You've seen those stories where the main character picks up a rock and suddenly has the power to make wishes or change reality, right? Yeah, this is one of those.

It does get a little fucked up, though, much to my own surprise.

This is, as is basically standard right now, another immigrant from TG Storytime. That'll change eventually, and at some point I'll have a story that migrates from her to there, so bear with me guys. I'm actually runnin' out of stories I want to trade from there to here.

~o~O~o~

Aaron had no problems helping his mother with her rock garden, but he wasn't exactly in love with the idea. The garden ran the length of the back of the house, save for a space for the back door, and was about three feet wide. There were thousands of rocks in the garden, some large, some small, some basically the size of pebbles. The rocks had been cultivated from vacation spots, field trips, stops on the side of the road, trips to the bank - there was no place Aaron's family didn't go to without picking up a rock along the way.

Aaron knelt over the edge of the rock garden and pulled some weeds from along the brick border. This is all his mother asked him to do (besides actually finding rocks to put in the garden), but it was still a tedious and boring job. He didn't hate it, but he didn't like it, either.

As he pulled out a particularly large weed, he found a small black rock, which looked somewhat like obsidian. He held it up and wondered where it came from. He'd been present when every rock had entered that garden, but he'd never seen that rock at all. Maybe a neighbor had tossed it out of their yard and it randomly landed in the rock garden.

He put the thought out of his mind and slid the rock into his pocket. After that, he grabbed his book bag and set out for school, like any other weekday morning.

***

Aaron was not a bad student, he was simply a lazy student. He didn't like doing school work, and as such, he was failing or just barely passing most of his classes. As he sat in calculus, he yawned almost every six minutes, then he considered taking a nap, but he decided against it.

He yawned yet again, then looked at the clock. The class still had twenty-seven minutes left. He wished the class was over, though. He scribbled a little in his notebook and then, suddenly, the bell rang. He looked up at the clock again and saw that twenty-seven minutes had some how passed in the two seconds it took him to make the doodle in his notebook. He looked around the classroom and saw that no one else seemed to be as surprised as he was.

He picked up his stuff and walked out into the hallway and made his way to his locker, completely uncertain of what happened. He shoved his calculus books in his locker and then took a moment to think about what just happened. There was no way almost a half an hour could have passed in seconds, not during calculus. Something weird was going on...

"Hey, Aaron!" Emily almost screamed in his ear. "What's up with you?"

He sighed. "Nothing, just trying to figure out what just happened in calculus."

"What are you talking about? I was there, nothing special happened."

He shut his locker and leaned against it. "I was sitting there, bored out of my skull, and looked up at the clock and saw that we were still gonna be in there for-fucking-ever. Then, suddenly, class was over."

She shrugged. "Maybe you fell asleep."

"Naw, I was awake. I was scribbling in my notebook."

She smirked. "Oh, you mean instead of doing work?"

He smirked. "Shut up. That class is as boring as boring can be."

"Yeah, well, whatever." She spun around to walk away from him, her skirt billowing out around her, almost nabbing him a glimpse at her panties. "Hey, I'll see ya in gym later."

"Yup, see ya."

As she walked away, Aaron started wondering what her ass would look like in short shorts, and right before his eyes, the skirt she had been wearing changed into a pair of denim short shorts with a flower stitched across her left butt cheek.

What the hell?

***

Aaron arrived at the gym and started dribbling a basketball when Emily walked up to him and patted him on the butt. "What was that for?"

"What, I can't pat my boyfriend on the ass?"

He chuckled. "Well, I guess." He saw that she was still wearing the short shorts that her skirt had changed into. "Hey, weren't you wearing a skirt earlier?"

She gave him an incredulous look. "No. I've been wearing these shorts since I put them on this morning."

He shook his head. "Maybe I just need some more sleep."

She giggled. "Could be."

For the five minutes before class, they just spent some time playing basketball against each other. He enjoyed watching her boobs bouncing underneath her shirt, and started to wish that he could see more of them, and then, suddenly, something hit him in the back of the head, knocking him directly toward her, his head landing between her breasts. He heard quite a bit of oohs, ahhs, laughter, and outright disgust. He quickly stood up and then helped her up, quite surprised to see her smiling.

"Aw, I was just starting to enjoy it," she said with a smirk.

"What the hell just happened?"

"What do you mean? A basketball hit you in the back of the head, you fell forward, knocked me down with you, you landed on my boobs, it's not rocket science."

He looked around at all the people who were suddenly in the gym, despite it being empty mere seconds before. Where did they all come from?

***

Aaron sat on the steps outside the school's front door and watched all the other kids walking to their homes or their buses. His head was spinning, thinking about all the weird things he'd experienced. He'd even knocked his girlfriend down and landed in her boobs, any guy would kill to have that chance, but he just couldn't get over how weird the situation had been.

What's the common denominator? he asked himself. His hand brushed past his pocket and he felt the rock he'd picked up that morning. He slipped it out of his pocket and held it in his hands for a few moments. Nah! No way. That's just stupid. There was no chance the rock was causing all the weird stuff.

He stuffed the rock back in his pocket, then started home himself. As he passed by the football field, a football hit him in the side of the head. He looked to his left and saw Grant Billings, the head jock, laughing at him. "Nice catch, Ball-less!" he shouted, making fun of Aaron's last name of Wallace.

Ignoring the stupid jock, Aaron kept on his way, whispering to himself, "Stupid idiot. Bet he fucks his dad at night."

If Aaron were to visit Billings' house later that night, he'd find big, tough Grant bent over his bed, wearing a pink nightie, ready to take it up the ass from his father.

***

Aaron held the newspaper in his hands and couldn't believe what he was reading. "High School Quarterback's Father Arrested for Incest". Grant Billings' father had been arrested for molesting his son, who had willingly let his father have his way with him. Aaron just could not believe what he had just read, and he'd read the headline and the article seven times since he got to school.

He stuffed the newspaper in his book bag as he made his way to his first class. He gave Emily a little pat on the ass as he passed her. She smirked at him and then turned back to her locker. He couldn't wait to see her later, in chemistry.

Almost like a dream, he watched as people started moving faster, speeding past him like he wasn't even there. He didn't move, he just watched as this incredible sight played itself out, and then, just as suddenly as it began, it ended, and people returned to normal speed. Emily was standing next to him, staring at him like he had grown a second head. "What?" he asked.

"Um, what's up with you? You're just standing there like you just saw your dad masturbating, or something."

"We... weren't... Are we about to go to chemistry?"

"Yeah, why? It's not like half the day hasn't passed yet."

He scratched his head. That was exactly what had happened. He'd just watched three classes go by in the blink of an eye, and yet no one else seemed to know what happened. It was just like yesterday, when he wanted calculus to be over so quickly. He unzipped his book bag and looked inside, finding only his chemistry stuff, as opposed to the creative writing stuff he'd last grabbed from his locker.

He was afraid the day was only going to get weirder.

He followed Emily into chemistry class, where the two of them sat down at their work table and waited for the teacher to arrive. All around them, the rest of the class was chattering like teenagers did, but Aaron just couldn't get over what had just happened. He now knew for certain that the rock had nothing to do with it, too. It was sitting on his dresser in his bedroom at home.

About ten minutes later, as they worked on whatever it was the teacher had assigned, Emily just randomly whispered, "If only we could make something that made my boobs bigger." Aaron looked at her with what he assumed was a surprised look. She wasn't an unattractive girl in any way. She always tried to emphasize her body by wearing tight or revealing clothes, yet she hadn't garnered a reputation as a slut at all.

He smiled. "Yeah, those C-cups just aren't big enough."

She stuck out her tongue. "Like you wouldn't enjoy looking at them, not to mention how jealous of you other guys would get."

He kissed her on the cheek. "I guess you're right. You'd look a lot hotter with bigger boobs."

She surprised him by asking, "Why would you even say that?"

"What? But it was your idea!"

"Like I'd suggest having bigger boobs than these?" she waved her hands toward her breasts. Her D-cup breasts.

"Have you always been a D-cup?"

"It runs in the family, so yeah, I have been for a while now." She smirked. "I'd have figured you'd know, seeing as you landed on them yesterday."

Aaron scratched his head. The situation was very familiar, almost like the day before, with the skirt/shorts. Something weird is happening.

***

Aaron splashed water on his face and took a long, hard look in the mirror. Somehow, he'd gained some sort of magical powers, or something. That would account for the odd time changes, Emily's skirt changing into shorts, her breasts growing, probably even what happened with Grant Billings, though that was probably a bit more of a stretch.

Hank Stanford walked out of the stall behind him. "Whoo! Stinks in here! Probably shouldn't have had that third burrito at lunch."

Aaron laughed. "Naw, you should have had nachos. You'd be blocked up, but at least you wouldn't be ruining bathrooms."

Hank laughed, too, then walked over to the sink and started washing his hands. Aaron took a good look at Hank, then decided that his newfound powers needed a bigger, more deliberate test. First, he thought, and changed Hank's solid black hair a bright red. Of course, Hank didn't notice, even when it was brought to his attention. As far as Hank was concerned, he'd had red hair his whole life, just like his parents (Aaron couldn't coroborate that part, he'd never met Hank's parents). After that, he thought that Hank would look better in girls clothes, so he thought about Hank wearing a bright green sundress and matching sandals. His clothes changed, and yet Hank still did not understand that anything was out of the ordinary. Odds were pretty good that nobody else would find anything odd about Hank's choice of clothing.

"See ya in class, Hank," Aaron said as the newly minted crossdresser walked out of the restroom. Just before he walked out, Aaron decided that Hank should have longer hair, and then Hank's hair grew until it reached his shoulders. In matching his new look, his hair took on a feminine style.

This is not something to take lightly, Aaron thought. School's over for the day. And with that, the final bell rang. He looked at his watch and saw that it was now 3:30, when the school day ended. Time to go have some fun.

***

Aaron sat across the booth from Hank and could barely believe he had let Hank talk him into it. It wasn't anything particularly odd, they were simply in a McDonald's booth, having a quick bite to eat, but it was the people all staring at them. Sure, just because it was accepted that Hank was a crossdresser didn't mean that it was something people liked to accept. Hank was sitting there, wearing a tube top and a pair of capri pants and he was just chatting away.

"It's not like I'm gay, I just prefer wearing girls' clothes. It's not weird, not at all." He munched down on his quarter pounder. Aaron noticed he was even wearing fake breasts, as well. You'd never be able to tell Hank was male unless you listened to his voice. "Nancy likes dating a crossdresser, she says it's the best of both worlds, that it's like her best girlfriend and her boyfriend all wrapped up in one person."

Aaron yawned. All he'd wanted to do was get a quick meal and head off to the mall to check out his powers, and Hank had dragged him into sitting together. Hank may not want to be a girl, but he sure acted like one now that Aaron had made him dress like one.

"I'm boring you, aren't I?" Hank asked. Aaron looked up from his food at the disturbingly attractive face of the school's star swimmer. "Sorry. I know, I know, you didn't come here to listen to me chatter on about everything. I'm just happy to have somebody to say it to, even if you're not listening a hundred percent."

Aaron shrugged. "Nah, I'm sorry. I've been a little tired today." He faked the tiredness as a way to hide the fact that he was thinking of new things to do. He looked around at other patrons of the resturaunt and decided to have a little fun with a particularly large woman sitting alone. First of all, he slimmed the woman down, made her a bit more attractive, then he changed her background, making her quite the attractive little French woman. Last, he gave her heavy make up and made her clothes far more whorish.

Almost as if she hadn't been in the buiilding before hand, every male eye turned toward the French whore sitting at a table casually eating a meal, even Hank's turned to stare at her. "Quite the babe over there, huh?" Hank asked.

"Yup."

"Too bad she picks such gaudy clothes."

Aaron could only chuckle.

***

Aaron needed a big test, now. Something more than just turning guys into crossdressers and making ugly chicks hotter (or, in the case of Emily, making hot chicks hotter). He needed to do something really big.

Derek Buxton was the captain of the school's basketball team. He was currently hanging around the mall with his buddies on the basketball team, mainly hanging around the sports apparel stores. They were laughing, pulling pranks, generally having a good time with themselves.

Aaron decided it was time for one of Buxton's teammates to have a nice looking girl hanging around them.

He concentrated first on Derek's clothing. His blue jeans shrunk into an incredibly mini skirt, which did nothing to hide the thong that he was wearing underneath. His shoes morphed from tennis shoes with socks under them into a pair of six inch spike heels with fishnet stockings crawling up his legs until they reached his thighs. His letter jacket and tee-shirt changed into a very tight crop top with an obviously black bra underneath, all covered by a denim half jacket with the sleeves cut off. Neither of Derek's two friends noticed the difference at all, not even when one of them asked for gum from out of Derek's pink purse.

Next, he focused on Derek's body. Nothing world changing, at first, simply slimming him down to feminine proportions. His waist shrank and his hips ballooned out, along with his ass. His legs went from muscular and hairy to sexy and smooth. Muscle left his upper body entirely, severely shrinking his body. His face slimmed into one any teen beauty queen would envy, while his shaggy brown hair straightened and lengthened considerably, reaching his mid back. Derek had once stood tall at six-foot-three, and now he didn't even reach five-foot-nine in his six inch heels.

Now, now for the big stuff. Aaron saw no change when he changed Derek's cock and balls into a vagina and ovaries, but the DD-cup breasts made it plainly obvious that Derek was no longer Derek any longer. The new Cindy Buxton hung onto her boyfriend, Sam Jones, and pressed her breasts against his chest while their other friend wasn't looking.

Aaron couldn't believe it. He'd just changed a guy into a girl, and it had taken no less than sixty seconds, and no one would ever know that Cindy had ever been anything but Cindy. Her entire history was rewritten in a matter of seconds, much like her body had been. Cindy was the lead cheerleader, well-known as a school slut, and had even caused the last gym teacher to be suspended after being caught sleeping with him in the principal's office.

And the only one who had any memory of Derek Buxton was Aaron.

Oh, I could get used to this!

***

Aaron had absolutely no idea how he met up with Hank again, but he was now being dragged back and forth between different stores, carrying the bags like any guy does with his girlfriend, only Hank was not his girlfriend.

Unsurprisingly, Hank had changed his outfit again. He was now wearing a pair of short shorts similar to the ones Emily had been made to wear the day before, and a green crop top that did little to hide his fake breasts. His feet were strapped into a pair of sandals that looked like someone would need a degree in theoretical geometry to understand, and increased his height by about three inches.

How did I get here, again? he thought to himself. He had no answer for himself.

"Could I pull off the look in this dress?" Hank asked, holding the soft pink minidress up to his chest.

"Maybe if your rack was real," Aaron answered.

Hank tsked. "I wish it was, sometimes. Nancy says I have no idea what it feels like to be a girl, since I just wear falsies."

Aaron could accomodate Hank's wish. Almost considered doing it, Hank had been a decent friend even before he'd been unknowningly turned into a crossdresser with aspirations of real girlhood. First, however, he made Nancy arrive in the store to take some of the pressure off of his arms.

"Thanks for carrying Hank's bags, Aaron," Nancy said, appearing out of nowhere. Hank was quite relieved to see his girlfriend show up. "You look so hot in that, Hanky."

Hank's disturbingly cute face turned pinker than it already was with the blush he'd been wearing. "Thanks, but... No 'Hanky' in public, remember?"

Aaron couldn't pass it up. "What's with 'Hanky'?"

Nancy answered, "That's my pet name for him whenever we're in bed together. Last night, I fucked his little ass with my strap-on, and the little slut loved it."

Aaron smiled. He noticed for the first time that Nancy was wearing pretty masculane clothing for someone as pretty as she was. Maybe it's time to change this relationship up a little bit. He'd already proven he could change a guy into a girl, maybe it was time he did just the opposite with Nancy. First, he shrank her breasts down to nothing, beefed her up a little bit to standard male proportions, then pulled that magic penis out of her former vagina and those magic testicles out of her ovaries. He adjusted her clothing very little - she was already wearing male outer clothing, but she obviously was wearing a bra and panties underneath. He stripped the bra away completely and changed the panties into briefs, and where Nancy had stood, there was now Nolan.

Nolan leaned down a little and kissed Hank on the cheek, making the crossdresser blush even more. "Geez, it's like you wanna fuck here," Hank said to his loving boyfriend.

Aaron's changes to Hank took little time. The false breasts were changed into the real deal, and his cock and balls into a pussy. Since he was already wearing girls' clothes, the image didn't change much. Actually, the image didn't change at all. Hannah looked exactly like Hank had just moments before, except she was one hundred percent female, instead of ninety percent female and ten percent male. She grabbed her boyfriend's crotch for a second and gave a quick squeeze, which obviously excited them both.

"I'm gonna go now," Aaron said, turning to leave, "see you guys at school tomorrow."

Hannah blew him a kiss and said, "See you tomorrow, Aaron."

***

Aaron laid on his bed and looked up at his ceiling. He had to admit, he was having a little too much fun with his newfound powers. T.H. White wouldn't agree with what he was doing at all, but Aaron was not a writer of classical literature, he was a teenage boy with a burning desire to have some fun with his special ability before something in life inevitably took it away from him.

And he knew exactly what his next scheme would be. He'd have to wait until school the next day, but that wouldn't take long. Just one night's sleep. He could actually change time to make it the next day, but he preferred the natural way of waiting. It made the fun he was going to have all the more exciting.

***

Aaron awoke and immediately set forth his plan. He gave himself the ability to switch between male and female whenever he wished, and made it so that no one knew about his ability. He liked the fact that his changes to reality were taken as fact instantly, but he didn't want people to know that he could change his gender at will, that would put stress on his plans.

Next, he made a class schedule appear out of nowhere. Instead of being Aaron Wallace's schedule, it would be Erin Sanderson's. His final act was to make it so that his clothes changed genders with him, this would eliminate his need to produce new clothes for himself every time he changed. He gave his female form a pair of earrings, a necklace and a bracelet as well, and altered the face a little, that way his female form didn't just look like Aaron the girl. He was already pushing it with the name 'Erin', but he let that go because there were plenty of girls named Erin in the world, it was as common a female name as Aaron was a male name.

He "asked" his mother to call the school and claim Aaron was sick, thus freeing him to be Erin for the whole day. He was feeling pretty good about himself, too. He assumed it had something to do with his powers, but adjusting to Erin was quite easy. It took him little time to accept his new form, to the point where he was looking at himself in the mirror and failing to see any connection between Erin and Aaron.

She was ready.

***

Erin's first challenge happened about six seconds after she walked out the front door. Emily was standing there, waiting for Aaron to come out of the house. "Who are you?" Emily asked, anger creeping into her voice.

Erin had to think fast. I'm your friend, Erin. I'm staying with Aaron for a while because my parents are fighting. She wondered if Erin's parents suddenly materialized out of thin air thanks to her command, but didn't put much thought into it. She was instantly relieved when Emily suddenly said, "Hey, girl, where's Aaron?"

Erin smiled and answered, "He's sick. His mom's feeding him soup, and everything."

"Aw, poor guy," Emily giggled out. They started walking, striking up a friendly conversation about the commercials for the latest X-Men movie and whether or not Hugh Jackman still looked hot enough. Erin was surprised to find that she had quite a few feminine opinions in her, despite only having had a feminine brain for an hour and a half. It obviously comes with the hormones, she thought. Their conversation shifted from actors to the tramps who hung out at the cafeteria entrance. Again, Erin found herself being far more knowledgable than she should have been for someone who'd been male every day of her life until that day.

Once they arrived at school, Erin concentrated and made others remember her as well, and made it so that people didn't think anything was amiss when Aaron appeared at school but Erin did not, and vice versa. That took care of every loose end without her having to make people know that Aaron and Erin were one in the same person.

Erin's first class was gym. Erin's first gym class would be a new experience in many ways. It would be her first gym class without Emily there since they were in middle school, it would also be her first gym class where she was in the girls' locker room, changing with other girls. This would be any guy's dream, to see a room full of naked girls, but as Erin walked into the locker room and looked around at the other girls changing around her, she didn't feel any sort of attraction toward any of them. All she did was compare herself to them, looking for imperfections in herself that she didn't see in them (and knowing that she could cheat by eliminating any imperfections in herself).

It was about then that she started to worry.

She ducked into the restroom and quickly barricaded herself inside a toilet stall. What should be a defining moment of her life was feeling like just another trip to the girls' locker room, surrounded by other teenage girls just like herself. Was this a byproduct of her powers, or had she always simply felt this way? She didn't think so, so the only thing it could be was her powers.

She should have stopped this little game right then and there, and just used her powers to play with other people, but something in the back of her mind said, You don't really want to stop, Erin. It was a voice she felt she knew, but couldn't peg. Being a girl for a day isn't going to change you when you become a boy again, so just sit back and enjoy being what you are right now.

This can't really be a bad thing, Erin thought, not even realizing that her thoughts were being influenced by the voice in the back of her mind.

She unlocked the stall door, returned to the room full of lockers and changing girls, and went about her business, changing from her regular clothes to her gym clothes. Just another girl. Just like the rest of them. Her previous concerns almost completely erased, not unlike the former lives of people like Hannah, Nolan and Grant.

***

Erin's second class was geometry. Unlike Aaron and calculus, Erin enjoyed geometry, to the point where she rushed to finish her work before class ended. After that was chemistry, which she shared with Emily (just like Aaron did), and they partnered up for the day's assignment. Lunch came after that, where she sat with a group of her 'friends' (girls Erin had 'known' for years, that Aaron had never even spoken to or probably even met) and had quite the conversation involving fashion styles and the like.

After her last two classes, she met up with Emily to walk home, then caught sight of the cheerleaders getting ready to go practice. Any guy (like Aaron) would love to get an up close and personal look on the cheerleaders, but Erin was thinking quite differently. She didn't care about watching the cheerleaders, she wanted to be a cheerleader. After all, why would she care about checking out the cheerleaders? She didn't swing that way, even if she was really just the creation of a guy who wanted to spy on girls for a day.

I'm a member of the cheer squad, she thought, and I have to get to practice.

Almost instantly, Sally Sommers, the cheer captain, called out to her. "Erin! C'mon, you're missing practice!"

Erin gave Emily a quick hug. "Gotta go, Em. See ya tomorrow."

"Yep. I'm gonna swing by Aaron's and see if he's feeling any better."

"Okay, bye!" Erin said, not even realizing what her friend had said, or the implications thereof. She was just concerned with getting changed into her uniform and getting to practice. Hannah was the only other girl in the locker room as she entered and started undressing. Apparently, when she changed Nancy, a cheerleader, into Nolan and Hank into Hannah, Hannah took up Nancy's former position on the cheer squad. It made sense, even if it had been unintended.

Wearing the short skirt, the tight top, the boots and waving the pom-poms, Erin found that she quite enjoyed being just another cheerleader, all the while realizing that as Aaron, she'd have wanted to watch the cheerleaders.

***

After practice, Erin made her way home. She was about to change back when she heard talking coming from the kitchen and recognized both voices as her mother, one as Aaron's mother, and the other as Erin's. As she passed the kitchen and headed upstairs, she found an addition to the guest room door across the hall from Aaron's room. There was a piece of paper where a teenage girl with extremely feminine handwriting had put 'Erin's Temporary Room - No Boys Allowed!'.

She knocked on Aaron's door, fearing the worst. "Come in," said a raspy voice. She opened the door and saw exactly what she didn't want to see.

Aaron Wallace.

Lying on his bed.

Slurping up a bowl of tomato soup.

"Hey, Erin," he said, coughing a little. "Your mom's downstairs, y'know."

"Yeah," she said, her voice barely a whisper, "I know..."

***

Erin sat on 'her' bed and started to think about things. Whatever was going on, she wasn't behind it. She hadn't created a new Aaron, unless that had been a by-product of her earlier decision to make Emily remember her. That would explain her 'mother' sitting down there talking to Aaron's mother, despite the fact that before that day, Samantha Sanderson didn't exist, neither did her 'father', Eric Sanderson, although Erin had memories of both of them, of their fights, of the very specific fight that had led Erin to pack some clothes and go to Aaron's house and ask to stay for a little while. None of these events existed prior to that day, and yet it was as if they were real history. Erin could even recall specific emotions regarding the events.

She poked through some of the stuff she'd packed and fought back tears as she remembered the moments she'd bought the clothing, or the jewelery, or the make-up. There was a jacket that one of her ex-boyfriends had bought her, the day they had broken up and decided to remain friends. She choked back laughter, it had been Nolan, despite the fact that at the time the 'memory' occurred, Nolan had been Nancy, Erin had been Aaron, and they'd never really been anything but friends their entire lives.

She couldn't just sit there. She needed to clear her mind, and sitting across the hallway from what had been her bedroom earlier that day just wasn't cutting it. She gave her 'mother' a hug on the way out and just started walking, not even sure where she'd go, she just needed to get out. She walked and walked and walked until, finally, she just sat down against a tree and started crying.

She'd completely and utterly destroyed her life.

***

Everything's alright, Erin, a voice in the back of her mind said. You can fix everything once you accept.

Her eyes shot open. The joyful park she'd been in was different now. Everything was different, now. The grass was now dead, the trees now burnt, the swing set and jungle gym off to her left sat in ruins, the sidewalk to her right was full of cracks and holes. If Erin hadn't had a concept of Hell before, she certainly did now.

She stood up and walked toward the swing set. Bones laid on the remains of the rubber seat, along with torn clothing. A cold chill ran up her spine just looking at it, and she quickly looked around for something else, but nothing in this strange place seemed to be happy or forgiving, simply dead and evil. More bones hung from the ruined jungle gym, as if the child playing on it died right there.

You don't have to worry about anything, dear girl. You can make everything better. The voice was intoxicating. She started feeling a headache, closed her eyes, rubbed at her forehead. When she opened her eyes again, the park was nice again. Children were playing, everyone seemed happy.

Wait, were there kids there when I got here? she asked herself.

It doesn't matter, they're here because you wished them here, because you've made their lives better.

She looked around, looking for the source of the voice in her head, and found nothing. She looked over at the tree she'd been crying under and saw an apple fall from it.

I need to go home, right now.

***

It was dark by the time Erin returned home. On the way back, she'd decided that if Erin and Aaron were to be two different people, she didn't just want to be a guest in 'Aaron's' home, so she erased 'Erin's' parents and made herself Aaron's twin sister. At least I really live here, now, she thought, giving her mom a hug on the way back upstairs. "Where'd you go?" her mother asked.

"Just out to think," she answered.

She looked at her brother's bedroom door, still remembering when that was her room. It was a little depressing, but if she accepted her new life, she could get over the depression.

Just think of all the things you could do for yourself, the voice said, you could be the queen of the world, if you so chose.

Erin wanted to ignore that voice. Her magical powers were what had gotten her into this situation, and she couldn't think of a way out of it. The logical part of her mind told her that she could simply wish it all away, go back to being Aaron and return to the days of just screwing with people's genders and sexualities. Another part of her mind stopped her, because she didn't know what would happen to the new Aaron. Even though they were no longer her 'parents', Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson still existed, she could feel them.

And even as she realized that the new Aaron would simply become the new Erin and become Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson's daughter again, something in the back of her mind told her that she couldn't make that change, and so she didn't, for whatever reason there was.

"Hey," Aaron's voice called from her doorway, "what's up with you, sourpuss?"

Erin looked at her twin and sighed. "You are not getting close to me with that cold you've got."

He sneezed. "You sound like Emily. She didn't even leave the doorway when she came to check on me."

She giggled. "With good reason. What do ya want, anyway?"

He shrugged. "Anything seem odd to you recently?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"I found this weird rock in Mom's rock garden earlier this week, and haven't seen it since. Plus, I don't remember being sick this morning until you left for school. This whole day's seemed kinda weird."

Erin felt her heart sink. Aaron - technically her creation - not only had certain memories involving that freaky rock, but he seemed to be aware that he wasn't the original Aaron. She wondered what else he remembered from earlier that week. "Um... were you at the mall with Hannah yesterday?" she asked.

"Uh, no. I hung out with Nolan while you hung out with Hannah, remember?"

She thought about it and discovered that she also had that memory, despite the fact it was completely new to her. "And that rock you mentioned, did you take it to school the other day?"

"No, I set it on my dresser, and when I got home, it was gone. Haven't seen it since. Matter of fact, I don't remember going to school yesterday either." Because you were sick yesterday, too, she said in her mind. "Oh, yeah, I was sick yesterday, too." He coughed and sneezed again, interestingly, at the exact same time, then said, "I think I need more of that nasty soup. See ya tomorrow, sis."

"Yeah," Erin said, taking in everything that she'd discovered. Aaron was at least partially aware of everything, but he didn't seem to have the unique power that she had, nor did he have any memory of its effects. Nolan had always been Nolan to him, Erin had always been his five-minutes-behind twin sister. The only one capable of manipulating reality was her.

She decided to curb her usage of her magic mutant powers. The next day, she wouldn't use them at all. She'd spend the day exactly as she would normally do, were her situation or her life anything resembling normal. Her entire existence was born out of a desire to check out the girls' locker room for a day. Now, she'd be using it until she graduated high school, and it would be nothing special.

She stripped out of her regular wear and slipped into her sleepwear, switched off her lamp and felt the sweet embrace of sleep after a long day overtaking her.

***

That's good, Erin, you've taken your first step into a larger world, a world that you can control. Mold it, make it what you want, and enjoy it.

***

Erin awoke feeling much better about herself. Her alarm clock was playing some song that she wasn't really listening to, even though it was Taylor Swift, her favorite country star. She got dressed, picking a short black skirt and a bright pink camisole top. She slid into her pale pink underwear and then into her outerwear, slipped into a pair of sandals and then set to work on her (simple) make-up choices, going with only some pink lipstick. Grabbing the purse she was certain wasn't there the night before, she met up with her brother downstairs for a quick breakfast of toast and and eggs.

"You look a lot less depressed," Aaron said, wolfing down his eggs. "Have a good dream last night?"

She giggled. "No, I just, well, feel better." To be honest with herself, she knew that whatever dream she did have couldn't have contributed to her good mood. She didn't remember the dream, but if she could, she'd check herself into a mental facility ASAP.

Finishing her own breakfast, she got a kiss from her mother as she set her plate and silverware in the sink, then she and Aaron set off for school. Emily joined them, as usual, leading to the typical conversation that always left Aaron as the third wheel almost trailing behind the two chattering girls.

Once they got to school, Erin noticed a particular boy watching her from the fence as they passed by him. Steven Sommers, Sally's brother, was a tall boy. Already over six feet tall at sixteen years old, he was quite the imposing figure whenever he strode down the hallways of the school. In the new reality that Erin had inadvertently created, Steven lusted over her in an almost obsessive, stalker-like way. Almost leaving her best friend and her brother behind, she quickly made her way into the school for safety.

Classes went by, things developed like normal. Somehow, deciding that she would now be Aaron's sister instead of just a friend had changed her class schedule to the point that all of her classes were now the same as her brother's, though his calculus had now become her geometry, which he seemed to enjoy more, she noticed. Emily was also now in geometry class, another by-product, she assumed.

School went on as normal. Erin managed to not use her powers at all through the whole school day, never once even wanting to use them. After school, she made it through cheer practice, just enjoying herself like any other teenage girl would. It wasn't until after cheer practice that the worst moment of her life - pre or post-magical powers - happened, and ruined her day.

She was showering after cheer practice. Her fellow cheerleaders had all already left, Mindy and Chelsea skipping showers at school to take showers at home, so Erin was the only one left. She was taking a little longer than usual, enjoying the feel of the water on her body (technically a new feeling for her, though she had 'memories'). At one point, she heard what sounded like the locker room door slamming shut. "Hello?" she called out, knowing she wouldn't get an answer. If someone had sneaked into the room, they wouldn't go to the trouble of announcing the fact that they were in the room. She shut off the shower and wrapped her towel around her chest, then walked over to her locker. She quickly spun the dial and opened the locker, then, just as quickly, grabbed her clothes to put them on. Her first mistake was dropping the towel to get dressed.

"Mighty fine tattoo you've got there," Steven Sommers said, his voice right behind her."What is that, a tramp stamp?"

Erin wasn't surprised that she had a tattoo - after all, she did have the 'memory' of getting it one Spring Break when she and her friends, Emily included, traveled to Baton Rouge to party - what surprised her was how Steven had been able to sneak up on her the way he had. Her socks weren't even that quiet on the locker room floor.

She quickly pulled her towel back up to cover her breasts and spun around to face Steven, who had an extremely evil grin on his face. "Get out of here, Steven," she said, not even convincing herself that she sounded tough.

He just kept grinning that fucking grin. "Nope. Y'see, there's some pretty good sights in this locker room. It's a frickin' sausage fest next door in the boys' locker room."

"Well, that makes sense, it is a boys' locker room. Now, leave."

He brought his hand up to her face and traced along her cheeks with his index finger. She shivered, sadly arousing him even further thanks to her newly hardened nipples poking through her disturbingly thin towel. His hand lowered to her breasts, where he ripped the towel out of her hands. "Now, that's what I want to see."

She felt a scowl growing on her face. "Well, you saw, you fucking pervert, now get out!"

Steven grabbed Erin by the throat, cutting off her windpipe. "I don't think so." Still holding onto her neck with his right hand, he used his left hand to further examine her body. His hand fell to her hips, where he reached around and took a handful of ass cheek and squeezed, grinning even wider. "Nice and big, baby. Everything right is big, everything else is just right. You're the perfect girl, Erin." His fingers fingers danced back around to the front and found their way to her vagina, where he slipped two fingers into her most private of places. "Tight, wet. You've never been with a man, have you?"

He loosened his grip on her neck, allowing her to speak. "No, have you?"

He slammed her against the locker. "Bitch!" he spat, his right hand still on her neck, his left hand struggling to quickly pull down his pants. "I'm gonna make you pay for that." He pulled his underwear down, freeing his dick. This was Erin's first time looking a penis from the other side of the shaft. Steven was far bigger than she had been as Aaron, and far bigger than she thought someone as creepy and stalker-y as Steven should be. As she took in that realization, she then realized exactly what Steven intended to do with that dick.

He spun her around and forced her to bend over the bench that sat in front of the lockers. When she was penetrated for the first time, it wasn't through the vagina, as she assumed it would be. Steven's cock entered her asshole roughly, and he had to push several times to make his way in. She cried each time, pain shooting through her butthole. He soon settled into a rhythmic motion that still wasn't enjoyable, thanks to the fact that it was still incredibly forceful. With one of his hands on her ass, his other reached around and gripped her breast tightly, painfully. She screamed, but that only seemed to make him thrust into her faster. She tried to kick at him, but didn't seem to be able to move her leg in the right direction to hit him, and even that made him enjoy his 'prize' even more.

"How's it feel, sugarbun?" he asked, leaning over her to whisper in her ear. She tried to hit him in the mouth with the back of her head, but he moved out of the way just in time. He eventually pulled out of her, but the pain in her asshole didn't stop. He spun her back around to face him, then shoved her to her knees. In front of her face was his twelve inch cock, and he pushed it into her mouth faster than she could react. Much to her dismay, her gag reflex didn't seem to kick in, allowing him to push his feces covered cock as far down her throat as he wanted. The rhythm he'd perfected on her asshole seemed to work just fine in her mouth as well, and the sheer size of his cock didn't allow her any leeway to bite or hurt him as he forcibly made her deepthroat him.

"I wanna hear you moan, baby," he said, still grinning like a psychopath. She made no noise, however, which didn't please him one bit. It didn't stop him from cumming, however, and he disgustingly spurted every bit of his semen down her throat. He pulled his dick out of her mouth, lifted her up by the arms and sat her down on the bench. "How's about you use those titties of yours on me next?" he asked, pressing his penis against her breasts.

Destroy him, the voice in the back of her mind said, make him wish he'd never even thought about coming in here and using you the way he has.

Unlike all the other times the voice had spoken to her, she complied. Using her powers, she pushed him against the opposite set of lockers and held his arms spread. His clothes disappeared, as if he'd never been wearing them. She stood up and walked over to him, thoughts and ideas of what to do to him running through her mind. First of all, she made it so that he would know every single thing she was about to do to him, so that he could know, so that he could feel what he was about to lose. She ran her fingers up his still-hard shaft. "I don't think so," she said, her voice taking on a cold, hateful tone. His dick softened considerably, to the point where it began to shrink. "Never again, either. That thing doesn't work anymore." Her hands moved up to his chest, where she grabbed both of his nipples.

"Like mine so much? How about you get your own pair?" She felt his chest start to puff beneath her hands, then grow out. Soon, his breasts were the mirror image of hers, all the hair from his chest falling off and landing on the floor at his feet. She did the same with the rest of his body hair, his leg hair, his pubic hair. "I bet those great big nips of yours just get so hard whenever you see a man, even the ugliest of the ugly, the fattest of the fat, the hairiest of the hairy. Too bad for you, you'll never get hard at the sight of a girl again." Her fingers moved again, this time to his mouth. "And I bet any guy would wanna fuck such a pretty mouth like that, it's so inviting, after all." His mouth shifted, his lips plumping up.

She grabbed his hair and pulled his head back against the locker. "Good thing anybody'd confuse you for a girl, what with this long, silky blonde hair you've got. I bet a bunch of girls are jealous of your hair, too, since it always looks perfect." His hair lightened several shades until it became a stunning platinum blonde, then lengthened several inches until it reached his waist. She moved her hand back down his body, then around to his buttocks. "And such a nice, soft, perfectly round bubble butt, I'm even jealous of that, sweetiepie." His ass expanded, widened, rounded. She had to admit, she was a little jealous, but she could change that later, if she chose to. She brought her hand around to his front and played with his balls a little bit. "I don't think you need those, since you can't cum anymore." His testicles shrank, shrank, shrank, then disappeared into non-existence. His terribly small dick remained, alone.

Leaving Steven where he was, Erin walked back to her locker and returned to changing into her clothes. Once she was done, she released him from the invisible restraints and watched him fall to his knees. She leaned down and whispered in his ear, "Hope you like bras and panties and all that wonderful stuff us girls wear, 'cause your new soft, feminine skin can't even stand the touch of boys' clothes, unless it's something like a sweater or a dress shirt. Bet your new boyfriends will love to see you wear those. Oh, and try getting guys to take you seriously when you sound like a twelve year old girl. Bet they'll get really hard listening to you moan though, and you will moan, sweetie, especially since guys will get hard just having your scent in the room."

After leaving the room, and Steven, behind, she made it so that no one would believe Steven when he explains what happened to him. They'd all just see that he'd become a little sissy slut, and treat him like one. She didn't want Sally to hate her, after all.

When Erin returned home, Aaron asked her what had taken her so long coming home. "Just chatting with some girlfriends, that's all."

And she smiled, even though a part of her was now frightened at what she had become.

***

DISTURBED TEEN OVERDOSES ON FEMALE HORMONES, UNDERGOES LIFE-ALTERING CHANGES!

PHILADELPHIA, PA - Sixteen year old Steven Sommers was found in the local mall Thursday evening, attempting to steal girls' clothing. The teen, unrecognizable to his friends and family, claimed that a local girl that he'd raped had used magical powers to alter his body, however, a medical test performed at the local hospital revealed otherwise, and it was discovered that he had simply taken extremely potent female hormones, damaging his male reproductive system and forcing him to go through the rest of his life as a female, after his upcoming gender reassignment surgery.

The girl he claimed to have raped, fellow sixteen year old Erin Wallace, claims to have no idea what Sommers spoke of. A doctor's examination revealed that Miss Wallace had not been raped, despite Sommers' claims to the contrary. Miss Wallace did, however comment "[Sommers] has been acting like a stalker around me, he even followed me to my house one day and just watched my house from across the street. My brother had to threaten to call the cops on him to get him away."

Sommers' parents commented "We didn't know that our son was taking any female hormones, or that he was stalking Erin. We're sorry for whatever harm he's caused." Sommers' sister, Sally, is a member of the high school's cheerleading squad, along with Miss Wallace. Sommers is currently in police custody until his forthcoming gender reassignment surgery, afterwards, he will be placed in a psychiatric facility to undergo testing.

***

Erin couldn't help but smile at the newspaper. She set it back on the table and finished her breakfast. "I can't believe that Sommers boy would say things like that," her mother said, setting her own plate down to eat. "And claiming that he raped Erin? Something's obviously been wrong with him for a while."

Her father shrugged. "He's just a troubled teen, honey, you see them all the time. Remember that boy that committed suicide after his friend forced him out of the closet on Facebook?"

Aaron was being strangely quiet. He hadn't said a word since he'd woken up, even failing to tease Erin about how much time she was spending in the bathroom. She wondered what was up with him. Maybe it had something to do with a guy saying that he'd raped Aaron's little sister, she couldn't really tell.

Part of her felt that he knew what had really happened.

That was, of course, ridiculous. Aaron had proven that he didn't have any memory of having the power, and Erin had covered her tracks when it came to everything else, besides, Aaron was as effected by the power as everyone else in the world besides Erin, there was no way he could know what had happened, despite the nagging feeling that he actually might.

She pushed that aside however, and grabbed her purse and her book bag and headed outside to wait for Aaron to finish his breakfast. Emily was already waiting, asking her this and that about the what she'd read in the newspaper. Erin had to explain that Steven had never actually raped her, despite what he'd said, and that she had no idea what was going on with him. Eventually, when Aaron did get outside, he mumbled something about forgetting something inside and told the two girls to go on without him. The girls just shrugged and started walking to school.

Erin's first objective, once she got to school, was to talk to Sally. The cheer captain was at her locker, talking to one of her other friends, when Erin arrived. "Hey, Erin," she said, as cheerfully as ever. "I can't believe Stevie would say he raped you. And how come you've never told me he's been going all stalker on you?"

Erin shrugged. "Most of the time he just glares at me evilly from the other side of the fence outside the school. He only followed me home once, and Aaron took care of that by threatening to call the cops on him."

"He's all bent out of shape thanks to all those hormones. Can you believe he's wolfed down a whole bottle of birth control pills? That's what he OD'd on."

"Really? Say, is that picture in the newspaper really what he looks like now? I wish my butt looked that good."

Sally giggled. "You and me both, and he and I share DNA! Plus, he's got bigger boobs than me!"

Erin giggled along with her friend, even though she knew exactly what had happened to Steven, what he looked like, and what really caused it. She couldn't let on like she knew, however, so she kept up the facade of being the clueless third party dragged into a weird situation.

When she caught up with Emily and Aaron for creative writing, however, she couldn't shake the feeling that Aaron looked like he knew more than he was letting on. Something strange was going on with him, that was for sure. The two siblings sat next to one another in class, and Erin tried to peek at whatever it was he was writing for class, but he just covered it with his arm and whispered, "Hey, sis, don't copy me!"

Erin just shrugged it off and got back to her own assignment.

***

Gym class. Swimming. Erin looked in her book bag and saw the bikini she'd bought for their upcoming Summer Vacation (from one of those altered memories, of course) and sighed. The school didn't allow two-piece bathing suits unless the girl was wearing a shirt over the top part. Obviously, the school didn't want to be at fault in case a wardrobe malfunction happened, or a boy was too excitable and blew his load in the pool, so she couldn't fault the rule, she just didn't have a shirt to go over the bikini top other than the skimpy tank top she was wearing, which was white, which would defeat the purpose anyway.

Instead, she changed the rules. The school now allowed two-piece bathing suits, and took full responsibility for whatever accidents happened during the swimming sessions. She giggled to herself at how fun it was to make life easier for herself. All around her, other girls were getting their own bikinis or one-pieces on, none of them covering up with shirts, the rule was set.

Emily was showing off quite a stunning string bikini that left little to the imagination, while Erin herself was wearing a simple pink and white number that did little to hide her stiff nipples underneath the thin fabric.

Sadly, as far as Erin was concerned, none of the guys seemed to be all that impressed by the display of nearly naked girls walking into the room and getting themselves wet. She knew that needed to change, and made every guy get a hard on for which ever girl they were looking at (unless they were releated, she didn't want her own brother getting hard for her). A few of the gay guys were probably disturbed, but it would take very little effort to make them straight. She giggled to herself, her desire to restrain herself completely gone after the last few days. Now, she felt like she could do anything.

And you can do anything, Erin. You are everything.

The voice wasn't a stranger anymore, she could tell now. It had been her voice from the beginning, she just hadn't realized it. Now, she simply listened to it, and knew in her heart that she could do anything.

***

After school that day, and after cheer practice, Erin invited Emily, Sally and Hannah along for a shopping trip. She didn't explain how they were going to pay for anything, simply that once one of the girls stepped up to the register, not only would they have the money to pay for whatever the item was, the item would also be discounted. Each girl purchased probably two thousand dollars apiece, but it only cost about a hundred dollars apiece. It was quite a fun trip, and Erin enjoyed helping her friends get what it was that they wanted. She bought very little herself, she mainly just wanted her best friends to be happy.

There was little of the original Aaron left in Erin. She didn't see other girls as potential love interests, she saw them as friends and fellow females. She didn't look at boys as pals anymore, though there were a few boys that were simply friends, she analyzed them and wondered whether or not they would make good boyfriends.

Had she not altered her life on Wednesday, these changes would not have taken such root in Erin's psyche. Indeed, she would probably be a gender-confused wreck if she hadn't made the mistakes she made two days before. It was now a blessing in disguise that she had simply gone with the flow of things and embraced the side of her that kept saying, "Be Erin."

***

Standing around in a very modest Victoria's Secret (modest meaning small compared to some of the other stores in the mall), some laughter caught Erin's attention. She looked out the window and saw three members of the school's basketball team picking on a twelve year old girl, doing such childish things as pulling on her hair or spilling soda on her white blouse.

If anyone had turned to look at Erin at that moment, they would see that her normally turquoise colored eyes were replaced with orbs full of red-orange fire. Stupid immature assholes! I cheer for those guys! Well, let's see how they like being the young, developing girls.

She froze everything around herself and the three boys. They looked around, confused about what was going on, and then the obvious leader of the group - Sebastian 'Bass' Young - spun around and saw her, still capable of moving. "What's going on here?" he asked, not even aware that his voice was creeping higher and higher in pitch. "Why is everybody frozen?" his now twelve year old girl voice asked. He grasped as his neck and tried to clear his throat, then looked in horror as his hands began to shrink, followed by his arms, followed by the rest of his body. His fingernails grew, took on a glossy blue color. He looked back at Erin, realizing after a second that he now had to look up at her, as he'd lost considerable height. "What are you doing to me?" his panicked little girl voice sounded so cute.

Erin stepped up to him. "You like messing with girls younger than you? Let's see how you like being the girl."

His bright blue eyes widened, not simply in horror, either. The faint traces of facial hair he'd had disappeared, replaced by rosey pink cheeks with light blush. His lips gained a blue color similar to that of his nail polish, and a small gathering of freckles appeared on the bridge of his nose. His plain black tee-shirt changed color to blue, matching his nail polish and his lipstick, and bumps on his chest grew until he had the small A-cup breasts of a young teenager. His young nipples poked through the fabric of his shirt, which now exposed his slender shoulders. His blue jeans crawled up his legs, shifting into a pair of skimpy shorts atop a pair of long, hairless legs. His shoes became a pair of three-inch heels that girls his 'age' didn't want their mothers to know that they owned. The final change came to his hair, which now fell just past his ears in a tomboyish style and framed his pretty, young face.

"Am I...?" the new Serena Young asked in a frightened, almost whisper-like voice. Erin simply smiled.

"You know what it feels like to have older boys pick on you, don't you?" Erin asked, a motherly tone to her voice. Serena nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. "You're not doing anything wrong growing up, are you? No. You can't help it that your body is changing. Boys shouldn't be so mean, should they?"

"No," Serena said, newfound determination in her voice.

Erin turned her around to look at the boys who had been her friends when she was one of them. "Should these boys learn what it feels like to be picked on just for being a girl?"

"Yeah, they should. They were picking on Kerry, she's my best friend!"

Erin smiled wider. She set to work on the next boy, Adam Foster. She started with his clothes instead of his body, changing his flannel over shirt and white undershirt into a plaid half blouse and white bra respectively, his tan shorts into a denim miniskirt, and his plain white tennis shoes into tan cowgirl boots. She shrank him down to the size of your average thirteen year old girl, then grew his hair out and styled it with twin low hanging pigtails. His body was next, his little breasts filling his bra cups and his plump little butt filling out his skirt. His body hair disappeared, and his face changed until he looked like a cute little farm girl. She put a cowgirl hat on his head and then Adam Foster was no more, instead Amanda Foster joined her friend Serena.

"Two down, one to go," Erin said, walking over to the third boy, Thomas Humpfrey. He looked extremely frightened, having just watched his two best friends go from seventeen year old guys to twelve year old girls in less than a minute. Tears streaked down his face. "You know why you're being punished, don't you, Tommy?" Erin asked, still using her motherly voice. "You know exactly what it is you've done."

"I... I... I..." he stammered out. She looked down at his crotch and saw that he'd wet his pants.

She hugged him. "It's okay, sweetie, it's okay." She patted the back of his head. "Momma's here, Tommy. You'll be just fine." She pulled away, her hands resting on his shoulders. "You'll have to dry those tears, baby, otherwise you're gonna ruin your make-up." Thomas sniffled. "That's right. You're gonna be just fine. You're just a little nervous, aren't you? After all, this is your first time going to the mall with nothing but your best girlfriends." Thomas nodded, his innocent, little girl face shifting from scared to simply nervous.

"But it's okay. They know what they're doing, and they know how to protect you." A smile started to form from his plump, pink lips. "You're excited to be here without your parents or your big sister, aren't you? That's why you picked out your prettiest dress?" Thomas nodded again, completely unaware that the bright yellow dress he was now where had been jeans and a muscle shirt seconds before. His budding breasts looked cute under the dress. "How about you just go back to your friends and have a good time, huh sweetie?" Teresa nodded once more, and then the four pre-teen girls - Serena, Amanda, Teresa and Kerry - returned to their own fun outing at the mall, completely oblivious to what had just happened. Kerry's blouse was dry again, and her hair no longer the mess the three former boys had made of it. They were all happy, all content.

And Erin - and the dark shadow behind her - smiled.

***

You're doing wonderfully, Erin, the voice said, soothing her as she laid in the bathtub and let the bubbles tickle her body. She loved bubble baths. You understand now, don't you? You understand that you are the one in control of this world. She moaned, almost as if she were having an orgasm. She grabbed on breast and squeezed, moaning again. You're happy now, aren't you, Erin? Happier than you ever were as Aaron.

Yes, I am. Everything seems to be coming into focus, and becoming better than I could have ever hoped it would be.

Then, in almost like a strobe light had been kicked on, she saw visions of that ruined park, of the destroyed swing set, of the dead children. A figure stood there, shrouded in black, like Death.

Erin sat up quickly, sending bubbles flying and splashing water outside the tub. What the hell?

***

Erin slipped her bathrobe on and her bunny slippers and opened the bathroom door to return to her room, until she saw Aaron standing there, a concerned look on his face. "You okay?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"I just... I don't know, felt something was wrong."

"You felt something wrong? You sure you didn't eat something wrong?"

He lightly tapped her on the head. "Yeah, I'm sure, doofus." He turned to return to his own room, then slightly turned back to her. "Were you fingering yourself in there? I heard moaning."

She pushed him forward, toward his room. "Ugh! Privacy! I'm not telling you! Pervert!"

He chuckled and returned to his bedroom. She returned to hers.

***

Erin laid in bed, sleeping, dreaming. The shadows were heavy in her bedroom, heavier than any other room in the house. A street light outside was in perfect position to cast light upon the room, enough to keep even the heaviest of sleepers awake. The street light was ineffective, however, as the shadows that dominated the room were not natural shadows, but rather living shadows. A single living shadow.

The shadow closed the curtains and in the pure darkness of the night, took on a human shape, a familiar human shape. The shadow caressed its sleeping human form, though Erin felt nothing. The shadow smiled, a disgusting grin that would rip the soul out of even the strongest of men. It picked up the diary on Erin's bedside table and flipped through the memories it had created, the memories it had changed, and thought of the memories it had yet to conceive. The smile widened, several small animals out in a forest somewhere died horrible deaths.

The one thing the shadow didn't like was that it was constrained to Erin's bedroom. It would very much like to cross the hallway and find out just what it was that Aaron truly knew. It would know, however, eventually. The smile widened again, a family of three died in a car accident on I-85.

Erin stirred in her sleep, her dream had obviously taken on a darker tone. The shadow caressed her face again, soothing her once more. It whispered in her ear, "Everything is fine, dear Erin, everything is wonderful." At the sound of the shadow's voice, a Malaysian plane veered off course and ended up in the waters outside of the Australian coast, four hundred people drowned.

The shadow loved its new host. She was perfect.

***

Erin awoke to a rapid knocking on her bedroom door. She sat up, stretched, then walked over to her door and opened it to find Aaron standing there, dressed and ready to go. "C'mon, sis, we're going for a jog today."

"Since when do you care about jogging?"

"Emily wants me to do a five-k with her next month, and I promised I'd start running, figured it was something you and I could do together."

She did like to jog. Besides, if her brother was actually willing to do a 5K, she couldn't say no to him. "Gimme a few minutes to get dressed, okay?"

"Yup."

***

Erin was quite pleased with not only her brother, but herself as well. Neither of the two Wallace twins were all that athletic, despite the fact that Erin was a cheerleader. Her practices after school with the rest of the cheer squad kept her in shape and ready to climb to the top of the human pyramid. Aaron predominately just sat on the couch and watched TV, or made out with his girlfriend, or this, or that. He'd never even shown any interest in sports.

So she was surprised when, barely twenty minutes into their jog, when neither of them seemed out of breath at all, Aaron just stopped.

"What's the matter? Can't keep up with me, big brother?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk."

"We could have done that at... home..." She trailed off, realizing for the first time where they were.

The park.

"You came here the other day," Aaron said, walking over to the apple that had fallen on Wednesday. "Mom was a little worried, but I told her that you were probably just trying to clear your head. Ever since then, I've been wondering how I knew that." He tossed the apple up and caught it again. "I mean, I was sick, lying there in bed, suckin' back soup, but somehow I knew that my twin sister was conflicted over something, even though I hadn't seen her most of the day." He tossed the apple and caught it again. "At first I just thought it was a twin thing. It's not like we haven't completed each others' sentences before, or things like that." Another toss, another catch. "Then I started thinking about the rock I found on Monday." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small black rock that the original Aaron had found before going to school on Monday. "I found it in your room, last night while you were at the mall. It was like it had been tossed under your bed."

"What's going on, Aaron?"

He walked over to her and set the rock in her hand. "That rock. It's not natural. I showed it to Mom, and you know how much she studies all the rocks she's got in that rock garden. She couldn't even tell where it could have come from." He handed her the apple next. "And now you've got two of them."

She looked up at him from the two objects in her hands. "Two of them?"

He walked back over to the tree and kicked it. Nothing happened. "One apple. Doesn't it seem a little weird to you that this tree - obviously not an apple tree - would somehow produce one apple?" He walked back over to her and pulled the rock from her hand. "It didn't. It made two, and this was the first one."

"What are you talking about?"

"C'mon, sis, you remember going to church every Sunday until we got too independent to read the Bible. Granted, those aren't exactly real memories."

Her eyes widened. "You do know!"

He nodded. "Took me a little while to figure it out. You're the original Aaron, the one that really found the rock. You turned yourself into a girl for a day, and when you came home from school that day, I was there, where you should have been. You've adapted to the idea of being the twin sister to the guy you used to be, but you still remember it, don't you?"

She nodded, lowering her eyes.

"It's okay, Erin, I understand. If I was the one with magical powers, I'd probably be using them to jack around with people all the damn time, just like you've been doing."

"How do you know?"

He put his hand on her shoulder. "You hear voices, right? It sounds like you, but it's soothing, it's peaceful, it's telling you that you can have the world."

"Yeah."

"I hear voices, too. Not the same as yours, mine are pure chaos and hate and rage. Steve Sommers, the guy you fucked up after he raped you? I hear him, the voice in the back of his mind that still remembers everything he used to be and what really happened. Those three basketball players you turned into twelve year olds last night, they still exist, somewhere, knowing exactly what they were and what they'll never be again."

Erin looked down at the apple still in her hand. "What's the connection between that rock and this apple? And what's the Bible have to do with this?"

He stepped back from her. "Adam and Eve. Eve took the forbidden fruit from the snake and brought about Original Sin? Remember that?"

"Yeah."

He held up the rock. "Original Sin. It's not really a rock, it's the apple that Eve took from the tree." He patted the tree he was standing next to. "This tree."

"Wait, are you trying to say that you and me are the new Adam and Eve?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm saying that you are the new Adam and Eve. You picked up the rock as Aaron - Adam - and once your life got screwed up after you changed into Erin, you became the new Eve by accepting the forbidden fruit." He walked over to the swing set. "You saw him, standing here. Shrouded in black, eyes of fire." He looked back at her. "You saw him, didn't you?"

She walked up to the swing set and looked down. The swing set was fine, but the bones of the dead were there, crumbling under her feet. She looked over at the jungle gym and saw the bones hanging from it, as if the child playing on it had died right then and there.

"The voices you hear," she said, her own voice barely a whisper, "they're what's real, aren't they?"

He nodded. "And the voices you hear don't come from the gentle, soothing person that they should. They come from him."

Don't listen to him, Erin, the voice said, as peaceful and gentle and caring as a waterfall covered in rainbows. He lies.

"No!" she screamed, backing away and tightening her grip on the apple.

"Fight it, sis," Aaron said, stepping closer to him. "He's the one who's wrong."

She closed her eyes, but she could still see. What she saw, however, was the ruined, dead world that she saw on Wednesday. She opened her eyes again, and saw the shadow standing there, behind Aaron.

"Move!" she shouted, pushing her brother out of the way.

The shadow smiled, then reached out and grabbed Erin by the neck and held her in the air. It squeezed tightly, obviously taking pleasure in what it was doing. "So that's who you are," the shadow said. In Erin's voice. It took her a moment to realize the shadow had even taken on her shape. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the leaves die on several tries behind the shadow. "It's about time you showed yourself."

Erin struggled out, "What... are you... talking about...?"

The shadow threw her aside and walked up to Aaron. "Perhaps I should explain, since you probably don't even know." The sky turned red at the sound of the shadow's voice.

"No," Aaron said, "I know. I'm the anchor to my sister's past. I'm what's left of what she used to be, after you fucked her up!"

The shadow laughed, the ground split in two between the Wallace twins and the shadow. "You're nothing but His way of keeping me in check. He found out that I discovered my vessel, and He wants you to stop me from taking her." The dying sounds of a puppy echoed across the park.

"Oh my God, this is some balance of good and evil thing, isn't it?" Erin asked, causing the shadow to laugh yet again. Something in the sky exploded. "You're really him, aren't you? You're Satan..."

The shadow crossed the growing chasm that had separated them. It helped her up and stared deeply into her eyes. "I am the force that provides you with whatever you want, dear Erin." A gunshot punctuated the words. "I am everything good in your life, everything." A hawk cried in pain.

Erin pushed the shadow away, closer to the chasm. "No! You're not! All you've done is fuck my life up!"

"As that boy, you were failing school, had few friends and were generally and completely an outcast from high school society," the shadow said in Erin's soothing voice, still. A man down below in the chasm let out a horrifying scream. "I made you a popular girl, a cheerleader, with many friends. And the power to do with your life what you will." The man screamed again.

"Yeah, I destroyed one guy's life and screwed up three others to the point where you can't even recognize them. You've helped me, alright!"

The shadow didn't say anything this time, it merely smiled.

And Erin's world nearly fell apart.

The chasm opened wider, crumbling the ground beneath their feet. In less than a second, the ground Aaron was standing on began to slide downward, into the chasm. He screamed, reached out, and grabbed hold of the ledge that now appeared where he'd been standing. Erin rushed over to him and tried to pull him up, but dark hands below grasped at his feet, at his pant legs. He seemed heavier than he was before, weighing almost ten tons, it felt like. I'll save him! I have to! She pulled as hard as she could, but didn't seem to be making any progress pulling her brother out of harm's way.

You can't help him, dear Erin. He's dead. He was never truly alive to begin with. You created him, and He used him as a proxy to destroy me, to destroy you, dear Erin.

Erin glanced back at the shadow standing behind her. "Shut up! He's my brother! I'm saving him!"

You can't. The shadow knelt down beside her. I won't let you. They won't let you. The shadow pointed at the souls below. You know who they are, don't you? Those are the souls of those who's lives you've changed, and those around them. Your parents are down there. By giving them a daughter, you've given me their souls.

Erin tried to block out the shadow's voice - her voice - and just concentrated on pulling Aaron up. She needed him to be fine, then everything else would work out right. She pulled with all of her strength, but it just didn't seem to be enough.

Unless I give myself more, she thought. She closed her eyes and focused, willing herself the strength needed to pull Aaron out of the chasm. She opened her eyes and saw that she it was working! The souls grasping for Aaron's legs were suddenly unable to reach him. She pulled and pulled and finally, Aaron was back on the dead grass along with her and the shadow.

"You're not taking him," she said, a new determination in her voice. "If you're gonna take anybody, you're gonna take me because this all started with you and me! Nobody else! Stop fucking with my life, stop fucking with my friends' lives, with my family's lives! You want a soul to play with down there, then take mine!"

The shadow stood suddenly, its eyes open wide. It opened its mouth but words did not come from its lips. Instead, a blinding white light forced the shadow's mouth wide open, then spilled out of its eyes, its nostrils, its ears. The light engulfed the shadow, destroyed the shadow, and grew more. Erin brought her arms up to shield her face as the light enveloped her, and then she felt nothing.

***

Erin awoke in her bedroom. She looked around, nothing seemed different. She threw her blanket off of herself and saw that she was still Erin. A loud knocking on her door startled her. "What?!" she asked, her voice panicked.

Aaron opened the door and came inside, then shut the door behind him. "Calm down, sis, it's okay."

"Okay? It is? What is?" She sounded like a maniac.

"You're okay, I'm okay, we're all okay. You did it. He's gone."

"He is? That shadow?"

"Yeah. The shadow, Satan, whatever you want to call it, he's gone. You saved me, you saved everybody."

"I did? What did I do?"

"I don't know. I kinda blacked out when you nearly yanked my arm off to pull me off that ledge."

"I did it... I stopped Satan... Satan was... using me..." She trailed off and then felt herself faint, just before everything went dark.

***

The shadow rattled the cages of its prison. It saw its jailkeeper watching it, containing it.

"You thought you could corrupt the innocent soul of yet another," He said, walking toward the cage. "Erin is not like Eve, however. She is stronger."

The shadow didn't speak, it simply stared.

He chuckled. "She has imprisoned you here, something even I could not do. Perhaps she is even more powerful than I am."

Finally, the shadow asked, "Did you let her keep the power?"

He shook his head. "It is too much for anyone. It shall remain between us, as it has for all creation. You shall remain here until I decide whether or not you should be returned to your kingdom." He walked over to the doorway opposite the cage, then turned back to the shadow. "Why did you change the apple into a rock?"

"Humans are stupid enough to pick up rocks all the time. It's not as easy to get one of them to eat an apple they find on the ground anymore."

He nodded, then turned away again and left the shadow to its thoughts.

A truly horrifying place.

***

TWENTY-THREE YEARS LATER

Eric Polson didn't mind helping with his mother's rock garden. He'd been told it was a family thing, that his grandmother had made a rock garden, and that his mother had helped out with that one, and so she kept one of her own, and Eric himself may someday choose to continue the trend. His Uncle Aaron had a rock garden, too. Eric didn't know why the family had rocks on the brain, but he didn't care. Rock collecting was kind of fun, in an obtuse sort of way.

He was pulling out weeds that had gotten stuck in between the rocks during the summer and came upon a very interesting rock. It was solid black, looked a little like quartz. It had been buried deep under the others, and looked extremely out of place.

He considered taking it to his mother and finding out where it had come from (she had a story for every frickin' rock in the garden), but the honking of the school bus out front He slipped the rock in his pocket and grabbed his book bag, then ran to catch the bus.

His buddy, Jeff Probst, was already saving his seat for him. Jeff always saved the seat for him, and Eric always sat there. There were times when he was afraid they might look too gay, especially since Jeff was the only person Eric ever hung out with, but he never put much thought into it. Instead, he just sat beside his friend, shot the shit with him, generally had a good time.

That day, however, Eric was putting more thought into it than he usually did. He'd never been all that popular with girls, despite being a reasonably attractive guy (his mother said he looked like his father). For some reason, he was considering the possibility that he might be gay. Or, at least, that maybe he would have been better off as a girl, instead of wanting to date one. He couldn't place the feeling, either, it was almost like there was a nagging voice at the back of his mind.

That was when he turned to his left and Jeff just leaned over and kissed him! Out of the blue! Eric didn't break off the kiss, for some reason, he just let it happen. Was he gay? Was that what this meant?

When Jeff broke off the kiss, he asked, "What's wrong, Erica?"

Erica didn't respond, she simply sat there and looked down at her finely manicured hands and thought, What the hell just happened to me?

And a voice in the back of her mind answered, You're just enjoying this time to be with your boyfriend, Erica.

And, almost as if Eric had been a distant memory of a life lived by someone else, Erica smiled and said, "Nothing's wrong."

Little did either of them know, Erica's Shadow was also smiling.