Jen pulled her shirt off and inspected her two newly grown arms. They moved effortlessly and without conscious thought, exactly how she wanted them to - Just like she had always had them.
This is bizarre. I know this should feel wrong but... it doesn't. How is this even possible?
She grabbed her phone from her nightstand and went over to her computer. While the computer loaded, she texted her friend Susan:
Jen: Sus, find out erryting about Kyle Perkins. I need to fuck up his life.
Sus: ?
Jen: nerd i pansted last week
Sus: Ew ur not gonna sleep w him r u?
Jen: No!! God no!! bastard did something 2 me. I need revng
Sus: ? ok?
Jen: Just do it. u kno the psswrd on the teachr system. use that.
Sus: ok ok. i need u 2 cover 4 me @ lunch
Jen sighed and put down her phone. When she looked up at the computer, she was surprised to see that she had already unconsciously logged in using her 2nd pair of arms, and even more impressively had managed to open her web browser and entered a badly spelled search for "Smith Genetics".
Even more impressively, there was a wikipedia result. A brief skim revealed that in this version of reality, there had been a genetic strain that grew extra limbs and heads, and then split into multiple copies of the same person going back thousands of years. It had been contained mostly to a single genetic line, hence the name "Smith Genetics".
A picture on the side showed an ancient egyptian hieroglyph depicting a Pharaoh's queen. With 1 male Pharaoh, and 8 queens, each one with 2 heads, 4 legs and 8 arms. 4 of the queens were depicted with short togas, while the other 4 were depicted with long sashes coming down over their legs. Jen didn't need to guess why.
Another image depicted the Pharaoh looking on while the queens fought and killed each other. A caption said that there were several recorded cases where after a woman with Smith Genetics changed, all the copies of her were forced to fight to the death until there was just one left. The one remaining copy was then treated as the original, and allowed to live.
A note mentioned that several documented cases of this fight to the death have been witnessed in the last 300 years, all of them initiated by the newly changed women. Psychological evaluations of the survivor indicated that the woman simply was unable to come to terms with being a duplicate of herself, and decided that as long as there were identical duplicates she was at risk of being "replaced".
That's... terrifying. If I split into 2 people I don't want to have to fight myself to the death. Not to mention this apparently being a "normal" thing
Jen returned to her bed and lay on it, staring up at the ceiling. The ticking of the clock reminded her that she was due to cough up another pill in about half an hour. She sighed and sat up, preparing to get dressed and sneak out. But as she sat up she lost consciousness.
Jen woke in an instant. Something was different. She opened her eyes. Immediately she knew. Her vision had doubled - she now saw the ceiling from 2 perspectives. They were nearly identical, but offset just enough that she could tell.
She slowly stood up and walked into her bathroom. Thoughts raced as fear and panic threatened to overtake her. Looking into the mirror confirmed her suspicions - she now had 2 identical heads.
Great... I'm going to fucking kill Perkins.
So much for that super cute prom dress...
She paused, half in surprise, half in confusion. Had she just thought two things at once?
Two heads equals two brains. That kinda makes sense.
Okay so maybe this isn't as bad as it seems.
Jen shook both her heads slightly, forced two small smiles and left the bathroom. Thanks to the way the curse had rewritten reality, she already felt comfortable with her changes. Jen turned her two mental focuses to what she should do next.