It's been two weeks since I came out as transgender to my family, to my friends, and to my classmates. Overall, it went fairly well. My family, after getting over the shock of it all, was accepting of my need to express who I truly was, a girl. And they were even more accepting of my new name, Emma. My friends? Well, I lost a few, but sometimes, that can’t be helped. My best friend, Johnny, freaked out at first but called me up a few hours later to apologize. The day after I told my family I wanted to be Emma, I went to school dressed as a girl. It was a huge step, one that my family disapproved of. But I knew that if I wanted to fully transition to a girl, I would have to face the world at some point. Might as well get it over with. When I showed up to class that first cold dark morning, I was met by mixed reactions. Some were positive, some were negative, and some were neutral. I did have to deal with bullies, three to be exact. They were older than me and massive jerks. So I did my best to ignore them, which is what the adults ask us to do when faced against bullies. 

 

Now, two weeks after that day, I stood in front of a mirror wearing a classic princess costume. A classic, pink, princess costume, purchased by my mother, of course. It was something I had dreamed of wearing as long as I could remember but was too scared to wear one in the past. Now I was free to wear it, and even better, on Halloween. I may be slightly too old to go trick-or-treating, but my first Halloween as a girl was too much of a grand opportunity to pass up. It honestly felt like some sort of formal event. The pictures, the posing, it was all a dream come true.

 

Trick-or-treating was slightly more difficult, not because of my costume, but because I looked a bit older than the average trick-or-treater. Most the attention was diverted to my younger siblings, but I didn’t mind. Everybody I talked to saw me as I wanted to be, a girl wanting to be a princess. But Halloween was special in my family. We would often tell stories about things that could come out when night fell. All the supernatural creatures; werewolves, vampires, ghosts, demon creatures. These things were fun to think and tell stories about all of it. This was a family tradition and I was proud to be a part of it, especially as a pretty pink princess.

 

“Hurry up, Emma,” my little sister urged.

 

“We still have a ton of trick-or-treating to do,” my other little sister followed.

 

“Alright, alright, I’m coming… I’m coming,” I said. The only problem with my dress was that the skirt was a bit poofy, making it slightly difficult to run. I made up for this by raising the skirt off the ground, allowing me to run faster on the boots I was wearing. Running to catch up to my two baby sisters, I came around the corner to find my sisters hiding behind a bush. Why were they hiding? Because the three bullies that I have had since I came out as transgender two weeks ago were on the other side taunting a little girl dressed in a Rainbow Dash costume. They were pushing her around as she tried to jump for the candy bucket the three had obviously stolen from her. She was crying while begging them to give it back. In response, the three laughed harder.

 

“HEY, YOU FUCKS! Give that back!” I yelled at them as emotions of bravery washed over me. The little girl they were taunting looked about the same age as my baby sisters and even if I was their sister now, I was still going to protect them and those like them.  Quickly, the three bullies turned to see who had called them out. Their eyes came to rest on me. At first, there was a look of shock on their faces, but it changed when they realized who I was, at which the look became a sick smirk.

 

“Look who comes to the rescue, the fag. And look, guys, he’s a pretty, pretty, princess!” All three started laughing.

 

“Hey, that’s not very nice!” one of my sisters called out, joining me in standing up to the bullies.

 

“Yeah, go away, you big meanies,” my other sister called out. My bravery had given them bravery.

 

Smiling, “You hear them, get going,” I told them.

 

The three looked at each other, then mockingly said, “As the princess commands.” With that, they ran off, laughing. The little girl that they had been bullying fell to her knees and started crying. I ran up and knelt down beside to comfort her.

 

"Why were they" (sniffle) "so mean" (sob) "to me?" she cried. I looked around for her candy bucket, only to be dismayed when I realized that those bullies took this girl’s candy bucket when they ran off. I knew from what I saw that the bucket she’d had was full of candy, so losing the bucket to those jackasses must have been devastating to her. My two sisters were trying to comfort her, but they couldn’t get her to stop crying. But I knew what to do.

 

“Here you go.” I offered her my candy bucket. There wasn’t much in it, but still. The little girl looked up at me timidly, tears still in her eyes, unsure whether I was actually offering it or I was planning to trick her. “It's alright,” I reassured her. The little girl tenderly reached up and took the bucket. Without hesitation and without me asking, my two baby sisters took half of what was in their buckets and dumped it into the little girl’s newly acquired bucket, completely filling it. The girl perked up; her stolen hard work had been returned. She quickly jumped up and wrapped her hands around me in a big hug.

 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said over and over again with a tone of pure joy. She pulled back, looked me straight in the eye and said, “You truly are a princess.” And she ran off, I hoped to find her mother. I had lost my candy, but to make that little girl happy was worth it. I did realize that I had completely forgotten to ask what her name was, but her comment about me being a princess, well, words couldn’t describe what I felt. With a lightness in my heart, we started back home. I got three blocks from my house when my mother appeared to relieve me of my duty of watching over my sisters and told me that one of my friends, Johnny, had come over to invite to a Halloween party he and a bunch of my classmates were having over at Johnny’s house. She told me to go have fun, so I did. It was Halloween night, and I wanted to have fun. As a girl no less.

 

I actually ran into Johnny on the way to his house and after him commentating on how cute I looked, we continued the rest of the way together. We made small talk about the past couple of weeks and how eventful it had been. A few more comments about my princess dress topped off our arrival at the Halloween party. From the sound of it, it was wild. Johnny stated he had something to do around back, so he left me alone to walk through the front door. And when I did, I shut down the party. Everybody turned to look at me. The music stopped. A cup dropped. And no one was wearing a costume, except for me.

 

“Wow, Ethan, going all out, aren’t you?” one partygoer said, calling me by my old and discarded name. Their stares were making me feel deeply uncomfortable and I somewhat wanted to leave. But, then again, I needed to face this to prove that I would face whatever came my way. So I moved about with the party resuming some of its wildness. My poofy skirt made walking around partygoers difficult, with some tripping over it.

 

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” I kept saying to those who tripped. I was trying to find Johnny, but the amount of effort to move from one room of the house to another made it pointless and made me realize that the princess dress I was wearing wasn’t made for parties. Then, to my utter shock, I saw them. My three bullies who stole the candy from that little girl. To add insult to injury, they were actually in the middle of eating the candy they had stolen. They didn’t notice me, but if they did, I had half a mind to walk up and kick them right in the groin.

 

“Emma!” Johnny called over the noise of the party, from the opposite end of the house. “Over here,” he yelled, waving his hand. Great, I’d have to walk back through the party with my poofy dress. But before I did, I quickly glanced over to the three bullies and saw that they were focused solely on me. Their glares felt weird, almost inhuman.

 

Going back through the party goers was easier said than done, but when I reached where Johnny was waiting, he guided me into an empty side room. He walked toward the other side of the room to pick up something, with me looking on with mild curiosity.

 

“Emma,” he started to say.

 

“Yes?” I asked.

 

“You are truly a princess,” he said. I blushed at his comment. I truly felt like a girl, both mentally and physically, at that moment. Then he picked up a bat. “But you are still a fag that must be dealt with.” What?! Johnny was my friend. My best friend, my most supportive friend. But this ‘friend’ turned around and his face became twisted, sick. He slowly began to walk toward me, holding up the bat.

 

I backed up, terrified of the situation I was now in. Then I backed into something; turning around, I faced the three bullies who had the same twisted sick face that Johnny did. One shut the door and locked it. This… this was a trap. Johnny’s support of me being transgender, the party, it was a trap. “It’s time for you to take part in your own, personal, Halloween nightmare.” I heard Johnny cackle, then the force of the bat being whacked against my head, then nothing.

 

I woke up sometime later but felt extremely sick and disoriented. I had a massive headache, and I couldn’t see or hear anything. I was laying on something soft but felt pressure on top of me. I couldn’t even tell if I was still wearing my princess dress. My sides ached, and piercing pain began to make itself known in my leg and arm. Then I slipped back into the darkness. When I emerged again, the pain was worse, and I felt even worse in every part of my body. At that moment, I thought I was going to die, all because of some sick fucks. As I slipped back into the darkness, I hoped it would be the last time.

 

But I didn’t die. I woke up again and even though my condition had deteriorated, I still couldn’t see anything, but I could barely hear people moving about the room, as well as music from the party and the sounds of pictures being taken by some old, loud camera. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but I could make out the tones. The tones of these bastards sounded excited. Maybe I was imagining it, but it seemed the tones turned from excitement to confusion as the house began to shake. Then it stopped, but at the same time, the wild sounds of the party died out. I sensed the ones in the room moving about, trying to figure out what was happening. Then the door was blown open, the force sending it crashing into the wall beside me. It was impossible not to know this, it was so loud and made my head feel worse. The tones turned from confusion to anger as they confronted whatever had knocked down the door. I could hear Johnny amidst everything. I was beginning to slip back into the darkness when, suddenly, the tones of Johnny and most likely those three bullies suddenly turned from anger to pure terror. They started screaming so loud that I could actually make out them attempting to beg something to stay away from them. Something was here, something bad, something out of a Halloween horror story.

 

The four sounded so petrified. Then, the room was filled with a bright light, so bright that even in my condition, even in my blindness, I could see it. In the light, the screams rose to their highest levels. The room shook violently, then suddenly, the screams faded to nothing. Everything went quiet, and my blindness returned. A figure made its way over to me, I could hear the quiet footsteps approach me. Whatever had attacked the four was now going to claim me. I felt so close to death at this point, I didn’t really care. I closed my eyes and waited for the quiet embrace of death on this Halloween night. But instead, I heard a muffled voice that I thought I recognized and the snap of fingers. My body was overcome by a warm, piercing, comforting feeling.

 

My mind cleared, my body’s aches went away, but another strange feeling came over me. A feeling of something changing within me. Then the feeling disappeared and whatever injuries I had suffered were gone. The ringing in my ears ceased which means I could once again hear perfectly. I opened my eyes, relieved that I could once again see. I felt a presence beside me and I turned to find that my savior was a little girl with pure blue eyes and goofy smile, wearing a Rainbow Dash costume. It was the little girl that my sisters and I had comforted and given candy to after the three attackers had stolen her candy bucket.

 

“Those were some sick fuckers. Well, are you feeling better?” she asked me in concern. I looked around the room, which was, to my surprise, Johnny’s room. But there was no Johnny or the three attackers. All that was in the room was me and this ‘thing’.

 

“Who… who are you?” I asked nervously, noting that my voice sounded higher pitched than before.

 

“I’m Sammie,” she answered.

 

I looked around the room again, then back to where the door had hit the wall. The pure terror in my attacker’s voices before they disappeared, as well as the damage made it obvious clear that Sammie was no little girl. “What… what are you?” I asked, my voice keeping the same nervous spark. I again noticed the difference in pitch in my voice.

 

Sammie simply shrugged. “It’s not important. What is important is that you are okay.”

 

“What did you do to me?” I questioned.

 

“I healed you. From the injuries of your head, body, and that gender problem you were having.” Sammie listed off.

 

Gender problem? Wait, does that mean? I brought one hand up to my chest, and the other down to my groin. From what I could feel through my ruined costume, the change to my voice suddenly made sense. Sammie cured me by changing me into a girl. A true, biological girl. Suddenly, I forgot about the ‘Halloween nightmare’. My greatest wish was granted by my apparent rescuer. I rolled off the bed and grabbed Sammie and pulled her into a hug. Sammie returned the hug. “Thank you,” I cried. “Thank you for everything.”

 

“You're very welcome,” she said. Then a thought came over me.

 

“But why?” I asked her.

 

Sammie’s smile never faded. “A princess once said that when you carry out an act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, that you would have a feeling that someday, someone might do the same for you. You and your sisters helped me and when I finally sensed that you were in danger, I came to your rescue. Because it took some time for me realize this, I knew I had to give you what you wanted most.” Sammie reached up and wiped the tears off my face, “Now, time to send you home. Your family is worried sick about you. Don’t worry about the partygoers and the four that attacked you. I have taken care of them. Now, close your eyes, I will send you home.” I did as Sammie asked and I felt her bop my nose. Within seconds, I found myself standing in my driveway. Multiple cop cars were parked in front of my house.

 

Turning around, I saw the first light take hold across the skies, signifying that a new day was beginning. I heard the front door opening and my name being called out by my mother and sisters. I heard the sound of their footsteps running towards me. I didn’t turn to face them, rather, I looked down at myself. My dress was ruined, but I knew that I was really and truly Emma. Looking back up at the sunrise, I pondered about my rescuer. I knew Sammie wasn’t a traditional Halloween creature. She created such terror in my attackers, but at the same, displayed kindness towards me. She came to my rescue. And just before my family embraced me into a hug, I pondered over one last question. Sammie wasn’t a Halloween creature, but was it possible that my rescuer and the deliverer of my greatest wish, the little girl that called herself Sammie, was actually and truly… an angel?