=:= Katie =:=
"You're sure you won't be lonely after all this company?" Stacey asked with a grin.
Katie rolled her eyes, "I'll be fine. It's been a busy few days but honestly, it might be nice to have the place to myself again for a while."
It was early evening, they'd had a nice Sunday dinner, and now the two of them were relaxing together in the living-room. Stacey was lounging on the sofa, while Katie was curled up on her favourite chair.
Her sister watched her for a few minutes, as her grin slowly became a smirk.
"You really look adorable like that. I mean, it's not just the ears and the tail, and it's not even just the size. Like, the way normal-sized furniture is now so big you can sit like that and make it look comfortable."
Katie rolled her eyes again, but she was smiling too. "It is pretty nice, actually." She decided to tease a little as well, "You're not jealous, are you Stace? I mean, it's only a month till the next full moon, you could always make yourself fun-sized and see how you like it?"
Her sister laughed, shaking her head "No thanks. I'm quite happy as I am." She added, "And I don't want to have to buy yet another wardrobe, and spend all that time modifying clothes again for my tail."
"Ugh, I hear you there." Katie frowned, then added "Actually I saw a tailor at the mall was offering that service now? Can you believe it? It's only been what, five months since all this started and it's already mainstream to the point where mall tailors are offering to alter clothes for tails and other non-human parts."
"Wow," Stacey looked impressed. "If only government bureaucracy would move so fast."
She shrugged, "It'll get there. Might take another five months but we're making good progress with the ID reform stuff. Though I understand Canada is one of a handful of countries that are ahead of the curve on some of this. I've heard some horror stories from other parts of the world." She sighed.
"Yeah," Stacey frowned as well. "I'm sure Cindy has her hands full dealing with those problems. I wonder if she'll take your advice about the situation here."
Katie shrugged again, "She seemed receptive. I don't know if she's actually done anything yet though. I haven't heard, and there's been nothing on the news. Still, it's only been a couple days."
They hadn't seen or heard from the young teen since Thursday evening. Cindy teleported Katie back to her home, then about fifteen minutes later Zoe appeared with Melanie, and Cindy returned with Stacey. Both Melanie and Stacey were carrying small overnight bags with them. After that, Cindy and Zoe left, and that was the last Katie and her sister heard from them.
Apparently there'd been no further hate-mail or threats from the three students behind the attack, though as far as Katie knew they hadn't been arrested yet. She was a little troubled by the lack of news in general, but for now she was trusting the authorities to take care of the matter. And trusting Cindy not to exacerbate the situation.
Her meeting with the university's legal department on Friday hadn't revealed anything new either. They just reiterated that she wasn't to talk with the press, and that the three students had been suspended and were in the process of being expelled.
She'd had a few reporters try and call her, and one showed up at her front door, but Katie knew better than to talk with them even without the warnings from the university lawyers.
Melanie stayed over Thursday night and Friday night, but was ready to return to her dorm on Saturday. In addition to her student and her sister, Sarah came by Friday evening for dinner, and she was back again Saturday for a few hours too.
Now Sarah was back at her apartment, Melanie was gone, and Stacey would be returning to Ontario early tomorrow morning.
Stacey was still frowning as she commented, "You kind of sicced her onto that preacher. I have a feeling we'll be hearing sooner or later that something unusual's happened to him."
"Yeah," Katie sighed. She felt uncomfortable about that now. "What do you think she'll do to him?"
"No idea," her sister shook her head. "You heard what she said though. She likes 'ironic' punishments. If I had to guess, I'd say she's going to transform him into whatever he hates most, or whatever he's been preaching against most."
Katie nodded slowly, "His two biggest targets are trans people, and folks like us, with animal changes."
Stacey considered, "So odds are she's going to turn Pastor Jackson into a catgirl? Or foxgirl. Or something along those lines."
That brought another frown to Katie's face. "That feels kind of... I don't know? Feels weird to think that our ideal lives would be considered the worst punishment ever to someone else."
"I suppose," Stacey shrugged. "It's like anything though. One person's heaven is another person's hell. My body might be 'punishment' to a guy like him, but his body would be 'punishment' to me."
Katie nodded, "True enough."
The conversation died off there for a bit. Then after a few minutes of silence, Katie asked "Hey Stace? When Cindy first dropped in here on Thursday you seemed scared of her, you said I didn't want to know what she was capable of. I'm still curious though. Will you tell me what she's done that scared you?"
She watched her sister's expression. Stacey looked uncertain, then hesitant. Finally she just shrugged and sighed.
"Do you remember about a year ago, last November? There was a 'terrorist attack' out in my area. An incident at a high-school, a handful of deaths, a couple cars exploded?"
Katie nodded, "Of course I remember. It was a big deal for a while then it vanished off the news, like anything else these days. I vaguely recall they determined the terrorists blew themselves up or something?"
Stacey shook her head, "It was Cindy. Four men attacked that school, they were targeting some students there. Cindy and Zoe intervened. Zoe was kidnapped and Cindy lost her temper with the terrorists. There were no bombs. All that was Cindy and her magic."
"Holy crap," Katie gasped. "Didn't they have to close a highway for a while? She did that too?"
Her sister nodded, "She vaporized a car, along with the guy who was driving it. Left a crater about five meters across in a major highway. There were two other guys involved with that group, who weren't killed. They were transformed, instead."
Stacey continued, "Cindy says a friend did this, but she told me one guy was turned into a baby girl and abandoned at a hospital? I followed up, and learned actually two girls had been found at that hospital, about three weeks apart. No idea what that would do to someone. Like basically starting their whole life over again, but as someone else."
Katie shook her head slowly, not even wanting to think about that.
"The last one, Cindy wouldn't say anything other than he was 'transformed' but he was doing ok. I think I know what happened to him, though. Zoe's not as cautious with her social media. I'm pretty sure the last guy is now an eleven-year-old girl, living with a friend of theirs in Australia."
After a pause, Stacey added, "There was something else, too. I don't know for sure she was involved but... There was another incident at the end of November, in London. That's where the terrorists were from. Cindy told me Zoe had been captured. I'm pretty sure she tracked the guys back to the UK, to rescue her girlfriend. There were over sixty bodies in the rubble when she was done."
Katie shuddered slightly. "Hard to believe that young girl would be capable of something like that."
Stacey shook her head, "She's a lot more than just a 'young girl', but I'm sure you figured that out already."
"Yeah. You were calling her a demi-goddess. Is that for real?" Katie asked softly.
"I don't know," Stacey hesitated. "That's what she called herself, then she back-pedalled and said Zoe called her that, but that she didn't like the term."
Katie was quiet for a few moments, considering. "Well... I suppose she has to be something pretty special, to come up with those spells and share them with the world."
"Yeah," her sister nodded slowly.
There was another long quiet pause between the two of them. Then Stacey said, "Next time I see her, I'm going to ask her to teach me how to teleport." She grinned, "That would be just the best, to be able to come out and visit you whenever. Even just popping in to work and home again without worrying about traffic and weather."
Katie smiled, "If she actually does teach you, I'm going to bug you until you share it with me."
"We'll see," Stacey smiled as she relaxed.
I love Cindy soooo much. I love how you've fleshed out her character since she was first introduced back in Witches.