NOVEL WEB Chapter 3
The mirror was busted. That was just a fact. My face seemed to be fine. It was a bit hard to gauge as my nose was still pressed against the fractured glass. As I slowly pushed myself back, I saw my face in the shattered spiderweb. The woman on the other side of the looking glass was beautiful. She was beautiful even reflected in the individual shards as they started to peel themselves off the wall. A larger piece fell and I realized I’d been admiring the eyes in that one and reached out to keep it from shattering on what remained of the sink. I knew I wouldn’t be able to grab it in time, but reflexes were sometimes faster than the part of the brain that does the smart thinking.
Then the whole world went that weird not-quite-sepia, losing colour, and the falling shards slowed down and stopped in mid-air. I was afraid to move, myself. I breathed slowly, and looked around. Tentatively, I reached out for the large shard I’d tried to save and gingerly picked it up. It didn’t give me any trouble. I’d expected it to resist me, to be frozen in place, perhaps. I tried dropping it from one hand in the other but it did that thing again where it froze after a half-second. It was like I’d dropped it in a tub of invisible honey.
I picked it up again and looked at myself in the shard. Even with the reduced colour, my deep red skin was very obvious. I poked my face. It looked a little like me. Like a distant cousin. A cousin with red skin and black lips and fangs and purple eyes that now seemed to have black sclera. I realized that I thought the person in that little shard of mirror was very attractive, so I decided to drop the ‘cousin’ comparison. I opened my mouth, managing only barely to keep from going “aaahhh.” Was that… I stuck out my tongue. It was a deep black and forked. I slipped it back into my mouth and the look of shocked surprise on my face, reflected in the mirror, was adorable. I smiled at her. She smiled back at me. It was cute and beautiful and something about it struck me hard. I realized I was about to cry.
Sitting down on my bed, I only just managed to keep from dropping the shard of glass as tears ran down my face. I didn’t know why I was crying. Something about seeing the girl in the mirror was more painful than I could imagine. It had been so right and it hurt me deeply for reasons I couldn’t pin down. I looked at her again. She looked so sad. She blinked back at me, and I tried to distract myself by continuing my inspection. The horns were definitely… Interesting.
I reached up to touch one. As soon as I did, a sensation I’d never experienced shot up my, well, horn, and then all the way down to the base of my spine. I gasped for air and realized I’d moaned as soon as I had. I squeezed my legs together as the realization of what had just happened dawned on me. That wasn’t right, was it? I mean, none of this made sense, but really. I looked up at it again and carefully tried again, trying to think, uh, ‘pure’ thoughts. It wasn’t nearly as sensitive this time. It was still sensitive. I carefully grabbed it. Even applying pressure, squeezing it, sent shivers down my spine, and I found myself panting slightly at the sensation of my soft fingers gripping the horn’s sha--
The tail came into view again and I almost screamed again, the unexpected and happy snakelike appendage catching me by surprise. I instead inhaled sharply and clamped my hand over my mouth. In my shock, whatever I’d done was undone and the remaining shards of the mirror that had been suspended in mid-air, the ones I’d completely forgotten about, all crashed to the floor. Finally, my resolve was tested too hard, and I screamed, throwing myself back behind my pillows and blankets. It had been instinctual, and I realized after a second that hiding behind a pillow wouldn’t protect me from threats, and also a mirror falling on the other side of the room wasn’t a threat.
I sat up again and sighed. My heart thrummed in my throat. I put a hand on my chest and I could feel my heartbeat thump against my fingers. I realized I’d almost grabbed a whole-ass boob and moved my hand up a little. I realized I was blushing, as if I was bashful about touching myself. I mean, I was, but I wasn’t sure why yet. I felt the tips of my wings scrape against the wall behind me and almost screamed and/or yelped again. My wings flopped forward and wrapped themselves around me and, while I was highly confused as to why this was happening, I did feel somewhat sheltered in here.
I steadied my breathing as I hid inside my wing cocoon and sat back down on the bed. It was important that I try to get a handle on what was happening and why. None of this made sense. My body was more sensitive than it had ever been, I was a woman now… somehow? And that was just the beginning! The skin, the horns, the eyes, the tail, the wings. I lowered them -- I was trying to get used to moving them like any other appendage -- and looked around my destroyed room. I scanned the floor and saw the little white rectangle in between all the pieces of little white debris, and picked up the card.
Madeline Lullaby. She was responsible for this, she knew what was happening, and she would be able to explain this. If she wouldn’t, I would make her. Somehow. I’d need to find some clothes that fit, first. And something that allowed for my wings. And my horns. And my, and there was no getting around it, ass. I’d never had a particularly impressive behind, but right now I felt like I might beep if I backed up. No wonder I’d been swaying. I didn’t have any clothes that would fit that. And I wasn’t going to travel around town naked, I’d cause a riot!
I went through the destroyed remains of my pants -- rest in peace, O jeans o’ mine -- and dug out my thankfully-still-intact phone. It didn’t recognize my fingerprint. I tried three times before I realized that this had, apparently, also been a part of the change. I rolled my eyes. Of course. I entered the code and dialed the number on the card. The phone rang a few times before I heard a very soft click.
“Hello?” Her voice was husky and soft. She sounded like maybe she’d been expecting a phone call from me. It was almost like she was out of breath. I tried not to give too much thought as to why that might be.
“M--” I cut myself off. I’d almost started by politely calling her ‘Ms. Lullaby’. The woman had, it seemed, turned me into some kind of monster (and a woman), so I could afford to be a little direct. “Madeline Lullaby?” I asked. My voice was so soft and so damn feminine it was almost unbearable how much I was pleased with it. I promised myself to hum to myself after the phone call was over. I wanted to hear more of it. I wanted to do more of it.
“Speaking.” There was another pause and I heard her breathe for a half second. “Who is this?”
“I--” I paused for a moment. What if it hadn’t been her? What if she wasn’t really responsible for this? If I just said my obviously mannish name with an obviously feminine voice, she might think I was crazy. On the other hand, I didn’t really have any other names on hand. “I’m the person you spoke to on the tram.”
“Oh!” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. I imagined the corners of her beautiful red lips curving upwards and I shivered slightly. I tried to stop imagining, but something in her voice, even a single syllable, was much more powerful than it had any right to be. “I didn’t think you’d be calling me so soon, darling.”
“You didn’t? What were you expecting!?” Had she expected me to open a window and go for a midnight fly around the lake? Maybe catch some bugs, get my horns caught on a power cable? You know, really work this body in. I looked down at it and swallowed. It was definitely quite a sight. I turned away, knowing I wouldn’t be able to focus if I stared at my newly-acquired breasts any longer.
“Well, I would have thought you would have spent some time getting used to your new… state. Explore yourself, hmm?” Her voice dripped with salacious innuendo. Her lips spoke sweet honey, but there was also a confession in there. She was responsible for this.
“Why would you think that?! What, did you think I’d just, like, go out?”
“Well…” she paused. “Yes, actually. See the world from a new perspective.” Her voice lost some of its seductive qualities, seemingly surprised at my apprehension at having been turned into a crimson-skinned hell person.
“What perspective?!” I said, exasperated. I was trying not to panic, trying not to start yelling. “I can barely fit through a door now!”
“Wait, hold on,” she said, and, to her credit, there was actual concern in her voice now. I was glad she had the decency to have that, at least. Suddenly, her voice came out of my speaker a lot more clearly and loudly, and I realized she’d turned on her camera. I saw her sitting in a living room. It looked small and cozy and there were piles of books everywhere. There was a bottle of wine on a small table next to her and she’d clearly been wrapped in a blanket. “Press the little… the icon,” she said. I did, and my own face appeared. I quickly angled the camera up but I knew she’d probably gotten an eyeful of… chest. Besides, this way, my horns were a lot more prominent. For effect, I also flapped my wings and waved my tail. Now that I knew it was there, I was able to manipulate it fairly easily. It was a strange little thing to have waving around back there though. “Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen!”
“What was?!” I still managed to keep from raising my voice, largely by hissing, but I was, I had to admit, pacified slightly by the sight of my own face. It was just such a pretty face that looking at it, even angrily, was a little soothing.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting you to go out looking like that! People would notice!”
“You think?”
“I mean, you were just supposed to be a girl!”
I looked down and up again. I shouldn’t have been surprised that I’d looked directly at my naked breasts again, but I was just surprised every time. A little bashful, I squeezed my legs together again. “What am I now?”
Madeline sighed. “I’m on my way,” she said, and ended the call. How was she going to find out where I lived. Ugh, she probably had a way to track me or someth--
My phone buzzed. I read the text I’d just received. “Frgot to ask fr address :’D,” it read. What a mess. I texted her my address back. Another text back. “Thx ;) xoxo.” I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why she texted like that, but it was hard not to find it a little endearing. I did try to be annoyed, but it was difficult. I opened my phone’s front camera and looked at myself again. Gosh. I really was very pretty. Or rather, she was. Whatever.
There was a knock on my window. I looked over and saw Madeline’s face, upside down, hanging in front of my window. She managed to look entirely composed and absolutely ridiculous at the same time. Alright. Fine. Time to see what this was all about. I got up and then immediately sat back down when her eyes went wide and I realized that I was still stark naked. I blushed furiously and hid under my covers.
