Part 6 – Secrets
I don’t know how long they kept us in the holding cell. What happened had so thoroughly shocked and shaken me I couldn’t bring myself to do anything but weep into Megan’s shoulder. I was so out of it I didn’t even realize I was still naked until Megan moved.
My eyes snapped open and glanced at Megan. She looked toward the door and I craned my neck to follow her gaze. Jonathon Hails, Megan’s dad, stood in the doorway with a frown on his face and arms folded across his face.
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“Megan, please tell me what’s going on? I was in the middle of a meeting with an important client when your cousin called.”
My cheeks burning, I glanced at Mr. Hails. I pulled away from Megan and did my best to cover myself up, but in my state it was almost impossible to hide everything. It seemed pretty stupid, but I didn’t think Mr. Hails would appreciate a naked girl straddling his lesbian daughter. That is… assuming he was aware she was gay.
“Megan!” he repeated her name.
“Uh, well… the thing is Jim, well he sort of went through a twist,” she winced scratching at the back of her head as she shrunk away from him.
“This.” He threw a hand out at me his eyes growing wide before he coughed and turned away. “This… is Jim?!”
Megan glanced at me, brought a hand up to her mouth and turned away. She pointed at my chest and when I looked down, I realized I’d let my arms fall to my side leaving my bare breasts exposed.
“Sorry,” I said my cheeks burning as I was cupping the naked lumps. “I never even suspected I was twisted. Suddenly, growing a pair of… well… boobs wasn’t exactly something I expected to happen.”
“Yes, well, twists are seldom predictable,” Mr. Hails replied. He averted his eyes and if the scarlet shade of his cheeks was any sign, he was very uncomfortable. I couldn’t say I didn’t blame him, but it was nothing compared to what I felt. Hell, being naked and blue with your best friend and her father present was plenty freaking weird, but when you added the breasts to the equation, it was damn intolerable.
“Megan, the guards mentioned a brawl. You didn’t cause it did you?” he asked grimacing as he rubbed a hand against the back of his neck.
“Well…” Megan’s voice said trailing off, “I might have hit another girl in the face, but she deserved it.”
“We’ll talk more about this later. You’re just lucky I got here when I did or we’d be having this conversation at the police station. Being a lawyer has its advantages. One need only threaten to sue someone and they become far more accommodating. Jim, we’ll need to contact your mother she works here in the mall doesn’t she?”
“Oh shit, Mom,” I cursed then glanced down at my chest and bit my lip. Mom hated the twisted with a passion that bordered on fanaticism. I didn’t have any idea what that meant for me, but just contemplating it made me want to curl up into a ball. She was my Mom and even though she was flawed and a little unhinged, I still loved her.
“Yeah, she works over at Haglund’s.” I looked up at him and bit my lip.
“She will need to be apprised of this, ahem, new development,” he replied fidgeting with his tie.
“Mr. Hails?” I asked.
“Yes?”
“She won’t take the news well. I, uh, think I need to be the one who tells her.”
He nodded and turned away.
“Oh, and do you think you could get me some clothes?” I added glancing down at my naked body and my cheeks flushed anew.
“Yes, I’ll get Allison to find you something,” he nodded again, he moved to the door, and stopped waiting to be let back out again.
“There will be hell to pay for this. I’ll make sure,” he said reaching for the door when it popped open. He disappeared through the opening leaving Megan and I alone again.
“So, this is weird? Isn’t it?” Megan pursed her lips and glanced at the door after her Dad left.
“Yeah,” I let out a long sigh and glanced down at my hands. “That’s an understatement. I never expected this, none of it. God this is so freaking wrong!”
“You’re not the only one who’s surprised. I never expected you would be twisted. Not the way you’re Mom is always ranting about them… about us.”
“You’re twisted?” That was a surprise. I would have wondered why she never told me, but I already had a good idea. There was a lot of prejudice against twisted people and with Mom being the way she was I don’t blame her for keeping it from me.
“Dad’s twisted, and everybody says my mom was too. Most of my relatives are, so it’s something we’re used to. I guess I am too, or I will be. Whatever. I try not to think about it. It’s freaky realizing I could wake up one day and be a different person.” She sighed.
I had a good idea about what the twist had done but there had to be more to it. If the comments from the people in the Game Palace were right, then I looked like Kalena from the game. I’d only had a brief look at her image, but I remembered her face looked more or less human. Besides the color of her skin her weirdest features were her six-fingered hands, her horns and her ears.
I glanced at Megan then down at my bare breasts. Aside from being blue, they had all the same features as any other girl’s breasts I’d seen and I knew Megan had seen her own set hundreds of times by now. It felt strange being around her naked like this.
I slipped one arm over both protrusions, ensuring I covered them then I flexed my free hand and watched each of my six-fingers move in response. I’d been so focused on the other aspects of my transformation and the shock of it all, I hadn’t noticed such an obvious change. Reaching up to touch my head I felt for what I knew must have been there. Sure enough my fingers found purchase on something hard that ended with a point, a horn. Next, I felt around touching one of my ears. The flesh, felt soft and pliable, like my old ear lobes just in the wrong shape and in the wrong place. When I slid my hand to the side of my head, where my ears should have been, there was only hair and skin.
Dammit all to hell.
“Are twists usually this extreme?” I asked, reaching up to pinch the tip of one of my horns.
“No. Even most of the people who go through a major transformation look more or less like a regular human, but there are stories. My dad told me about this guy that got transformed into this massive dog-like creature and Allison knows this kid with compound eyes like an insect. Some people don’t transform at all, they get these odd compulsions or have their personalities change.”
I groaned. “Why couldn’t I have been one of those!”
“Trust me it can be worse. Some of the compulsions people get make them do crazy and for some even bad things. Like that guy that’s been killing people in California.”
“How do we know I don’t have some kind of compulsion?” I asked, dreading the mere thought.
“We don’t. Only time–” she stopped and turned as the door swung open.
Mom was standing in the entryway and the moment she saw me her eyes narrowed. She clenched her jaw and turned to Megan with that half-crazed expression she got whenever she talked about the Twisted. “Megan, what the hell is that freak doing here? Where’s my son?”
I winced, my stomach sinking.
“Oh, um, well you see the thing about that is–” Megan looked like she wanted to bolt and I couldn’t blame her I was fighting down the same urge.
“Cut to the chase would you? I don’t have all damn day!” Mom yelled still glaring at me.
I swallowed hard, fresh tears running down my cheek as I stared up at Mom. Megan looked back and forth between Mom and I. My lips trembled and I wanted to crawl into a hole. ‘Just do it, it’ll be like ripping off a band-aid. Tell her.’
“M-mom,” I said. My mother flinched away as if I’d slapped her. Her face grew darker and I saw the contempt and hatred in her eyes. She must have figured it out for herself, but I had to speak the next few words as much for my own benefit as hers. “It’s me, Mom, Jim, your son. I guess I’m twisted.”
Her eyes were so wide I thought they might pop out and roll around on the floor. Several times she opened her mouth and a part of me hoped that she’d tell me everything would be all right, but when she spoke my worst fears were confirmed.
“I don’t have a son. I never had one! All this time I’ve been fooling myself. You’re a freak like your father!” she yelled trembling as she loomed over me. “I tried so hard to keep the truth for you, but it didn’t do a damn bit of good!”
“Mom–” I said, and it came out as a high-pitched squeal. I wanted to say more, but the hatred displayed on Mom’s face was too much for me to take and I crumpled under that gaze.
“You know, that’s screwed up, don’t you? Jim can’t help being twisted. Did you think you’d keep him from twisting just by hiding the truth from him?” Megan asked glaring up at my mother.
“Shut the hell up, you stupid little twisted-loving brat. This is none of your damn business,” she howled turning her horrible gaze on Megan.
I swallowed hard steeling myself against whatever horrible thing my mother might say next. It took every ounce of resolve I had just to form the next few words and it got harder to speak with each new syllable. “Maybe not, but she has a point.”
Mom’s fire chilled to ice, and she looked me over with an air of indifference. “I can’t allow a twisted freak to live in my home. You’ll need to find somewhere else to live.”
“You’re not serious! What am I supposed to do? Where the hell will I go?”
“I don’t give a damn,” she said then burst out of the room leaving me there to stare at the door in complete shock.
I had this image of my mother running a dagger through my heart and clutched at my breasts as if her words had done exactly that. My fingernail dug into my skin, and though blood dribbled down my chest, I didn’t care. Nothing mattered, I’d never felt so alone in all my life.
I sobbed, and the tears gushed out of me like water bursting from a dam. “God Jim! That was horrible.” Megan threw her arms around me, but I couldn’t answer even if I wanted to. I buried my face in her shoulder and let the anger and grief come bursting out of me.
