Mercy Chapter 13

The next few days were as close to “normal” as Faith had gotten since her transformation. She attended classes, she hung with her friends, and she spent time on her computer.

And she had her first period.

Fortunately, her body seemed to protect her from the worst of the symptoms, and so while it wasn’t an easy time, afterward she felt like she’d be okay, even during “that time of the month”.`

Who is Aidan Webley? Is he human? Is he a special operative of the Confederation? Is he a psychic of rare ability? One thing he knows for sure is he's loyal to his government. He'll be anything his government needs him to be. Or maybe there is no Aidan, and only a lifeform designed and programmed. Maybe the question should be what instead of who.

Somewhere, the moon shines above the clouds in a land called...

Bian
(Bee-Onn)
by Erin Halfelven

Alexa Chapter 6: Revelations

“Help me”

I have never felt so helpless in my whole life. Here I am, a guy, asking my best friend to help me as I sit on the bathroom floor tears running down my face. Those tears causing the mascara I had put on a few minutes prior to run like the Mississippi. I sit on the floor wearing a dress and women’s underwear asking a girl to help me, but with what?

“Oh my god! Alex!” Katie screams as she moves quickly to my side. I bury my head in Katie’s chest, not out of lust or anything, but out of general shame.

There were quite a few people on the beach, with a huge, roaring bonfire, and distinctly primitive-sounding music playing - mostly drum beats. There were humans, Sartoran, Ilonans, and a few races Hailey had never seen before, each in small numbers, and even a handful of Furren - one calico, one as black as night, and two more light neon green with darker stripes.

Ryan faces the consequences for mouthing off to Mrs. Feinstein in a way that puts his acting skills to the ultimate test. Meanwhile, the continued vulnerability displayed by Ryan brings out Eve’s softer side, and while it brings the two closer together, the closeness raises concerns, especially with regard to Eve’s strange behaviour.

Excerpt:
I felt my mouth droop into a frown, my emotions fluctuating wildly, like a roller coaster suddenly thrown into reverse. I looked up and Eve’s features had softened. Her caramel skin was radiant, her eyes welcoming, and her mouth formed a gentle smile. Her expression screamed, “Tell me what’s wrong, baby girl, and I’ll make it better.”

I pulled away from her, stomping my feet in the shiny black shoes that Eve was making me wear. I hated the little straps that went across my stockinged feet. I had worn a similar outfit in the studio with the same dress. I cursed myself for bringing the dresses and shoes from the studio, but I didn’t have any other outfits outside of the sparkly blue butterfly shirt and jeans. Still, it meant that I could avoid a shopping trip with Eve, which would undoubtedly have crushed my male ego even further.

After the visit to the studio, with his frustration mounting, Ryan retreats to one of his old vices. While the obsession with video games had seemingly doomed Mark and Devon, a greater danger looms just outside his window.

Excerpt:

A skipping rope slapped gently against the asphalt, each jump and each giggle caused candy-coated claws to dig into my mind, the claws digging deeper and deeper as my desire to join the girls grew.

“Wow! You did three skips that time! I wanna be good like that!”

I looked out the window and saw a skipping rope tied to a telephone pole. Two girls, one of them Kaylee’s age and one Ashley’s, were taking turns holding the rope. Each time they failed to jump the rope, they switched places. The whiney, nattering voice of the younger girl should have been a massive turnoff, like a beautiful girl with a mannish voice, but instead, it planted a powerful need, an alien yearning to reach out to these girls- to play with them, but it also caused a resurgence of doubt.

“Would they even want to play with me?”

Hailey and Candy were waiting at the big stone building that was called the Labs, in the clinic section for a checkup. Lynn wanted to make sure they were done before sending them out on any exploration missions. Hailey was itching to get out and explore the planet and Candy just wanted to spend time with Hailey and her new friends.

I knew I had to obey, but he’d been pretty vague, so I changed myself into a girl I didn’t think he would be attracted to: acne-scarred, scraggly-haired, and flat-chested. But he wasn’t satisfied, of course; he gave me detailed specs on his ideal woman, and I changed myself to match.

While there is safety within the walls of the apartment, away from the prying eyes of the outside world, Ryan continues to struggle with who he is becoming, as the serum persists in eroding his masculine and adult identity. Meanwhile, Eve, who seems to have warmed to Ryan, attempts to get him to open up concerning what happened in the studio. Finally, even tucked away safe within the walls, Ryan cannot be saved from himself, and a brief exchange threatens that very safety.

Excerpt: I narrowed my eyes, while feeling my lower lip gently lower into a pout, “Do you really think I’m that weak? And Elsa and Anna were apart for ten years, living in the same castle. We could have done the same thing in the apartment.”

A look of shock crossed Eve’s features, her eyebrows shooting upward, and her mouth momentarily agape. She composed herself, and the softness, which had become commonplace, returned. It was a look I had seen rarely in the woman before my change, but the doe-like tenderness and warmth in her eyes, and even the way she held her mouth, in a slight and comforting smile- it made me want to spill my guts to her- to tell her everything.

Alexa Chapter 5: The Saturday Night Confession

I don’t know what was worse, the sudden blast of sunlight that seemed to hit me or Katie’s saccharine voice telling me to get up. “Leave me alone Katie.” I can’t believe how bad I feel. My head is pounding from the worst hangover I have ever had in my entire life. I’m blaming Jenny for the condition I find myself in. I’m sure I had no hand in how bad I feel.

The girls had walked home that night from the tavern; they had had a lot of fun. Hailey was changing. She wasn’t forgetting her friends, but was making new ones, since she knew there was nothing she could do about her situation. Besides, the call to explore was strong. She had already learned in her short time here, that in 60 years, they had only really thoroughly explored a dozen or so islands.

Sam is spending a year in America with Katie, a friend he met online. Both are aware of Sam's desire to be feminine. A man bun will no longer be Sam's go to hairstyle!

Despite being free from the terror of the studio, Ryan grapples with the knowledge that while he retains his adult mind, the outside world sees the sweet, diminutive Kaylee. An unaccompanied six year old girl on the streets of one of the most populated cities in the US also brings plenty of unwanted attention, and as such, it is clear he will need help. Whether he seeks out his mother or his small group of trusted friends, Ryan will have to act quickly as the longer he remains alone the greater the chance that the unwanted attention brings the authorities, and with it, a host of unanswerable questions.

Excerpt: “Are you waiting for your mommy, sweetie?” The old woman smiled, and while I felt safe in her presence, internally- it was like great swathes of barbed wire had nested in my brain. Each word and gesture from the woman, from her kindly expression to the way she sat, it echoed what I already knew- the world would see Kaylee, and they would treat her accordingly.

There was no surprise in this. Ryan Sullivan wasn’t sitting at the bus stop, his legs dangling from the bench, unable to touch the ground. He wasn’t wearing a t-shirt with a glittery butterfly on it, or a pair of pink running shoes that lit up in the dark.

I answered snidely, “No, I’m waiting for a bus.”

I woke to a bitter taste and aching in my shoulders. Shaking my head was like moving through pea soup while pinballs rattled in my skull.

My hands were strapped behind me, as were my ankles to the feet of a chair.

“Hello?”

No answer.

The fog lifted and I found myself in a room with grey, cinder block walls, a concrete ceiling dripping with condensation, florescent lights blinking in and out, and a dirty mirror to veil my reflection with handprints and dust. Knowing my luck there were agents on the other side waiting to begin an interrogation.

*Before…

“Probably, you’ll have to at least come to Santiago with me at some point.”
“Where?”
“Chile.”
“You live in Chile?”
“No, not really but it’s where we bring in new bloods.”
“New bloods?”
“People like you. A lot of our people went out of the colonies to live in the wider world some have had kids we try and bring them home if they call for it or like you turn out to be Shuan or Tuan and their powers start.”
“Oh…”
I head to Jax’s car after I eat my burgers and take my pop and Cheyenne joins me and he’s there with some girl and they’re listening to tunes and have the AC blasting away and I slip into the back seats laying down and reach out taking shy’s hand while I’m doing so and she joins me laying in the cool of the car.
We both let out an out of the heat and pleasantly full sigh and she wraps her arms around my waist and wriggles to get comfortable saying, “In the tradition of my peoples I recommend a siesta.”
Jax is like. “Agreed…Amy?”
She takes his jacket and wads it up like a pillow and shoots me a look and a little smile as she uses him as a pillow. “Definitely.”
I snuggle back against Cheyenne and whisper. “Tell me about Chile?”
She hugs me a little tighter and whispers in my ear. “I first went there when I was six….”
*And Now…

Somewhere, the road itself casts shadows in a land called...

Bian
(Bee-Onn)
by Erin Halfelven

 
Introduction: This is another story in the Cynthia Chronicles series. Other stories in the series are An Incremental Journey, Cynthia and the Reluctant Girlfriend, Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver, Cynthia and the Moment of Truth, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part I, Cynthia and the High School Years - Part II, Charli and the Girl Cave, Bobbie and the Glass Ceiling, Randi and the College Professor, Adam and the Three Wishes, Lisa and the Culinary Quest (aka Howard and the Completed pass), Cynthia and the Solicitous Sisters-in-Law, Cynthia and the Queen of the Knight, and Cynthia and the Dropped Ball. The time frame of this story follows about three to four years after Charli and the Girl Cave. This story takes place a little more than a year after Bobbie Anderson wins the (British) Open and about ten years after Simoné and the Second Time Around.

So much for the prosaic cliffhanger. They are in time to save Penny; however, The Wizard is needed immediately.

To Ryan’s horror, Ms. Daniels continues her bizarre transformation from network executive to doting mother-to-be. Despite this fact, Ryan is heartened by the return of Ashley. Unfortunately, not all was as it was before. Still, when all seems lost, a new hope for escape rises from an unlikely source.

Excerpt: The young woman easily pulled the covers away from my face and kissed me gently on the forehead. “I love you, Kaylee.”

She lingered for a minute, likely waiting for me to say something in return. With my silence, however, she trudged from the room.

I tossed and turned, my mind grappling with my inability to leave and the horrible fate that awaited me as the daughter of a madwoman. My body and mind exhausted with the struggle finally succumbed to sleep hours later.

When President Hillary Rodham Clinton signed into law the newest revision of the Patriot Act, I was fired up. Now, the government considered any speech, including the sermons of a pastor, that spoke against a LGBT lifestyle, an act of Terrorism. Up to this point, through the Bush and Obama presidencies, this act primarily dealt with any actions or communications that threatened the physical safety of the United States of America.

Why is a red headed witch chasing an old man in a bath robe through the mall? Will the ninja commander finally get to read Make Out Paradise Seven? Who will own the Quickening, Duncan's Donuts and Coffee or The Clan MacCloud Healthy Living Emporium? Will that sexy jutsu EVER wear off? And what does all this have to do with an intergalactic invasion or the Men in Beige?

Disclaimer: Any characters that appear to be like other characters are not really and no one they may accidentally appear like is owned by me. This story was just thrown together by me for the September contest without any real intention of anything serious. Please just enjoy (or not) the silliness.

With Ashley gone, the three remaining ‘children’ decide that escape is the only option if they want to retain their adult minds.

Excerpt: As Musica prattled on, urging me to get out of bed, my mind waffled back and forth between submission and outright defiance. A part of me desperately wanted to prove that Dr. Travers’ serum was a failure, that Ryan Sullivan would never become weak-willed, timid Kaylee. When he saw the defiance in me, the failure of his masterwork, would he show emotion? Would his face sag, his shoulders slump in defeat? I vacillated between the two mindsets, as Ashley’s voice played in an endless loop. “You aren’t a failure. Because you haven’t ever even tried.”

Somewhere, pine boughs and red shirts mean something in a land called...

Bian
(Bee-Onn)
by Erin Halfelven