CHAPTER SEVEN: MY BROTHER'S KEEPER

All of the Covenant protesters had dispersed, but the police were still there. A pair of patrol cars had taken post in front of the community center and a trio of officers stood in the sun, chatting among themselves out near the roundabout. El stepped outside and sighed, patting her hands against the still-damp crotch of her shorts. Now that she had time to think about what she'd impulsively done with Petra and Ash she was starting to feel bad. She'd just cheated on Melanie. Even if she'd never find out about it, El would know. She paced a little circuit in front of the community center, chewing at her lip. What in the world had compelled her? Maybe Petra had pheromones. That had to be it. It wasn't a moral failing on El's part, she'd been snared by a trick of biology.

"We have to do something," Ash said.

"I'm not cheating on Melanie again," El stated.

Ash gave her a strange look. That hadn't been what he was angling at at all. He gestured out toward Luci, She was waiting for her ride in her too-short tartan skirt, hands clasped primly behind her back. Her pigtailed hair was copper-red and long and shining in the sun. Somebody had dressed her in a fetish schoolgirl costume. "I mean about Luci. Isn't it fucked up that her brother's brainwashing her into a... I don't know. Sex slave or whatever. She can't even say no." He balled his fists and squared his shoulders. Ash was really getting the hang of dude body language. "That's rape, El. That's fucking rape."

"It's pretty fucked up, dude," Petra said. She pulled a vape out of her little handbag and took a long drag.

"I know," El agreed. "We should do something."

"The three of us should," Ash stated.

Petra coughed out her vape and held her hands up. "Whoa there, compadre. I'm a brown man... woman," she said. "I don't fuck with white people family shit. Nothing good ever came from that."

"You almost beat a white lady up when we were coming in here."

"Yeah, but I was mad and stupid and not thinking right. And what did I do as soon as I saw the cops? I fucking ran. Like a smart person. I wish you well, friends, but I'll have to catch it in the episode recap if you get me. And if you get your dumb asses arrested, I'll say 'I told you so'." Petra donned set of stylish sunglasses, tossed her hair, and sauntered down the walkway. She was really getting the hang of chick body language. El wondered if her own mannerisms would start to change.

Ash huffed. "Fine. We'll do it ourselves, the two of us."

"Um," El said. "Where did Luci go?"

"Fuck."

"It'll have to wait until next time."

"It might be too late by Monday," Ash said. "We'll figure it out tonight and do something first thing tomorrow, okay? Did you accept my friend request?"

"Yeah," El said. "And that sounds good. Oh... and I wanted to tell you. I told you I'd talk about it when I was ready... and I think I'm ready."

Ash gave El a visual appraisal, at least the third or fourth time he'd done that on the day. He held out his hand to indicate a diminutive height. "I'm going to guess HT-01? Pixie?"

El tugged at a strand of golden hair. It was thick and lustrous and her ponytail curled back to brush at the nape of her neck. It was growing two inches a day. "No, not Pixie," she said. "I'm HF-05."

Ash scratched at his stubble - it looked darker and thicker than it had been a mere hour before. "HF-05? Remind me... oh! Babydoll Barbie!"

She brought her hand to her mouth and gasped. "What? No! Doll! It's called Doll!" She stomped her foot. "Oh my god! Do people really call it that?"

Ash chuckled. "Yeah... I can see how that's kind of pejorative. That's just what they call it," he said. "So your..." he held his hands out to indicate a heaving bosom.

El shrugged. "Unless they got it wrong. I've got about half a cup past mosquito bites, but that's probably just the start."

"Maybe you'll get lucky? Anywho, we'll regroup tonight, do some Google-fu, and figure out where our impressionable damsel is being cloistered."

"Okay, Ash," El said. He was appraising her again. She blushed. "Thanks for helping Petra and me today. I'm glad you're not a dick even if you have one now. Um... I should go."

"Yeah, me, too."

- - - - - 

That night, between the two of them, they identified three likely residences in Corona where Luci might live. Honestly, it had been mostly El that did it, as none of Ash's hunches had panned out. But it had been a group effort, nonetheless. The next day, El had plans to visit Melanie in the afternoon and she felt really awkward about it. First, she and Ash were going to go out early to help Luci and then, whenever that finished up, she'd visit Melanie. It gave her something else to focus on. But then something came up and her schedule came unraveled. El's phone binged at 7 am sharp, rousing her from sleep.

<I have some bullshit family thing to do
<My grandma's freaking out over AHS because my mom and I both have it, so we've got to drive like an hour up the five Ash texted.

     That sucks :( >, El messaged back.
     Msg me as soon as you're around>
     I can drive if you like>

<No, I'll drive

     Ok!>

El thought about messaging Melanie and going over there early, but every time she started to, her thumb would waver and she couldn't quite type the message. She was nauseated over the fact that she'd cheated on her girlfriend. Were there extenuating circumstances? Sure. But that was an explanation and not an excuse. She was a horrible person.

Her brooding didn't last long, though, because El was soon presented with plenty to do. The worst libidinous urges of AHS were definitely the waves of hornies brought about by the early infection, but her libido had since settled to a manageable hum. If she occupied herself with other pursuits, it hardly warranted a second thought. Or so it had been for the past few days, and she assumed this would continue into the indefinite future. This proved to be laughably, naively wrong.

When she rolled out of bed at 7:35, something felt off. Something had felt off a lot lately on account of her consistently-changing body. The floor, for instance, was a lot further down from the bed than it used to be. But that wasn't it. It was something about her gait, maybe her hips? She stood in the mirror for a minute, cocking her hips back and forth and trying to decide whether they were wider. That was a plausible change. It was hard to tell, so she pulled her shorts down for a better look.

El wasn't at all used to seeing herself naked. It didn't help that she was a bit different almost every time. It was strange to look at the smooth, bare lower body of a slender woman and realize it was hers, that the reconfigured groin with its little thigh gap nestled between smooth, coltish legs could possibly belong to her.

Her penis was completely gone. Ah. That was it. Pulling the taut skin of her groin up revealed a little hood with a little nubbin nestled within. Even a light, exploratory rub from her pointer finger felt good. It felt like the whole head of her old cock was being mashed in an entirely pleasurable way. She made a little gasp but restrained herself - there was more exploration to do. She ran her slender fingers past and between her legs, finding the little ridges of beginning labia there but no opening. Thinking back to how her groin had felt as a man, it was a strange comparison. When she really thought about it, the front of her crotch now felt pinched and empty, as if something that ought to have been there was conspicuously absent. And when she really thought about it, the stretch directly between her legs felt full, as if something just as anatomically significant had been deposited there in its stead. Wasn't that exactly what had happened? Only she didn't yet have anything anatomically there, right? Rubbing between her legs felt good, albeit not nearly so good as that little exploratory rub of her clit, but she was effectively a neuter.

About fifteen seconds elapsed between when El made this realization and when it was no longer true. She gave that cleft between her legs another, more insistent rub and felt a bizarre, disconcerting stretch of her skin. With a little wet crack, a seam in the skin split open and El's labia bloomed out. Instantly, she was aware of cool air against moist membranes and countless little nerve connections that had until that moment lain dormant. And those little connections seemed to be sending signals to her sleepy little clitoris, urging her to come out and play. El just stood in shock for a moment, taking in her suddenly, conspicuously, utterly undeniably female anatomy.

She had a lot of self-exploration to do.

El tried to be quiet about it, but there was only so much she could do. All of this was new and most of it felt really, unbelievably good. She rubbed around her clit with a lotion-lubed finger and found that her bud seemed to have hidden controls in it. She'd rub for a while, delighting in the pleasant pulses radiating out, and suddenly she'd press it just so and her hips would start bucking and little eeps and moans escaped from her mouth. Her pussy was warm and wet and liked things in it. She liked idle stroking and gentle pressure and having fingers rubbed against the juice slicked walls.

She soon grew wet enough that fluid was leaking out and she used an old fleece sweater to sop up the juices. It was way too big for her anyway. And, sweater in hand, she found that she loved grinding her newly-minted sex against its softness. It was even better sitting atop a pillow. She knew her bed had to be making creaks and squeaks that any attentive observer nearby could hear. But it just felt too amazing to stop. She thrust her slim hips along the soft fabric, gasped at the tingles that radiated from her sensitive nub and from her slick lips. She must have been groaning and moaning, but she at least managed to refrain from squeals and screams. Well, almost... one definitely started when her first fully female orgasm hit her like the KT asteroid, driving any lingering regrets about the loss of her cock utterly extinct. That was the first orgasm of a few. More than a few. They came every five or ten minutes, sometimes in clusters separated by mere seconds as she cascaded from pleasure high to pleasure high. Her biggest regret was that she didn't have anything sizable to stick inside her to really explore that delightful stretching sensation. She also wanted to see what the big deal with vibrations was. El knew that Melanie had received at least a few sex toys in her latest deluge of risque apparel. Would it be weird to ask for one of them? There was a tapping at her door.

"Honey? Nolan's here? Do you want to come down and visit?"

El had been quiet for a few minutes at that point, just stroking herself and luxuriating in the aftermath of a particularly nice cum. Had her mom been waiting out there for long?

"I'll be right out," she said. Her voice wavered. The clock read 11:15 am. She'd been at it for three and a half hours.

- - - - - 

El padded down the stairs in an oversized t-shirt (pretty much all of them were too big now) and a pair of Melanie's old sleep shorts, also too big. She was 5'1", 105 pounds, and everything was too big. Her legs were wobbly from a slew of limb-limbering orgasms and her hair had to be a mess. Hopefully, it looked like she'd slept in and just woken up rather than that she'd been busily fucking herself for the length of a Lord of the Rings movie. All of the fingers on her right hand were still pruned.

The smell of breakfast wafted from the kitchen. El's mom was busy setting out the spread across the dining nook, a pastel pink apron cinched about her floral summer dress. As El padded into the dining area, her mom looked up, her smile faltering slightly when she registered El's appearance.

"I tell you your brother's home and that's the nicest thing you can put on?"

"Last time I checked Nolan's not the space pope," El said. "And what have I even got that fits?"

El's mom removed an oven mitt and tapped a ruby fingernail against ruby lips. "We'll have to get you a new wardrobe once you've... you know. Finished. Just you and me, okay? We'll make a morning of it."

"Hard..." El was about to say 'hard pass', but that was unfair. She needed new clothes and her mom was also going through plenty of life-altering changes and being as nice as she could be about it. Sometimes she slipped up, but sometimes so did El. "Hard to pass that up," El said. She climbed atop one of the stools, sitting on her knees to get enough boost above the counter.

"Is he down yet?" Nolan called from the other room.

"Right here at the breakfast nook, honey," mom said.

Nolan ambled in from the upstairs wearing his blue-gray Sierra Grande University t-shirt, his trademark not-quite-dad-jeans jeans, and a cocky smile. He traded the smile in for a look of confused astonishment, his eyebrows going up and his mouth making an 'o' of surprise that would have made orangutans proud. When Nolan eventually spoke, it sounded like a few gears in his brain had just locked up.

"Hi," he said. "Hi. Wow. Oh, wow."

"It's super to see you, too, bro," El said. "Please don't make this weird. Weirder. It's already weird."

Nolan slid onto the stool next to her. "It's just... you're, like, hot."

"I'm, like, hungry," she said. It was true. Maybe it was the three and a half hours of self-care she'd just seen to, but El was ravenous. She hadn't had much of an appetite for days, not after the first initial push of AHS. After that, the AHS vehicle had been content to catabolize her unwanted body mass to the tune of ten or so pounds every day, churning through boy tissue to power El's metamorphosis. Now, though, she felt like she could eat a horse. She felt like she could eat a whole farm.

Nolan took a deep breath. "Sorry, man. I didn't mean to come across so weird. It's just that mom's, well. She's mom with changes. But you're... wow. Are you okay?"

El held up a finger and proceeded to work her way through three sausage biscuits, two grapefruit halves, and a couple eggs worth of scrambled eggs with cheddar. She could understand Nolan's confusion. Their mother's transformation could perhaps best be understood by imagining the AHS vehicle scheming on what to alter in Lauren Bouquet:

'Let's take this mildly attractive, aging suburbanite and turn her into an insanely MILFy vixen who loves the bejeezus out of Suzy Homemaker shit,' it might have said.

Sure, there was a huge qualitative difference, but the changes needed to get there were actually pretty mild. Mom still looked like mom, albeit with the sex appeal dialed up to 11 and fashion sensibilities out of the Kennedy administration. In El's case, though, there was barely even any family resemblance anymore. She might have been Elias's very adorable, very slender younger sister after a few very successful plastic surgery procedures. Maybe.

"I'm not fine," El said. "I'm mostly fine with the AHS, but I had a really bad day yesterday and I think today's going to give it a run for its money." She reached up - way up - to ruffle his hair. Nolan took it in stoical silence. "But I'm glad to see you. Don't let my hot-and-sour face ruin your morning. What's new with you?"

"I, um." Nolan flattened his dark hair back. "I proposed to my girlfriend. You remember Tara?"

El nodded. "Red hair, dragon tattoo, pierced nose, psychology-no-sociology-well-both major, likes Margaret Atwood and Janelle Monae?" she said. "I remember her. That's great!" Did she really remember all that? She beamed. Tara was nice. Suddenly, El was happy. She'd just been broody and now she was happy. Was she having mood swings? "I'm fucking starving."

"Language!" her mother said.

"Load me up with more of those biscuits, please. That should keep my mouth busy."

"Eat too much and you'll get chubby."

"First, no I won't. I've still got a week before the AHS is mostly-out of my system. It's physiologically impossible to get fat while the vehicle is doing its thing. Literally impossible. Second, I can count my ribs. Look!" She lifted her shirt enough to show her skinny torso and then some. She realized with a start that she'd just full-on flashed her brother and mother. As Elias, that was perfectly fine if a bit impertinent. Now, though, it violated any number of social and familial taboos. Her cheeks went red.

"Sorry," El said, shaking her head. She wasn't going to cry. Not in front of Nolan. "I'll see you guys this evening. I need to get my shit together." She grabbed two more sausage biscuits and hopped down from the breakfast nook.

"Do you, uh... do you want to talk?" Nolan asked.

"Yes. Definitely," El said. "But not now. I have things on my mind and I'm not thinking right."

"Be safe!" her mother called after her.