Still somewhat under shock by the life-altering transformation they had just experienced the latest recipients of the Madame’s magic made their way towards the stairs at the edge of the stage.
The new Martin was sprightly leading the way in front, his lithe footsteps barely putting any pressure on the aged planks that the stage was made off. It was a different story for the now much heftier Albert who was trailing behind him. Each of his waddling giant steps was met by a loud creaking protestation from the wood he was stepping on. This was an altogether new experience for him, having been skinny and small all his life so far.
The two men stepped off the stage, with Ryan following them close behind. Ryan was still bare-chested and he was inwardly regretting not having asked the now slimmer Paul to swap clothes with him as Albert and Martin had done.
Now that her most recent volunteers were off-stage, the Madame had resumed the show, asking for new volunteers that wanted to partake in her magic. With the audience’s attention off them at the foot of the stage, Albert and Martin looked awkwardly at each other, unsure what their parting words should be after they had essentially swapped their bodies’ entire essence and anatomy with the man they were facing and that they had only just met a few minutes earlier.
“Erm, I think this is goodbye for now?” asked Martin breaking the impasse in his new higher-pitched voice, finding it hard to talk over the din from the audience as people fought to be the Madame’s next volunteer.
“Yeah, until the show is over, anyhow. She wants us to meet her in her tent after the show right?” Albert boomed in his new bass, finding no difficulty at all to project his new deeper more penetrating voice.
“Yeah true. We should go together… but um Steve is waiting for me down there.” Martin added pointing to the area of the audience form where Martin had originally come up. Albert deduced Steve must be Martin’s other half.
“Ok. Yeah and our friends are waiting me and Ryan as well. Tell you what let’s swap cell numbers and we’ll call each other after the show?”
“Yeah. That sounds like a plan.” Martin added.
They fished for their cell phone and realised that they had each other’s phone since they had swapped shorts after the transformation. They handed over each other’s phones and wallets.
Albert started fumbling with his phone, realising that his new blunt, meaty fingers were having problems in pressing just the right button on the mobile’s small touch screen. With some patience he managed to input Martin’s details.
Now phone details exchanged Martin added “So, see you later, I guess?”
“Yeah. See ya!” Albert replied, patting Martin on the shoulder and nearly making him fall over.
Martin slowly walked away towards his spot in the audience. People in the vicinity were staring at him, not believing the skinny blond youth was the same beefy guy who nearly toppled them over on his way up the stage.
Both Albert and Ryan followed behind Martin, realising they had to walk the same way to return to their place. Passing by through the aisle, they saw Martin sit down next to a muscular but trim looking handsome thirty-something year old with perfectly styled brown hair and equally well groomed brown stubble. The two started chatting eagerly. Albert presumed this must have been the Steve Martin had been talking about.
Albert continued moving down the aisle until he reached his row. The people at the end of the row looked at his hefty form, incredulous he was the same person that went up. They realised they now had to get up to make room for him to get into the narrow row of chairs.
Albert started making your way in, barking “Sorry!” every so often along the way. His new chunky ass was rubbing against some of the people as he moved in, making him feel both embarrassed and proud that his new body occupied so much space. He finally reached his spot only to be greeted loudly by his friends who had remained in the audience.
“That’s wicked man! You’re massive now!” shouted the muscular dark haired Mike. He had been on the wrestling team in college and now 25, he was an accountant but he still found time to work out just the same. Albert had always envied his form – Mike’s 5’9” medium frame was muscular without being either too bulky or too ripped. His Mediterranean features, olive-toned skin, mid-length wavy hair and hazel eyes also made him easy on the eyes, and guaranteed he was the group’s looker and unelected leader. For the first time in his life Albert was looking down on the previously taller Mike.
Mike pulled out his arm and pulled in the now beefy Albert into a bro handshake. Mike was well-known for his firm handshakes but as Albert gripped his hand, he realised that his grip, now supported by his husky forearms, was even firmer than Mike’s. Mike winced and withdrew his arm. “Jeez, watch your strength big guy!”
Further on in Albert was met by Sam’s sarcastic laugh, something he had been expecting. Sam stood 5’10” with a large build and a bit of bulk. He had played college football but ever since leaving the team and settling into an office job, the weight had piled on as he had kept eating the same way, despite not moving as much. Not surprisingly he had an ex-jock build to him. He had a head of closely shaved sandy-brown hair and he sported his own well-trimmed beard.
“So after all these years you’ve been calling me fat-ass now you’re even bigger than I am?!” Sam said between hearty laughs.
He patted Albert’s bigger gut and much to Albert’s consternation, his bulky middle started undulating.
“Your gut is massive man! Mine is nothing compared to yours!”
“Yeah. Yeah. I know.” Albert said soberly looking at Sam’s little paunch that only just about jutted out from his abdomen.
“Come here!” Sam added as he embraced Albert in a bear-hug. Albert was surprised at the turn of events; he hadn’t expected Sam to react so positively to his change. He noted that despite dwarfing most people he had encountered so far since his transformation, Sam still looked almost as imposing next to him. Sam was just a tad shorter than the new Albert and despite being much slimmer than Albert he still had presence to his build.
As the two men broke their embrace, Albert kept moving in the row and was now greeted by Nick, the group’s trend-setter. Nick had been a swimmer in college and now he was finishing business school. He stood 5’11” with a lean but robust looking frame and wide shoulders. He had a mop of golden blond hair styled into a neat sideway part. He was clean shaven, showing off his face’s enviable bone structure. His preppy look was completed by a blue polo shirt and beige shorts.
“Al, is that really you, man? You look so older! I can’t believe it’s you!” He squeezed Albert’s shoulder and was surprised by the muscle mass he felt.
“Yeah neither can I. It almost seems surreal.”
Albert finally reached two empty seats, which he deduced were where he and Ryan had been seated. He sat in the furthest one in, leaving the other for Ryan. As he plopped his chunky butt on the furthest chair, the flimsy metal groaned under his weight. He noticed that he occupied much more space while seated as he felt his ass overflow the edges of the seat. His back spread much wider than the back of the chair and his arms occupied even more area to his side. His tense belly sagged in front of him, weighing down on his groin. He realised that to sit comfortably he had to keep his thighs spread out to give them, his gut and his now much larger junk space.
Ryan having finished his own set of greetings settled down in the chair next to Albert. Similarly the flimsy metal groaned as his mass sat down. Ryan was also occupying much more space himself and the two men realised they were now competing for space as their sides rubbed against each other. Inevitably they had spread out onto the people on their other side to have enough space. Ryan was squishing Nick on his left, whilst Albert was compressing a slightly built man in his thirties on his right.
Finally settled Albert looked ahead at the stage, only now realising that the Madame was almost about to start her incantation on yet another set of volunteers. His and Martin’s successors on stage were a pale muscular youth in his twenties with a slight frame and an unruly head of fiery ginger hair, and a hulking beefy tall guy of Latin extraction in his late forties with deeply tanned complexion, a shaved balding head and greying stubble. They were already standing back to back, with the auburn-haired youth looking towards the left and the Latin behemoth looking towards the right.
A vibrant haze once again engulfed the stage, spilling onto the audience.
Despite knowing full well the thrilling spectacle that was about to begin, Albert looked away, still too overwhelmed by his own transformation to care about anyone else’s. He looked down his bulging midsection. He still couldn’t believe that he was no longer a skinny youth but that the massive swollen chest and that flabby protuberant gut that heaved with each of his breaths was actually his own. He looked at his large pudgy palms that led to thick, blunt fingers, which he couldn’t believe were his. He clenched a fist and watched as his bulky musculature contracted with the exertion. It felt so good to be so muscular and powerful and yet it was almost as if he was having second thoughts about being this bulky – he hadn’t been prepared as to how much space his new bloated form would now occupy.
He looked back up at the stage, trying to get these thoughts of buyer’s regret out of his mind. By now the red-headed youth on the left seemed much bulkier, older and his red-hair was darkening to a dull brown while his pale complexion was tanning at a remarkable rate. Meanwhile the Latin man was looking much less of a behemoth and his more youthful features were looking paler by the second.
Just then Albert became acutely aware of a musky scent that was surrounding him. He looked at the man to his right, who was absorbed watching the transformation on stage. He tried to whiff whether the odour was coming from him, but then he realised that his own pits were wet with sweat, despite the fact he was wearing a tank top. With dread he concluded that the odour was emanating from his own man-sweat. His sweat had never been this over-powering and he couldn’t believe that his body was now capable of such an odour. Great not only was he now older and flabbier, but he also reeked!
He looked ahead again on stage and realised that any remnants of the ginger youth on the left had disappeared to be replaced by a hulking deeply tanned more mature looking guy. Conversely the Latin beast on the right was gone and a frailer-looking, lean, youthful guy with pale skin and auburn-brown hair stood in his stead.
Albert looked to his left, only to see Ryan absorbed with the transformation occurring on stage. Ryan seemed to have had less of a problem reconciling his new body with his own self-image. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Ryan was still the same age and height, and that his transformation overall had been less radical, despite the fact that Ryan now looked equally massive. Or maybe Ryan didn’t mind being flabby?
Ryan realised that Albert was staring at him.
“What’s the matter Al?”
“Oh it’s nothing, I was just thinking.” Albert replied dryly in his reverberating bass. Despite every fibre in his being wanted to confide in the only other person he knew that may understand what he was going through, he didn’t want Ryan to start having doubts about his own transformation.
Albert looked back ahead. By now the audience was cheering as the haze was clearing and a new aging deeply-tanned hulk stood on the left and a new lean strapping red-headed youth stood on the right. The Latino-looking man on the left vaguely resembled the ginger youth who had been on stage, whilst the pale auburn-haired young Celtic-looking man on the right shared facial features in common with the tanned hulk who had been on stage in his place.
The two men on stage separated from one another and turned around, facing their new selves for the first time. They looked on speechlessly at their own bodies and the man in front of them, not quite believing they had swapped so many attributes with the other person. They had taken on each other’s physique, age and even racial features, making their transformation even more radical than Albert’s own. As the mirror came to the stage’s foreground, the two men inspected their new forms, touching their own flesh to confirm it was real.
In true tradition, the Madame suggested they swapped clothes with each other.
As the latest recipients of her magic re-dressed, the sorceress added, “And there we have it another success. Julio is now a youthful trim young man of Celtic descent, whilst Patrick here is a robust-looking, more mature Latin gentleman... It seems that time has flown by this evening and these two gentlemen were our final volunteers for tonight.”
Muttering erupted in the tent, as all members of the audience wanted to see more of the Madame’s magical talents. Illusia raised her aged hands, the wide-cuffed robe she was wearing fluttering by the sudden motion. A mute silence quickly descended on the room as the audience recognised the Madame’s annoyance.
Once again in control, Illusia continued in a firm but soft voice.
“I once again would like to appeal to tonight’s recipients of my magic to join me in my tent after the show. Now that you have all been witness to my abilities I once again would like to remind you kind members of the audience of the plight of my nomadic brethren in the Old Country. Our ancestors have lived on the Asian plains for millennia… but now my tribe’s humble existence is being threatened by the corrupt politicians who rule over the lands they inhabit. Despite my abilities I do not dispose of the financial resources to guarantee my brethren’s safety. It is also contrary to the beliefs of my people for me to charge for my services... I thus have to appeal to the goodness of your heart to donate generously for our genuine cause. I assure you that your generosity… or lack of it… will be commensurately rewarded,” she added whilst glaring at the audience ominously. “And with that I leave you in my son’s capable hands and bid you all good night!”
As she uttered those final words that mysteriously echoed across the whole tent, she was immediately engulfed by a huge plume of colourful smoke. By the time the smoke slowly dissipated, the audience realised that the Madame had vanished.