This choice: Tell Miko what you told Kali • Go Back...Chapter #52A Metamorphosis by: Seuzz   "Do we have to talk about it now," you ask. "I'm really bushed."
"Is that your answer?" Miko says.
"If we talk about it tomorrow, I can give you a better answer."
"Is that your answer?" she repeats.
"My head really isn't clear," you whine. "I don't want you thinking I'm, like, holding something back if I just forget. And hasn't Kali told you everything anyway?"
"Is that your answer?" she says. Something in her tone tells you she won't ask a fourth time.
You sink onto the bed and rub your face. Trust and mistrust. If you don't trust her not to decapitate you, she won't trust you and might decapitate you anyway. "I told Kali more about what happened when I, you know, went through the Libra," you say. "The first time I saw a bunch of symbols, and it felt like they went into me. The second time I saw some old dude, and he said something, but I didn't talk to him." You suck on your upper lip. "You can get details from Kali, and if you're not still satisfied you can talk to me again."
"Is that all?" she asks.
You shift on the bed. "I also brought something with me when I came out here. I worried I couldn't get through security because my face got all--" You flip your upraised palm back and forth. "So Joe suggested I wear a mask of him. We had one left over. So I did. I took it off when I got here."
"Where is it?"
"I gave it to Kali." You hesitate. She doesn't immediately follow up with another question, but as long as you're in this deep: "I think she hid it behind that cuckoo mask she's got hanging in the living room."
"You think?" she asks, and her eyebrows shoot up.
You shrug. "I was looking at it the first day, and just on a wild hunch looked behind it. That's where she'd put it. Maybe she's moved it. I haven't looked for it since."
You look up at her fearfully. She stares back. Then she takes three quick steps toward you. You rear back on the bed, but she's too fast, and an instant later she nips you lightly on the cheek. "Dream about me tonight?" she says, and her grin is like that of a specially nasty cat that's just trapped a specially handicapped canary. Just as quickly she's back out the door.
You fall back on the bed. You raise your hands and claw at the ceiling. Great. She's not only going to keep you off balance. She's going to keep you off balance by using every dirty trick in the book.
* * * * *
You feel yourself toss and turn all night, but when you grab at the dream journal the next morning you only find the account of the previous night's dream. You try to remember anything you might have dreamed, though you're very gingerly about probing. It's one thing to tell Kali and Miko about a dream involving Chelsea Cooper. But after that kiss from Miko, if you had a dream about her--
Oh, fuck. What if she's pissed that you didn't dream about her?
You spend nearly twenty minutes rubbing your face in your pillow until you feel awake enough to get up. You crawl and stumble more than you rise from the bed, and you have to clutch the front of your pajama bottoms to keep them from sliding off. You have to pee, and you're used to being alone in the mornings, so you just go out as you are. The door handle isn't where you expect it to be; you'll have to splash some water on your face before facing the toilet or you'll send a stream everywhere.
In the bathroom, you turn the cold tap, fill your cupped hands, and throw it on your face. You repeat. It's bracing, and you blow. Then you raise your head to look in the mirror.
Miko Toyotomi looks back at you.
You blink a moment, then whirl around. There's no one behind you.
You take a step back and put your hand onto the edge of the vanity, but you don't turn. This has got to be a dream, you desperately think. Yes, it's just a delayed dream from last night. You're going to look in the mirror, and it's going to be the back-to-front face of Will Prescott--the new face you've slowly gotten used to--looking back at you.
You turn. It's still Miko, looking terrified and aghast. Something very warm and liquid runs down the front of your pajama bottoms.
You cry out and put your hands to your crotch, then pull them away so fast you crack your knuckles on the edge of the vanity. There's no package there. There's nothing there but-- A little shriek escapes your throat, and a warm puddle forms around your bare feet.
You step away from the vanity. Your calves collide with the lip of the toilet bowl and you fall back into it with a sploosh. Oh God, now you will have to take your pajamas off.
You struggle out of the toilet bowl and peel the now totally drenched bottoms off. The hem of your top falls so far down that you can't see anything--not that you're trying to look--and then you lower the toilet seat so you can actually sit on it. What little liquid remains in your bladder tinkles out. A great fart blasts out, followed by a plop.
You clutch your temples. You're going to have to touch yourself down there, and in the most mortifying way possible.
But not yet. Your head is reeling, and your stomach is heaving. It's not so much the shock of discovering that now you look like Miko--after the past few weeks, as you'd told Kali, and especially after the past few days--nothing much would surprise you anymore. It's the horror of having to explain it to Kali and Miko.
Explain it?! If you had an explanation that might be okay. But showing them!
Carefully, while staring straight ahead at the wall, you take off your pajama top and cast it aside. While concentrating on the wallpaper, you run one palm up over one arm and your other palm over the other arm. They are smooth and strong. You grip your shoulders, and then with teeth gritted you move them down to touch and cup--
Oh God, you've got breasts. Small, pert things, with slightly upturned tips. You lightly rub the nipples; they are sensitive, but you're so freaked out you're not the least bit excited. At least, if she asks, you can tell Miko that you didn't turn yourself on.
Would she be relieved or insulted?
You close your eyes and put a hand to your face. Okay, you've got her body. Is there anything else? You probe your memories, but there's nothing there except yourself. So if you've got a mask on, it's a mask without a--
A mask. You gasp with relief. That's got to be what it is. Somehow they got a mask onto you in your sleep. Is it another test? Maybe they're waiting for you out in the dining room, to see what you do? Anger floods you. More of Miko and her putting you off balance. Oh, she'll have a good laugh at it, you're sure, and tease you mercilessly until she's an old woman and you're an old man. Sitting in the Home for Retired Stellae and cackling over old adventures and telling the young 'uns tales about all the times you saved the world. But old Will here, she'll screech with laughter, he pissed all over himself the time he found himself in my body!
You put your hand to your brow, murmur the words, and pull. Nothing happens. You take a deep breath and try again. Nothing. Your fingernails bite and scrape. Third time is not a charm.
Shit. It's not a mask? It's another one of your "prodigies"? You'd rather it were a joke.
Maybe it will fade. Maybe it's a temporary thing.
With your eyes shut you wipe yourself off and flush and return to the bedroom. (A shower is out of the question.) Your clothes are too large, but you're not going to go snooping through Miko's bedroom to get any of hers, so you dress as best you can. Luckily, Miko is small enough that your clothes, though floppy, don't bind you uncomfortably anywhere.
The apartment is empty. Your first thought is to call Joe, but you can guess he'll tell you to run. Or stay behind and take the consequences. Maybe he'll think you need to be separated from your body.
You're on tenterhooks until a little after two, expecting one or both of the women to return, but neither one does. And then at around three a desperate fear overcomes you. Calling Joe will be useless by this point. You'd have to see him, like this. Having him by your side is your only hope, you feel.
You quietly go into Miko's bedroom. It's much more disordered than you'd expect it to be, with clothes on the floor or draped over furniture. That makes you feel a little better; you won't have to rummage. Even her billfold is out, and you glance through it: ID cards, a passport, several credit cards, several hundred dollars in cash. You wonder a little that she hasn't got it with her; Kali must be carrying her during her sojourn in L.A., at least on a day-to-day basis. But with this stuff you can get to the airport and buy a ticket and return to Saratoga Falls.
Oh, but what if you shift back in the meantime? What if you shift back to your own form while you're on the plane? That would be a disaster even worse than facing Miko and Kali.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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