A Walk in the Dark Chapter 2 by Maggie Finson

Kae’song , whatever he was took some time looking us over, never losing that uncomfortably predatory smile as he circled first me, then Sam. “Yes, the two of you will do quite nicely, quite nicely.”

I edged away from the guy, and bumped into the inside of the circle, only to jump away with a yelp as what could only be described as an electrical shock convinced me that touching the boundary was a really bad idea. “Do nicely for what?”

He gave me a contemptuous look then shrugged. “I suppose that your ignorance is understandable, human. I intend to improve you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sam questioned, having found the same thing I had about the circles we were in and still rubbing his shoulder. He’d tried getting out harder than I had and showed the angry red of a burn under the rent fabric of his clothing.

“Just what I said, human.” The bad Fu Manchu imitation answered imperturbably. “As you two are, you are slightly out of synch with this world, I will simply make it easier for both of you to — fit in I believe the term is in your language.”

“How to you plan on doing that?” I questioned, though I wasn’t all that anxious to find out. But I hoped that keeping him talking would postpone whatever he’d planned even if there didn’t seem to be much hope of the cavalry showing up to save us.

“By changing you, of course.” He answered. “Once that is done, you will both be part of this world so should encounter no problems living in it. At least no more so than others here do. But this talk wearies me. There will be time for answering fool questions later.”

“Is this going to be painful?” I asked as he gathered things from a nearby table.

He spared me a look that held mixed contempt and amusement. “Oh, yes. But you’ll survive it.”

Wonderful. Just great. I never did care much for pain, did I mention that?

Kae’song started placing objects around the circle I was in while humming to himself as if he were simply someone puttering away in the garage, checked the placement then fussily picked up a piece of crystal and set it back in what looked like exactly the place it had been in before. “Almost ready.”

“I can’t wait.” I managed to get out. “I don’t suppose there’s a way to talk you out of this?”

“No.” Was all the answer I got.

Well, I had to try.

He moved to the cauldron, remember the simmering pot I mentioned? Well, it’s a cauldron, and took a dipper full of some noxious looking brew then poured it into a ceramic mug. Once he had that he returned to stand in front of me and simply handed me the mug — through the whatever it was that held me inside. “Drink that.”

I looked into the mug, to my regret and my stomach lurched and did its best to crawl down to where I got rid of certain bodily wastes. It was a putrid greenish brown and burbled and churned as if it resented being confined within the mug. The smell wasn’t all that appetizing, either. “Uh, no?”

“Drink.” He commanded, not just ordered, mind you. I could tell the difference. And my body turned traitor as my mouth opened slightly and my arm moved to bring the nasty stuff to my lips. Then my turncoat hand poured it down my throat.

“Gah!” I shook my head and grimaced once it was down. Then my terminal smart assed self blundered back into things. “Your hospitality really needs some work, you know.”

“It will improve, human.” He assured me with a grin. I’ve heard of evil grins, even seen a few that were supposed to be. Trust me those others weren’t. Not at all. “Now be silent and don’t distract me.”

“Urk.” Was all I could get out before my voice refused to work any longer.

“And hold still.” He added. I froze as if I was covered in concrete and couldn’t do anything else but wait. It wasn’t a long wait.

Our captor took a final look at me, nodded, opened a scroll and started reading aloud in a string of gibberish full of slurred clicks, grunts, and wails. And I started feeling warm, really warm. Then the tingling started, a tickle on my skin — I was suddenly naked, too and inanely wondered how he managed that — that grew from a tickle on the outside to feeling as if my insides were being prodded, moved around and stirred.

The warm feeling escalated into hot then unbearably incandescent, okay maybe just like being broiled or something, and I started to hear crackles, pops, and sounds like leather being stretched. Only the sounds were coming from me.

If I could have screamed then would have been a really good time for it. As it was, just when I thought I couldn’t handle any more things got worse and I blacked out. Not such a bad thing with all that was happening to me taken into consideration.

I drifted back to something like reality but didn’t open my eyes. I wasn’t sure what I’d see when I did for one thing, and then recalled the threat, or promise to change both me and Sam to fit into this world better. That I really didn’t want to think about too much to be honest, but knew I’d have to sooner or later.

Okay, later it is, I decided while carefully taking inventory of myself and what I could feel without moving.

For one thing, thankfully, I didn’t hurt. At all. In fact I actually felt better physically than I had since I’d been a kid. The knee I’d messed up running downhill a bit too fast didn’t announce itself with the usual dull morning ache, and a bunch of other little pains I’d gotten so used to they were just normal were absent. I briefly wondered if I was paralyzed and unable to feel, but that wasn’t the case. I very carefully flexed the fingers of my right hand and felt them do that. Then dug my nails into my palm.

Yikes! I felt that one for sure, and thought it was past time to trim my nails, too given how sharp and piercing the pain had been.

I was lying on a bed. A nice soft bed that felt sooo good. With a little sigh I let myself just savor the idea that I was still alive and not in pain while not moving at all. About that time I started noticing little things that didn’t quite feel right. But before I could really get my head wrapped around that an unfamiliar voice interrupted me. It was a nice voice and made me feel good to just lie there and listen to it. A deep tenor filled with lovely overtones and undertones that stroked my ears like nice fuzzy velvet.

“I know you’re awake, Dylan.” The owner of that voice informed me. “You might as well open your eyes and get it over with now.”

“Don’t want to, mom.” I muttered and something was not quite right with my voice but I was still too out of it to wonder much about that. “Ten more minutes? Please?”

“Now, Dylan.” The voice insisted.

“You’re not Mom.” I protested, still without opening my eyes. “Who are you?”

“It’s Sam, Dylan, now come on, open your eyes and try to sit up.”

“Sam?” I questioned, reluctantly opening my eyes. “You don’t sound like Sam.”

“Yeah, well trust me you don’t sound like Dylan, either. That freak said he was going to change us, remember?” He tossed back to me. “Now please, wake up and try sitting up.”

“Oh, yeah.” I agreed opening my eyes all the way and trying to push myself up to a sitting position. Something was giving me trouble with that, like my arm was wrapped up in silk or something and I felt a sharp pain in my scalp while trying. “Oww!”

My vision was still pretty fuzzy, so I carefully untangled my arm thinking I had a lot better tan than I’d thought then managed to actually sit up and look towards the person claiming to be Sam.

One hand almost impatiently moved up and brushed aside the fuzz in my vision. That turned out to be hair. Lots of it. Lots of thick, soft, wavy, snow white hair. “Huh?”

Then I saw my companion.

Oh. My. Gawd!

He was huge, heavily muscled though slender — his muscles were sleek instead of bulky, handsome in an inhuman way with his sculpted features, pointed ears and heavy mane of snowy white hair. His Sapphire eyes watched me carefully and with more than a little concern. Oh, he just happened to look like polished ebony come to life.

“Sam?” I looked around and didn’t see my friend. So turned back to the stranger. “Where’s Sam?”

“Dylan, I am Sam.” The polished ebony god come to life gently answered with a small twist of his mouth I recognized from my friends facial expressions. “Or I used to be.”

“Sam?” I questioned in a small voice then the sound of my own voice finally actually registered. “If that’s you, what happened to me?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” He assured then grimaced. “As for what happened to you, I don’t think you’d believe me if I just told you. Check yourself out first, while you’re still on the bed.”

“Oh, okay.” I nodded, feeling a weight I knew to be hair move as I did, while other weights moved on my chest. So I looked down.

“No way.” I breathed while staring at a nice set of rounded breasts from an angle more appropriate for my fiancée to see them from.

“Way.” Sam disagreed as my hands, slender with long smooth fingers hesitantly reached up to tentatively feel the invaders on my chest.

I felt the silk of the green garment I was wearing, both with my hands and the alien protuberances and felt those strange looking hands touch myself through the soft, slick material.

“I’m a girl?” I questioned, almost belatedly noting that my skin was a deep chocolate color and completely hairless, smooth, and in short, perfect beyond human. “I’m a girl?”

“Uhh, yeah.” Sam nodded slowly and I could see him watching me carefully. “Actually I’d say you’re well beyond just the ‘girl’ stage.”

“A girl.” I mumbled again then idiotically wondered if I had hair at the crotch and if it was the same color as the stuff on my head. I gingerly lifted the hem of what I now recognized to be a gown of some kind to check. Yup, on both counts. I stared for a few seconds that seemed like forever, my brain still not completely taking in the lack of things I was used to seeing down there and the presence of other things I generally saw from a completely different angle. “Oh, boy.”

“Yeah.” Sam nodded and slowly moved to stand beside me and took one of my hands. I marveled at how small mine looked in his as he offered. “Let me help you up, there’s a mirror over there you can use.”

“Mirror.” I nodded and let him gently pull me to my feet. Pretty feet, I’d noted almost idly before I really got sat up. Walking was kind of tough. My balance was way off and my hips didn’t work right for some reason. If he hadn’t had a good hold on me I would probably have tumbled into an undignified heap on the floor right beside the bed. “Yeah, need to look.”

My balance adjusted pretty fast, after several steps actually and I noticed that I wasn’t swinging my shoulders any longer while I did that from the hip now. Sam led me to the mirror then carefully let go so I could just look.

“Holy Shit!” I gasped once I really looked.

“Yeah, holy beauty queen, Batman!” Sam answered.

The image I was looking at was sure that at the very least. Where to start, where to start?

Face, since that was what I started staring at. The most arresting feature were her eyes. Large, almond shaped, with a subtle upward tilt at the outside edges and they were a brilliant, gem-like green that almost glowed on their own. Those were framed with thick, lush lashes and surmounted by thin crescents of brows that were more accentuated than human women could manage even with work. Oh, the brows and lashes were snowy white, too.

Oh, yeah, the rest of the face. Heart shaped, with a firm small chin, smooth soft sweep of jaw and high full cheeks, with a full mouth that was naturally red, and a small straight nose. The overall effect was almost Asian or a mix of Asian and something else. My features were delicate and didn’t appear to belong to a human girl at all. The beauty I was staring at was inhuman and just to announce that the delicate points of my ears showed through the mass of hair whenever I moved my head.

Then there was the body that went with that face. Not exactly slender, but not over endowed, either. Slim shoulders, smooth arms, full firm breasts arrogantly standing out from the narrow chest, a small waist that curved delightfully into the outward swerve of hips that were definitely female, and I could just stare in disbelief.

And legs! You’ve heard the phrase ‘legs up to her neck’? I had those kind. Long, smooth, and leaving no doubt they belonged on a female at all. Trim ankles joined those to delicate little feet and that was about it. Oh, no hair at all other than head and crotch, and my skin shone with a perfection that wasn’t possible without airbrushing.

Overall I looked athletic, like a swimmer or a gymnast, and there was no way to doubt the sex of that body any more than there was with the face.

“That’s — me?” I squeaked in what I later found was described as a silky contralto.

“Fraid so, Dylan.” Sam answered then let out a sigh. “You are now officially BABE ALERT material.”

“Yeah.” I nodded and the woman in the mirror did the same thing as her hands reached up to touch her ears. I felt those and closed my eyes. “I’m female, and fricking gorgeous. AND WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THE EARS?!!!”

“Ears?” Sam questioned with a puzzled expression. “You’ve been given a sex change, a change of race — I think we’re elves now, by the way — and all you can do is complain about your ears?”

“If I yell about anything else just now,” I told him with what I thought was very commendable calm, “I’ll go into hysterics and may never come out of them.”