“Bullshit, I don’t know what you’re on but you’re wrong.” Try and bluff her away, great plan Kat, you’ve already outed yourself, deflecting about magic will definitely work.
Violet sighs and steps back. “I’d be fucking shocked if you didn’t hear about me being a complete slut on campus. No, scratch that, you’re a shut-in, you’d have no clue. I was this close,” she puts her fingers as close as she can without touching them ”to calling you Virginal, too, but you did fuck the fresh corpse when she was still warm. I’m going somewhere with this admission, so chill the fuck out.” She takes off her jeans, looking me straight in the eyes. “Thing is, nobody on campus can agree if I railed them or they railed me.” With her panties off she stands in front of me, completely exposed from the waist down. I close my eyes, but she holds my face. “Nope, eyes open, Kouzelna, watch my junk. You wouldn’t be the fiftieth person to see it.”
I oblige. Her pubes are like silver. “Okay, cool junk, what does it have to do with you being fae?”
“This.” I’ve read far too many transformation comics growing up. Far too many, all to project myself onto the protagonist for wish fulfillment. I never expected to witness one live.
Before my very eyes, Violet grows a dick. And then has it recede. She does this a few times, landing on a pussy. “I’m a trans woman, for the record, I had to practice this ability as a teen.” She says as she gets dressed again. I walk past her and collapse onto the couch, Top immediately jumps on me, purring. I stroke her head and stare at the ceiling.
“That’s unfair. That’s so fucking unfair. Why do you get to do it and I don’t?” Violet enters my vision, leaning on the back of the couch.
“Well, what kinda spellbook are you using? The dye job makes it obvious you were a normie.” I answer Violet’s question by vaguely gesturing towards the tome. I watch her cross the room and open it, hissing as if she just skinned her knee. “Shit, uuuugh,” she gestures at the entirety of me.
“Girl. She/her. Closeted.”
“Shit, girl, you cast with this? This thing is complete fucking garbage central. Its Velesic dictionary is barely fucking anything, and the explanations are like a pastor preaching abstinence.” She turns to me, book still in hand. “Where’d you even get this?”
“Sisterhood of the Traveling Spellbook.” Violet raises an eyebrow at my answer. “Seriously. Weird, small coven, nobody had risked transcribing it into digital yet. They’re letting me keep it in the hopes I’ll do it with my linguistics minor.”
“Sure. I bet they do.” She puts the book down, walks over to the couch and lifts my legs up, sitting down and letting them fall on her lap. “Well, spill the beans, what did you do?”
There’s no point in dodging the question, in hiding my sins. Maybe putting them all out on the table will help me feel better. Liz isn’t around to judge me for my actions, to dole out the punishment I deserve, maybe Violet can do it for her. And who else on campus is going to believe me? “I made Top my familiar, I burned away all my body and facial hair… and I possessed Liz the night she died. That’s what the panties were for.”
“Creeping on a girl, huh? Were you hoping to third wheel some action with her?”
“No, fuck, no! I didn’t, I wouldn’t, I couldn’t!” Top nuzzles my face as my hand reaches the bottom of my stomach. “I was just… desperate. Desperate to feel whole. You wouldn’t get it, you get to fuck around with it, but us mortals are stuck. Stuck with what we’re given, unless we have the money and the luck to find a surgeon to fix us.”
She grabs my hand. “I didn’t get to give myself a pussy until my teens. I lived with a hog full time until then.”
“You got a way out though. You freed yourself of the pain and burden. I can’t. I can’t even be me. Nobody can see the girl that I am.” I sit up, making Top slide down onto my lap. “That’s why I did the Watching spell on Liz. Just for one night, I wanted to get to be a girl. Even if only by proxy, even if I wasn’t being me. It’s fucked up, isn’t it?” I keep petting Top to ground myself. She gets me. She might not truly understand my feelings, but she gets that I’m hurting, that I need help, that I need her presence.
“You do know there’s a gay bar not far from campus you could have used, right?” The only response Violet’s remark deserves is a pillow to the face; good thing I have one on hand on the couch.
“Somebody could have recognised me. Remembered me. Outed me, if things went really badly. And then what? Run to my friends for safety?” I don’t even get the option in the quick time event. “You said it yourself, I don’t know anyone. Liz was a perfect mask. I could ride shotgun with her and feel euphoric.” I sigh; it’s the kind of heavy sigh that light cannot escape. “At least until I realised how fucked up it all was.”
“Fuck, girl, when it rains it pours with you doesn’t it? Usually I fucking love to be proven right, but I’m starting to regret asking in the first place.” Violet leans back, her eyes affixed to the ceiling. “Fuck it, you need help and I’m a nosy enough bitch to force it on you. You still haven’t given me your name, by the way.”
“And I won’t give it to you, I like the one I chose and I don’t want to lose it to a pixie.” I snort. “I will tell you what my name is, not so that you can take it, but so that you know what to call me. It’s Kat. Kat Kouzelna.”
“Shit, kitten, chill, ma and pa didn’t even fucking teach me Fae Law, couldn’t do identity theft even if I wanted to.” Violet smiles. “But, I can see you being a Kat. I can picture you sporting matching ears with your kitty too.”
I hold up the pillow. “I warn you, I’m still armed.” Top mrrows. “And so is she.”
“With her extremely lethal claws, yes. Tee bee aich I’m shocked you don’t have friends when you’re this fun to hang out with.”
I look down, my hand busy rubbing Top’s cheek. The smile that spreads on mine is a somber one. “I think it’s too early for me to talk about that.”
“Fair, fair, fine, I getcha, I need to wait until second base.” Violet looks out the window, hissing. “Hey, Kat, you fine with me crashing on the couch here tonight? I don’t want to bother going back to my place in this weather, it’s fucking animal cruelty out there.”
“Sure, why not. There’s no booze in the fridge for the record, the dorm’s as dry as it gets in this weather.” I hear Violet groan as I make my way to the bathroom to shower, noting how much further my hair has shifted. Moss comes to my mind. My coming out to them was neater.
No, bullshit, my coming out to them was an unintended consequence of me being the witness of a murder.
I walk out of the bathroom in my dress. Violet whistles approvingly. “There we go, now that works. Honestly I thought you were an emo trans guy in your previous outfit. There was just this aura of not cis to you.”
“Gee, thanks for telling me I look like a 14 year old dude. Real confidence builder.”
“It was the clothes and beanie, like this it’s undeniable that you’re a chick, though. A flat chick but a chick nonetheless.” Violet shrugs. I sigh.
“Are you being an ass on purpose? Why did I ever let you into my house?” I slap my cheeks to focus myself. “Okay, here’s the deal, there’s this really cool NB living across the hall, their name is Moss, I’m too scared to actually thank them for looking out for me this week.”
“Say no more, lead the way.”
My closed fist is stuck, raised, mere inches from the wood of Moss’ door. This is the second time I’ve been out in the hallway in my dress, and the first where I’m not just running through. There’s a lump in my throat, my heart wants to reenact a famous scene, the cold sweat running down my back feels worse than the rain.
“Fine, I’ll take the charge.” Violet knocks. For a minute, nothing
“Oh cool looks like they’re not home nevermind then how about we go back inside and I make dinner and we can try again ne-”
Moss opens the door, interrupting my spiral. It takes them only ten seconds before they pull me into a hug “I’m happy to see you out of your room. You doing better?”
“As well as I can be.” My words are muffled by Moss’ muscles, but they understand me enough to pet me.
“And you’re Violet, right? I’ve heard about you around campus.”
“Whatever rumors you’ve heard, there’s a fifty-fifty chance they’re true.” Violet extends her hand for a shake, Moss obliges.
“Cool. What do you need, dear?” Moss leans on the doorframe once they let me go, disarming me with a warm smile.
“I didn’t, uhm, I didn’t get to do this the way I would have wanted.” I clutch the hem of its skirt. “I’m...“ I feel Violet’s hand on my shoulder, I quickly turn to her to see the goofy thumbs up she’s giving me. “I’m a trans girl, my full name is Kat Kouzelna.”
My chest is tight, I can’t breathe, I can’t move, my feet are off the ground, and then it’s over. “Congratulations on finding the courage to tell me, Kat.” Two hugs in just as many minutes, this one way more firm.
“I’m still closeted, I know I told you that when you were driving me home, the local genderfuck snooped it out, and you’re nonbinary, but besides you two nobody else knows, and I’d like to keep it that way for now.” Moss ruffles my hair when I finish talking.
“Got it, Miss Witch. Hey, did you by chance get your hair redone during the week? I could swear the purple didn’t cover as much before.” Moss rubs their chin and I reply with a smile.
“As I said, magic.” With a wiggle of my fingers and a casual pace I walk back into my place, waving goodbye to Moss. Violet squeezes by me before I close the door.
“Shit, Kat, I might grow moss on my cunt from how wet they got me, it’s unfair that you have such a hot neighbor!”
“TMI, Violet, TMI. Let’s just do nothing until we pass out.”
That's not many chapters! I hope they can get justice for Liz
Thanks for the chapter :)