- Sarah -

Once our extended family were outside, it hadn’t taken us that long to get all their things together. I had to take some of the bags from Dad, otherwise he’d have just thrown them. I had no love for my Aunt, Uncle or Stuart, but I was a bit nicer to Michael. He hadn’t seemed like a complete shitbag, unlike his brother.

He’d refused to join in when the mocking had started – he’d even looked ashamed at what they were doing.

When I saw him outside, I offered him the bags that I’d taken from Dad and he took them with a thankful, yet apologetic smile. Out of sight of his parents, we quietly exchanged phone numbers.

I was getting some vibes from him that he might not be completely cisgender or heterosexual. The way that he’d gawked at Erin when he’d realised who she was had me wondering. Maybe there’s more there, and if he was going to learn to thrive then he’d need someone to talk to. Someone that wasn’t from his dumpster fire of a family.

Dad apologised wholeheartedly for the verbal assault that I’d received. He was determined that he should have listened to both me and Erin when we’d tried to tell him what our Uncle was like. Even though Erin’s intervention had left me with enough space to deny what had been thrown at me, I admitted my sexuality anyway.

Despite now knowing that I’m a lesbian, nothing really changed between us. Mum did eventually come to realise why I’d had so many sleepovers, though. That made me laugh. We all hugged, even Dad, which was pretty rare.

Eventually, I went back upstairs to check on Erin. She’d said something about Muse making some changes and that she would be unconscious for a while. She was pretty relaxed about it, so I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.

Inside, her baggy clothing was strewn across the floor. Other than that, she actually kept her room pretty tidy. I bet that changes once she gets her own wardrobe of clothes.

I kicked her jeans to the side and took a seat on the edge of her bed. She looked so peaceful as she slept. She’d stepped into the line of fire for me, and that warmed my heart.

Her face was starting to look eerily familiar, if only because it was resembling the one that I saw in the mirror every day. I was so envious of her auburn hair, though. I bet Muse is even going to make it naturally wavy – the cow.

---

- Erin -

Muse and I were sitting on opposite couches. The rest of the space around us was a featureless whiteness. It felt very Matrix.

I had my legs crossed, and she was lounging. She looked completely different from how she had been the last time we’d met. Instead of the more formal gown that she’d been wearing, she was now wearing some pleated, tartan skirt, fishnet stockings and tiny crop top. Her hair was shorter, pink and spiked.

Basically, Muse was now some kind of punk girl. I was doing my best not to laugh, but she was enjoying my amusement. I could tell by the glint in her eye.

“So, why are we here?” I asked, resting my hands on my thigh. I was wearing an ankle-length skirt made of some soft, smooth material. I had a feminine cut t-shirt and a waist length jacket to complete the ensemble.

“You have questions, and we have plenty of time,” she replied, sitting up a little straighter.

I took a deep breath – more for effect than anything else. We were working in my mind space now, I suppose. We’d vacated the real world while she worked on making my brain small enough to fit inside a smaller skull, I think?

She nodded to me.

It’s apparently a really, really complicated thing to do that could be dangerous. However, Muse is confident that she can do it without causing any damage or lasting negative effects. I was still getting chills at the idea of anything even slightly messing with the organ that made me me.

“It’ll all be okay, Erin. You don’t realise it, but we’re already halfway done. The wonderful thing about being inside your mind is that the passage of time is ours to manipulate.”

I gave a small nod, though I was getting worried that she could alter my perceptions like this.

“My species are symbiotic by nature. We need a host to survive, otherwise we are effectively defenceless,” Muse explained. “As such, we have an instinctive ability to understand and adapt to whatever our hosts might be.”

I blinked. Okay, that seemed to make sense.

“Our people have long held the philosophy that consent is important. Without it, we risk being hunted down and eliminated. Beyond what is absolutely paramount to our own survival, we do not ever force anything onto our symbiotic partner,” she continued.

“Is that why you’re always asking for my permission to do things?” I asked her, my head tilting just a little to the side.

“Generally, yes. If it is a decision that I believe you may want a part in then I will leave it in your hands. If you ask me to stop, then I will – at any time.”

“Huh, that’s good to know,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I could trust what she was saying was true, but it was reassuring that she at least thought about it.

We sat in silence for half a minute, my feet tapping against the ground. She started lounging again, though I expected that in the background she was actually working very hard on my poor noggin.

She looked at me again and nodded with a warm smile. “Yes, although talking to you is not taxing for me. I actually enjoy it,” she confirmed.

Well, in that case…

I thought about everything that I knew about my connection with Muse, so far.

“How does that work exactly?”

She shifted again, sitting up to watch me before she spoke, “As you know, my species are energy-based lifeforms. We are able to feed from most free energy sources around us, including bio-electricity and body heat. However, there are other forms of energy that humanity have yet to discover, and those are our primary sources of energy.”

I lifted an eyebrow, curious, but gestured for her to continue.

“As our symbiosis links us emotionally together, you are able to draw from me as much as I am able to draw from you.”

Squinting, I nodded slowly, “So… if you feed from a lightning strike then I’ll be able to use that to… what? Throw lightning?”

Muse laughed as I asked that question. She leaned her head to one side, resting it on a fist while looking at me like I was some kind of adorable pet. Uh.

“If you really want to, yes. Although you can use it in almost any way you desire. Yes, there are the projective uses that you have considered but you might equally focus it internally,” she clarified, her expression still very much amused. “I will leave the possibilities to your imagination.”

I had to sit for a moment to digest that massive nugget of information. I mean, it’s basically magic, right? Like… space magic?

“Space magic,” she confirmed, giggling.

Well, space magic had worked so far in making me a pretty girl, so who was I to argue? Though…

“If you can change my body as you have been doing, does that mean that you can also heal me? Like, if I were to break a bone?” I asked, my mind now following a certain track.

She nodded, but remained silent.

“So… does that also mean that I can’t get sick? Or, like, get cancer or anything?” I carried on.

She nodded again, “So long as I am alive within you, and I have energy to do it, yes.”

Fun. It comes back to energy again, though, I noticed.

“How long does your species live?”

Her amusement faded into puzzlement, and she lifted an eyebrow, “How long?”

“Yeah, y’know. What’s your life span?”

She froze, staring at me blankly. Eventually she returned to her smile, “That is a concept that we do not have. Our being is not restricted by limitations in genetic programming.”

“Wait, you’re immortal?” I asked, incredulous.

“I suppose you could say that we are clinically immortal. We are still able to die – just not from something as arbitrary as age. When we are formed we can reasonably expect to survive for millennia if we find a suitable host.”

Well shit.

“And you’re okay with, like, integrating yourself fully with something that will die from age?” I asked, thinking about the stories of immortals giving up their eternal life to be with a loved one. She’d mentioned that if either one of us died, then so would the other.

She half-smiled, her fingers steepling, “And who says that you will?”

---

- Sarah -

It had been a couple of days now since we’d said good riddance to our extended family. It has also been that long since Erin went into her sleep. She had continued to change all the while, her face shifting subtly from hour to hour. I wasn’t sure what I could do to help her, so every time I visited I would spend several minutes stroking her hair.

Maybe that would help, in some way.

I managed to convince my parents that she was just very tired, and I’d taken the day off school to be able to look after her. That kept them from worrying too much, but I was starting to have doubts of my own. I kept leaving food and drink for her every meal, even though the food would still be there when I came back with more. When she did eventually wake up, though, she wouldn’t need to go far to find something to eat.

I was about to leave the room when she groaned. I turned, just catching her golden eyes as they flickered open and turned to look at me. I gave her a smile, wiping at my eyes. Someone had been chopping onions again.

“Hey, squirt,” she rasped, then winced. That’d been her pet name for me ever since we were kids.

I reached for the glass of water I’d just left on the desk, turning and holding it out for her.

“Thanks,” she replied, sitting herself up and taking several long gulps.

When the glass had been emptied, I returned it back to the desk and picked up the plate of food. It was a cheese and ham sandwich – one of Erin’s favourites.

She was opening and closing her mouth when I got back to her, pressing her fingers into her jaw.

“Wow, that feels weird,” she said, accepting the food. She laughed at something, then tucked into the sandwich with gusto.

---

- Erin -

Everything around me did feel a bit bigger when I woke up. My body was screaming at me to fulfil its needs and thank the goddess that Sarah was here to help. I gulped down some water, absolutely devoured the cheese and ham sandwich, then felt like I really needed the bathroom.

Muse had pointed out that the change in perspective was likely due to the shrinkage that she had been working on for the past two days. I had an urgent need to perform some biological waste disposal, so I apologised to Sarah and dashed out of the room.

This was where everything was definitely odd. I kept missing door handles and adjusting for objects that weren’t quite at the level I remembered them being. It was like someone had come through our house and just nudged everything around by a couple of centimetres. It’s not enough for you to think it would matter, but it does.

I was bumping things with my elbows, where before I could happily move above them. Very disconcerting. It was like being a kid again, except in reverse – instead of compensating for a larger body, I was having to compensate for a smaller one. I felt a thrill of euphoria though, so clearly it’s not that problematic.

Once I’d finished and washed my hands, Sarah had come back with some more food and water. She was the best sister. We hugged, and I realised that I was only about a centimetre or so taller than she was.

“Hey um… I don’t suppose you have any clothes I could wear?” I asked her. “I’m not sure if we’re the same size or anything, but…”

She eyed me up and down, then nodded. Taking me by the hand, she dragged me towards her room.

“I think that you might still be a little bit bigger than me, though we might be pretty close now. Maybe some of the looser things might work,” she said, pulling out a drawer and starting to look through it. “If not, hey, you’ll grow into them.”

I laughed as she eyed me again, then she pulled out a pair of black leggings from where they had been sandwiched. I took them, and watched her pull open her wardrobe.

Her eyes were assessing as she flicked through hanger after hanger of dresses, blouses and skirts. When she stopped, she pulled out what looked to be a summer dress – it was white and floral in design. I squinted, a strange sense of familiarity creeping over me. I wondered where I’d seen it before.

I accepted that as well, and she smiled, “Now, go shower before you try them on.”

---

Showering was an experience. The euphoria I was feeling from everything being so soft and smooth was unreal. I was almost tempted to ask Muse to dial the sensation down so that I could actually function as a human being, but I decided against it.

I wasn’t feeling as tired as I had been before I’d gone into my two day coma either, which was nice.

‘The rest of the process will be more gradual. It will involve things such as fat distribution and skeletal positioning,’ Muse chimed in as I was in the middle of washing my now shoulder-length locks. I was also noticing that it was taking much longer to clean than it had before. I bet it’s going to take all day to dry, too.

I finished up in the shower after half an hour, having spent more time than I usually did just enjoying the waves of refreshment as they rolled over me.

With my only towel wrapped around my body – I’d forgotten to bring a spare for my hair – I padded across to my room. My computer chair was the only place I really had to sit that wasn’t my bed, so I jumped onto it. It needed an adjustment in height.

Something had been bothering me the entire morning and I wasn’t sure what it was until that moment. My phone! I hadn’t even checked it since I’d woken up!

I looked around for it, and eventually found it tucked away in my old jeans pocket. It was low on battery and I had quite a few texts waiting for me. Several were from Rishaan, and one was from Claire. I apologised to both of them profusely, explaining that I hadn’t been well the last few days. I really needed to stop leaving my phone on silent all the time.

There was one text message from Rish, though, that had a link to a video he wanted me to see. He didn’t say anything other than that I should watch it to the end.

When I sat down to view it, tresses of dark, damp hair fell off my shoulders. The sensation made me shiver involuntarily. No wonder I’d seen girls wrap their hair up after showers.

With my phone plugged in to charge, I wiped some droplets from the screen and started the video.

I almost stopped it after a few seconds because it was clearly showing three masked men assaulting a young woman. The setting was somewhere dark, maybe a park or pathway? There were a few street lamps nearby, but they didn’t do much to help the viewer to see what was happening.

One of the men held the woman from behind, while another was approaching her, menacingly, from the front. They were all laughing, and it sounded like the man with the camera was making lewd comments – he was standing behind her, a few metres away at least.

What sick fucks decided to assault a woman at night, and then upload it? More importantly, why had Rish linked it to me?

The man approaching from the front stopped, and tilted his head, looking puzzled. The microphone of the camera picked up some static sounding pop, and the man that had been holding her from behind simply collapsed into a smouldering heap. One of the nearby street lamps dimmed a moment before he fell down.

What the hell was I even watching?

The man with the camera took a step backwards, our point of view retreating. I could hear some uncertain shouting coming from the two remaining men now. All of the cockiness and swagger was gone after that pop. The guy that had been approaching her started to turn and run. He was terrified of something.

I couldn’t tell exactly what happened next because the view was partially blocked by the woman. The surrounding area lit up from a flash of light, and there was another static pop. The street lights dimmed again, and when they came back up the second man was on the floor.

The woman whirled towards the camera, her expression angry and hostile. It wasn’t the fact that – even in her fury – she was damned pretty. No. What I noticed was that her eyes were glowing gold.