I was wearing what I put on this morning, jeans, a pullover polo shirt, and my trusty athletic shoes.
“I can’t do anything about the hair or your skin, but you should be your normal hairy self after your next change,” she said in a deflated voice.
Pete’s grip became stronger.
“Thank you,” I said. “Here’s your backpack.”
She took it without saying anything. Then, strangely, her eyes turned on Mitzy. “Be good to him.”
Mitzy blinked. “Okay?”
April spun and returned to her little group.
“I wonder what that was—“
“We need to talk,” Pete said. He pulled me over toward the wall.
“That’s all to see, children. Fun is over. Now, what do we say about getting to class?”
They began to echo. “To be early is to be—“ but the rest of the chant was drowned out by the furious Alpha wolf who was gripping my collarbone like he wanted to crush it.
“Ow!” I said, wrenching myself from his grip. “What the hell, Pete?”
Pete was short, stocky, and had stiff black hair and tan skin. He was Latino and spoke with a slight accent.
“You dodged a bullet here, Ese.”
I rubbed my collarbone where he’d gripped me. It was going to bruise. “How so?”
His finger came up.
“One: that little girl has no idea how close she came to triggering you. Two: I can smell the change on you, so you got this close—“ he held up his fingers about an inch apart, “to going full feral and being stuck as a wolf the rest of your life! What the fuck, Seth? You know better!”
“Yeah, she got under my skin a little,” I said. “I admit it.”
“I should have let that girl turn you full-on bitch!” He gave me a sharp slap across the face, and I yelped. “You are way to smart to let a little brujita like that get the better of you! Let her play her games, but you don’t, don’t—“
He flicked me hard with his index finger on my forehead.
“You don’t let her get to you like that. You’re way too smart of a student to be a feral werewolf locked in a pen, Ese.”
“I get it, Pete, Jesus.”
He shook his head, took a few deep breaths, and controlled himself.
“What the hell were you guys talking about back there anyway? What was that about a Gate?”
He looked at me and ground his teeth. “Using your curse to eavesdrop, are we?”
I gave a little shrug.
He sighed heavily. “Look. I’m not supposed to tell you this…or even mention it.” He held his hands out, closed his eyes and shook his head.
“Something is about to go down in High Valley. Something big.”
I resisted the urge to prod some more and let him figure out what he wanted to say.
“And it’s coming at the dark of the moon. When all of our power is at its lowest.”
My class after lunch was Advanced Placement English, with Mr. Vaidya. Vaidya was a quiet, mousy kind of guy who spoke in a thin voice and had an East Indian accent. One of the things we found unintentionally hilarious was when he recited poetry, and today was no exception.
“Today, class, ve vill be studying Dylan Thomas, a Velsh Poet who came to US on four occasions. He is vone of the most important Velsh poets of the 20th Century.”
“Do not go gentle into dat good night,
Old age should burn and vage at close of day;
Vage, Vage against de dying of de light.”
I closed my eyes. I really didn’t want to laugh, but already snickers and snorts were sounding from around the room.
He really tried hard not to speak with a heavy accent, but I think that made things worse, and as the poem went on, the class couldn’t help but erupt into laughter.
Confused and frustrated, Mr. Vaidya told us to write a three-page essay analyzing the metaphorical language and themes and to put it into the historical and cultural context of the period.
Sighing, I pulled out my spiral-bound notebook and began writing. I loved writing essays, it allowed me to get all of my thoughts onto paper and it made so much more sense than answering multiple guess worksheets or True and False lists.
As I wrote, my mind quickly assessed, analyzed then synthesized the time period, the events happening when the poem came out, the culture of the period…
My pen flicked out of my hand and onto the table. I rolled my eyes and bent to pick it up. As I reached for it, I saw something was wrong with my hand—
My nails had extended beyond my fingertips. Not just the index and middle fingers, all of them on my right hand had extended, check that, were extending. A quick glance at my left hand showed the exact same thing happening.
I quickly shoved my hands up under my armpits. I looked around to see if anyone else had noticed me looking at my fingers. Everyone’s head was buried in their work, including Mr. Vaidya who was typing something on his computer at the front of the classroom.
I darted a quick glance at my fingertips again, and they were longer. The nails were extending, and my fingers appeared to be slimming and taking on a much more feminine cast.
I closed my eyes. April. She must still be fucking with me. Jeff, Mitzy and I planned to get together after school to discuss what
happened. This was one of the few classes we didn’t share. Jeff and Mitzy were over in the Vocational wing, which was clear across campus. I decided to at least go to the restroom to see if any other changes were happening.
I got up and snatched the hall pass off the wall so no one could see my extended fingernails. Without a word, I waved the pass at Myron who gave me a nod and headed out the door.
Luckily the boy's restroom wasn’t far away, and I got into one of the stalls. Opening my hands, I saw they were nearly complete. A few more millimeters and my nails looked like they could be adorning any of the female students at our school.
“What the bloody fuck?!” I said in an urgent whisper. I didn’t have a fingernail clipper or anything, so I stuck the index finger on my right hand into my mouth and bit down, tearing the nail off, then proceeded to do the middle, ring, and pinky fingers…
Only to see they were growing back, almost as fast as I could bite them off, and even longer.
“No, no no, this can’t be happening!”
I pulled up my shirt to see if any other changes had affected my body, but everything seemed to be the same. I pulled down my pants to make sure things down there hadn’t changed, and luckily that was where it was supposed to be also.
I took out my phone and tapped an urgent message to April to meet me in front of the south quad lockers, STAT. She might not be looking at her phone, so it could take some time for her to see it. I watched the indicator and saw READ illuminate moments after it said; RECEIVED.
“Brt,” she texted back. I exhaled and grabbed the hall pass, then went to the quad area.
She arrived, looking annoyed. “What is it?” she said in a hiss. “I’m in the middle of a test!”
I held up my fingers in front of her. “What the actual fuck, April? I thought they told you to remove whatever spell!”
Her eyes grew wide, and she shook her head. “I did!”
“Then how do you explain this!”
She closed her eyes. A few moments later, she opened them again. “There’s some connection from me to you. Seth, I didn’t create that!”
“Well, can you disconnect it or whatever?”
She closed her eyes again. This time, I could see something in the air between us. It was strange, like seeing a mirage through a desert landscape. It swam, and I found myself closing my own eyes.
Images sprang into view as if I was opening an eye I didn’t even know I had. April stood in front of me, but in this mind’s eye view, she glowed with an ethereal pink light that surrounded her. A tendril connected her to me at our midsections, and as I looked down at myself, I could see I glowed a bright orange. The tendril connected her to me, pink and orange entwined, enmeshed. I could see another tendril extend outward from her and grasp the connecting tendril. It pulled, and I felt a sensation inside me, painful, that wrapped itself around my core and ended somewhere in my testicles.
She pulled harder, and I gasped. “Oh, shit!” I said. “That hurts!”
She withdrew her tendril. “Sorry. There’s a….”
“Yeah, I see it,” I said and somehow extended my own tendril, grasping it and pulling. She gasped in response also. “Oh!” That hurts too!
I narrowed my focus, zooming in on the tendril. Mixed in with the orange and pink, a third strand was black as midnight. We couldn’t see it from above, but it was there.
“There’s another tendril,” I said. “Zoom in, and you can see it.”
“Ohh, yes. But how did you—?”
I followed the black strand and zoomed in. Her voice was in the background. I wanted, no, needed to pay attention to this. The tendril flowed out from between us, black as pitch. It had several junctions that went in different directions, but the main junction—
“Seth, you need to stop.”
It went somewhere below us, somewhere deep in the building. I could follow it where it led, sliding lower and—
Someone slapped me across the face hard. I winced and opened my eyes. “Ow!”
“I told you to stop!”
I rubbed my jaw, where she slapped me. “I was following—“
“Seth, you aren’t supposed to be able to do that.”
“I know, but I thought if we could find out where—“
“Seth, only witches can do that. You opened your third eye!”
“Is that what that was?”
“Yes!”
I sighed. “Well, maybe whatever you did to me—“
“All I did was cause your body hair to fall out. And a simple illusion spell for the clothing. I did not tamper with your body construction; someone placed this connection between us…or something else.”
Sighing, I sat down on the carpeted bench against the wall. “Great, all I need.”
She sat down next to me and held my hand.
For a brief moment, I felt at peace for the first time all day. We sat there, waiting for the bell to ring, holding hands.
“You know, I never wanted any of this to happen,” she said, breaking the spell.
“And you know that Mitzy and I are just friends. I don’t know why you freaked out that day.”
She pulled her hand away. “I know, Seth. But what I’m becoming, who I’m becoming…you wouldn’t like. It was necessary to extricate myself from our relationship.”
“You mean the gothic lolita bitch witch?”
She chuckled at that. “I take it you don’t like the look.”
“I know the real you underneath all the makeup, hair, and clothes. You don’t need all that to shield yourself.”
“Says the Cis white man.”
I glanced at my fingernails. “Not sure how much longer on that.”
“I’d need to consult with my mother to find out what’s happening to us.”
“Lovely,” I said, sighing. “I only have PE and Spanish left. If we want to head over to your place, can we find out what’s going on?”
“I still need to finish my test in government.”
“Can it wait?” I looked at my hands and arms. It was like a woman’s hands were attached to the end of my masculine arms. “I mean, it’s definitely spreading. I haven’t looked at my feet, but I’m about to slip out of my athletic shoes. I think they’re shrinking too.”
“Hold up your hands,” she said.
I held them up, palms out to her. She did the same.
Our hands were exactly the same size, with nails exactly the same length. Hers were colored a glossy deep purple.
We looked into each other’s eyes, shocked.
“How could this be happening?” I said.
“It’s the tendril connecting us. Something about it is…well, creating a duplication?”
“Why the hell would someone want that?”
As I watched, my nails filled in with color—the same deep purple as April’s.
“Oh, that’s freaky as shit!” I said. “April, we have to stop this!”
“It’s like spell I used to duplicate my dress and hair is still going!”
I brushed out the long ebony locks. “I haven’t tried cutting the hair, but if they’re anything like the nails, it’ll grow back almost immediately.”
She snorted. “We could make a fortune selling to a wig store.”
I smiled at her giggle snort. That was the old April shining through.
“What the hell am I going to do about practice!” I said.
“Tell coach you’re feeling sick or something?”
“April, we have to get this to stop. Right now! Maybe if we both pull on each side of the tendril, it’ll break the spell?”
“I suppose it’s worth a shot,” she said. “It was so strange when you tugged on it, like it was anchored right in my ovaries.” She closed her eyes a moment and put her hand on her stomach.
“Yeah, and mine is in my nads. Think that is why I’m changing into you?”
“I’m sure it has something to do with it.”
“Well, let’s try it, at least.”
She nodded, and we stood up, facing each other. “I warn you, don’t follow the black thread, however. I suspect I know where that is anchored, and it could spell doom if we pull on that one.”
“We might not have any choice, April!” I said.
“There are far worse things than being in a duplicate body, Seth.”
I nodded, sighing. “Well, let’s at least try.”
She nodded, and we both closed our eyes—
And opened our third eye.
I took a look around first. Everything looked so different, like I was seeing the threads of reality all bound together. I could see between the walls and the people beyond. Most of the kids around us were pretty dull, but among them were some shining ones who had…well, aura’s a bit simplistic, but an inner fire that glowed bright. April’s light shone the brightest, and modestly, I saw mine did too. Her light was a shining pink, while mine was orange, but as I watched, I saw the pink sliding along the thread toward me...
“Your aura is blending with mine,” I said in a soft voice.
You don’t need to speak in here. We can hear each others’ thoughts.
Wow, really?” I sent. This is so cool!
Okay, grasp the tendril on your side with your Strength, and I’ll do the same.
I nodded. Okay.
On the count of three, give a modest tug, She sent.
Sounds good.
One, Two…
I took the thread in my invisible hand and gripped it tight.
Three!
I pulled and immediately wished I hadn’t.
April screamed. I don’t know if it was in my mind or in the physical world. I think I yelled too, but my mind filled with her pain.
It was like someone with a size twelve steel-toed boot just kicked me in the testicles. I roared in pain and immediately fell to the ground writhing and moaning. My third eye closed, and I just rolled in pain and anguish, feeling very hurt and bruised down there.
“Well,” she said, gasping and with tears in her voice. “That didn’t work.”
“No!” I said, still holding my tender spot.
“I felt it give though. I think we almost snapped it.”
I nodded, sitting up.
I felt a burning in my arms, sliding up my wrists and into my elbows. At the same time, I felt my feet like they were on fire, and it moved up my ankles into my shins and then my knees.
“Oh, Jesus!” I said, trying to put the fire out.
“Oh, I saw that happening!” She said. “It was like a snap back; as your tendril recovered, it pulled some of mine toward it!”
I closed my eyes and opened my third again. I could see what she meant. The pink aura that came from her had slid over my legs and arms up to my knees and elbows.
“Do you think we could…I dunno, pull it back and tie it off maybe?” I said.
“We could try.”
I nodded.
“So rather than break the cord, you want to tie it off?”
“Think that might work?” I said. “You’re the magic user.”
“I suppose it’s worth a try,” she said. “But it will probably still hurt you.”
I nodded, panting. I’d broken out in a cold sweat. I looked at the thread closer, zooming in. I could see where orange met pink, but the entwined black was still there too, like it was the root of it somehow. I didn’t follow the black down into the earth, but I did follow it upward. It joined our thread and seeped over toward April. In some places, the pink had been overcome by the black.
“Umm,” I said. “The black is mixing with your pink.”
She nodded. “That’s why every so often, I have to cast off some of my excess magic. There’s a lot less black now after you helped me earlier. But it’s still there, and it creeps into me. It’s due to the bargain I struck, but I don’t want to speak of that right now.”
“Bargain?”
She nodded quietly, her face turning red.
“April, what bargain did you strike and with whom?”
She shrugged.
“April!” I said, shaking her shoulder. “Obviously, it’s having an impact on you. What the hell did you do?”
She sighed. “It’s part of the Ascension into our Coven. You have to bargain a part of your soul to a Dark One, but I’ve kept it in check, Seth."
I shook my head. “That doesn’t sound right, April. But I guess you have to do what you have to do.”
“Let’s try tying this off. If we can do that, at least slow it somewhat, then I can go finish my test, and then we can go talk to Mom.”
“Okay,” I said.
She took a grip on the thread. “Instead of jerking it, I will try slowly increasing the pressure until I can pull all of my Essence from your body and tie it off. Does that make sense?”
I sighed and took a deep breath. “Go for it.”
I mean, what's the worse that could happen, Right?
I made my way to PE, and went into the locker room.
“What’s the matter, Seth?” Coach Nichols said. “You look a little pale.”
“Uh, nothing Coach,” I said, making my way to my locker. “A little tired today.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” Coach nodded at my hair which I still hadn’t cut. “Tangling with a witch, I take it?”
I rolled my eyes and shrugged. “You know me, Coach.”
“First and Third situations today at practice. Need your head in the game, son.”
I shook my head. I really really loved baseball practice. I was the third baseman, and First and Third situations were my absolute favorite drills.
“Yeah, about that, coach.”
He looked up from his clipboard where he’d been recording the roll.
“I, uh. Have a conflict after school today.”
He set the clipboard down, and crossed his arms over his chest. “What kind of conflict?”
Coach Nichols was also a magic user. I don’t think he was sorcerer level, much less wizard level like Coach Greene, but he was a fair but firm coach. There was going to be no pulling the wool over his eyes.
“Can I talk to you about it in your office?”
“Sure,” he nodded his head in the direction of the coaches office. “Be there in a sec.”
I nodded, and dressed out for PE. This meant changing out of my shirt, pants, and shoes, and putting on the white High Valley High Athletics T-shirt and red shorts. As I changed, I glanced at all my extremities and attachments to make sure everything was where it should be and as masculine as when I woke up.
So far so good, April. I thought.
Great! I heard back, and blinked in surprise.
Wow, you can hear me even now?”
Yep! Be careful what you train your mind on, Seth. I’ll perv all your nasty thoughts!
I pictured in my mind earlier, with when I swatted April soundly on her backside.
Hey! No fair!
I pictured in my mind when April and I had been playing on the playground. She’d had mousy brown hair then, a cute little upturned nose, and chubby cheeks.
I got back an image of a time when sixth graders had cornered me in a vacant lot, and had yanked my pants down. She’d been there that day, when everyone had seen my underwear. She zoomed in on the stains.
Very funny.
Two can play this game, Seth. Don’t forget that!
Yeah. BitchWitch.
Stupid. She sent an image of her in full witch regalia swatting the nose of a tiny little puppy with a newspaper. Bad dog!
I disconnected our communication and grinned. It was the kind of exchange we used to have when we were close. I missed that April, the April I'd fallen in lovely.
She’d slowly pulled on the tendril, earlier, then performed a very intricate and fancy knot, and tied the thread just past my toe. It felt like someone had a string attached to my gonads. They felt stretched a little beyond comfort, like wearing a jockstrap that’s too tight but I could put up with some discomfort if it meant we could make it through the day. She had called the knot, a Witch’s knot and it had magical connotations.
I went into coaches office just as Coach Nichols finished and came in.
“So what’s up?” he said, sitting on the edge of the desk.
I explained everything to him from the start of the day. Beginning with April calling on Mitzy, and ending with the Witch’s knot tied in the connection of our tendril.
Coach closed his eyes briefly, and I figured he was looking through his third eye.
“Wow, that is some powerful stuff right there,” he said.
“Yeah. April is pretty powerful.”
“Not talking about April, Seth. You. Has anyone tested you for magical ability?
“Just what we got in the second grade. I do know I can open my third eye, and I was able to grab the tendril.”
“This is pretty irregular. I know her Coven.”
“Not good?”
He shook his head. “You should think about joining the Brotherhood. We protect all our members no matter how new they might be.”
"I'll give it some thought."
He opened his eyes, and regarded me. “So what does this all have to do with Practice this afternoon?”
“April and I are going to meet with Desdemonia.”
Coach Nichols hissed through his teeth and made the sign of the horns, and spit on the ground. “Don’t use her name in here, son. Especially since you’ve discovered your a magic user.”
“Why?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I don’t have a lot of time to get into it, but that person is a high level witch of the black order.”
I nodded.
“Have you considered this might be a trap?”
I thought about April. I also thought about what the school leaders had said about the Gate.
“What’s the Gate and who is at it?” I said.
He got up and closed the blinds. “Damn, boy. You have to watch your words. I know you don’t know a thing about magic or magical influences, but you just can’t spout shit out here in the open. I got wards on the blinds, so we should be okay now, but use your head, son!”
“Miss Minnick and Pete Vargas were talking about it.”
“That topic delves into a lot of existential stuff we don’t have time for right now, Seth. Are you familiar with the works of Lovecraft?”
I frowned. “So a Cthulhian horror?”
I shrugged. “Let’s say Lovecraft was not far off the mark. There are beings that exist that could eat the entire earth like a gumdrop.”
“And that’s what's coming through on the dark of the moon?”
He shrugged. “Some think so.”
“I think April suspects the black tendril interwoven with our connection is somehow connected to that too.”
“Like I said, I don’t have time to get into it. We have a class to get to.”
“But you understand where I’ll be at three?”
He sighed, getting up and grabbing some jump ropes. “Yeah. But friend to friend, anything surrounding Desdemonia is going to spell disaster. I’m really sorry your entangled with her daughter, but I wouldn’t trust any of them with a ten foot pole attached to another ten foot pole.”
“What should I do?”
He handed me a card. There was a single name on it, and some geographic coordinates.
“Ernest Langmore?”
“He’s an elder in the Brotherhood. Go to him and tell him what’s been going on.”
I sighed, looking down at the card. If I did that, it would have to be behind April’s back. I didn’t know if she could find me now, with this new connection thing, or knew where I was at all times, or what.
“I take it I shouldn’t tell April that I’d be going to…”
“Elder Langmore? No.”
“She’s in my head, though coach.” I put the card on the desk. “I don’t think I can defy her.”
“She’s talking to you in greyspace?”
“Whatever it’s called yeah. We can apparently communicate with each other.”
He winced.
“I don’t know what kind of abilities she has over me.”
“I’ll reach out to him now,” Coach said. “Maybe he can meet us here before class is over.”
I nodded, and we left to head out to the fields.
“It’s called The Who.” Elder Langmore sat in the pergola in High Valley Recreational Facility which was adjacent to High Valley High School’s Baseball Fields. They were dual purpose with the high school using the fields and having priority, but also used for little league during the off season. The pergola was in a small park-like area south from the ballfield, nestled in a small wooded area that featured a pond and walking path.
Coach had excused me from class to speak with Elder Langmore. He was tall, taller than me, thin to the point of emaciation, with a bald head, and enormous hands. I bet those hands could handle a basketball when he was younger.
“Like the rock band?” I said.
He remained stoic to my wit. “It’s official name is much longer and involves syllables the human tongue cannot produce. Plus, to invoke it could mean metaphysical disaster beyond imagination.”
“Of course,” I said, sitting back on the wooden bench. My curly dark locks kept getting caught on the splinters, and I was forced to shake my head to get them free.
“The Who is the nemesis of all creation.” Elder Langmore held up his hands. “It consumes everything in it’s path, and re-orients it to its dark desires.”
“Great,” I said. “So I’m tied to a being that can turn me into a Hellhound?”
He shrugged.
“Who or what else could it be?"
He shrugged thin shoulders. “Oh, there’s a number of people in this town who could accomplish it. Dark entities of all factions have magical components who could twist that bond into something else.”
“So how do we break it?”
Elder Langmore closed his eyes. Well, they weren’t actually closed, they rolled up into his head, and he moaned softly.
I got a bad vibe from him. He smelled like cigarettes and whisky. He’d put his enormous hand on my shoulder, and it felt oily, evil for want of a better word. I wanted to open my own third eye and look at him, but didn’t want to tip him off in any way.
“A Witch’s knot. Deftly done.”
I nodded. The pain had started increasing, like the jock strap was gripping me tighter and tighter with each passing moment. I sweat in the cool spring breeze, but clenched my jaw forcing the pain down.
He was quiet for a time, his hand rising and falling in the air, and onto my knee. He rubbed my knee a little then started to slide his hand higher—
“Hey, Bro,” I said, slapping it. “None of that!”
He came out of his trance, and shook himself. “Sorry, boy. I was tracing the pattern of the tentacle that is wrapped around your essence. It is nested inside your masculinity.”
“Wait, tentacle?”
He nodded. “What did you think those branches were, boy?”
“I was calling them tendrils.”
“To each his own, I suppose.” He stood. “The witch’s knot will hold for a time, but eventually the tension will become too great.”
That's what I was afraid of. Even now, I practically writhed at how uncomfortable I was. I kept darting a hand down, trying to relieve the pressure but it was like a slow boil.
“Can you break the connection between us?”
“Your young witch is correct. To attempt to sever the connection would alert whoever is attached to the black tentacle. If it is The Who, that could be very bad indeed.”
“Can it be disconnected without alerting Whoever it is?”
He sighed. “Possibly.”
“But—“
He nodded. “But, I’d need you both within my physical reach and I suspect the offspring of Desdemonia would forbid it.”
“Damn, I was hoping you’d be able to help.”
“There is one method that might work." He shrugged. "However--”
“Oh?”
He held up a finger. “If you were to have conjugal relations with the young witch in question, and during said relations at the climax of your release, within greyspace, a nexus could be created that the tentacles could be unwound. It would require a very heightened state that extended for as long as possible.”
My jaw would have hit the floor if it wasn’t attached. “You mean, I’d need to have sex with April?”
He nodded. “And it will require you both to enter greyspace and unwind the tentacles at the moment of climax.”
“I don’t even know how to do that,” I said.
“I could show you,” he responded, again placing his hand on my shoulder. Immediately, I felt the oily, slick, wrongness of his touch and writhed out from under it.
“Which means you’d have to be there?”
He nodded. “Of course.”
“I don’t think April’s mother would like that.
He grinned. His teeth were yellow and many of them were rotten and had fallen out. “Desdemonia, my old nemesis,” he said.
“Yes, that’s April’s mo—“
“Hello Ernie,” a sultry voice said behind me.
I turned and saw April standing next to a somewhat overweight woman in her fifties with midnight hair streaked with gray that was pulled up into an ornate bun on the top of her head. She wore a black dress that clung to her body and displayed her impressive cleavage.
“It’s been too long,” Brother Langmore said. “I was just discussing with this fledgling—“
“I know exactly what you were discussing, Ernie,” Desdemonia said walking closer to us. “Your help is no longer needed.”
The flowers and blooming plants were making my sinuses act up. I felt like I needed to sneeze, but pinched the bridge of my nose and was able to avoid it.
What the actual fuck, Seth. I leave you alone for a half an hour and you go to the Brotherhood? April fidgeted beside her mother. She kept reaching behind her and trying to loosen her corset or something.
I had to tell Coach Marcus why I wasn’t going to be at practice.
Do you know what you’ve done?
I thought about it. No.
Langmore is an ancient elder who is as black as they come!
From what everyone tells me, so is your mom!
April huffed. Yes, but Mother loves me! She would HELP us, stupid.
How am I supposed to know that?
“You know about the Witch’s knot?” Elder Langmore said.
Desdemonia nodded imperceptibly, closing eyes artfully shadowed with navy black and with long extended lashes.
“The Who is at the Gate,” Langmore said. Distantly, I saw Coach Marcus leaving the ball field and begin jogging toward us. He was on his cellphone. “It’s tentacles entwine with their Essence.”
Desdemonia flinched. “We don’t know that. It could be another—“
“You think it’s a coincidence we’re less than two weeks from the Dark Night of the Soul and, The Who is at the gate, and the Key must be used?”
Desdemonia raised her perfectly arched drawn-on brows. “I do know.”
“Then you also know that the only way to extricate these two—“
“Is to have them consummate their relationship, yes. I was going to guide them in this, until you intruded where you didn’t belong."
Coach Marcus arrived. “What’s going on here, folks?”
Brother Langmore regarded Coach Marcus with a long look. Then coach Marcus nodded, and turned to Desdemonia. They must have had words in greyspace or whatever.
“We feel it’s in the boy’s best interest to have someone of the Brotherhood in attendance,” Coach said.
“I feel like a flank of steak at the butchers that you’re bargaining over,” I said. “What are we all talking about?”
Brother Langmore regarded me with rhuemy eyes. “In order for the Gate to be opened, the Who needs a Key.”
“Okay…”
Desdemonia chimed in. “The Key isn’t an object.”
“It’s a person,” April said.
Desdemonia nodded, touching April’s hair softly.
“And you’re that person?” I looked at April.
She shook her head, looking sad.
“No, boy,” Elder Langmore responded.
I looked around the circle at all the faces regarding me. In the distance I could see Mrs. Merrick, HeadMaster James, and some of the other teachers making their way down the path.
“You are.” Desdemonia finished.
I sighed, wondering what could possibly happen next.
“Wait.” I held up my hand. “How is that possible?”
“A Were who can use magic,” April said. “When you opened your third Eye, I knew.”
I sat down, hard. “Well, I’m not going to open anything up.”
“You’re already entangled, boy.” Elder Langmore said. “The quicker you can copulate with this trollop, the quicker the entanglement can be extracted!”
“Don’t be crass, Ernie,” Desdemonia said. “It’s unbecoming.”
“You didn’t think I was so unbecoming when I was copulating with you back in the day, Missy.”
“So droll,” Desdemonia said.
Again, I felt a need to sneeze. I pinched my nose again, and held it back. Damn allergies.
Yeah, they’re doing a number on me too.
Get out of my brain!
You love it and you know it.
I rolled my eyes. “So is someone going to explain to me how I’m the Key to whatever? All I want to do is—“
The bell rang. Coach Marcus said: “I think we should all take a step back and regroup. A lot has been revealed here, and the children need to finish their lessons.”
“All I have is Spanish,” I said. “I can skip it.”
“I have study hall,” April said. She fidgeted, her hand behind her back and pulling at the laces of her corset.
“Very well, then,” Desdemonia said. She waved an elegant hand and an ornate golden lawn chair appeared with accompanying umbrella and small table. “Anyone for a Mint Julep?”
She sat down in the chair. April took one of the copper cups with a sprig of mint leaves. She waved one in my direction, but I shook my head. We were in baseball season, and I definitely didn’t want alcohol muddying up my brain.
“The Who is incredibly powerful, incredibly dangerous, and from all accounts will try to breach the Gate in about two weeks.” Desdemonia took a long sip on her straw and smiled.
“Ten days,” Miss Minnick said. “And the infernals are gathering forces.
“As are the Weres,” Pete Vargas said. When had he arrived?
“In order for the Who to get through, the gate needs to be opened. In order for the gate to be opened, it needs a Key.”
“Right,” I said. “I got that much. My question is how am I the Key?”
She pointed a chubby finger at me. She had extended nails like April. She wasn’t a bad-looking woman, all things considered.
“The Key is someone of multiple factions, not necessarily you but someone like you who can wield magic and has an Alpha level Were constitution.”
Pete Vargas snorted. “He’s not—“
“Let’s not mince words, Peter,” Desdemonia said. “I said Alpha level not that he was the Alpha of your pack. And you must admit, young Seth meets those qualifications, I must say.”
She gave me a lascivious grin, and licked her lips.
“Please, Mother.” April nudged her. “Behave.”
“But then why the tether, or whatever, that is pulling my masculinity away?”
“Abrogation.” Miss Minnick said.
Desdemonia nodded, and made a scoring motion with her index finger in Miss Minnick’s direction.
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“Someone is trying to nullify you,” April said.
“That accounts for the tether between you two,” Desdemonia sipped again on her mint julep, and created another. “The tentacle is a different entanglement.”
“I thought you said that came from your power?” I looked at April. “That’s why you needed to release—“
She nodded.
“My daughter…” Desdemonia said, looking up at April with affection. “Is being groomed to take my place.”
“Bestial practice!” Brother Langmore spat. “If your daughter only knew!”
Desdemonia smiled beatifically. “Oh, my dear, Ernest. She does know. And has agreed anyway.”
“What are we talking about?” I said.
Pete Vargas snarled. “The Bitch is grooming the offspring to become the container for her soul. When the offspring is ready, the Bitch will move into it, and the offspring will be in the cast-off body. It’s disgusting.”
I looked at April. Is that true?
Yes…
You mean, your MOTHER will be in your body and you will—
She nodded, silently, and a tear slipped down her face.
Why would you do that?
Mother is eons old. Just like Brother Langmore. This is what they do.
“You steal bodies?” I said, sitting down next to April. She took my hand, and I squeezed it. We both writhed uncomfortably beside each other.
Desdemonia gave a soft smile. “Is it theft if the body is freely given?”
“What if she says no?” I said.
Desdemonia waved her hand. “Pfft, it’s already in process. I should posses her corpus delicti any time now.”
“Which is why,” Miss Minnick said. “I entangled the two of you.”
Desdemonia leaped out of her chair, her eyes fading to inky pools. “You did what?!?”
Minnick transformed. Gone was the pleasant teacher I knew so well. In a few moments, a true infernal towered in front of us, with red skin, pelted goat legs, barbed tail, and immense leathery wings. Minnick opened her mouth, and fangs extended from the top and bottom. “Do you dare confront me, Wytch?”
A glowing orb of cold silver materialized in Desdemonia’s hand.
Another orb, this one apparently made of molten metal and lava, began to rotate in Minnick’s palm.
“Hold up,” Pete Vargas said, and I noticed he had shifted a bit. He held up hands that had extended claws. “This is not a battlefield, there are children present!”
“If it means, anything,” Minnick said. “The entanglement was for Seth to lend strength to April to extend her transition past the Night of the Soul. That is all.”
“So you’re saying you didn’t know the Atkins boy was powered?” Desdemonia said.
“Absolutely not. Nor did I know a third entity was involved. For this I apologize.”
Desdemonia took a few breaths, and her eyes returned to normal. Minnick also relaxed downward into her teacher form.
“When did the boy become powered then?” Desdemonia asked. “It’s caused quite a problem in my transition.”
“I think I can speak to that,” a familiar voice said. I winced. I knew it would only be a matter of time before—
“Hello everyone,” my father said.
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My dad wore a three-piece suit and looked like he’d just stepped out of a board room. He owned several businesses in town and had an office over the bank where he’d worked for two decades before becoming an entrepreneur.
He had slicked dark hair, icy blue eyes, and silver cuff links. I think he wore them just to dare everyone on the Magical Council meetings.
“I wasn’t aware the council was taking a field trip today?”
“That’s why I alerted you to our quorum status,” Pete Vargas said. “So you didn’t feel left out.”
“I’d like to speak to my son privately, please,” Dad said. “Son, walk with me.”
I gave April’s hand a squeeze, then followed my dad along the path and out of earshot of even Pete Vargas.
He brushed my hair back from my shoulders. “A lot of excitement today?”
I nodded. “Yes, sir.” I attempted to release the tension in my groin to no avail.
“Is this your doing?”
I shrugged. “Yes.”
“Elucidate the means, please?”
So I told him. From trying to help Mitzy Butterfly, to meeting with Brother Langmore and Desdemonia’s appearance.
My father has the ability to actively listen. He looks you in the eye, nodding at the appropriate times, allowing you to completely relate whatever information he desired. I envied this ability in him.
After relating everything that had happened, he put a hand on my shoulder. “Noble gesture, son. I’m proud of you for standing up for someone who isn’t as strong as you.”
I felt the bite of tears in my eyes. I didn’t please my father often, but the very spare moments of praise always meant a lot. “Thanks, but I guess these are the consequences.”
“Let us return,” he said, pulling me back toward the circle.
We returned to the group where a few more people were holding mint juleps, including Miss Minnick. It looked like they had healed whatever wound had just opened.
“Well, I appreciate everyone’s concern, but I will be taking my son home now. Thank you very much for your help.”
“But Dad…”
He grinned at me, but the smile did not touch his eyes. “Silence.”
My dad was a lot of things. Entrepreneur, Werewolf, Banker, Boxer, Martial Arts expert, Carpenter, Musician, you name it. He played in the town Symphony, brokered major deals with town businesses, owned several restaurants, and even bowled Monday nights.
Everyone knew my dad. Everyone knew he had a temper. Everyone knew…that when my dad got quiet, he needed to be feared. Everyone knew that when he smiled, there would be hell to pay.
“Schoolmaster James, a word please.”
He took the principal off into the woods for a bit. I eavesdropped. I’m sure Dad did this on purpose so I’d hear.
“I expected more from you, Henry. How did things get so out of control?”
“I’m sorry, Jim. I had no idea that Minnick—“
“I expect your full report at the next school board meeting.”
Henry gulped, and nodded.
Oh yeah, my dad is also president of the school board.
“Best be looking for alternative means of employment, Henry. Thank you for your service to the students of High Valley, but that service is no longer needed. This will all be made official at the next school board meeting as well.”
The Schoolmaster deflated, but nodded and began walking back toward the main building.
Desdemonia stood next to her golden chair when father and Schoolmaster James returned. “We have yet to resolve the conjugal relations between these two.”
“A Witch’s knot is currently in place?”
Desdemonia nodded. “Yes but—“
“I will have my own specialists examine my son. If a conjugal visit is needed, one will be arranged.”
“It’s getting…” April said in a small voice, practically tearing at the laces of her bodice. “Uncomfortable.”
My dad looked up at me. “Is that so?”
I nodded, gritting my teeth. It was like someone was twisting my testicles slowly, but with increasing pressure.
“Hmmm,” he said. He stood with his right arm crossed and his left arm perpendicular with his fist loosely in front of his mouth. It was his classic thinking pose, and I’d seen him stand like that trying to decide on a million dollar deal, or what toppings to get on our pizza for the night.
“Pressure is mounting behind the knot,” Desdemonia said. “So if you’re thinking of having him examined, you’d better make it fast.”
“What will happen when the Knot unravels?”
She shrugged. “Unknown!”
I felt a sneeze coming on. It was going to be a big one. I didn’t want to embarrass anyone, so I pinched the bridge of my nose again.
No luck. It was coming. Unknown to me, April also had stood up and was closing her eyes.
“What—“
“Gonna sneeze!” she said.
Overwhelmed by the feeling, I nodded. “Me too!”
Together, we sneezed.
Katchoo!
Pain erupted from my groin. I roared in response. Unfortunately, the sneeze led to another, and another, and another. I heard April sneezing also.
I lost control of my curse. The pain was maddening, and my supernatural body answered. I could feel my face shifting, my claws extending, my heels rising upwards--
The energy built up, and I opened my eyes between sneezes to see April on her knees in front of me. An uncomfortable amount of Pink, Orange, and Black light surrounded us. I couldn’t stop sneezing.
A conflagration swept around us. Wind streamed through our hair, energy building up and up and up with each sneeze.
“Stop them!” Desdemonia said. “If that goes up—“
Brother Langmore gripped my transforming shoulder as Desdemonia held April.
The world exploded in a silent nuclear magical explosion.
I was torn from my body. A tornado of the soul ripped through me, and I felt myself whirling around and around the area. I couldn’t move my arms or my legs. I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t do anything other than ride the course of the maelstrom of magic as my soul was torn asunder.
My life flashed before my eyes. Mom’s eyes, as she laughed and held me after I’d fallen off my tricycle. The smell of her hair after a day at the beach and bringing me to our car. Dad’s grin as the three of us played a round of MoneyCity. Dad helping me through my first Change. Mom’s silver fur as we raced in the moonlight.
Mom’s soft touch on my head as the heart monitor beeped in the background. Dad’s arms holding me back as the trauma team attempted to revive her. Standing at her funeral with unknown relatives who brought dishes of food.
April laughing at me on the playground as we swung on the Monkey Bars. Mitzy Butterfly’s Were form, azure and lovely as the moon glowed through her enormous wings above me.
Jeff Farnum slapping me on the back after a round of ArenaWar. Mr. Douglas, my little league coach yelling “Atta-boy!” after hitting a home run.
Images, senses, feelings, emotions all cascaded together and swirled within a soundless maelstrom. Something changed as the air surrounding us turned green.
The smell of rotton eggs, things decaying, and burning rubber flooded my senses. I could see something below me, something with burning yellow eyes that moved, undulated, something that had tentacles rising up into the air, latching onto me and--
Oblivion intruded.
My senses returned sometime later, along with sound. I could hear snarling, snapping, barking but it wasn’t normal barking, it was Were barking. I knew that sound well.
Opening my eyes I saw three werewolves locked in battle. Two of them were much larger than the third, but they all tore into each other, snapping and clawing and roaring. Miss Minnick stood up in infernal form and cast three bubbles of darkness that swarmed over the werewolves, then separate them from each other. They were bleeding, ravenous. We were lucky they hadn’t turned on us—
April was kneeling in front of me, holding her head and Brother Langmore looked at me, then groaned. “Ohhh nooo!” he looked down at his hands. “No, no no no NO!”
“What—“ the voice coming from my mouth sounded strange. I put a hand up to my throat, and felt wattled smooth skin—
My fingers were chubby with extended nails painted a deep blue-black.
April laughed, but it wasn’t her normal laugh. It sounded deep, like the person who normally used it was used to a deeper voice and using April’s voice instead.
“What the hell happened?” I said, and I heard Desdemonia’s voice coming from my mouth. I struggled to get up with her overweight body. I rolled into a sitting position.
‘April’ looked at me. “I take it you’re not Desdemonia.”
“No, I’m Seth!”
April chuckled again. She held out a hand and helped me as I floundered up to my feet.
“This is rich.” April glanced down at her breasts and took them in her hands. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
“But who are you then?”
“Ernest Langmore, of course,” April’s body said.
“Then who are you?” I looked at Brother Langmore.
“Desdemonia! You’re in my body!”
“Wait, if you’re Desdemonia, and you’re Brother Langmore, where’s April?”
We looked at the snarling snapping werewolves slowly rotating in front of us. One of them was my body in werewolf form, one was definitely Pete Vargas, and the smaller one was my father. I’d seen his werewolf form also. The twisted inhuman characteristics of human and wolf blended together into supernaturally strong creatures with burning eyes.
“I’m not sure which one is which,” Minnick said. “But I guess it doesn’t matter. They’ve all fully changed.”
“No!” I said. “That can’t be true!”
Minnick shrugged. “Unless you can see the entanglement, I think it is. They’ve shifted without the power of the moon, which means they’re trapped in Werewolf Form. You know the rules, Seth.”
I closed my eyes, and opened my third eye. Amazed at how easy it was, I glanced around the area. The pink aura of April centered on my werewolf body. The other two must have been my father and Pete, probably in each others’ werewolf body.
The entanglement, the Witch’s knot, was gone.
I was trapped as Desdemonia Landcaster!
The Wolves were brought to the racquetball courts inside the sports complex. Miss Minnick assigned each wolf one of the courts, and the door was shut and locked until something else could be done with them. She returned to her teacher form after, and thanked the staff of the sports complex.
“Do not open those doors for any reason,” she said. “We will return for them in a couple of hours after we’ve taken care of the rest of the victims.”
Insane with fury, the wolves ran around the court, hurling themselves against the thick glass. Saliva mixed with blood as they attempted to penetrate the walled enclosure.
“Let’s get you examined,” Miss Minnick said, leading me away. An ambulance had pulled up in front of the complex, and Miss Minnick led me to the back where ‘April’ and ‘Ernest’ had just been examined. A technician bandaged a scrape along my jaw, and gently cleaned my elbows where I’d apparently fallen in the conflagration. Luckily, Desdemonia’s subcutaneous fat had cushioned my fall. My hair was in crazy disarray with leaves, twigs, and other detritus caught in Desdemonia’s hair spray. I attempted to pat it back into place but had no idea what or how to fix it.
“Other than the obvious translocation, you are physically okay?” Miss Minnick said.
I nodded. Every motion felt strange, with parts of my body jiggling and wiggling to every motion. “What happened?”
“The magical pressure must have been greater than anticipated,” Miss Minnick said. “It created a rather dramatic corporeal translocation event with anyone in contact with the two of you.”
I held my head. It throbbed with pain behind my eyeballs. “My head hurts.”
“A side effect of the translocation,” Miss Minnick said. They got me some pain relievers and I swallowed them with a cup of water. Even those simple motions were strange and new, like I was having to learn to operate my body again.
“What happens now?” I said. My voice was a croak. I was so tired and sore.
“Well, it appears the emergency of the conjoining has been relieved for now. I suggest you go home and get some sleep. You’ve been through a traumatic event.
I looked down at my arms, and shook them a little. Desdemonia’s bracelets jingled in response as the fat wobbled back and forth.
I closed my eyes, Desdemonia’s eyes. They were heavy and thick with the mascara and I could actually see my eyelashes. “This is going to take some getting used to—“
“Your friends can help you,” Miss Minnick said. I looked up. Mitzy Butterfly and Jeff Farnum both waved at me from behind police tape. I nodded.
A woman approached me wearing a regal purple robe and staff. “Desdemonia?” she said. She appeared in her late forties.
I shook my head.
“Desdemonia Landcaster has been involved in a corporeal translocation event,” Miss Minnick said. “Until all parties can re-orient, I will ask you to give her some space.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “Is that true?”
I nodded, “Yes.”
She looked panic-stricken. “Then where, or who exactly is Desdemonia?”
Woman, I thought. That now applies to me. She, her, Ms…God, was Desdemonia married? April must have a father. I tried to remember from our dates if she’d ever spoken about him.
“Am I married?” I said. The two women looked back at me.
“No, dear,” the woman in the purple robe said. “You’re my life partner. Well, Desdemonia is. Please, where is she now?”
Miss Minnick led the woman away. I heard her cry out in pain and sorrow as ‘Brother Langmore’ took her into his wide arms. I winced, feeling the throbbing of my own head as I walked to Mitzy and Jeff.
“Um…Seth?” Jeff said. “Is that really you?”
“Yeah, man,” I said. “Long story.”
“How do we know someone isn’t playing an evil trick on us?” Mitzy said.
“Miss Minnick said they’d had a body swap, is why.”
I stumbled in Desdemonia’s shoes, and they both caught me under the armpits.
“Can you take me home?” I said. My head was fuzzy and throbbed with each step.
“On level 32 of Enemy Mine, as your entering the Lair of the White Worm, who do you meet?” Jeff said.
I winced. “Level 32…” I thought about it. Enemy Mine was an old old game we’d played when we were in Junior High. I remembered Lair of the White Worm, it was deceptively difficult because the first thing you had to overcome was—
“Two-Face Mcgee,” I said. “And you got killed like fifteen times before you finally overcame the Lair and took the Scepter.”
“Nine times!” Jeff said.
“Bullshit,” I responded as they both helped me to Jeff’s Scout.
It took me a few tries to get into the passenger seat. Desdemonia had zero upper body strength and I was so sore, tired, and confused they had to push my fat ass into the passenger seat. Mitzy climbed in next to me, and Jeff got into the driver’s seat.
I heard the final bell ring as the rest of the student body of High Valley High came streaming out of the main doors. Jeff fought with the standard transmission and we jerked forward.
“Jesus,” I said, wincing. “Can you take it easy? My head feels like it’s going to roll off.”
Mitzy snuggled up next to me. “Is that really you in there?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Thank God you didn’t get trapped as a feral. They said it was really April in the feral wolf form?”
I nodded as I felt I felt a lump rise in my throat. April. She really didn’t deserve what had happened to her. Sure she’d been a bitch, but in a lot of ways, she’d been less in control of the situation than I had.
It was all too much. Tears fell from my eyes, and soon as I was sobbing old lady sobs. “There wasn’t anything I c.c.could do!”
“Hey,” Mitzy took my hand. “We are going to get you out of there.”
I nodded. That wasn’t the point.
I’d loved April. Love April, current tense. She didn’t deserve to be a feral wolf. But what did it matter if this Who or whatever came through the gate? Could it come through the gate now, if the Key had been taken out of the equation? Was that one minor benefit at least?
And my father. He’d been so careful about our were curse. Rules layered on rules. We had a cabin up north where we spent our time every month. It was in the deep wilderness, only accessible by helicopter. I thought about the feral burning red eyes as it hurled itself again and again against the glass of the racquetball court. There’d been zero intelligence there, just the ferality of the Wolf struggling to break free and consume everything in its path.
I sighed, struggling to get myself under control. Mitzy handed me a tissue, and I blew my nose, but couldn’t stop sobbing.
They got me to the house and up the stairs.
“Um,” Mitzy said softly. “Hon, you need to shower before getting in bed.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“You have stuff in your hair, and you need to remove your makeup. Otherwise your skin will suffer.”
I sighed and nodded. I needed to use the restroom anyway.
She helped me into the restroom. “Do you need help removing your clothes?”
I shook my head. “I can take care of it.”
Needing to use the commode, I quickly disrobed and sat down. Everything felt different down there, and I was soon releasing and feeling some relief. I turned the shower on hot, then eased myself in.
We still had some of Mom’s shampoo in the little basket beside the tub. I soaked myself good and long, letting the heat and water sluice away the shame, guilt, and pain.
Toweling off, I tried not to notice my new curves and additions. It was going to be a problem, however, as I had nothing to wear, and none of Mom’s clothes would fit this flabby body. I put on one of dad’s robes that at least covered most of my flesh, and slid under the covers. I was quickly asleep.
The alarm woke me the next morning. At first everything felt strange and weird, but then the events of the previous day filtered in.
Sighing, I got up. My headache had gone away and at least I was thinking a bit clearer.
Pulling on my dad’s robe, I realized I was going to need to do something about the clothing situation and quickly. Jeff usually picked me up for school. I glanced at the clock, and went into the restroom.
My hair was a matted disarray. I tried to comb through it, but only made things worse. My skin of my face was blotchy and had sun spots. I wished I had Desdemonia’s magic, she probably just poofed herself into perfection each morning.
I was finally able to wrangle the hair into a workable ponytail, and found some of mom’s sweats that weren’t too tight. I’d just put on Desdemonia’s heeled shoes when I heard the horn honk outside.
It felt strange going to school in my ex-girlfriend’s Mother’s body. I levered myself up into the passenger seat. Mitzy threw her arms around me. “How was your night?”
“Slept,” I said. “Long and hard.”
“Hah, I bet,” Jeff said. “Did you at least feel yourself up?”
“Don’t be crass,” I said.
Wait, where had that come from? I remembered Desdemonia had used the phrase yesterday.
“Uh, okay, Grandma!” Jeff laughed, as he pulled the Scout into traffic.
Frowning, I crossed my arms. Why was he being so insufferable?
“So you’re going to school like nothing happened?” Mitzy said.
“I suppose,” I said. “I left my backpack and all my homework there yesterday.”
“I grabbed it for you Bro, er…Girl.” Jeff said. “In the back.”
“Thanks, man.”
I thought about the upcoming day. I had homework assignments due in three classes, a quiz in one class, and we were supposed to have an intersquad practice game that afternoon. I guess I wouldn’t be playing third base anytime soon.
I sighed, and felt like I was going to cry again.
As if reading my thoughts, Mitzy hugged me again.
“Did you hear anything about where they put Dad, April and Pete?”
“Wolf rescue from Jonesburg,” Jeff said.
I nodded. It was the usual pattern with feral werewolves. If they couldn’t learn to socialize with other werewolves and be accepted into a pack, they’d be put down. I thought about the way dad had thrust himself over and over again into the glass and sighed.
“Do you want to go visit them?” Mitzy said.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“It might be nice for April to see her mother’s face again.”
“Do you guys want to?”
Jeff shrugged. “I’m down with a ditch day. It’s Friday anyway, most of my classes will be watching movies.”
“Okay,” I said, feeling a bit better.
The drive to Jonesburg took less than an hour. It was a mountain town near where our cabin was, actually. The wolf rescue was on the outskirts of town and had been a former logging mill that had been converted into pens. Wolves howled and snarled as we parked. We got out of the Scout, and I immediately needed to use the restroom again.
I made it to the front desk and while they talked to the staff, I scooted to the Ladies room.
Lady, another new term that applied to me. I sighed and entered one of the stalls.
After taking care of business I looked at my appearance in the mirror. I really needed some makeup, or at least some lipstick if I was going to be presentable. I also ran my fingers through my streaked hair and attempted to arrange it a bit neater than it had been.
I found Mitzy and Jeff at the door to the pens, waiting for me with wide eyes.
“What?” I said.
“Um…” Jeff said.
“Seth…there’s been another change,” Mitzy said.
“What do you mean?” I looked out into the pens. I saw several wolves, and another section for werewolves. The twisted, feral, supernaturally strong werewolves snarled and roared with glowing eyes of different colors. I walked past several werewolf pens. I found my father’s werewolf form, with burning chrome colored eyes and black pelt mixed with silver. It ran around and around and around in a circle, sometimes hurling itself against the heavy iron cage.
I reached the end, but didn’t see Pete or my Werewolf forms anywhere.
“Where are they?” I said. “Did they take them to a different rescue?”
“Um, no?” Mitzy said, pointing.
She pointed at a different enclosure within the wolf section.
“Wow, did they already calm down?” I said, walking the pen. Two wolves lay against each other, one a mixed white and reddish brown and the other a darker brown mixed with white. They were wolves though, not the supernaturally strong human/wolf mix that I’d been. These were two larger than normal wolves, quadrupedal, heavy fur, long snout…no human features whatsoever.
“Is April and dad in with those two?”
“That is your dad and April, Seth,” Mitzy said.
The two animals saw us and struggled up to their feet. The larger dark brown mixed with white wolf licked the rust colored wolf on the cheek. They trotted over to us.
It dawned on me as the rust colored one approached. Both wolves chuffed at us, and their tails began to wag.
“Wait..that can’t be…”
“After they calmed down and a night of sleep, they’ve become gray wolves,” a staff member behind us said. “We’ve never seen that happen before.”
The rust mixed with white wolf stood up with it’s forepaws on the chain link gate in front of us. It’s tongue lolled out of it’s mouth and it gave a friendly bark as it’s tail wagged.
“April?” I said, leaning down to stroke the wolf’s pelt through the gate.
The tail began to wag faster and faster. It whined softly.
“Aww, I think you can go in for a visit,” the staff member said. “Just be careful of her mate.”
“Her…mate?” I said, looking at the darker wolf. It gave a little bark followed with a growl as if in warning.
“Dad?” I said.
The other wolf’s tail began to wag too. But it was in a more mechanical fashion, and it did not whine like the smaller wolf. Under it’s torso I could see a male sheath.
“Yep, they mated last night,” the employee said, opening the gate and entering the enclosure.
Petrified, I stared at them. I realized that under torso was…nothing.
April was a female wolf.
Jeff and Mitzy entered the enclosure and immediately began interacting with April and Dad. Stunned, I walked a few feet into the enclosure. I couldn’t process what I was seeing.
From the tip of their quivering black snouted noses to their furred wagging tail, the two wolves acted exactly like the animals they were. Mitzy cooed over April and stroked her soft pelt around her head as Jeff petted the Wolf that had originally been Pete Vargas’s body.
I’d expected to see two feral werewolves like they’d been yesterday. Burning eyes, fingers into claws, and a mix of human and wolf into a deadly killer form.
Pete tried to interest the male wolf in a chew toy. It regarded Pete with a steely blue eye, and walked toward me.
“Dad?” I said, looking into the wolf’s face. “It’s me. It’s Seth.”
The wolf started sniffing me, and apparently understood what I was trying to say. It sat in front of me, regarding me quietly with Dad’s stare.
“April?” I said, looking at the other wolf. Her tail began to wag and she turned around and around in a circle, wanting me to pet her. I stroked her soft fur, and she licked my hand.
How could this have happened to you? I felt like weeping again.
…
April? I sent. Can you hear me?
…
There was something there. It wasn’t words, but something…I decided on a different tack. I sent an image of us playing on the monkeybars, laughing.
An image came back. I could see myself on the bars, but it was in black and white, and I couldn’t see April at all.
I sent an image of her as a young child, chubby cheeks with a little upturned nose.
This time what came back was the girl transforming into a little puppy in black and white.
April? I sent. Please tell me you can see this…
Nothing came back except a strange feeling.
I wondered if April’s original body would be able to communicate with her. I decided I’d try to bring the new April out here and—
“Hey, can we take them back with us?” I said to the attendant.
The man frowned. “I’m not sure. I’d have to check with my manager.”
“Can you, please?” I said.
“You won’t do anything stupid like let them out of the pen?”
“We promise,” Mitzy said. She’d found a ball and tossed it. April scrambled after it, plucking it up with her mouth and running back to place it at Mitzy’s feet.
“I’m kinda surprised she’s okay with you…considering.”
“Yeah, me too!” Mitzy said. “I figured she’d try to rip my face off.”
“You can understand me, though, right Dad?” I said looking into Dad’s stoic face.
The wolf raised it’s paw and set it down again.
“Wow, I think that’s how it might say yes,” Jeff said.
“One paw for yes, two for no,” I said.
The wolf regarded me quietly.
“Ask him something he would say no,” Jeff said.
“Will you dance an irish jig for me, Dad?” I said.
The wolf blinked, and yawned. It raised it’s left paw once, then twice.
“Yep, that’s my dad.” I said, smiling.
“April, can you understand me?” Mitzy said.
April’s wolf head turned in a quizzical manner and she gave a soft chuff.
“One bark for yes, two for no?” Mitzy said.
Again the wolf turned it’s head.
“You were a blonde in real life, right?” Mitzy said.
April turned her head again and chuffed, wagging her tail.
“I don’t think she really understands you.”
“I’ve been able to send images in greyspace, but she hasn’t been able to send normal speech,” I said. “I wonder if it’s related?”
The employee returned with a man dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and tie. “This is my manager,” the original employee said.
“Hello friends!” the manager said. “My name is Dale Berkson and I’m the manager here at Jonesburg wolf rescue,” he said.
“Hello, I’m…uh…Sadie, and these are my friends Jeff and Mitzy.”
He nodded to us all. “I understand you’re wanting to adopt this pair?”
“They were…well,” I said. I shrugged, no use in pretending. “This one was my father and that one was my ex-girlfriend.”
He nodded. “Yes, quite an exceptional case. We don’t usually see feral werewolves adjust to a fully canine form.”
“Any idea how it happened?” I said.
“We’ve watched the camera footage…” Dale said. “If you’d like to come inside, I can show it to you.”
“That would be wonderful, Dale,” I said.
Jeff and I followed the manager into the main office area. Mitzy decided to stay outside with the wolves.
“That would be wonderful, Dale.” Jeff said as we walked behind him. “Jesus, man get ahold of yourself, you're starting to sound like her.”
I winced and nodded, following the manager into his office. He stood in front of a monitors. An array of camera output stretched across the large monitor screen, clearing every few seconds and showing a different set of cameras.
“Let’s see, they were brought in last night around 4 pm…” He sped through the cameras, until he found the one where Pete’s body and my body were brought in animal crates. The crates were placed with their mouth to the pen, then the gate to the crate was triggered electronically. Pete and April leaped out of their crate into the pen as the iron bars of the werewolf enclosure slammed shut.
We could see them in feral mode, running and snarling around. They weren’t fully bipeds but they also weren’t true quadrupeds, able to walk or run on two or four limbs interchangeably.
“Yes, this is what we expected to see today.”
“Yep, the fun stuff doesn’t happen until right about…” he sped up the playback until it read 11 pm. “Here.”
The two werewolves had settled down. They were in adjoining pens, and they lay against the iron wall of the pen, with their backs to each other. They lay panting and huffing, their eyes closed, but it felt like they could come alive at any moment.
A soft glow enveloped April’s form, shortly after it stretched to encompass Dad’s body. We could see the changes happening, the shifting, the arms becoming true forelegs, the pelt filling in areas of the face, claws retracting into true paws, tails extending, and the face slowly adjusting from the feral monster into the familiar wolf face they now possessed.
They awoke, and immediately began pawing at each other through the enclosure walls. April whined, and attempted to lick my Dad, and my dad tried to use his shoulder against the wall to no avail, so he sat close and tight to her through the rest of the night.
“We felt so bad for them, we decided to allow them in one of the wolf pens early this morning.”
Collars were buckled around each animal, and they were leashed and led to their new enclosure in the wolf area. They pranced around each other, licking and pawing, obviously excited to be with each other. After a few moments, Dad bit the nape of April’s neck and…well, the rest of the footage was a bit x-rated.
“Okay, we get the idea,” I said.
“Wolves mate for life,” the manager said. “It would be cruel to separate those two now.”
I swallowed at that. “So…she could have…”
The manager nodded. “Yes, she’s a fully functional female canis lupus. We won’t know for a few days if she’ll have a litter, but the longer they are together…”
I swallowed.
“I’d like to keep an eye on them for a few weeks. Maybe a month to make sure the moon doesn’t initiate any changes back to their feral nature. I’d hate for you to take them home then be forced to put them down when the moon causes them to become feral again.”
I figured as much. I nodded.
“Plus, if the bitch is expecting, it would be far more humane to let them loose in the wild.
Furious, I was about to say something about that word, but then the door opened.
“Uh, sir?” an employee stuck his head in.
“What is it?” Dale said.
“There’s someone here who also wants to see the pair from last night.”
I got up and looked out into the main entry.
Ernie Langmore stood there with April.
"This is about to get interesting,” Jeff said, as we left the manager’s office.
‘April,’ wore a gingham dress. Her hair had been tamed into a long braid, similar to the one I’d worn yesterday. She wore no makeup, and had tennis shoes that looked a bit too large.
‘Ernest’ had fared a bit better in the clothing department. He wore a brown suit with a white shirt. His teeth looked less yellow than they had yesterday and he’d shaved both his head and his face.
“Desdemonia,” Ernest said upon seeing me. “My old Nemesis.”
“Oh, cut the crap. Everyone here knows what happened,” I said.
“I want to see my daughter,” Desdemonia said. “They said she was here?”
I nodded. “There’s been a bit of a development,” I said.
After taking them out to the wolf enclosure and telling them everything that happened, Desdemonia looked stunned.
“Are you able to communicate with her, at all?” I said.
Desdemonia shook his head. “No, but Elder Langtree’s greyspace is different from mine.”
“I noticed.”
“I can’t talk to her either, Mother.” Langtree said with April’s light voice.
“Oh, cut the crap,” Desdemonia and I said at exactly the same moment. Then we burst out laughing.
“You two are scaring me,” Mitzy said.
It was the first time I’d laughed since being thrust into this body. It felt good to laugh again, and I savored it a few moments.
“Feels good to laugh,” Desdemonia said after examining the pair in greyspace.
I nodded, suddenly biting back tears again.
“So my daughter is trapped as a female wolf mated to your father who is trapped as a male wolf.”
“Unless we do something about it,” I said.
Desdemonia shook her head. “Open your third eye.”
I closed my eyes and Desdemonia did the same. He took my hand in his. You can see this, no?
Yes, I replied.
Tell me what you see around them.
I examined the wolves with my third eye. I could see a white aura surrounding them both, connected together.
White aura. Connected.
Yes. Look at the other wolves.
I cast my Sight into the other pens. They all looked similar with white auras. Some were connected to others, some to many others, but they all had similar white auras.
White auras. Connected to others.
Yes.
What does it mean?
What color was April’s aura yesterday.
I frowned remembering. Pink, even though she was in my body.
What color is yours, even now?
Orange, I sent.
And mine?
I looked over Elder Langmore’s body. The aura was dark blue mixed with black.
Dark blue mixed with black.
And Langmore?
I examined him with my inner sight. April’s body usually had a lovely pink aura when April was in it. Now it was black as pitch.
Black, completely.
This is what happens when you accept black magic completely for many many years. The original aura is lost. Mine will become black as well in the coming years.
But what does it all mean?
She sighed and spoke aloud. “April is lost. So, unfortunately, is your father.”
“I don’t understand.”
“They no longer have a human aura in any sense. If we were to perform a translocation now, it would result in a mindless automaton. An animal cannot animate a human body. Believe me, it’s been tried.”
“Yep, yep!” Ernest said, after playing with April. He tossed a ball again, to have her dash after it. My dad also was beginning to show interest in the ball.
“What about Pete?” I said.
“Well, you tell me,” Desdemonia walked over to the Werewolf pens. Werewolves of all shapes an sizes leaped against the iron walls slats of their cages with feral glowing eyes.
I paused in front of Pete’s cage as he snapped and snarled in my Father’s original Were body. Closing my eyes, I entered greyspace.
The werewolves all had auras. Pete’s was a deep red, but other werewolves were green, blue, yellow, the works.
“They all have auras,” I said.
“Yep, so if they were translocated, there’s a remote possibility their mind might be able to be stabilized, but it will never be ‘Pete’ again, it would be someone new.”
I felt the beginnings of a headache again. “Oh, it’s all so confusing,” I said.
Desdemonia put a hand on my shoulder as we walked back to the wolves. Mitzy, Jeff and April were all now playing with both wolves. Jeff had finally got my dad interested in a rubber yoke and was engaged in a rather fierce tug of war. Mitzy and Ernest laughed and chased April in a game of tag.
“If it weren’t for the dire situation, I’d almost find this charming,” I said.
“Let’s go sit on the bench in the office area and let the children play, dear.” Desdemonia said. “We have things to discuss.”
I nodded, and gratefully made my way inside. It had gotten chilly outside and I hadn’t worn appropriate clothing.
“I take it this establishment wishes to monitor them for some time before releasing them to be adopted or into the wild?”
“They told me wolves mate for life,” I said in a shaky voice. “And yes, they want to make sure the lunar cycle is broken.”
“Oh it is, but I can understand their concern.”
I began to cry again. Desdemonia put his arm around me.
“Does your wife need anything?” one of the workers said. “I could bring her some tea, or coffee?”
“Tea would be wonderful,” Desdemonia said.
I finally collected myself and the young woman brought me a cup of tea. That sounded delicious, and I poured in two sugars and a bit of cream before sipping it slowly. It warmed my insides up, and I immediately felt better.
“I loved tea,” Desdemonia said.
“You didn’t want a cup?”
He winced. “Something about it doesn’t sit right anymore.”
I nodded, taking another sip. It shouldn’t sit right with me either, but hey, when in Paris.
“So,” I said, afraid to ask this question. “Is this forever?”
Desdemonia smiled. “Nothing is forever in the world of magic, dear.”
“I know you were getting ready to move into April’s body,” I said. “I find that detestable.”
Desdemonia sighed. “Yes, well, that was years in the making.”
“So you’re not going to try to take her body now?”
“I know you’re new to magic and magical entities,” Desdemonia said. “What happened yesterday…well, was a magical event without equal. I’ve been alive almost four hundred years and I’ve never witnessed something like that. Ernest has been alive almost two thousand years and never witnessed such a cataclysm of wild magic.”
“Is it due to the Who, or whatever you were all talking about?”
“Possibly,” Desdemonia said in a thoughtful voice.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.
“First,” Desdemonia said. “Even if I wanted to take her body I couldn’t. Ernest is quite happy being a young eighteen year old woman. It’s a perfect result for him.”
“And he’d need to give you permission?”
He nodded. “Yes. But not only that, it would take weeks of preparation. Translocation is not something that can be accomplished like what happened yesterday. That’s the amazing thing about that event. It’s also why I can’t just snap my fingers and put my daughter back in her body. It takes weeks, and that’s with a willing participant.
“And with an unwilling?” I said.
He shrugged bony shoulders. “Months, years, decades, eons. It depends on the situation. Months if the person who is unwilling is non-magical, years if they have a minimal of magical talent, decades if they are even of moderate talent, and eons if they are as strong or nearly as strong as I.”
“And Elder Langtree is strong?”
“Oh yes.”
I thought about that. “So we’re stuck then.”
“I didn’t say that. I just said I can’t easily take April’s body as my own.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“You and I could swap, for one thing.”
I looked at his tall thin elderly body. I mean, being in Desdemonia was one thing, but at least she looked a bit healthier than Elder Langtree. I couldn’t imagine being stuck in such a frail, old body.
“I wouldn’t mind being a man again, but—“
He sighed. “I am not much of that. I doubt this thing does anything other than dribble piss every fifteen minutes.”
“Right?” I said, standing up. “It’s like I’m constantly needing to use the restroom. Speaking of which…”
“I’ll meet you back here.”
After using the ladies’ room, I found Mitzy, Jeff, and Langtree had come back into the office area.
“We’re ready to go,” Jeff and Mitzy said. Jeff gave me a sidelong look at Langtree in April’s body and mouthed what the fuck.
“Let me go say goodbye to them real quick,” I said.
“We’ll be in the Scout.”
I went back to the wolf enclosure as quickly as my body could waddle. It was becoming easier and easier to operate this body, feeling less strange by the moment. I was disconcerted by what Desdemonia had said, and felt sad that April and my Father were trapped as animals.
When I got to the enclosure, they apparently were getting ‘busy.’
“Oh, ick,” I said, wanting to scrub my eyes out, and left them to their intimacy.
I made it back to the office area where Desdemonia had returned.
“April tells me the other children wish to leave,” He said.
“Yes, and I was going to say goodbye to April and Dad but they are…um, occupied.”
Desdemonia sighed. “Unfortunately, that just further seals their spirit into the bodies they currently possess. It’s too bad really, if April hadn’t caused the reversion into true wolves, we might have been able to revert them in the other direction.”
“You think that’s what she did?”
“Oh definitely,” Ernest said as we walked out to the parking area. “She probably saw the path to reversion but didn’t understand that instead of a human retro-action she was performing a Canis retro-Action. Given her dual nature, I’m not surprised she made a mistake like that.”
I thought about that. “Could we still perform a ‘retro-action’ on them?”
Desdemonia and Ernest both shook their heads. “Nothing to revert ‘t0.’ They’d need to have at least some humanity.
“But Pete?”
“We could possibly restore Peter to a version of humanity, but as I said before it’s very likely his mind has been torn by the nature of the feral Were.”
“My Dad and April’s weren’t,” I said.
“You stated the young one’s mind was inaccessible. You’ve managed to pass back some images and nothing more, correct?” Ernest said.
“Yes.”
“The feral conversion is incredibly hard on the human mind. It would be more of a justice to allow the retroversion into Canis, than Homo-sapien.”
I sighed in frustration as we approached the Scout. “I don’t know. All if it makes my brain hurt.” I stopped at the Scout where Jeff and Mitzy waited patiently.
“We still have a lot to talk about,” Desdemonia said.
“Not today,” I said. “I’m going to go home and rest. This has been a lot for me.”
“Magic can—“ Desdemonia started but I interrupted him.
“Magic is what got us into this!”
“Yes, and magic can—“
“Magic can take a flying leap right now,” I spat. “I’m going to go home and take a bath and hopefully scrub the image of my Dad screwing the person as an animal form out of my brain!”
Desdemonia waved his hands in a very Elder Langtree manner, and continued walking through the parking area.
I climbed into the Scout, and buckled the safety belt.
“That was weird,” Jeff said.
“Right?” Mitzy said.
I said. “In so many ways. And on so many levels.”
Mitzy put up a hand. “I’m sorry, I just can’t take that creepy guy inside April. She was bad enough to begin with, I hate to think what that creepaholic is going to do inside April’s body!”
I shook my head, putting fingers to my temple. My headache was getting worse.
“You okay?” Mitzy said rubbing my back.
I nodded, hoping my head wouldn’t roll off my shoulders. “Headache,” I said.
“Ohh, you poor thing.” Mitzy put her hand on my brow and started massaging it gently before moving to the back of my head and massaging where my head met my neck…or Desdemonia’s head met…oh, hell. I was getting tired of trying to work it all out.
“I actually said I’m going to take a bath,” I said. “It just sprang into my mind that’s what I need right now. Isn’t that weird? I can’t remember the last time I had a bath.”
“I think it’s a perfectly natural thing to want,” Mitzy said. “With some nice bath salts, some candles…”
“Ohhh, Marry Me,” I said softly.
She giggled and kissed my head.
I closed my eyes, and dozed as we drove back.
I couldn’t quite get the image out of my brain of the two wolves going at it in a loving way. It was almost as stuck as them fighting yesterday after the conflagration—
…The smell of rotten eggs, things decaying, and burning rubber flooded my senses. I could see something below me, something with burning yellow eyes that moved, undulated, something that had tentacles rising up into the air, latching onto me and—
I startled awake.
“Oh good!” A feminine voice near me said. “You’re finally awake!” Not Mitzy’s voice, and we weren’t in the Scout…
I opened my eyes.
April regarded me from about two inches away. “I was afraid you’d cracked your head when you slipped!”
“What…” I said, rising up and looking around us. We were in a…bathtub? I glanced down at my hands and saw—
My hands. Seth’s hands. My familiar, baseball-catching, essay writing, keyboard-typing male hands. Not Desdemonia’s chubby feminine fingers, my hands.
“What the fuck is going on?” I said, looking side to side. We were in an enormous tub with soft lights and music playing. I inhaled and smelled lavender oil and incense burning.
April gave me a small smile, just for me. “You slipped and hit your head on the tub, stupid.”
“April?” I said, unable to contain myself. “Is that really you?”
“Of course it’s me.” She slid her naked body next to mine in the steaming water. “Who else would I be.”
Candles upon candles were arranged around us. The tub was porcelain, the kind with feet. We must have been at her house because I certainly didn’t recognize it as anywhere I lived.
“Where’s Jeff and Mitzy?” I said, frowning. “How did I get here?”
“Awww, she kissed my nose. “You really did bump your head, didn’t you?”
“Bump my—“ I felt the back of my head, and dabbed at it. It was sore and I could see blood on my fingers.
“Damn, this is surreal,” I said. “April, how did we get here?”
“Well, after that terrible day we had, Mother told us we needed to consummate our love in order to release ourselves from the Binding.”
“And—“
She nodded, snuggling up to me, her hands traveling down there and giving me a gentle fondle.
“And we were able to release the binding?”
She nodded. “With the help of Elder Langtree and Mother of course. Wow, you don’t remember anything? I’m kinda hurt.”
“Was my dad there?”
She blinked. “Your father? No…honey, your father’s been gone for years. Your mother called you earlier though, remember? You said you were at practice—
“Wait, my Mother?”
April nodded her head, writhing against me. “Maybe I can figure out a way to jog your memory,” she said, and kissed me.
It was no ordinary kiss.
We made long slippery love…again, apparently. Hey, when life gives you a nubile beautiful young woman in a tub of hot water with all the right stuff in all the right places, you take advantage of it.
Afterward, we settled into April’s immense bed, wrapping ourselves in robes. She lit a one of her long black cigarettes, and smoked as we enjoyed the afterglow.
“Mother will be home soon.” April said. “But this is practically endorsed by her, so I doubt she kicks you out.” She handed me the cigarette, and I inhaled the tobacco into my lungs and immediately began coughing.
“Neophyte,” she giggled, wrapping her arms around me.
I thought about all that had happened in ‘my’ reality, the way we’d been so uncomfortable with the Witch’s knot. What had changed between there and here? We obviously hadn’t exploded. I wondered what had happened.
“April, this is going to sound really stupid—“ I said.
She looked up at me as I handed her the cigarette back. “What?”
“Is your mom still planning to take your body for herself?”
April tugged her hair back over her ear. It was an ‘April’ gesture I knew so well. She stubbed out the cigarette in an ashtray on the nightstand.
She sat up in bed, folding her arms. I could tell she was angry. Which meant…
“So it’s true?”
She nodded, tears slipping down her face. “Does this mean you’re going to leave me now?”
“What? No, of course not,” I said. “Why in the world would you even think something like that?”
She burst into tears.
“Hey!” I said, gathering her up into my arms. “What’s going on, baby?”
She shook her head and continued to cry.
“Is this why you broke up with me when we were freshman?”
She nodded. “I f.f.figured you’d never want to be with someone w.w.who gave away their future like that!”
I held her tight and close. “So when is this supposed to happen?”
“It c.c.could happen anytime.” She sniffled and I handed her a box of tissue from the nightstand. “She’s been preparing for months. It’s why I had to offload the black magic I was building up into you. I was hoping to extend it a little longer.”
I nodded. “So we got rid of one tentacular creature, but we have to deal with another one?”
“If you mean my mother, than yes.” She giggled.
“And it could happen at any time, without warning?”
She shrugged. “More than likely it will be when we sleep. We’ll fall asleep one night, and when we awaken, we’ll be in the others’ body. I’ll live out Mom’s remaining years as her, and she’ll be me.”
She held onto me tightly. “Seth, she really will be me. We’ve been planning this for years. She knows all my habits, and I know hers—“
I plucked the black cigarette out of the ashtray and held it up.
She nodded, blushing.
“You can’t be with someone as old as I will be. I want you to know that…that…”
She began to tear up. “Hon—“
“No wait a minute, stupid!” she inhaled deeply. “I give you permission to stay with her as April, and not be with—“ she burst into tears again, great sobs wracking her shoulders.
“Hey, hey. None of that,” I said.
“I’m hoping I can last at least until graduation, but every morning when I wake up I feel—“
“Like it’s coming closer?”
She nodded.
“Well, there’s no way,” I tipped her face up to look at me. “No way that I’d allow myself to be attached to a tentacular horror like your mother.”
“But, I’ll be the tentacular horror. Mom will be in me. She’ll be me.”
I shook my head. “Nope, I’m with you. All the way to the end.”
“But honey, what kind of future—“
“Hey, I’ve been accused of worse things. If being in love with a Cougar is the worst thing to happen to me in this life, I’m for it. Plus, you know, your mom isn’t so bad—“
I tickled her ribs. “She gave birth to you, afterall.”
She looked at me, her mouth open. “You’d really do that? Be with me?”
“Of course! What, did you think I’d—“
She threw herself into my arms, kissing me all over my face and mouth and eyes. She parted her lips and kissed me open-mouthed and sensual then, pressing her body to me in ways she knew I liked—
We made love again, and again. We fell asleep, exhausted and happy. I held her close to me as she slept.
***
The next morning I awoke to find myself alone in the bed.
I rubbed the back of my head where I’d bumped it the night before. It was so strange, I’d been with Mitzy and Jeff at the Wolf rescue place…
April walked in wearing a slinky black dress and with her hair immaculately styled into a dramatic updo. Her makeup was heavily done with blood red lipstick and dramatic long lashes outlined by azure and black eye shadow.
I blinked. “What’s the occasion?”
“Oh, I just thought I’d dress up today!” She twirled. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s Saturday.” I said, holding my arms out to her. She came to me, but turned her cheek when I went in for a kiss.
“Yes, yes. Good Morning, Lover.”
Frowning, I crossed my arms. She had never called me Lover.
In my life.
She wasn’t April.
I swallowed. Obviously, Desdemonia didn’t know April had told me about the exchange. Which meant, April was in Desdemonia’s body somewhere in the house.
“So what’s your mom up to this morning?” I said.
April was putting on some heavy jewelry. “Oh, you know Mother, she’s probably already at the pool with a mint julep!”
I nodded. “Hmm, swimming sounds fun.”
“Yes? Well, you’re more than welcome to swim, darling. I, however, have some errands to run in town.”
“You don’t mind if I take a few laps?” I said. “It helps with my conditioning.”
“Whatever keeps that gorgeous body of yours ticking is A-okay in my book!” she said, taking a purse I’d never seen before down from a shelf. She filled it with cosmetics, a checkbook, a phone — but it wasn’t April’s phone—and other sundry items.
“Sounds good, ah…lover,” I said.
She kissed me on the cheek with her cheek. “Kiss kiss!”
I said “Kiss Kiss,” back to her and she left in a swirl of perfume and hair product.
Sighing, I opened the curtains to make sure Desdemonia, because that was Desdemonia and not April, had definitely left. Her black Mercedes sped off with a puff of cigarette smoke out the window.
I walked around the house, looking for April. The Landcaster’s had quite the mansion squatting at the top of a hill. It took me a few rooms before I found the Master Bedroom. I knocked on the door.
“Yes?” I heard from the muffled interior.
“Uh, April? Is that you?” I said through the door.
“No!” she replied in Desdemonia’s voice. “Go away!”
“We talked about this,” I said. “The bag is out of the cat.”
“Just…give me some time, Seth,” she said. “I need to get dressed and stuff.”
“Okay, I’ll be out swimming.”
“Make me a mint julep!” she called as I walked to the back and the large pool.
I swam a few laps, then made April’s mint Julep. There was some fresh fruit already laid out along with some boiled eggs that I wolfed down.
About an hour later, April stepped out of the house and onto the porch.
She’d styled her gray streaked dark hair in one of Desdemonia’s twisted updos, and layered on the makeup but not quite as thick as her mother. She wore a wraparound dress with sensible sandals, and huge sunglasses.
“April?” I said.
She took a deep breath. “There’s something I need to tell you,” she said.
I nodded, feeling a strange fluttering in my stomach.
“Now that I’m…well, here. I have to act in a prescribed manner. Just as, um…my daughter must. Does that make any sense?”
I nodded. I was familiar with a geas and the effects it could have.
“Is that for me?” she said, looking at the copper cup in my hand.
“Uh, yes. Sorry. I know the basics of making a mint julep, but haven’t actually made many.”
She took a long sip, then winced. “Too much mint, not enough syrup. I like it sweet, Seth. Is that too much to ask?”
“No, not at all.”
She waddled over to one of the lounge chairs, and sat down.
Frowning, I was reminded of…it was so strange. I felt like I should be in that body, not watching it.
I sat down next to her. She took out a cigarette, lit it, and inhaled the smoke.
“You know, you’re uh…daughter is basically dressing and acting like you. Not uh…herself. If that makes any sense.”
“She created the geas so if she can get around it, I’d imagine, she will.”
“She left about an hour ago. She said she had errands in town.”
She tugged off her wraparound and sighed at the pudgy overweight body underneath.
“I am way to sober to deal with this today,” she said, taking another sip from the mint julep. “Want to join me for a dip in the pool?”
“Sure,” I said. I hopped up and stepped down into the pool quickly. The water was cool, but not cold. Definitely had a pool heater.
April took a step down, then another. She set the mint julep by the side of the pool. I waited patiently for her to acclimate to the water. She took a couple of more steps.
I took her in my arms. “Can I kiss you?”
She looked up at me with Desdemonia’s eyes behind dark glasses. “Seth, I know we talked about this last night but you couldn’t know that it was going to happen so quickly. If you need some time to—“
I kissed her, deeply. She tasted like bourbon and cigarettes.
We released, and I pressed my body fully to hers.
“Hah!” she said. “You just kissed my mom.”
“Quiet, you,” I said, and kissed her again.
…The smell of rotten eggs, things decaying, and burning rubber flooded my senses. I could see something below me, something with burning yellow eyes that moved, undulated, something that had tentacles rising up into the air, latching onto me and—
My senses returned. “Are you okay?” April said, in Desdemonia’s voice.
I blinked. Something wasn’t…right. I was still in the pool, still held her, she was still in Desdemonia’s body but…
We were almost the same height? That wasn’t right. Was she standing on a step?
I glanced down.
I was wearing a black one-piece swimsuit that was dangerously cut to expose up my naked but supple thigh. My breasts were high, yet firm, and I tasted mint julep in my mouth also…my arms were toned and very light. I could smell suntan lotion.
I glanced down at my hands. They were feminine with long extended nails colored in blue-black nail polish.
“What the bloody fuck?” I said, in April’s voice.
“What’s wrong?” she said. “I mean, past the obvious.”
I looked at Desdemonia… “April?”
She looked at me confused. “I thought we were past that point. I told you I’m under a geas.”
“Yes, but she was in your body this morning!”
“Seth, I’m confused. Did you hit your head again?”
I wasn’t crazy. I was in April’s pool wearing April’s body. Wasn’t I? Looking down I saw all the appropriate feminine apparatus in all the appropriate places and touching them gave all the appropriate tingles.
My head started to throb.
“I was just standing here in my body talking to you. Not your body.”
“That isn’t my body.”
I sighed. “I know that’s your geas or whatever, but it’s definitely not my body!” My voice was rising into April’s strident tones. I wasn’t liking this.
“Darling, your body transitioned the other day when we had that huge conflagration. We both sneezed and the Witch’s knot unraveled, leaving you with a copy of April’s body. Don’t you remember?”
I jumped up and sat on the side of the pool with my feet dangling in the water. “April, something is happening to me.”
“I’m not—“
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” I yelled. “That’s not important right now!”
She took a sip of mint julep. “It’s certainly important to me.” I heard tears in her voice.
Sighing, I shook my head. My head really hurt. It felt like I was going to get a nose bleed.
I jumped back in the water, and gathered her up in my arms from behind. We were almost the same height, so this was a little different feeling than when I’d been Seth.
I guess I was still Seth, just a Seth that looked like April?
“I’m sorry,” I said, kissing her neck. “Of course it’s important to you. I know it must have been very upsetting to find yourself—“
“In my mother’s body?” April spun on me. “Yes, Seth. It was!”
“April, what I’m trying to tell you is a few minutes ago when I entered the water, I was in my male body, not this body. Something happened between then and now!”
“I don’t know what your talking about. Ever since the conflagration, you’ve been stuck as a copy of April. Now I’m Desdemonia, which is the only thing to have changed in the last few hours.”
I tried to be patient, but my head felt like it was literally going to roll of my shoulders. “I know sweetheart. But something is happening. Yesterday when I woke up I was in your mother’s body and you were in my Werewolf body — well, you were a wolf, but had been a Werewolf, and…”
She shook her head. “I’m way to sober for this. Where’s the bourbon?”
I got out of the pool and snagged the bottle from behind the bar. I returned to find April, or Desdemonia I guess I should call her now, sitting in one of the loungers.
She took the bottle and drank quite a bit.
“Okay.” She wiped her mouth and smeared quite a bit of lipstick on her arm. “Is there any trigger to these transitions?”
“The first time I was in Jeff’s scout. And I started to get a headache, just like the one I have right now.”
“You have a headache?”
I nodded.
Desdemonia closed her eyes. “Oh shit!” she said. “There’s a tentacle wrapped right around your—
…The smell of rotten eggs, things decaying, and burning rubber flooded my senses. I could see something below me, something with burning yellow eyes that moved, undulated, something that had tentacles rising up into the air, latching onto me and—
A bleak landscape stretched below me. I’d appeared in a cave, next to some kind of rock formation. Green gases billowed around me, the stench of death and putrefaction made me gag.
A thundering earthquake shook the cave. Small pieces of rock tumbled from unseen areas, pelting me with fragments.
I ducked, covering my head. I saw something slither away with a whiplike tail and a mouth with far too many teeth. Where the hell was I?
Walking out to the mouth of the cave, the tableau of the land around me stretched. Huge cracks in the earth ran as far as I could see, which wasn’t that far. Gaseous emissions belched from unseen bilious rocky entrances.
An enormous screech like a thousand elephants all trumpeting at the same time forced me to my knees. A creature stomped around on the surface down there, a shadow in the greenish gloom. Ichor dripped from stalactites around me…
Or were they stalagmites? I never remembered the difference.
The head of the thing came closer. Burning yellow eyes regarded me from the elephantine face. Seven, no eight trunks or tentacles dangled from the front of the thing between immense elephant tusks of ivory.
I backed away from the thing into the cave. Hopefully the trunks couldn’t—
One of the trunks shot into the cave and snagged me by the ankle. I was hauled, unceremoniously out of the cave. I dangled, upside-down, up and over the thing’s head. It reared back, opening it’s mouth.
Inside I could see infernal fires burning in the pits below. Things — people screamed down there. I could see them milling around, caught in the stomach of whatever this beast was.
Fear burrowed icy fingers into my mind. Everything finally connected when the breath of the beast hit me.
I screamed, thrashing.
“No!” I twisted, trying to escape, my fingers scrabbled at my ankle trying to release it somehow.
Without warning my curse threaded it’s way through me. Muscles bunched as my face pushed out into a snout. Fur stippled the surface of my skin and my right claw swiped into the flesh of the elephantine trunk.
It flung me against the rock face of the nearest cliff and I scrabbled for purchase as I tumbled down the side bouncing and flopping hundreds of feet.
I yowled with each bounce, my feral nature forced me to turn in mid-air and I landed on all fours, leaping upward to avoid the mighty STOMP of the creature trying to annihilate me from existence. The elephantine head trumpeted again, and I felt the concussion of one of the trunks smashing against the rocks nearby.
I darted, leaping from rock formation to rock, trying to get anywhere else and hide from whatever the fuck was hunting me.
I dashed on all fours as fast as I could run, swerving to the left and right. I found a canyon that led away from the vicinity of the elephantine beast. My breathing stuttered in my chest as I inhaled whatever noxious fumes billowed from the vents that I could not get away from. Staggering, I coughed, trying to catch my breath—
But it wouldn’t come. Black dots invaded my vision and I slipped and fell on my side. My body slid through the dust, bouncing off rocks and long dead scrub trees.
Panting in the poisonous air, I roared in fury and futility, gasping and driving to move out of the way of the immense foot that descended over me, blocking out the rays of the twin suns burning in the heavens—
##
I awoke in my bed, yelling and thrashing in my covers.
Dad came in, the hallway light illuminating him from behind. “You okay, sport?”
Blinking, I tried to figure out where I was. “Uh, yeah Dad.”
He sat on the edge of my bed, smiling and running his fingers through my hair. “Must have been quite the nightmare.”
“Yeah,” I croaked. “Dad, can I have some water?”
“Sure, son. Be right back.”
He walked out the door. I leaned over and turned on my bed lamp. My clock radio glowed 2:00 AM.
I was in my own body, my Seth male body. My hair was back to it’s short buzzed length and not the curly locks from earlier.
Dad came back with a water bottle. He handed it to me. It was blissfully cool.
I took several long gulps, draining the small bottle in short order. The dream had been so real.
“Want to talk about it?” Dad said, sitting in the edge of my bed.
“Was bad,” I said. “I morphed in it.”
“Good thing that didn’t translate. We’re like three days from the dark of the moon.”
“Wait, what?”
“Yes, I think that’s on the 15th.”
“Today is the 12th?”
“All day.” He smiled.
I did some quick math. April’s nonsense had happened on the first, but to me that was only like three days ago. A day spent as Desdemonia, another as myself, then the third where I became an April copy…had my time on that planet/reality really taken up ten days?
My head thumped painfully. But for now, I was with my dad. He wasn’t trapped as a wolf, hadn’t poofed between dimensions…
“What’s going on in here?” Another voice murmured.
“Seth had a bad dream is all, honey,” Dad replied.
I looked up.
Look, I’m a big guy. I play sports, I date girls, I like fast cars. I’m a tough, strong, supernatural creature.
Seeing my mom again, standing at my door and I burst into tears. “Mom?” I said, running to her and enfolding her in my arms. When had she gotten so short?
She chuckled, wrapping her arms around my torso. “Must have been a doozy,” she said, smiling and patting me on my back.
I put my head in her hair and breathed her essence. She was warm, alive, here.
I didn’t know what was going on. Somehow I’d become magically entangled in something that was pulling me through different realities. They weren’t dreams, each one had been real, each one I felt pain, emotions, tactile sensations. When I’d been flung against the rock face, I’d had the wind knocked out of me. When I’d been in Desdemonia’s body, I’d felt her arthritis flare up in her back and hips.
Three days until the dark of the moon. Three days until the gateway opened. Three days for the nightmare to use me as the Key.
Dad got up and hugged both of us. I saw smile lines around his eyes, a lack of tension in his body, and his hair had actual gray in it from a normal happy life where his wife didn’t die of cancer and he didn’t throw himself into his work for 20 hours a day.
For one moment, my parents held me. I didn’t know how long the moment would last, or what monsters lay in store for me over the coming days. I didn’t know what decisions I’d need to make, what changes would take place, what dimensions I’d need to traverse.
For right now, I had my parents. Tears streamed down my face as I held my mother.
And it was wonderful.
We went into the living room and I told them everything. Mom was a Wytch in her own right, able to know the healing properties of any herb, tree, berry, vegetable, stalk — any growing thing. She healed the sick or wounded, provided relief to the infirm, and, well, grew, sold and distributed marijuana and psychedelics on the side. My father and she made a great team with Maggie Atkins sliding in with honey and James Atkins using the hammer.
Dad had apparently never become the entrepreneur in this reality; he still worked at the bank but was the region manager. Mom had a yoga/art studio she operated in town and ran her ‘other’ business out the back.
I’d never considered what mom did as ‘against the law.’ She was mom. The occasional raids that the police performed were all part of the adventure. Mom had several sources in the police department who would alert her when possible searches or raids would be coming.
“Desdemonia Landcaster?” she said when I got to that part. “That must have been quite the abrupt shift in perspective.”
“You can say that, again.” I said.
“Who wants pancakes?” Dad said, and Mom and I both raised our hands.
Around the kitchen table I related the events since the sneezes that shook the world. Ending with the strange other place I’d been and how I’d been stuck in Werewolf form but sill at the mercy of the elephant creature.
“Eight trunks, you say?” Dad said.
I nodded, shivering as I remembered how one of them had caught my ankle and hauled me upside down.
“The Hindu God Ganesh has eight arms.” He leveled some of his buckwheat cakes onto my plate. “I wonder if thats who you fought.”
“In Kama-Sutra, the elephant represents unrestrained raw sexual power,” Mom said, taking a bite. “Maybe this Witch’s knot caused some kind of a vortex between sexual energy and the energy of the multi-cosm.”
We both looked at her with raised eyebrows.
“Or not,” she said. “Eat your breakfast.”
“Anyway, the beast, or whatever, was just about to stomp me when I woke up here.”
The both nodded, looking down at their plates and not speaking for a time.
“What do you think it all means?” I said.
Mom smiled at me. “Not to eat tacos and pizza before bed?”
“Mom, I don’t think they were dreams. I think I’m literally crossing planes of existence. Where I grew up you died a few years ago from cancer.”
“You did have that scare, Margaret, you remember?” Dad said.
She nodded and touched a place on her breast. “I had that removed.”
“Maybe it didn’t get discovered in that plane, and…” Dad shrugged.
“I just don’t know what to do,” I said. “I mean, I was told that because I’m dual faction, that I’m a possible Key to the Gate, whatever that means.”
Mom nodded. “I’ve heard of it.”
This was news to me. “You know about this gate?”
Mom looked at dad, who gave a small shrug.
“He deserves to know, James,” Mom said
Dad nodded.
“We had hoped to keep all this from you, and have you lead as normal a life as possible considering the family curse,” Mom said. “You know it is not normal for factions to intermingle like your father and I have.”
“But other people have. Tommy from—“
“Different circumstances, but yes,” Dad said. “Since the curse went into you, and it didn’t appear you were powered, we assumed you were uni-faction. I’m thinking that the Landcaster girl might have unlocked your magical potential when she cast the spell on you. Your body reacted to the casting, by activating its own magical potential. I’m sure you’ve studied latent potential energy in your magical studies class?”
I nodded. “The potential for magical energy exists for everyone.”
“Yes.”
“The interesting thing here,” Mom said, pointing her fork at dad. “Is that when this sneeze catastrophe happened, the curse did not carry forth onto you in Desdemonia’s body.”
“It remained with April in your body, yes,” Dad said.
“April apparently used my body’s magical potential to retro change, but the wrong direction.”
Dad winced at that. “Yeah, that wouldn’t be good.”
Mom got up and sat next to Dad, wrapping her arms across his shoulders. “No retro-change for you.”
“If I’m ever caught as a feral werewolf, it would be a kindness,” he said.
“Are you able to open your third eye now, Seth?” Mom said.
I closed my eyes. All I saw was the inside of my eyelids. “Apparently not.”
“So in this reality you aren’t dual faction. Or your magical potential hasn’t been unlocked.”
“So does that mean we’re safe from the Who?”
“Didn’t say that.” Dad got up and started collecting our plates.
“You don’t remember what’s been going on the last ten days, I take it?” Mom said.
I shook my head.
“Magic, and therefore reality, has become quite unstable.”
“Oh?”
She nodded. “A lot of injuries due to inconsistent magical results. Potions I make are null, or their effects multiplied. Sudden appearances of mythical creatures…”
“Wow, like unicorns?”
She nodded. “But also wyverns, a hydra, a fire-breathing chameleon…”
“Wow, I’m glad you two have stayed safe.”
“Well…” Dad said.
“That’s why it was funny when you mentioned being stuck as a feral. Your father came too close to that the other day.”
Dad rolled his eyes. “I got mad at one if the branch managers and almost tore his head off.”
“Literally?”
He nodded, looking glum.
I wondered about Jeff, Mitzy and April in this reality. Were they still okay? Did Mitzy have to become her fool?
“I take it ‘I’ didn’t become April’s fool?”
They both shook their heads.
“What happened.”
Dad put a hand on my shoulder. “Seth…”
“Honey…” Mom said.
They looked at each other.
“What?” I said. “Tell me!”
“From what ‘you’ told us, toward the end of the day, April forced Mitzy to kiss her feet or something, and at the last moment slipped a piece of dog feces in place of her boot. Mitzy got upset…”
“And changed—“ Dad finished.
“Wait. What?” I said.
The both nodded. “We’ve spoken to the Bertollini’s…Mitzy has been taken to a butterfly farm out on Chesapeake road.”
“She became trapped…as a feral butterfly?”
They both nodded, looking sad.
Stung, I stared at the table. “Mitzy…oh my god.”
“You attempted to go in Mitzy’s place, but April refused.”
“I wonder if Desdemonia has taken her place yet,” I said.
“You did mention that ‘the bitch wasn’t at school,’ yesterday. So perhaps?”
I nodded. Poor Mitzy. She was such a happy person. To be stuck as an insect like that for the rest of your life. She’d been such a free spirit, so happy, such a good friend. I felt tears in my eyes.
“You can go visit her tomorrow if you’d like.”
I nodded. “What day is today?”
“Tuesday.”
Tuesday. I looked at the baseball calendar on the ‘fridge. “Tuesday the 12th…we play Montrose.”
“Yep!” Dad said. “I’m sponsoring the hot-dogs.”
“And I’m working the concession stand,” Mom said.
“How’s the team doing in this reality?”
They shrugged, looking at each other. “Oh…not bad. How were you doing in the other realities?”
“I’ve missed all the games this season for one reason or another.”
They nodded.
“Here too?”
“You..haven’t been yourself since Mitzy ah…”
I nodded.
Dad looked at the clock. “Well, it’s almost 5 AM. If you’re going to try to get any more sleep, this is your opportunity.”
“Yeah,” I said, standing up.
Both of them gave me hugs.
“Let us know if you’re going to be playing today, son.”
I nodded. “I will.”
Laying back down on my bed in my familiar room, I heard mom and dad speaking together in low tones, then soft laughter. It was such music to my ears.
But bittersweet music, as I thought about Mitzy. The whole reason I’d gone through the trials of April had been to avoid exactly what happened to her. The thought of that kind soul trapped in that body—
I decided I needed to see her for myself. I dressed quickly, then walking out to my truck and drove away.
Chesapeake road trailed east from High Valley through a slow canyon and up some switchbacks to the top of the rim. I knew the road from camping trips I’d taken with Jeff and some of the other guys when I’d been in boy scouts. The sun was just cresting the horizon as I drove over the rim. I could look down into High Valley from this vantage point and see the Mill, the meandering stream, and the town all laid out below me.
A dirt road led off across the top of the plateau, through trees, and out into a gorgeous meadow with a lake. I’d fished in that lake last year and caught some brook trout with Mitzy and Jeff.
The farm had an old barn that had been repainted to a bright green, and a smaller farmhouse that had been converted into an office area. Motor vehicles were not allowed past the gates, so I parked.
Another car was in the parking lot, which I thought strange. A black mercedes that looked incredibly familiar…
I hiked past the entrance and down the trail into the main area of the park. The Farm was setup to help establish and maintain the presence of butterflies in the entire region with a multitude of flowering plants available. They also had a caterpillar area, with thousands of chrysalis pods hanging from tree branches.
After hiking a few hundred feet, I came upon someone sitting in a lawn chair with an umbrella and a small table setup next to them with a bucket of ice.
Desdemonia Landcaster sat resplendent in a skin tight leopard print pantsuit with a black floppy hat and enormous cat-eye sunglasses. She smoked a long black cigarette as she drank what looked like to be margaritas.
“Hello there,” I said, approaching softly.
“Oh!” she said, getting up quickly. “It’s you.”
I nodded, looking her over. She wore thick makeup and her hair had been caught up in a hair net under the floppy black hat she wore.
“I assume that’s April under all that is Desdemonia.”
She started to nod, but something kept her head still. “No, I’m Desdemonia Landcaster, dark wytch of the first order and Vice President of the Magical Council of High Valley.”
“Yeah, I can tell.”
“How did you…um..know it was me?”
I sighed. “Let’s say I’ve been through a few different realities lately.”
She nodded and adjusted her fur jacket a bit over her heavy decolletage.
“Margarita?”
“No, thanks. Got tired of the Mint Juleps?”
She made a face. “I hate…I mean…I adore mint juleps at certain times, yes.”
“You know you could have just told me. I would have accepted this.”
She sat down, very quiet.
I looked at the butterfly enclosure. We sat in front of a rather large mosquito netting covering a number of smaller trees and bushes. Butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colors fluttered and flittered about in the dawn air, moving from one flower to the next.
About halfway back, an oversized monarch butterfly stood on a branch, with enormous wings that must have extended a foot to either side, slowly moving in the air.
“Hi Mitzy,” I said, waving.
Mitzy fluttered upward from her perch and came over to me. I could see the insectile head regarding me, long antennae tasting the air. I wondered if there was anything left inside there of Mitzy or if she was completely lost.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I did try…”
The butterfly fluttered it’s wings a few minutes, then flew away back to its perch.
“I…I mean, April didn’t intend for this to happen, Seth!” Desdemonia said.
I sighed, shaking my head. “Of course you didn’t.”
“It was just a joke!”
I looked at her. “If that’s what you want to tell yourself.”
“I never would have…I mean, my daughter never would have teased her like that if she knew she was this close to…”
A low rumble echoed through the plateau. All the butterflies scattered in different directions.
“What the hell was that?” I said.
“Temporal wave,” Desdemonia said. “They’ve been increasing in frequency.”
“What is that?” I said.
She shrugged. “A wave of chaos magic. As we get closer to—“ She cut off, sealing her lips. “Anyway, you might want to brace yourself.”
“Why?” I said. “What’s going to…”
The wave crashed through and over us. I felt my curse want to roar back in response, but I held it in check.
…The smell of rotten eggs. “No!” I said, trying to block it. “No, I’m not going this time!”
I thought about mom and dad, finally, together, happy in this reality. Sure, Mitzy had taken the brunt, but still, Mom was alive!
things decaying, and burning rubber flooding my senses.
Thunder echoed around us and a wind rose. Desdemonia’s hat flew off in a mad cacophony of wind and a spattering of rain.
I roared feeling the change wanting to overtake me. Desdemonia yelled at me, and I could feel her hugging herself tight to me as the gale swept over us.
“We have to get to shelter!” I said. She nodded, trying to wipe the onslaught of rain from her face.
We took shelter under the overhanging porch of the farm house. Desdemonia clutched her portly body to mine as the very air crackled with magic and energy.
“I’m sorry about Mitzy, Seth!” she yelled in my ear.
I fumed. “Little too late now!”
She nodded, shaking and cold as the storm raged around us.
“I’m sorry you’re stuck in that old woman’s body!” I yelled down at her.
“The geas lifted when the storm struck!” she said. “I can be myself at least for a little while.”
She clung to me. At least it looked like I wouldn’t be shoved into a dimensional shift again. The feeling had left.
“I’ve been falling through different realities,” I said. “I’m not the Seth that was here yesterday.”
“I know,” Des…April, said. “I was here yesterday too. You treated me like I was Mother.”
I nodded. “Why did you agree to this?”
She shrugged. “It’s what I was born to do.”
“So you’ll just live out the rest of your life like this?”
“Mother is already making plans for ‘college.’”
I nodded. “Well, I do hope you are happy with whatever you decide.”
She sighed and nodded. I felt started to smell rotten eggs again, and knew another shift was coming. If I could just control them a little.
The last time I’d been able to use magic was because April had cast a spell on me. I wondered if I could open my third eye again, if I could control the shifts —
“Hey, cast a spell on me real quick,” I said.
She blinked. “What? What kind of spell?”
“I dunno, change my hair color or something. Hurry!”
She waved her hands and I felt a tingle in my scalp. I closed my eyes.
Sure enough, I was finally able to open my third eye. I could see April standing with me, her aura pink mixed with blue and black.
I smiled. “I can see your aura now.”
“You can use magic?”
I nodded, feeling that strange otherwordly shift again. I wondered if I could get back to my original reality—
…The smell of rotten eggs, things decaying, and burning rubber flooded my senses. I could see something below me, something with burning yellow eyes that moved, undulated, something that had tentacles rising up into the air, latching onto me and—
I awoke, my head resting on some kind of vehicle door frame. We were moving.
Mitzy Butterfly smiled at me. “You’re awake.”
“Oh, and you’re you!” I said, wrapping her in my arms.
She frowned and looked at me as we screeched to a stop in front of my house. “Who else would I be?”
I was back in Desdemonia’s body, and it looks like only an hour or so had passed. It made sense, since *I* hadn’t been here to live the next series of events.
“What day is it?” I said.
“The fourth.” Jeff said. “We’re at your house, dude.”
April fourth. So I still had ten days. Ten days to learn as much about magic as I could. Ten days of attempting to control the waves of chaos magic flooding out from the Gate.
Ten Days to learn as much as I could about the Who, and how to stop it from coming through the Gate and creating hell on earth. Ten days of being Desdemonia Landcaster, before jumping back into one of my dual faction forms and somehow stop myself from opening the Gate.
Sure, easy.
I took a bath in the downstairs bathroom. Usually this was reserved for guests, but since Dad was…gone, and I was stuck in this older woman’s body, I decided to relocate to the guest room. It felt strange being in my old room anyway.
Mom had decked out the guest bathroom with bath bombs, robes, and candles. I filled the tub, dropped in a lavender bath bomb, then lit a few candles. Removing my clothes, I stared into the mirror.
I wondered if I’d ever get used to that visage. I sighed. Gone were my carefully created muscles, my tight abs, my defined pecs, biceps and triceps. In it’s place was a rounded wrinkled chubby woman.
Mitzy had smiled at me when I awoke. She was quiet, happy even now, human.
In exchange I’d given up thirty, forty? Years of my life. My father’s humanity, and the girl that I…what? Did I really love her? Or was she just an old obsession I once had?
I slid into the bath, moaning as the hot water loosened aching joints. Leaning back, I closed my eyes and drifted, letting my troubled thoughts float out of my head like a weather balloon.
I was hungry. And had a strange need for an alcoholic beverage.
I remembered the way Desdemonia had been able to conjure up her golden chair and mint juleps. Did I still have such an ability?
Deciding a small table near the tub could hold a sandwich and a beer, I pictured it in my mind. I flourished my hand and—
Nothing. I sighed. I wondered how she did that.
Can’t produce something from nothing. Came the voice of my Differential Equations instructor Mister Stewart. So the mint juleps, chair, and umbrella must have existed somewhere and she teleported it? Teleportation was a huge risk because if you didn’t do it just right the mass dislocation at the point of re-assembly could create an unintentional weather disturbance.
Seemed unlikely that she would teleport something so banal. She carried around a large purse, could it be a size differential? But that would require opening her purse, unless she teleported it—
My head ached. I’d finish the bath then make a sandwich like anyone else.
Desdemonia had been addicted to nicotine, alcohol, and probably other substances. My body craved them now, and had none of it available.
I tried to relax, but I found myself shaking with need. The headache thundered in my brain. The doorbell rang, and I almost jumped through the roof.
I pulled a blue men’s robe around me. It didn’t fit in the length but mom’s ladies’ robe didn’t fit in the breadth. I need clothes, a wardrobe…soon.
Ernest Langmore and April Landcaster stood in the doorway. Of course, they were really Desdemonia Landcaster and Ernest Langmore but who was counting.
“Hello Dear,” Desdemonia said with Elder Langmore’s thin voice. “We’ve come to continue our discussion.”
I nodded. I didn’t really want to speak to anyone, but maybe we could share notes. I held the door open for them.
“Goodness, you look a fright!” Langmore said. “Mother, you really need to instruct her on the proper way to be a Lady!”
Ernest wore one of April’s black lolita dresses with frills and a scarlet necktie. She’d adopted April’s heavy mascara and lipstick also, if more to the extreme. She wore white knee-length socks and black patent-leather mary-jane shoes that had been shined.
Desdemonia wore Brother Langmore’s usual brown tween suit and faded stained white shirt. His hair looked a bit more disheveled.
We went into the living room. “Can I offer you coffee? Or something stronger?”
“I’ll take a Dewar’s if you got it,” Langmore said. “Neat.”
“I find I don’t like Mint Juleps in this body,” Desdemonia said. “I’ll take a Dewar’s also.”
I rolled my eyes, and went to the liquor cabinet. I’d seen dad do this enough times, I could get through it. I took out two glasses and poured about two fingers of the whiskey into each.
I handed one to Langmore and the other to Desdemonia. Ernest took a sip, then made a face. “Ohh, no!”
Desdemonia cackled at that.
“Just give me a ginger ale!” Ernest said. “It’s going to take some time to build up a tolerance.
“Says the eighteen year old girl.”
“Hey, I resemble that remark!” Ernest said with a grin.
I sighed and poured some canada dry over ice. Then made one for myself also.
We sat down with Desdemonia and Ernest on the sofa, and I attempted to arrange myself on a chair.
“So…” Desdemonia said. “We are all very uncomfortable in our new corporeal iterations, I see.”
Ernest shrugged, and flipped a curl out of her face. “Not so bad.”
“Regardless, we need to discuss a path forward. We are known entities by friends, family, and the public and if we suddenly start acting unnaturally people are going to wonder.”
I could not get the belt of the robe to fit in the appropriate place without one of my breasts flopping out. It was driving me crazy. Plus I had the shakes, which made it all the worse.
“What are you suggesting?” I said.
“My desire,” Desdemonia said. “Has been to be encapsulated within my daughter’s body. It’s been a tediously slow process to train her. So to have this goal ripped from me, has disturbed me greatly.”
“You poor thing!” Langmore said. “Maybe this will teach you, finally!”
“Oh, spare me your sanctimonious speech, Ernie. We both know you do the exact same thing with your young boys.”
“They practically beg me to offer themselves. Unlike you.”
My headache thundered. I got up and found some acetaminophen in the drawer and at three of them.
“Regardless, this is the situation we are now in,” Desdemonia said.
“Even if I agreed to be returned to my body,” Langmore said. “It would take weeks to set it up.”
“And we have ten days at most,” Desdemonia said.
I nodded. “Well, there’s been a…development.”
“Oh?” they both said.
I sighed. Should I tell them? I hated the thought of dad being stuck in a wolf’s body, and hated the thought of Ernest being in April’s body.
“I’ve apparently been traversing realities,” I said.
“Do tell,” Desdemonia said, leaning back on the couch.
I related the events I’d been through up until that point. It took a bit, and I ended up pouring a glass of white wine to make it through.
“So now I’m here.”
“You were able to control your last reality jump?”
I nodded. “I had April cast a spell on me at the last moment, and was able to think about being in my original reality.”
“Well, that’s a step in the right direction,” Desdemonia said.
“These waves come more and more frequently. If I know it is coming, I think I can control a little about which reality I jump to.”
“The closest you came to the night of the soul?” Lanmore said.
“Three days away.”
She nodded, and Desdemonia also fell silent. They regarded each other quietly.
“The issue is, you’re no longer dual faction,” Langmore stated.
Desdemonia nodded.
“So I’m no longer the Key?”
“Oh, you’re definitely the Key. Why do you think the Who has been yanking you from reality to reality. It won’t let you go until the dimensions are no longer aligned.”
“It is searching for a reality in which you open the gate.”
“Is the Who that giant thing that chased me in Alpha form?”
They both nodded. “That dimension holds many creatures similar to The Who. They’ve eaten everything they can and seek weaknesses to exploit and enter another more fruitful reality. If it were to gain entrance to this world, many other types of creatures would flood this plane and consume everything.”
I shivered, thinking about the elephant-headed monster. “Why did it try to kill me while I was there?”
“Did it kill you?”
I shook my head. “Obviously not.”
“There’s no sense to what They do, or why They do it. I suspect it never would have followed through on the Death, but one of the things they can consume is fear. It made you afraid, and it consumed that as nourishment while you were there.”
“I gave it a banquet.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, I have ten days to figure it out.”
They both shook their head. “Oh, no. If you got within three days, that’s how long you have, dear. When the time comes, you’ll be sucked into that reality whether you want to go or not.”
I winced. “But I can’t possibly learn everything I need to know in three days!”
“That’s why we’re here,” Ernest said.
“I don’t even know where the gate is. How can I unlock something I don’t even know?”
“It’s a metaphysical gate, dear,” Desdemonia said. “A gate in your mind. It will use you to phase into this world, when it is ready.”
“And it already has you,” Ernest said. “You can control, somewhat, the location of each reality jump. But you haven’t been able to stop them completely, have you?”
I shook my head.
They looked at each other. “It’s only a matter of time.”
“I guess I just don’t understand,” I said, sipping some white wine. We all were a few drinks in and both Desdemonia and Ernest had relaxed a bit more.
“Consider the nature of the Universe. We are only one plane and exist here.” Desdemonia laid out a bony hand. “On top of us, is another dimension but it’s not at exactly the same time. There are dimensions that line up perfectly with our timeline, but there are also some that line up in in a perpendicular fashion.” He held up a hand straight up and down.
“So if I entered that one, and exited I’d return exactly to the same point.”
“Correct, which is why that happened with your last jump.”
“Other dimensions are at a more acute angle, or obtuse.”
“So some hours there could be days here or vice-versa, I get that.”
“So The Who, is yanking you from dimension to dimension, testing each outcome, then yanking you to another, then testing that one.”
“Okay.”
“Once it finds a dimension with the best likelihood of success, I suspect you will remain in that dimension until the Gateway is established.”
“But it can’t work in this one, right? Since I’m not dual faction?”
“The dual faction was only needed at the initiation of the contact. That has now been established. You are at its mercy unless we break that connection.”
“How do we do that?”
“Well, we could kill her,” Ernest said with a sly smile.
I shrugged. “If that’s what saves our dimension…”
“I think it will just find another Key, someone we don’t know, and attempt the same conditions.”
“It was just a thought,” Ernest said.
“No, we need to use this to our advantage,” Desdemonia said. “If we play our cards right, we could potentially save the dimension from ever having to go through this again.”
“Save the cheerleader, save the world,” I said, toasting them with another glass of wine. I was feeling delightfully sloshed.
“What cheerleader?” Ernest sat forward, suddenly interested.
“Just a reference to…nevermind.” I waved my hand.
“Okay, so, we know the ripples are going to increase in frequency, and we know Seth has the ability to somewhat control where she comes out. How can we use this information? Desdemonia sat back, and finished his drink.
“Tell me about these realities,” he said.
I nodded. “Well, the first one, April and Dad didn’t get trapped as werewolves, and she and I—“
“Yes, released the knot by consummation.”
“Right. And then the next day your soul transmigration occurred.”
“Oooh, wonderful!” he said. “I like that reality.”
I sighed and nodded.
“The next reality, you had transmigrated but my body was essentially a mirror of April’s. I didn’t spend long in that reality.”
“The snap back, yes. Interesting.”
“Then I was on another planet and there was this gigantic elephant-headed monster tromping around eating everything and trying to kill me.”
“The Origin World!” Ernest said. “That’s the reality all other realities have been spawned!”
I nodded. “Well, I almost got elephant stomped, but woke up just before it happened. In the next reality my parents—“
I got choked up, thinking of my mom and holding her. “My parents were both alive, happy and healthy. You had performed your transmigration and Mitzy had been trapped as a feral butterfly.”
“So instead of choosing you, she chose Mitzy. Interesting development.”
I nodded. “That’s when I tried to control the temporal jump. I wanted to be returned to my original timeline to give me more time to prepare. In that reality, the Dark Night was only three days away.”
Desdemonia nodded.
“That’s it. Four other alternate timelines.”
“And you, of course, favor the one where your parents are whole.”
I shrugged. “Actually, not so much. I stepped in this whole thing to be April’s Fool because I didn’t want Mitzy to suffer the consequences. So yes, while I’d love for my parents to be back, I find it’s more important to be in a reality where Mitzy is herself. That means I saved her.”
They both considered the information for a few silent moments.
“So?” I said.
Ernest stood up. She fluffed her dress and her hair. Desdemonia stood also.
“What?” I said.
“Stand with us, dear,” Desdemonia said.
She held out her hands. Ernest took her left and I took her right. Then Ernest closed the circle by taking my left.
“Lean your head in, until you touch mine and Ernest’s head.”
I felt a little strange, but agreed. We touched heads together.
Immediately, I felt a circuit close. It was like I was attached to a live wire. I could feel both of them as our consciousness melded together.
Emotions, memories, skills, all were passed around and absorbed. I was literally experiencing life as the other two.
A young girl, sitting on her mother’s knee as she drank the blood of one of her victims from an ancient bowl.
A young man, pulling the legs off crickets and throwing the body into a stew.
The girl, playing with a sister, taking a doll and setting it on fire with her mind.
The young man, filled with anger and resentment, at a military boarding school where he just arranged for one of his roomates to be electrocuted.
The girl, dancing with a boy at a school dance, leveling a strong love potion…
The boy, releasing the magic from an artifact to cause sickness at the boarding school.
The girl, using sex as a weapon with man after man, creating slaves that knelt at her feet.
The boy, forming a cult, becoming their leader.
The girl, the boy, the girl, the boy…images and knowledge passed, shared, and filled. Memories, feelings, all of it combined in my mind.
I tried to pull away, but it was useless. Soon, I figured out what they were doing.
Books, tomes read, research on The Who, facts, figures, dates, rites, ceremonies. Exploration to find a weakness, find a method of restraint, CLOSE THE GATE.
Realization: She is the key. I am the Key. We are the Key.
We pulled away, collapsing back into our seats.
New information, patterns filtered down into my mind. I felt very tired.
I yawned.
“So we are agreed?” Desdemonia—Ernest Landcaster said.
“We are.” Ernest—April Landcaster said. We’d made the decision in our inner space to stop referring to ourselves with who we ‘were’ and move forward with who we ‘are.’
I nodded, feeling sad. I felt like a part of me had been taken away.
At the same time, I had all this new information, knowledge and memories.
I had a plan.
Everything was going to be alright.
Night had fallen while we’d been in our strange communion.
Ernest and April left.
I found Dad’s keys to his BMW, and I drove up to the Landcaster’s. It was silly to remain in that house when a perfectly serviceable wardrobe was available. I went into Desde…my bedroom and shucked off the horrid robe. How had I allowed myself to stoop so low?
Sighing, I spread cold cream over my face, and moistened then set my hair in rollers. The old motions felt both familiar and strange. I donned one of my black silk robes, then relaxed on the divan where I mixed up an Irish coffee.
The girl had yet to return, but I didn’t blame her for wanting to sew some wild oats. If I wasn’t so old and flabby, I might sew some of my own. I sighed and lit a More 1000 and tapped the ash onto the carpet. Fool maid should know to keep ashtrays near all of my relaxation areas.
I sipped the Irish coffee and closed my eyes, letting the liquid warm me from the inside. Tomorrow I needed to check in on the Council and make sure no one had taken advantage of my recent incapacity to advance their own plots. The only plot we needed to work on was the return of the Old one. If it was going to return, it should have a group of acolytes ready, willing and able to kneel and worship. It would be my job to ensure we had as large a group as possible.
The loss of Jim Atkins on the Council would leave a vacancy for the Alpha Weres…I wondered who I could leverage to fill that seat. I needed someone that wouldn’t be as obstinate as Jim and would work with our cause and not against it.
Of course, with the return of the Old one, the Council could be dissolved. And now that I was the Key, I could ensure a smooth transition for mankind into slavery; at least for the non-magical. Perhaps the Old One would seek a Bride?
I blushed, thinking about it. Of course, mating rituals for an Old One probably were much different than modern rituals. Not to mention, I wondered if offspring from an Old One might eat their way out of their mother’s womb.
I shivered. No, I certainly couldn’t be a bride. But that didn’t mean certain members of the student body from that infernal high school couldn’t be co-opted to that cause. And we simply must have a number of sacrificial lambs to lead to the slaughter.
I took out a pen and paper and began jotting notes. First a number of students and townspeople who should be captured, isolated and prepared to become sacrifices. The second, the possible new Magical Council to act in an advisory capacity to the Old One, of course, ready, willing and able to lend a hand when needed. Third, I listed all the Alpha Weres I knew from Seth’s mind who might be able to be a part of the council but not as insufferable as his father had been.
I tapped a pen to the paper…hmmm. Jim owned a great deal of property in town that would soon be going into receivership. If done right, I could possibly be positioned to offer the considerable financial backing of Landcaster Holdings to absorb the assets. For continuity’s sake, of course, after all there were real people involved in each of those businesses and Landcaster Holdings could absorb the financial obligations and let people continue to work! Then they would be in debt to LH LLC, and in turn me. Mmmm, yes perfect.
The Old One. I had books in the catacombs beneath Landcaster Manor that might have more info. Ugh, they were, of course, warded and booby-trapped, keyed to my essence alone.
I sighed, I’d have to tackle those in the morning, after I went to the bank of course and ensured JAtkins Inc assets would be received appropriately. I’d need to look immaculate as well for that visit, which meant I needed a decent nights’ sleep.
I stubbed out the last of my cigarette, then turned off the lamp. Sliding between the silk sheets of my familiar bed, I felt my eyelids shut almost immediately.
“What can I do for you, Desdemonia?” Todd Zimmerman said, the next day. I sat in the offices of JPGoldman and Chase, attorneys at law.
“I’ve recently acquired some knowledge,” I said, giving him a little hand flourish and just the gentlest push of magical will into his mind so he wouldn’t even know. “That JAtkins Inc. Is currently without a founding member.”
“Yes.” Todd pulled up something on his computer. “Both Jim and his son are MIA.”
“There’s nothing to be done about Jim Atkins, but his son—“
I smiled. “Due to an unfortunate magical incident, his son’s essence and memories are now within me.”
Todd nodded. “Well, Jim did leave everything to the son, however, I don’t know how we’d prove this Essence transfer, as you put it, ever occurred.”
“There were witnesses, and I have several that can testify if need be. My concern is Jim…I mean…Dad’s businesses continue on their merry way and not have any hiccups in funding, rent paying, taxes, that sort of thing. Since I am in sole possession of Seth’s memories and Essence, and since Landcaster Holdings has the considerable financial portfolio, I would like to aquire ownership of all property and assets transferred to me.”
Todd nodded. “Well, there would need to be an inquest. And it’s been less than a week that Jim has been gone.”
“I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors of what happened, Todd.” I stood up and walked over to him, leaning down to whisper conspiratorially. “And I know you know how to expedite things.” I touched him softly on the shoulder, with another not-so-gentle push.
He was a tall man, bald, with heavy shoulders and in his late fifties. I knew he was attracted to me, and had been for some time. I leaned over, allowing my bosom to practically fall into his lap. “Can you help me, Todd? Or should I find someone else?”
“Um, no. I can get this done, Desdemonia.”
“Call me, DeeDee, sweet man.” I smiled, and touched him on the nose.
“Yes, uh, DeeDee, I can get this done.”
“Perfect!” I said, standing up. “When can I sign the paperwork?”
He shrugged, looking at his computer. “Uh, give me a few days?”
I smiled, walking toward the door. “Tomorrow afternoon?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, Desdem—“
“Dee Dee!”
“Yes, Dee Dee.”
“Wonderful!” I swept toward the door and waited for him to open it. “I knew I could count on you, Todd.”
He smiled. “And if you’d ever like to grab some dinner—“
“Oh, Todd, you know me! Busy busy busy!” I tapped him on the chest, and left the office.
Smiling, I made my way down to the car. Dennis opened the door for me, and I sat in the back of my limousine. I’d decided to go full out today and let people know Desdemonia Fucking Landcaster was back in town.
But a new and improved Desdemonia. I took out a cigarette and lit it, inhaling deeply. Dennis got in and pulled the Limo out onto main street.
“Where to now, Ma’am?” he said.
“Council headquarters, please Dennis.”
I felt a pang that I couldn’t swing by and get Cecilia first. She would be at the studio now, and I’d been neglecting her sorely, even as Ernie. But I had work to do if High Valley was to be the transition location for the next Old One.
I glanced in the mirror and patted my hair back into place. I needed to have it done, I’d decided I needed a new image for a new Desdemonia. No more dark colors and drab black and silver. The new DeeDee would be vivacious and bold, striding forward into the leadership position at the Old One’s feet.
Afterall, it’s not every day you usher in a new era for humanity. Bold leadership required bold sacrifice.
And I was just the woman to do it!
The council had gathered and were waiting for me. Two acolytes opened the door, and I smiled brightly at them as I entered the revered hallways.
Built on the ruins of an old Mayan Temple, the council chambers featured marble walkways, white pillar supports, arched room entrances and painted ceilings. I walked down the main hall as other council members and their attendants fell in step behind me. Judy Nissom, the leader of the Vampire faction gave me a quiet hiss as we passed into the darker areas of the chamber, letting me know she was in attendance. Balon Stamper, the ghoul, shambled up from the crypt beneath the meeting hall, his ever present stench of rotting flesh preceeding him.
Cecilia stepped out from an alcove, adorned her her customary purple robes.
“Hello darling!” I said, rushing to hug her. “I thought you would be at the studio today?”
She nodded. “I heard you called a meeting and came right over.”
I smiled, kissing her softly. “Aw, you didn’t have to do that, love.”
“It’s only fitting that I be seen at your side, isn’t it?”
Ernest Langmore, wearing his brown robe of office slithered out from another doorway. April, my daughter, fell into step beside me. Ernie gave me a wink. We'd decided I'd be the true Desdemonia now, and he would lead the brotherhood as Elder Langtree.
“What will we be discussing today, Mother?”
I paused, looking at April, the former Ernest. She’d been out all night and showed it. Her hair was a disheveled mess, her skirt had been torn, and her makeup…oh, she looked a fright. And she smelled of booze, sex, and drugs.
“Where have you been?”
She shrugged. “I went to a party at some…frat house, I believe.”
“You’re still in high school!”
“Mother, that was only for show, as you know and since I no longer have to worry about your attempts to take over my life, I decided to live it!”
I nodded and we all filed into the rotunda where we found our places at the respective podiums. The immense crystal of power hummed softly in the center. I walked toward it and knelt, giving obeisance to those who had come before me.
Closing my eyes, I knelt and murmured in the sacred language of the Dark Elders…
For mine eyes seek the truth, else I shall be blind
For mine ears to hear reason, else I shall be deaf
For mine nose to smell hope, else I shall be senseless
For the Power is One for ALL to share, else I shall descend into Madness.
The quiet thrum of energy filled me from the Crystal, and I closed my eyes, welcoming its power once again.
I waved for an attendant to help me stand again. These old bones weren’t what they used to be.
I waddled back to my podium, and stood. It was the highest, above the other members, as was right for my station as Presiding.
Holding my hands up, I invoked a spell of protection, warding us against eavesdroppers and sealing the chamber to those within. Any attempted breaches of the ward would notify me immediately.
“I call this meeting of the Council of Twelve to order this day, 10th of April, 2023.”
The audience and the rest of the Council fell silent.
“Commence with the reading of the minutes from the last meeting,” I said.
Lance Barlow, leader of the infernal’s began reading. His voice sounded like charcoal dragged across stone as he listed the events of the prior meeting. It took a good ten minutes of his droning on for the minutes to be completely read.
“Does anyone have any objection to approving the minutes as read?”
The rest of the council shook their head.
“Um, Madam President, a few corrections—“ Judy Nissom said. Before being changed into a vampire she’d been a parliamentarian in one of the English Colonies.
“Proceed,” I said, sighing.
“Comma after Remark in the second paragragh. Semi-colon after Ward in paragraph nine, 'Seeping’ is misspelled in paragraph eleven…” she went on to make various corrections.
After she concluded, I said; “Does anyone make a motion to accept the corrections to the minutes?”
“So moved,” Ryan Blackwater said. He was a wizard of the first order and probably the only other being in this chamber more powerful than me.
“All in favor?”
“Aye.” Chorused the group.
“Any opposed?” I said.
I waited for a moment, and no one chimed in.
“Motion passes, 12 to nil.”
Lance Barlow nodded, and made a notation in his book, then cut his thumb and pressed the blood onto the seal.
“Perfect. Now, on to old business?”
“Madam President, might I ask that we skip old business in favor of the new?” Ryan Blackwater said. “I have important matters to attend.”
“Is that a motion?” I said.
“So moved.”
“Seconded.” Julie Sternum said. She was the newest member of the council and a fae changeling. She had attracted the eye of many of the bachelors in High Valley due to her elfin features and light blond hair.
I liked her hair. She kept it in a delightfully short pixie that couldn’t have taken much care at all.
“All in favor?” I said.
“Aye,” said the majority.
“All opposed?” I said.
“Nay,” Lance Barlow and David Guggenheim said.
“We stand at 10 to 2. Aye’s have it.”
“I never win anything,” David said.
“On to new business then!” I said. I was glad we’d dispensed of old business, Seth’s mind didn’t have a great grasp of some events in recent memory and it would take me some time to get things completely sorted.
“As you know, we had quite the conflagration on the ball fields a few days ago,” I said. “Several council members were involved, me, Jim Atkins of the Alpha Weres, my daughter, and Ernest Langmore of the Brotherhood.”
Several people murmured at that.
“As a result, a translocation event occurred in which several members of the council were compromised. I count myself as one of that number, along with Brother Langmore. Jim Atkins ended up in a non-human body and is currently trapped as a non-sentient with no means of apparent escape, along with my daughter—“
At this I gave a slight catch in my voice that wasn’t completely faked.
Ryan Blackwater frowned. “I was to understand that Desdemonia Landcaster translocated into Brother Langmore. Is this true?”
I nodded. “It is, but we had a mind share last night and were able to come to an accord.”
Ryan Blackwater nodded. “So you are in full control of your faculties and Brother Langmore is in full control of himself?”
I looked at Ernest. “We are.”
“So what are you seeking, Desdemonia?” the wizard said.
“I’m seeking a vote of confidence. Knowing what you know about our translocation and some of the events that may come to pass, I want to make sure there is no doubt who is in charge of this council. If another president needs to be elected, now is the time to do it as I have some very pressing business for us and don’t want to address competency inquisition questions.”
“I care less for the management of this purile group. I have much larger fish to fry.” Blackwater said.
“I move we approve a vote of confidence in Desdemonia Landcaster so she can proceed with the rest of our agenda,” Julie Sternum said. I glanced over at her and she beamed a smile at me, her light blue eyes dancing in the flickering light from the crystal. Bless her soul, I thought. I wonder if she is corruptible…
“Seconded,” the Blackwater said.
“All in favor?” I said.
“Aye!”
Any opposed?
No one would stand in opposition. I felt a little rush of glee float through my belly.
I smiled at everyone in attendance. “Thank you all, for your vote of confidence,” I said.
“It gives me such a warm feeling to know you trust in me to be your president, and usher us into a new future.”
“Here here!” several members of the audience stated.
“So, on to our newest business, then,” I said. I approached the Crystal, and stood in front of it. Then turned around, theatrically.
“We are faced with an unparalleled decision in the coming weeks. As you all know, one of the Old Ones, the Who, stands at the Gate. It demands entrance into our reality, and due to the circumstances I listed earlier, I am now it’s appointed Key, since the Atkins boy discorporated his essence into my body.”
Murmurs rustled through the crowd. I knew they hadn’t considered how much power I actually had as not only the President of the Council of Magic, but the Key to the Gateway of The Who.
“Therefore, we have made the following decision.” I nodded to April and Ernest Langmore. They both stepped forward equidistant around the Crystal, becoming a triad with me around the crystal.
“As the Key, and President of the Council. Standing in front of the Gate of the Unknown. We will receive the Old One into our presence, and usher in a new Era for mankind!”
Several of the council members, including the Blackwater were standing now. I knew he would take umbrage at this, but now was the time for me to seize control.
“The non-powered humans around us shall be given to the Old One as sacrifice! We shall open the Gate and allow Him to enter! I am His vessel, His Key, His tool! Anyone who stands with me will be rewarded beyond imagination!”
I threw up my hands, and Ernest and April also threw up theirs. We murmured a quiet incantation that activated the Crystal, just not in the method it was ever intended. A scarlet glow began to emanate from it, and a force seeped out from the center, enveloping first us, as the triad, and then expanding.
“For We are the Chosen Ones! We will accept Its leadership and Guidance. We shall allow the Old One to consume the feckless underpowered humans on this planet, and We shall be ushered into the Kingdom of Greatness beyond!”
The wave of power slid out, faster and faster, enveloping those around me. Their eyes changed from blue, gray, or brown, to the scarlet glow of the Crystal, as their souls were conquered and conjoined.
With each person it touched, they immediately fell into a trance, murmuring a soft. “Ommmmm. Ommmmm. Ommmm.”
The Blackwater took up his staff, and I saw a branch of power leap forward, directly into the crystal. I cackled at this, knowing he would attempt to use force to overcome it. Shackles of red energy leaped from the scarlet crystal, and bound his limbs, freezing him as an automaton, like all the people around him.
“Brothers and Sisters!” I screamed, my own eyes glowing fierce scarlet. “We shall be the new Victors of this World!”
I ripped the staff from the hands of the Blackwater, and used it to send an intense bolt of energy skyward, allowing the clouds to gather, and the Storm to brew. The storm would power the spell, holding the council and anyone else it touched in thrall until I returned.
The Old One was coming.
And soon.
--------------------------------
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(Two chapters today so we can get to the end of this)
The next morning, I made a phone call to the hair-dressers. “Bonnie!” I said, in my most enthusiastic voice. “This is Desdemonia Landcaster. I’d like to book some time with you today.”
“Oh, Hi Ms. Landcaster! Sure, I have some time today. What do you want done?”
I put a hand to my head. “Oh, a brighten up, I think. What time can you work me in?”
“One o-clock work for you?” Bonnie said.
“That would be perfect, dear.”
“Just highlights like last time, or full color?”
“Full color, darling. I’m going for a new look!”
“Wonderful!” Bonnie said. “I’ve been waiting forever to brighten that hair of yours, babe. Come on in, and we’ll see what we can do!”
I smiled, and hung up the phone.
Cecilia murmured something under the covers. I caressed her face, and she opened eyes that glowed scarlet. “I’ll be back in a little while, pet.”
She murmured “Ommmm….Ommmmm….Ommmmm,” back at me. It was a good thing I could at least get her mouth to do something than chant, or it would have been a long night.
I put on an old black long cotton dress and comfortable shoes. The catacombs were dark and dusty so I pulled my hair up into a wide bun with a hairband and waddled my way down the back staircase to the catacombs. If there was anything anywhere about The Old One it would be in there. I had initiated the Hypno Virus in the event we didn’t have a better plan to stop it, but I hoped the dusty tomes might give me some information.
With a wave of my hand I cast an alight spell that brought the candles flickering to life. With a breath of wind, the hallways illuminated in soft yellow light.
I smiled. I wasn’t exactly Desdemonia, I was more Sethdemonia, but it still felt nice to be able to perform magic. It was such a lovely feeling, tapping into that unseen power, and releasing it to do my will. What many people didn’t realize; magic wasn’t difficult to use. What was difficult was not using it and keeping the order of the Universe in check. Magic bent the will of the Origin in ways nature never intended, so not using it meant the natural world kept spinning as it should.
I walked through the catacombs, opening ancient doors, and swiping my finger across hidden wards and booby-traps. No one had been down here in decades, and the dust triggered my allergies, causing my sinuses to fill.
If only magic had a way to alleviate a simple runny nose…I sighed.
The stacks were on the lowest level of the catacombs, and I descended the stairs carefully, my chubby arms handing on to the rickety railing that wound down into the depths.
Mold crept along the edges of the stone stairs, moist and thick. I was forced to slow my progress to ensure I didn’t slip and send my roly-poly aged body tumbling down like a boulder down a cliff side. All the magic in the world wouldn’t stop a conk on my noggin from hitting the rocky floor down there.
I finally got to the bottom, and lit the candles around the thick oak door that stood in the entrance.
This was the tricky part. I wasn’t exactly Desdemonia Landcaster. I was wearing her body, and had access to her mind, and had adopted her thought patterns, but the true Desdemonia was in Ernie and this trap might not recognize me for the person I was.
Releasing the trap was simple. There was a certain phrase I needed to state. The magic would categorize my voice, intent, and identity, the spring loaded lock would melt, and the iron rods extending into the door frame would retract, opening the door.
If the spell didn’t recognize me, hidden iron fletched bolts would release from hundreds of holes in the surrounding surfaces, impaling me with not only iron, but a special toxin I’d imported at great expense from Guatemala.
The mages of Hidden Valley knew I held these tomes, and many envied them, so I needed both physical and magical wards around them to ensure they never fell into the wrong hands.
Holding my hands up, I created a magical barrier then intoned the words: “By the flowers of Daerkne, I release thee.”
Closing my eyes against the possible impaling, I waited.
Nothing happened.
“You know, Desdemonia, I wondered if you might come down here.” A voice said, to my left.
Startled, I turned.
Wizard Blackwater stood less than a meter from me. He glowed with blue light outlining his form.
“What’s the meaning of this!” I said. “You were incapacitated by the—“
“I must admit, you caught me in your web for a short time,” he said. “Luckily, I have a certain amulet that resets my mental state if not activated every hour.”
I clucked at that. “Clever.”
“Indeed.”
“So did you release everyone?”
He shrugged. “No, I see what you’re trying to do and while ugly in its execution, I don’t completely disagree with it.” He moved toward the door, standing in front of it beside me. “Clumsy, yes, but mildly effective. The weak-minded will at least distract the Old One for a few moments upon entrance into this Realm of Possibility.”
I nodded. “So you laid a trap for me here.”
He shrugged. “Not a trap, per se, but I have always wanted to acquire these tomes, as you can imagine. What kind of wizard would I be without them?”
I shook my head. “They were never for your kind. These are Wytch artifacts.”
He smiled. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“So what, you changed the lock?”
He shrugged. “No, it was deftly laid, Desdemonia, I do give you credit for that, or at least I credit the original Desdemonia…” he twisted his hands in a certain fashion and a portal opened.
Ernest Langmore stepped through, smiling.
“Ahh, I see. You’re in league with The Brotherhood.”
“I think we can agree that The Brotherhood, The Wizardry, and The Wytches should share knowledge and power in order to achieve our goals?” Ernie said.
“Well, the lock wouldn’t open for me anyway,” I said. “I was going to call you as soon as I got back up to the house.”
“Mhmm.” Ernest smiled. “Guess it’s good I’ve arrived then.”
“It doesn’t recognize me,” I said. “Maybe you can trigger the lock.”
“You both will shield—“
The Blackwater and I both spun up shields.
“By the flowers of Daerkne, I release thee!” he said, with a dramatic flourish.
Again nothing happened.
“Damn, I think we’re locked out,” I said. “It doesn’t recognize me in Spirit and doesn’t recognize you in Body.”
“And yet it’s not enough to trigger the ward…” Ernie said, tapping his chin.
“I suppose you two have attempted a discorporation spell to return Desdemonia to her body?” The Blackwater said.
I shrugged. “No…”
“It would take days for the spell to take effect.”
The Blackwater nodded.
“Let’s try saying it together,” I said.
He shrugged.
“By the flowers of Daerkne, I release thee.” We both said at exactly the same time.
We heard the locking mechanism clunk and the door opened slightly.
“Well,” Blackwater said, moving forward. “This is fortuitous.”
With a touch to the Blackwater’s neck, he fell into hypnosis again with his eyes glowing scarlet.
“I hope you understand he was just a useful tool to gain entrance down here,” Ernie said.
“He has an amulet that resets his Mindfulness every hour. Find it.”
Ernie and I walked around the man who was now murmuring “Ommmm….Ommmmm….Ommmm.”
“This guy must have twelve amulets,” Ernie said, pulling each one out from under his robes.
I sighed, opening my third eye to examine them critically.
“Ahh, and an amulet to ward people from removing other amulets.”
“We don’t have time to try find a way around it,” Ernie said. “Let’s go into the stacks and see what we can find before he awakens.”
I nodded, opening the door.
I didn’t exactly trust Ernie, but we did share a common headspace, so I didn’t think he’d use this opportunity to overcome me. We walked around each of the stacks, third eyes open and reading the magical inscription on each of the books.
We both found possible prospects, and opened them at the reading nook, scanning the pages quickly.
After three or four hours, and re-igniting the hypno spell on Ryan Blackwater, we had nothing.
Ernie sighed, slamming a book shut. “Anything?”
I shook my head. I was hungry, and my Eye was tired from scanning the ancient texts and translating them into English.
“We’ll just have to hope the Ancient One is satisfied with the Offering.”
I nodded, wincing. The Seth part of me was railing against hurting other people, but the other two quieted him down and kept his thoughts mostly quiescent.
We walked back out into the archway, and looked at the wizard.
“What do we do about him?” Ernie said.
“Ryan, can you hear me?” I said, whispering in his ear.
“Ommm…Yess…Ommmm”
“Perfect.” I touched his arm softly. “You like me, don’t you?”
“Ommm…Yessss….Ommmm…”
“You’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you?”
“Ommmm….Yess…..Ommmm…”
“Perfect. Now, listen carefully…” I gave him some instructions. Then snapped my fingers.
He glanced at me, awake and aware. “What happened?”
I smiled softly to him. “You fell asleep, silly boy.”
He frowned, looking around us. “Why are we down here?”
“You tell me,” I said smiling. “You portaled into my home, darling.”
“I did?” he blushed. “I’m sorry, Desdemonia, I’m not sure what came over me.”
I ran my fingers over the scruff of his face. “No trouble, darling. But I think Ernie would like to go home.”
He blinked again, harumphing. “Yes, of course.”
Twisting his fingers, he opened a portal.
Ernie gave me a wink and stepped through.
“Umm, can I come and see you later?”
I smiled. “We’ll see darling.”
He smiled back. “Okay. You know how to get ahold of me.”
I nodded, and kissed his cheek.
He stepped through the portal and it winked out of existence.
After returning to the main floor and eating a bite of lunch, it was getting close to time for my hair appointment. I put a scarf over my head, along with some dark glasses. I couldn’t have the public seeing my eyes glowing as red as they were. I put on a pair of skin-tight black leather pants, and a gold silk blouse. I pulled out a black feather boa, and wrapped it around my chubby shoulders. I pulled on a pair of ankle socks, then calf length black leather boots.
I decided to allow Bonnie to do my makeup in spring colors, so I didn’t apply any but I did wash my face with moisturizing soap. Spritzing on a bit of perfume, I left.
Several dozen acolytes chanted in the hallway as I passed. The infection was spreading, with more and more converts shambling toward the council chamber. They were drawn to the power of the Crystal, and I would use that when it was time to open the gate. When the crystal wasn’t near there, they were drawn to me, which was an unintended side effect of the infection I’d unleashed.
It was a fairly simple mind device called Obey. Essentially, from the moment it touched anyone sentient, they felt the need to seek out the crystal and obey me. Given any task, they would complete it, and return to the crystal. If not given a task, they would mindlessly shuffle toward the crystal, or me, depending on who was closer.
I drove into town, humming softly. Today was a good day. Less seventy-two hours until the Old One’s arrival, and everything was right on schedule.
I zipped through town, a bit faster than I intended, and old Barnaby Ollis, the town sheriff pulled me over at a stoplight.
“Oh, Desdemonia. Sorry, didn’t know it was you.”
“That’s alright, Barnaby. Good to see you’re being vigilant.”
He nodded. “Well, considering the craziness that’s happening over…hey, you wouldn’t know anything about that would ya?”
“About what, dear?”
“People are getting infected with some crazy kind of virus, then walking over to that old building on Silvery lane. Weirdest thing you ever did see.”
I shrugged. “Nope, sorry Barnaby, I have a hair appointment.”
“No problem, Desdemonia. Be on your way, but slow down, please?”
I gave him a salute, then touched his hand. “Obey.”
Immediately his eyes shone red, and he began to shamble off in the direction of the Crystal.
I drove the rest of the way, and parked in front of the salon. Several women sat under hair dryers, and Mildred Pierce was getting a perm.
“Ms. Landcaster!” Bonnie said, coming around the counter. “How have you been?”
“Just fine, dear. How is your family?”
“Wonderful! Though Frank has that weird, eye thing going around. Do you know about it?”
“Barnaby Ollis mentioned something,” I said.
“Yeah, weirdest thing!” She ushered me back, and took my feathered boa. “Can I get you anything? Water? Tea?”
“Be a dear and pour me a bit of gin and seven-up?”
She grinned, coming right away!”
I sat down in the chair, and she went and made my drink.
Staring into the mirror, I considered the look I wanted. It needed to be dramatic, as I would be the center of attention for the town. But I also wanted to be fashionable, and I was tired of the silver streaks.
“So what are we shooting for today?” Bonnie said.
“Bold, Brassy, Blond,” I said. Let’s go big!”
“Makeup, hair, Nails?” she said.
“The works, darling.” I sat back in the salon chair as she began to wash my hair.
It wasn’t long before I started to feel that strange feeling of another reality shift coming. I’d really wanted to stay in this reality; I still had so much to do! I needed to push the virus out to all edges of town, making sure everyone in High Valley had been touched or recruited. I also needed to recruit another Alpha Were leader to our cause, make sure no one on the Council was wriggling out of the bondage I’d induced, check back in on our wolf pets, and get the venue ready for the Gateway activation. My mind ticked off tasks and objectives, I really didn’t have time for a reality shift.
Remembering what Seth had done last time, I fixed a point in my mind, letting the wave approach and sweep through and over me…
…The smell of rotten eggs, things decaying, and burning rubber flooded my senses.
Stay as Desdemonia. Stay, Stay Stay…
I could see something below me, something with burning yellow eyes that moved, undulated, something that had tentacles rising up into the air, latching onto me and—
Different realities, different times, different entities flickered across my vision and senses. In one, I was Desdemonia, wearing an immense black robe, arms outstretched, power shooting from my fingertips. In another, I was Brother Langtree, chanting in soft tones, scraping dust from the bones of a corpse. Another flicker and I was April, a black silk dress around my supple form, dancing with a strange dark man, grinding my hips against his midsection. Another and I was Seth Atkins, stealing second-base after a passed pitch at home. I could hear the roar of the crowd and see my Mom and Dad waving to me from the stands. Another and I was back in the feral Alpha Werewolf body, leaping upwards onto the leg of the Elephantine creature, black talons digging into its skin as I scrabbled my way up the leg toward the shoulder.
I fought against the pressure, the feeling of inexorable tension, each reality streaking by me. In the distance a figure took form, that of the elephant head but with tentacles instead of trunks, pulling me toward it, pulling me through the infinite cosmos, the realities rushing past. I perceived the tentacle, wrapped around my Essence, pulling me through the multi-cosm against my will. I grabbed hold of it, twisting the force, trying to get it to release.
In the distance the Elephant-thing, trumpeted pain and confusion, opening burning eyes that pierced my soul in a conflagration of light, sound, and energy. I stopped trying to resist the pressure, felt myself pulled toward it, toward inevitable annihilation, rushing through dimensions, portals, planets, realities as this extra-dimensional being with immeasurable power ripped my realities, all realities into ribbons of multi-colored light.
Finally, it released me with the shock of a rubber band broken mid tension, and flung me into a dimension I hadn’t perceived. I tumbled through the ether, space, matter and time becoming physical again, coming to an abrupt halt.
Breath filled my lungs again and I inhaled, panting.
“You okay, dude?” someone said from beside me.
I opened my eyes and saw Jeff and others looking at me with concerned faces from behind a backstop.
“Where--” I said. “What?” I glanced down and saw Seth’s…my hands again.
A crowd had gathered around me. Guys in baseball uniforms; my teammates.
“Safe!” the umpire called, throwing his hands wide. The crowd cheered.
I blinked and looked around me. I was at home plate? A catcher in full gear sat nearby, his head bent over. A baseball sat in the dust a few feet away.
“Man, you took that guy out!” Barry Peterson, our pitcher said. “He won’t stand in front of home again!” Several of the guys had come out of the dugout to make sure I was okay.
I shook my head, trying to make sense of it all. I got up, and held my hand out to the catcher, who nodded, and took it gratefully. I pulled him up.
The crowd clapped politely as the catcher put his helmet back on and took his stance again behind home plate.
I walked toward our dugout.
Coach Nichols clapped me on the shoulder. “You okay, son?”
I nodded. “Yeah, just had the wind knocked out of me.” That and reality itself.
“Okay boys, funs over!” Coach said, clapping his hands. “Atkins put us back in the game!”
I sat on the bench, my brain overloaded from everything that had just happened. Derek Metz handed me a cup of water and I drank it greedily.
“You okay, dude?” he said, sitting next to me.
“Yeah, thanks.”
“That was a hell of a slide.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” I said, rubbing my head.
“What’s up with you lately?” he said.
I shrugged, if you only knew. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re hanging around a lot over at the Landcaster Estate. And sometimes April Landcaster has been at school.”
I swallowed. “Just doing some chores for them over there. Cutting the grass, cleaning the pool, that kinda thing.”
He nodded. “Am sorry about your friend, by the way.”
“Which one?”
He looked at me like I’d gone crazy. “Mitzy? The only one of your friends to turn into a feral butterfly?” He chucked me on the shoulder. “Damn, man, what you been drinking?”
I shook my head. “You know, finals, college applications, that kinda stuff.”
“Where you thinking?”
I sighed. It had been an omnipresent thing before April first came around. Now it was such a thing in the distant past…wait, had I really caused a virus in the last reality that magically hypnotized the entire town?”
After a two run homer, we won the game. Mom, Dad, and Jeff met me in the stands after.
“Good game, sport!” Dad said.
“Yeah, if you hadn’t scored that run, I think it would have been over,” Mom said. “Did you hurt yourself?”
I rubbed my head. “Nah, just a flesh wound.”
“Well, we’re almost to the night when you’re your weakest.”
“Wait, really? When is that?”
Dad looked at me. “Tomorrow night. Why?”
I shook my head. “Well, I’ve had another reality shift.”
He nodded, and looked at Mom. “We figured something might have happened.”
“What’s this?” Jeff said.
“Nothing, man,” I said. “Just…supernatural stuff.”
“Ah, yeah, that doesn’t involve me at all.” He sighed. “Damn, I miss Mitzy.”
“I know, Bro.”
“I think we should get you home so we can talk?” Dad said.
I nodded. “Talk to you later, man,” I said to Jeff.
“Hey, we’re getting pizza. Probably go out after. Hit me up if you wanna hang.”
“I will.”
“No fucking the old lady!” Jeff chuckled, and ran off.
I sighed, glancing at my phone. April/Desdemonia had texted me seventeen times during the game.
DD: I’m bored… when will the game be over?
DD: Bring food Im hungry
DD: And alcohol
DD: What time will you be here
DD: I hate this April gets to go out and enjoy her life and Im stuck here
DD: I love you Hope you know that
DD: JESuS bE DOnE ALReADY
DD: If Jeff wants you to go out with him DO NOT GO I need you
DD: Fuck
DD: Ima dye my hair If you show up in the next hour go around back it’s open.
DD: MOM HAS MACROS FOR HER APPEARANCE WHY DIDN’T I KNOW THIS
DD: uh oh I just turned myself into fat Marilyn Monroe
DD: Now Im fat Audrey Hepburn
DD: Now Im fat Cruella Deville BRING ME A DALMATION Ima eat it
DD: Aaaand Im fat gwen stefani
DD: BRING SMOKES
DD: HURRY UP IM BORED AF
I shook my head. How had I come to the game? Mom and Dad were walking away, as if I had my own ride. I went out to the student parking lot and found my truck.
I got in, but before I could turn on the ignition, I looked at myself in the mirror.
Seth Atkins, looked back at me. Strong, rugged, chiseled of jaw, with dust in his hair and grass stains on his jersey.
A headache commenced right behind my eyes. “Who are you?” I said, looking at the mirror.
It did not answer back.
Hey everyone. Raine here. I sorta messed up the numbers on my chapter. THIS is the real 29. My apologies!
I drove home.
We were less than 24 hours away from the Gateway opening, and I still had no idea what was going on.
The facts were these: Somehow I’d been caught up in by a big dark tentacular Something that wanted to come through into this reality.
Or…did it want to come through into my original reality?
I thought about the face, staring at me through the multi-dimensional times-space I’d been falling through. It was the only constant, those shimmering yellow eyes as the rest of space and time fell around me.
Desdemonia’s personality and memories were in my mind. As were Brother Langtree's. April had been caught by Desdemonia in this reality where she took her body as hers. Mitzy Butterfly had been caught and turned into a feral butterfly. Dad and Mom were alive, healthy, human and here. If only I knew where here was?
If I saved this reality, would it save all realities? Did I somehow have to battle that thing in each reality? Or if I lost once would it all be over? Not to mention how I was supposed to battle a multi-dimensional being that could pull me into dimensions like someone pulls open a can of beer.
I was the Key.
It made sense. It didn’t seem like anyone else was going through these reality shifts. If they were would I even know? Could someone or many someones be traveling through them as I am?
I thought of the crystal in my home reality. Desdemonia had taken over my mind and had enacted a plan to usher in the new Being like he was a celebrity at a trade show. She had hypnotized the entire town and bent them to her will. And I had willingly gone through with it, I hadn’t fought back, hadn’t even thought to fight back while she was doing it.
So what happened?
I scratched my head, feeling the grit of sand.
Somehow, I had come to the fore. So not only was I battling this extra-dimensional being, I had to battle Desdemonia for the right to my own mind? Was there any winning this thing?
I thought of everyone I loved. Mitzy, stuck here as a butterfly, April, Stuck in the last dimension as a wolf. Dad, ditto for that. April stuck here as her own mother. Desdemonia had left that morning to go into town for some dark reason. Could she be plotting the same thing here, just in April’s body instead of mine?
I had to stop them. Had to stop myself from being used to their ends. Had to find a way to close whatever gate had opened that was causing me to fall through time, space, and dimensions so I could put things right. I couldn’t make any headway when I was being yanked on a chain like this.
April had said she saw a tentacle…I closed my eyes, opening my Third eye.
I glanced in the mirror and immediately realized why you should never do that while opening your third eye.
Opening the window, I puked out the side of the truck, heaving whatever this body had last ate into the parking lot.
Ugh, not good.
Taking a few breaths, and sucking some water from a nearby water bottle, I tried it again.
This time, rather than looking in the mirror, I looked town.
I could see my aura, bright orange, but it was now mixed with blue and black, just like I’d seen on Desdemonia. She was still in me, somewhere, maybe knocked unconscious?
As I looked at my arms, my legs, and then my middle, I spotted it. A tentacle tied directly into my nether regions down there. It was the same kind of binding as April and I had days earlier.
Gritting my teeth, I pulled on the tentacle.
Pain suffused my testicles, like I was yanking a live wire directly in my brain. I coughed then fell over on the front seat of my truck, bringing my knees up to my chest.
Well, that wouldn’t work.
I needed more info. How could one fight an extradimensional being capable of shuffling realities like a cardmaster shuffles a deck of cards? If I battle it in one dimension, do I have to continue to jump to other dimensions and battle it again and again? If I lose in one did I lose in all? If a won in one, would I win in all?
None of it felt right. I decided to visit the one person I knew who might be able to help.
Starting my truck up again, I sped off. I’m pretty sure I knew where he lived; I’d been to his house a few times selling raffle tickets and chocolate bars for Little League.
###
Mr. Stewart, my High School Math teacher lived in the middle of a cul-de-sac at the top of a slight hill. His lights were on, and his car was in the driveway. I went to the door and knocked.
“Yes?” Said an older hispanic woman who opened the door.
“Uh, I’m looking for Mr. Stewart? Does he live here?”
“Who’s at—Oh! Hello, Seth! What brings you here?” Mr. Stewart worked his way around the woman, smiling at me.
“Um, I’m having a problem I hope you can help me with.”
“Sure, come on in!” He held the door open. “Anita, this is Seth, Seth, Anita, my wife.”
“Hello Ma’am,” I said, smiling and holding my hand out.
“Hello, Seth.” She shook my hand. “Awfully late to be out, isn’t it?”
“Um, yes, but this is an emergency. I’m so sorry to intrude.”
She smiled. “No trouble, Seth. Would you like something to drink?”
“Water if you have it,” I said. I was still really thirsty.
“You look like you just came from the baseball diamond,” Mr. Stewart said. He was a small man with salt and pepper thinning hair and a small mustache.
“Yeah,” I said. “Game against Fuller Academy.”
“Victorious?” he asked, as we sat down at his kitchen table.
“Yes.” I took the glass Mrs. Stewart offered and drank it dry. “Thank you.”
“So, how can I help you at this late hour? I haven’t seen you in school, so I’ve been wondering what’s happened.”
I nodded and sighed. Well…you see there was this girl—“ and I proceeded to tell him about April and getting snared in the trap of the Who.
He frowned and took out a piece of paper and a pencil. He made a quick sketch. “This the creature you saw?”
I looked down at it and shivered. “Yep, that’s it.”
“And you say it’s wanting to come through the Gate tomorrow night?”
I nodded.
He tapped the drawing with his pencil, idly. “And now, it’s pulling you through different dimensions of reality?”
“Yes.” I crossed my arms. “In the last one, Desdemonia Landcaster sort of took over my consciousness and had created a hypno virus that infected the town. She wanted to open the Gate to the Who, and she was going to offer everyone in town as a sacrifice to hopefully keep her in power.”
Mr. Stewart rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I can see why she’d do that.”
“Wow,” I said. “Not the answer I expected.”
“Well, it’s the old bear trick, right? Roll yourself up into a ball and play dead and hope the bear doesn’t tear you to ribbons.”
“I’ve heard that rarely woks.”
He grinned. “It must work enough times for it to become a survival technique. And hence, why Desdemonia thought rolling the town up into a ball might just reduce the amount of casualties this being might inflict.”
I thought about the creature in the green dimension. “I don’t think it cares, it’s just going to eat everything in its path.”
“Exactly. It and it’s ilk are precisely why we have dimensional gates in the first place. They tried to seal every dimension away, but that just made things worse. No, I don’t think rolling the town into a ball will save anything.”
“What am I going to do?” I said, feeling a sense of panic. “This thing is going to take me somehow tomorrow, and use me to come into the realities.”
“I have an idea…” he went and dug around in a closet and came back with a couple of items.
“So, let’s say fabric represents our dimension.” He held out a piece of gray microfiber cloth in front of him.
“This represents the being we’re talking about.” He took a ball bearing and set it onto the fabric.
“Now, imagine, if you will, a multitude of pieces of fabric laid on top of each other, but also at every possible angle.
“Okay.”
“He isn’t restricted by time, space, or dimension. That means he has some ability to perceive the dimensions as we do light. We have eyes, so the light reflects off a plane and strikes our eyes that is translated into electrical impulses, and then to our brain which interprets, analyzes and synthesizes the information it’s receiving. It does this very quickly.”
“Right, I follow.”
“The Who, must have some type of organ that allows it to perceive dimensions in the same manner. For us, we can’t understand it because it’s like seeing with your kneecaps.”
“Okay.”
“So, if you were able to somehow take out that organ, incapacitate, or ‘blind’ it for want of a better word, it wouldn’t be able to move between dimensions.”
I nodded. “I think I see where you’re going with this.”
“After ‘blinding’ it, and this would take mathematics beyond my own comprehension, but if you could create a ‘pocket dimension’ that would seal the being off from any other dimensions…”
“Ahh, a dimensional prison! Yes.”
“Correct. So it’s a two step process…well, three if you include terminating it. But I don’t know I’d recommend trying to terminate it, this being probably pre-dates time/space as we know it. I don’t think a knife to the heart is going to do it.”
“A baseball bat,” Mrs. Stewart said. “You could use a baseball bat to it’s brains.”
He chuckled. “I doubt a baseball bat would work either, dear.”
I nodded. “How do I do all that though?”
Mr. Stewart smiled, as he stood up from the table. “That, I can’t help you with, my boy.”
I got up from the table and sighed.
“There is, one other option,” Mrs. Stewart said.
“Oh?” we both paused.
“You say you fight this t’ing.”
“Well, not really fight. More like ran and hid and tried to avoid being squished like a bug.”
“One way to fight a dimensional being…be another dimensional being.”
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” Mr. Stewart said.
“Hah.” I nodded. “True.”
As I left his house, I had more of an idea of how to stop it.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! Echoed through my brain as I got into my truck and started it up.
And this is the real chapter thirty. Apologies again for the mistake.
As I pulled away from Mr. Stewart’s house, I had a conundrum. April had texted me several more times, but I wanted to go home and compare notes with Mom and Dad regarding the new information Mr. Stewart had given me.
Meanwhile, the clock was ticking, and the Who was coming. I didn’t know how much longer I might have in this dimension, or reality, or whatever, and I wanted to find out as much as I could before I was pulled back into the clutches of Desdemonia’s mind.
Hungry, I stopped by PizzaHouse, and got a couple of pies with fried zuchinni. I drove up the hill to April’s house, and stopped at the gate, buzzing the ringer. The gates opened, and I drove up the path.
She greeted me at the door. She wore a silky negligee number and her dark hair was long and it poofed up on the top before spilling down over her chubby shoulders.
“Jesus, I’ve been waiting hours!” she said, holding a cigarette in her hand. Her voice was husky and low from the alcohol and nicotine.
“Yeah, I needed to see Mr. Stewart about the dimensional shifting.”
I walked into the house holding the two pizza boxes. I set them on the table, as April flung her arms around me. “I missed you!”
“Missed you too..” I said, pulling back. “This looks nice,” I touched her hair.
“You like it?” she walked over to a mirror hanging over the mantel. “Mom has a bunch of dolls in her closet that apparently she can trigger to make her dressed with full makeup, hair, and accessories. It’s a nifty spell!”
“Huh.” I said. She certainly didn’t have that in my reality.
“Did you bring smokes?” She said, pawing through the grocery bags. “This is my last one.”
“Ah, no. Sorry.”
She sighed. “But you did bring beer and pizza, so you’re mostly forgiven. I’m starving!”
I smiled, as she levered out a piece of pizza and began eating it voraciously.
We sat at the counter, eating pizza and drinking beer. Neither of us spoke much.
“Must be a shock for you to be a Friday Night and not be out with your group.”
She shrugged. “April is.”
I nodded.
“And I don’t miss it, honestly. I’d much rather stay in, snuggle, and watch movies over the nightclub scene.”
“Snuggle huh?”
She smiled. “But after you take a shower, Mister!”
“Okay, okay.” I smiled.
Walking back into the Master bathroom, I took off my clothes and turned on the hot water.
I had a few changes of clothes here. Apparently, I’d been spending quite a bit of time with ‘Desdemonia’ and I had a couple pairs of pants, shoes, and t-shirts. I laid out some clean jeans and a white t-shirt, and had just started showering when I heard the shower door open.
“Mmm, yummy!” Someone wrapped their arms around me from behind. At first I smiled, recognizing April’s voice, but then I realized that was April’s Voice and not Desdemonia’s! Quickly, I turned away from her..
“Uh, be out in a second!”
“What, you don’t want to be naked with me?” Desdemonia pouted April’s mouth in a perfect little moue.
Realizing the April hadn’t filled Desdemonia on my knowledge of the switch, I had to play the part.
“Uh, sure baby. C’mere,” I said.
She grinned at me, and slid into my arms. I held her a moment, but really felt strange doing that and got under the deluge of water, to rinse myself off.
“Aww,” she pouted. “I was hoping for shower sex. Mom won’t mind.”
I shook my head. “Look, Desdemonia, I know who you really are. You might as well stop the act.”
“What?” she looked hurt. “I’m not—“
“Spare me, I know what’s going on. Look, we have some things to talk about. Get dressed, and let’s go out there with the real April.”
Angrily, she washed the rest of the soap off then turned off the water. I pulled on the pair of jeans, and the cotton t-shirt, and walked out of the room.
Desdemonia — April, was on the bed, hands crossed under her pendulous breasts.
“Did you enjoy yourself in there?”
“Nothing happened, and I told her I knew what was going on.”
She looked panicked. “You didn’t!”
“Yes.” Desdemonia said, stepping out with a towel wrapped around her body and another one around her hair. “He did.”
I sighed, sitting on the bed with her. I took April in Desdemonia’s body into my arms, and held her. “There’s some things that have been happening we need to discuss.”
“Oh?” Desdemonia said, her eyes sliding to inky pools as she filled herself with power and rage.
“Don’t you dare, daughter.” April’s own eyes slid into black pools. Lightning crackled from her fingertips.
I saw the two women about to square off with me in between and I held my hands up.
“Look, I need some help from the two of you. There’s some things going on that I can’t handle by myself.”
Both of them settled down as their eyes returned to normal. ‘April’ put on a terrycloth robe, and sat in a bedside chair.
“So what’s up, stupid?” ‘Desdemonia’ said, squeezing my hand.
“I met with Mr. Stewart earlier tonight. I’ve been pulled through different dimensions and realities by an entity known as The Who.”
I went on to tell them what I’d learned, and where I’d been.
Afterward, they asked some questions.
‘April’ spoke first. “So, you had a mind-meld with me, and Elder Langtree?”
I nodded. “In my origin reality, you and Elder Langtree got pulled into a translocation spell by April and I’s Witch’s knot that unraveled suddenly and without warning.
“Hmm,” she stood up and started pacing. “And the best those minds could put together was to activate the Crystal and hypnotize the town into obedience? Basically, laying out a smorgasboard for the Who to consume when it comes through?”
“Yes, at the time, it seemed like the best way to go. Mr. Stewart calls it ‘rolling up for the bear.’
She nodded. “Well, yes, and powered individuals could be of use to An Ancient One, like that. And you say this is happening tomorrow night?”
I glanced at the clock. “Tonight, actually. Midnight, I’m guessing.”
“Dark night of the Soul,” she said. “Makes sense, since you’d be at your weakest strength.”
“So the way I see it, we have two paths: One, I try to figure out how to ‘blind’ the Ancient One to Dimensional perception, or two, become a Dimensional being myself.”
“Can an Alpha be Wrought in that fashion, Daughter?” April said.
“Anything is possible, I suppose.” She sighed. “It would take a great deal of magic, potentially all the magic accessible by this plane of existence.”
“It could be keyed to his curse,” April said, stroking my arm.
“Yes, that would be the best way. The Crystal could provide the boost of power I suppose. I think I could talk the Council into that, if you’re willing, Seth.”
“Whatever is necessary…” I said, swallowing.
“You realize, that afterward, anytime your changed you’d no longer be a Werewolf,” April said.
“I wouldn’t?”
She shook her head. “This would replace the ‘wolf’ part of your curse with the Dimensional Space Being…can you live with that?”
“Do I have a choice?” I said.
To anyone following along -- I accidentally preposted some of the later chapters as chapter 29 and 30. This has been worked out now, but if you haven't read the *revised* chapters you might want to go back and read them since they're new material. Oh yeah, and forget everything that was posted before in their places. ;)
Raine
Desdemonia in April’s body went to bed a little while later, leaving me and April in her bedroom.
“Are you sure you want to try this?” she said. “There’s no going back, once the process is initiated.”
I shrugged. “No. But I don’t see a way out.” I got dressed, putting my watch back on and combing my still wet hair.
“You look like you’re leaving.” She wrapped her arms around me.
“I need to talk to Mom and Dad,” I said.
She looked up at me. “Will you be back after?”
I caressed her face. It was eerie, I’d been looking at that face in a mirror not too long ago. I had a distant desire to smoke a cigarette and change into nightclothes. “I’ll sleep in my own bed tonight.”
“Aww,” she walked away from me, pouting. “I waited all night for you. You could see them in the morning?”
“No, I really need to talk to them. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to see them again.”
She nodded, then leaned up for a kiss.
I kissed her back.
“I love you,” she said softly.
I knew what she needed. She needed me to say ‘I love you too.’ But did I?
None of this would have happened if she hadn’t been so intent on making me or Mitzy her fool in a fit of petty jealousy. Mitzy, my sweet best friend, who hadn’t hurt anyone - who was now at the hands of whatever monster in my original reality had been created from my body as Desdemonia. Had she and Jeff been taken in by the hypno virus? Were they standing, now, in the glow of the crystal, ready willing and wanting to be a tasty treat for the Ancient One?
It wasn’t all April’s fault. A lot of it was circumstance. Would the Who have just found someone else? Someone with less powerful friends, someone who would have opened the Gate blithely?
“I love you too,” I said, and gave her another kiss.
###
“Are you kidding me?” Dad said, when I told them of our plans. “You’re going to trust your body to a trio of dark mages? How stupid are you, boy?”
“Dad, I don’t know what else to do!”
“You are not going to let those people cast any spell on you,” Mom said, furious. “I forbid it!”
“Look, I know they have their own reasons and motivations,” I said. “But in this case, I think we all want the same thing!”
“But, son, they’ll discard you if it’s in their best interest to do so, and at the first moment you become inconvenient.”
I thought of April, kissing me, telling me she loved me. Was all that manipulation?
“I don’t know, dad.” I sat down, putting my head on my hands. “What else can I do?”
“It’s not up to you, Seth, honey.” Mom sat down next to me, putting her arms over my shoulders and laying her head down. “This isn’t your problem to solve.”
“Mom, it’s got a hold of me. You can use your third eye, too. Look at me.”
She sighed, and closed her eyes.
I stood up in front of her, holding my hands out at waist level.
“Jesus, your aura has shifted. I can see Desdemonia’s influence!”
I nodded. “At least I’m me right now. In the last reality, I think I was mostly her. It was scary, I was doing things, thinking they were right but they weren’t. I was essentially going to offer up the entire mortal population of earth as fodder to the Old One.”
Dad shook his head. He was angry, I could see the way his jaw muscle pulsed. It was the telltale sign.
“If we could unravel this hold it has on you, then it would leave you alone,” Mom said.
“Or would it just find someone else?” I replied.
Dad sat down, and the three of us were silent for awhile.
“I don’t like this idea at all.” He finally said. “It feels like you’re sacrificing yourself.”
I nodded. “I don’t either, dad, but things in all realities are pretty fucked up as it is.”
“And how would this fix any of that?” Mom said.
“I’d defeat the Old One. Either encapsulate it in a pocket reality, or kill it, or blind it at least to dimensional travel.
“But, Seth, you’d be a feral Were trying to do it! You know what that means!” Dad pounded the table.
“I was thinking about that,” I said. “I mean, yes, I’d be in Were form, but I’d also be able to see the other realities. Maybe I could jump to one after defeating it where the moon is full, and then the power of the moon will help me to return to normal.”
He nodded, frowning. “I could see how that could work.”
“So, let me get this straight,” Mom said. “This brilliant plan is to have you go through this rite, so your alpha nature is changed to that of the Ancient One. Then when the Ancient One comes through, somehow you battle it and send it packing. Then, after defeating it, you’ll translocate to a dimension where the moon is full, return to normal, and then what?”
“Come home,” I said.
“And what happens during the full moon every month?”
I shrugged. “I’ll become that..creature…again. Unless they can figure out a way to remove it. I dunno, Mom, I’m just trying to prevent the Apocalypse.”
“We’ll have to burn that bridge when we come to it,” Dad said, sighing. “I suppose I don’t see any better ideas, Seth. If you truly think they won’t try to warp this to their own ends—“
“Well, I think if you were there it’d really help.”
He nodded. “We both will be.”
“God, I’ve missed you guys,” I hugged mom, and dad patted me on the shoulder.
“We’ve always been right here.”
I nodded, feeling a tear bite the corner of my eyes. “I know.”
He stood up. “You better try to get some sleep, son, considering what day it is.”
I stood up, yawning. “Yeah.”
“What time are you going to meet them?” Mom said.
“Sundown,” I stretched. “They have to get the other members of the council to agree.”
“Ugh, that is going to be difficult,” Mom said.
“I think they’ll be victorious,” I grinned.
They walked with me to my bedroom, and gave me a hug before bed. Then, arm in arm, they walked to their own bedroom.
I slid beneath the covers, too nervous to be sleepy. I was worried I’d wake up in the wrong dimension, and all this planning would go to waste.
My phone pinged just as my eyelids were starting to droop.
DD: you up
Me: Yeah, just trying to close my eyes
DD: what did your parents say when you told them
Me: Not much to say. They’re worried.
DD: me too
Me: I’m worried I’m going to shift dimensions before we do the rite.
DD: That would be bad
Me: Right?
DD: Then youd have this old lady body not me
Me: Love, in that reality, you’re stuck as a Grey Wolf.
DD: I think Id rather be that than this
Me: And mated to my dad?
DD: Hes not bad for a dadbod
Me: Hey!
DD: Just sayin stupid
Me: I’m going to get some sleep now.
DD: Sure you dont want some old fat lady lovin
Me: I’ll see you in a little while.
DD: Heart Emoji
Me: Heart
I set my phone on the charger, then tried to close my eyes. Images of the Thing beyond the world staring at me through the dimensions played over and over. I don’t know if they were a dream, a waking dream, or reality. All I know is I could hear the birds outside frolicking and twittering before I knew it.
(This chapter was previously posted as Chapter 29)
Jeff Farnum picked me up at seven AM right on schedule. I grabbed my backpack, and jumped into the passenger side.
“You look like shit,” he said.
“Yeah.” I yawned. I felt like I hadn’t slept in days. I ran a hand over my face and my hair, trying to wake up.
“That was a great game last night.”
“Thanks.”
I had my head on what we were going to attempt later on this afternoon. I wished I’d been able to get more sleep, but I didn’t want to alarm anyone at school by not being around. Who knew when I’d get a chance to say good-bye to my friends?”
“Listen man,” I said, as we drove down the country roads that led to the high school. “You know you’re my best friend.”
“Jesus, what now?”
“What?” I said.
“You never start a sentence like that unless you’re gearing up for something awful. What gives?”
I shook my head, swallowing past a lump in my throat. “Just…something is going to happen tonight. Something major. And I’m not sure I’m going to be able to come back from it, you know?”
He nodded. “I figured something was happening, what with you actually friends with that Landcaster bitch.”
That rankled me, but I let it go. “I just want you to know how much you and Mitzy mean to me.”
“Yeah. Sucks that she migrated.”
“What?”
“Yeah, don’t you remember? Was a few days ago. Where you been, man?”
I shook my head. Of course I didn’t have memories from a few days ago. A few days ago, I’d been Desdemonia. The thought of that was giving me a headache.
“Anyway, whatever happens tonight, you know you’re my best friend too, man,” he hit me on the shoulder. “Just don’t fuck up whatever it is.”
“Hah.”
He grinned at me. “So what are they going to do?”
I sighed. “Going to change my Alpha Were condition.”
“What, you won’t be a werewolf anymore?”
“Nope.”
“What’ll you be?”
I scratched my head. What did one call a multi-dimensional super-being?
“Ah…I’ll still be a were, just not a wolf.”
“Maybe they’ll turn you into a Were-bimbo!” he laughed. “Like Ryan.”
Ryan Davidson was a WereWoman who we shared classes with. Nights of the full moon he turned into a woman with an extremely high libido.
“No, nothing like that.”
“Aww.”
We got to school and hung out in front of the entrance like usual. I saw ‘April’ standing with her retinue, smoking and gossiping. It looked like Desdemonia had completely integrated with April’s life seamlessly.
She sauntered over to me, flicking ash from her cigarette with a sassy twist of her wrist. “Well, hello pet.”
“Hello April.”
She took a puff. “So when you fuck my mother, do you do it doggy style?”
Several of the girls in her retinue cackled at that. “Yeah, doggy!”
I rolled my eyes, and turned to Jeff, shaking my head.
“Can you believe it?” she said to the crowd. “This doggy likes it doggy style with my mom!”
“Ewww!” several of the girls said.
“Come on, man.” Jeff pulled me away from the group.
“See you later, Fool!” she called after me.
Jeff and I walked into the main foyer where most of the other kids had gathered.
“Hey, good game yesterday!” someone said.
“Thanks,” I smiled.
“Way to get us back in the game!” another girl said.
“That’s the way I roll,” I said.
I made it to my AP US History class just before the bell rang. I honestly had no idea where or what we were studying, and had a queasy greasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I really hoped Miss Minnick wouldn’t call on me. I did my best to not call any attention to myself as I silently sat down in my seat.
The bell rang. We all started working on the board work which was to write two pages on Civil War trends in today’s America. I loved writing and immediately immersed myself in the assignment.
“Well, well!” Miss Minnick said, standing in front of my desk. I could smell the brimstone as she tapped my desk. “Appears we have a celebrity in our midst.”
“Hmm?” I said.
“I heard you single-handedly turned the tide on the ballgame yesterday.”
“Oh,” I felt myself blush. “Right.”
“Congratulations.”
I gave her a tight smile. “Thanks.”
“I’d like to speak with you in the hallway, if you would be so kind.”
I sighed, and nodded.
We stepped out into the hall. She closed the door, and pulled me over to a deserted corner.
“So tonight is the big night?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I imagine your involved in some type of plan?”
“Desdemonia and April are going to use the High Valley Crystal to try to infuse a different Alpha form within me.”
She frowned, her perfect brows narrowing. “And why would they do that?”
“I’ve been traveling across realities. The Who apparently is going to use me tonight to open the Gate, or whatever.”
“I see. They seek to create a multi-dimensional being from your Alpha nature?”
I nodded.
“Well, an entire contingent of infernals will be in attendance tonight. We have powerful demons from across many realms. So we’ll have your back.”
I smiled. “That’s good to know.”
“Some of them aren’t very…pleasing…to look at. So if you need to communicate with us, find me.”
“I will.”
She touched my arm, and I could feel the heat radiating off her body. “I want you to know…you’ve been an excellent student, Seth.”
I nodded, feeling my throat clench. “You’ve been a great teacher!”
“Whatever happens as a result of tonight, we…”
She looked up at me. “We appreciate the sacrifice you’re making.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
“No matter what form you might take…the infernal realms will always be open to you, Seth Atkins. Please allow us to assist. We have many many demonic beings that would help you feel welcome.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“I just…”
She turned away, wiping a tear.
“What?” I said.
“I just hope something of your intellect remains, Seth. You’re such a smart young man. It would be such a waste..”
I gave a wry grin. “Hey, I plan on taking your semester II class!”
She nodded and smiled. “No slacking in that one.”
We walked back into the classroom, and things returned to normal.
I wondered what ‘normal’ would look like tomorrow. I thought of that desolate reality with the creature eating anything and everything in sight, breathing those noxious fumes.
Please don’t let me end up like that. I pleaded with the Universe
.
The Universe did not answer back.
------------------------------------------
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It wasn’t just the infernals that sent a contingent. It appeared the entire town sent entities to the Council chambers.
I stood with April as people gathered around the immense crystal. Everyone spoke in excited hushed tones and several had winked at me, or touched me on the arm, or leaned in to give me a kind whisper.
I was definitely the, uh, Were of the hour.
“Those’ll kill ya,” I said, stepping up to ‘Desdemonia’ as she nervously smoked a cigarette in a long holder. She wore the black robes of her office and had pulled her dark hair up into a dramatic up-sweep that framed her chubby face perfectly.
She rolled perfectly shadowed eyes at me. “I could be so lucky.”
I wondered what was happening in my home reality. I wondered if my body continued to pass the hypno-virus on to townspeople and if they were all gathered in the chamber with scarlet glowing eyes.
My father took his place at his podium. He wore a grey robe, much different from his cloak of office in my original reality. In that reality, he’d paid over a thousand dollars for a tailored robe with silver piping. In this reality, he settled for the standard cloak with no frills or added decorations at all.
Mom stood next to him. They weren’t the only mixed-faction coupling, but I was the only mixed-faction offspring in Hill Valley. Mom gave me a wave, and Dad winked at me.
I felt like this was a big mistake. Afterall, weren’t we basically playing into the Being’s hand? It yoinked me into this reality, shouldn’t I be trying to get back to one it didn’t want me within?
Butterflies flooded my stomach, and I started to hyperventilate a little. I leaned over and put my hands on my legs with my head down, trying to control my breathing.
“You okay?” April said. She flicked ash from the long cigarette holder.
“Yeah, I just can’t help but feel like this is a mistake.”
“How so?”
I shrugged, standing up a bit. “It pulled me into this reality. This is where it wants me.”
“From what you said, it could get you in any reality.”
I nodded.
“Plus, you wouldn’t have a plan with other people in the other realities, right?”
“Or maybe a plan was/is made.”
She nodded, puffing on the cigarette. “Things get confusing when you throw meta-beings into the mix.”
“Do you really think this is going to work?” I said.
She gave me a Desdemonia grin. “You mean, do I think we’ll be able to replace your Alpha in time for you to wrestle the Cthuhulian horror that’s at the gate?”
“Yeah, that.”
“I guess time will tell.”
I nodded, still feeling lightheaded. I wanted to bolt, to run, to find a corner of the earth where this thing couldn’t get me—
As if in answer, I felt something pulling inwardly. It made me feel like I was going to vomit.
“Umm,” I said. “I think it might be coming.”
Her eyes got wide. “Oh!”
“So if I become this Were-Cthuhulian creature…won’t I be a danger to everyone too?”
She threw her arms around me and hugged me to her prodigious bosom. “Yes, but you’ll be our Cthuhulian Horror.”
Sweat started to bead my brow. Would I be able to control myself if I went feral? It had always been in the back of my mind since finding out I was a werewolf.
I did have control in some ways, when I shifted. I was able to tell right from wrong, kill, vs. Not kill. Food vs. Not Food. I guess most were’s gave in to their inner impulses, but I’d always been able to exert at least a bit of control over myself.
Maybe it was my incipient dual nature. Dad was able to do it too, and he wasn’t Dual. I sighed. “We should probably get this over with.”
Cecilia Goldman and ‘April’ entered arm in arm. Desdemonia wore a daring mini-skirt and halter in black, and had thick gold hoop earrings, gold bangles, and several gold necklaces. She also had pierced her nose with a gold septum ring and her extended nails led to gold rings on every finger.
Her curly midnight hair was caught up in a high pony that she liked to swish from side to side as she walked to her ‘mother’s’ side. “Hello Mumsy.”
“Hello, Daughter,” April said.
Ryan Blackwater the wizard, Balon Stamper the ghoul, and Lance Barlow of the infernals all took their places at their podiums equidistant around the crystal chamber.
“Well, Mother?” ‘April’ said. “I think everyone is waiting for you.”
‘Desdemonia’ sighed, and waddled up the few steps to her position as the leader of the Council. She adjusted the magically infused device attached to the platform.
“Is this thing working?” she said, and all of us could hear her as if she were speaking in our ears.
“Yes.” Came the combined response.
“Welcome, Council, and friends to our Council Meeting.” April read from notes that she and Desdemonia had prepared prior. “Thank you for your attendance tonight. Due to the nature of this event, we will be suspending parliamentary procedures and getting to the Rite of the evening.”
Several people started murmuring at that and Judy Nissom hissed, quietly.
“I know this is a deviation from our standard procedures, but I ask that you would indulge me,” April said.
She waited for the crowd to quiet down."Now, as you all know The Who stands at the Gate, and we believe will attempt to make entry tonight. You’ve all felt the ripples of chaos magic—“
She over at the ‘stable’ they’d created to house the mythical creatures that had begun arriving in High Valley over the past month. A unicorn, a griffin, two Harpies, and a Hydra had been captured and contained by the Council.
“In order to combat The Who, Seth Atkins has agreed to sacrifice himself, his very Alpha nature, in order to become High Valley, and the world’s Warrior!”
Mom and Dad began applauding at that. Soon, the smattering became a wave, until everyone was applauding. I could literally feel everyone looking at me. I spotted Jeff Farnum in the crowd—
He wasn’t applauding. He was shaking his head and saying something to me. In fact, he turned away, elbowing his way out of the crowd, toward the door.
I sighed. It made me sad he wasn’t going to see this, but at the same time, if he’d been up here, I’d probably have done the exact same thing.
“We’ll need everyone’s full cooperation to conjoin your energy into the whole. By joining our energy with that of the Crystal—“ she flourished a hand in the direction of the crystal. It was currently clear and centered right in front of us.
It was about 7 feet tall, faceted, and set within a nearly circular ring of silver that bracketed the crystal. I was supposed to walk within the ring and they would trigger the magic that would pierce me and transmogrify my Alpha state.
April continued speaking, but my eyes were caught by the multi-faceted crystal. Every face was mirrored in it’s perfectly smooth surface. It almost looked wet, but I figured it had recently been polished.
For some reason, my mind turned to Mitzy with her wings slowly moving in the air as she stood on the branch of the tree, her insectile head moving in jerky motions. I saw my father as a grey wolf, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he raised a paw, beside April who wagged her tail and loved to be scratched and petted.
I suppose I’d be joining their number soon, but as what? Some kind of multi-dimensional thing that could walk between realities.
I thought of the immense elephant-headed thing from that other dimension, with a face full of tentacles and burning yellow eyes. What would it feel like to be something else? Would I be sad, afraid, lonely?
I really didn’t want to do this. But I couldn’t see my way around it. No one else could stand where I stood and give himself like this.
Was I, in many ways, still April’s fool? I was letting her guide the entire throng into doing something to me. Was this all going to end very badly? Or was everyone in the audience going to yell “April Fools!” at me when I stood within the silver circle?
I looked at April, standing on the alter of the council of magic in front of the great Crystal. She looked confident, strong…and…happy?
Could this have been what she’d wanted all along?
“And now,” April flourished Desdemonia’s hands, “Comes the moment we’ve all been waiting for.” She beckoned to me.
I took a deep breath. This was it.
If I took that step forward, I could be leaving humanity behind forever, doomed to an eternity, or perhaps, many eternities as another being entirely. Something so completely alien, even aliens from another galaxy would be more familiar. In exchange for what?
I saw the scowling faces of my parents. I was happy they were there. Hopefully, they would make sure there was no funny business.
I looked at April, standing expectantly, the moment stretching out a bit to become uncomfortable. Was this what I really wanted?
I thought about April as a youngster, swinging on the monkeybars, laughing and hitting me on the head with her hairbrush. I thought about Jeff Farnum and the way we used to play video games, each of us smacking the other when we scored a hit or made a kill, or opened a scroll.
I thought of Mitzy and her smile, the way she was so sunny and quiet. So introverted and kind. I thought about Mom and the way she folded laundry on Sundays, and the way her eyes crinkled when she laughed. Dad’s hugs, Pete Vargas tutoring me in the ways of the Alpha, Miss Minnick—
Glancing the through audience I found her standing with the other infernals. She was in full Changed mode, her barbed tail dancing over one shoulder. I remembered Coach Walker as he waited expectantly for me to step up to the plate, swing away, make that home run, steal second base.
“Seth?” April said. “It’s time.”
I sighed and took a step forward. “I keep hoping you’re going to say ‘April Fools.’”
The crowd laughed a nervous titter in response.
April smiled at me with Desdemonia’s lips. “I wish that were true.”
I stepped into the circle of the great Crystal.
###
The Rite was pretty simple. “Everyone bow your heads,” April said.
April raised her arms, and I could hear the crystal hum to life in front of me. It was like standing in front of an immense speaker system that had just been powered up. It hummed to life, and began to glow softly.
April murmured something, and now Desdemonia stepped up to her. April said an incantation and gently touched Desdemonia between her brows. A soft light sprang from the crystal directly to Desdemonia, anchored to the place she’d been touched.
“My, um, Daughter will file among you and touch each of you on your forehead. This will connect you to the Crystal.”
Desdemonia stepped down from the dais, and began walking through the crowd, touching each person on the forehead. With each touch, a soft tendril extended from the Crystal. I closed my eyes and opened my Third eye and was able to see the pulsating energy as each person connected to the Crystal. Each person’s tendril was the color of their aura, filling the crystal with light in fractal patterns that radiated toward the center.
It was beautiful.
With each touch the Crystal glowed more intensely. She cycled through the crowd, touching each person, her heels clicking on the marble floor.
I could feel the buildup of heat. I also felt that strange tugging sensation inside me as if something was testing the line to feel the solidity of the connection.
“Better hurry,” I said.
April raised her arms and began chanting softly. The Crystal sprang to life and the entire dais began to rotate like a giant merry-go-round with me in the center.
The lights of the hall dimmed as energy flowed upward to the Crystal. April’s incantation raised to a fever pitch, and the rest of the Wytches in the audience including my mother took up the chant.
I saw April approach Wizard Blackwater. He had to stoop in order for April to touch his forehead, but the instant she did it, a fierce green light stronger than any of the other colors streaked into the Crystal. It almost overwhelmed the rest of the colors, but then the interior energy of the crystal shifted a bit and it joined the rest as a different facet of the prism.
A wind began to rise due to the motion of energy. I felt it blowing through my hair as I rotated on the Dais in front of the Crystal which was now glowing every color of the rainbow. From Desdemonia’s memories I was able to recognize the overpowered nature of the thing could possible cause it to explode—
April was screaming now as the wind became tempest. I felt like I was standing in front of a bonfire as energy from the crowd flowed into the crystal. It glowed more and more, becoming almost incandescent as it rotated.
Desdemonia returned and I heard her shout something to April. Raising her own arms, Desdemonia began matching April’s tone and incantation, becoming a louder voice in the din.
The crystal spun faster and faster as the heat rose, and the wind blew. I could hear the building around us trembling and I fervently hoped the masons who had built this edifice had planned for such structural punishment.
“Now!” Desdemonia screamed in April’s voice and April screamed a word, and motioned with both hands toward me.
A beam shot out from the crystal and enveloped me.
Immediately losing control of my Alpha, the change swept over me. I felt my limbs lengthening, my brow bunching up, my legs twisting and becoming more powerful. Hair sprang from every part of my body as my snout extended, my eyes burning with the force of the change against my will. Fingernails became talons, teeth lengthening into a mouthful of fangs, and I roared my fury and frustration at the bonds that had enveloped me.
Dimly, I perceived Desdemonia joining April, both of them wielding power, the multi-colored light flooded into me.
I stood in full Werewolf, feeling the power of the body. Roaring, I tried to exit the circle enclosing me, but was unable to move. Why wouldn’t they let me go!
As if in answer, I felt another beam of energy stab into me, then another, and another and another! Pain melted my brain as the energy literally boiled my blood inside my veins. I roared in confusion and agony as it felt like being dropped into a pit of molten magma.
Blessedly, it was all too much for my mind. I quickly lost consciousness as more and more and more beams of energy stabbed into my body. Whiteness enveloped me, and that was all I knew.
###
I awoke sometime later. Confusion radiated from my core. Where was I? What was I?
I put a hand to my head. I felt out of sorts, strange, but not in pain. Something was around my head, many somethings…they sort of felt like rope or some other kind of…
One of them moved.
“What the bloody fuck?” I said, sitting upright.
“Seth!” Someone yelled beside me. It sounded far away, distant. What the hell…
I turned and looked down. Somehow, I was above the dais. Everyone was down there, looking up at me. But I was sitting on the ground—
“Seth!” someone yelled again. It was a tiny someone.
My eyes fell on something else, something that shone, glittered. Pretty! I reached for it. It fit perfectly around my wrist, the multi-faceted jewel radiating in different colors that entranced me. My wrist looked strange, the skin darker—
I felt that strange tugging sensation again, pulling my lower regions. I looked down…
And saw immense breasts jutting out from my torso. They were covered in dark smooth skin. They lay upon a belly so expansive, taught and round I had a hard time believing it was a part of me. Beyond that, I saw thick legs leading down to strange, beady, seven-toed feet. I wiggled one toe experimentally and giggled as it wiggled back as if waving at me.
I looked at my hands. They too had seven digits, but not really fingers, more like stumpy lumps. My palms were also different, darker, dusky, the skin thicker, tough.
“Seth!” someone yelled up at me. “It’s me, son. Your father!”
I looked down at the little someone. My father?
Memories came flooding back in. What I’d been doing, where I was sitting. The Dais of the Council chamber where the great crystal. April had planned for this, that I’d be much larger than I’d been previously…
“Dad?” I said. My voice came out loud and…higher in pitch.
Raising my arm, the multifaceted jewel came into view. It was the crystal, the one on the dais, the one that was seven feet tall.
And it looked like a rather large bauble wrapped around my wrist.
I could see my face reflected back from dozens of surfaces on the jewel. Mouth, nose, eyes of glowing azure framed by arched brows. It was a pretty face with dark skin and a cute button nose. Something moved in my periphery…
Okay, they weren’t snakes on my head. I hadn’t turned into Medusa, and everyone was staring up at me and hadn’t been turned to stone. I grabbed one of them and brought it in front of my eyes. I was whiplike and long, and coiled around my finger. I realized with a bit of concentration I could control it, leave it coiled, or have it stretch out flat as an arrow, or let it hang loosely down over my rounded dark shoulder.
My hair had been replaced by tentacles.
I stood up. I had to crouch not to hit my head on the ceiling of the council chamber.
Looking down at my body, I recognized it being someone similar to the being from the noxious planet I’d visited. My skin was dusky, but instead of elephantine, it was smooth, thick. My eyes went up from my strange rounded feet with the seven digits, to solid legs and on up to my midsection where things underneath were hidden by that enormous belly.
I put my hands down there and found--Let’s just say, a more feminine contour than masculine. That plus the breasts—
I was female.
I was easily fifty feet tall. Maybe sixty. After examining myself, I carefully sat back down and leaned over as far as I could to speak to everyone in the chamber.
“Can you hear me?” I said, and everyone covered their ears.
“Seth, you’re going to have to whisper son!” Dad said. I was hard to believe the man I come to admire and respect barely came up to my shin.
“Sorry!” I whispered.
“How are you feeling?” Mom called up to me.
How was I feeling? I didn’t feel anything in particular, especially after the pain of the transformation. Plus, I didn’t feel like I was out of my mind with rage or anything…
“Good,” I said. “I mean…looks like I’m a girl now.”
I looked around the area. “Where’s April and Desdemonia?”
“They, uh…you were out for quite awhile, Seth,” Mom said. “Everyone is sort of regrouping for when the Who attacks. Do you feel anything?”
The Who. Jesus, I’d completely forgotten why we were there in the first—
I felt that tug again. “Ow!” I said, holding my stomach. It was very round and protruded out from my body. I was very fat.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think he’s coming,” I said.
I felt the tug again, longer this time, with more pressure. “Ow!”
Something moved inside.
I think realization dawned on all of us at the same time.
“Oh shit!” I said.
My mom screamed at my dad. “Jim, tell me we did not just provide the ‘Gateway’ for the Who!”
“I’ll get Desdemonia.” My dad said, and started running for the door.
Wizard Blackwater parted the crowd, coming forward. He planted his staff, facing me.
“This,” he said. “Is going to hurt.”
Another pain came, and this time I knew what they were.
Contractions.
I was about to give birth.
Desdemonia and the rest of the council filed into their respective places around the dais where I sat, holding my tentacular head.
“Seth!” April yelled up at me in Desdemonia’s voice. “I’m so sorry! I had no idea!”
“We need to reverse this!” I said, and everyone held their ears. My voice was rather high-pitched and strident.
“Even if we could, it would just find another way into this reality!” Desdemonia said in April’s voice. “This way, we can at least terminate it upon entry into this realm.”
Another contraction came. This one harder, lasting longer. I moaned with the pain, feeling it radiating out from my belly and through my back.
“Ohh, this is bad!” I said, and again people tried to shield themselves from my voice. I didn’t want to squish anyone, rolling around on the ground either. “Maybe I should go outside?”
“Into the park, yes.” Dad said.
I nodded, and rolled up onto my feet.
“Try not to crack the marble!” Desdemonia yelled up at me as I began to walk toward the exit. The doors were twenty feet tall, and I was a fifty foot tall pregnant female, so I had to crawl through the opening, my turgid stomach sliding across the floor.
I stood up outside, stretching my arms for the first time. Another contraction came, and I put my hands on my stomach, riding the wave. It was like someone was compressing my abdomen, making it hard as a rock.
Liquid gushed out from…down there, spilling onto the retinue who was following me.
“Ew, ick!” they said. Mom slipped and fell, and Dad tried to help her up.
“Sorry!” I said.
“I think her water just broke!” Mom said.
“Sorry!” I said again, and tried to walk toward the park. I got about halfway, when another contraction forced me to pause. Closing my eyes, I tried to make it stop, but the pain from my stomach contracting forced me to bend over.
“Don’t push!” Mom said. “It’s too early!”
I finally made it to the grassy area where I used to play baseball back when I was in sixth grade and happily male. I laid down in the outfield, moaning as another contraction came. I curled up into a ball, my hands around my belly and I could feel something moving inside.
“This can’t be happening, right?” I said as Mom and Dad approached me.
“We need to time the contractions.” Mom said. Let me know when—
“Now!” I cried out as the worst one yet overcame me. “Ooooh, it hurts!”
“Damn, I wish we had a way to prop her head up,” Desdemonia said.
“The field cover!” Dad said. “I’ll get some of the guys and drag it out here.”
Mom nodded and Dad ran off.
With April to my left, and Mom and Desdemonia to my right, I rolled onto my back with my knees up in the air.
“This is not what I agreed to!” I said.
“Nevertheless, it gives us a perfect opportunity to terminate it once it’s born!”
“What?” I said, but another contraction had me rolling back on my side. The tentacles on my head spasmed in time with the pain, rolling up into tiny balls as my abdomen compressed, and expanding as it relaxed.
Wizard Blackwater took up a position between my legs. I felt strangely vulnerable with him standing there, his staff crackling with energy.
“Wait!” I said. “What is it you’re…”
Again another contraction ripped through me. I felt like I was going to lose my mind.
“Breathe, son!” Mom said. “Short breaths! Huh Huh Huh Huh, like that!”
I nodded and tried to do as she said. The need to push was growing really hard.
Desdemonia walked around to stand with the Blackwater. “Spread your legs so we can see!”
I did as instructed.
“She’s fully dilated,” Desdemonia said. “Seth, when the next contraction comes I want you to push down hard!”
The men pulled the ground cover across from the dugout. I leaned up, then back onto the rolled cover and it did, at least, get my head off the ground.
Another contraction came, and I screamed.
“I can see the crown!” Desdemonia said. Wizard Blackwater’s staff erupted in flame.
“No!” Desdemonia said. “Wait until it’s fully delivered. You might injure her!”
The Wizard nodded and the staff went out.
“Wait, what are you going to do?” I said.
Mother came around to my line of sight. “Son, it’s the only way. We have to terminate it as it’s being born.”
“No!” I said, but another contraction ripped through me again and I felt like I was being torn in half.
“Push!” Desdemonia and Mom said at the same time.
I pushed.
Desdemonia ran around my legs, and stood beside Mom. “Seth, you’re going to have to lean down and pull it out. None of us are strong enough to do that.”
Another contraction came, and I screamed, sitting up and reaching my arms down. My stupid stumpy fingers could seem to get a purchase on the writhing, wriggling thing that was coming out of me. Not to mention my abdomen solidifying into a painful rocklike state.
“Yaaaaahhhh!!!” I screamed, closing my eyes against the intense pain and pressure. I wanted to be somewhere else, someone else. This couldn't be happening, couldn’t be happening!
Finally I managed to get both of my hands around the little chin and the back of its head. With the next contraction, I was able to pull it out of me, rocking my hips back and forth so each shoulder could come through. Then I lifted under the little arms, and brought my son into the world, screaming and crying.
I saw both Desdemonia and the Wizard spinning magic fireballs.
“No!” I said, bringing my child up to my breast.
“Seth, put the baby down!” Desdemonia yelled. Her eyes had faded to black orbs.
“No,” I said, attempting to turn away from them. “My Baby!”
“It’s not a baby, Seth.” My father stood next to me. “It’s the Who!”
“How do you know it’s evil?” I said. “It’s just a baby!”
I cradled it, crying softly. The little guy had tentacles where it’s nose should be and shining yellow eyes. It mewled cutely, and I instinctively held it to my breast.
A bolt tore into my side. It felt like a pinprick. I glanced down and saw the Wizard holding his staff.
“Seth,” April yelled. “Put it down!”
Both she and Desdemonia had roiling balls of fire, easily the size of my baby’s head. I didn’t know what kind of damage they could do to him—
But I wasn’t going to let it happen.
“No!” I said, standing up. “Leave us alone!”
Desdemonia released her ball of fire upwards. I turned, and it hit my shoulder. It stung a little, but felt like a warm piece of bread had hit me.
“Stop it!” I said.
The Wizard let loose with a blast this time, and I turned again. This time it felt like a warm sponge.
The infernals grouped around me, and started hitting me with blast after blast of balefire. These hurt a bit more, but were an annoyance more than anything.
“Listen!” I said. “I’m not going to let you kill him!”
I got up and started into a shambling run. I knew parts of…me were still sliding out down there but I had to get away from them, regroup, collect my thoughts.
One thing I was not going to do was let them take my baby from me.
Helicopters swarmed around me, letting loose missiles and other projectiles. I twisted and turned from the little biting stings as they hardly penetrated my tough skin.
The little one was crying. I was worried one of the projectiles might penetrate his little eyes. I started to run toward the entrance. As I ran, my hair tentacles expanded, and I suddenly could what; see? Hear? Smell? Taste? All the dimensions around me.
It was like seeing color for the first time, smelling a rose, tasting a strawberry. I stopped, and multi-cosm opened to me.
“Ooooh, pretty!” I said, as realities flowered in front, beside and behind me. The English language doesn’t have enough words to describe the sensations I felt. How do you explain the color red to a blind person who has never seen?
I saw one that looked nice, shuffled and did a little hop…
And winked out of existence.
The next period of my life lasted…well…an unfathomably long time.
Just a few highlights:
Finally, sad and alone, I used the Crystal from my wrist to portal back home.
Due to the nature of the multi-cosm, I was able to re-enter the same instant I left.
I came back and the helicopters were swarming, the infernals were blasting, and the rest of Hill Valley was trying to murder me.
I sighed, and reassembled myself back down into Seth.
I hadn’t been a man in so long, it took me a few moments to remember.
“Seth?” Mom said, running up to me. “Is that really you?”
“Yeah,” I said. Speech. So archaic.
“What happened to the Baby?”
My human brain didn’t have the capacity to even process how to relate what had happened to me. Eons had passed. Eternities. How do you describe that?
“He’s…gone.”
“I’m sorry honey.”
The war, apparently over, the helicopters and planes returned to whatever airforce base they’d come from. It made me laugh to think they thought they could ever physically overcome a being like I was. And what Junior had been. Even the tenth of the tenth iota of power could have wiped out this entire existence.
But Mom was here.
“Seth!” Dad said, running up, breathless. “I thought we were going to lose you?”
“Nah,” I said. I ran a hand over my Dad’s head, wiping away his Were nature. It was a glitch in the matrix of this reality that had lead to its existence anyway.
“Seth?” Desdemonia said, making it to our area. She still wore April’s lovely body. April also trundled up, breathless in Desdemonia’s carcass.
“This isn’t going to work,” I said and snapped my fingers, crossing their auras and Essence back into their original locations.
“What?” April said, looking down at her body. “I’m back in my body!”
I nodded, rolling my eyes. Child’s play really. But I didn’t want them to know it. Magic was really just an offshoot of paranormal dynamics afterall.
Jeff Farnum trotted up. “Jesus, man, you scared me.”
“Hey bro,” I said, wrapping him in my arms. It felt good to be a human and able to feel again.
No, I would not think about the way his eyes found mine as he was encorpsulated into that other realm—
I bit back tears, putting my arms around Jeff and Mom.
“How was this done?” Desdemonia said. “Return us back this instant!” Her eyes faded to black.
I realized as a human I was now as vulnerable as I’d been before. I just had the benefit of a bit more knowledge.
With a bit of a twist and a yoink, I pulled Desdemonia’s magic away and wrapped it around my finger. A finger that still held a much miniaturized version of the Crystal. I pulled it into the device, removing it from her reality completely.
Her eyes faded back to the blue/gray they’d always been. “What have you done?!??”
I shrugged. “Look, Magic shouldn’t really exist. This reality is governed by entropy and temporal physics. To have a power that violates that is really not cool.”
“How dare you lecture me!” she said.
The Wizard Blackwater portaled in beside her, Brother Langmore beside him.
I sighed, and performed the same action, removing magic from their vocabulary.
The former wizard blustered and blundered. Now human and very much a victim of his age and infirmity, he looked at us with rheumy eyes. “What have you done to me?”
“What I’ll do to any ‘magical’ being I encounter now,” I said. “Removed your abilities. You’ll live the rest of your life as biology intended.”
Mom, April, Dad, Jeff and I continued walking over their strenuous concerns.
###
Mitzy had found her way to a rain-forest in the Yucatan peninsula. I used the crystal to portal over. I waved my hand over her form and returned her to humanity.
She crouched, naked, near the tree she’d been pollinating.
“Mitzy?” I said, helping her stand. It took her a few moments to remember how to human.
“Seth?” she asked, an incredulous sound in her voice.
“Yeah! Hey, how are you?”
She looked around her, her arms working back and forth as if she were trying to fly. “Umm…what did you do to me?”
“I returned you to humanity, of course.” I smiled. “Couldn’t have you living forever as a butterfly, could I?”
She looked sad at that. “Ummm.”
“You did want to be returned, didn’t you?”
She started to cry. “No?”
“But what about your family? Your friends? Me?” I said.
She nodded. “Oh, Seth, I know, but you can’t imagine how wonderful it is to be a butterfly! I mean…the places I’ve been, and seen…it’s all so…amazing!”
I thought about all the distant places in the macrocosm that I found beautiful. Hollow, now that Junior was gone, but still beautiful.
“Yeah, actually. I can imagine.”
“So can you…put me back? I’m much happier that way, I promise!”
I smiled. “If that’s what you really want.”
“It is!” She gave me a big hug. “But I am happy I could hug you one last time.”
“Well, if you ever want to return…you know how to find me.”
She nodded and smiled. “Maybe…someday…I’ll take you up on that.”
But she never did.
###
I pulled a bag of popcorn out of the microwave. Pouring it into a bowl, I salted it, then took it over to where April and I were sitting on the couch.
“I can’t believe it all,” she said. “You were a Mother!”
I smiled, feeling the bite of tears.
“And…now you’re like…the only person in the world who has magic.”
“Yeah…when I need it.”
I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. She’d gone back to her natural brown hair, and subdued makeup. I preferred it much better than the goth Lolita looks of the past.
“And the Who…is truly gone?”
I nodded, feeling sad.
She shook her head, and I pressed the power button on the TV remote.
“Did you enjoy being female?”
I nodded. “I was…female…for a whole lot longer than I was ever male. Still kind of feel that way, actually.”
“Then why are you still a man?”
I shrugged. “Just seems the right thing to do.”
She gave me a punch in the shoulder.
“Ow!” I said. “What the hell?”
“Stupid,” she said. “Why do you think I was feminizing you?”
“Wait,” I said. “You mean you want me to be a girl?”
She shrugged, looking away from me.
I put a finger under her chin, and turned her head back to me. “April?”
“I just thought…it would be fun to see what it’d be like between us. I mean, I love you, don’t get me wrong, but I have such triggers around men. I wondered if I might enjoy—“
I watched her face fall, her cheeks become flushed.
“Being a lesbian?” I said.
She shrugged. “With you.”
I nodded. Getting up, I went into the bedroom. I reached between realities and found the Crystal ring, and slid it onto my finger.
Closing my eyes, I thought of myself…my old self. The Multi-Dimensional mother I had been. I imagined her as a human, with human skin, hair, nails, and everything. Then I passed a hand over my image, and felt the change settle over me.
A lovely dark-skinned woman looked back at me from the mirror. Long dark hair draped over one shoulder with gleaming smooth skin. With another wave, I was wearing a brown silk top with white cotton pants. It clung in all the right places, and displayed things nicely.
I walked back out to the living room.
April squealed. “Oh my God. I didn’t think you’d actually do it!”
I turned slowly in front of her. “You like?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “I wanna know what you taste like!”
I slid back onto the couch beside her and we kissed.
Later, as she slept, I thought about the many many adventures I’d had, and remembered my son. I’d been able to teach him how to be kind, to enjoy beauty, to laugh, run, play. The Universe teaches us pain, solitude, fear and all the offshoots. It takes a relationship to build joy, instill it in others, and find laughter.
My son turned out to be a kind, gentle, sensitive being. It took others to impose their fear to cast him a monster. No-one is born a monster, they are created by the relationships surrounding them.
I snuggled down deep with the girl I loved and breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, I slept.
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A sincere THANK YOU to everyone who has followed this crazy tale. It was mainly an escape from thinking of horrid current events.
As always if you enjoyed this, you can find my work at https://rainemonday.gumroad.com. I've removed all my books from Amazon due to content violation restrictions and have begun transferring everything over to gumroad. I also have a very sporadic blog at https://rainemonday.com and a patreon at https://patreon.com/rainemonday.
If you'd like to get in touch: [email protected]. If you have an idea for a story or graphic novel, shoot me an email, you never know!