I took a bath in the downstairs bathroom. Usually this was reserved for guests, but since Dad was…gone, and I was stuck in this older woman’s body, I decided to relocate to the guest room. It felt strange being in my old room anyway.

Mom had decked out the guest bathroom with bath bombs, robes, and candles. I filled the tub, dropped in a lavender bath bomb, then lit a few candles. Removing my clothes, I stared into the mirror.

I wondered if I’d ever get used to that visage. I sighed. Gone were my carefully created muscles, my tight abs, my defined pecs, biceps and triceps. In it’s place was a rounded wrinkled chubby woman.

Mitzy had smiled at me when I awoke. She was quiet, happy even now, human.

In exchange I’d given up thirty, forty? Years of my life. My father’s humanity, and the girl that I…what? Did I really love her? Or was she just an old obsession I once had?

I slid into the bath, moaning as the hot water loosened aching joints. Leaning back, I closed my eyes and drifted, letting my troubled thoughts float out of my head like a weather balloon.

I was hungry. And had a strange need for an alcoholic beverage.

I remembered the way Desdemonia had been able to conjure up her golden chair and mint juleps. Did I still have such an ability?

Deciding a small table near the tub could hold a sandwich and a beer, I pictured it in my mind. I flourished my hand and—

Nothing. I sighed. I wondered how she did that.

Can’t produce something from nothing. Came the voice of my Differential Equations instructor Mister Stewart. So the mint juleps, chair, and umbrella must have existed somewhere and she teleported it? Teleportation was a huge risk because if you didn’t do it just right the mass dislocation at the point of re-assembly could create an unintentional weather disturbance.

Seemed unlikely that she would teleport something so banal. She carried around a large purse, could it be a size differential? But that would require opening her purse, unless she teleported it—

My head ached. I’d finish the bath then make a sandwich like anyone else.

Desdemonia had been addicted to nicotine, alcohol, and probably other substances. My body craved them now, and had none of it available.

I tried to relax, but I found myself shaking with need. The headache thundered in my brain. The doorbell rang, and I almost jumped through the roof.

I pulled a blue men’s robe around me. It didn’t fit in the length but mom’s ladies’ robe didn’t fit in the breadth. I need clothes, a wardrobe…soon.

Ernest Langmore and April Landcaster stood in the doorway. Of course, they were really Desdemonia Landcaster and Ernest Langmore but who was counting.

“Hello Dear,” Desdemonia said with Elder Langmore’s thin voice. “We’ve come to continue our discussion.”

I nodded. I didn’t really want to speak to anyone, but maybe we could share notes. I held the door open for them.

“Goodness, you look a fright!” Langmore said. “Mother, you really need to instruct her on the proper way to be a Lady!”

Ernest wore one of April’s black lolita dresses with frills and a scarlet necktie. She’d adopted April’s heavy mascara and lipstick also, if more to the extreme. She wore white knee-length socks and black patent-leather mary-jane shoes that had been shined.

Desdemonia wore Brother Langmore’s usual brown tween suit and faded stained white shirt. His hair looked a bit more disheveled.

We went into the living room. “Can I offer you coffee? Or something stronger?”

“I’ll take a Dewar’s if you got it,” Langmore said. “Neat.”

“I find I don’t like Mint Juleps in this body,” Desdemonia said. “I’ll take a Dewar’s also.”

I rolled my eyes, and went to the liquor cabinet. I’d seen dad do this enough times, I could get through it. I took out two glasses and poured about two fingers of the whiskey into each.

I handed one to Langmore and the other to Desdemonia. Ernest took a sip, then made a face. “Ohh, no!”

Desdemonia cackled at that.

“Just give me a ginger ale!” Ernest said. “It’s going to take some time to build up a tolerance.

“Says the eighteen year old girl.”

“Hey, I resemble that remark!” Ernest said with a grin.

I sighed and poured some canada dry over ice. Then made one for myself also.

We sat down with Desdemonia and Ernest on the sofa, and I attempted to arrange myself on a chair.

“So…” Desdemonia said. “We are all very uncomfortable in our new corporeal iterations, I see.”

Ernest shrugged, and flipped a curl out of her face. “Not so bad.”

“Regardless, we need to discuss a path forward. We are known entities by friends, family, and the public and if we suddenly start acting unnaturally people are going to wonder.”

I could not get the belt of the robe to fit in the appropriate place without one of my breasts flopping out. It was driving me crazy. Plus I had the shakes, which made it all the worse.

“What are you suggesting?” I said.

“My desire,” Desdemonia said. “Has been to be encapsulated within my daughter’s body. It’s been a tediously slow process to train her. So to have this goal ripped from me, has disturbed me greatly.”

“You poor thing!” Langmore said. “Maybe this will teach you, finally!”

“Oh, spare me your sanctimonious speech, Ernie. We both know you do the exact same thing with your young boys.”

“They practically beg me to offer themselves. Unlike you.”

My headache thundered. I got up and found some acetaminophen in the drawer and at three of them.

“Regardless, this is the situation we are now in,” Desdemonia said.

“Even if I agreed to be returned to my body,” Langmore said. “It would take weeks to set it up.”

“And we have ten days at most,” Desdemonia said.

I nodded. “Well, there’s been a…development.”

“Oh?” they both said.

I sighed. Should I tell them? I hated the thought of dad being stuck in a wolf’s body, and hated the thought of Ernest being in April’s body.

“I’ve apparently been traversing realities,” I said.

“Do tell,” Desdemonia said, leaning back on the couch.

I related the events I’d been through up until that point. It took a bit, and I ended up pouring a glass of white wine to make it through.

“So now I’m here.”

“You were able to control your last reality jump?”

I nodded. “I had April cast a spell on me at the last moment, and was able to think about being in my original reality.”

“Well, that’s a step in the right direction,” Desdemonia said.

“These waves come more and more frequently. If I know it is coming, I think I can control a little about which reality I jump to.”

“The closest you came to the night of the soul?” Lanmore said.

“Three days away.”

She nodded, and Desdemonia also fell silent. They regarded each other quietly.
“The issue is, you’re no longer dual faction,” Langmore stated.

Desdemonia nodded.

“So I’m no longer the Key?”

“Oh, you’re definitely the Key. Why do you think the Who has been yanking you from reality to reality. It won’t let you go until the dimensions are no longer aligned.”

“It is searching for a reality in which you open the gate.”

“Is the Who that giant thing that chased me in Alpha form?”

They both nodded. “That dimension holds many creatures similar to The Who. They’ve eaten everything they can and seek weaknesses to exploit and enter another more fruitful reality. If it were to gain entrance to this world, many other types of creatures would flood this plane and consume everything.”

I shivered, thinking about the elephant-headed monster. “Why did it try to kill me while I was there?”

“Did it kill you?”

I shook my head. “Obviously not.”

“There’s no sense to what They do, or why They do it. I suspect it never would have followed through on the Death, but one of the things they can consume is fear. It made you afraid, and it consumed that as nourishment while you were there.”

“I gave it a banquet.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, I have ten days to figure it out.”

They both shook their head. “Oh, no. If you got within three days, that’s how long you have, dear. When the time comes, you’ll be sucked into that reality whether you want to go or not.”

I winced. “But I can’t possibly learn everything I need to know in three days!”

“That’s why we’re here,” Ernest said.

“I don’t even know where the gate is. How can I unlock something I don’t even know?”

“It’s a metaphysical gate, dear,” Desdemonia said. “A gate in your mind. It will use you to phase into this world, when it is ready.”

“And it already has you,” Ernest said. “You can control, somewhat, the location of each reality jump. But you haven’t been able to stop them completely, have you?”

I shook my head.

They looked at each other. “It’s only a matter of time.”