Girl For A Spell
By Ellie Dauber

Email Ellie Dauber

I really don't remember my folks. They died when I was about five. Car accident. Mostly, I remember my Aunt Liz, Momma's aunt. I lived with her from when they died, until she got too sick to care for me. I was a junior in high school by then, and -- to tell the truth -- I'd gotten kind of wild.

Too wild for most of the family. When Aunt Liz started getting sick, there was a lot of looking around to see who'd want to take me. Nobody did.

For a while, it looked like I was headed for a foster home. Then, finally, out of desperation, they called in "Aunt" Therese. Therese was some sort of cousin of my Mom's, a real recluse and the family eccentric. She seldom had anything to do with the rest of us, but, as she said, "Blood tells."

Aunt Liz went to a nursing home down in Florida a few days later, and Aunt Therese showed up the day after that. I was watching TV when the bell rang.

There she was, one of those women who could be any age from thirty to ninety: tall as me (almost six foot) and slender, no make-up, and gray-black hair piled up into a tight bun. Her dress was about the same color as her hair.

She looked me up and down. "You would be Alan. Fetch my things in from my car, please." Without another word she walked past me into the house. I shrugged my shoulders and went out to get her bags. From what I'd heard about her, I'd expected some weird luggage, but this! Besides three heavy suitcases, she'd brought a couple of African masks, a stuffed crow, some really old books bound with a leather strap, jars and jars of spices -- all labeled in Latin, even a pair of candlesticks made from animal skulls.

"It's like she's some kind of witch," I thought.

Aunt Therese turned and looked at me for a minute. "Why, yes, I am," she said. "Very perceptive of you, Alan. There may be hope for you, after all."

It was like that for about a week. Aunt Therese took over the house like she'd been there forever. Her luggage went into the main bedroom; the books, boxes, and odds and ends into Aunt Liz's old sewing room. A lot more boxes came in the next few days. Aunt Therese put a lock on the sewing room door after she caught me snooping. She spent hours in that room doing who knew what. Sometimes, late at night, I'd think I heard drums and -- once -- two or more weird voices talking. I tried not to let all this bother me. It was only a few weeks till summer vacation. I had a bunch of friends, all as wild as me, and we found lots of ways to keep ourselves amused. Jerry had an old clunker of a car, and Phil, the oldest looking one of our group, had managed to get an ID that said he was okay to buy beer. We put both to a lot of good use.

It was late one Saturday night in early May. We'd been out using that fake card of Phil's, and I was pretty drunk. I was trying to find my key, so I could sneak in to bed. Suddenly, the door swung open. I heard Aunt Therese's voice. "Come in, Alan." I staggered in, looking for her by the door. She wasn't there. I couldn't figure out how she had managed to open the door, when she was standing way over by the steps. As she walked over, the door slammed shut behind me somehow.

"Dead drunk," she said in disgust. I just stood there giving her a dopey grin. "I've been patient long enough. We shall deal with this in the morning." She reached down into a pocket and pulled out a ring. "Wear this tonight. I want you alert and healthy in the morning." She handed me the ring and walked up to bed. I looked at it for a minute. It was silver with a purplish gem, an amethyst I found out later. I was too drunk to care, so I slipped it on and went to bed myself.

Sunday

Whatever that ring was, it worked. I woke up expecting one monster hangover, but I felt great! I threw a robe on over my T-shirt and shorts and headed downstairs for some breakfast. Aunt Therese was waiting for me in the living room. Her hair was undone and hung straight down to the small of her back. She wore some sort of blue satin gown embroidered with all sorts of red, gold, and black symbols. All the shades were down, and there were lit candles everywhere. She just stood there and pointed to a chalk pattern drawn on the carpet in the shape of a star inside a circle. "Please stand in the pentagram, Alan, so we may begin."

"What is all this mumbo-jumbo?" I asked.

She slapped my face. "Enough insolence. Move!" I was too startled to resist. I went over and stood in the center of the design. She took five red candles off the table, put each one in a little holder at one point of the star, and lit them. They burned with a greenish flame and gave out thin trails of black smoke. What a strange smell! Then she began chanting in a low voice and walking around the star. After a couple of minutes, the smell of the candles began to get to me. I tried to leave, to go have breakfast, but something seemed to stop me. It was like there was a wall around the blasted thing. I pushed against thin air, but couldn't get past.

Aunt Therese nodded. "Ah, you begin to see. Now, feel the power. _Feminis corporae transmuto_." She walked around the star saying that same weird chant over and over. Finally, she stopped right in front of me and began gesturing with her hands. "_Feminis corporae transmuto_." Seven times she said it. I noticed that her hands were beginning to glow somehow. The glow got bigger and brighter until it was a ball of golden light around both hands. She raised her hands and pointed at me. "_Transmuto_!" she yelled.

The ball of light shot off her hands and flew across the room towards me. I panicked, but I still couldn't move out of the way. It shot over the edge of the star and sank into my belly. I felt the energy sitting there warm in my stomach for a minute. Then it seemed to spread out through my body, tingling like an electric shock. My scalp began to itch. My chest felt tight against my robe. I had a weird feeling in my groin, a tingling like my penis was going numb somehow, and inside me it felt like things were being moved around. I shook my head. It felt like somebody was pulling on my hair, too, making it seem like it was a lot heavier or longer. I was dizzy, and the room was spinning. I raised one hand up towards my face. I just had time to notice that my hand seemed to be shrinking. Then I felt myself falling into blackness.

I awoke in my bed. Aunt Therese was sitting on the edge putting a cold cloth on my forehead. "Ah, awake at last, I see." She smiled for a moment as if to reassure me. "You needn't be concerned. The first time is always the hardest."

"The first time? The first time at what?" My voice sounded different. I was scared. "Get out of here," I shouted. My voice seemed much too high.

"A young lady mustn't talk like that," Aunt Therese scolded. Young lady!? I looked down at myself. I had breasts! I could see two nipples pushing out points against the front of my T-shirt. I jumped out of bed and ran to my mirror. I tossed off the robe and pulled my shorts down past my knees. All the old familiar male equipment was gone. Instead, I saw a vertical slit covered with brownish curls. My hair was long, hanging down past to my shoulders. My face looked pretty much the same, except my nose was smaller, and my cheekbones seemed a little higher. The real shocker was my figure. Big tits sticking out on my chest, pushing against the robe; a fairly narrow waist; wide hips. I was too shocked to fully judge my new looks, but I was definitely a girl.

Aunt Therese smiled again at the look of horror on my face. "Yes, Alice -- that's your name now, incidentally -- Alice, you were far too unruly as a boy. So I've used my magic to transform you into a girl."

"I'll tell."

"Certainly, go ahead. If they don't believe you, they'll think you're mad. If they do, well, what of it. I'm the only one who can change you back. If I want to change you back. Now, stop dawdling and get dressed. We've a great deal of shopping to do."

"Shopping? For what?"

"You'll see," she said and tossed a pile of clothes onto the bed. "Wear these." She turned and left the room. "Be down in ten minutes, or it gets worse."

The clothes were mostly old stuff of mine from down in the basement, only the Star Wars shirt was new. I'd noticed as I picked the stuff of the bed that I was several inches shorter than before. I didn't think I was going to be able to fit into most of my regular clothes, so I was glad that Aunt Liz had never seemed to throw anything out. Even so, it felt strange getting into clothes that I'd outgrown a couple years before.

I took off the T-shirt that I'd slept in and put on the Star Wars shirt. Even though I was smaller, the shirt was tight across the, umm, chest, and the material felt scratchy rubbing against my nipples. I put on a new pair of undershorts, too. The ones from the basement wouldn't fit. I was just too "girly". The pants were the right length. They were very loose at the waist, though, and much too tight across the hips. I barely managed to get the fly up, which reminded me again that I had nothing in front to block the zipper.

Aunt Therese hadn't included any shoes, so I just put on a pair of sneakers. They were much too big. I took them off and put on three pairs of gym socks. Then I tried the sneakers on again, pulling the laces extra tight. It looked pretty shabby, but they fit. I was trying to figure out what to do next when Aunt Therese came back into the room. "Stop dawdling, Alice. Our first appointment is in fifteen minutes."

"Appointment? Where? And for what?" I was puzzled and more than a little scared. Was I supposed to go out and meet people looking like this? Apparently, yes, I was. Fifteen minutes later, we were walking into Oak Hill Mall.

Oak Hill Mall! Half the kids I knew in town hung out there. By now, it was early Sunday afternoon. Most of the stores would be opened, and I was terrified of being recognized. But nobody did. Not even Jerry, who I'd been out drinking with only the night before. I mean, even with the hangover that he obviously had, he should've recognized me. He was coming out of the "Dairy Barn" just as we walked in, and I almost walked right into him. He just muttered something like "Dumb bimbo" at me and walked away. I didn't know whether to be happy or mad that he didn't recognize me.

Aunt Therese grabbed my arm and lead me to the "House of Style", one of the beauty shops in the mall. As we walked in, she touched my throat. I felt a funny tingle. When I tried to ask what she'd done to me now, I discovered that I couldn't speak above a whisper. A tall blonde in a yellow smock walked over. "May I help you," she asked.

"This is my niece, Alice," Aunt Therese said. "She showed up for a visit looking like a vagrant. See if you can't get her looking like a lady." I tried to say something, but all that came out was a tiny squeak. The woman, who called herself Jennie, led me over to a sort of barber chair and handed me a smock the same color as hers. I figured I was stuck, for the while at least, so I put on the smock over my clothes and sat down.

Jennie and Aunt Therese talked for a few minutes. Aunt Therese gave me something to drink that almost tasted like tea. Then Jennie came over and began work. She put on some sort of mask over my eyes and began to rub something oily into my hair. It was warm in the shop, and Jennie's scalp massage felt really great. In spite of everything I'd been through (or maybe because of whatever it was that Aunt Therese had given me to drink), I fell asleep.

The next thing I knew, somebody was rubbing something onto my face. I opened my eyes and saw Jennie. She smiled. "Your Aunt Therese had me to do your make-up as well your hair. I wanted to wake you up to ask how you wanted it, but she said you had no real taste in such matters. I did it the way I see a lot of the kids your age. I hope you like it."

With that she spun the chair around towards the mirror. It -- it was unreal. I could hardly believe it was me. My hair was combed out straight and curled up around my neck with a couple of tiny plastic bows, one on each side. My eyebrows were thinned into narrow lines. (How had I slept through that?) I had blue shadow over my eyes, and light red lipstick on my lips. When I put up my hands to my face in surprise, I saw that my nails had been shaped and were colored to match the lipstick. I looked --

"Excellent," Aunt Therese said from behind me. "Every inch the young lady. Now, come, child, and let us do something about those horrid clothes." While she paid Jennie, I got out of the chair and took off the smock. I found myself wanting to look in the mirror again. Part of me hated what was going on and shuddered at the thought of looking in that mirror. Another part of me was enjoying the way I looked. That part seemed to be getting stronger, but before I could decide if I really wanted to take that second, better look, Aunt Therese hustled me out of the shop.

A few minutes later, we arrived at a shop called "Le Moderne" in one of the fancier parts of the mall. The shop seemed closed with shades drawn on all the windows, but the sign on the door said "By Appointment Only". Aunt Therese knocked.

A very pretty woman in a long, dark blue dress opened the door and smiled, "Ah, Therese, I haven't seen you since last Lammas Day's coven. And this is the transmute you told me about. Do come in." We went in, and the woman locked the door behind us. It was a woman's clothing store!

Tentatively, I stepped over to him, looking more closely. The muscles on his body were not fully rendered giving him the appearance more like an art-deco sculpture than an actual human. His head was very smooth with eyes closed and no facial hair, and tilted down somewhat, as if facing someone kneeling before him. As a sculpture he was compelling. He radiated strength and power, in ways I couldn't quite define.

"Yes, Mariah," Aunt Therese was saying. "One newly-made maiden in need of your skill and your wonderful wares to truly fit her new role in life."

"I understand," Mariah said and turned to me. "Take off those stupid male clothes right now, girl. I want to get a look at what I have to work with."

I wasn't sure what to do. I certainly wasn't used to stripping down in front of women. But I was a girl now, myself. I hesitated for a minute then pulled my T-shirt off over my head. (Being careful, of course, of my new hair-do.) I kicked off my shoes and dropped my pants. I suddenly felt embarrassed standing there in just my shorts. I put a hand over my crotch like any guy would do, but for some reason, I put up my other arm to cover my tits. Aunt Therese and Mariah looked at one another and smiled.

"Very good, Therese," Mariah said. "Feminine instincts already. She'll be an easy one."

"I do expect so," Aunt Therese said. "It's just us girls, though, Alice. So take off those boxer shorts. You look ridiculous in them."

My shorts joined my other clothes in the pile near my feet. I was puzzled. What did she mean "feminine instincts"? I thought it might be important, but my mind just didn't seem to want to focus. "Now, come over here," Mariah said, "and let's get started." Here was a table of lacy women's underwear. She handed me a pair of panties, blue I think they were, with little yellow butterflies on one side. "I think that these should do nicely. Ah, yes, and here's the bra that goes with them." She handed me a matching bra with the butterfly pattern on one cup.

I stepped into the panties and pulled them up. They felt light and cool on me, much different than the cotton shorts I was used to wearing. I wasn't sure how to put on the bra. I thought for a moment, then I put it around my waist and fastened it. I was starting to twist it up and around to my breasts when Mariah stopped me.

"No, you little twit. Take that off, right now!" I stopped and unsnapped the bra. "Now, put your arms through the straps and lean into it -- yes, that's right. Now reach around behind you -- good girl -- and grab the ends. Good! Now, feel around for the hook and eye -- Yes! Now, just hook it up."

I did it just as she ordered. I'd never worn a bra, of course, but now the movements came easy. Somehow, I felt better with the bra on. My breasts weren't that big (even if they did seem enormous to me just then), but the support of the bra made them feel more comfortable. Pantyhose came next. I found that I knew how to put them on: one leg at time, being careful not to get them twisted or to snag them on my pretty new nails.

Mariah handed me a pale blue dress. "Try this. It goes with your eyes." I'd never thought much before about dressing to match my eyes. But now, it seemed more important. I wriggled into the dress and buttoned it up the side. It felt a little tight at the waist and seemed to push up my breasts, making them look more noticeable.

"I think these should be your size," said Mariah, handing me a pair of light blue shoes. With a two inch heel! I put them on and took an experimental step. I was a little wobbly, but I found that there was no problem if I took shorter steps than I was used to and shifted my weight as I walked. Shifting my weight also shifted my hips. My walk was now totally feminine.

Aunt Therese smiled and pointed to a mirror over by the wall. "Go take a look at your new self, Alice."

I'll admit, I was more than a little curious. I'd been too scared to take a real good look when I first changed, and I hadn't been able to tell much in those old clothes. Aunt Therese had rushed me out of the beauty shop, but now she let me linger to fully appreciate the effects of her magic.

But now! Holy spit, I was one prime fox! I mean, I knew my head looked pretty good with the new hair-do and the make-up. But the body was a real surprise. Big, melon-y breasts, the nipples half visible through the shear bra and the flimsy dress; my waist, now almost narrow enough to put your hands around; and full, luscious hips. My legs looked pretty good, too, long and well-curved in those high heels. I loved the way I looked, and I kept turning and staring at myself in that mirror.

Aunt Therese walked over. "Very pretty, isn't she, Alan?"

It was like a blast of cold water, but I found that I could talk again. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"I already told you that, as punishment for your horrid, male behavior. You know who you really are, but you'll find yourself acting like the girl this body says you are. And, by the way, you've been under this spell long enough now that you can't tell any one what I've done. If you try, you'll just begin to giggle, and should you persist, you'll find yourself prattling about all sorts of feminine inanities."

Mariah walked over, her arms full of clothes. "There's still a lot more for you to try on, dear."

Now that it was decided that I was properly dressed, we spent the better part of two hours looking at other clothes. Aunt Therese picked out several more panty and bra combinations; several more dresses; a short pink nightgown and a frilly, dark blue one; and a number of blouses and skirts. Mariah had a lot of women's slacks on display, but Aunt Therese ignored them. When I asked about getting a pair or two, she just said that a lady never wore slacks.

A lady! Hell, until that morning, I'd been a boy. But Aunt Therese was acting like that was a thing of the past. The scary part was that I found myself enjoying it. I was soon "oohing" and "ahhing" over this or that outfit like I'd always been a girl.

For example, I had hated changing out of one particular skirt, a lacy green job that was the latest fashion among several of the girls I'd dated recently. Aunt Therese said that it was too short and too tight. "A lady suggests her gender," she said. "She doesn't shout it." That got to me. Here I was, a boy turned into a girl by his aunt-the-witch, and she was talking like I was some kind of tramp and she was being forced to protect my virtue.

By now it was mid-afternoon. Even Aunt Therese admitted that she was getting hungry. I put that first blue dress back on while she paid. Then we headed out to the Food Court. I got a burger, coke, and fries and headed back to the table. Aunt Therese was waiting for something at the Chinese stall, and I figured that I'd better not start till she got there. I was staring off into space trying to figure out everything that had happened, when I realized that somebody was talking to me.

"Excuse me, but don't I know you from school or someplace?" Omigosh! It was Rick Medford. He'd known me (the male me) since third grade. If he could recognize me now, I'd never live it down. I looked at his face for a few seconds then looked away.

"No," I said. "I don't think so. He pulled out one of the chairs at the table and sat down. "I'm sure I remember you, but I'll be darned if I can remember where I know you from. My name's Rick Medford. I'm a senior at Jackson High. Maybe we met at a dance or something."

He gave me his best smile. "It bugs me. You're too pretty for me to forget where we've met." I wasn't sure how to take the compliment. Rick had a solid reputation as a lady killer, and I was getting a prime sample of his technique. It was getting to me, too. I felt my nipples tingling, and there was a sort of a warmth down in my crotch. It felt good, and I smiled back at his dumb line in spite of myself.

"My name's Alice, but you really don't know me. I'm here --"

"Having luncheon with her Aunt, whose chair you have taken, young man." Aunt Therese had come over. She positively _loomed_ over Rick.

"Uhhh, no, ma'am. Sorry, ma'am. Have a nice lunch, ma'am." Rick stood up quickly and began a hasty retreat towards CD City. "Nice to meet you, Alice."

Aunt Therese sat down. "Well, that was fun. I'm so glad you're making friends, Alice. Perhaps you'll see that nice boy in school tomorrow."

School! I hadn't thought about that. I couldn't go to school; not as Alice. "Oh, relax, child," Aunt Therese said. "Things are taken care off. Think of something else. Think -- why, think of how nice it felt to have that boy flirting with you. Made you feel warm and tingly all over, didn't it?"

I looked down at my burger. "Yes" was all I could say. More than the dress or the hairdo, the way that my body had reacted to Rick's flirting told me that I really was a girl. And worst of all, that some part of me liked being a girl. I was trapped in this -- this nightmare for as long as Aunt Therese wanted.

I didn't eat much of that lunch. When Aunt Therese finished hers, we headed back to the house. As we pulled up in the driveway, Aunt Therese told me to take all my new clothes upstairs and put them away. There were about six boxes and bags, but I got them out of the car and up to my room without too much trouble in two trips. (I did notice, though, that I was a lot weaker as a girl than I had been as a boy.)

The trouble started when I pushed open the door to my room with the first load. Or what had been my room. It was changed, half my old room and half - well, half was a girl's room. Two of the walls were now painted pink instead of light blue, with posters of kittens and male rock stars on the walls where my motor rally posters and Playboy pin-ups had been. The bed and the dresser were in the same place as always, but the top of the dresser was covered with some frilly pink padding. My bedspread was also pink, and the bed had some sort of cloth canopy over it. I'd had a worktable in the corner yesterday, my tool chest and parts from an old PC spread out across the top. Now, there was a low table and chair with a lighted mirror on the wall next to it and containers of make-up and a box of tissues on a tray on the top of it. Next to the tray was a copy of _Seventeen_ along with the issue of _Electronics Experimenter_ magazine that had been there the day before.

"Like it?" Aunt Therese had come up behind me. "A little something that my magic fixed up for you, while we were at the mall."

"Where's all my stuff?"

"Why, _your_ stuff is right there, Alice. So are some of Alan's things. The rest of his stuff is in the basement. Some of his clothes are still in the closet or in the bottom drawer of his dresser, but there's lots of room for your pretty, new girl's clothes. Put them all away carefully. After all, you'll be wearing them for a long, long time."

I set the boxes down on the bed and opened the closet door to hang up the two garment bags. Most of my (Alan's?) clothes were gone. Just a few of my old T-shirts and three pair of jeans hanging in a corner of the closet showed that a boy had ever lived in this room. Several of the now-empty hangers were padded with some kind of pink foam. I hung up the two bags with the skirts in them and got a couple of fancy blouses from one of the boxes on the bed. After I'd hung them up, Aunt Therese showed me how to pin the new skirts on some of the unpadded hangers.

Most of my dresser was empty, too, except for a few of pairs of undershorts, some mis-matched socks, and some undershirts in the bottom drawer. My new bras, panties, and pantyhose went in the top drawers where my underwear and socks had been. Blouses and a couple of sweaters went into the lower drawers. The long nightgown was draped over the foot of the bed.

Aunt Therese started to leave. "And get started on your homework now. I'm sure you haven't finished it." She was right. I hadn't. I hadn't intended to, either, but now it looked like I didn't have any more choice about that than about anything else. I sat down at my desk, which was now painted a light pink to match the rest of the room, and began doing my algebra.

A couple of hours later, and I was done. The math had gone easier than usual, and I remembered a lot more of my Spanish vocabulary words than I normally did. "Maybe Alice is smarter than Alan," I thought. Then I decided that I'd rather not find any silver linings in this new, pink cloud. I put my books away and headed downstairs.

Aunt Therese was in the kitchen. "Ah, Alice. Just in time to help with supper." Before I could say anything, she'd tied a frilly apron around my waist and handed me a bowl with some potatoes and carrots. "Be a good girl and peel these, please."

I peeled them. And I cut them up for the stew we were making. Yeah, we were making. Normally, I hate to cook. It was a girl's job. Only, now, I was a girl, and cooking was suddenly fun. I was thinking about that as I was setting the table. Aunt Therese came in with the food. As she sat down, she looked at me like she was reading my mind. "Oh, don't worry about why you suddenly enjoy cooking, Alice. My spell changed you mentally, as well as physically. Otherwise, I'd just have had a troublesome niece instead of a troublesome nephew. Instead, you'll find that you're now a demure young lady, studious and obedient. A little shy perhaps, especially with boys, but very much the girl you appear to be."

I ate my meal in silence. I helped Aunt Therese clear the table without her even having to ask me. She put the leftovers away. I put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, then headed up to my room to think. I lay on my bed for well over an hour, just staring up at that dumb, pink canopy and trying to sort things out. I was a girl now. I liked to cook. I liked wearing dresses and how I looked in them. I liked -- oh, my gosh! -- I liked Rick Medford. I couldn't help thinking about what he said, how he'd acted at the mall food court. I pictured him smiling at me, and I wondered if he really liked me; if he'd like to date me. I suddenly realized that my nipples were tingling -- just like with Rick at the mall. No way! This was happening too much too fast. I ran to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on my face.

That felt better. On my way back to the bedroom, I heard Aunt Therese call from downstairs. "Are you all right, dear?" She knew what I'd been thinking about! Hell, she'd probably put those thoughts in my head somehow.

"Yes, Aunt Therese," I called.

"Well, you've certainly had a long day, Alice. Why don't you go to bed early tonight. You've got school tomorrow, you know."

"Yes, Aunt Therese." I suddenly felt very sleepy. I went back to my room and slipped out of my dress, stockings, and bra. Boy or girl, I figured I'd better wear some kind of underpants. I glanced at the mirror as I hung up the dress. "Boy," I thought, "what a body I've got now." If I'd been Alan, alone with an almost naked girl who looked as good as I did now, I'd have screwed her in a minute. Now I was just proud of my figure, my narrow waist and my wide hips. And my breasts -- my breasts were as pretty as any I'd ever seen in a Playboy. Not as big, but I was only sixteen.

Suddenly, I realized what I was thinking. My thoughts weren't of screwing such a pretty girl, but of being pretty enough that some boy would want me. And I was smiling at the thought! NO! I shook my head, trying to shake those thoughts loose. Then I grabbed my long, loose nightie and threw it on, so I wouldn't have to look at my new body. Maybe I was stuck with this body, but why did I have to like it so much?

The nightie felt cool against my bare skin. The soft cotton felt cool against my legs and my breast. I climbed into bed and tried to get comfortable. It took a minute to get used to sleeping in the new position required by a girl with breasts, but then I was asleep almost at once.

...continued in Monday