When Paths Cross 2

It's been two months since I encountered a creature, who saved me from a beating by some bullies, and then was forced to face the truth that I am a girl in a boy’s body.

At the time, I vowed that I would find a way to get my inner girl out to frustrate the monster who had apparently expected me to give up. But the first couple of days showed me there wasn’t going to be an easy path forward.

There was a newscast about a proposed “bathroom bill”, so that you’d have to prove you were born as a woman to use the woman’s bathroom, and my mom’s attitude wasn’t sympathetic to trans people, it was obvious she considered them mentally ill and in need of a cure.

My stepfather didn’t even have that much compassion, and thought they should be beaten up if they try to use the ladies room, and then went on a rant about how the culture is “feminizing” boys and men.

This sent me into a spiraling depression.

Then something completely unexpected happened. I came home from school one day, to find both my mother and my stepfather waiting for me.
They looked worn out, and my mother’s eyes were red as if she had been crying for hours.

And then I saw the creature who had saved me from the bullies, still in the body of a trans girl who had committed suicide. There was something different about her, she seemed less frightening, kinder.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her.

“I have shown your parents your truth. I have shared with them your pain. They . . . understand now.”

Then my mother said, “I can’t believe I didn’t know, didn’t see how much you were struggling.”

Even my stepfather seemed kinder than he’d been, and he actually asked for my forgiveness for how he’d treated me.

After we talked for a while, I was able to pull the creature aside, and ask what had happened.

“There is a human saying, ‘pride goes before a fall.’ That is what happened to me. Before, when I visited this plane, I stayed in spirit form, but this time I took control of this girl who had passed away, thinking it would create a larger effect.”

“It certainly did that” I said, “but why did it make such a difference for you?”

“This body had the impression of the girl’s soul still in it. An echo, you could say. The more time I spent inside, the more that soul influenced me. And she could not stand the possibility of you having the same fate as she had. So eventually, I had no choice but to make the attempt to make sure that didn’t happen.”

I looked over at my parents, and then said, “It looks like you succeeded. So will you be returning to your home plane now?”

“I cannot” it replied, “I am bonded to this body, and it cannot survive there.”

I asked, “Then what will you do?”

“I will probably die. This body has no protection against hunger, thirst, or cold. And I have nowhere to go.” it replied.

“What about the family of the body you’re wearing?” I asked.

“Unlike your parents, who only needed a nudge to see the truth, her parents are a brick wall. Even if I still had all my power, I wouldn’t be able to reach them without breaking them. And my power is almost gone in any case.”

“You could stay here, with us. Right, Mom?” I said.

“We owe you a great deal for preventing a tragedy from happening to our ... daughter.” my mom said, “So yes, you could stay with us.”

The creature was silent for a while. Finally, it said, “I can make it so I have always been a part of the family, so there would be no questions. If I do, though, I will be all but powerless. I will basically be a normal human girl.”

“There are worse things to be,” I pointed out.

My mom said, “Obviously you can’t go by the name of that poor girl. We need to give you a new one. How about . . . Hope.”

“That is a name I can try to live up to,” it said, and used its power.

So now I have a new sister, and all of us together have Hope.