A Rock and Family Vacation

[EPILOGUE]

THREE MONTHS LATER

“I’m freezing my tits off in there! Coach Pine refuses to turn up the heat!“ Lacy huddled with extra layers as she secured her backpack.

“Speaking of,” Blair chimed in. Lacy puzzled for a moment, before realizing she had her ring off. “Oh, dang… I have my bra on too. Fricken Monday. Maybe… Maybe I can just go like this for once… Will anyone really notice?”

“You’re asking me….if anyone will notice that you’re a girl….like that?” Lacy had on woolen leggings, which were technically against Lakethorn’s dress code. While her top was fluffy and dense, there was still no disguising certain traits.

Pondering, Lacy brainstormed, “I could just tell everyone it’s allergies.” Blair groaned and rubbed his eyes.

Aunt Krystal appeared in the doorway and clapped for them to hurry up because the bus was minutes away. Grumbling with uncertainty, Lacy practically spun her way into some frumpy boy clothes and shoved her ring on before grabbing winter gloves.

In the kitchen, Elie nursed a steaming cup of coffee as she quietly scratched new book notes on a large yellow legal pad with a fountain pen that her wife considered the world’s greatest enigma to even wield. Brooke had on her pantsuit with a flashy little neckerchief and her presentation notes on her phone. She did her best to actually breathe as she confirmed everyone had food, money to buy food for lunch, and whatever else she’d forgotten in her frazzle. Krystal teased and reassured her that everything would be fine.

When they got home from vacation, Krystal endeavored to make sure her little sister was in charge of everything from revamping the dress code to booting out useless swamp scum like Arthur. She didn’t quite replace him with a blowup doll, but rather one of the senior mail room workers who always cheered her on when she was starting out under the thumb of her father. Krystal turned her office into a luxurious break room covered in plants.

And even though she had a nice house that she often invited the kids over for board games and various improv adventures, Krystal converted the front room here into an artist studio and urged her little sister to try a canvas or two. Brooke tried to tell herself that everything would be fine. Even if everyone missed their buses, her sister had a car.

But she already stepped up and took Lacy to her second modeling session, the first in boy mode. Brooke didn’t wanna lean on her elder sister again and she certainly didn’t want to succeed in this presentation because of nepotism. Elie, with a quiet smile, urged her to breathe and Brooke jokingly mused whether breathing was really necessary.

Lacy narrowed her eyes at her little sister as she finished her breakfast. Clare considered remaining at the boys' school but there were several reasons to change, especially the fact that Vincent had selected and encouraged it. The uncertain shift to a girls' school a mile closer invited all sorts of questions from her classmates, but they eagerly welcomed her, and the first study and fun sleepover was planned for next week. It wasn’t that Lacy necessarily wanted to trade places with her little sister, but she did occasionally, idly imagine it. Junior high was so much rougher, especially with the complications of their lives.

“It’s time!”

Brooke was left with half-empty plates and untempered chaos as her children shot off through the front door to grab their buses. Elie hummed to herself and started clearing the table. Brooke rubbed her head and stretched her cold-buffeted joints. Elie gave her a warm, lingering kiss on the cheek and said only, “Family. Beautiful, delirious, delightful family. Ooo…” she made a quick note on her pad and finished tidying up.

Outside, Clare launched herself into a contained cacophony of cute giggles and subdued screams surrounded by so many girls her age. She blended in easily. A block over, Blair was just in time to loom and linger in the Pioneer High bus even though his ring, carefully contained in a zipper pocket, shifted with conspicuous weight. Several clever possibilities and devious discretions scintillated his imagination even though he told himself that he wasn’t going to tempt reality and good sense today. Maybe someday…

Lacy marched onto the Lakethorn Junior High bus. To his right, he noticed a cozy trio of girls laughing and smiling as though they shared one body in three parts. He took a breath and dodged away from them the same as he avoided a cluster of boys whooping and declaring some bold confidence he scarcely understood. Back of the bus. The best place.

He waved to Caleb and asked how Nancy was doing as he rubbed his gloved hands together for warmth. Idle chitchat filled his ears and thoughts as the bus pulled away from the curb. In a moment of sudden silence, Lacy felt himself drift into the reflection of his own imagination.

But the silence was too deep. Blinking, he looked around and saw that there was no one on the bus, no one but him. Nervously, Lacy stood up and scanned around to discern where, impossibly, everyone had gone or hidden. Had he suddenly fallen asleep and missed the all-important stop? No way.

The silence started to crack and shift into a rumbling, like grinding in the earth rising to meet him. Lacy braced himself as liquid midnight spilled out like screaming oil from the windows and threatened to consume him. At the same moment, he felt and saw a blinding light emerge from his chest. Stark white fabric in luxurious spirals and soft fragments burst across his body with gems and precious decorations. He was in a dress, a perfect gown, and it was beautiful. She was a girl again. And in her hand shimmered a scepter like a lighthouse burning away the blackness. Her wand, her power.

Before Lacy could chant a spell resting on the tip of her tongue, a bump in the road jostled her thoughts and returned him to the presence of his schoolmates. Too much watching magical girl anime before bed. Clare turned him onto it, even though he tried to show disinterest. But it was slowly replacing superheroes.

Checking his pocket, he noticed the ring was warmer than usual against his side. Inspecting it carefully so that no one else saw, he was puzzled at the fact that it glowed brighter than usual. It often had a silvery luster that sometimes looked white in the right light but otherwise had a cloudy, dim presence. Probably nothing, but he reminded himself to ask Aunt Krystal about it after class.

It was definitely too much to imagine that it had magical powers beyond just flipping the channel between his boy and girl modes.

He wasn’t a magical girl… Not yet.

———-

“Help… Help me… Help…”

Vincent Muller coughed into the sand as he rolled over to get to his feet. He found himself in an immense space filled with sparse dunes and featureless clouds. Even without his glasses, he could see enough of it.

A creeping, overwhelming exhaustion filled his joints and tugged on his senses like inescapable binds. Before he could speak again, a voice answered.

“Certainly, but for a price.”

Glancing up, he was startled to see a lanky, spindly man in an awkward, ill-fitting suit standing hunched over next to him. He smiled a serrated smile split between menace and glee.

“You,” Vincent grumbled. “I should’ve known that your kind would show up like vultures.”

The smiling man introduced himself as Carren Cross, even though he casually admitted that wasn’t his real name. Vincent coughed harshly into the sand to the point that it felt like he was going to hack up a lung.

“I thought you enjoyed our kind, living on the dark side. You made some lovely little half-breeds...of such quality that I didn’t even recognize their smell.”

Vincent cursed at him and demanded to know where he was. Carren spread his arms.

“Far far away from anywhere you’ve ever known. Fortunately, there’s a little bit of me practically everywhere. Looks like your family didn’t want you anymore. I can’t imagine why… just ruthless experiments, psychological torture, and the endless rewriting of their reality… nothing to get that upset about. I consider those virtues.”

“Dammit! What’s happening to me…?” Vincent fought with the spinning lethargy wrapping its tendrils around his body and mind.

“Must be a bit of a side effect. Or karma… if I believed in that. In just a minute, I’ll get to know the real you. Isn’t that delightful?”

With dawning understanding, Vincent howled, “NO! I can’t go back! Back to being a useless woman. I’m better than that! Help me…help me… you must stop it. I don’t want to go back to that!”

Carren clasped his hand. “Do we have a deal? I help you, you help me. I have a little initiative I’m trying to get off the ground and I really could use your experience. What do you say?”

Bobbing his head, Vincent vehemently agreed. “Whatever! Fine, yes! Just help me!” They shook on it and Carren gently let his hand go.

Vincent didn’t understand, as his lids became desperately heavy. Carren explained, “I actually can’t stop what’s happening to you. And I’m too amused to even bother trying. And, besides, I know you’ll be a better man when you wake up. Have a lovely slumber, Miss Muller. I can’t wait to see you in the morning. And…”

Finally losing his bitter fight with the change gripping his body, Vincent shut his eyes and drifted off.

The last thing he heard was, “Welcome to Cerberus…”

---[THE SHORE FAMILY WILL RETURN]---

[Radiant Spirit, via Dall-e 2]

In the same style as the first story, this one will also have a follow-up. I am considering all sorts of stylistic approaches, but my intention is to have a rather fun magical girl anime feel. Hope you enjoyed this story, looks like there were more connections to the first one than I originally anticipated.

Next week is the third arc and narrative in the series — “Close Encounters of the Bus Kind”.

No poll this time, but feel free to offer whatever feedback you think would be helpful. Do you want the next storyline to be intrinsically linked to the overarching narrative so far, or do you want it to be more stand-alone? I haven't settled on how linked it will be so the next polls will be crucial. Certain upcoming stories like "Yuri Worlds" will be more separate.