Immediately, Allyssa scooted closer to Scarlett and put a hand on her back. 

 

“Hey, I’m here.”

 

She looked panicked at Hecate, who was just as frazzled as she was. Hecate was clearly somewhat mortified that she’d just upset her daughter with what she’d thought to be an innocuous question. 

 

“We don’t know what’s going to happen, Scarlett. Don’t… don’t panic, okay?”

 

Scarlett nodded, but the fact that tears were dripping onto her plate told them that it wasn’t quite that easy. Allyssa pulled her close and kissed her softly on the side of the head. 

 

“It’s going to be okay, no matter what, okay? I’m going to be here for you. I have no idea how any of this stuff works, but we’ll figure it out together.”

 

Hecate got up and joined them, kneeling down next to her daughter. 

 

“Hey, it’s entirely possible the changes won’t happen anymore. You told me they happened when you wanted to be like this, right? So now that you’re, you know, all girl, maybe you won’t switch back.”

 

Scarlett sniffed and nodded again, and for a moment tried to be brave. 

 

It took her two seconds to fail and burst out crying again. This time, both Allyssa and Hecate hugged her. 

 

“It’s going to be okay,” Allyssa whispered against her shoulder, over and over again. Hecate softly rubbed her back. “We’re here. You’re going to be okay.”

 

They were interrupted by the worst, most horrifying sound in the world. 

 

Scarlett’s phone gleefully beeped its alarm. “Five Minutes”, the display said. 

 

Scarlett panicked, like a caged animal confronted with a predator. She pushed herself away from the table, tried to get away from the phone as best she could, trying not to scream.

 

“No no no no no!” She struggled against herself, against the arms of Allyssa and her mom, who both scrambled to get a hold of the situation. Allyssa frantically tried to turn off the alarm while Hecate tried to keep Scarlett from hurting herself, her wings thrashing against the furniture. Hecate took a step back and in an instant, her own wings had torn through the back of her shirt and she wrapped them protectively around Scarlett and Allyssa. 

 

Scarlett collapsed into a sobbing, whimpering mess, leaning against her mother, Allyssa wrapping both arms around her and holding her close. 

 

The alarm began beeping again. “One minute.” Hecate’s left wing shot out and shattered the phone. 

 

“I’ll buy you a new one,” she whispered.

 

Scarlett curled up into a ball, inadvertently cocooning into her wings, with the two most important people in her life wrapped around her. They weren’t going anywhere. She cried in deep, heaving breaths, until it was the only sound in the room. 

 

Slowly, the horns protruding from the top of the ball of feathers began to withdraw. The feathers lost their deep red colour as the wings began to retreat. The tail shrank away into nothing. Scarlett sobbed. Allyssa held her close, crying in sympathy and pain. 

 

“I’ll be here for you, no matter what, Scarlett. You’re my… you.”

 

The red tint of Scarlett’s skin became the mundane human one. Her fingernails became soft pink instead of jet black. The transformation stopped in silence. The whole room held its breath. 

 

Then, carefully, Hecate retracted her wings and gently stroked Scarlett’s hair. Scarlett’s long, black hair. She looked at Allyssa, eyes wide in recognition.

 

“Hey, Scarlett, honey?”

 

Sad sounds.

 

“Hey, hun, open your eyes for a second? Try to take a deep breath for me.”

 

Scarlett did as her mother told her. Took a deep, shuddering breath. Then another, a little more evenly. Then finally, a third, deep breath, that carried with it a feeling of… resolution. 

 

Scarlett opened her eyes. Her hands had been clutched to her chest. She unclenched them, saw the marks her nails had dug into the palms of her hands. She also saw the thin, slender fingers. She unfurled herself, relaxed a bit as her long hair fell in front of her face, and she touched it like it was the first time she’d ever seen it. Touched her face. Looked at her hands, her arms, which were soft with only a barely noticeable hint of light fuzz. Paused for a moment, and grabbed her breasts. She looked up at Allyssa and Hecate.

 

The face that was looking at them, was familiar, even without the horns or the red skin. It was the face of Scarlett, a beautiful, eighteen year old girl, cheeks wet with tears, framed by beautiful black hair. She touched her own face again.

 

“Am… am I…”

 

“Hold on,” Allyssa said, and fished her phone out of her pocket, and handed it to Scarlett with the front-facing camera on. “Look.”

 

Scarlett looked at the girl on the phone, and tears ran down her face as she smiled.

 

“I get to…”

 

Hecate and Allyssa held her again.

 

“You do.”

 

“I get to be a girl, mom.” She cried, happy tears this time.

 

Hecate gently nudged Allyssa away. “You’ll get to dote over her in a second.” She lifted Scarlett like she was nothing and carried her to the sofa. “The transformation can be exhausting. Especially when it comes to a new form. You sit with her, I’ll go make some tea.”

 

Allyssa sat down next to Scarlett, who scooted up against her and they nuzzled up against each other. 

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“What are you sorry for?”

 

“Panicking over nothing…”

 

Allyssa gently bopped Scarlett’s head, and then kissed her in the same spot.

 

“Your panic was entirely valid and justified. I’d panic too.”

 

“Okay.” Sniff. “Thank you.”

 

“Can I do anything to help?”

 

“Just… I get why you would. This is weird and scary. But… please don’t leave?”

 

“Hey Scarlett?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

Allyssa kissed her. “I’m not going anywhere. In fact…”

 

“Thank you. What is it?”

 

“Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

 

Scarlett made affirmative girlfriend noises. She kissed Allyssa all over her face as they both giggled, then settled down again. Allyssa looked pensive after a moment. Raised eyebrows from Scarlett asked the question for her, and Allyssa responded. 

 

“Why do you think this happened?”

 

“I don’t know. All I could think about before it happened was that I just… I knew I wanted to be a girl. Even as a human.”

 

“Do you think it’s possible you just thought ‘Want to be human girl’ and that’s what happened?”

 

Hecate set down two cups of tea in front of them, sat down on the coffee table, and took a sip of her tea. Scarlett did the same. Allyssa did too, and burned her tongue. She realized only after this that the other two probably weren’t as bothered by the heat as she was, and she sheepishly blew on it. Hecate looked at her with amusement, then turned to Scarlett.

 

“That seems entirely possible. I switch between two forms all the time without really thinking, but it’s all about intent.”

 

“You think I can just… Switch back and forth?”

 

Her mom looked thoughtful, cradling her teacup. 

 

“Should be, I think. Do you want to give it a try? Something small. How about… Just one feature? Something from the other shape. Try really wanting it.”

 

Scarlett took a sip from her tea, then closed her eyes. After a few seconds, a long, slender tail tipped with a little upside-down heart snaked its way from behind her and swayed back and forth in the air in front of her. Allyssa smiled and pawed at it. Scarlett booped her in the nose with the pointy tip. 

 

“I think that proves the hypothesis.” Hecate said with satisfaction until she spilled tea on her blouse. “Oh shhhh-ucks.”

 

“Mom, I think that shirt is plenty ruined already, honestly.”

 

“What do you… oh.” She looked behind her, at the ragged parts of her shirt where the wings had torn through. “Oh, fair enough. Still. Waste of good tea.”

 

“So now what?”

 

“What do you mean, Allyssa?”

 

“I mean… Scarlett can switch back and forth, now, probably. Maybe. But like… I think people are gonna notice that,” and she made really overt quotation marks in the air, “‘Damien’ looks a bit different now than before.”

 

“Shoot, yeah, I hadn’t thought of that,” Hecate said. “We could shift you to a new school?”

 

Scarlett responded by immediately intertwining her fingers with Allyssa’s.

 

“Hard no.”

 

“You only go to this one half the time anyway.”

 

“And the other half of the time my best friend is there with me.”

 

“Hum.”

 

Hecate crossed her arms and legs and chewed on her thoughts for a moment.

 

“Could you turn back into a boy?”

 

“Mom! No!”

 

She held up her hands. “All right, fair enough. Just considering options.”

 

“I mean…”

 

Allyssa looked at Scarlett.

 

“With a hoodie and maybe like, a face mask, that might work? We can blame some of the changes on the illness, maybe?”

 

“Would you be willing to do that, hun?”

 

Scarlett thought about it for a minute.

 

“I’d have to try, I guess? I don’t want to stop going to school, but this seems… risky.”

 

“Worth a shot?”

 

“I’d say so, yeah.”

 

“Then let’s have a crack at it.”

 

“Can we do that later though?”

 

“Of course, sweetie. It’s been a long day.”

 

Scarlett nodded. “I also kinda want to…”

 

She stood upright. Aside from the tail, her wings now also unfurled themselves again. Her skin darkened and her horns grew back in. It was only when she smiled down at Allyssa that the latter noticed that the transformation was… different, from before. It was the row of sharp teeth that really gave it away. The forked tongue was just the icing on the lesbian. 

 

“Oh,” Allyssa said. She didn’t even notice the hooves until Scarlett grew another five inches. “Oh,” she repeated for emphasis.

 

“I’m impressed, hun!” Hecate said. “I didn’t think you’d find your full form just yet.”

 

“My full…” Scarlett looked down and back up, felt her new teeth with her new tongue. “Oh, cool!”

 

“Do you have full control now, do you think?”

 

“I’m not sure. Why?”

 

“Well, you didn’t draw the protective circle.”

 

“Oh shit,” Scarlett said, and the couch caught on fire.