Bad Magic Ch. 02

Bad Magic

Chapter two

by Sigh

I'd spent five minutes searching for a button and still hadn't found it.

A button ... of all the things to focus on right now and that was the one thing I was concerned about?

I'd lost it during the ... what was I calling it again, "the transformation?" A ridiculous idea, but the cold hard truth. I'd transformed, quite literally. My jock roommate Jake had spoken some strange words from a strange book and my entire body had realigned and fused into a new shape, and what a shape it was.

My hips had ballooned out, pried open my thin denim jeans, and sent the button flying across the room like a bullet.

The breasts were their own special kind of nightmare. Correction, my breasts. It wasn't a trick, they weren't a prop, there was no adhesive. They were locked in place, wired up and surprisingly sensitive.

I'd caught Jake staring at them twice now, but, who could blame him; they were massive. My shirt struggled to contain them, it's seams stretched to their breaking point.

I looked down and stared at them again, still trying to make sense of the absurd. I'd already entertained a host of rational explanations, all of which had failed to undo what had been done. I was a girl. Wait, correction, I wasn't a girl, at least, that is to say, I hadn't been up until ... how much time had passed?

I looked up again at Jake, who was hovering over the book.

"What do you think you're doing. Get away from that!" I growled, my anger still still simmering just below a boil.

"I just thought maybe I'd ..."

"Don't" I said and stood up. "You've already caused enough trouble with that thing. Just ... just leave it alone."

Standing was a new sensation. I couldn't quite pin point my center of gravity. It was as if my entire body had been torn apart and then hastily reassembled. I walked over to him, my free hand propping up my sagging jeans. I tried to keep my strides rigid, fighting against my hips new natural sway.

I stood beside him.

That's odd ... I felt a strange magnetism, something I'd never experienced before, it was as if a new wave length was emitting from him.

I tried to ignore it, pulled the book away from him and looked down at it.

I have read many, many books over the years, and although I wouldn't consider myself the absolute authority on them, when it comes to university textbooks, I'm your ... guy, or I guess girl now. Anyway. They are expensive, bloated, retain little to no resale value, and are often, coincidentally written by the professor that has made them mandatory reading. And this ... this strange book I was now staring at was not one of those text books.

I didn't know what it was. It was older than any metric I was comfortable using; one thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand years old? Sure, why not.

The pages were a far cry from their contemporary counterparts. Was that ... animal skin? I felt uncomfortable even touching it, but I was in desperate need of something that could reverse the damage done. There had to be a spell that could reverse the spell... right?

Spell ... Was I really going to admit too it, that I'd been on the receiving end of a spell? So what, I believed in magic now? Was I just going to toss out the foundation of my entire academic career and embrace sorcery as the one true path? How many tiers was I willing to climb before I went full on tin foil hat?

No, I thought. I'd perform the necessary mental gymnastics later to escape this strange trap. For now, I needed to stay focused, reverse the spell and get out of this damp, cramped tomb; It gave me the creeps.

It was difficult to read the book. There was little to no natural light, only the pale glow from Jake's cell phone.

"Not to be a downer, but if I'd known Socrates was so cool, I prob' woulda' picked up a book sooner." Jake said trying to deploy his polished charm.

I looked up at him, trying to mask my disgust.

"They were philosophers, not wizards. Whatever this is, it's not Greek."

"German?" He asked.

"No, not German."

I looked down again at the book. I couldn't think of any language it resembled. I recognized some familiar patterns in the letters, but that might just be a coincidence. When read, the words were gibberish.

"Obish .. va tur ..."

I stopped mid sentence. If the spell Jake had used had turned me into a girl, who knows what this one might do. It might undo it, or perhaps something far, far worse. I needed to be cautious. There must be some clue, a formula that I could use to find the right incarnation.

I flipped back to the bookmarked page he'd read from.

"And you're absolutely sure this is the spe ... page you read?" I asked.

He peered over my shoulder.

"Yup, that's the one, it had cool doodle of the hot chick in a bikini."

I looked down at the drawing, it was more than just a doodle, It was practically a painting, miniature, yet highly detailed. There was something in the brush strokes that was reflecting the light, gold?

The design was surprisingly well done, on par with anything I'd seen online. She wore a small white bikini and was on her knees, staring up at a blazing white sun.

Why was it so familiar, where had I seen her before? I couldn't piece it together, then I remembered staring into the reflection in my phone - it was me.

"Whadda' ya' think those are for?" Jake asked pointing at a pair of golden bracelets attached to her wrists, ankles and neck.

"Those? I don't know, if I would guess, I'd say they were shackles, probably intended as a visual symbol of subservience."

"Sub serv-a-what?"

"Subservience, it's means she was his slav ..." I stopped short, suddenly aware of what I was about to spell out to him, but it was to late. He'd already connected the dots and I could see the wheels starting to spin.

"Anyway, what we need to find, is the spell that reverses it."

"Ah, right. yea ... of course." he said reluctantly

The light flickered and started to dim.

Magic? I thought. No, not magic, worse; technology. I looked over at Jake's phone. The battery was dyeing. I checked mine, it wasn't any better.

"I don't suppose you brought a charger ... or an outlet" I asked.

He shrugged.

I felt my heart sink. What if there was no anti-spell, what if I was stuck like this ... permanently? The paper work alone would be a nightmare. No, I thought, there has to be one, don't panic, stay focused.

I turned to look at Jake, his eyes were wandering about aimlessly.

"What ... what are you looking at?" I growled.

"Not looking at, looking for ..." he said, dropping his volume down to a whisper. "Cameras."

I followed his eye line. There was nothing, just the dusty corners of the stone crypt.

He lowered is voice even further.

"Did they put you up to this?" he asked.

"Who is they?" I asked in my regular tone.

"The team, it's a prank right? I get it, they're screwing with the new guy. Happens all the time."

He raised his voice and spoke to the room

"Ok, guys you got me. I surrender. Good one, Ya'll almost had me thinking it was real."

"Real?" I growled. "Real!" I grabbed him by the wrists.

"Is this not real enough for you?" I yelled and pulled his hands forward, allowing him to grab my new breasts.

The sensation was like an electric shock. I gasped, and looked up into his eyes, his deep blue eyes. I felt the strange magnetic pull again radiating from him like a sun. My lips tingled. I pressed them together, smothering them, savouring a new delicious thought that was brewing in my mind. I leaned forward and ...and ... darkness, absolute darkness.

His phone had finally died. I heard Jake awaken and start to fumble around in the dark.

"I ... ah"

"It's alright, just ... just stand still for a moment, let me find my phone." I said.

I reached out, traced the surface of the table, searched for my phone, found it, and turned on the light. The light was low, casting an eerie green glow.

"So not a prank?" he asked meekly.

I shock my head. I could see the wheels starting to turn again, as he tried to grasp this new terrible reality.

"You know what ... A lot of what we know about that time in history is sketchy at best. Maybe they did dabble in a little magic on the side."

My phone started to flutter.

"Mines almost dead too. Well, we're not going to have much success in the dark again. Screw it, lets take it back to the house and keep searching there. Sound good?" I asked.

"Ah, sure. Do we need to like ... check it out? I don't have a library card."

He really is an idiot sandwich, isn't he? I thought as I stared at him.

"No. I'm sure they won't mind if we just borrow it for a day."

"And your ok going like ... that?"

"like what?" I asked.

I looked down. Oh right ... my clothes, or sadly, what little was left of them. My jean's zipper had been split wide open, my shabby boxers visible. My shirt was tightly wrapped around my chest like a drum, ready to burst. It had been incredibly difficult to shuffle around the desk. How was I ever going to survive the twenty minute walk back to our house?

Of all the days I hadn't driven in, I thought bitterly. Not that I could afford it. The cost of parking at the University was more than the value of my rusty old car.

"You wouldn't happen to have an extra-large jersey with you?" I asked.

"No ..." he said, a new thought visibly brewing in his thick skull. "But I have an idea."

"Oh?" I asked reluctantly. "What idea?"