This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
“Mom, I’m heading out!” Jack yelled as he simultaneously pulled his favorite Chevy logo ball cap on backwards over his short, light brown hair while he raced down the stairs in an attempt to make it out the front door before his mom could order him to take his younger sister Trick or Treating.
“Jack! You need to take your sister!” His mom yelled just as his hand touched the doorknob.
Crap!
Now he was going to be stuck leading Hannah around and he would not be able to get as much loot. “Moomm! She’s 12. She doesn’t need me to go with her anymore. Can’t you or Dad take her?”
Dish towel in hand, Jack’s mother walked from the kitchen to address her reluctant son. Her lips were pressed tight with disappointment. “You’re her big brother. It is your responsibility to look out for her. Besides, it will only take her 30 to 45 minutes and you can go out with your friends after she is done.”
Jack knew he had lost. Last year, Dad took great care explaining to him how he had to look out for his little sister now that he was almost old enough to drive. He always looked out for her. Not because he had to, but because she was his pain in the butt little sister and he was her big brother. That was just how it worked and who else would he blame when something was found broken in the house?
“Fine...” He said, despondently as he turned to his little sister.
Hannah was dressed like a Fairy Princess, complete with cellophane wings that had been colored to look like real insect wings. Jack had helped her with the wings by bending the wires and using a heat gun to get the cellophane tight on the wires. He was actually kind of proud how they turned out.
“Where is your costume?” Hannah the Fairy Princess asked with imperiously crossed arms as she looked up at him with disappointment.
Jack actually wanted to go out dressed up, but his friends joked about how only little kids dressed up anymore. His wicked cool Iron Man costume that he paid for out of his own allowance still hung in his closet, ready to go, but he chickened out at the last second. He laughed to cover his embarrassment. “This is my costume. I’m a psychopathic killer and everyone knows that they look normal.”
Hannah was not impressed with his logic. “That’s not a costume and you know it. You won’t get any candy without a costume.”
“Yeah, I will. I saw all the older kids with their pillow cases full of loot last year and they all wore the same ‘costume’.”
“Whatever...” Hannah said, waving her hand with dismissal.
Jack jerked the door open and confidently strode outside with a glance back at Hannah. “Let’s get outta here.”
Jack dejectedly trailed behind Hannah as she rang the neighbor’s door bells. “Trick or Treat!” She happily sang to each person as they complimented her on her cute costume and gave her the best candy options. Jack started to regret listening to his friends. He was just about to say “the hell with it!”, run back to his house and put on his wicked cool costume so that he could get compliments too. He even had LED flashlights and sound effects rigged up to make his gloves look and sound like the real Iron Man’s repulsor rays.
“Jack!, Dude, are ya coming with us or are ya going to babysit your little sister all night?” Jack heard his friend Tony yell from across the street.
Jack glanced down the street as he weighed his options. He spotted Hannah’s friend Sarah with Sarah’s mom. He pointed. “Hey! There’s Sarah. Why don’t you go with her?”
Hannah glared at her big brother. “Jack! Mom’s going to kill you when she finds out.”
Jack sighed and let out a huge breath to exaggerate his annoyance. “She’s not going to find out. You’re going to tell her that you decided to hang out with Sarah and her mom instead of me, right?”
“No.” Hannah said, not budging one inch.
Jack clenched his jaw as his friends started to walk over with grins on their faces. He knew that they were going to make fun of him if his dumb sister didn’t go away soon. “Fine! I’ll give you half of my candy...”
“I pick?” Hannah asked with a victorious grin.
“Yep.” Jack said, nodding his head once.
Hannah, the little conniver had the audacity to reach out her hand to seal the deal with a handshake. “Deal!” Her smile at having beaten her brother was plainly evident on her face.
She turned to chase after her friend, but paused and glanced back over her shoulder. “But you better not get in trouble like you did last year. Mom was not happy that Mr. Freemont called to complain about the poop bag on his doorstep.”
Jack’s fists clenched with frustration. She would bring that up. “I won’t, promise. That was a lame trick anyway.”
“Dude, how much longer are ya going to take with the brat?” Vic asked as he mock punched him lightly on his shoulder.
Finally, someone he could take his frustration on and yell at without getting into trouble. “Hey! She’s my sister! Only I can call her a brat.”
Vic held up his hands with surrender. “Sorry dude...”
Jack spotted Hannah still standing there watching her big brother deal with is friends. “Okay, take off brat!” He said, just to make sure that his friends knew who was in charge.
Hannah stuck her tongue out at him and ran off, the brat. His friends gave him a little bit of crap about it, but he was able to brush their ribbing off. “Hey! Are you two going to stand in the street all night or are we going to get some loot?!” Jack asked.
Jack, Vic and Tony quickly and efficiently ran from house to house, filling their bags with candy. They didn’t care that the majority of people handing out candy did not appreciate the boys trick or treating without a costume. The few people who refused, the boys silently vowed to get revenge via the old tp rolls, shaving cream on the cars and even dog poo bags set on fire on their doorsteps trick. They had fun plotting their revenge in between successful loot hauls.
An hour later, they came to their last house. The house had just been bought the day before Halloween and it was already well decorated for the holiday. Some of their friends reported that they saw some hot chick putting up decorations this afternoon while dressed up in some sexy vampire costume. Jack and his friends couldn’t wait to ring her doorbell. They even joked about what “ringing her doorbell” might mean.
As they surveyed her yard from the safety of the street, they were a little spooked by how good that her yard was decorated. She had fog rolling through realistic tombstones and a spooky soundtrack playing from hidden speakers. Spider webs hung from the trees and bushes.
In addition to that, hanging from the largest branch, they spotted a human sized cocoon randomly wiggling, as if a real person was inside and trying to escape. They actually paused at the foot of her walkway and even though none of them wanted to admit it, they were all more than a little spooked by the yard’s decorations. Everything looked so real, but they had also heard other kids boasting about how Ms. Graves, the woman who owned the house, gave them full size candy bars.
“Dude, I dunno. This place is insane spooky...” Vic said, taking a step back.
“Ah come on, ya wuss. It’s just fog generators.” Tony said, sounding only half convinced despite his bravado.
“Yeah man, it’s Halloween. Nothing is real.” Jack said.
The three friends made it halfway to the door when they noticed a distressed wooden sign that looked like it was painted with blood.
“Warning: Costumes required for Treats, but Tricks are free to all who dare!”
“Oh look, dumb sign.” Jack said as he pointed to it.
“I dunno man...” Vic and Tony said in stereo as they stopped their advance.
“Muh ha ha ha ha! The blood of naughty children tastes the best!” A crackly witch’s voice echoed from the hidden speaker system causing all three boys to retreat a step.
“Umm, how about if you two go on ahead? My bag is, umm, full.” Vic said, retreating another step back.
Tony and Jack looked at their bags and at Vic’s bag. None of the bags was full and one more candy bar would not even come close to breaking a seam. “Dude, it’s not even close!” Jack said, pointing at Vic’s bag with contempt.
Tony surprised Jack by coming to Vic’s defense. “Hey, how about if you go ahead and we wait back here for ya?”
“What?!?! Not you too? Come on guys. It’s just a sign. There isn’t actually a rule that says you have to wear a costume on Halloween to go Trick or Treating!” Jack said.
“”Muh ha ha ha ha! Come closer my pretty said the spider to the fly!” The same crackly witch’s voice called out from the hidden speaker system causing all three boys to retreat another step.
“There is no f’ing way that I am going to let a stupid boombox playing a CD you can pick up at any store, scare me. Are you guys coming or not!?” Jack asked, turning his face away and pretending to spit to show his contempt.
“Umm, you go ahead. We’ll wait here for ya dude, but we can just call it a night if ya want.” Tony said, glancing desperately at his two friends.
“Vic?” Jack asked.
Vic waved and appeared to relax a little as he stepped back onto the street. “Nah, I’m good.”
“You fucking pansies! Fine, I’m going! You two better not fucking run...” Jack said as he stomped furiously to Ms. Grave’s front door and rang her doorbell.
“Muh ha ha ha! Muh ha ha! Errrkk!” The laughing witch’s voice cut off with a gurgle as the door opened.
Jack almost bolted right then and there. He wanted to, but there was no way that he was going to back down now. A woman dressed in a sexy vampire costume answered the door. Her costume left little to the imagination and Jack felt Big Jack stirring in his jeans. Her boobs were practically popping out of her low cut dress. His eyes were drawn, of their own accord, even further south as he took in the woman’s curves. She wore a sheer black mini-skirt that was torn in places to make it look a little ragged. Jack even made out what appeared to be her black panties underneath. Her bare, smooth and shapely legs made him want to drop to his knees before the woman and kiss her stiletto heel encased feet.
“Like what ya see big boy?” The woman asked, embarrassing him and snapping his eyes back to her face.
“Ummm, ummm, ummm...” Jack stammered as he looked into her blood red eyes. Her makeup was done up to make it appear like she had recently cried in blood. The delicate trail of red drew his eyes down to her blood red lips and realistic vampire fangs.
“You did read the sign, right?” The goddess of a vampire asked him with a slight smirk.
Jack did not want to admit it to anyone, but he wanted to bolt. Her smug smirk and his manly pride were the only two things that held him back because every instinct in his body was shouting at him to run and run now while he had the chance. The woman was a real vampire and she was going to pull him into her lair and suck his blood!
Jack dug in deep and squared his shoulders. “Of course, now can I have my candy?”
The vampire lady looked a little disappointed with Jack’s response. “Do you agree to the Pact of Halloween?” She asked.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Trick or Treat.” Jack said impatiently. “That better?”
The vampire lady smiled triumphantly at Jack and her smile did nothing to make him feel better. Her eyes glowed with an inner fire that mesmerized and paralyzed Jack for a moment. He wanted to move, but he couldn’t.
“Trick!” The vampire lady said as she grabbed his hand lightning fast and pulled it to her before he even realized what was happening or had time to react. That caused him to let out an involuntary scream, but that was all that he could do as she licked her lips with anticipation while slowly reaching into a smoking caldron next to the door.
During his inventory of the woman’s charms, he never noticed the caldron. Now that he did, he wanted to run so badly, but his legs were locked into place. Somehow, he was rooted to the spot as the vampire held his hand. She wasn’t even holding it that hard. Just the lightest of touches, but he felt helpless to resist. He just knew that she was going to kill him. Why didn’t he just stay with his sister like he was supposed to? If he lived through this, he was never going to go Trick or Treating again.
He expected her to pull out a knife from the caldron’s foggy depths. He almost fainted when the vampire lady pulled out a full sized candy bar from caldron. She placed it in his hand and slowly closed his nerveless fingers around the bar so that he would not drop it.
“Excellent costume, sweetie. I would have never guessed if you hadn’t screamed a little there. Now, here is your Treat. Come back again next year.” She said with a smile that did nothing to relieve his panic.
As soon as she let go of his hand, he felt his strength return. He turned and ran as if his very life depended on it. Jack’s so-called ‘friends’ were not at the end of the walkway. Some friends they turned out to be. They didn’t even wait for him or try to help him, but he caught up to the pair a block later. They were jogging away and with his full out run, he easily caught up to them.
“Fuckers! Why didn’t you wait for me?” Jack screamed, panic and the run made his voice sound a little more girly than normal, but he didn’t notice or care. He still got crap about his voice when he yelled for his teammates to pass him the ball in gym class. Jack was still in the early stages of puberty and it was normal for his voice to slip into the higher octaves when he was stressed.
“Dude, we saw you walk up, ring the doorbell then run down the block. We were trying to catch up to you!” Vic yelled back as the three friends all gasped for air.
“That’s not funny Vic! If I ran, then how come I had to chase you two down?” Jack asked as he calmly forced his voice into his normal octave. He thought that his voice still sounded a little high to him, but not that bad considering how his chest felt like it was on fire from his sprint to catch his friends. It felt like someone was sitting on his chest as he struggled to catch his breath.
After his run, his shoes felt like the laces had come undone because they felt like they were going to fall off his feet. His jeans painfully dug into his hips and his underwear felt funny across his butt. Thinking that his erection caused by checking out the vampire lady had messed up his underwear, he reached down and tried to adjust his crotch. He brushed his penis with the side of his hand to try and casually push it back in place without his friends noticing.
He felt the hard and reassuring lump of his package, but as he continued to struggle for breath, even that felt weird. He wanted to reach inside his pants and adjust his penis directly, but he didn’t want anyone to see him messing with his junk while walking down the street. Not even his friends. Besides, even his clothes felt scratchy against his skin.
“It must be the sweat from my run.” Jack thought as he walked alongside his friends..
“I’m going home. See you two losers at school tomorrow.” Vic said as he turned rapidly walked away from Tony and Jack.
A group of giggling ghouls, vampires and princesses walked past with Tony’s girlfriend, Heather Thompson trailing close behind. Jack figured that she must be chaperoning them, but his eyes were drawn to her costume. She was dressed as a sexy vampire and if Jack had not just been scared to death by what had to have been a real vampire, he would have said that Heather looked hot.
“Heather! Wait up!” Tony yelled, leaving Jack by himself.
Jack decided to try and walk it off. Maybe regain his breath. His panic filled run had really taken a lot out of him. A short sprint like that wouldn’t normally do him in, but he never ran scared shitless with untied shoes before either. He kneeled down to tie his shoes and he was surprised to discover that they were tied. Double knotted even. Why did they feel so loose?
Shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head at his imagination, he continued his trek back toward the safety of his home. His clothes continued to bug him and even his hat felt like it was on too tight. He made it half a block before the night and his sudden lack of friends got to him. The crazy lady really scared the crap out of him and he did not want to be anywhere near that woman’s house. He decided that itchy clothes, loose shoes, and chest on fire or not, he wanted to get home, now.
He started to jog. His gait felt different, but he could not figure out why. He was running just like he always did. One foot in front of the other, but his hips felt like they were pivoting a little more and that motion made his arms start to swing side to side like a girl. The damn loot bag was messing up his gait. He thought about tossing it after only a couple of blocks. He even debated just handing his candy bag to the next kid he saw to lighten his load, but damned if he was going to give up the full sized candy bar that he nearly died for.
His mom was waiting for him when he collapsed with relief against the door to his house. After his marathon run home, his chest felt even worse and he could hardly breathe as his mom glared at him with anger and disappointment. Between breaths, he turned his head to the living room and saw Hannah happily sitting on the floor, sorting her candy to remove all the stuff that she didn’t like.
He knew that he had been caught. His mom would not be mad at him if she did not already know that he had abandoned his sister to hang with his friends.
“And where do you think that you have been? Do we need to have your father follow you around like he did with Hannah?”
“Sorry mom, I kinda lost track of time.” Jack said with a whisper as he furiously tried to formulate an excuse that might get him out of trouble. If his dad had to go with Hannah, then he knew that he was really busted..
“Room, now...” She said with a much calmer and steadier voice than Jack expected.
He did not immediately follow her order. Instead, he gathered enough breath to walk over to Hannah’s side. He ignored his mother’s withering glare as he reached into his bag and took out the single full sized candy bar that he paid so dearly for. Reward in hand and to Hannah’s amazement,he wordlessly dumped the rest of his treasure on the floor for her to take.
He made it halfway up the stairs before his mom yelled up. “And take off that ridiculous costume before your dad sees you!”
Jack paused. His chest still hurt to breath, but he found that if he took smaller breaths; he could almost catch his breath. “What?” He asked.
“Just go. I can’t believe that you went out dressed like that after you spent all that money for that painted on superhero costume that you just had to have!”
Jack stared at his mom with confusion. What was she talking about? Painted on? His Iron Man costume was NOT painted on. Why was she not madder about his dad being forced to take Hannah out? He shrugged his shoulders and stumbled into his room. He could not wait to take off his shirt, his shoes and his jeans.
“What the hell?” He muttered with confusion as he looked around his room. Did his parents punk him while he was out and swap his sister’s room with his or did he just take a wrong turn? He backed out of what looked like Hannah’s room and looked across the hallway to where Hannah’s room was the last time he checked. That was only three or four hours ago, so if his dad did punk him; he must have been busy to move everything that fast.
He cautiously peered into Hannah’s room and found it full of Hannah’s furniture, pictures and clothing. Yep, Hanna's room was definitely where he left it.
“What the hell?” He asked again as he turned back to his now pink-i-fied room. Well, it wasn’t really pink. It was still blue, but a lighter blue than he remembered. The paint on the walls wasn’t what confused him the most about his room though. It was all the girly posters with Justin Bieber, Unicorns and Fairy Princesses on the wall along with the stuffed animals neatly arranged at the head of his bed that confused him the most.
With all the changes, he almost missed what was lying across the bed and next to the stuffed animals. It was what appeared to be a girl’s skin tight, black Lycra suit designed to look like leather. A metal link belt was draped across the waist of the costume and at the end of each arm, a small multi-tubed bracelet rested. A matching pair of black boots with a tapered two inch sat on the floor next to his bed.
Holy crap! His parents really went all out on their prank. He had only watched The Avengers movie ten times. So, he knew exactly whose costume was lying on his bed. It was a very good replica of Black Widow’s costume. There was no way that he would ever fit into that and even if he could, he would never wear it.
He started to laugh, but had to force himself to stop. Even laughing hurt his chest. He really needed to get his shirt off and see what was going on. Maybe he fell down and bruised a rib or something during his run from that house.
No, his parents really pulled a good trick on him this Halloween. The redecorating of his room was really good. That must be why his mom ordered him to his room instead of yelling at him. She wanted him to see his room and freak out.
Well, he wasn’t going to give in so easily. He sat down on the fluffy white comforter that now covered his bed and bent down to remove his shoes. His jeans pinched his hips even more, but he forced himself to ignore the pain as he pulled his shoes off without bothering to untie them. That surprised him because he always had to untie his shoes before he could remove them. He hated wearing slip on shoes or shoes that felt like they might fall of. So, he always tied his laces securely.
His feet were sweating horribly and he discovered the reason why. He was wearing two pairs of thick socks on his feet. “That must be why my shoes came off so easily.” Jack muttered to himself as he tried to pull of the sweaty socks. He almost got his left foot bare before he couldn’t take his jeans digging into his hips anymore.
They were so tight! Jack lay back onto his bed, sucked in his gut and was surprised to discover that his fingers easily fit under his waistband. He had inches to spare as he looked down to his abdomen. He unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, exposing the bulge of his penis held securely in place by his white brief underwear. With the zipper undone, the pressure on his hips relaxed and he felt a little better. He was not sure if it his imagination or not, but did his package look bigger?
He debated pulling his jeans off all the way, but now his chest reminded him of how hard it felt for him to breathe. He sat back up and pulled off his loose fitting t-shirt. His hat tugged on his scalp, but remained firmly in place as he slipped his t-shirt off. Since it was bugging his head so much, Jack raised his hands to remove it, but the sensation of his chest caused him to stop.
He took his shirt off. Why wasn’t his chest bare and why was he still having trouble breathing? He looked down and discovered that his chest was wrapped with something. His entire upper chest was tightly wrapped with multiple Ace bandages.
“What the hell? Where did these come from?” Jack asked, feeling very confused. He had to get these bandages off his chest. He had to be able to breathe. His panic started to overwhelm him as the combination of his tightly bound chest and the lack of oxygen forced him to tug and pull on the bandages with desperation. He screamed with frustration as he struggled with the bandages.
“Jackie? What’s wrong?” His mom yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
Jack ignored his mother’s concerned question as he finally got the bandages loose enough to remove and air began to flow into his laboring lungs a little easier.
He heard he began to walk up the stairs. “Jackie?” She called out.
There was something wrong with his chest. It was misshapen because as soon as the pressure of the bandages was removed, two distinct lumps formed under the bindings.
Ignoring the question of the bandages and why his mom was calling him Jackie, he now wondered who put balloons on his chest? He cradled his arm under the balloons as he finished removing the bandages. If they were water balloons, he did not want them falling and bursting on his floor. Even if his parents worked with the vampire lady to punk him, his mom would still kill him if he made a mess on his floor.
When the bandages finally fell, they loosely gathered around his waist like an extra long belt. He was surprised that the balloons did not also fall. Instead of balloons, he saw two large, to him, perfectly formed and real looking breasts sitting proudly on his chest.
“Jackie, are you alright?” His mom asked as she cautiously peered into Jack’s room.
Jack looked up at his mom with a horror stricken expression as he cupped and supported his newly discovered breasts in each hand. He had never touched a girl’s breasts before, but they felt real to him and he could feel his hands on his breasts. Everything started to click into place as he realized exactly what the vampire lady said about his “boy costume” and why his mom was calling him Jackie.
“Jackie? What’s wrong, dear?” His mom asked as she stepped fully into his room.
Jack dropped his right hand down and reached into his briefs while his other hand remained securely clutching his left breast. He felt his unsupported right breast jiggle and that alien sensation caused him let go of his breast, reach across his chest and hug his arm over his chest to keep both of his breasts hidden and from moving.
Initially, he felt reassured by what he felt when he thrust into his briefs. His hand grabbed onto something long, hard with a slightly rubbery texture that felt kind of like his penis would feel when he was hard, but he could not feel his hand touching his penis. He only felt his hand touching a penis shaped object where his penis should be.
He desperately pulled on what had to be his penis in an attempt to revive it. Maybe his circulation was cut off to it and his penis fell asleep. With a pinching sensation, his penis came loose from his groin and he was able to pull it completely free from his briefs. Startled, he held his penis up, his eyes silently begging his mom to fix it for him.
“Jacqueline Amber Roschen! That is too much! What were you thinking putting a dildo in your pants?!?!” His mother admonished him.
Jack’s penis fell from his hand as he panicked. He scrambled to pull down his jeans to inspect his crotch. There was nothing there except a small mound and a slit that looked exactly like a girl’s va-va-va, he could not even think it.
“I’m a, I’m a, I’m a, G’g’irrrrlll!!!” Jack struggled to speak before he let loose with a blood curdling scream and promptly passed out onto his bed. His head bounced once and dislodged his baseball cap. Long locks of brilliant red hair spilled out and onto the arctic white covers of his bed.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. The Black Widow is the property of Marvel Comics.
Note:Well, I had the idea for a sequel last year and I took some notes, had an outline, but no outline I write survives contact with the enemy, me. This turned out a bit different then I planned, but I hope ya all like it. Thanks to djkauf for editing.
Jackie dreaded the arrival of October more than any other month because October meant Halloween and with Halloween came ‘Trick or Treating’. It was the ‘Trick’ part of the tradition that Jackie feared the most because four Halloweens ago, she received a real doozy of a trick as punishment for being a punk and not wearing a costume. Jackie felt certain it was a punishment, but now, she wasn’t so sure because she was almost ashamed to admit it; she loved being a girl far more than she liked being a boy.
Her acceptance of girlhood didn’t come easy. The first year was pure hell on both her and her family. Her family only knew her as a girl and her initial claims of being born a boy caused her to suffer through many visits with a psychologist. She might have been able to skip the shrink sessions if she hadn’t hacked off most of her hair three days after Halloween.
Jack was simply frustrated and hated having to spend so much time washing, conditioning, blow drying and styling her hair, but her parents saw things differently. At the advice of her school counselors, who knew better because scientific studies and Britney Spears had proven that girls who butcher their own hair are crying out for help, they sent her to see a psychologist.
Fortunately, her shrink was convinced she was just going through an intense tomboy phase, brought on by typical teenage girl body image angst. Jackie had no problems with her body image. She knew she was smoking hot and wasn’t at all worried about not looking pretty enough for the boys. Oh no, it was the exact opposite with her. She hated how pretty she looked and didn’t want to have anything to do with girl things, girl roles and most definitely not, boys as boyfriends.
At first, she didn’t want to talk to the man about her ‘gender identity problem’, as he termed it, because she didn’t have a problem with admitting she was a girl. She was painfully aware of that fact, but she knew she was supposed to be a boy and nothing anyone could say or do was good enough to convince her otherwise. However, she was smart enough to know that the fact, in her reality, that she used to be a boy, wasn’t scientifically possible and thus, not something she should mention to her shrink.
She was also smart enough to figure out that the doctor needed to find something wrong with her before he could ‘cure’ her. Thus, after the second session, she began dressing more feminine while pretending to feel embarrassed about her ‘tomboy’ issue and after six months of bi-weekly therapy sessions, her esteemed and benevolent doctor pronounced her cured.
Sucker!
If it hadn’t been for her friends, Tony and Vic, knowing and remembering Jackie as Jack, their best friend and most definitely a dude, she might have been convinced she was crazy because people didn’t spontaneously change their gender and bend reality to make everyone think nothing was wrong. Tony’s girlfriend, Heather, was also a big help.
Due to all the time Tony and Vic spent trying to help their friend, Heather thought Tony was cheating on her, but after Jackie’s hair meltdown and some intense heart to heart discussions, Heather realized that A) Tony was not cheating on her and B) Jackie really had been a boy because Jackie had no clue about being a girl.
Without Heather’s help, Jackie would’ve probably killed herself or been committed. It was Heather who helped her through the dark times and got her up to speed on all the things girls her age should know. It was Heather’s advice and coaching on what to tell the shrink about what she was thinking and feeling after her Halloween meltdown that got her out of counseling intact.
Heather, her first BFF and friends who are boys, but not boyfriends, stuck by her side and got her through the first year. Another thing that helped her cope with her sudden gender reversal was the discovery that she was not alone. Other people had fallen victim to the house and its prankster.
There were sites dedicated to compiling the accounts of the people who were changed by the Prankster as she called her or it or whatever the being that screwed up her life was. Other people called it the Trickster, Coyote and some even called it Loki, but Jackie had a hard time separating her image of the comic book Loki from the Norse Loki. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the only people who took the accounts as real were the handful of people who had been changed by the Prankster.
The following Halloween, Tony, Heather and Vic helped her track down the Prankster House. It had been sighted in a town two hours away and Tony, as the only one of her friends with his own car, was able to drive them to the town on Halloween night, but they arrived a full hour to late. The suspected Prankster House was empty and no evidence remained to even suggest it might have been the right house.
Jackie cried and found herself being hugged and comforted by Vic the entire ride home. The following week, she and Vic officially became a couple and Jackie found herself feeling pretty darn confused and happy about the situation. She still missed being a boy, but being a girl wasn’t all that bad. Plus, Vic was an excellent kisser and, hopefully unknown to her parents, the boy she lost her virginity to.
Now, in her second year of college, Jackie found herself squeezing herself into the same Black Widow costume she found in her room that fateful Halloween night. She was glad her hair was already red and she didn’t have to wear the wig that came with the costume. “Hurry up Melody! I’m...” She inhaled and jumped up as she pulled the skin tight costume over her hips. “Almost ready to go.”
“Hey, I’m working on it! Some of us haven’t been as blessed as you by the titty fairy and have to work a little harder to look our best!” Melody giggled at Jackie’s pained expression as she added a flesh toned bra insert to give herself a little more cleavage before she donned her dress.
Unlike her friend Jackie, Melody’s costume for this evening wasn’t really a costume. Her dress looked like something a girl would normally wear to a casual night out with her friends or to school, but on her six foot plus, male football player body, it looked like a costume. “Are you sure this is going to work because this new, anatomically correct gaff you insisted I buy is killing me!”
“Suck it up. It’s part of your costume and you want to be a girl, right?” Jackie shot back as she worked on zipping up the front of her suit.
Melody sighed wistfully at her, oozing sex appeal without even trying, friend. “Yeah, but I still find it hard to believe that you used to be a guy and that anyone would ever be fooled into thinking I’m a girl with these clothes.” She lamented as she stepped into her dress and pulled it over her flat and featureless hips.
Melody’s real first name was Alexander and ‘she’ was physically and painfully male, but she had always felt that something was wrong with her body. She was never comfortable with being a boy, doing boy things or wearing boy clothes. She always found herself looking at other women, and instead of feeling attracted to them, she found herself feeling jealous. Jealous of how pretty they looked, jealous of their clothes, jealous of their friendships and jealous of how free they were to express their emotions and feelings..
Alex compensated by being an all-star football player and as macho of a boy as she could be, the envy of all his friends and the object of desire by the girls. Nature was both cruel and kind to her in that effort. Kind because as a boy, Alex was blessed with the perfect body. He stood six foot four, had the wide chest and shoulders of a linebacker and was a natural athlete, which helped him earn the college football scholarship his parents and coach groomed him for. Cruel, because his desire to be the girl he felt on the inside was going to be a long, painful and humiliating process.
Unable to take it any more, she revealed her feelings and came out to her parents during the summer break. Her Mom called her a perverted freak and wanted nothing to do with her, but amazingly, her father stepped up and gave his daughter/son his support and love. It was a little rocky at first and it eventually led to Melody’s parents getting a divorce, but she took the first step, had the support of her father and thought things were looking up for her. How could there be anything worse than being rejected by your own mother?
Sadly, once she returned back to school in the fall, things went from bad to worse when she was booted from the team for being a ‘homo’ and all of her ‘friends’ turned their backs on her. The athletic department head claimed it was due to Alex taking ‘performance enhancing drugs’ and being booted from the team should have got him kicked out of college, but the threat of a discrimination lawsuit by the ACLU got the school to change their tune and Melody was allowed to stay in school while she began her transition.
Fortunately, her grades were good enough to keep her in school and her Dad had some money to help with both her tuition and medical bills, but socially, things went downhill fast and the stigma was too much for her to handle. She tried to kill herself with sleeping pills, but she was saved when, on a whim to move her bed, Jackie went over to Melody’s room to ask her for help and found her on the floor with an empty bottle of pills in her hand.
“So, explain to me again how me, dressing up like a girl is supposed to work?” Melody dubiously glanced down at her dress. “I mean, you told me you just wore your normal boy clothes and this ‘Prankster’’ changed you into a girl. Shouldn’t I wear my boy clothes instead?”
Jackie finished pulling on her boots. “Well, it’s like this. When you wear boy clothes, do you feel like a girl wearing a boy costume or a boy wearing his normal clothes?”
“Well, I feel wrong and would much rather be wearing something pretty, like this.” Melody smoothed the hem of her dress as a hesitant smile formed on her face before withering away. “But, I look ridiculous.”
“You do not!” Jackie glared at her friend.
Melody crossed her muscular arms over her barrel chest and looked at Jackie with disbelief. “Seriously? You’ve gotta be shitting me. I look like a freak.”
Jackie stood and gave her friend a hug. “Okay, you might need a ‘little’ work, but I’ve never seen you looking so beautiful before. That dress really brings out the color in your eyes!”
“Do you really think this will work?” Melody asked, as she tried to sneak a look in the mirror to verify her friend’s assessment.
“I dunno. It can’t hurt. The ‘Prankster’ is totally random. Sometimes it just gives people some candy as a treat, other times it gives them a trick. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern, but first, we need to get there before midnight and if we don’t leave right this second; we might not make it.” Jackie strode over to the door, opened it and motioned for her friend to join her. “Come on, hurry up!”
The open door and people walking past caused Melody to hesitant and nearly panic. “I can’t do it! Everyone will laugh…”
“Silly, it’s Halloween! If they do laugh, they won’t be laughing at you to be mean; they will be laughing because they are idiots and don’t really see the wonderful and beautiful girl that I see when I look at you.”
Tears began to pool in Melody’s eyes. “Oh, Jackie! I don’t deserve to have a friend like you.”
“Pa shaw! Now, shake your tail feathers, blot those eyes before you turn into a raccoon and let’s hit the road, girlfriend!” Jackie giggled at her friend’s startled reaction to her girlfriend pronouncement.
Their walk from the dorm to Jackie’s car almost turned poor Melody into a basket case due to all the people pointing at the pair and alternating between laughing at her and wolf whistles for Jackie. Jackie came to her friend’s defense by pretending to be the object of their laughter. “What?! Does this outfit make my butt look fat?!?!” She would cry, while pretending to be jealous of Melody for the wolf whistles she received. “Geez, Melody! This is the last time I let you make me look frumpy!”
The two hour drive turned into a two and a half hour drive due to an accident, causing them both some stress as the clock ticked closer to midnight. Instead of making to the suspected Prankster House with 30 minutes to spare, they pulled up with less than two minutes remaining until midnight.
Jackie wasn’t sure it was the place, until she saw the decorations; then she knew. The fog rolling over the yard, partially obscuring the tombstones and hiding the ground underneath looked the same as she remembered it, but this time she knew there weren’t any simple fog generators and the tombstones were probably real. The realization that she was really here and that it wasn’t cheap special effects made her blood run cold as she stopped at the start of the walkway leading to the front door of the house.
The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and her heart started to drop into her stomach with dread. She didn’t have time to think about her fear because she wasn’t here for herself. She was here for Melody and besides, this time she was wearing a costume. She wasn’t about to tempt pissing off the Prankster by ignoring the warning.
“Warning: Costumes required for Treats, but Tricks are free to all who dare!”
The warning sign caused her to debate her strategy for Melody. What if the Prankster decided to punish Melody for not wearing a costume, even though most people would consider her to be wearing a costume.
She reached over and gave Melody’s hand an encouraging squeeze. “Go on, I’ll be right here waiting for you.”
Melody looked terrified. “I can’t! Come with me, please…” She pleaded as each precious second ticked away.
Jackie took a deep breath and sighed. “Fine...let’s do this!” She pulled the unresisting Melody behind her and rang the doorbell.
“He he he he! Look at all the yummy, tender, pretty girls…so sweet for my cook pot.” A creepy man’s voice whispered from somewhere as the hinges on the door squealed with alarm as the door slowly opened.
Instead of a sultry female vampire, the pair was greeted by an imperious headless queen holding her animated head in her hands.
Jackie felt like bolting, but her feet were rooted to the ground with panic. “Tr-” She glanced over and elbowed a panicked Melody in her side. “Tr-Trick or Treat!” They both managed to chorus just before a gong sounded announcing the arrival of the midnight hour.
The mouth of the woman smiled at the pair as her body raised her head and placed it on the bloody stump of her neck. “Oh my, look at the time. That was a close shave.” She grinned maniacally as she adjusted her head on her neck. “A second later and the pact would have required me to depart, but the spoken covenant requires me to respond.”
Jackie wanted to run and due to the vice grip on her hand, she could tell Melody felt the same. “Oh,” She shakily giggled. “That’s okay, really. I’m just here for my friend. Don’t mind me, hehe…”
The Queen shook her head sadly from side to side. “That’s not an option my dear and as a repeat visitor, you, more than anyone should know the rules that bind me to this All Hallows Eve…”
Jackie felt her knees begin to shake as she considered how badly this could go for her. What if the Prankster turned her into an old hag like she reportedly did to a young girl last year, or worse, back into a boy!
“Fortunately for you both, those are the only rules I have to follow.” The Queen leaned back and chuckled, causing her head to start to fall backwards on her neck, exposing the cut before she reached up in time to catch it. She smiled as she looked at the now shaking girls and focused her attention on Melody. “Well, well, what do we have here young lady. It looks like you tried, but you certainly could use some help.” She reached to her side and extracted a candy bar.
Melody looked down with surprise as her hand automatically rose to accept the offered candy bar. “Th-Th-Thank you…” She looked back up to the Queen’s face and whispered as tears began to fall from her eyes. She felt her hand gently close around the bar, but she couldn’t bring herself to look down to see what type of candy bar she had been given.
Next, the Queen turned her attention back to Jackie. “You did a much better job this year and you even brought a friend. For that, you deserve a reward!”
Jackie shivered as the Queen made her ‘reward’ pronouncement and like Melody, Jackie couldn’t take her eyes of the Queen’s face as she felt her hand rise all on its own to accept the offered treat. She felt her fingers wrap around a candy bar and she desperately wanted to look down to see what she had been given, but her eyes refused to look away from the Queen’s face.
“Happy Halloween!” The Queen laughed as she closed her door with a final sounding boom that caused the porch to vibrate.
Released from their paralysis, they both simultaneously glanced down to the hands. “I got a Mounds bar!” Melody’s voice squealed with excitement as her voice rose a few octaves.
The girlish sound of Melody’s voice caused Jackie to look over at her friend and she was stunned and pleased to see a very pretty girl in the former boy’s place. As a girl, Melody appeared to be a few inches shorter than her, probably around five foot six or seven compared to Jackie’s five foot eight, but best of all, Melody looked extremely happy as she patted her body to confirm what her eyes were telling her.
“I can’t believe it...I can’t believe it…” Melody repeated a few times before she jumped and hugged Jackie tightly to her body. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She suddenly blushed, took a step back and glanced back at her candy bar before looking back to Jackie.
“You look the same to me. What did she give you?” Melody asked, hugging her candy bar protectively to her chest as she glanced expectantly at Jackie’s hand.
Jackie glanced down as she hesitantly opened her hand to reveal her treat. “What is a Secret bar? I’ve never heard of those, have you?”
Melody shook her head no and glanced back down at her candy bar; as if afraid it would disappear on her. “Maybe it’s from England or something?” She smiled and recited her candy bar’s famous jingle. “Almond Joy's got nuts / Mounds don't…” She gasped and grabbed her throat as the sweet sound of her singing voice caught her by surprise. “This is so awesome! I’m so happy, I could just scream!” She bounced up and down with excitement a few times before stopping to happily clutch her breasts. “They’re real!” She hugged a slowly relaxing Jackie again.
“We should leave. It’s a long drive back…” Jackie looked nervously around the yard and noticed something was missing. “The decorations...they’re gone…” She whispered, both stunned and not surprised at the same time.
Melody waited until they were both in the car before she leaned her chair back, excitedly pulled up her dress and inspected her groin area. Even though Jackie had seen other girls naked in showers at school, she still found herself blushing and looking away as Melody shunned all modesty by pulling down the front of her panties to visually inspect herself.
A delighted giggle escaped her. “It looks so real! Oh my god!” She reached down and grabbed herself. After a second or two of her feeling herself, she removed her hand, grabbed Jackie’s hand and pulled it down to her groin. “It’s really real! Feel! I’m a girl!”
If she wasn’t trying to pay attention to the road, Jackie would’ve found Melody’s excitement extremely funny and heartwarming, but it was also very distracting. “Umm, I know you’re excited right now, but I’m trying to drive…”
Melody blushed and sat back up in her seat. “Oh yeah, sorry, but I’m just so happy!” She bounced up in down in her seat with barely restrained glee.
If it wasn’t for the seatbelt, Jackie would’ve worried that her friend would float out the window. She glanced over at her friend and smirked. “You should probably check your purse…” She pointed to the handbag that she knew didn’t belong to herself peeking out from beneath Melody’s seat. “See if you’re really Melody and not Alexandra or something.”
Melody jumped forward, causing the seatbelt to catch and hold her back. “Ack! Oh my god! I’m such a ditz now!” She laughed at herself as she leaned back to allow the shoulder belt to release before slowly leaning forward and pulling out the purse. “My first purse! I wonder what’s inside.” She giggled as she opened it.
“Oooh, makeup! A cell phone, wallet and OMG! Pads!” Melody held up a feminine hygiene product for Jackie to see. “Have I mentioned how awesome this is?!?! Do you need one? I got plenty in here, I think...” She pursed her lips thoughtfully as she dug deeper into her purse.
Jackie sighed as she slowly shook her head with disbelief at how excited her friend was over something she found uncomfortable to deal with. “Umm, no, I’m good, but what does your ID say?”
“Good question!” Melody dug into her wallet and her hands shook as she hastily attempted to pull out her ID from its protective pocket. “Ah! Got it! Oh my god! That’s me! Look!” She shoved her ID in front of Jackie’s eyes for a second before realizing it made it hard for the driver to see. “Oh, sorry, but it says ‘Female’ under gender and my name is Melody Anne! Same birthday, I’m officially 5’ 6” and 130 pounds, but I think the DMV camera adds 10 pounds because I’m sure that I don’t weigh that much.” She glanced down at her chest and legs and pinched her stomach. “Nope, no fat. I wonder what I do now instead of football because I feel great…”
Jackie couldn’t help smiling at her friend and she felt happy for her, but she was also very distracting. “I’m not sure...maybe you will find some more clues in your purse?”
“Oh yeah! Good idea…” Melody began digging into her purse.
An hour later and Melody was still smiling. “I think I’m a cheerleader. I found a picture in my wallet with me wearing our college’s cheer uniform. I can’t wait to get back to my room and try it on!” A look of confusion flashed across her face. “Umm, I’m not sure, but I think I have to go pee…can we stop?”
Fortunately, they were driving through a town and there were plenty of places. She spotted a bar with lots of costumed people going in and out of it, but she was looking for a gas station. Their restrooms would probably be cleaner and less abused than a bar’s would be at 1AM.
Murphy’s Law took effect and Melody pointed to the bar. “Look! How about there?”
“Umm,” Jackie gave it a second look as she slowed down. “It might be a little messy…”
“Please?” Melody gave her the puppy dog expression. “I really have to go and I wanna see what the girl’s bathroom looks like without having to worry about people yelling at me.”
“How did you learn the patented, irresistible, girl puppy dog eyes trick so quickly?!?!” Jackie giggled as she flipped on her turn signal and slowed to turn into the bar’s parking lot.
Melody cheered and shrugged her shoulders apologetically. “Beats me...hehe, thanks! Have I mentioned how awesome this is and you are?”
“Not recently, no…” Jackie muttered with a smirk as she found a lucky parking space.
They made it inside with the minimum of fuss. Much to Melody’s delight, the door man checked her ID and gave her a ‘X’ mark on her hand to indicate she was under 21. The doorman/bouncer surprised Jackie by doing a double take as he looked at her like he recognized her. He ignored her offered ID that showed she was also underage and rushed to stamp an ‘O’ on her hand. “Wow, if you’re not the real Black Widow, then, you look just like her! You should enter the costume contest, 1st prize is $100.”
Jackie glanced down at herself with confusion because, except for her naturally red hair, she didn’t think she looked anything like Scarlet Johannson. “I do?”
“Oh!” Melody excitedly grabbed Jackie and pulled her inside the bar. “You should totally do it!”
“Ummm, I’m not sure. We just stopped to use the bathroom, remember?” Jackie lightly admonished her friend as she pulled her through the crowded bar and toward their goal.
Melody’s reaction to entering the bathroom made her forget the doorman’s strange reaction to her costume. She stifled a giggle as Melody initially tiptoed past the entrance as if she was afraid someone would yell at her. After a few steps and no one giving her a second glance, she giddily clapped and rushed into a stall.
Jackie felt the same need and decided to take care of it while she could. She was not looking forward to peeling off her costume and one piece, skin tight outfits are just something she would need to add to her ‘do not buy, ever!’ list of clothing options.
She cursed the costume designer as she fumbled with military style buckle for her holsters, the decorative black widow belt followed by the zipper that left her exposed from her chest all the way to below her belly button. Her bracers and fingerless gloves were one more annoyance. “Thank god, I wasn’t in a rush! Who in the hell thought this cat suit was a good idea? Oh yeah, a man!” She muttered after it took almost a minute to pull her costume down far enough to relieve herself.
Pulling it back up proved to be a snap. It smoothly slid back up and into place as if the fake leather was lined with real silk instead of a cheap synthetic imitation. “Hmmm, it must have stretched a little or something…” She muttered as she made a few adjustments before exiting her stall to join a glowing Melody at the sinks.
Jackie intended to drag Melody out of the bar, but she never made it. On the way to the exit, a group of men wearing superhero costumes insisted she join them for a picture, followed by a shot of tequila to celebrate, which lead to a couple more shots with Melody’s encouragement and reminder that she could drive. Against her better judgment, she joined her new friends on the stage. After a few heroic poses, she somehow managed to win second place and $50.
She lost to some ditz wearing a Wonder Woman costume and the $50 turned out to be a voucher good at the bar, which led to a whirlwind of shots and an open excuse to party.
The next morning, Jackie woke up and was pleasantly surprised to find herself in her own bed, but unexpectedly, Melody was pressed up against her body and she looked so peaceful. She didn’t want to disturb her, but she had to get up and use the restroom.
She didn’t think anything happened with her and Melody, or anyone else, because she was still wearing her costume. She didn’t remember much after the 10th or was it the 15th shot? However, she would like to think she had a good time and let Melody drive the two of them home.
As she carefully disengaged herself from Melody and sat upright in her bed, she discovered that she felt surprisingly good after drinking as much as she thought she remembered. No hangover or anything, but she did have to urgently pee and deal with her costume in the process.
After performing the potty dance while hastily shimmying out of her costume, she sighed with relief bordering on orgasmic as she sat down on the toilet seat. “That’s the last time I wear that thing…” She muttered, glancing down at the offending costume. Done, she gently kicked her costume to the side before she entered the bathtub to take a much needed shower.
Jackie didn’t think much of it when Melody joined her in the bathroom to use the toilet. Melody felt differently. “This is so awesome! I never thought I would think having to sit down to go pee would feel so…” She sighed as she sought the words to describe how she felt. “Liberating! Yes, liberating because having a penis always made me feel so, well, trapped, ya know?”
Jackie poked her head out from behind the mostly opaque curtain. “Umm, I know you’re in kind of a different situation than I was, but I sometimes feel a little bummed about not being able to just whip it out and pee standing up because sometimes, women’s restrooms can be kinda gross.” She closed the curtain and started washing her hair. “Oh yeah, and I hope you didn’t like camping or roughing it in the woods because squatting behind some bushes sucks.”
“Eeewww, yeah, gross, but hey, win some, lose some, right?” Melody giggled.
“Maybe...wait until you have to spend an hour or so getting ready every morning. I hope you’re a morning person!” Jackie chuckled as she heard Melody sigh with defeat when reminded of that little downside to switching sides. Sure, it didn’t always take that long to get ready and most of the time she could get ready in about 30 minutes, even faster if she didn’t need to wash her hair, but Melody was being too chipper about her switch.
“Well, I’m going to head back to my room...Well, if I can figure out where it’s at, because I kinda doubt I am still in the men’s dorms!” Melody laughed at herself. “I can see myself wandering the halls like some amnesia victim, ‘Hello, pardon me, but do you know what room I’m in or even which dorm?’”
“Hehe, yeah…” Jackie casually stepped out of the shower, grabbed her towel and smirked as Melody’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “Don’t say it…” She warned her friend because she expected her to say something about how cool it was to be a girl.
Melody pantomimed zipping her lips, but her eyes shone with happiness. Jackie sighed with defeat. “Fine...go ahead and get it out of your system.”
“OMG! This is sooo cool! You’re, like naked and I’m in here with you and…” Melody pinched herself. “It’s really real!” She quickly hugged a bemused Jackie before scampering out of the bathroom. “I’ll just go and you know....” She pointed lazily into the air as she mimed looking around for her room.
Jackie smirked as she finished wrapping her hair in a towel. “How much do I wanna bet that we are now roomies?”
She giggled at that crazy idea, which as she reviewed her memory of this morning, didn’t sound so crazy because the side of her room that was empty, now had another girl’s stuff. “Oh well.” She shrugged as she began to brush her teeth and inspect her face for the early signs of acne. It’s best to nip those annoying pimples in the bud and before they become an embarrassment.
Her breath caught in her throat as she noticed something different. “What happened to my eyes?”
Her foaming toothbrush hung limply out of the side of her mouth, forgotten as she leaned closer and opened her eyes as wide as they would go. “Are they really blue?”
Just to make sure she wasn’t wearing colored contacts or something crazy, Jackie held back the eyelids on her right eye. Nope, nothing on her eyes. They were really blue instead of hazel like they were the day before. “Oh my god!” She began to feel a little bit of panic. “The Prankster did something to me, but what and why?!? I wore a costume this time!” She whined with fear as she struggled to not freak out.
Jackie quickly spit and rinsed out the toothpaste in her mouth before leaning against the sink with both hands supporting her body as she forced herself to take deep, calming breaths. “Okay Jackie, get ahold of yourself...It’s only your eyes. Eye’s changing color after drinking too much the night before, that’s normal…right?”
She slowly shook her head from side to side as she disagreed with herself. She glanced back to the floor and her costume. In the light, it looked a little less cheap than she remembered and the cheap plastic buckles no longer looked cheap or plastic. “She didn’t?”
Jackie scooped up her costume, ran to her desk and booted up her laptop. While she waited, she inspected the costume and the dread in the pit of her stomach got worse. Her costume had changed and now looked real. Her holster with its gun, was now made from real leather and it felt heavy, like the gun was real. She gasped. “Oh my god! Did she turn me into the Black Widow?”
Jackie tossed her, now, all too real, holster with maybe a real, loaded gun onto her bed and laid her costume over the holster in an attempt to make it out of sight and out of mind before hitting the comic book info site and entered “Black Widow” in the search dialog.
Nothing…
“Shit, shit, shit…” She muttered without realizing she was swearing in perfect Russian as she wracked her brain trying to remember the Black Widow’s real name. “Oh yeah! Natasha Romanova!” She tried that name and nothing.
“Shit! Maybe their database is down?” Jackie muttered, without noticing she was using Russian swear words, as she opened her favorite search engine and repeated her Black Widow keyword search.
Unlike her favorite comic book wiki, there were a ton of results returned, but instead of comic book site links, she got links to what appeared to be real news stories. Her hand shook as she clicked on link after link and skimmed rapidly through the stories with growing alarm. No, not stories, because stories implied fiction. These were real news stories that featured or mentioned S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Agent Romanova aka ‘Black Widow’ by name, as if she was a real person. Most of the news articles included pictures and Jackie easily recognized all the pictures of the famous Black Widow. They were all pictures of her.
Melody opened the door with a rush, causing Jackie to vault out of her chair and lose her towel as she reflexively adopted a martial arts fighting stance.
“You’re not going to believe this!” Melody yelled, before realizing that she was now exposing her naked roommate to the hallway traffic.
Ashamed, Melody quickly shut the door as Jackie numbly glanced down at her feet after realizing she was in some sort of fighting stance. It confused her because she had never taken any martial arts classes and the last time she pretended to be Bruce Lee was when Jackie was Jack. Embarrassed by both her nudity and her reaction, she attempted to salvage some dignity from the situation by calmly reaching down and re-wrapping her body in her towel. “What, that we’re roommates or that I’m The Black Widow?”
“Yeah, how did-” Melody stopped whatever she was about to say and gasped with surprise before she thoughtfully began to nod her head with agreement. “Well, I was wondering why it sounded like you spoke Russian a few times last night and why you had a Russian accent after you got blotto last night. I just figured you were getting into your character, or something.” Melody giggled and shrugged her shoulders dismissively before snapping her fingers with excitement. “Hey! Was that why you were able to make kicking that big jerk’s ass last night look so cool?”
“Wait, I what? Huh?” Jackie felt her knees begin to wobble and she shakily returned to her chair before she fell on her butt from shock. Everything from last night was a blur, but now that Melody mentioned it, she could sort of recall dealing with some giant of a man who tried to pick a fight with her.
“You remember don’t you? I mean the dude was huge! He was even bigger than I was, when I was a guy, but you put him down without breaking a sweat and you made it look so easy!” Melody stopped when she noticed Jackie bent over in her chair, clutching her sides and shaking.
“No, no, no, no…” Jackie sobbed and flinched when Melody hesitantly touched her shoulder before crouching down and hugging her friend.
“Not again. Please…” She cried as shudders of fear wracked her body. “I wore a costume this time and I was only trying to help a friend!” She looked up as if speaking to the heavens.
“Jackie, what’s wrong with being the Black Widow? She was cool in the movie…” Melody gently rubbed her friend’s back and her touch seemed to help calm Jackie.
“Yes, for you and me, that was just a movie, but look.” Jackie pointed to the news articles. “It’s all real now and I’m somehow supposed to be her!” She clicked on an image showing her fighting some big armored, alien soldier from an article dated six months ago.
“Whoa!” Melody’s eyes widened with shock. “Wow, that’s cool.”
Jackie shrugged off Melody’s touch, stood and paced back and forth in the middle of her room. She found herself muttering to herself in Russian and when she realized what she was doing, she grew even more agitated. “Chert voz'mi!” She growled with frustration before clamping her hand over her mouth with shock. She slowly took away her hand and glanced down at Melody, who was staring up at her with concern.
“What do I do? I don’t know how to be her. I’m speaking Russian and I’ve never even been out of the U.S. I took Spanish in High School and I sucked at it!” She pointed back at the laptop. “I can’t run around fighting aliens and being some super assassin spy like the real Black Widow! I don’t know how and I’ll just get killed if I try!”
Melody stood, calmly walked over and gently grabbed Jackie’s hands, holding them together with her own. “Hey, you seemed to do okay last night and you were just speaking Russian, or something. Maybe you know how to do all that stuff, but you just don’t know that you know, you know?” She looked earnestly into Jackie’s blue eyes. “Maybe you just need to relax and go with the flow, you know, ‘be the ball, na na na’”
Jackie couldn’t help smiling at her friend’s Caddyshack reference. “Umm, maybe, but if the Trickster, Coyote, Loki or whatever in the hell ‘it’ is that did this to me is powerful enough to alter reality this much, what happened to my friends and family?”
“What do you mean?” Melody looked confused.
Jackie sighed as she let out some pent up stress. “When I was changed into Jackie, the only people who knew me as Jack, were my friends who were at the house with me. No one else remembered me as Jack.”
“Okay…” Melody slowly nodded with agreement.
“You don’t get it yet, do you?” Jackie studied her friend’s face.
Melody briefly looked down. “Umm, no?” She slowly shook her head as she looked hesitantly back to her friend’s face. “I mean, I know you…”
“Yes! You were at the house with me, but if what I think has happened, really happened, then you’re the only person in the world right now who thinks I’m Jackie. Everyone else thinks I am Natasha Romanova, the Black Widow and agent of SHIELD.”
Melody slowly nodded with agreement. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. It’s still cool though...right?”
Jackie shook her head and whispered. “Will my family and friends know me anymore?” She broke from Melody’s grasp and began pacing the room again. “I mean, if I really am Natasha and was born in Russia, how would the family I grew up with, know and love me? To them, I’m no longer their daughter. I’m just some woman they’ve read about in the news or seen on TV. Hell, they might not even exist anymore!” She sat on her bed and held her head in her hands as she gently tugged on her hair with frustration. “It’s not fair!”
Melody joined her at her side and pulled Jackie into her arms, rocking her slowly back and forth. “Maybe it’s not that bad, why don’t you try calling them?”
Initially, her call went better than she dared hope. Her mom seemed to recognize her and even greeted her as Jackie, but her relief was short lived when her mom sighed with regret. “Well, umm, Jackie.” The way she said her name caused her stomach to drop. It was like she knew it was a fake name. “Your, umm, boss called us this morning and informed us that he was going to be pulling you back onto active duty today. I guess that is why you are calling, but I, no, your ‘father’ and I, just wanted to let you know that we really liked having you stay with us and pretend to be our daughter this summer. After Jack died, we wanted to have another child, but it just didn’t happen. The way you took Hannah under your wing, it as if you really where her older sister. It brought tears to our eyes and we really appreciated how you looked after her. I know you’re going to be kinda busy with saving the world and all that dangerous hero stuff, but you’re always welcome to visit or maybe call-” Jackie’s former mom sniffled with a fragile giggle before resuming. “Not that I expect it or anything, but, you know…”
Jackie distantly felt Melody’s arms hugging her tightly as tears began to pour from her eyes. Somehow, she managed to hold it together and keep the tremor out of her voice. “I will Mom and I love you…” She said, softly before she disconnected the call. Feeling numb and with her body on autopilot, she watched herself open the back of her phone and remove the battery before tossing it aside as if it was disposable. She loved her phone. Her Dad got that for her before she went to college.
Jackie didn’t know what to do now. She was only a sophomore in college. She still was trying to figure out what to major in. There was no way she could handle being a superhero and especially not the freaking Black Widow. She bolted upright, out of Melody’s arms and clutching her towel to her chest, she vaulted to her closet. “I can’t do this, I need to run and hide!”
As Melody stood cautiously behind her, Jackie frantically tore through her closet until her fingers found a small latch hidden in the back. Pushing and twisting it, caused a panel to open, revealing a small attaché case hidden in the wall. She pulled it out and set it on her bed. Her thumbprint opened the case and inside she found five different passports, each with her picture, but with a different name, hair color and nationality. Each passport also contained a matching driver’s license for the country as well as a few credit cards made out to match the name in the passport.
The case also contained two different wigs, one blonde and the other brunette. Under the wigs, she found a few bundles of U.S. $100 bills as well as 50€ Euro notes and a small stack of credit cards, each with names matching her passports. She estimated that she had about 20k US and maybe the same in Euros. An extra pistol and some ammunition were also tucked into case. She wasn’t sure what to do with the pistol or where to run to, but the German passport drew her attention.
Gretchen Weber from Stuttgart with the picture of her as a blonde. “Hmmm... vielleicht geht das. …” She muttered as she studied the passport.
“What was that?” Melody asked.
“Oh, nichts. Ich denke, dass Deutschland vielleicht ….” Jackie’s voice trailed away as she realized what she was doing. “Ummm, nichts, I mean, nothing...I somehow seem to be able to speak German.” She realized she was even speaking English with a German accent now.
“Wow! That’s pretty damn cool!” Melody hesitated for a second as she thought about something before a giggle escaped her. “I think I need to come up with a better adverb. I’m saying ‘cool’ way too much now!”
Jackie sighed and hugged her exuberant friend before turning back to rifle through her closet for an outfit that might match her German persona. She found a good match, something that looked more euro styled versus a typical American jeans and t-shirt combination. She pulled her hair up and added the blonde wig, a touch of makeup to give herself a more natural look and some trendy glasses completed her disguise.
Melody gasped when Jackie made her debut. “Amazing...If I didn’t know you, I would have a hard time recognizing you. Are you sure you have to run?”
“Nine, I mean, no, but I’m not the Black Widow. I don’t know how to be her and I’d only get myself killed if I tried.” Jackie stuffed some extra clothes and toiletry items into her backpack along with her German passport, a few thousand in cash, the credit cards and license. She decided to leave the attaché case with the pistol because she had no idea how she would get it through security. She hid one of the extra passports in her bag, just in case.
Ready to go, she stole one last glance at her costume, or more accurately her uniform, and after overcoming an fleeting sense loss, she gave Melody a parting hug plus the rest of the cash, wished her the best and left behind what remained of her mostly normal and safe life. She wondered if they celebrated Halloween and had Trick or Treating in Germany because if they did, she was going to celebrate the next Halloween by staying in bed.
=[The End]=