It wasn’t clear when exactly the dreams started. But they were always the same ones. He was in one of the three larger stores in the mall. In one hand was the plastic shopping bag that had the Amulet of Zulo; in the other was that tank top, shorts and shoes he found in his size. Somehow, he ended up in the changing room. Only, things were different as he found himself before the mirror, seeing his female reflection as he brushed an errant strand of hair from his forehead. Every time he’d dreamed this, that was about the point he woke up. But, this morning, for reasons he didn’t understand, he woke aware of something.
For almost a week, Chris had struggled on, trying to ignore how he felt, what he believed, and what Tanya had told him. Always denying there was any truth that he wanted to be a girl, he continued in his efforts to find a solution to his dilemma. And then the dreams had started, at about the same time he had started to try and make his mind to work over the issue and come up with an answer whilst he slept.
“And I guess it might have worked,” he told himself as he sat on his bed and whilst the dream was still fresh in his mind, he wrote it down in a notebook he’d started to keep close to his bed.
Going back over what he’d written, he compared it with the other entries. All the others ended at the same point, he noted, but the most recent, he found he could recall something else. Rereading what had been printed, taking in that he’d recorded that he saw in his dream a single strand of hair, thin and near invisible, come loose as he’d brushed his hair from his face. And that one hair had drifted down and out of sight, but not before it came in contact with the necklace and the clothes.
Or so he had saw in the most current dream.
In need of something, anything, he asked himself, “Is it a trick my mind is playing? Or did it happen that way,” as he set aside the notebook, stood and went to the his dresser and began to search for the garments he’d had on that day.
Not sure what it was he was looking for, he pulled out the shorts, but put them back. He could already see that the denim fabric they were made of wouldn’t offer any answer and instead he searched through the tank tops until he found the one he’d used to become a guy again. Taking it back to his bed, he sat down and peered closely at the tight weave of the ribbed fabric, huffed in anger, almost threw it at his dresser, and instead held it close to his face and began to go over it in a painstakingly slow manner.
The minutes slipped by and when he glanced at his alarm clock, he could see that he would have to be up in about half an hour to start to get ready for school. But not ready to quit what he was doing, he returned to it and after what seemed like hours later, he found wedged beneath the ribbing, and weaving into the fabric itself the edge of a piece of hair. Careful in his movements, he worked it out until had a strand of hair that stretched from his fingertips to just past his wrist. Cursing, “Fucking shit. It’s true. No wonder it damn well didn’t work,” he tossed the tank top toward his dresser and with the piece of hair pinched betwixt his thumb and forefinger, he stood.
With what he felt the definitive answer to his problem in hand, he was ready to go confront Tanya. He wanted nothing more to show her that this was somehow the reason why he still could not shake himself free of Christine. But a sliver of doubt crept over him and he found himself wondering, “What if she doesn’t believe me? What if she says this isn’t one of my hairs from when I was a girl? She could say it one of hers. Or mom’s,” and dropping back on to the bed, he groaned at the flaws that confronted him.
“It’s all too simple,” he told himself after a moment as he thought, “She’ll never believe me.” and as his hold on the strand relaxed, he watched it drift to the floor, where it was lost among the nap of the carpet.
Despair set in and Chris suddenly found it hard to believe that the hair he’d found had belonged to him at one point. Muttering darkly, “Stupid dreams,” he started to stand up, but stopped when someone knocked on his bedroom door. And before he could say anything, the door opened and he found himself looking at his mother, who commented, “Oh, good. You’re already up. Don’t forget today is picture day,” before she turned around and left.
With a soft click as the bedroom door closed, Chris huffed in agitation as he stood and headed for his closet. He didn’t want to have his school picture taken and opening the closet door, he peered in at the clothes. The first set to get his attention he was still unsure what had possessed to buy them and taking them out, he peered at the blue denim dress that had dark blue, heart-shaped buttons that started at the collar and went down as far as the waist line, matching buttons on the cuffs, and the tights that were of the same shade as the dress. Hating to admit he’d had considered using the Amulet of Zulo to go back to being Christine, he knew the simple truth was he was sorely tempted. Yet, he didn’t believe for an instant the outfit would even fit him if he became to the teenage girl again.
“For starters, it’s too small,” he told himself as he wondered why he’d bought something that looked like it would fit a little girl.
Not sure, he was about to put it back, but at the last minute changed his mind. Thoughts on the dream and his issues, he considered that maybe he had bought the outfit to become a girl for at least twelve hours, change back, and hope that everything wrong would vanish. Thinking it might work, he found himself troubled by the idea that either the necklace would disappear again, or that he would change back and he still would believe he should be a girl, as well as act like one every so often.
Frustrated, he drifted over to his bed, but didn’t sit down. The dress and tights clutched in his hands, he stared at them for a moment before he shook the garment out, stared at, and against his own volition, Chris thought that it actually looked cute as he noted how soft both it and the tights felt. Muttering to himself, “I must be crazy. Insane to have bought this, to want to try and be a girl again for twelve hours, to even give in to what I feel, believe, is right,” and setting both items on his bed, he went to retrieve Amulet of Zulo from where he’d hidden it, still in the baggy.
After he’d shook it free, he peered for a moment at the thing. Thinking that it was still ugly, he set it on his bed, turned away and began to pace back and forth. A glance at his alarm clock, which still hadn’t gone off, and Chris noted that he’d have to make a choice soon, as well as that at some point he had turned the alarm off, but hadn’t realised he had done so. Back to his restless movements, he stopped in front of the bed, looked at the things on it, turned away, and proceeded to shuck off the shirt, pyjama bottoms and underwear he’d worn to bed. Staring down at his penis and sack, feeling both like he should have those genitals and that it didn’t look right, he asked himself, “What should I do?” before he turned back around and sighed, “Twelve hours. That’s it. Only twelve hours. No more then that. And then I am going to turn myself back into a guy. And hope that all this goes away,” as he reached down, picked up the necklace, and touched it to the soft dress.
Like it happened before, he felt a static electric shock go through his fingers and hand, and up his arm. A shiver rippled through his body and after he’d twitched, he ran a hand through a his hair, which he discovered was already fuller and growing longer. A glance down and he grimaced as his dick, already bare of any pubic hair, shrank, thinned, and turned a bright pinkish-white, whilst his sack pulled tight against his body and forced his testes up into his body. Within moments, Chris found himself once more looking at the smooth groin and the faint hint of a cleft that that told him were he genitals now where. And as he sighed, “Here we go again,” he stumbled forward a couple steps as he lost muscle mass, slimmed down, and began to loose height.
Within moments, where a fourteen year old boy had been, there now stood an eight year old girl. Dropping the amulet on her bed, Christine stared down at herself and tried to come to terms with the new memories that were crowding in her head. A quick glance about, her long hair, which almost came all the way down her back, flipped about, and she couldn’t quite figure out why she was in an icky boy’s bedroom. Spotting her dress, she picked it up and suddenly remembering it was picture day at school, she undid the buttons on the front and the cuffs, stepped into the garment, and took her time re-buttoning the five buttons in front and the four at her wrists.
The garment pulled tight around her torso, but not so much that it would be uncomfortable, she reached for the tight and after a moment’s hesitation, she sat down on the floor and pulled them on, thinking as she did that it was inappropriate to go about without panties on underneath, yet not caring, as she was too excited about it being picture day. Standing, she adjusted her outfit and took one last glance about the room. Still unsure why she was in a boy’s room, a part of her former self reemerged.
For a split second, Chris was alarmed at how fast he was loosing himself to eight year old Christine. Recalling he was supposed to do something in twelve hours, and terrified when he couldn’t remember what, his mind slipped and she lost a little more of herself to the child she’d accidentally become as she looked at the bed. The moment she saw the Amulet of Zulo, she thought what she had to do later had something to do with the necklace before her mind slipped a little further and she lost more of her former self. Deciding she’d figure it out later, she turned away from the bed, rushed across the room, dashed out and down the hall. Her young female mind further cementing itself over and replacing her teenage male mind, her thoughts leaped to hopes that mama would have waffles for breakfast, that she would be allowed to wear earring in her ears for her school picture, and whether she’d wear a ribbon, a hair clip, or if mama would help her braid her hair, as the Amulet of Zulo and future uses faded completely from her thoughts.