Synopsis: Reality and dream seem to blur as Terri tries to make sense of what is happening.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
 
edited by Sephrena Miller
 
Chapter Twelve
Mysterious Changes

 

---

 
 
Terri was running through what looked to be part of a desert. She was stumbling about as if drunk but she noticed her hand out of the corner of her eye and realized that she must be sick due to how pale and strangely tinted her skin looked.

She tried to force herself to stop, but it was like she wasn't in control. Nothing she tried had any effect. It was as if she was being forced to watch while someone else was in control.

Suddenly there was a flash as a blue charge of electricity bounced off some rocks in front of her and off to the left, missing her entirely.

Terri imagined what it was, but wanted to turn and see what, or who, sent that bolt at her, but to no avail.

She collapsed forward, and felt her stomach lurch as she vomited up a most sickeningly green liquid. It looked almost radioactive from the color.

There was a hand on her shoulder and she was thrown to the ground, while spun just enough to land on her back with her butt in her own sick. She found herself face to face with a group of people, obviously her pursuers.

Her eyes were watering from the glaring sun overhead and it was impossible to make out faces from only silhouettes. Her left hand reached up to block the sun and was promptly blasted by one of the group.

Terri screamed out as skin, muscle, tissue and bone were ripped away, leaving the bones of her lower arm exposed to the air in a most painful and brutal maneuver. She fell backward, writhing in the pain.

Her reveling in pain was short-lived, as she was pulled to her knees by her hair.

She opened her eyes again, forcing them to focus onto her attackers. Pain was replaced with anger, and she started seeing red, then it faded to black as screams, fevered shouts and a deafening beastal utterance complimenting the rending and wrenching of flesh and bone.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri sat up screaming from her nightmare, which awoke Lexi as a result.

Lexi turned to find Terri holding her left wrist, tears streaming from tightly closed eyes. She had begun rocking in place.

"A nightmare?" Lexi asked, rubbing her eyes. As her eyes came into focus, she turned to look at the source of the commotion and froze in place.

There was a startling crash as Terri's mother and Cathryn slammed their shoulders against the door in a unified effort and managed to muscle their way into the room.

Terri's mother also froze; startled as she witnessed what her child was doing.

Cathryn saw the scene before her, but she moved to comfort the girl.

Terri's mother also broke out of her trance and made her way to the bed. She too threw her arms around Terri, who did not appear to notice the attention.

Lexi watched the seconds tick by, for what felt like an impossible time, before Terri finally stopped rocking and shivering. Her eyes opened slowly, but they sat unfocused and glazed for another long time.

Finally, her eyes blinked and returned to focus and then Terri just started tearing up and audibly crying. She started looking around at her current surroundings.

"Momma, why am I crying?"

"You had a nightmare and we heard you scream."

"I can't even remember," Terri said, while she began to calm down.
 
 

~*~
 
 
As Terri's feet hit the lowest landing, she could smell the sweet aroma of strawberries interwoven with the warmth of oatmeal.

Her symbiote had insisted on long sleeves for the bodysuit and then replicated denim shorts and a button-down blue Hawaiian-style short-sleeved shirt to act as a flowing vest. The fact that it had pinned itself together, preventing her from pulling the over-shirt down off her shoulders, annoyed her just slightly.

It wasn't just the suit acting strangely, as both Lexi and her mother had treated her like an accident victim in the trauma ward. Cathryn had taken it upon herself to remove them both when Terri's pleas for personal space had gone unanswered.

She shivered momentarily as she recalled her strange nightmare, while entering the kitchen. Her mother smiled as Terri sat down on one of the stools at the island, lost in thought. Lexi was sitting at the rear table, slowly and unenthusiastically attacking some cereal.

Terri's mother set a steaming bowl of oatmeal, complete with strawberries, in front of her absent-minded daughter.

"Eat up hon," she said as she wiped her hands. "It won't be as good cold."

Terri took a few bites of her favorite breakfast before stopping to stare at it. "I'm sorry mom, but I'm not really hungry."

"Your nightmare still bothering you?" Lexi asked.

"It felt so real," Terri replied. "The only thing that makes it a dream is that I felt I couldn't control it. It was like I was watching a movie, until I vomited and I found out how realistic it was."

"Then what happened?" her mother asked.

"Some people, who were chasing me, caught up." Terri replied, recalling the experience. "They knocked me to the ground and used some kind of magic to blast my hand off. It hurt like you wouldn't believe. That's about when I woke up screaming."

Terri's mother shuddered as she heard this, but she tried to waive it off. "It was only a dream, dear. You should try to forget it."

"I'm sorry, but it is proving too tough to ignore, let alone forget.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri was back on her favorite couch on the second floor. With her feet hanging over the side as usual, she was barely paying attention to the golf on television. All that mattered was the slow, boring, yet unerringly calming program that she could lose herself in thought to.

She was so lost in thought, she never noticed her mother walk in and go between her and the TV.

Terri did notice when her mother lifted her hair up and began slowly brushing it. This caused her to shudder, which brought gentle hands to a stop.

"That... that didn't hurt, did it?" her mother asked. "I forgot about your skin condition. I think I've spent more time hugging you this week, than I have all last year."

"It's okay, I kind of forgot myself," Terri replied with a sigh. "With all the stuff that's happened to me this week, I've had my mind on other things."

"Still, I didn't mean to hurt you,” her mother remarked. "I ..."

"That's just it; my skin problem went away last Sunday. I haven't been in pain since."

"Is that why you were sick all weekend? That did it?"

No, that was just a side effect of the cure, you could say. I just couldn't handle it at first."

Terri's mother began again with the brush in gentle earnest. This time her daughter did not flinch.

"I can't remember the last time I did this," Terri's mother absently commented. "But I'm sure it was back when you were still shorter than me."

She continued run the tines of the brush slowly through Terri's long brown hair. She was barely paying attention to what she was doing, intent on watching her daughter’s face.

Without warning, she noticed tears beginning to stream down Terri's cheeks.

"I... I remember the last time and I was fighting to get out of your grip, Terri choked out between sobs. "I wanted to get away so badly, probably to go play with some stupid toy. If I knew then, that I would be so alone for eight years, I never would have left your arms."

"You were never alone," blurted her mother.

"It was just as bad. I couldn't stand to be hugged and there was nothing you, Dad or a dozen doctors could do about it. It took months just to get used to the pain enough to get a good night's sleep and even now, whenever someone touches me I flinch."

Terri's mother moved to the couch, lifting her daughter up and putting arms around her. Terri was beginning to overreact and hyperventilate, but a few gentle squeezes and raking fingers through her hair a few times seemed to calm her down.

"There there dear, it's going to be alright," Terri's mother whispered softly. "I'm here for you. I'm always going to here for you."

"I'm sorry I ruined this moment." Terri stated, as she sighed and wiped her eyes. "It's hard to get used to human contact again."

Terri's mother resumed her work with the brush without letting the girl pull away. "Just relax and let me make up for all the times I missed."

Terri made only a murmur, seemingly the effect on the beast that was her personality was that of soothing and placating.

Nearly an hour of stroking, holding and letting Terri doze off before another word was spoken.

"Wake up princess."

"Uh, uhm... was I sleeping?"

"It's alright. I want to know if you want to try something else you and I haven't done in awhile."

"What's that?"

"Shopping." Terri's mother happily replied.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Sitting in the passenger seat of the family's Minivan, Terri protested for what felt like to her, the eighth time. "Mom, you can't be serious."

"I certainly am dear. No daughter of mine is going commando, just for style. I was planning on taking you yesterday, but you and Lexi were gone until after the mall closed, so we'll just have to do this today. I do have more in mind than just underwear though."

Terri sighed. She knew better than to keep trying to argue. She settled for attempting damage control instead. Trying to keep from getting anything too girly. She may have been getting more comfortable with her body, but she wasn't ready for all the frilly things she was picturing her mother had in store for her.

The rest of the trip to the mall was in silence. Terri nervously fidgeted in the front seat, next to her mother.

"What's wrong dear?" her mother asked, trying to hide a smile.

"Well, I'm not really uncomfortable," replied Terri. "But I'm not really all that enthused about this either."

"I know dear. You have always managed to finagle your way into grabbing clothes while out with your father. Well, I'm not going to let you come home with a few cheap pairs of cotton t-shirts this time."

They reached the mall and went inside. Terri then found herself being nearly literally dragged into the first store that catered to teenage girl’s fashion.

The clerk to offer assistance was turned away by a vicious snarl and the fire-in-the-eyes glare from Terri.

The first argument to occur was about the lack of material around the rise of girl's jean shorts and their inability to keep themselves on and, as Terri happily noted, how much easier they are for the boys to remove. This revelation netted Terri the win and she got three pairs of cargo shorts.

Next was a myriad of blouses, most in a pastel color that Terri threatened to become nauseous from, or some ruffling at the sleeves that was unnecessary in someone's very vocal opinion.

Somehow Terri's mother managed to nudge three tops into an acceptable territory by explaining how the blouse's violet color would go well over her new obsession with bodysuits and the meager amount of lace that dipped the collar into the cleavage wouldn't be showing anything for the same reason. A matching red and another one in white also found themselves into a bag before they left.

Terri suggested the local Hot Topic and wormed a black T-shirt out of her mother. On the front, across the bust it had the word
'Kitten' done up to look like a neon sign and the sides and back were adorned with violet tiger stripes.

They were just about to leave when Terri's mother stopped and tried to press a plaid schoolgirl-type skirt against Terri's waist to see how it looked. This ignited the "I have to wear a cheer uniform now and that's quite enough!" defense.

A stop at the department store for a swimsuit for the coming summer, some whining about modesty, or lack therein, was then replaced by a trip into the sporting goods store, because a bikini was out of the question and only the racer one-piece suits covered enough to suit Terri.

Finally, it was the part Terri dreaded the most, lingerie. So far she had gotten by with only having to wear an actual bra on Monday and until lunch on Tuesday, where she had been introduced to the symbiotic suit she now sported.

Despite the mixed feelings she had about having a semi-intelligent living thing touching nearly every inch of her body, knowing that it was also assisting in improving her general state of mind, was enough for her to keep it on.

Now Terri feared her mother would attempt to force a thousand pairs of tiny lacey panties, all of a total of eight pounds of gauzy and thin enough to nearly be transparent material, onto her.

She was expecting something bad in her eyes and wasn't disappointed when her mother asked this store clerk for recommendations on a thong. To her surprise however, the clerk was instructed on finding some in soft cotton that were more functional than flashy.

The clerk returned with ten pairs of low-rise cotton thongs in various shades of black, gray and white having estimated Terri's size.

They had only one seam, located at the back. Terri was momentarily impressed at the fact that they had each been cut from only one piece of fabric.

"You may find..." said the clerk, "these will work excellently under that suit of yours."

But Terri's mother was noting her daughter's fascination. "We'll take them all," and scooped them up before she could protest.

As the clerk took the items to the counter, Terri hung back while her mother went off deeper into the store.

"Your mom is pretty cool," said the clerk as she stopped to stand by Terri. "If it wasn't for the fact that I work here, my mom would have a fit seeing me in a thong, much less picking them out."

"Yeah, well Mom has always been very liberal and modern thinking, unlike me."

"I was going to ask if you were a little warm," the clerk commented. "That, and maybe a bit of a tease."

You think I am showing off?" Terri asked as she turned toward the clerk.

"If that suit was any tighter, I'd only have the color left to imagine."

"Don't you mean..." Terri quipped, "…that the boys would only have skin tone to the imagination."

"You must not get hit on by many girls."

"Not until recently, but it has become a reoccurring theme."

"Maybe it's because we see you checking us out," the clerk replied. "You seem to be lingering just a little longer than someone about to tell me how my belt horribly clashes with my mascara."

"I wouldn't dream of making a statement like that, mostly because the one time I'd be most likely to be wearing makeup would be at a funeral."

"Your own I assume. You being the stiff?"

"Damn straight, and let me tell you, it's going to take quite a bit too, after they dig me out from the house that falls on me."

"Comparing you to the wicked witch of the east? That's a novel idea."

"Well, I am not as optimistic as some of my new friends."

"Did you just move here?"

"No, but my popularity finally came out of its cocoon," Terri replied back.

"You talk like it's a bad thing," said the clerk.
"If you only knew what I've been through," Terri commented, the tone of her voice only hinting at her opinion, "You'd probably not be joking about it."

"You're that girl from the school attack. I heard about that," she exclaimed “How did you manage to knock out two guys who were both bigger and stronger than you?"

"I can't say. I don't really understand myself. I just blacked out and came back standing over the top of one of them."

"C’mon, you got to be kidding me. I figured you knew Kung-Fu or whatever. You got some Hyde complex then?"

“What's a Hyde complex? You mean like Jeckel and Hyde?"

“Yeah, except unlike that bad eighties movie, you don't change sex too."

Terri started laughing. "Right, I can change sex anytiiii....ime," came Terri's reply as she realized what she was saying.

"Nice try, but I don't believe in magic. And anyway, you are gorgeous. Why would want to change into a boy unless...."

Her sentence stopped cold as Terri's hair pulled itself back into her scalp. An angry snarl appeared on her, now his face.

"Unless I was one to begin with, right?" Terry asked, his tone more condescending than angry.

The clerk went from frightened to shocked to amused. "What are you planning to do when your mother comes back and finds her 'daughter' not a daughter after all. Will your little perverted mind control magic on your mom break?"

Terry suddenly realized what he had done, taking his eyes off his parent, and then changing into a guy. He spun around to look for her, only to find that she was standing behind him.

"You both assume that I was affected by a spell in the first place."
 
 

~*~
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
End of Chapter Twelve