Milly awoke to a scream. She jumped out of bed, coming to her senses. She opened her door, stumbling out into the hallway to find her parents doing the same, approaching one of the twins’ bedroom. The voice sounded female, so she assumed it was Willow. But it didn’t sound like Willow’s voice.
She followed her parents into what seemed like Corey’s room? Maybe his shriek was a lot girlier than she remembered.
Instead of finding Corey, they found a girl in his bed,
“Who the hell are you!” Jakob yelled at the poor girl, dressed in Corey’s pyjamas, looking around suddenly,
“I-it’s me!” The girl cried, looking down at herself frantically,
“How did you get in here?”
“IT’S ME!” She yelled, “COREY!!”
“What?” Willow chimed in, walking in behind Milly, “where is my bro-” she looked shocked, “w-what… she looks almost…”
“Willow, I’m serious!” the girl cried, “I swear, I’m Corey…”
“W-what was our secret name for each other?”
“W-what?” the girl replied, but quickly said, “m-matti,”
“Oh my god…” Willow said.
— — —
One week passed. Corey went to every doctor, every specialist, every single person who could possibly help, and they had one conclusive answer.
Corey was cursed.
It seemed that at some point in his life he’d been cursed for one thing or another, causing him to have completely change sex. The law prevented such a thing from happening, but an illegal shifting is something that was possible and slipped under the radar. The issue was, the professional’s had no way to source it back to anyone. The magic was so unique they couldn’t tag a time, a place, a date, or a name to it.
Corey had skipped school for obvious reasons, Willow having said he was just off sick. In the meantime, he’d been trying to adjust to this new body until there was some kind of remedy.
However. During all of this. Milly knew exactly what happened.
She knew that she was caused this. All with that book.
And she stayed silent. The entire time.
— — —
A month passed, and Corey had started to return to High-School. He returned as Willow’s cousin, posing as a girl named Brenna. People couldn’t dispute the fact that Willow and Brenna looked very similar, a little too similar for ‘just cousins’.
Corey was hating every moment of this. It was humiliating. His body moved differently, worked differently. He had an entire panic attack when it was his time of the month. He would do anything to fix this.
But he had nothing. No alternative methods. He’d been checked, no magical relatives in his family. He had no tie to any kind of arcane abilities. He was stuck like this… unless someone else were to change him.
— — —
Milly was sat at the dinner table, waiting for her food. Willow was helping her step-father with the cooking, her mother just entering in the room. She smiled, “smells delicious,” she said,
“You should be grateful, I think your daughter did a delightful job helping me,”
“Hey!” Willow said playfully, “I know how to cook,”
An awkward silence grew around them. They all wanted Corey to come downstairs, but he was surely still up in his room. Depressed. Lucia looked to Willow, but she seemed preoccupied,
“Sweetie,” she said to Milly, “could you go fetch your brother from upstairs?”
“O-okay…” Milly said. She hadn’t actually spoken to him since the incident. Unsure of how to feel about it. Of course, she felt guilty. But also she felt he deserved it. After everything, this was a punishment… but maybe he’d endured it long enough.
Milly made her way upstairs, finding her brother with his door open just a crack. He was sitting on the floor, earbuds in as he listening to music. Drowning out everything around him.
Milly didn’t go into his room, she went into hers. She looked under her bed, seeing the book once again. It was like it was calling her.
She closed her door, grabbed the book and opened it on her bed. She seemed to open it on a random page, but the page happened to be right on point. She wasn’t sure if it was written in English or a foreign language, because she understood it completely despite the characters not making sense. She felt confused by this, but continued reading,
“Acceptance of Change, (singular)”
Milly didn’t understand it, but as she started to read more about it, it seemed more and more enticing. She wanted to keep reading, but her mothers voice called upstairs again, she had to skim it. It seemed appropriate. Didn’t return her brother back to normal, but maybe it countered the problem.
She spoke the words written at the bottom, each word representing something. Acceptance. Corey. Womanhood and manhood.
As she finished the incantation, feeling the air around her shift again, she closed the book, locking it, and deciding to put the key around her neck. She rushed out of her room, then turned to Corey’s. The door was now shut completely. She leaned up to it,
“Uhm… Corey? Dinner’s ready,” she said awkwardly.
In a shockingly cheerful voice, Corey replied, “just getting changed,”
After a few minutes, with the four family members sitting at the table, they finally heard Corey coming down. Instead of seeing baggy trousers and a big oversized sweater, they saw him wearing something… odd. Feminine?
“Hi!” He said cheerfully. Everyones eyes were on him. He was wearing a feminine shirt, showing off a considerable amount of skin. A pair of leggings, and socks. She’d also tied her longer hair up. She looked… good,
“Uhm…” Jakob started,
“Before you say anything,” Corey interrupted, “I know,” he smiled, “this is a little weird, and I’m just gonna say, I’ve accepted it. Completely,”
“What?” Everyone pretty much said at once,
“It’s magic. Who cares. I like women, so why not enjoy being one. I think… I feel comfortable in this body,” he said.
Corey made his way to the table, pulling out a chair and sitting himself down,
“S-so… are you…”
“A girl?” Corey replied, “no, I’m… kind of in the middle. I wouldn’t mind if I was in either body now, in fact I feel a little of both,”
“You sound a lot more cheerful than you were,” Willow started, knowing her brother better than anyone, “what’s with the change of heart?” She interrogated,
“I just…” Corey hesitated, “I’m not even sure. I just… accepted it,”
“Like that?” Willow asked,
“Like that.” Corey replied, “you can still call me He and Him, but I really don’t mind either,”
“Either what?”
“Adverbs,” Corey smiled,
“They’re pronouns, dumbass,” Willow sighed. She turned to everyone, “it’s a thing, he means like he or she, or even they if they wanted to?”
“I don’t mind,” Corey said, “now can you pass the potatoes?” He gestured to Willow.
The family proceeded to have a confusing dinner. Corey mostly talked about how he was feeling in regards to his identity. It was strange, the first change seemed to have only changed his physical body. This second change seemed to affect his spirit. His soul. It was like his true identity had become more fluid instead of stuck in one gear.
Willow was quick to accept it, knowing her sibling better than anyone, she was just happy to see him comfortable again. And if this was something he was going to accept, she was quick to accept it as well.
Jakob seemed to accept it, even if he didn’t truly understand what it really meant. He just wanted his step-son… or step-daughter… step-person? To be happy.
Lucia… she was confused. In fact, she was a little upset. She couldn’t really accept the fact that her son had just easily converted to becoming a woman out of nowhere. It made no sense. She didn’t care how he identified, this kind of thing was traumatic… yet he’d just gotten over it?
“So you’re just a girl now?”
“Physically, I guess,” Corey said,
“So what?” Lucia said, shaking her head with genuine bewilderment, “that’s it? You’re just, happy being in this body?”
“Yeah… like I said, I don’t know what happened. It just… happened,” he said,
“It makes no sense,”
“It might be to do with the magic?” Corey proposed,
“Or he’s just insane,” Willow chimed in, joking,
“I’m serious,” Lucia said, “I…” she stopped, unable to really process all of this. She’d spent the last month trying to console her son, and over a single night he’d just gotten over it, going on a whole spiel about his identity being fluid or something. She could accept it… but not so soon, “I need some time…” she said. She stood herself up, “I’m sorry about not helping clean up,” she said, walking out of the dining area and up the stairs.
Everyone was silent until they heard her bedroom door close. It wasn’t loud, but it was emotional.
After maybe ten minutes of clearing up, everyone went their separate ways. Milly was about to make her way back to her room, but as she was halfway up the stairs, she overheard the twins talking. She wanted to ask Corey how he felt, so she instead eavesdropped,
“I’m serious, man,” Corey said, “I’m just, comfortable,”
“Like this is your correct body?”
“No no… it’s like, I don’t know. I’m comfortable in both my old body and this one, the exact same amount. They’re both me,”
“So let’s say you suddenly get changed into some big hulk-like body, what then?”
“I don’t know… it would be strange, but I suppose I would be able to accept it? I guess I can’t truly find out unless I were to experience it,”
“Huh,” Willow said, “well considering you turned into a girl… I guess anything’s possible,”
Milly had suddenly developed an idea.
She wanted to use this book to explore the types of thing she could do, such as changes in people. So if she could use the book on Corey and blame it on some kind of other force, she’d be able to do whatever she wanted! And if she really needed to, there would surely be a reverse spell in that book right? Or at least a mind erasing spell. Whatever it was, she knew what she wanted to do. She ran upstairs and grabbed the book, unlocking it and whatever page it landed on…