Curtain Fall - Chap. 02

Gill stood trembling in Carol’s living room trying to wrap his mind around an impossibility: that he had somehow utterly transformed! Even though the apartment was largely dark due to what must be a citywide blackout he could still dimly see in the moonlight coming from the window that he was significantly shorter. As he stood there he heard a deadbolt latch and a wave of heat came from behind him. In a very harsh voice he heard Carol, “All right! Who are you really, and what’s happened to my friends!?!?”

He spun to see Carol with clenched fists, almost looking she was thinking of attacking him. Gill stepped back and raised his hands as if to shield himself from something too bright. “It’s me! I’m Gill damn it!”, he cried out in his new voice. He noticed fingers barely poking from the coat sleeves again and the radiant heat he felt morphed into rage at his coat. Acting on his confusion and anger he let out a cry and wrenched the offending article off and threw it away from him. Once done he looked back furiously at Carol. Carol’s eyes widened at the violence of this strange woman’s response and froze. At this Gill noticed the seeming heat diminish and a new feeling, almost cold, begin to swirl through the glow of heat. It almost felt like two colors of paint being poured together and starting to mix.

“Calm down... Let’s just take a breath and step back a minute!”, Carol said in a lower volume and she shifted her feet positioning carefully, looking as if Gill was a dangerous animal. “Let’s sit down and figure this out..”

Gill’s anger lost potency more quickly than he expected. Nodding shakily Gill grabbed a seat on one of the chairs in the nearby kitchen as Carol sat on a loveseat several feet away. He felt now confused and a little frightened. He reeled from what he was feeling. He normally wasn’t this volatile! Even when pushed, he was normally quite slow to anger and slow to calm down. “I.. I’m sorry,” Gill began, “I don’t know what’s happening to me! One minute you were about to razz me, then the next I felt like I was being turned inside out.” He looked shakily at Carol, “What can I say to convince you?”

As Gill spoke the “paint-like” feeling continued to swirl and change. He began to notice the changes being reflected in the guarded looks Carol was giving her and Gill realized with shock these feelings might be more than a symptom of his confusion. He seemed to be experiencing something of what Carol was feeling! The potential revelation further rocked him and he felt dizzy. He lowered his head into his hands and he leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. As he felt the feelings change again more sharply he weakly said, “I don’t feel so good...”

Carol watched the stranger claiming to be her friend slump forward to fall prone; her now oversized glasses slipping off her face to hit the floor. Baffled alarm filled her and she carefully moved towards the woman to look at her more closely. Before she did, however, did she pulled her mobile phone out of the purse she still wore to call 911. She discovered there was no service. Likewise her landline only gave a rapid pulsing signal. Carol realized no help was likely available in the near future so after confirming that the woman didn’t seem to be in further distress she simply grabbed one of the throw pillows from the sofa and gently placed it underneath her head. She then went to the kitchen and grabbed a butcher’s knife for protection, returned to the love seat and waited for the woman to reawaken. As she waited she lit some candles and studied her. The woman claiming to be Gill was young, likely in her early twenties, and while Carol couldn’t see a great deal of her body, she noted that the girl had very long lustrous brown hair laced with red. “Chestnut” came to mind. Her lips were full and pouty, her chin small but sharp. Her nose was strong but not overlarge and her cheekbones high and quite prominent. The most striking feature she possessed were her eyes, however. They were wider that normal with each side ending in a sharper point than expected. Even more striking, her eyes weren’t level in her face like a normal person but noticeably lower near her nose than the opposite side. It made the face somewhat inhuman but breathtaking. Unwilling to stay close enough to learn more she settled back onto the loveseat and sat watching; the knife still in her hand but resting in her lap.

Several minutes later the woman ‘Gill’ began to stir. He blinked his eyes and looked about in confusion as he oriented himself. ‘That’s right,’ Gill thought’, I’m in Carol’s apartment. Never thought I’d see this place...’ “Uh, what happened?” he weakly asked.

“I think you fainted.” Carol replied cautiously, “How do you feel now?”

Gill grunted noncommittally as he pushed his foreign body up into a sitting position and looked at Carol. He saw that the ‘emotions’ now coming off of her were much less pronounced and less turbulent. He also noticed Carol appeared crystal clear in his sight. Then as he unconsciously moved to adjust his glasses, he realized he wasn’t wearing them! Out of unthinking habit he looked about and grabbed them but when he tried to place them he saw his vision distorting. He plucked the glasses off again and looked at them as if they were a viper.

Carol saw this and the resulting shock and repeated, “Are you OK? Is there something wrong?”

“My.. My eyes. I’m almost legally blind!”

Puzzled, Carol responded, “I remember Gill telling me; so??”

Gill looked to Carol, “Not anymore. I see you perfectly now without my glasses!” He looked back at the pair of glasses in his hands. “How much more of me has changed?!?”

Slowly Carol was coming to think this woman might actually be her friend. She’d seen the transformation with her own eyes and the woman’s reactions seemed too consistent for her answers to be faked. Unless she was one hell of an actress, Carol was leaning towards accepting her claims. Deciding to test her a little more, Carol leaned a bit forward. “Ok, so you claim you are my good friend Gill. Tell me something only he should know.”

“Close friend?” He snorted a bit, “more like a plushy punching bag...”. Gill thought for a second started grinning and replied, “How’s this. The last time I had to work on your computer at work, I wound up clearing your browser history and cache of all that Lesbian porn stuff. You really shouldn’t do that at work you know...”

Carol’s cheeks ignited in little infernos and she squeaked, “It was only during lunch!” Then she felt her eyes well with tears as she looked at her friend, “You’re you? Oh God!” Carol jumped to her feet. Gill’s eyes widened with alarm as the knife was revealed in Carol’s hand. Carol looked puzzled for an instant and then realized what she was holding and exploding with a choked sound of surprise, humor and a bit of shame quickly dropped the knife to the floor. She then moved and knelt next to Gill’s still sitting form and pulled her/his head into a fierce hug.

For the first time in what had to be hours, Gill felt the relief Carol was exuding and he relaxed into the hug. He closed his eyes and found himself gently sobbing into the folds of Carol’s chest. Memories of when the effect rolled over him, the horror of what it did to some others combined with Carol’s freer emotions washing over him letting him know he was’t alone caused him to just collapse.

They both sat there a while in cathartic release until Gill finally calmed enough to pull away sniffling. “Thanks!”, he said still a bit choked with emotion. “I was so scared.” He then began looking around a bit. “Uh, where’s Tom, Carol? He was right next to us getting more beer when this all happened. Is he coming here in another car?”

Carol started a bit at the question. Looking a bit afraid she responded, “I don’t know Gill, I lost site of him after I saw you, ah, change.”

“Is he still back at the bar?!? We left him?” Fear for his fiend’s safety rising.

Carol slowly began shaking her head, “I don’t think so Gill.” She said gravely, “When we started moving I heard a number of people at the bar calling out for their friends. Apparently they had disappeared.” Eyes a bit fearful she continued, “When we got here to the apartment, we passed a mother who was also searching for her child. He.. he had vanished right before her eyes!” Carol swallowed with difficulty, “I think Tom may have vanished as well...”

“No, no, no!”, Gill frantically denied. “He has to be somewhere nearby! Let’s call him to check up!” With that he began to reach for his cell.

Carol reached for Gill’s hands as she struggled to call. “There’s no tower service, no land phone; not radio even right now! And based on what I saw and heard as we were driving, I don’t think it’s safe to go out again tonight.”

“What are we going to do then?” Gill asked, sounding lost.

“Tonight we’re going to sit tight and try to rest and recover I think.” Carol said in what she hoped was a firm but soothing voice. With that Carol drew Gill to his feet. Gill, still not totally recovered, swayed a bit but let himself be guided to a spare office/bedroom. “Lie down for a bit, sweetie, you’re not going anywhere right now.”

Gill stumbled on to the bed and the trials of the night combined to make him pass out almost immediately. Carol looked at Gill and almost swaying on her own feet stumbled to her own bedroom. Gill hadn’t even bothered to take his shoes off, but Carol figured it could wait till later...

——————————-

Gill dreams were filled with surreal images of oceans made of light and strange currents that tried to pull him apart. In his dreams he felt like strange taffy; stretched out and then folded together endlessly. While not exactly a nightmare, it was bizarre in the extreme and not terribly restful.

Finally, light steaming in from the window woke him up. He opened his eyes and squinting blearily, shifted off the bed to stumble into a bathroom across the hall to answer the call of nature. As was standard, once standing in front of the toilet, he began to unzip when his eyes opened fully in realization. Gently reaching through the zipper he discovered no evidence of manhood. ‘Oh God! It wasn’t a nightmare!’, he thought. Bracing himself he unbuckled his pants and slowly pulled his underwear down. Revealed was a woman’s arrangement and trembling Gill turned around and sat. After a moment he relaxed enough and his bladder released. When done he unthinkingly stood only to feel the remainders begin to drip into less than desirable locations and he forced himself to sit again quickly and grab tissue to wipe. Once finished he stepped to the sink and while carefully not looking at the mirror, he washed this hands and left.

It appeared that it was still early enough that Carol hadn’t risen yet so he, repeatedly adjusting and pulling up his pants, wandered into the living room to gaze out on the city. Gill was lucky in that the view afforded by Carol’s apartment, while not magnificent, did at least give a moderately good view of the thorough fare the apartment building was on. Glancing down the street he saw that it was littered with many abandoned or crashed vehicles. A number of individuals, he couldn’t determine if they were looters or samaritans, were moving from one vehicle to the next. In the distance, likely miles away, he could see heavy smoke rising.

Gill turned away from the window and headed to the kitchen to fill a glass of water. ‘At least there is running water’, he thought to himself. As he stood by the kitchen counter drinking he pondered his situation. Somehow he’d transformed into someone completely different from his 28 year male self. While he was not quite able to bring himself to thoroughly examine his new form yet he could tell he was shorter. Shorter in fact that Carol! He guessed he might be around 5’6” now. He hadn’t directly explored yet, but his chest was moderate sized. While they felt huge he knew he wasn’t “stripper” material. His arms looked lithe but toned and the nails extending noticeably from his daintier hands were unkempt but decidedly thicker than his previous nails. His legs, revealed in the bathroom a few minutes ago, had looked firm as well. He seemed hairless down below. He also stank a bit. The stress of the previous night had apparently left a calling card on the day old clothes. “Oh god, what am I going to wear now?” He asked himself and was startled when Carol walked into kitchen. “That’s a pretty good question!” She answered, “What you’re wearing doesn’t come close to fitting you and...”, she wrinkled her nose, “You really need a shower!” Carol took a long look at her friend’s new form and then said, “Come on. Let’s get you into the shower and I’ll check to see if I can find something for you before we head out looking for Tom. I might also have an idea about a radio! I have a hand charging PBS emergency radio I got once that I think can even receive short wave signals!”

Gill perked up at this and said, “Good thinking Carol, that radio might just tell us something!” With that he stiffened his back and walked back into the bathroom.

Carol, for her part, found the radio and then began looking around for things that might fit Gill. Realizing she needed to see her friend more clearly to get an idea of what might fit she opened and entered the bathroom as Gill was preparing the water of the shower. Gill, now naked and looking at the water but not yet in it afforded Carol a full view. She stopped moving and stared.

Gill was indeed shorter that herself, at least an inch or so. She had smaller feet than Carol but would be able to wear a pair of her sneakers for a while at least. Strong calves led up to full but toned thighs. Gill had wide hips and a round but not terribly large behind. Her waist narrowed around a flat abdomen and then led up what Carol suspected were largish B cup breasts. Her shoulders were strong but slender which led up to a very beautiful and exotic face now not dominated by fear. “Damn.. I’m jealous!”, Carol muttered, which provoked Gill to bark out a squeal and jump in embarrassment. Now noticing a strange but pleasant warmth seeming to radiate from Carol, Gill rushed to cover his genitals like a man and to leap into the shower. “S-Sorry about that,” Carol sheepishly said, “I had to see what sizes to try to fit for!” She backed quickly out of the bathroom and returned to her own bedroom, heart thumping, to start hunting.

Carol fought to slow her rapidly beating heart as she tried to reconcile the beauty she’d just seen with her mental image of her male friend Gill. ‘What was that about!? She’s just my friend. She was my MALE friend!’, Carol admonished herself.

Gill, for his part, was left standing in the shower. The warmth he was feeling pooled in areas of his body he was uncomfortable thinking about much less touching. ‘Holy crap! Was Carol getting turned on by me!?!?’, He wondered shakily. ‘She’s a lesbian and I’m a guy! How could she be attracted to me?’, he wondered. These instinctual reactions, were immediately overridden by the feeling of the hot water flowing across his new breasts whose nipples had erected into two hard points.

Almost involuntarily, he felt his eyes drawn down to the alien growths. They glistened under the shower. He found himself both attracted and repulsed. If he’d seen them on a woman he’d likely have been turned on by her; but looking down on them and trying to associate them with his body seemed perverse. He felt a sense of anger/panic building that might consume him and by force of will pulled back emotionally.

“No! Deal with it later! Just get clean and then find Tom!” He gritted out. With this in mind Gill grabbed the bottle of shower soap and a spongy thing girls apparently used and after applying the soap started scrubbing the least alien parts starting with arms and legs. Wincing as he found his vigorous efforts painful he became more careful and worked to clean himself. He then moved to his hair first then face. His hair was long and quite heavy now that it was wet but seemed just like hair. He couldn’t believe how much shampoo he’d needed. Now face. Gill had carefully avoided mirrors so he still had no clear idea what he looked like but he could easily feel that he’d changed. His cheeks and now smaller but sharper chin were very soft and completely hairless even when his memories and expectations told him he should at least have the roughness of stubble. His lips also seemed more full, almost puffy. Even the bridge of his nose had changed, no longer the upturned Irish shape he’d grown up with. Instead it was now stronger with a narrow but more prominent line.

With the care of touching fissionable material, Gill washed his chest, avoiding the nipples themselves and abandoned the process altogether when the wash thing scraped his clitoris painfully. Blanching, Gill squeaked, “That’s it! We’re done here!!”

Gill shut the shower off and reached for a towel. He remembered his previous experience with his sensitive skin so he made an effort to be gentler and carefully dried. He tied one towel off around his waist and then grabbed another and left the bathroom for the guest room; vigorously rubbing his hair to get the water out. ‘At least she has big soft towels for all this hair!’, he thought.

While Gill had been showering Carol had calmed herself and applied some thought to her clothes collection and what might fit Gill. While a bit smaller, she felt that her clothes would at least fit significantly better than Gill’s original suit. The more she pondered, the more she thought that choosing feminine attire would likely be too much of a shock to her friend’s likely fragile mindset. As a result she chose “loose fit” jeans, a hoodie and sneakers. Guessing they were close but not the same (Carol was a 36B), she found a sport bra. It might be tight, but would have a bit of give. For panties, Carol pulled an as yet unopened plain pink package from her collection. She gathered them up and as she was laying them out on the guest bed, Gill came in.

“How do girls get hair like this dry!?!?” Gill exclaimed aggravatedly as he rubbed ineffectually at the increasingly tangled mess. Carol’s eyes widened at the state she (Carol was coming accept) was in but found herself thankfully distracted from her friend’s exposed breasts by the mess poor Gill was creating.

Giggling, Carol piped up, “Oh honey! You’ve a bit of a mess there don’t you? Come sit down and I’ll help you get your hair under control!” She also added, “Oh and cover your breasts dear. You’re a bit indecent..”. Suddenly reminded that there was a “new” area of propriety he’d have to manage Gill blushed and used the ‘hair’ towel to cover his new assets.

Carol then went to work. After learning that Gill hadn’t thought to use conditioner Carol gently began giving hair care lessons as she proceeded to find detangler product, brushes and a hair dryer. With a soothing tone in her voice she proceeded to work out the tangles and dry the luxurious waist length head of hair Gill had come to possess. To make it less distracting for Gill, Carol also gave her a loose ponytail with several of her scrunchies. Finally she talked Gill through putting on woman’s finery and then handed her the outerwear. Happy to get to things he mostly recognized and was used to, Gill finished quickly.

The friends then went to the kitchen and used the radio while eating cold cereal and granola bars since the power was still out. Some stations had returned to the air and broadcast signals declaring a state of emergency. While not instating a curfew or ban, they were advising all to stay in doors if possible. There were also a few shortwave signals that were mixed between individuals trying to describe what they saw and what seemed bursts of military communications. With this background, Carol and Gill planned out what they need to do. Gill still refused to accept that Tom had vanished as neither of them had actually seen it, so they decided to try three locations: the bar they were at last night, the hospital closest to the bar and Tom’s house.

When finished with the light meal, Carol found jackets and Gill stuffed his wallet, keys and other gear into the pockets and they prepared to head back down to the apartment’s garage to retrieve Carol’s car for the coming travels. Just before leaving the apartment Gill had the foresight to suggest that since the emergency lights in the halls had run down, that the garage’s lights might also have failed and they might need a flashlight. Armed with fresh batteries they headed out.

The hallway on Carol’s floor was not entirely empty. As they walked they could see that a number of doors were open and people moving between apartments. Many had an almost excited look as they shared resources during the blackout. Others had a desolate ‘thousand mile stare’ as they were helped to deal with some unmentioned tragedy. Several, but not many, apartments were closed and quiet. No one seemed home.

Regardless, no one interfered with them or tried to stop them and they were able to easily get to the car. They got in and carefully left the complex to return to the bar in search of their friend. With a fervency arising from desperate hope Gill muttered quietly, “Come on Tom, be there!”