Jennifer answered the call and at other end was her mother Silvia.
"Morning Sweety. How's living independent treating you?" Silvia cheerfully greeted Jennifer.
Jennifer was a bit confused. Was she now living all by herself. In a weird way it made sense as her mother had to be in her thirties like her grandma in past but she expected to live somewhere else and not here. Also why was her mother calling from a anonymous number.
"I know it's been only a year as I gave you the keys and... Well I was just near the neighborhood and wanted to come say hi to my lovely daughter. Is it possible if I come visit you...? Like soon...?" Silvia said.
"I guess it's fine..." Jennifer lowly agreed.
"Wonderful.... Actually, could you come open the door for me as I'm already at the frontyard." Silvia laughed and closed the phone.
'She's already here...?' Jennifer panicked and quickly begun to dress herself with the clothes she had lied next to her bed.
Jennifer took a quick glance how she looked like in the mirror and was a bit horrified to see that her taste in clothes had also gone down. She looked like a cheap hooker with miniskirt, black velvet panties, red and black tubetop, velvet bra and fishnet socks. She decided to leave the choker and army boots on the pile and run quickly towards the door.
Jennifer made an audible gasp when set opened her room door. The house looked pretty worn down the last time she saw it. Dust bunnies, more dampened spheres all over the wooden floors, bathroom door missing and the massive amount of bottles and cans just lying on the floor. She nearly slipped on an upside-down pepperoni pizza slice as she turned towards the stairs. The dough part visible turning slowly green. The stairs also made a lot of creaking noises when she came down and bended a little bit as she got in front of the front door.
As Jennifer opened the door her mother jumped at her while massive hug like her grandma used to give.
"It's so good to see you Jenni." Silvia smiled and hugged.
"You too..." Jennifer replied as she felt a bump on her mother's gut. "Wait a minute. Mom... Are you..."
"Close the door. I don't want anyone else to hear." Silvia shushed.
As Silvia walked near the kitchen table and sat on the chair. She told Jennifer that she finally found a husband, went on the altar to say the vows and got pregnant in their honeymoon.
"Cool... No... That's... Great... What's his name?" Jennifer asked.
"Kyle." Silvia coyly smiled while holding her belly.
A flashback hit Jennifer's mind. A Vision from her past that she had almost forgotten.
'For your transformation, you will age back to being a freshmen again...' Echoed in Jennifer's mind in Kyle's voice. '...you'll wake up a grade younger, this will continue until you're out of school completely, if that happens, then you're a lost cause, and you'll restart at birth, memories lost, maybe this time you'll get raised right.'
'For your dare, you will forget who called you and who cursed you, and no matter what, even if its spelled out to you, even by me, you'll never connect that it was me who cursed you. You'll also forget that you have the curse now and that you can pass it on.' The voice continued echoing in Kyle's voice.
"Jenni?" Silvia asked as she saw her daughter holding her head and eyeing the floor intensely.
Jennifer had remembered that it was her turn to play the game with someone else. All she had to do was to say, 'Transform or Dare' to someone. A gust of disbelief begun to form inside Jennifer's brain as the house of cards had fallen over.
It seemed that since she had dropped out of school completely she had retained some of her memories or that the curse ended prematurely making the dare part to end in the same moment. She was able to remember the voice and name of 'Kyle Perkins'.
It had to be an accident that he and her mother were together and got married. Jennifer had to ask.
"Kyle? As in Kyle Perkins...?" Jennifer asked as her mother looked at her confused.
"Yes...? Same guy. How do you know him?" Silvia asked back as she had a puzzled look.
"Isn't he like freshman?" Jennifer asked and sat next to her mother.
"Well. He used to. He's three years older than you. But back then I remember him calling me. He told me things that were true and things that wasn't that off from the truth. He said that he cared for me and told me about the condition you had." Silvia explained.
Jennifer's pupils expanded. There was no way that he was behind all this.
"He said that you had a curse." Silvia explained. "...and I believed in him back then."
Jennifer couldn't believe what she was hearing from her mother's mouth. The same Kyle kept contacting her mother and kept her busy while keeping everything under control.
"One day. Kyle called me and told that he wanted to see me. I had no idea that he was such a sweetheart and well. He told me that when he's adult he's marrying the little old me." Silvia smiled. "Three years went so fast as we kept interacting and understandng each other. Then last year, eight months ago, we got married and I moved with the kids to a new house. Then, well, we got her. My third daughter."
Silvia displayed her belly to Jennifer. Jennifer couldn't believe what Kyle had done while she was sleeping.
"Mom. This might sound odd but was I acting strange...?" Jennifer asked.
"Ummm... I don't remember vividly but... you gave a feel that you were daydreaming all the time and moving on auto-pilot." Silvia said as she pondered. "You almost looked like a zombie most of the time. Once a year you had that spark in your eyes and felt as if I were talking with a Jennifer."
"I see..." Jennifer coughed.
"But I was convinced by Kyle that it was the curse doing that to you. So I had to lock you for your own good." Silvia sighed. "Even for your own mother it was hard sometimes to talk with you as you didn't respond with full sentences but more with occasional 'mmm' or 'hhmmm'. Also you did almost everything I asked from you. You cleaned the house, washed the dishes and did all that if someone asked from you."
"That's very bizarre." Jennifer nodded.
"So I'm glad to see you are back at your normal self again. Almost makes your old mother to tear to see you like this." Silvia said as she wiped her eyes.
"But mom. You said 'kids' in plural right before moving with Kyle?" Jennifer asked. "If I count myself as your child. Shouldn't that make... her... your fourth?"
Silvia smiled and nodded in silence.
"Yes... My fourth... child..." Silvia said slowly as she almost was starting to tear. "Silly me. Almost miscounted my own children..."
There was a weird silence before Silvia said: "She likes her name..."
"Uhmm, who?" Jennifer asked as she had no idea what her mother was talking about.
"Lily. The name of... my third child... her twin sister Lilith loves her and they... they are both doing well..." Silvia said and quickly stood up.
It seemed Silvia was trying to go outside. Jennifer had a feeling that her mother wanted to say something or do something but couldn't. Jennifer had to do something. So she...