CHAPTER 44
In deference to both our numbers and to the age that had made itself so evident, we eventually travelled down by train. York station was being cleaned up, but it was still draughty, and I was glad to find our seats on the shiny new train. So very different from those journeys in my youth and to be honest I realised that the destination this time was of a very different kind.

Thanks as always to Robyn Hood, Emily and Cressar. And to everyone who has commented and kept with the story :)

Part 5 The calm before the storm

Poppy runs her fingers along my newly cut fringe.

"Cool," she says, finding the little kink caused by the way my hair falls, "it suits you, pixie girl." She smiles mischievously knowing that I hate it when she talks to me like I’m a child. "I feel sorry for you, Emmy," she adds.

"Huh?"

"You look hot when you’re cross." She looks me in the eye, making my body go all tingly.

So You Want To Be A Girl, Do You? - Chapter 8
By Barbara Lynn Terry

If you have not read “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, you should. It is a good poem to read. Stephanie read in study hall about how Francis Scott Key wrote the poem The Star Spangled Banner while a prisoner aboard a British vessel. She also found out that it is the first stanza of that poem that is our national anthem.*

While I'm not writing... This was the first story I wrote for a Creative Writing class I took in college back around '92 or so. I don't remember. The second story I wrote for the class is also on BCTS called here the original Wish Lash, so this is a pretty early effort. I only made a few minor changes to the story.

Someone said not long ago that the only stories on BCTS had sex changes. Well, this one doesn't. I no longer have the original file so I just OCR'd the document printed on my old trusty Epson MX-80 so I could have it in electronic form again. I thought I'd share it here for what it's worth. I was working at a semi-conductor manufacturer at the time, so I was trying to sound all techie. -- Ed

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.

THE PIRATES
Day after blistering day a 'ship of the damned' flying the black flag followed in our wake. When the wind eased, we would gain a league, when the wind freshened, they would gain it back.

We knew those following were spawn of the Devil, from glimpses through our captain’s powerful telescope at night. When the moon was full, you could see the Pirates from Hell were a collection of bones, held together by ungodly power.

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.