Midnights Missed - Part 3 of 4

Chapter 8: Anna!

Say whatever he would about these changes to his body, there was no denying that through it all, Linus felt alive. For the first time since Beth’s betrayal, he actually felt emotion. Fear may have been the primary feeling, but at least his malaise was gone. This revelation gave him pause. Could what was happening be a good thing? Were the gods sending me a present? Am I being offered a new life? A chance to start over?

But this notion was ridiculous. No, he didn’t want to be whatever this woman’s journal was turning him into. Maybe he hadn’t been happy, but he certainly didn’t want this…whatever this was.

Out of the shower, he wrapped his hair in a towel and then his body in another. It was only when he passed the mirror in the bedroom that he realized what he’d done. His hand flew up to his mouth in shock. Linus hadn’t simply thrown a towel over his new long hair. No, he’d wrapped it in a sort of towel turban. How the hell did I know how to do that?

What’s more, the towel he had around his body wasn’t around his waist. He’d put it around his chest…like girls always do. Scanning his reflection from head to foot, he looked like a girl. With his hand over his mouth, covering his still mostly masculine face, and displaying the long pink nails there, the only thing that spoiled the feminine illusion was his completely flat chest. Well, that and the proportionally huge erection poking out of the towel. I have to find Anna!

The next surprise came when Linus retrieved the Wal-Mart clothes from the day before. The clothes were still in the bags he’d tossed in the walk-in closet. That wasn’t the surprise. The surprise was what he found next to the bags in that closet. All of his shoes had changed. Some were like the shoes that had been there previously, while others were entirely different. The one constant, though, was that they were all in his size. His current size. The clothes that hung in the closet above the shoes were still made for his old six-two frame. But the shoes on the floor below were not. Another mystery. Another unfathomable nuance in this unfathomable series of events.

Something about the shoes changing felt wrong. He decided to wear the ones he’d bought rather than the magically changed ones in his closet and not the Tevas! At least Linus felt he was the one deciding, not the damned journal. Not this Anna person, whoever the bitch was.

His hands found his nails again. I guess I should take off the polish and trim them again. But then, Linus had a different thought. If I’m going to confront this Anna, maybe I should do it as I am now. For some reason, this idea made sense in the bizarre, life-altering scenario he was walking through. And with that in mind, he also pulled on the kid’s Fortnite T-shirt and a pair of new Wal-Mart boy’s gym shorts instead of the sweatpants he’d intended to wear originally.

Once dressed as an adolescent boy, albeit one with long manicured nails, wild long hair, and supermodel legs, Linus returned to the laptop to print out the information for Anna Garcia. His still-damp hair kept falling into his eyes, and so he had to resort to the scrunchies he’d bought to keep it under control. The nails were the aggravation he’d feared they would be while typing. And it wasn’t simply their length. They were so damned pretty; they were a constant distraction. And every time he looked at them, he felt like he was missing something important.

With the printout in hand, Linus programmed the address into his phone GPS. The part of town where Anna Garcia lived was very high rent. The sort of place where an advertising executive, like Valeria might be by now, would want to live. It was Tuesday, so there was every chance that no one would be home. So, he called the number DeepSrch had found first to see.

The call went to voicemail. And what a voicemail greeting! This Anna Garcia sounded the part. Sexy and youthful with a slight giggle at the end of the greeting. This has to be her! But she didn’t pick up, and Linus had no clue what to say. “Uh, yeah. I’m a guy turning a copy of you because of some journal thing on an eReader.” He shook his shaggy head and smiled wryly. Sure, that would work.

He hung up without leaving a message. There was a moment’s hesitation about going to see this Anna. He still didn’t have a plan. Linus briefly again considered searching social media, but no. I need to act. I need to go. It’s my only lead! My only…hope. I can’t miss another midnight without fixing this. If she’s not home, I’ll just hang out there and wait. I’ve got nothing else to do…till midnight.

He wedged his wallet into the small pocket of the shorts and picked up his keys and the backpack, now containing the eReader once again. He removed the elastic band from his long hair. It was nearly dry, but without brushes or combs, it was a wild mess. Hippie-like indeed. So, before stepping out, he’d put a scrunchie back in place as best he could.

In the garage, Linus was met with another mountain to conquer; getting into his LandCruiser. He’d been able to just step right up when he was six-foot-two, but now thirteen inches shorter and far weaker, it wasn’t so simple.

He opened the door and calculated the best way to enter the now-oversized vehicle. As he did, he noticed three objects on the floorboard: his license, car registration and the traffic violation citation. Linus had apparently dropped them there after the cop handed them back two nights ago. He picked them up and was going to slip them back into his wallet when he saw his picture on the license. It was him. The old him. Except for the eyes. On his license, he was still six-foot-two with short dark hair, but the eyes read “green” and, in the license photo, they positively sparkled…like emeralds.

Linus managed to climb into the driver’s seat on his second attempt, his mind still thinking about the license. Reality hasn’t caught up.

He had to adjust the seat all the way forward and up to its maximum height to see over the dashboard. Apple CarPlay displayed the GPS directions. Linus rode in silence, working out what he’d say to Anna. How he’d confront her. Nothing he thought of saying made any sense. Just like none of what was happening made sense, either.

Distracted and anxious, Linus nearly hit an ambulance, his feet on the brakes taking far more effort to stop the big SUV. In fact, he’d instinctively used both tiny feet on the brake pedal when the vehicle had pulled out in front of him.

He pulled into a parking lot, hands shaking, after the incident. Linus had to pull over because he couldn’t see. As soon as he’d come to a stop behind the ambulance, realizing how weak he was, the tears started to flow. He banged his small fists on the steering wheel. “Stop it! Stop it! You’re not some silly emotional girl!”

Linus rested his head on the steering wheel as he tried to calm himself down. This morning was too important. He couldn’t afford to “lose it.” A shaky finger tapped the CarPlay Spotify app, and his delicate finger picked a song he didn’t know. But he knew the artist. He’d seen the name recently. Ed Sheeran? Why’d I pick that? I don’t even know his music.

The song began to play, and despite not knowing it, Linus found himself mouthing along with the singer.

“So open your eyes and see

The way our horizons meet

And all of the lights will lead into the night with me

And I know these scars will bleed, but both of our hearts believe

All of these stars will guide us home”

Something about the song and those words calmed Linus. His breathing slowed, and he felt more relaxed. This has to be the right Anna.

With renewed calm, he wound his way across town and through the posh neighborhood to the “Anna address” twenty-five minutes later. During the riden, Linus thought of some things he could say when he met this Anna. And by the time he reached the location, he felt prepared. Just like a day in court. Keep your cool.

He pulled into the circular driveway and saw a bright yellow early-year Mazda Miata parked there with a vanity plate reading “ANNA-G’S92.” Almost like her email address. This is it! It has to be. Can’t be a coincidence!

Linus almost ran to the towering front door but had to return to the Toyota to get the old purple backpack. He attempted to steady himself and took a deep breath before pressing the Ring doorbell. A few moments after pressing the button, the huge door opened.

All he’d planned to say left his head as Linus beheld the woman. She was petite with blonde hair. It wasn’t red…auburn…but she could have colored it. She was wearing sunglasses, so he couldn’t see if her eyes were “emeralds” like his.

The attractive woman, looking at him eye-to-eye, stepped out of the doorway and considered the bearded, small man with the shaggy red hair and long pink nails. “Can I help you…sir?”

He couldn’t speak and stood there for several seconds, gawking, before finding his voice. Weakly, he croaked out in his munchkin voice, “Are you Anna Garcia? Anna Bouknight Garcia?”

She nodded. “Yes. That’s me. And who are you? What’s this about?”

Before Linus could respond, he heard a booming voice calling, “Who is it, Anna?”

Anna turned toward the voice. “I don’t know, Les. Trying to find out.”

Les. Not Valeria. Linus knew then that this was not his Anna. Not “the Anna.” Whatever the “V” stood for, it wasn’t Valeria. His conclusion was confirmed when Anna Garcia was joined by a mountain of a man who stepped out onto the stoop of the opulent home to join the woman who was apparently his wife.

“Who are you?” the big man asked with considerable derision in his voice. “Are you some kind of midget tranny?”

Anna turned to her husband and softly punched his bear-sized chest. “Stop that, Les. We’ve talked about this.” She gestured to Linus. “People like this are…” She apparently realized there was no good end to that sentence and blushed with embarrassment. “Sorry about my husband. Now, what can I help you with?”

Linus shook his head sadly. “Nothing. Sorry to have bothered you.” Without another word, he turned back to his car. But he stopped halfway, questions still in his mind. What have I got to lose?

Meekly, Linus faced them again and spoke, “Mr. Garcia, can I ask you something?” His voice was unsure and sad.

The big man didn’t respond, instead giving a stony stare as an answer. Linus continued, “Can you tell me what your middle name is? All I know is your middle initial is ‘V’.”

Les Garcia took a step off the porch. “None of your damned business, pervert!”

Linus jumped backward and then walked that way to the Toyota, not taking his eyes off the angry “bear” staring him down.

Anna Garcia grabbed her husband’s arm. “Stop it, Les.” With more courage than Linus had, she then sharpened her tone. “I mean it! Back off! You’re scaring her…him.” Her husband relaxed.

She then turned to Linus. “He was named for two uncles, Victor Garcia and Vincent Hernandez. His dad chose the ‘V’ so both could claim he was named for them.”

Linus nodded and smiled sadly. “Thanks.”

He threw the pack into the backseat and, with even more difficulty, climbed shakily behind the wheel and started the LandCruiser. Linus turned the big SUV around until it was facing out of the driveway. He stopped for a moment. I know what this magic is doing to me. But I don’t know if I’m the first. Linus rolled down the window. He swallowed hard and leaned out the car door toward the couple.

He asked one last thing, desperate to know for sure, “And you’ve always been a man, Mr. Garcia?”

There was a moment of hesitation and confusion on the big man’s face, but then Les Garcia charged full-speed at Linus, who pressed the accelerator and pulled quickly out onto the road again, heart pounding.

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Chapter 9: The Sketch

Linus was devastated that this Anna Garcia wasn’t the right Anna. Everything seemed to line up that she was. But I have to let this go. And I can’t give up! He arrived home and sat down in the kitchen, resisting the urge to cry. Resisting the insistent urge to jack off again. Instead, he poured another cup of coffee and opened his laptop once more.

After not finding the real Anna B among those living locally, Linus expanded the search to the entire state of Florida and then to the entire southeast and then to the entire country. The more the search expanded, the more hits he got. But those hits were far less likely and far too many to possibly review in the apparently very short time he had left to be a man named Linus. He glanced at his watch hanging loosely on his wrist and then at the eReader, “today’s” entry still waiting. “Thirteen hours left till midnight.”

With great reluctance, after lunch he gave up on his current searches and turned to the unpleasant idea of searching among those who had died. What do I do if I find out she’s dead? Within the state of Florida alone, there were well over a hundred Anna B’s who had passed away over the last decade. When that search result number came up, it caused him to pause. He stared at his lovely hands atop the keyboard, trying to think of a more efficient way to find this woman. As he stared at the soft strawberry cheesecake pink, the light finally came on in his brain.

The nails! Anna’s journal entry mentioned her sister did her nails. And her name is…Marie! Now he had two names to cross-reference. Why didn’t I think of this before?

Linus started over with the local area using both names. His first, using Anna B and Marie B together yielded nothing helpful. But he had hope. Until he didn’t. Returning from a trip to the bathroom, he was greeted by a message from the DeepSrch app saying, “User Log Out Successful.” I didn’t log out. What the heck?

He tried to log in again, but the app now said, “User Account Already Logged in On a Different Device. Please Log Out of Other Device and Try Again.” Linus tried several more times, but received the same message.

He retrieved his phone and found out why. He had several messages from Hector Mendoza, the investigator who had loaned him the search log in. Hector kept asking if Linus was using the app.

The last message from the investigator said, “Never mind. App support fixed the login. Hope you’re feeling better. That’s why I don’t eat shellfish!”

So, that meant that Hector was using DeepSrch. I’ll just have to wait, I guess. I’m so close, he thought. So close to finding this Anna. The real Anna B. If I’d only thought about Marie sooner!

Linus killed time trying a few Google searches including Marie’s name, using some public record sites, but found little new and nothing promising.

He gave up and went to the kitchen for a drink. As he passed the counter, the light still blinked mockingly on the side of the eReader. Linus decided he had to know what this midnight would bring. He hoped that there wouldn’t be a “new” journal entry, but every instinct told him it was a distant hope.

Linus switched on the reader and placed his index finger on the fingerprint. It unlocked. It still gave Linus the creeps that he had Anna’s fingerprints. Anna’s petite hands. He sighed.

There was a long post this time, including a sharp gray-scale image.

September 30, 2015, 1:20pm

Valeria stopped by my desk at lunch today and casually dropped off a large manila envelope. I opened it and almost started crying. Inside was a charcoal sketch…of me…of my face. I’d always thought I had some talent for drawing, but seeing my image, created by her from memory, told me I was dead wrong. She has talent. Genuine talent. I’ve seen myself in the mirror all my life. But not like this. To see my face through her eyes was…different and so exciting. My nose looked cuter. My lips were fuller. My cheeks rosier. My neck more graceful. My eyebrows, arched mischievously, looked seductive. Is this how I really look? Am I that pretty?

I don’t know if I can wait till tomorrow to see her. I’m so fucking horny. She is perfect and, if I don’t mess things up, she could be…No! I can’t say that. Can’t jinx myself. The goddesses won’t like my being presumptuous. At the bottom of the sketch she’d written, “My fiery redheaded seductress.” Is that what I am? Am I her seductress? God, I hope so. “Fiery” is our new code word in bed. If she says that, she wants me to take control and be the aggressor. On the back of the sketch she’d written, “More to see tomorrow.” I can’t wait!

Linus looked at the image under the entry, enlarging it until it filled the small screen. Anna had apparently taken a picture of the sketch and saved it to her journal app on whatever device she used to create this diary. The image was surprisingly very clear, and he could see just what Anna was talking about. And the face was amazing. This beautiful face in sharp black and white was soon to be his face unless he found her or could somehow stop midnight from coming.

He returned to searching with fevered intensity. Linus kept trying the DeepSrch app, but every time it rejected his login the same way as before. “User Account Already Logged in On a Different Device. Please Log Out of Other Device and Try Again.” Using every other online tool he could find, including some from the dark web, he still came up empty or with too many possibilities. Linus saw the sun set through the westward window, and with it his hopes darkened, too.

He ran his fingers through his impossibly long wavy hair as he stood to his full sixty-one inches and stretched his tight, slender shoulders. He recognized he was unconsciously plucking at his auburn curls, like women did, as he paced back and forth.

Linus went to the mirror again, looking at his reflection for more changes. He was acting like some diva, always checking his reflection, though his reasons were not simple vanity. In his reflection, he saw his movements were subtly different. His motions were more fluid. His body might still be all male, well, mostly male, but it appeared to Linus that there were changes to his…aura. Aura? Where did that thought come from? He realized he was losing not only his form, but maybe even his very self. He was…adapting. But Linus didn’t want to adapt. Stop it Anna! You can’t have my body or my mind!

His hair was wild and untamed, having dried on its own. He had no hair dryer or brushes, so there was never a way for him to style it or control it. And yet he felt himself compelled to “fix it.” Am I going to buy combs and brushes? Tonight? The question seemed rational, ridiculous, and out of nowhere as he twirled his locks with his pink-tipped fingers. Am I actually contemplating living with this hair? These hands?

His reflection on his reflection was interrupted by the sound of a text from his phone in the bedroom. He strode into the room, noticing his walk was also quite different from even this morning. It seemed almost languorous. The fast cadence of his normal purposeful masculine walk was replaced by a slower, more sultry and gliding toe-first stride.

The message was from a number Linus didn’t recognize. “This is Scarlett. You remember, right? The girl you drilled and thrilled on Sunday? I got your number from Isaac. Naughty boy. I expected to hear from you by now about our date tomorrow. I’m saving myself up, and you better be, too! See you in the hotel lobby about 7pm? Or do you want to come straight to my room, big fella?”

Though he’d forgotten about the date with Scarlett, Linus didn’t care. There was clearly no way he could see her like this. And if his face changed tomorrow, she’d not even recognize him, anyway. He thought about answering her, but decided it wasn’t necessary. He didn’t care about being polite. She’d never know. She’d probably not even remember him a day or two from now.

With the failed searches and the hopelessness of stopping what was happening, Linus couldn’t think anymore. He wanted to get away from this reality or find a way to stop time. But escape was impossible, and the clock kept ticking forward toward midnight and the changes to come.

Logic failed him. His sober mind held no answers. Escape was what he now sought. And the only escape available to him was in a bottle. The only thing to do now was to get drunk. And so he did.

The good thing about this body is that it took a lot less alcohol to do the job. Two whiskeys and a quick, lusty jerk off featuring the mystery Latina later, and he was passed out on his bed, tiny hand still wrapped loosely around his cock.

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Chapter 10: The Last Time

Linus woke with a pain coming from his right ear. He reached for it to find that his long hair had become tangled in something there. It was an earring. For a brief moment, he was confused. Long hair? Earring? But then this bizarre reality came back to him, along with the pounding headache of another hangover. This hangover he’d earned. But the thought of the earring hurt more than his head. It meant that the journal entry had done its insidious work once again.

He could feel that his face was different. His entire head felt different, in fact. But Linus needed to see the difference. If nothing else, he had become braver over these last days. Bolder. As bad as this was, he was more alive. Fighting for survival. Fighting for yourself, for your very identity, can cause you to fight or flee. Up until his ill-advised drinking the previous night, Linus had been fighting and growing braver.

“Fleeing” last night by getting drunk was a mistake. It was time to resume the fight. And so, with that resolve, and with undeniable excitement over what he might see, the small man made his way to the mirror over his dresser and turned on the light.

The eyes. The eyes he’d thought were a misfit for his manly countenance fit now. They were the centerpiece of the cutest face he’d ever seen. She looked so innocent. So sweet. Her resting face was a slightly pouty smile. Full lips surrounded a generous mouth, and behind them were beautiful white teeth. Anna was spectacular. Not in the “so hot it’s unbelievable” way that Scarlett was, but in the “would spend my whole life with this woman” (if she wasn’t trying to take over my body) way. Linus once again asked himself whether being this person was something to consider. She was younger than he was. She was attractive as hell. Can I give up being me? Do I want to? Have a fresh start as a new person? As a woman?

He shook the pretty head atop his slender neck and thought to himself, No. I’m me. He pushed the hair from around his face and leaned in. She’s shown me what it’s like to be alive again, but I want to be that way as me. Not as Anna. And then he said aloud, “I am Linus Newcombe.” But he didn’t sound like Linus Newcombe. He didn’t sound like any Linus. His voice was high and breathy. Sweet and…female. With his slender new neck came a new voice. Anna’s voice.

Linus screwed up the pretty face and started to well-up again. But before a tear fell, he balled up his fists, nails digging into his soft palms, and growled. He tried to make his voice deeper as he said again. “I AM LINUS NEWCOMBE!” The attempt to sound like himself failed, and the waterworks started. He cried before the mirror for only a minute, though before wiping the salty discharge away from his swollen eyes with the tips of his fingers...like a woman would.

Seeing his fingers as he wiped the tears away, he was angry with himself. It was like he was giving in to being Anna. It was like this Anna…or at least the Anna journal…was indeed forcing him to conform to what the body wanted. No, this had to stop. I am a man, damn it! He closed his eyes, his head bowed for a moment. When he opened them again, Linus’s resolve softened. His large eyes looked so sweet, so childlike, so girlish. Who am I kidding? There is nothing manly left, he thought.

But he was wrong.

When he looked down, Linus didn’t see his feet. He saw something in the way. The most “Linus Newcombe” thing about himself was awake. His cock was straining the boy’s underwear he wore, demanding relief. He laughed then. A high girlish titter that would have charmed him a few days before. Now, it represented what had to be corrected. He flicked his dick and said silently to himself, Not now, big man. But hang in there! Don’t go anywhere.

Determined to resume his search, Linus attempted to log back in to DeepSrch. But this time, the message told him something much more dire. “Invalid Password.” He tried again. “Invalid Password. One more attempt left.” He tried a third time, already knowing what this meant. “Password Violation. Account Locked. Call Support to Reset.”

Hector had changed the password. It should have been changed long ago, but why now? This simple password violation meant that his best chance of systematically finding Anna was gone. Linus thought about calling Hector, telling him he needed the password again. But how? He didn’t look like himself, and he didn’t sound like himself now, either. Hector wouldn’t believe him.

Linus attempted a few more searches using other means, but his enthusiasm and confidence were flagging. He decided he needed more motivation.

He returned to the eReader and unlocked the screen again. As he feared, a new entry and a new image were there. Gray-scale monochrome as before, but this sketch was the full picture. The full depiction of his future.

October 1, 2015, 2:25pm

Another envelope. I was sopping wet all morning anticipating Valeria walking by. I couldn’t focus on anything. Our date is tonight, and I know she is getting me revved up for what is to come. And boy, is she succeeding. Her outfit today was full-on “slutty secretary.” Her job as creative editor means that she’s required to dress up more than us poor sketch jockeys, but today she went all out. Her skirt was almost too short to be allowed, and her blouse tight against her full chest. I saw her unbutton two buttons as she approached me. She is so bad! I wanted to push her up against the wall and lick her to death!

Valeria said nothing as she dropped the envelope. Her perfume trailed behind her with a second accompanying scent. She was wet, too! I could smell it. Ah, this is going to be the best night! I need to ask that bitch Millicent for the day off tomorrow. I don’t think I’ll be able to walk in the morning!

And the sketch. Oh my god! Is that me?? It can’t be! Are my breasts that full? That round? Yes, they are big for my height, but surely not so big as this. And not so firm, either. Or are they? Okay, on the waist, she’s imagining things. I’m not that skinny! But I’ll take it. If that’s how she sees me, then I’ll get there! I’d love to have such a tiny waist. Yeah, my hips are one of my best features, and she’s captured them well. I know how to use them, too. I can shake my shapely ass with the best of them. But from now on, I’ll only want to shake it for her.

I guess all this means she likes what she sees. And I’m so happy! Can I tell her tonight that I love her? Please, goddesses of love. Show me a sign!

The sketch showed Anna almost nude in bed. Her breasts. Her hips. Her smooth mound inside panties. All there to see. But even if the sketch didn’t say it all, the entry filled in all the blanks. Linus knew this was it. This was the end of being himself, of being a “him” of any description. At midnight, he’d be the creature reflected in the black-and-white picture before him. What could he do? What was left but to give up?

 

 

Linus sulked around the house all morning. He then sat out on his lanai after lunch, trying desperately to find answers as he gazed into his swimming pool. What have I missed? Why is this happening? But just like he was locked out of DeepSrch, he was locked out of those answers, too.

Linus returned to the whiskey bottle and picked it up, planning to drink the entire bottle this time. It would probably kill him, but would that be worse than this? A small voice inside said, “That’s not the answer.” He set the bottle down, curled up on the couch, pulled a pillow to his chest, and cried. Cried like the little girl he was soon to be.

His tears were interrupted by a text. He opened one sparkling green eye to glance at his phone. It was from Scarlett. “Hey little man. You didn’t text me back. I didn’t hurt you the other night, did I? I like short men. They are fun and…bite size. Your little hands make my breasts look so big! And besides, you are not little where it counts! Please call me or text! I want to see you. Want to see those incredible eyes and run my fingers through those flaming curls. I want to put a coin in and mount you like the drugstore pony ride you are. Or should I call you a drugstore stallion?! I’m leaving on Friday. Please don’t make me go home wanting. Oh, and please shave your manly face close. I don’t like a scratchy beard. XOXO”

His mind vaguely registered what she’d said as he stroked his soft face. To her, had he’d been the same size he was now when they were together at her hotel? Somehow, reality had shaped itself around what had happened to him. He was still Linus to her, but Linus like he was now. What does that mean for tomorrow? Will I be a woman named Linus Newcombe to her…to everyone?

Linus realized something was still off, though. She’d said he should shave close. But his face was silky smooth. She said his face was manly. It was not. Reality is still a day behind or something. She described me like I was yesterday…I think.

With nothing else to do and feeling like a doomed man, Linus got to his feet and went to the bathroom to relieve himself. He looked around the bath and laughed mirthlessly. Now there were brushes and combs on the vanity and a hair dryer, too. Reality had provided what he needed. He half expected to see cosmetics for this new face, too. But those weren’t there…yet. Tomorrow, I bet.

As his cock dribbled the last bit of processed coffee, it suddenly made sense. He saw the changes as changes, but those around him and the world thought this was how it always had been. Except reality took a day extra to adjust. That’s why I didn’t have these hair products until today. My hair changed yesterday, but the stuff to take care of it showed up today.

These concepts gave his mind something to consider, to occupy him during his last hours of maleness. He entered his closet. The usual assortment of shoes was there. Athletic shoes in either youth sizes or some unisex pairs, embarrassingly, in women’s equivalents. Some shoes had thicker soles and a bit of a heel. They were designed to make him seem like a taller man. Well, a less short man.

Above his shoes, he found his clothes. All tailored to fit his five-foot-one height now, with some pants a little longer to hang over his raised shoes. He moved the stepladder that wasn’t there two days ago and climbed up to look on the top shelf. More of the same. One pair of women’s shoes was there, too. But those were Beth’s and much too large for his tiny feet.

He climbed down the ladder and looked again around the bathroom. The vanity looked different. It was lower. It was made for a shorter person. Both he and Beth were tall, with her five-foot-eight, and so they’d made all the counters two-inches higher than standard. But now, they were maybe even shorter than standard height.

More of the same in the kitchen and in the garage. The new step stool beside the sink. His Mini Cooper, which would fit him perfectly, parked in the garage instead of his tall Toyota LandCruiser. The Bianchi road bike, in the smallest size they made now, sat in the corner on the stand waiting for him where his large one had been.

Linus passed a picture on the fridge from the charity ride last month. He posed there with Isaac and two women from the firm. He was the shortest by far, but he beamed up from the photo as he made a face, leering at the busty blonde beside him. The face in the photo confirmed his suspicion; it was his old face. His hair, though, was the long redheaded mop he now possessed. So these photos are not caught up yet. That’s it. They are a day behind.

 For the rest of the afternoon, he scrolled through photos on his phone and looked at videos from trips with Beth. In all of them, he looked as he does now, but with his old face. His manly face but shorter than almost everyone else in the photos. His hair was not as long in some pictures, but most of them had him with long auburn hair tied in a tight ponytail or hanging loose in more casual photos.

Linus’s brain was on overload. After a sandwich to quell his hunger, having not eaten all day, he fell on the couch again, intending to rest for a few minutes before resuming his futile search for his soon-to-be identical twin. Within minutes, though, he fell mentally exhausted into a fitful sleep.

Sometime later, long after the sun had set, another text notification woke him. Linus’s phone glowed brightly. He raised his head, brushing the ever-present hair from over a sleepy eye, and peered at his phone on the coffee table. It was a message from Scarlett. “KNOCK! KNOCK!”

Oh fuck! She’s here! He jumped up and ran to the wall, switching off the lights. Maybe she’d think he wasn’t home. But no such luck. She was using her phone as a flashlight, and he could see her moving through the kitchen. He heard her heels on the tile floor and then her voice.

“Hey handsome. Where are you little man? I’m mad at you.” She was in the room with him. Her phone light blinded him momentarily, and he turned away. He could smell her perfume and the distinct scent of alcohol. “Glad you at least left the door unlocked so I could get in.”

“Sorry.” His voice. It was too high. He tried again to lower it. “I’ve not been well.”

“Yeah. I heard. Food poisoning. Poor baby.” She laughed. “You don’t sound right. But Momma’s got what you need to feel better.”

He stood stock-still, unable to see in the unlit room, eyes still not adjusted. He wanted to run, but which way? Linus saw a flash of something shiny and then felt himself being lifted bodily and carried across the room toward the hallway.

“Let’s put the baby to bed, shall we? Is this the way?”

Scarlett carried him through the hall and into the primary bedroom, banging his head on the door frame as they entered. He was too stunned to fight her, and she threw him onto the bed as if he weighed nothing.

Linus could hear her removing her clothes. She cooed. “Strip, baby. I want to rub something all over you. It’s called ‘Scarlett Lotion.’ It will make you well. I promise.”

Her voice was sultry and oh so hot. Despite his terror, he was rock hard. It was as if all his remaining masculinity had migrated to his cock. Manly lust, one of the remaining parts of his old psyche, took over. He pushed the boy’s underwear down his body just in time for her to straddle him. She put her hand around his massive erection. “Well, even with baby sick, I’m glad I can get a rise out of you.”

Linus didn’t speak. He was part scared and part not wanting to lose the moment. He needed relief. And it might be his last time as a man.

Scarlett mounted him, pinning his arms to the mattress. “Momma Scarlett’s got you, baby. Just relax. I’ll do all the work.”

Minutes flew by. Screams and moans of bliss escaped Scarlett’s lips, and Linus stayed rock hard. Her breathing eventually became ragged, and she slowed down her pistoning on his engorged and raw cock.

Scarlett leaned down and blew on Linus’s chest, and he mewed like a kitten. A girlish groan escaped his lips. She couldn’t see his face in the darkness, but if she could, the expression would have shown his face, shown Anna’s face, simultaneously full of fear and arousal.

“I think I like your sick voice, baby boy. You kind of sound like a girl. But, you know what would make it even hotter?” She leaned to the side of the bed. “We need some light. I need to see those sexy green eyes.”

He shook his head and, as manly as he could, said. “No. No light.”

“Oh, baby. You’re ashamed of being so small?” Scarlett leaned down and kissed his new plump, soft lips and then his cheek and neck. “You did shave. So soft! You should keep your face that way all the time!” She growled, “Your sick girlie voice and smooth skin are kind of a turn-on. I’ve always wanted to do it with a chick…”

She didn’t finish the sentence, but Linus knew she was going to say “chick with a dick.” For a flash, he wondered, is that what I’m going to be? Am I going to look like Anna but still be a man? But there was no time to contemplate this possibility. The Scarlett roller-coaster ride wasn’t over, and his mind returned to the present version of himself.

The woman pinning him to the bed was in control. Linus could do nothing but let her have her way. And there was a part of him that responded differently than he would have ever expected. Scarlett was hot and beautiful, and he had felt lust as a man when she first mounted him. But now, his perspective seemed to have shifted. He was just as turned on, but now it seemed more like he was her woman. And though he had his massive dick, it seemed to belong to her now. It almost felt like she was inside him. Linus’s mind wandered to the question she’d asked him in her hotel room. The one about if he ever wondered what it would be like to feel a cock inside him. Was that going to happen?

These foreign thoughts and this new form of lust were hard to bring into focus. His cock still wanted to speak, and Scarlett was making sure that it didn’t get its say until she was ready. After a howling orgasm, where she squeezed his skinny, boyish hips like a vice, a desperate whisper of, “Please,” escaped his pillowy lips. All he could do was softly beg for the release he so craved.

Scarlett heard his weak plea and stopped. Sweat dripped from her breasts onto his T-shirt clad tiny chest, topped by its engorged womanly nipples. She leaned down and kissed him again, her tongue licking the inside of his full lips and then down his neck. She moved to his ear and blew hot breath through his auburn locks.

Breathlessly, she said, “Almost midnight. Time for the baby to have his fun.” She lowered her mouth to his chest. She grabbed his sweat-soaked T-shirt with her teeth and lifted it up to his neck, her arms still holding his tiny hands down. He was totally at her mercy.

He heard “Almost midnight” echoing in his head. This is it. In the darkness, the vision of the Latina woman joined Scarlett. She floated onto the bed and went to Linus’s chest.

“No,” he squeaked. But as the vision-woman lips found his nipples, he bucked and screamed in a voice that was not his own, “Yes! God, yes!”

In that moment, he came so hard that even his tiny body shook the bed. Wave after wave of cum flooded from him. Scarlett had another orgasm, saying through clenched teeth, “There’s a good baby. Give it to me, baby! Give me all you’ve got!”

And he did. Linus gave every bit of manhood he had left to her. The semen escaping his cock seemed to propel outward. As the clock beside his bed showed 12:00, the Latina woman disappeared and Linus came again, this time in a completely different configuration. He wept as a womanly moan of pleasure leaped from his throat again.

His dimensions shifted. Scarlett suddenly was empty. But, strangely, her legs were forced much further apart as she sat astride her changed lover’s widened childbearing hips.

Scarlett laughed. “I’ve never seen anyone go soft that fast! It was like your cock just disappeared.”

Green eyes looked up from the darkness, glistening. Reality for him was complete. But for Scarlett, a shock awaited.

Scarlett climbed off her conquest. She switched on the light and then gasped. She screamed at the young woman lying in the bed, large bare breasts protruding from a boy’s T-shirt. “Who the fuck are you?! Where’s Linus?”

The woman who had been Linus Newcombe could not speak. He felt more vulnerable than he’d ever felt as Linus and was paralyzed with fear and realization. His breathing was still coming in pants as generous new breasts rose and fell. Anna’s brilliant green eyes followed the other woman as she gathered her clothes, her shouting of expletives continuing.

“I don’t know who you are, bitch, but you tell that Linus Newcombe he’s a perverted bastard.” She yelled, “Linus! I know you’re here somewhere. You are an asshole! A tiny, pencil-dicked asshole!”

At this, the girl on the soaked mattress spoke to Scarlett in a soft but firm tone. She needed to stand up for who Linus had been. “I didn’t have a pencil-dick.”

Linus saw Scarlett regarding the girl he now was and his nonsensical defense of who he had been. Scarlett seemed to assess Linus in Anna’s body as if now “she” was competition for Linus’s affection. But then a reality seemed to dawn on Scarlett. “Are you his little sister? He sent his own baby sister to fuck with me like this? That’s sick!”

With that, Scarlett pulled on her second shoe and turned to the bed, extending her middle finger. “Fuck you! Fuck you both!” She stomped through the still-dark house, and the sound of stumbling, glass shattering and more expletives followed her.

Linus lay there in the post-coital fluids for a long time. He wasn’t sure what to do next. Under the curly hair, above the breasts, and behind the cute, sweet face, he was still Linus. Mostly Linus, anyway. That hadn’t changed. But everything else had.

=======================================

Chapter 11: Revelation and Resolve

The sun eventually rose, and nature called. Linus sat on the toilet, his toes the only thing reaching the floor, and released a stream like any other woman. He hadn’t considered standing; he hadn’t given it any thought as he sought to relieve his bladder. He then rose and wiped in the most normal, womanly way. Once he did, he stared at the moist tissue and marveled at how fast he’d adjusted. Or was it Anna still adjusting him?

Modesty demanded that he cover himself…cover his wet dream body. He pulled a robe from the closet and over soft, naked skin. Well, naked below the waist. The boy’s T-shirt was now stretched to breaking over his very large breasts. Breasts that bounced as he made his way into the kitchen.

Linus’s mind inside the girl made coffee, as usual, and scratched at her shapely hip while it brewed. Knowing innately somehow that the journal’s work was not quite done, he turned on the eReader and unlocked it.

An entry from ten years ago today, unsurprisingly, greeted him.

October 2, 2015, 11am.

Not working today. Can’t sit still! Told that bitch Millicent I was taking today off, no matter what she said. I might not have a job tomorrow, but I don’t care. I’m in love! I’m in love! And best of all, she loves me, too! We said it. We both said it together! At the same moment, at exactly midnight. I’m the luckiest girl who ever lived. The goddesses approved! And I will be hers…forever! We talked about marriage. I’m going to take her last name. No more JoAnna Bailey. No! I’m going to be JoAnna Rodriguez! I want to yell! I want to sing! I’m so happy! Val couldn’t skip work today, so I’m on my own. Think I’ll walk back up to Oak Ridge and sit under that oak tree to read. It’s where this started. It’s where I knew I was destined to be with her. And then I’ll go over to Val’s condo and lay out by the pool to wait for her. I can’t wait to show her my new lemon-yellow bikini. She loves yellow. And I love her! I’m in love! And the world is beautiful!

To complete my happiness, I want to try to fix things with Marie. I texted her. She hasn’t answered yet, but I hope we talk soon. I can’t stand having this tension between us. Despite how much she hurt me, I do love my twin so much. I want to share my joy about Valeria and me. I know she’ll be happy for us if she’ll just... I need Marie to approve. I need my twin to be part of this, part of my happiness.

Linus rubbed his impossibly large emerald eyes and smiled sadly. “JoAnna. Joanna Bailey.” It was “JoAnna,” not just “Anna.”

 Linus turned on his laptop and did a search. His long nails had barely started typing when he saw how close he’d been early on. As soon as she put in “JoAnna,” it came up. Linus had found this entry on the first day of his search. But he’d set it aside, thinking the name was wrong, and so he’d ignored the result. Now he read the death announcement from ten years ago of the woman he now was.

October 3, 2015. Fortis Beach Sentinel.

“JoAnna Bailey, 23, died yesterday from an apparent hit and run on Winding Lane near Oak Ridge Cemetery. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are still looking for the driver. The vehicle appears to have been…”

Linus didn’t need to read further. Now it made sense. Well, it made some sense, at least. He was strangely calm after all that had happened, but found himself nibbling the end of a long pink nail as he absorbed this new revelation. He poured a cup of coffee, played absently with his long wavy hair, and contemplated his new life.

Returning to the laptop, he put in another search and found Anna’s obituary. He nodded to himself and smiled another sad smile. “Of course. Of course it would have been there.”

“JoAnna Bailey will be laid to rest on October 5 at Oak Ridge Cemetery. Visitation will be at 6pm on October 4 at the funeral home there. She is survived by her father, Joseph Bailey, mother, Anna-Marie Bailey, and a twin sister, Marie Bailey Evans. No flowers. Please make donations to World Wildlife Fund or the animal charity or environmental cause of your choosing.”

He sipped the coffee, blowing to cool it through his full lips. The coffee tasted bitter and stronger than he…than Linus…remembered. He added a little milk and sugar for the first time ever, and tried to pull together what he needed to do. Though the physical changes were seemingly complete, there was more to do. The journal entry today wasn’t a prediction. It was an instruction. An instruction he felt compelled to follow and not resist, this time.

But something else was gnawing at the lawyer’s brain inside this young woman. Something from his past that bore on her past. With hesitation and trepidation for what it might reveal, he sat at the laptop and searched for the case involving Anna’s death in the public legal records.

The case still had not been solved. There was a ten thousand dollar reward for anyone bringing forth evidence leading to a conviction, but that money remained unclaimed. Linus found articles about the accident, including pleas from Marie and Valeria for information.

Linus scrolled through pictures taken at the scene. Broken plastic. A crushed iPhone in a bright yellow case. And, chillingly, an eReader case with a large gash. There was a photo of the backpack, too. If Linus needed any further proof of who he now was, there it was. But the question remained. Why? Why me?

The answer came like a hot poker to his brain from an article on the Fortis Beach Sentinel newspaper website. A story was published a year after the accident trying to reawaken interest in solving the case. More photos. Photos of the tree. Photos of skid marks and the makeshift memorial. But it was when he saw the last picture attached to the article that Linus’s mind reeled, and he collapsed onto the floor. It was the essence of what the former defense attorney had feared for eleven years. In a ditch mere feet away from where Anna’s body was found, had been a bent orange license plate with a white tiger paw in the middle. A plate just like he’d seen at the law office on the front of a brand new Porsche. I helped Conrad get off on that drunk driving charge. It was a technicality. He was guilty, and I knew it. Conrad would have been in jail the day Anna was killed if I hadn’t been so selfish; hadn’t given in to Beth. He killed Anna, but I am a party in her death. Her blood is on my hands, too.

Linus looked around his spacious and well-appointed house. It was in a nice neighborhood and worth north of a million dollars. Linus had money in the bank, too, and a vacation condo in Vail. And this was only what was left after giving up half of everything to Beth in the divorce. All of this opulence. All of this prosperity. It started with a note handed to a defense attorney. It started because I was trying to keep Beth. It started because I gave up my convictions for a love that was already lost. I knew it was wrong then. Now I know just how wrong.

Linus remembered again coming home the first day of Conrad’s drunk driving trial. He and Beth were living in a small stucco house in an old subdivision outside town. He’d asked his wife over dinner whether he should let the drunk go to jail or help the defense. Her answer was immediate. “This isn’t about right and wrong. Think about us. If you help the defense, it could be your ticket to the big time. Our ticket out of this piece-of-shit house.”

Linus bought that “ticket” a year before Anna died, and now he knew what that ticket wrought; what he allowed to happen. This last week wasn’t random. He was now inhabiting Anna’s body because he was partly responsible for her death. He needed to see who she was. He needed to know her through her journal. He needed to know how tragic and senseless her death was. He needed to feel the guilt for what he’d unwittingly helped happen.

But more than that, he was the only one who could get her justice. He picked up his phone and called Isaac so they could meet. He would help. But the new Anna wasn’t thinking. Isaac didn’t know “her,” and there was no way he could convince him of who he was. Isaac answered, and Linus hung up before saying anything.

Isaac called back immediately, but Linus let it go to voicemail.

Gracefully, he stood from the floor. He was shaking as he made his way to the bedroom and stood before the dresser there. Conrad’s drunk driving case had always bothered Linus. He’d felt for a long time that the moment he passed that note, he’d sold his soul. No one was hurt the night Conrad was arrested. Conrad had simply been pulled over after clipping some parked cars after a birthday celebration.

Linus knew Jr was guilty, and the smug arrogance he showed when he got away with it was something that stuck with Linus. The same look he’d seen on the investigator’s photos of Beth and Conrad outside a hotel. The same look he’d seen at the office two days ago on Conrad’s face as he’d taunted Linus. Linus knew that day in the courtroom then the spoiled rich kid would be in that courtroom again one day, and he worried it would not be a simple drunk driving charge. And now, the reality of that worry was reflected in the dresser mirror. The full lips mouthed, “I’m sorry” to the reflection, and then guiltily lowered her sparkling, tear-filled eyes.

He picked up his iPhone again. If the journal did its thing, this phone would be gone tomorrow. Everything “Linus” possessed would be gone, replaced with…who knew? Anna’s stuff?

The resurrected fingers of Anna tapped out a text to Isaac. “Hey, bro. Sorry I butt-dialed you. Have a question. You remember a hit and run ten years ago up on Cemetery Ridge? Young girl.” He hit send.

Seconds later, three dots indicated Isaac was answering. Then the dots stopped. Then they started again. Then they stopped. Finally, a message appeared. “Why do you ask?”

Linus shook his head, and auburn hair covered his eyes again. Isaac could have said “no” or even “yes, it was a tragic case.” Could have blown him off. But he didn’t. The words in Isaac’s text were not a question; they were an answer.

More tears streamed down Anna’s face as the young nimble fingers worked the phone. “You knew all along it was Conrad?” This question was also not a question.

The phone rang again. It was Isaac, of course. Linus let it go to voicemail and then texted again. “We have to make this right. Before Conrad inherits that money. Before he hurts someone else.”

The dots on the phone screen appeared and disappeared several times again before Isaac answered finally. “Let’s talk. Call me. Please! It’s complicated.”

Linus formed a wry smile on his new cute face, saying aloud, “Complicated? You have no idea.”

He texted Isaac back. “Nothing to talk about. Just do the right thing, Isaac. JoAnna Bailey deserves justice. And no one else deserves to be hurt by that asshole.”

Isaac called again. Again, Linus didn’t answer.

One last text came from Isaac a minute later. “OMG! I just looked at the case file on my phone. I hadn’t looked at it in years. I never realized your face looks just like hers! If you were a girl, you could be Joanna Bailey’s twin! WTF?! Call me. Please!”

This last text highlighted the other awful truth. Yesterday’s change is today’s reality. To Isaac and everyone who knew Linus, he’d had always had Anna’s face. Isaac couldn’t help because Linus was now completely Anna, but not to Isaac or anyone else. Tomorrow these texts would probably be gone. The phone would probably be gone. Linus and everything connected to him would likely cease to exist. Might never have existed.

Worst of all, he would have been changed from Linus to Anna for no reason. Justice would not be served. The death would remain pointless, and the killer would be free and soon unimaginably wealthy. Freer to continue hurting others with added impunity from being rich.

Beyond becoming this female creature. More devastating than changing from a man to this long-dead girl. The truth that there was nothing she could do now to right the wrong was the part of this new reality that caused the most despair. He could not let the injustice stand, but Linus was powerless to do anything.

It was too much to bear. Linus’s mind began to shut down. His life was over, but more than that, the ideals he’d killed when he passed the note to the defense team more than a decade before came back to him. My bad judgment haunts me more than this ghost’s body.

But then something sparked from these last thoughts. Ghost. Haunting. “Maybe that’s the answer,” he whispered. He nodded Anna’s head as the rest of the thought formed in Linus’s mind. It was like a plan already made was laid before him, or at least an idea. I’ll confront Conrad. Make him confess. Make him tell the truth about what he did to Anna ten years ago. She looked into the mirror again…“what Conrad did to me ten years ago.”

But this quest for justice. This idea had to be acted upon today. This plan, which seemed to come from nowhere, would not be possible tomorrow. But how could it work? He knew what needed to be done, but had no idea how to do it. Yesterday’s feelings of helplessness returned with a vengeance, with guilt heaped on top.

But at that moment, unbidden, just like in the car two days before, a song that Linus had never heard entered his clouded mind, and things seemed clearer. More possible. He sang softly in the sweet voice of the angel Anna had been,

“I'll be your oxygen

I'll be the cure, be the medicine

You're my battlefield

You'rе sunbeams in a velvet dream

On another road

Maybe I can make your heart beat again

And in another life

Maybe it would be much sweeter than.”

Humming the mysterious tune, Linus directed Anna’s beautiful body, his new body, to the bathroom, where her feminine skills took over. Her skills managed to get the tight kid’s T-shirt over his head. Instinctively, she massaged the foreign new breasts like they’d always been there. They were soft and sensitive and large. She helped him bathe carefully, not allowing the long hair to get wet and avoiding stimulating sex or sensitive breasts.

Out of the shower, Anna’s routine continued, and she rubbed the lotion that had appeared that morning onto his soft, youthful skin and skillfully applied the light makeup now arranged on the vanity to make up the face he’d received two nights ago. Using the brushes that had not been there yesterday but were not new, she tamed the long curly hair and took it from shaggy to wholesome angel.

In the closet, she frowned for him. There were no clothes for this body. She opened Linus’s dresser to find the same disappointment. Reality hadn’t yet adjusted to “full Anna.” He tried to pull on a pair of boy-sized Y-front briefs, but there was no way they’d fit over her wider hips. Linus’s old underwear of days before might have barely fit over her new shape, but those briefs and all the other clothes belonging to six-foot-two Linus were gone. He didn’t exist. The ones available were designed for a boy or a homunculus, not a grown man, and certainly not for a shapely young woman. The clothes in the house were from yesterday’s reality. The magic hadn’t provided for what she had to do today.

Or had it? Something bright like the sun flashed in Linus’s mind again, and he turned Anna’s body toward the kitchen, where both the eReader and backpack still sat.

Opening the old purple pack, he smiled wryly as he removed the bright yellow bikini, purple short-shorts, and Ed Sheeran T-shirt and returned to the bedroom. Considering these clothing items, the idea that what had happened being random these last days seemed less and less plausible. There is intent behind all of this…all of it. My changing is just the beginning. The mysterious plan for today is what this has been leading up to.

Linus removed the tags from the bathing suit. Ron Jon Surf Shop, huh? With a skill he hadn’t possessed before today, the hands knew how to pull the tight string bikini bottom up her smooth legs and into place. The bottom hugged her womanly hips, revealing the cleft between her legs. The bright green eyes took in the sight with awe and appreciation, and an urge to explore his new anatomy came upon him.

But that would have to wait. Linus turned to inspect his new rear in the mirror. Anna’s body provided a rewarding tingle, and Linus realized he was really getting turned on staring at what was now his own body.

As well as the warmth and moistening felt between those smooth thighs, Anna’s nipples hardened, and he shuddered with a chill and goose-bumps. Keep it together, Linus. He focused on the now-prominent peaks of her chest while, with practiced ease, Anna's fingers danced over the bikini top strings, tying and adjusting them to cradle perfectly her ample breasts. Once secured, Linus gazed at Anna's full reflection in the mirror of the bedroom door.

His mind was spinning. He felt aroused. He felt sad. And he felt longing. The woman in the mirror was beautiful and, judging by the journal, had been happy and alive with hope. She was so different from Beth. And Anna clearly lived life with so much joy. He again spoke directly to Anna’s reflection. “Why couldn’t I have met someone like you instead?”

Anna’s voice saying his words woke him from his distraction, and his mind returned to preparing to confront her killer. Linus put on the Ed Sheeran T-shirt and then pulled the tight shorts on over the swimsuit. The straps of the bikini top stuck out of the top of the shirt, something that Linus had always found sexy.

He opened his iPhone and found Conrad’s social media page. He had to be sure that what Conrad had shouted a few days ago at the law office as Linus walked away was true. Sure enough, there it was on the front of Conrad’s page: “All-day pool party starting at 11am at the Stephenson mansion. ‘Cum’ celebrate my birthday.” What an asshole.

Over the next hour, Linus downloaded several photos and articles from the internet, organizing them like a good attorney would. Facts and circumstantial evidence were summarized and saved as well. He then emailed everything to Isaac and Mr. Washington at the firm. He believed that all these things would disappear at midnight, but it was worth a try. Linus printed out a copy too, and put the documents in an envelope, not knowing exactly why.

With this done, headed to the kitchen, passing a mirror in the hall. His eyes were drawn again to his body and face. My face. Isaac thinks I’ve always had Anna’s face! This prompted a critical question. Will Conrad recognize me as Linus? His body would scream “not Linus,” but his face was another story.

Into the bathroom, he eyed the makeup there, having no idea what to do. But Anna knew. In moments, she’d gone from the light makeup applied earlier to a dramatic, sexy look that was different enough to fool anyone. I hope. And with this body…yeah, I should be okay.

Linus hurried to the kitchen and tucked his phone and wallet into the backpack along with a towel and the eReader. For the plan to work, Linus, or rather Anna, needed to be there early, before any invited guests arrived. It was already 9:00, and it would take half an hour to get to the mansion.

Anna’s toes found their worn home as he slid into her Teva sandals, noticing the toe ring was back on his left foot as it had been that morning after his hands and feet had changed. No time to consider any of this, though. Time was running out. He hoisted the small backpack, its nylon rough against soft fingertips, over one shoulder, and stepped toward the Mini Cooper that had replaced his LandCruiser two days before. With each stride, Anna’s breasts bounced, a warm, distracting sensation. Her hips swayed with a rhythm that felt undeniably provocative but also completely natural. Even with the urgency tugging at Linus, a surge of heat flickered within him, a response to the simple act of his fully female body moving.

Climbing into the Mini, Linus found the seat to be adjusted perfectly to his tiny stature. Programming the mansion into the GPS, he backed slowly out and then entered the Thursday morning traffic. Everyone around him was going about their business like any other day. It seemed so surreal. But it wasn’t the commuters that were surreal; it was his presence in Anna’s long-dead body.

Linus pulled up to the electric security gate of the Stephenson mansion thirty-five minutes later. He sat there for a moment looking down the long drive at Conrad’s late father’s home. He’d been here once before. The week after Linus got Conrad off on the drunk-driving charge, he and Beth had been invited to dinner by Conrad, Sr. The dinner where Beth met Conrad, Jr and the seeds of their affair were planted. Hell, for all Linus knew, Beth and Conrad might have fucked that night.

Linus hated this place, and though his old melancholy returned, the Anna inside him would not let him fall into despair. But he needed a plan. Resolve to confront Conrad had gotten him this far, but he hadn’t thought through how to get Conrad to confess to killing Anna. This was a bad idea. I’m not strong enough to intimidate him now. Not in this tiny body. I have nothing to force him to confess. I should have brought a gun.

He put the car in reverse, but suddenly flushed white hot. Anna’s breasts, his breasts, tingled, and his new sex became wet and warm again. He let out an involuntary moan of pleasure as he felt his nipples tenting the T-shirt clinging to his breasts. His breathing became ragged. “What the hell is wrong with…me?” Then Linus knew. He had a weapon more compelling than a gun; Anna’s body. Anna’s raw sexuality. But, no! I can’t do that. I can’t…

Even as these terrifying ideas and the impossibility of what they meant ran through his mind, Anna’s delicate finger was pressing the security gate call button. Linus watched it, detached and unable to stop it. He froze, staring at the little speaker, holding his breath and waiting for someone to respond. The reply didn’t come. Instead, several seconds later, the gate slowly opened.