The sun was just touching the horizon as I settled into the chair on the back porch. I had a glass of wine in my hand, but I couldn’t feel any effects yet from my first glass. I was still too stunned by the news. I was a Seer. I could learn magic. I could cast spells. And I was most likely stuck, in this female body, for the next year. I didn’t want to be a woman and I knew that I couldn’t let myself accept it. I felt like if I stopped fighting I’d end up in this body for life. There had to be another way, except that I didn’t have a clue how to undo this.

I took a sip of the dry Merlot and enjoyed the way the flavor blossomed over my tongue. I’d never been a big wine guy, but I was enjoying this bottle. I shivered a little in the cold. I was wearing a coat and had a blanket over my legs and I could see my breath in the dim light. Even so, I didn’t feel like being inside. Diana and Kristina were talking, making plans to get us to Mexico and while I knew this was important, I was having trouble wrapping my mind around anything other than the reality that, for the moment, I was stuck.

I took another sip and tried to order my thoughts. Yes, I had to admit, at least to myself, that my biggest fear was the fact that I was already comfortable in Kristina’s female body. When I glanced in the mirror I wasn’t surprised by my reflection. The way my body moved no longer felt alien. Instead, the movement of the flesh on my chest and ass felt normal. Being Kristina hadn’t been all bad, and now, after whatever it was that Mengele had done to me, my body felt ordinary. Then after a minute I had to admit there was more to it.

I remembered my explorations of Kristina’s body and the lesbian sex I’d had with Lana. As good as those experiences had been, they’d been nothing compared to what I’d felt when Kristina had fucked me. Even now, sitting in the cold if I let my mind drift to last night I started to feel aroused. I knew that if given the chance I’d want to do that again, and again, and again. I could feel the need inside. Mengele had done something to my libido and this terrified me.

I didn’t really know what had happened to me when the Syndicate had held me. Oh, I remembered the spells, I just had no idea what they’d done. What terrified me was that if I gave in to my lust, I might not want to switch back and I didn’t know if I could hold out for a full year!

I finished my wine and looked up at the stars. The cold helped take my mind off my inner turmoil.

“Jimmy-boy, you can only do what you can do.” Then I snorted, “At least I now remember my real life.”

The fact that my memories had returned and the fake ones had completely vanished made me feel better. Maybe the jacked up libido would fade as well. It was as if this line of thought triggered a memory and in defiance to Mengele and the Syndicate I closed my eyes and thought of my time in the service.

“Ready, GO!”

At the shouted command I took off. ‘Light feet, light feet’ I thought, as I tore through the deep white sand. The ten foot wall loomed and I jumped as high as I could, ignoring the rope that hung from the wall as my hands grabbed the top. We ran the course in pairs and the guy who’d taken off with me was already a dozen feet behind by the time I reached the wall. I pulled and when my head and shoulders cleared the wall I did a front roll over it, flipping so I dropped to my feet on the other side.

More sand, and then I hit a series of four foot walls. I put one hand on top, kicked my feet to the side as I went over and focused on not slowing down. After the third wall it was nearly fifty meters to the log-run. A series of three fifteen foot telephone poles. The first pole had one end in the ground and the other suspended five feet in the air. The second log was connected to the first, but whoever designed the course made it turn thirty degrees to the right. The third pole was attached to the second with another thirty degree turn and the far end was buried in the ground. That meant the first pole was a ramp up and the third was the ramp back down. While the second was a level, if round, surface suspended five feet above ground. Some people had trouble running on the round poles or got nervous running five feet up. I hit the first pole and accelerated running as fast as I could, in my mind this was forty five feet of hard surface, instead of soft sand.

Then I was back in the sand. By now my heart was racing and I was breathing hard. Fifty meters and I hit the rope swing. I jumped as far as I could catching the rope and easily made it over the water filled pit. Ten meters, and I hit the sand face first in a low crawl under a barbed wire net. Ten meters of low crawling and I was out.

Next up, a twenty foot Jacobs’s ladder. I went up and over as fast as I could and dropped the last ten feet to the ground. I was now covered in sweat and sand as I raced twenty meters to another series of four foot walls, and by now my breathing had become ragged.

The eight foot wall came next and this was more of an annoyance at this point on the course. My muscles started to burn as I rolled over the top of the wall and raced forward. One hundred meters to the second set of suspended logs. It felt like my feet were barely touching as I raced over them. Then the last obstacle was in sight, fifty meters away a set of monkey bars. By now the sand had become a tremendous obstacle all by itself and my legs burned as I gasped for air.

The soft white sand had to be at least six inches deep and I concentrated on staying on my toes. Then I jumped skipping the first three rungs of the monkey bars and did the next six two at a time and dropped clear. Ten meters to the finish line. I raced across and heard the Sergeant shout, “Time!” I collapsed to my knees and then struggled back to my feet. I laced my fingers behind my head and tried to catch my breath. I couldn’t hear the time but then Staff Sergeant Hernandez was in my face.

“Frost! Drop and give me one hundred.”

I hit the ground and started counting them out, “One, two, three . . .”

“Frost, do you know why you’re doing one hundred pushups?”

“No, Sergeant!”

“Because you failed to break the course record by one-hundredth of a second!”

The memory faded, and I glanced down at my chest. “I bet there’s no way I could break the course record now.” I said, softly.

“Hey, how are you doing?”

I glanced up at Kristina as he sat down in the chair next to me a beer in one hand. The cold didn’t seem to be bothering him much.

“As well as can be expected, I guess.”

“You don’t sound like you’re doing too well.”

“Can you blame me? I just found out that I’m going to be stuck as a woman for up to a year. My life, as I knew it, is over. I’m a Seer, and the Syndicate, an evil organization dedicated to dark magic and world domination, is after me. Considering all that . . . I’m just peachy.”

Kristina let out a chuckle and shook his head ruefully. “Look, I’m really sorry. I never dreamed things would turn out like this.”

I nodded, “I know.”

“If it’s any consolation, I miss my body, and my life. I don’t want to be a man.”

I glanced at him and then picked up the wine bottle I’d left by the chair and refilled my glass. “Kinda hard for me to tell. You seem to have adjusted.”

“Not as much as you think. Plus, I cheated.”

At this I gave him a questioning look.

“When I first got to Mexico I was having a hard time dealing with,” here he gestured down at himself, “all of this. But I was also struggling to learn even the most basic spells. Then Lukas offered a suggestion.” Kristina looked off into the night, seeing an event that I couldn’t follow. “Lukas knew of a spell called Solatium. It was designed to bring a person’s, body, mind, and spirit into harmony. As it turns out, it’s very hard to use magic if you’re constantly at war with your own self. I couldn’t cast it so I asked Lukas to do it. After that I no longer felt odd in your body. I wasn’t constantly having to adjust my dick, or forced to remember how to hold my arms so I didn’t look feminine. But those were just a couple of the outward signs. My magic finally started to flow.”

“Sounds similar to what Mengele did to me,” I said and took a sip of wine.

“No, I doubt that very much. Mengele wanted you acting female so he could use you as bait. I asked for this spell so I wouldn’t be constantly distracted. So I could focus on learning everything I needed to know so we could swap back.” Kristina drained half his beer and looked over at me. “James, I miss my body. I miss all the pretty things I used to be able to wear. I miss shopping with Lana, going to my parents place for dinner, and I miss my step-sister.”

After this neither of us said anything for a time. It felt nice to just sit, in silence and enjoy the night.

“Kris, tell me what is the Society?”

She looked at me a little surprised. “You don’t know?” Then answering her own question, “How would you.” She sighed, “The official name is the Secret Society of the Eldritch, but everyone just calls it the Society. The society serves three primary functions. You can sort of think of it as the United Nations of the magical world. Now that you’re ‘awakened’ you’re going to learn that there are quite a few magical disciplines and magical creatures.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, take me for instance. I’m a witch. My magic is primarily spiritual magic and I need a focus in order to use it. That’s where my crystal comes in. Once I’ve got my initial training I’ll join a Coven and get on with my life. Which brings me to the second role of the society. To find newly awakened ‘talents’ and train them in the proper discipline for their gift and then get them settled into the corresponding magical community.”

“And the third?”

“To prevent the mundane world from learning about the existence of magic.”

“So where does the Syndicate fit in?”

Kristina took a sip of his beer. “The Society was formed in the aftermath of World War Two. From what I understand the Syndicate doesn’t agree with or acknowledge the role of the Society. The people who join the Syndicate believe that those with magical power ought to rule the world. The problem for the Syndicate is that we are all so outnumbered by the mundane population and the power of modern weapons is so devastating that even with magic we wouldn’t necessarily win in a direct conflict. So they want to work in the shadows.”

Kristina lifted his beer and drained it. “They also have no scruples. They don’t operate within the accepted rules and they have no problem with killing or worse.”

For a second I wondered what might be worse, but then I remembered Mengele. “Thanks for telling me.”

At this Kristina looked a little embarrassed, “I probably should have told you sooner.”

For a while silence stretched between us, “Kris, I don’t know if I can do this, not for a whole year.”

There must have been something in my voice that made him pause and really look at me. Before he’d looked a little concerned but also cautious, like he didn’t want to upset me. Now, he looked openly worried.

“James, we . . . we don’t really have a lot of choices.”

I nodded, “Yeah, I guess.” I started to stand up and he placed a hand on my arm stopping me.

“What if there was another way?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I stole the first crystal from the Syndicate, there were others in the vault. If we stole another one, we could bring it to the Society and they’d study it and unlock the secrets. That’s what I was supposed to do with the first one.”

“And you think that this would help us get swapped back sooner?”

Kristina nodded, “I do.”

“But after the first theft, don’t you think they’d have changed the security procedures, and authorizations?” I shook my head, “How would we get in?”

Kristina grinned, “I’ve got an idea or two.”

“Okay, count me in.” I said, and for the first time since talking to Diana I started to feel like there might be some hope.

I reached up to brush my hair out of my eyes and looked out at the sea. The ferry was rocking gently and the day was actually sunny, a rare treat for the English Channel during the winter. I glanced back looking for Kristina and saw that he was still in line for coffee. Then I shook my head, I needed to start thinking of him and calling him, Chris. We’d talked about it and we knew it would be odd for anyone to hear us calling each other by our real names. However, I’d felt territorial about my name. Calling him James or Jim felt like I was giving up my identity. Since my full name was James Christopher Frost we’d settled on him using my middle name. It also helped that Chris sounded similar to Kristina.

As it turned out Kristina’s full name was Kristina Jackeline Curtis. Since I’d asked him to use my middle name it was only fair that I used Jackeline, or Jackie for short. Just then I heard someone approach and looked up.

“Jackie, here you go, black.” Chris said, handing me a coffee.

“Thanks, Chris.”

I couldn’t help smiling at the obvious use of our adopted names, the logic was simple. The more we used them the more familiar we’d be with them and the less likely to screw up.

“Do you think, we’ll get into London unnoticed?”

He took a sip of his heavily modified coffee, “Yeah,” he said, his voice little more than a whisper, “the papers are really good. So even if they’ve got a way to check the government data base, as far as everyone is concerned Kristina Curtis and James Frost are both still in Germany.”

I nodded and took a sip of my bitter black drink and made a face. At this, Chris laughed. “I told you, you wouldn’t like it black.” With that he handed me his coffee. “This one is too sweet for me.”

I took a sip and the rich sweet flavor was much better. I couldn’t help feeling a little depressed at this, it was just another sign of how much had changed. Of course one glance down at my chest was all the reminder I needed.

“What will we do first?”

“Pick up my car and then go up to my flat.”

“What?” I said a little too loudly, and then in a softer voice, “Are you crazy. They’ll be watching your flat.”

Chris gave me a crooked smile, “That’s just it. They won’t. They think we’re in Germany, and even though it might seem like it, they don’t have unlimited resources.”

I shook my head, “We can stop by if you think we need to, but I’m not spending the night there.”

“It’s better than renting a room. We’ve got papers, but I don’t have a credit cards in these names.”

“Is there someplace else we can stay? What about friends or relatives?”

“Do you want to risk meeting my parents? If they’re watching my place then they’ll also be watching Lana. Why don’t we check it out, and if it looks clear we stay, if not we’ll leave and figure something else out.”

I nodded reluctantly and took another sip of my sweet coffee. “What did you put in here?”

“Cream, sugar, and a little chocolate syrup.”

“Good grief, I’ve gone all girlie.” Then I sighed, “But this is yummy.”

Chris chuckled, “I hate to break it to you Jackie, but you are ALL girl.” I just gave him a scowl and went back to my tasty drink.

It was just after noon when we landed in Portsmouth, although the weather had shifted during the crossing. It was now overcast and chilly. I pulled my jacket closer and ducked a little into the breeze as I followed Chris down the dock.

He glanced back at me and flashed a smile, “It’s not too far to the train station.”

“Why is England always so cold, wet, grey, and dreary?”

He gave me a hurt look, “It’s only like this in the winter, and it’s better than the two feet of snow we’d be buried under if we were on the continent!”

The bright warmth of the train station was welcome since true to my prediction it had started raining while we walked. We got our tickets and had a half hour to kill so we found a place to get a snack while we waited. I settled in with another cup of coffee while Chris got some kind of fish-n-chip thing from a vender. As he was walking back to me a couple of young guys, not paying attention, bumped into him causing him to drop his food.

“Hey, watch it!”

The two youths, one slightly taller than Chris and the other several inches shorter, turned to look at him.

“Bugger off.” The taller of the two said.

“You need to watch where you’re going, old man, before we fucking knock your teeth in.” The shorter, darker youth stepped forward menacingly.

By this time, I was already moving. It was only a dozen paces from my bench to where they were standing but it seemed like everything was in slow-motion as I moved forward.

“Hey, you ran into me.”

The shorter guy stepped in and pushed Chris back. “And I’ll do it again if I want to.”

I grabbed Chris’s arm, “Is everything alright, sweetheart?”

He looked down at me and then back at the two guys who’d squared off. For a second I thought Chris was going to punch one of them, then he shook his head.

“It’s fine. Come on.” he said and moved away from the punks.

“Yeah, that’s right, keep walking.” The taller guy said and grabbed his buddy by the arm.

By the time we’d made it back to the bench Chris was fuming. “I should have punched that guy. What a jerk!”

“Chris, when’s the last time you hit someone?”

“I don’t know.” he said angrily. “Why? I’m probably stronger and in better shape than either of them.”

“Make a fist.”

“What, make a fist? Why?”

“Just humor me.” I said, holding up his hand. Chris made a fist wrapping his four fingers tightly around his thumb. I shook my head. “That’s why. Look at your fist.”

“Mmhmm . . . so what?”

I made a fist by squeezing my four fingers into my palm and locking them down with my thumb on the outside. “If you hit someone with your thumb inside your fingers like that, all you’re going to do is break your thumb.” I showed him my fist. “See? You’ve got to have your thumb on the outside.”

At this he looked a little crest fallen, “Okay, but I could’ve taken them.”

“Chris, one versus two isn’t good odds. Particularly, I promise you, with hooligans like those! I bet they get into a couple fights a week. You’re in better shape, they still would have kicked your ass. Why did you confront them?”

“Because they knocked my food out of my hand.”

I just shook my head, “The first thing you’ve got to understand about being a guy, is to pay attention to other guys while out in public. Every other guy is a possible threat. Make eye contact and you’re offering a challenge and a possible fight.”

“What?! That’s ridiculous.”

“Look, I’m not saying be a pansy, but right now, you don’t know much about fighting.”

At this Chris looked down a little glumly. “I guess you’re right.”

“Why didn’t you use your crystal?”

Chris shook his head, “Magic is only for emergencies, plus the Society would kill me if I did something in public. We are a secret society after all.”

“Ha! Okay, then for now, take my advice and avoid trouble. Come on, let’s wait for the train on the platform.”

The rest of the ride up to London was uneventful and once we got onto the tube I started to feel a little nervous. We exited near the club where I’d left Kristina’s car and I let him drive back to his flat. He was far more familiar with the area and at my suggestion he parked a couple of blocks from his place. Then we got out to walk the rest of the way.

As we got closer I moved in next to him, “Put your arm around me.”

“What?”

He looked at me confused but complied. As soon as he did I slid in close and wrapped an arm around his waist.

“We need to look like we’re a couple. Their probably looking for either me or you, but not for a couple out for a walk.”

“Oh, okay.”

His arm was around my shoulder and it felt kind of nice having him hold me. Then he slid it forward resting his hand on my breast.

“Hey, watch it!” I said and slapped him on the chest with my free hand before reaching up to move the offending hand away from my tender flesh.

“What’s the big idea?”

“Well, I figured that as long as we’re pretending to be going together I’d make it look good.”

We were about a block from Kristina’s so I started scanning the street. Everything looked normal. I looked up and scanned the skyline to make sure we weren’t being watched from the top of a building. Then back down at street level.

“Keep walking.” I said as we approached the front of Kristina’s building.

“What? Why, did you see something?”

“No, but I want to do a 360 around the block. Let’s not do anything stupid, just yet.”

We made the circuit and I didn’t spot anything so the second time we approached Kristina’s building we went in. We climbed the stairs cautiously and then when everything felt normal approached the door. I was half expecting to see police tape but nothing. Although, the door looked freshly painted.

I pulled out a key from Kristina’s purse and unsurprisingly it didn’t open the lock.

“Okay, I’ve got this.”

With that Chris pulled out his crystal and held it next to the lock and whispered something. I sort of felt the hair on my arms stand up and there was a tickle in the back of my mind and then I heard a distinct “click”. Chris turned the door knob and opened the door.

“Home sweet home.”

I followed him in and shut the door throwing the deadbolt. Inside everything looked empty. Chris rushed into the living room and looked around before coming back. As he did I poked my head in the bedroom. It was a mess. Even if they’d repaired the door, they obviously had conducted a search.

“They’ve trashed my flat!” Chris sounded more than a little pissed.

“Yeah, I would have thought that they’d just repair the door and leave. I guess they wanted to make sure that you took whatever you stole with you when you ran. It’s actually a little more professional than I was expecting.”

Chris let out a sigh. “I guess we should clean it up.”

I nodded, “Sure, and I’m starving. Can we get some dinner?”

For the next hour I helped Chris put things away. It was kind of interesting because this was obviously his place and he was pretty upset about the pictures they’d broken. Yet they were pictures of me, or rather the body I was in, and I felt no connection. We’d just finished up when there was a knock on the door.

Christ beat me to the door and looked through the spy hole before glancing back at me. “It’s Lana!”

“Shit, what should we do?”

“I’ll go back to the living room. See if you can get rid of her.” With that he darted down the hallway.

I opened the door and smiled over at Lana, “Hey, you. What’s up?”

I couldn’t help feeling deeply uncomfortable at the moment, remembering the last time I’d seen Lana. In fact this was the first time I'd seen her since that fateful, crazy, drunken, yet highly erotic, night. I had no clue if she remembered anything about it. I was desperately hoping that she didn’t.

She gave me a weird look and pushed into the flat, “I thought you were out of the country? Nobody can keep up with your plans these days, Ku! I came by to check on the flat and my key didn’t work and then I noticed the light was on. Did you get back early then?”

Without asking she moved toward the living room. I followed, trying to get ahead of her, to somehow distract her.

“So what’s going on with you? Did you have the locks changed? I . . .” Lana’s voice stopped and I almost bumped into her. She was standing in the doorway looking at Chris sitting on the sofa.

“Hi, I’m Chris. Chris Frost. And you must be Lana! Kristina's heterosexual, strictly platonic, best friend, right?”

He gave her a beaming smile, stood up, and moving forward leaning in from the waist to give her a hug. Lana had a perplexed look on her face, and took a quick half-step back. Chris seemed to understand he shouldn’t have tried to hug her, and awkwardly extended his hand in a lame attempt to cover the faux pas by shaking hands instead.

“Hi, yes, I'm Lana, a friend of Kristina's, and I just stopped by to check on the flat since I thought she was traveling.”

“Oh, I've, miss... err, heard so much about you! It’s so good to finally see you standing in front of me, all healthy, happy, and well, puppy!”

I shuddered on the inside, Chris was doing a horrible job of passing himself off as me! It was obvious that he was so excited at being reunited with his best friend that he’d completely forgotten that he was supposed to be a man! He’d totally fallen out of character. I tried to catch his eye, but he ignored me, apparently oblivious to how he was acting.

“Wow, what a lovely dress, is it new?”

“Err . . . well, yes . . . but . . .” Lana stuttered, taken off balance by the question.

“Let's see it in all its glory, turn around!” Chris made a twirling motion with his hand while staring delightedly at the dress. “Oh, La, I know how long you were looking for a sweetheart cut like this . . .”

Lana turned around hesitantly and as she did she gave me the weirdest look. Then as she completed her turn I caught Chris’s eye and mouthed silently, ‘What are you doing?’ For a second he seemed to look puzzled. Then by the look on his face it must have finally dawned on him that his behavior was very much off key for a tall, toned, and handsome man.

“I mean . . . err . . . I, ah, that is, my sister has been looking for something like that . . . and she’s been going on and on about it for the longest time. With how hard it is to find and how trendy the look currently is.”

Chris’s stuttering explanation sounded so comical I had to put a hand over my mouth to trap the giggle in. I wanted to say, ‘But you don’t have a sister.’ Instead, I resisted the urge.

“Haha, it's alright. It seems you have a good sense of fashion!” Lana laughed. “And a good taste in girls, too,” she glanced slyly at me, “it seems.” Then Lana looked back at Chris, “I mean, you're here, alone, with Kristina, in her flat. Are you sure I am not interrupting?”

At this Chris started to grin broadly, “Nope, at least not right now. If you’d been here thirty minutes earlier. . .” I felt my face turn red, the jerk had found a way to compensate for his screw up by deflecting attention at me! Still, it had been so funny watching him go all girlie without knowing it that I felt a delayed sense of satisfaction. At least I wasn’t the only one who’d had to struggle with my new gender role. I couldn’t help remembering my shopping trip with Lana and all the times I’d screwed up. My first few days in this body hadn’t been easy and watching Chris now made me feel much better. Ever since I met him in Berlin he’d made it look so easy, so natural to be in his new body. Watching him struggle to stay in character, especially with Lana, had been unbelievably cathartic.

As he said it he moved around next to me and slid an arm around my waist. I felt my face heat up several more degrees. I finally had the opportunity to enjoy watching him making a fool of himself and now he was trying to regain the upper hand. Lana was looking at me, her eyes started to twinkle, and she put a hand in front of her mouth to stop from laughing.

“Well, I won’t keep you two love birds, then. Kristina, walk me out.”

She turned and headed back to the door and I followed after a quick glance back at Chris. He was now laughing openly at my embarrassment.

“Just wait, I’ll get even with you.” I whispered and then hurried after Lana.

Lana was standing by the door and as soon as I was within reach she grabbed me in a hug.

“He’s cute. Where did you find him?”

“At the airport.”

“Really, I didn’t know the airport was such a great place to pick up guys. I’ll have to try it sometime. He’s staying here in London?”

“Just for a few days, and yeah, we hit it off right away. We’ve got a lot in common.”

“Well, he's got the same weird sense of humor you have, that's for sure! Kristina's heterosexual, strictly platonic friend? What was that all about? You haven't been telling him anything strange about me, have you?”

“Err, no . . . no! Of course not!”

“Well, that's good. Because from what I've seen, the one of us who comes closest to being gay actually seemed to be him,” Lana giggled.

“Nah, I can say, for certain, that he's not gay at all . . .”

“Oh, my,” then Lana let out a giggle. “Alright, sweetie, I don't need to hear the details, today! We’ll talk soon, and I want to know EVERYTHING. Well, I gotta run, call me tomorrow!”

With that she gave me another quick hug and headed out the door. I shut it and locked it behind her before turning around and leaning against it.

“Thanks a lot.”

Chris was now at the other end of the hallway watching me, “That was just too much fun to resist. I’ve got to say, you’re really cute when you’re blushing.”

“Shut up, Mr. Fashion Man. Do you know what's not cute? Men babbling on about dresses. I was just waiting for the moment when you asked Lana to lend it to you! Yes, you might know a bit more about magic than I do, but at least I've actually become better at being . . . you!”

Then the impact of what I’d just said hit me and I wanted to scream. What the hell was wrong with me? I didn’t want to be Kristina, I didn’t want to be better at being her than she was at being me! And by the way that comment slipped out, it sounded like a part of me was proud of it.