Sun had started to set, and she was getting ready for ‘exercise’ on the roof of a nearby flat, when she got the text from Minnie. 

Minnie meant well. Minnie said things like “You go girl!” and “You look so feminine today, like all girls regularly say to each other. She would get mad at other people for misgendering Maxine and refer to cis women as “you know, rea- biological women”. She sent Max funny genderbent Snapchat filters of herself. Minnie was An Ally. 

Minnie has asked her out to a girl’s night. That was something Max was actually down for, though she knew felt like was an undercurrent of pity in the decision to invite her. But she couldn't refuse. Her friends weren't perfect but, well, who was? And they were all women, and they hugged her. Until recently, she'd been fairly touch deprived, and the girls’ comfort with physical touch around her was more validating than half of what they said. Not going might imply not wanting to be invited. Though she didn't feel the need for it tonight, friendships needed to be maintained. 

You need to overthink this stuff less 

“I know, shh,” she said as she texted an affirmative response, turning on her heel to go home to get changed into an appropriate outfit. 

—-

She looked at herself in the mirror. It physically hurt. 

“This is a woman's body. I'm a woman. This is my body. I'm working to make it feel like mine.”

She said half of it through gritted teeth and she respected the logic of the statement but it didn't really feel true. 

You look pretty

“thanks” 

Red looks good on you 

She smiled. Genuinely. 

“Thank you.”

—-

She walked out the door. It was colder than she'd expected it to be this time of year, but she wrapped her scarf a little tighter and smiled. She'd be inside and warm soon, and she liked the soft click-clack of her heels on the pavement. They made her hips sway and, all said and done, she had nice, toned legs. She wished she could have gone out with Penumbra’s help but her friends would notice. 

She was about a block away when she passed him. Just another guy on the street on a Friday night. Who turned around while she passed him. 

Don'tdoitdon’tdoitdon’tdoi-

“Hey you.” She squeezed her eyes shut and kept walking, pretending she heard nothing. But he was drunk. Belligerent. Entitled. She heard his footsteps and then it was all real. Then it stopped being an annoying anecdote. He grabbed her elbow and spun her around. Suddenly, she was face to face with a balding man in his late fifties, a two day old stubble on his face and cheap beer on his breath. His eyes were old, and carried the weight of decades of unfulfilled promise. The man reeked of squandered potential. His life was supposed to have been better and he was looking for someone to take it out on. That's a lot of weight to put in a “hey you” but he managed. 

She tried to pull herself free but he wasn't having it. 

“Thhe fug are yyou?” He slurred. 

She didn't say anything, just tugging her arm again. 

“Yyyou….” He looked away wistfully like a cat following a butterfly, as if chasing a thought, before he slowly focused his eyes on her again. With difficulty. “I knowwwhat’s… Wrong. With yyou.”

Maxine frowned. 

“You don't know a thing about me.”

He shook his head like a teacher whose pupil just gave a wrong answer. 

“I- I- I know yr tipe. I know Thht y- Kids like… You kids are all… I know you. What's wrong with you.”

She glared. 

“I'll bite. What's wrong with me, man in the street?” She tried to give every word the venom it deserved. He still hadn't let go of her arm and all kinds of things were stirring inside of her and none of them good. 

“Yyy- you neverfelt like you… Like you… didn't fiddin. Like shomethin-g waz wrong withyou.” She looked at him incredulously. That was… More accurate than she would have thought. Things would have gone much better if he'd stopped taking. He nodded sagely. 

“Yr a homersegsual. You- you like… Yr batting fr the wrong side BUT,” he poked her on the chest with a hairy finger, “yhaven't agseptedit yet.”

If looks could kill she'd need stain remover. 

“I'm trans.”

“Knewwit! Tol you!” He crowed triumphantly.”We uzed to, used to string you dgenrates up. But, hehe, we don gotta theze days, am I right?” He nudged her and winked. “Yr taking gare of yrselfs forrus.” 

Max had had it. She pulled away, assisted by Penumbra. 

“Trans people suicide rates drop when people stop being fucking dickheads to each other.”

He smiled at her with yellow teeth, gleefully. 

“Make szure we keepbe- being digheads then right?” He winked again.”Y- y- ygonna cry? Gonna yell at me fa-”

“You know why I'm still alive?”

Her tone was hard and clear. He was taken off guard. He hadn't expected her to actually engage. 

“I have a special ability. An ability I share with a lot of trans people.”

He frowned, not understanding and not appreciating the fact that her posture was neither diminutive nor submissive. There was a soft creaking sound, like ice breaking or old wood being bent. 

“You see, I'm alive because of people like you. You'd think people like you would make it harder for me to survive but honestly, you make it easy. I'm alive just to make sure people like you know I'm still alive, despite you.”

He was frozen in place as he looked at her and her jaw seemed to detach. 

“I'm never going to die.”

The bones in her face seemed to break and smooth over.

“We will outlive you.”

 As her shoulderblades shot up with a horrible ripping sound, showering the wall behind her with blood, he failed to scream. 

“We will step over your bones because you told us we wouldn't.”

As they grew over with skin and she took steps closer and she suddenly seemed tall, taller than she had been before, he told himself something had been wrong with his drink 

“We will devour all of you just for this.”

She towered over him and finally, finally, Penumbra revealed itself, its black skin becoming hers and the two of them becoming one, tall, amazonian and terrifying, the grin all teeth and the eyes all malice. 

“Do you know why?”

He shook his head, both to say no and to convince himself this was a hallucination and he wouldn't piss himself. 

They leaned in until their face was inches from his. 

“We

Are

SPITE"