DISTURBED TEEN OVERDOSES ON FEMALE HORMONES, UNDERGOES LIFE-ALTERING CHANGES!

PHILADELPHIA, PA - Sixteen year old Steven Sommers was found in the local mall Thursday evening, attempting to steal girls' clothing. The teen, unrecognizable to his friends and family, claimed that a local girl that he'd raped had used magical powers to alter his body, however, a medical test performed at the local hospital revealed otherwise, and it was discovered that he had simply taken extremely potent female hormones, damaging his male reproductive system and forcing him to go through the rest of his life as a female, after his upcoming gender reassignment surgery.

The girl he claimed to have raped, fellow sixteen year old Erin Wallace, claims to have no idea what Sommers spoke of. A doctor's examination revealed that Miss Wallace had not been raped, despite Sommers' claims to the contrary. Miss Wallace did, however comment "[Sommers] has been acting like a stalker around me, he even followed me to my house one day and just watched my house from across the street. My brother had to threaten to call the cops on him to get him away."

Sommers' parents commented "We didn't know that our son was taking any female hormones, or that he was stalking Erin. We're sorry for whatever harm he's caused." Sommers' sister, Sally, is a member of the high school's cheerleading squad, along with Miss Wallace. Sommers is currently in police custody until his forthcoming gender reassignment surgery, afterwards, he will be placed in a psychiatric facility to undergo testing.

***

Erin couldn't help but smile at the newspaper. She set it back on the table and finished her breakfast. "I can't believe that Sommers boy would say things like that," her mother said, setting her own plate down to eat. "And claiming that he raped Erin? Something's obviously been wrong with him for a while."

Her father shrugged. "He's just a troubled teen, honey, you see them all the time. Remember that boy that committed suicide after his friend forced him out of the closet on Facebook?"

Aaron was being strangely quiet. He hadn't said a word since he'd woken up, even failing to tease Erin about how much time she was spending in the bathroom. She wondered what was up with him. Maybe it had something to do with a guy saying that he'd raped Aaron's little sister, she couldn't really tell.

Part of her felt that he knew what had really happened.

That was, of course, ridiculous. Aaron had proven that he didn't have any memory of having the power, and Erin had covered her tracks when it came to everything else, besides, Aaron was as effected by the power as everyone else in the world besides Erin, there was no way he could know what had happened, despite the nagging feeling that he actually might.

She pushed that aside however, and grabbed her purse and her book bag and headed outside to wait for Aaron to finish his breakfast. Emily was already waiting, asking her this and that about the what she'd read in the newspaper. Erin had to explain that Steven had never actually raped her, despite what he'd said, and that she had no idea what was going on with him. Eventually, when Aaron did get outside, he mumbled something about forgetting something inside and told the two girls to go on without him. The girls just shrugged and started walking to school.

Erin's first objective, once she got to school, was to talk to Sally. The cheer captain was at her locker, talking to one of her other friends, when Erin arrived. "Hey, Erin," she said, as cheerfully as ever. "I can't believe Stevie would say he raped you. And how come you've never told me he's been going all stalker on you?"

Erin shrugged. "Most of the time he just glares at me evilly from the other side of the fence outside the school. He only followed me home once, and Aaron took care of that by threatening to call the cops on him."

"He's all bent out of shape thanks to all those hormones. Can you believe he's wolfed down a whole bottle of birth control pills? That's what he OD'd on."

"Really? Say, is that picture in the newspaper really what he looks like now? I wish my butt looked that good."

Sally giggled. "You and me both, and he and I share DNA! Plus, he's got bigger boobs than me!"

Erin giggled along with her friend, even though she knew exactly what had happened to Steven, what he looked like, and what really caused it. She couldn't let on like she knew, however, so she kept up the facade of being the clueless third party dragged into a weird situation.

When she caught up with Emily and Aaron for creative writing, however, she couldn't shake the feeling that Aaron looked like he knew more than he was letting on. Something strange was going on with him, that was for sure. The two siblings sat next to one another in class, and Erin tried to peek at whatever it was he was writing for class, but he just covered it with his arm and whispered, "Hey, sis, don't copy me!"

Erin just shrugged it off and got back to her own assignment.

***

Gym class. Swimming. Erin looked in her book bag and saw the bikini she'd bought for their upcoming Summer Vacation (from one of those altered memories, of course) and sighed. The school didn't allow two-piece bathing suits unless the girl was wearing a shirt over the top part. Obviously, the school didn't want to be at fault in case a wardrobe malfunction happened, or a boy was too excitable and blew his load in the pool, so she couldn't fault the rule, she just didn't have a shirt to go over the bikini top other than the skimpy tank top she was wearing, which was white, which would defeat the purpose anyway.

Instead, she changed the rules. The school now allowed two-piece bathing suits, and took full responsibility for whatever accidents happened during the swimming sessions. She giggled to herself at how fun it was to make life easier for herself. All around her, other girls were getting their own bikinis or one-pieces on, none of them covering up with shirts, the rule was set.

Emily was showing off quite a stunning string bikini that left little to the imagination, while Erin herself was wearing a simple pink and white number that did little to hide her stiff nipples underneath the thin fabric.

Sadly, as far as Erin was concerned, none of the guys seemed to be all that impressed by the display of nearly naked girls walking into the room and getting themselves wet. She knew that needed to change, and made every guy get a hard on for which ever girl they were looking at (unless they were releated, she didn't want her own brother getting hard for her). A few of the gay guys were probably disturbed, but it would take very little effort to make them straight. She giggled to herself, her desire to restrain herself completely gone after the last few days. Now, she felt like she could do anything.

And you can do anything, Erin. You are everything.

The voice wasn't a stranger anymore, she could tell now. It had been her voice from the beginning, she just hadn't realized it. Now, she simply listened to it, and knew in her heart that she could do anything.

***

After school that day, and after cheer practice, Erin invited Emily, Sally and Hannah along for a shopping trip. She didn't explain how they were going to pay for anything, simply that once one of the girls stepped up to the register, not only would they have the money to pay for whatever the item was, the item would also be discounted. Each girl purchased probably two thousand dollars apiece, but it only cost about a hundred dollars apiece. It was quite a fun trip, and Erin enjoyed helping her friends get what it was that they wanted. She bought very little herself, she mainly just wanted her best friends to be happy.

There was little of the original Aaron left in Erin. She didn't see other girls as potential love interests, she saw them as friends and fellow females. She didn't look at boys as pals anymore, though there were a few boys that were simply friends, she analyzed them and wondered whether or not they would make good boyfriends.

Had she not altered her life on Wednesday, these changes would not have taken such root in Erin's psyche. Indeed, she would probably be a gender-confused wreck if she hadn't made the mistakes she made two days before. It was now a blessing in disguise that she had simply gone with the flow of things and embraced the side of her that kept saying, "Be Erin."

***

Standing around in a very modest Victoria's Secret (modest meaning small compared to some of the other stores in the mall), some laughter caught Erin's attention. She looked out the window and saw three members of the school's basketball team picking on a twelve year old girl, doing such childish things as pulling on her hair or spilling soda on her white blouse.

If anyone had turned to look at Erin at that moment, they would see that her normally turquoise colored eyes were replaced with orbs full of red-orange fire. Stupid immature assholes! I cheer for those guys! Well, let's see how they like being the young, developing girls.

She froze everything around herself and the three boys. They looked around, confused about what was going on, and then the obvious leader of the group - Sebastian 'Bass' Young - spun around and saw her, still capable of moving. "What's going on here?" he asked, not even aware that his voice was creeping higher and higher in pitch. "Why is everybody frozen?" his now twelve year old girl voice asked. He grasped as his neck and tried to clear his throat, then looked in horror as his hands began to shrink, followed by his arms, followed by the rest of his body. His fingernails grew, took on a glossy blue color. He looked back at Erin, realizing after a second that he now had to look up at her, as he'd lost considerable height. "What are you doing to me?" his panicked little girl voice sounded so cute.

Erin stepped up to him. "You like messing with girls younger than you? Let's see how you like being the girl."

His bright blue eyes widened, not simply in horror, either. The faint traces of facial hair he'd had disappeared, replaced by rosey pink cheeks with light blush. His lips gained a blue color similar to that of his nail polish, and a small gathering of freckles appeared on the bridge of his nose. His plain black tee-shirt changed color to blue, matching his nail polish and his lipstick, and bumps on his chest grew until he had the small A-cup breasts of a young teenager. His young nipples poked through the fabric of his shirt, which now exposed his slender shoulders. His blue jeans crawled up his legs, shifting into a pair of skimpy shorts atop a pair of long, hairless legs. His shoes became a pair of three-inch heels that girls his 'age' didn't want their mothers to know that they owned. The final change came to his hair, which now fell just past his ears in a tomboyish style and framed his pretty, young face.

"Am I...?" the new Serena Young asked in a frightened, almost whisper-like voice. Erin simply smiled.

"You know what it feels like to have older boys pick on you, don't you?" Erin asked, a motherly tone to her voice. Serena nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. "You're not doing anything wrong growing up, are you? No. You can't help it that your body is changing. Boys shouldn't be so mean, should they?"

"No," Serena said, newfound determination in her voice.

Erin turned her around to look at the boys who had been her friends when she was one of them. "Should these boys learn what it feels like to be picked on just for being a girl?"

"Yeah, they should. They were picking on Kerry, she's my best friend!"

Erin smiled wider. She set to work on the next boy, Adam Foster. She started with his clothes instead of his body, changing his flannel over shirt and white undershirt into a plaid half blouse and white bra respectively, his tan shorts into a denim miniskirt, and his plain white tennis shoes into tan cowgirl boots. She shrank him down to the size of your average thirteen year old girl, then grew his hair out and styled it with twin low hanging pigtails. His body was next, his little breasts filling his bra cups and his plump little butt filling out his skirt. His body hair disappeared, and his face changed until he looked like a cute little farm girl. She put a cowgirl hat on his head and then Adam Foster was no more, instead Amanda Foster joined her friend Serena.

"Two down, one to go," Erin said, walking over to the third boy, Thomas Humpfrey. He looked extremely frightened, having just watched his two best friends go from seventeen year old guys to twelve year old girls in less than a minute. Tears streaked down his face. "You know why you're being punished, don't you, Tommy?" Erin asked, still using her motherly voice. "You know exactly what it is you've done."

"I... I... I..." he stammered out. She looked down at his crotch and saw that he'd wet his pants.

She hugged him. "It's okay, sweetie, it's okay." She patted the back of his head. "Momma's here, Tommy. You'll be just fine." She pulled away, her hands resting on his shoulders. "You'll have to dry those tears, baby, otherwise you're gonna ruin your make-up." Thomas sniffled. "That's right. You're gonna be just fine. You're just a little nervous, aren't you? After all, this is your first time going to the mall with nothing but your best girlfriends." Thomas nodded, his innocent, little girl face shifting from scared to simply nervous.

"But it's okay. They know what they're doing, and they know how to protect you." A smile started to form from his plump, pink lips. "You're excited to be here without your parents or your big sister, aren't you? That's why you picked out your prettiest dress?" Thomas nodded again, completely unaware that the bright yellow dress he was now where had been jeans and a muscle shirt seconds before. His budding breasts looked cute under the dress. "How about you just go back to your friends and have a good time, huh sweetie?" Teresa nodded once more, and then the four pre-teen girls - Serena, Amanda, Teresa and Kerry - returned to their own fun outing at the mall, completely oblivious to what had just happened. Kerry's blouse was dry again, and her hair no longer the mess the three former boys had made of it. They were all happy, all content.

And Erin - and the dark shadow behind her - smiled.

***

You're doing wonderfully, Erin, the voice said, soothing her as she laid in the bathtub and let the bubbles tickle her body. She loved bubble baths. You understand now, don't you? You understand that you are the one in control of this world. She moaned, almost as if she were having an orgasm. She grabbed on breast and squeezed, moaning again. You're happy now, aren't you, Erin? Happier than you ever were as Aaron.

Yes, I am. Everything seems to be coming into focus, and becoming better than I could have ever hoped it would be.

Then, in almost like a strobe light had been kicked on, she saw visions of that ruined park, of the destroyed swing set, of the dead children. A figure stood there, shrouded in black, like Death.

Erin sat up quickly, sending bubbles flying and splashing water outside the tub. What the hell?

***

Erin slipped her bathrobe on and her bunny slippers and opened the bathroom door to return to her room, until she saw Aaron standing there, a concerned look on his face. "You okay?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"I just... I don't know, felt something was wrong."

"You felt something wrong? You sure you didn't eat something wrong?"

He lightly tapped her on the head. "Yeah, I'm sure, doofus." He turned to return to his own room, then slightly turned back to her. "Were you fingering yourself in there? I heard moaning."

She pushed him forward, toward his room. "Ugh! Privacy! I'm not telling you! Pervert!"

He chuckled and returned to his bedroom. She returned to hers.

***

Erin laid in bed, sleeping, dreaming. The shadows were heavy in her bedroom, heavier than any other room in the house. A street light outside was in perfect position to cast light upon the room, enough to keep even the heaviest of sleepers awake. The street light was ineffective, however, as the shadows that dominated the room were not natural shadows, but rather living shadows. A single living shadow.

The shadow closed the curtains and in the pure darkness of the night, took on a human shape, a familiar human shape. The shadow caressed its sleeping human form, though Erin felt nothing. The shadow smiled, a disgusting grin that would rip the soul out of even the strongest of men. It picked up the diary on Erin's bedside table and flipped through the memories it had created, the memories it had changed, and thought of the memories it had yet to conceive. The smile widened, several small animals out in a forest somewhere died horrible deaths.

The one thing the shadow didn't like was that it was constrained to Erin's bedroom. It would very much like to cross the hallway and find out just what it was that Aaron truly knew. It would know, however, eventually. The smile widened again, a family of three died in a car accident on I-85.

Erin stirred in her sleep, her dream had obviously taken on a darker tone. The shadow caressed her face again, soothing her once more. It whispered in her ear, "Everything is fine, dear Erin, everything is wonderful." At the sound of the shadow's voice, a Malaysian plane veered off course and ended up in the waters outside of the Australian coast, four hundred people drowned.

The shadow loved its new host. She was perfect.

***

Erin awoke to a rapid knocking on her bedroom door. She sat up, stretched, then walked over to her door and opened it to find Aaron standing there, dressed and ready to go. "C'mon, sis, we're going for a jog today."

"Since when do you care about jogging?"

"Emily wants me to do a five-k with her next month, and I promised I'd start running, figured it was something you and I could do together."

She did like to jog. Besides, if her brother was actually willing to do a 5K, she couldn't say no to him. "Gimme a few minutes to get dressed, okay?"

"Yup."

***

Erin was quite pleased with not only her brother, but herself as well. Neither of the two Wallace twins were all that athletic, despite the fact that Erin was a cheerleader. Her practices after school with the rest of the cheer squad kept her in shape and ready to climb to the top of the human pyramid. Aaron predominately just sat on the couch and watched TV, or made out with his girlfriend, or this, or that. He'd never even shown any interest in sports.

So she was surprised when, barely twenty minutes into their jog, when neither of them seemed out of breath at all, Aaron just stopped.

"What's the matter? Can't keep up with me, big brother?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk."

"We could have done that at... home..." She trailed off, realizing for the first time where they were.

The park.

"You came here the other day," Aaron said, walking over to the apple that had fallen on Wednesday. "Mom was a little worried, but I told her that you were probably just trying to clear your head. Ever since then, I've been wondering how I knew that." He tossed the apple up and caught it again. "I mean, I was sick, lying there in bed, suckin' back soup, but somehow I knew that my twin sister was conflicted over something, even though I hadn't seen her most of the day." He tossed the apple and caught it again. "At first I just thought it was a twin thing. It's not like we haven't completed each others' sentences before, or things like that." Another toss, another catch. "Then I started thinking about the rock I found on Monday." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small black rock that the original Aaron had found before going to school on Monday. "I found it in your room, last night while you were at the mall. It was like it had been tossed under your bed."

"What's going on, Aaron?"

He walked over to her and set the rock in her hand. "That rock. It's not natural. I showed it to Mom, and you know how much she studies all the rocks she's got in that rock garden. She couldn't even tell where it could have come from." He handed her the apple next. "And now you've got two of them."

She looked up at him from the two objects in her hands. "Two of them?"

He walked back over to the tree and kicked it. Nothing happened. "One apple. Doesn't it seem a little weird to you that this tree - obviously not an apple tree - would somehow produce one apple?" He walked back over to her and pulled the rock from her hand. "It didn't. It made two, and this was the first one."

"What are you talking about?"

"C'mon, sis, you remember going to church every Sunday until we got too independent to read the Bible. Granted, those aren't exactly realmemories."

Her eyes widened. "You do know!"

He nodded. "Took me a little while to figure it out. You're the original Aaron, the one that really found the rock. You turned yourself into a girl for a day, and when you came home from school that day, I was there, where you should have been. You've adapted to the idea of being the twin sister to the guy you used to be, but you still remember it, don't you?"

She nodded, lowering her eyes.

"It's okay, Erin, I understand. If I was the one with magical powers, I'd probably be using them to jack around with people all the damn time, just like you've been doing."

"How do you know?"

He put his hand on her shoulder. "You hear voices, right? It sounds like you, but it's soothing, it's peaceful, it's telling you that you can have the world."

"Yeah."

"I hear voices, too. Not the same as yours, mine are pure chaos and hate and rage. Steve Sommers, the guy you fucked up after he raped you? I hear him, the voice in the back of his mind that still remembers everything he used to be and what really happened. Those three basketball players you turned into twelve year olds last night, they still exist, somewhere, knowing exactly what they were and what they'll never be again."

Erin looked down at the apple still in her hand. "What's the connection between that rock and this apple? And what's the Bible have to do with this?"

He stepped back from her. "Adam and Eve. Eve took the forbidden fruit from the snake and brought about Original Sin? Remember that?"

"Yeah."

He held up the rock. "Original Sin. It's not really a rock, it's the apple that Eve took from the tree." He patted the tree he was standing next to. "This tree."

"Wait, are you trying to say that you and me are the new Adam and Eve?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm saying that you are the new Adam and Eve. You picked up the rock as Aaron - Adam - and once your life got screwed up after you changed into Erin, you became the new Eve by accepting the forbidden fruit." He walked over to the swing set. "You saw him, standing here. Shrouded in black, eyes of fire." He looked back at her. "You saw him, didn't you?"

She walked up to the swing set and looked down. The swing set was fine, but the bones of the dead were there, crumbling under her feet. She looked over at the jungle gym and saw the bones hanging from it, as if the child playing on it had died right then and there.

"The voices you hear," she said, her own voice barely a whisper, "they're what's real, aren't they?"

He nodded. "And the voices you hear don't come from the gentle, soothing person that they should. They come from him."

Don't listen to him, Erin, the voice said, as peaceful and gentle and caring as a waterfall covered in rainbows. He lies.

"No!" she screamed, backing away and tightening her grip on the apple.

"Fight it, sis," Aaron said, stepping closer to him. "He's the one who's wrong."

She closed her eyes, but she could still see. What she saw, however, was the ruined, dead world that she saw on Wednesday. She opened her eyes again, and saw the shadow standing there, behind Aaron.

"Move!" she shouted, pushing her brother out of the way.

The shadow smiled, then reached out and grabbed Erin by the neck and held her in the air. It squeezed tightly, obviously taking pleasure in what it was doing. "So that's who you are," the shadow said. In Erin's voice. It took her a moment to realize the shadow had even taken on her shape. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the leaves die on several tries behind the shadow. "It's about time you showed yourself."

Erin struggled out, "What... are you... talking about...?"

The shadow threw her aside and walked up to Aaron. "Perhaps I should explain, since you probably don't even know." The sky turned red at the sound of the shadow's voice.

"No," Aaron said, "I know. I'm the anchor to my sister's past. I'm what's left of what she used to be, after you fucked her up!"

The shadow laughed, the ground split in two between the Wallace twins and the shadow. "You're nothing but His way of keeping me in check. He found out that I discovered my vessel, and He wants you to stop me from taking her." The dying sounds of a puppy echoed across the park.

"Oh my God, this is some balance of good and evil thing, isn't it?" Erin asked, causing the shadow to laugh yet again. Something in the sky exploded. "You're really him, aren't you? You're Satan..."

The shadow crossed the growing chasm that had separated them. It helped her up and stared deeply into her eyes. "I am the force that provides you with whatever you want, dear Erin." A gunshot punctuated the words. "I am everything good in your life, everything." A hawk cried in pain.

Erin pushed the shadow away, closer to the chasm. "No! You're not! All you've done is fuck my life up!"

"As that boy, you were failing school, had few friends and were generally and completely an outcast from high school society," the shadow said in Erin's soothing voice, still. A man down below in the chasm let out a horrifying scream. "I made you a popular girl, a cheerleader, with many friends. And the power to do with your life what you will." The man screamed again.

"Yeah, I destroyed one guy's life and screwed up three others to the point where you can't even recognize them. You've helped me, alright!"

The shadow didn't say anything this time, it merely smiled.

And Erin's world nearly fell apart.

The chasm opened wider, crumbling the ground beneath their feet. In less than a second, the ground Aaron was standing on began to slide downward, into the chasm. He screamed, reached out, and grabbed hold of the ledge that now appeared where he'd been standing. Erin rushed over to him and tried to pull him up, but dark hands below grasped at his feet, at his pant legs. He seemed heavier than he was before, weighing almost ten tons, it felt like. I'll save him! I have to! She pulled as hard as she could, but didn't seem to be making any progress pulling her brother out of harm's way.

You can't help him, dear Erin. He's dead. He was never truly alive to begin with. You created him, and He used him as a proxy to destroy me, to destroy you, dear Erin.

Erin glanced back at the shadow standing behind her. "Shut up! He's my brother! I'm saving him!"

You can't. The shadow knelt down beside her. I won't let you. They won't let you. The shadow pointed at the souls below. You know who they are, don't you? Those are the souls of those who's lives you've changed, and those around them. Your parents are down there. By giving them a daughter, you've given me their souls.

Erin tried to block out the shadow's voice - her voice - and just concentrated on pulling Aaron up. She needed him to be fine, then everything else would work out right. She pulled with all of her strength, but it just didn't seem to be enough.

Unless I give myself more, she thought. She closed her eyes and focused, willing herself the strength needed to pull Aaron out of the chasm. She opened her eyes and saw that she it was working! The souls grasping for Aaron's legs were suddenly unable to reach him. She pulled and pulled and finally, Aaron was back on the dead grass along with her and the shadow.

"You're not taking him," she said, a new determination in her voice. "If you're gonna take anybody, you're gonna take me because this all started with you and me! Nobody else! Stop fucking with my life, stop fucking with my friends' lives, with my family's lives! You want a soul to play with down there, then take mine!"

The shadow stood suddenly, its eyes open wide. It opened its mouth but words did not come from its lips. Instead, a blinding white light forced the shadow's mouth wide open, then spilled out of its eyes, its nostrils, its ears. The light engulfed the shadow, destroyed the shadow, and grew more. Erin brought her arms up to shield her face as the light enveloped her, and then she felt nothing.

***

Erin awoke in her bedroom. She looked around, nothing seemed different. She threw her blanket off of herself and saw that she was still Erin. A loud knocking on her door startled her. "What?!" she asked, her voice panicked.

Aaron opened the door and came inside, then shut the door behind him. "Calm down, sis, it's okay."

"Okay? It is? What is?" She sounded like a maniac.

"You're okay, I'm okay, we're all okay. You did it. He's gone."

"He is? That shadow?"

"Yeah. The shadow, Satan, whatever you want to call it, he's gone. You saved me, you saved everybody."

"I did? What did I do?"

"I don't know. I kinda blacked out when you nearly yanked my arm off to pull me off that ledge."

"I did it... I stopped Satan... Satan was... using me..." She trailed off and then felt herself faint, just before everything went dark.

***

The shadow rattled the cages of its prison. It saw its jailkeeper watching it, containing it.

"You thought you could corrupt the innocent soul of yet another," He said, walking toward the cage. "Erin is not like Eve, however. She is stronger."

The shadow didn't speak, it simply stared.

He chuckled. "She has imprisoned you here, something even I could not do. Perhaps she is even more powerful than I am."

Finally, the shadow asked, "Did you let her keep the power?"

He shook his head. "It is too much for anyone. It shall remain between us, as it has for all creation. You shall remain here until I decide whether or not you should be returned to your kingdom." He walked over to the doorway opposite the cage, then turned back to the shadow. "Why did you change the apple into a rock?"

"Humans are stupid enough to pick up rocks all the time. It's not as easy to get one of them to eat an apple they find on the ground anymore."

He nodded, then turned away again and left the shadow to its thoughts.

A truly horrifying place.