There has always been a thought in the back of my mind ever since I was a kid and was what I would do if time stopped for a day. Let me explain. What I mean is what if everything around me froze in place while I continued going about my usual day? People would stop walking, cars would stand still at traffic lights, and leaves would float in mid-air, with no wind to give them any direction. This is exactly what happened to me when I woke up that Friday morning.

It seems apocalyptic when you wake up to the deafening silence of a city that has stopped in its tracks. I checked the clock on my phone with the analog clock hanging on the wall to make sure I was correct; time had stood still. The dream that I had last night had come true but now I panicked as I had to face the reality of the situation. Was this a last-person-on-earth sort of situation? How long would time remain frozen like this?

An intruding thought suddenly entered my brain. I remembered the reason I had wanted a day like this to come. A day when I could finally live out my deepest desires without the prying eyes of society on me. I had wanted to wear a pair of women’s tights out in public. Maybe even more than just tights, maybe with a skirt or dress as well, with a pair of sharp heels on my nylon-clad feet. I snapped myself out of the sudden daydream. How could I be thinking about something like that in a time like this? I had to hunker down, gather supplies, and look for others like me unaffected by this temporal anomaly, like I was in some bad sci-fi movie. However, knowing myself and my history with crossdressing in my parent’s home I made a mental agreement to just try it out and get it done in one hour. It was summer, and with the sun approximately frozen at 8:00 am, it was warm enough in the day to just throw on a light jacket over my black t-shirt and jeans. I laced my white sneakers and headed out the door of my apartment.

The local drugstore that sold women’s hosiery was just a few blocks down the major street I lived on. I knew this because I had eyed the section several times before while buying everyday mundane necessities. It was just a five-minute walk away but with no cars moving around on the streets it was even faster today. When I got to the entrance an elderly man had frozen mid-way while opening the front door. I felt a little bad for him but realized that the best thing I could do for him right now was try not to touch him. I tried my best to avoid touching anyone, if time really was frozen, I didn’t want to mess with their positions in any way. Perhaps deep down I was afraid that if I touched them, they would suddenly unfreeze, and I’d be caught red-handed wearing a pair of panties. I suppressed the doubt and quickly carried on with my mission.

The hosiery section of the drugstore was well stocked with tights and stockings of various cheap brands. These were the kinds you replaced on the go. I grabbed a classic smoky black pair of tights and headed out of the store. I was an unimpressive 5’8” so I assumed a medium size would be a good fit. The whole process took more time than I thought, and I was eating up precious minutes within my self-determined one-hour deadline. Not that time was moving at all, but I felt nervous about just holding the pair of packaged tights in public, something that I had never done before up until now. I wasted no time and raided the local department store across the street to get a quick sampling of what I assumed were everyday girl clothes. A matching set of black lace bra and panties, a black long-sleeve sweater, a brown corduroy high-waisted skirt, and a pair of black wedges. Very business chic? I thought to myself. But I decided to not be picky and go with my gut.

I found a vacant changing room in the women’s section of the department store and began my transformation. I shed myself of my male clothes and threw them into a pile on the floor. The bra and panties were first, and I struggled for a few seconds trying to put them on. The price tags were still attached to the clothes, and I tried my best not to snag them on anything and risk damaging the delicate fabric. Once the bra and panties were on, I took a preliminary look at myself in the mirror. The bulge of my crotch hung awkwardly to one side of my body while the straps of the bra dug deep into the skin of my back. While crossdressing always looked a little weird, even I’d have to admit, a grown man wearing clothes clearly not made for himself, a warm feeling of comfort began rising deep within my body and I cracked a brief smile. The first glimpse of happiness all morning.

The black sweater and brown skirt were next, as my feminine outfit became more complete. I put the black sweater on first, glad that the style I picked was intentionally oversized otherwise it would never have fit my body, which while lean was still larger than the women the item of clothing was intended for. The brown skirt was high-waisted, and I blushed as this tube-like piece of clothing snaked its way up more than halfway through my body. I took a deep breath and fastened the buttons of the skirt around my waist, trying my best to attain that feminine V-shaped body outline. It wasn’t much of an outline, but it was the best I could do without asphyxiating my diaphragm I thought.

Then came the moment I had been waiting for all morning, or perhaps all my life long before this strangest of days. I grabbed the plastic package of the tights and began to open it. The packaging was as delicate as the tights inside and it came open with a slight tug. I unfolded the neatly packaged tights and took a moment to examine them. They were a sheer 20 denier which means I could see my manly unmanicured hands through the soft fabric as I brought it up to the light. I then began to put them on by rolling up one leg of the hose into a donut-like shape before feeding my right leg through. I noticed my body had instinctively moved into a very feminine position as the skirt I was wearing restricted my legs from manspreading and I had to sit with them rather close together as if to prevent non-existent perverts from looking up my skirt. Once I got the first leg through the second one followed very naturally. The feeling of nylon brushing upwards against my skin sent chills throughout my whole body. I loved it. I loved it a lot. Once I finished pulling the tights up over my panties and around my waist, I looked at the finished product in the mirror.

A familiar person I had seen many times before in my parent’s house looked back at me in the mirror. A shy and unsure-looking face of a boy, slight stubble, eyebags of regret, and short unkept black hair, all on top of the body of a woman. The clothes had done a lot to mask the brutish outline of my body and make it into something resembling that of a woman’s. I did a few girly spins to get a better glimpse of my legs which had now become a sexy shimmering black thanks to the tights. To complete the outfit, I sat down once again and put the black wedges on my feet which thankfully were large enough. The smile that had tickled my cheeks minutes before had returned, and I took a few shaky yet confident steps in my new footwear before heading out of the changing room.

And then the clock struck twelve.

A morning alarm I had set for 8:00AM went off as I quickly rummaged through my pile of clothes to find my smartphone and turn it off. My face remained in utter shock since my phone had not been working an hour prior, it was frozen like the rest of the world only showing the time at which the anomaly had presumably started. It seemed to be working fine now however as I could unlock it and streams of daily morning notifications poured in.

This couldn’t be happening I thought to myself. Why now of all times? The situation continued to escalate unfavorably as the city roared back to life. Not all at once but in stages. First the sound of wind and the chirp of birds, the sounds of car engines and their low rumbling, and finally the familiar sounds of footsteps and muddled conversations. A sudden flicker of the department store lights seemed to mark the end of the anomaly. I could hear very clearly the chatter of people right outside the changeroom curtain, employees, and a few customers since it was still early in the morning. Since there were not too many people I could quickly change out of the clothes, leave them in the room, and do my best to sneak out of the store. For the tights, since they were taken from another store, I would have to keep them for now.

As I motioned to take off the black sweater, I made eye contact with my reflection in the mirror. I noticed that the spark in my eyes a few moments earlier had dimmed, having come so far yet not being able to take those first few steps out of the changeroom was bittersweet. The boyish face that stared back at me seemed to be pouting almost, like a kid who had just been told he couldn’t have dessert. Maybe it was the feminine attire but at that moment I felt like I had just sentenced someone to be locked away for an indefinite amount of time again. Like I had betrayed and broken a promise with a deep part of myself. I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths, and decided that now was the time. I couldn’t waste an opportunity like this. Once again, I took a few shaky steps toward the changeroom curtain and prepared myself to face the consequences of my actions.

And then the curtain started to open by itself to my disbelief. Someone was already here, and I would be found and caught like a perverted thief in the night. Time then suddenly seemed to slow down once again. I was preparing myself to meet the disgusted face of an employee, but the curtain seemed to never fully open. Had time stopped again I thought to myself. Something felt different this time. Not just in the air around me but in my body too. A tingling sensation starting at the toes of my feet began to spread and move its way up my entire body.

At first, I thought it was just a cramp since I wasn’t used to wearing women’s shoes but as I looked closer at my nylon-clad legs I noticed that they had become thinner, and the weed-like hairs which carpeted them were gone too. The cramped feeling around my feet had disappeared as well. I rummaged my feet around inside the black wedges, and to my surprise, they now fit like a glove. Looking at my legs and feet my brain couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Not only was the environment affected this time, but I was too. My body seemed to be changing and I didn’t know why or how.

As I continued to follow the strange sensations up my legs and onto my groin and waist, the light tingling feeling quickly gave way to a more intense pulling and pushing of my body. I lifted the hem of the skirt I was wearing to get a better look. My thighs began to ripple and morph right before my very eyes. While I was never the most athletic, any muscle definition I had ebbed away, replaced by a pair of larger, softer, and rounder thighs. At the same time, I could feel the same thing happening to my butt as I could feel it expanding against the sheer fabric of the tights. The panties I was wearing also started to fit better and pull tighter on my newly formed bottom half. I felt an uncomfortable snap as I felt the bones of my hips start to reshape and expand, giving me more of the V-shaped figure I wanted. I glanced down at my bottom half, and then at myself in the mirror, and then back to my body again. There was absolutely no mistaking what was happening to my body at this point. I was turning into a woman.

My attention became focused next on my crotch where I felt the same tingling sensation now permeate my penis and balls. A dark feeling suddenly overcame my mind as I started to imagine what it would be like to pee, have a period, have sex, or even give birth as a woman. What it would be like to become dominated by a man and have his penis inside of me. If things continued to progress this way, I would be able to find out very soon. My penis began throbbing and twitching violently almost appearing to fight against the changes before slowly the bulge underneath the panties started shrinking until it was flat. At that instance, I couldn’t feel my testicles either and I assumed they had faced a similar fate. I could feel my insides reforming and while I couldn’t see what was happening, I now knew that I had a uterus and that my testes must have become ovaries.

The tingling sensation now moved even further up to my torso and arms. I was so busy focusing on my legs that I didn’t realize I had grown shorter. My legs must have stayed around the same length, but my total height must have been no more than 5’ 3” now. In the mirror, I looked scrawny and weak. The muscles from my upper body had disappeared as well, replaced by a much smoother and rounder physique. My skin tone had lightened, almost as if some invisible makeup had been applied to my whole body. Then a strange pressure began building in my chest. It didn’t take me long to figure out what it must have been, but the sensations were completely alien. I pulled the sweater back, so it was taut against my chest, and sure enough two visible small mounds of flesh began to grow and emerge. As my female breasts developed and grew, and pushed up against the bra I was wearing, the new sensations flooding my body became overwhelming and I let out a low pitch yet distinctly feminine moan.

At this point, I was now more female than I was male. My body had become the body of my dreams, and its elegance and femininity were only augmented by the outfit I was wearing which I had to admit looked pretty good on me. If I were still a man, I would totally be attracted to a woman like this. My breasts had settled growing to a C Cup size and together with my relatively slim waist and generous bottom were uncanny in their perfect proportion.

As I stared back at my reflection and looked at the shaking pupils in the mirror, I knew there was one final transformation. The tingling sensation had now reached my neck, face, and head. It was a little irritating as I found it difficult to keep my eyes open while my face felt like it was being tickled as the skull and tissue beneath began to reshape itself. Through my series of rapid blinks and watery eyes, I caught flash frames of what was happening to my face. I saw my sharp jawline begin to recede and round out, giving my face a distinctly feminine and fuller peach shape. My lips grew fuller until they were almost like two small crescent-shaped cushions, while my nose shrank and moved higher, giving my face a smaller appearance. As the tickling sensation subsided and I could open my eyes, I noticed how they too had changed and had grown larger and more almond-shaped. While the changes to my face were wrapping up, I noticed how familiar yet foreign the woman staring back at me was. There was no better way to describe it than I looked like my mom when she was younger.

Something began to tickle the back of my neck as I realized my hair was now growing longer to frame my porcelain doll-like face. Long jets of black hair cascaded down from the top of my head until they reached the tops of my breasts. I now looked completely female, and I made something of an exclamatory noise before I realized my voice had changed as well. I now sounded like a girl too. As I continued observing my new female features in the mirror, something suddenly pinched the bottom tips of my ears. When looked closely in the mirror to investigate I found a pair of earrings hung from my earlobes. My face had been modestly made up as well, with a thin layer of lip gloss accentuating the shape of my mouth even more.

Just as quickly as time had frozen, time seemed to restart once again, as another alarm on my phone went off. I spent a few seconds searching for my jeans which I had left my phone in and my pile of male clothes before I realized that my ringtone was now coming from a black purse in the corner of the room. As I combed through the purse, I not only found my phone but a wallet with a driver’s license that had my new female face decorating the card. Had reality somehow changed so that I had always been a woman I thought to myself. The sounds of the city began to catch up with my flow of time once more and the changeroom curtain finally swung open.

“Oh, sorry about that I didn’t realize there was someone in here.” A young sales clerk calmly says before closing the curtain once again.

I was perplexed. I had somehow in the most bizarre of ways accomplished my goal. I was able to now move around freely in public dressed however I pleased. The price tags of the clothes I had picked out were now gone and I assumed it was the universe’s way of telling me I could go. That I had somehow already purchased the outfit. I sheepishly walked out of the department store, head down with my new long hair covering half my face. I took a seat on a bench outside to get my bearings and rest my legs, purse clutched on top of my lap.

I stuck my feet out like a toddler and stared at my shapely legs which the tights gave a nice sheen in the morning sun. I began thinking about where I could go from here. About whether I was going to change back and if I was living in another cosmic countdown before the next anomaly. How long would I have this time? One hour? Two hours? A day? I clicked the tips of my shoes together and it made a funny sound which I giggled at. I wiggled my toes and felt the thin nylon of the tights shape and reshape around my feet. I felt like I was wearing a big onesie pajama which I giggled a second time at the thought, this time a little louder and more freely. At that moment I realized that I could either worry about what might happen next or I could enjoy my time as a woman. I ultimately chose the latter and with legs close together I stood up, straightened out my skirt, and walked down the street.