Metamorphosis: Part III

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3]

As I trudge through the snow towards the mysterious man, I can feel my boots getting colder and wetter. My feet feel like they have been sitting in a bucket of ice for hours, and I’ve only taken a few steps! It was obvious these absolutely cute boots were not made for walking around in this frozen tundra.
The wind begins to pick up and a light winter flurry becomes an all-out blizzard. I fight through the elements of nature and the malaise from the transformation, until I am standing directly over the stranger. I attempt to catch my breath and fall to my knees from exhaustion.

I kneel beside him and slowly slide him to his back. I notice his face is full of lacerations and fresh blood. The color of his skin underneath the layer of crimson is a light shade of blue. It is apparent that he had been wondering out here in the cold for a long while. The snowfall was so dense I could barely see anything. I find myself staring at this man and he seems strangely familiar. I must hurry before this gets worse.

I lift him a bit and he grunts. He looks at me for a moment and stands on his own strength. He is shivering and grabs my hand for support. I place my arm around his shoulder and we make our way back to the cottage. The heavy snowfall makes it very difficult to navigate our way back. I remember the general direction so I start walking and hope for the best.

Darkness has fallen by the time we reach the doorway. I blast through it nearly taking the door off its hinge. The man collapses on the ground right next to the fireplace. I fall to my knees exhausted from my transformation and the rescue. I see some firewood nearby and throw a bunch of it into the hearth. I lie down upon the wooden floor and watch as the fire begins to crackle and rise. The dancing flames make my eyes tired. I close them for a minute. Need rest…

It is some time later and I feel a little better. There is a blanket covering me and the stranger is sitting up in front of a roaring fire staring directly into the dancing flames. He is sprawled out with his feet inches away from the heat. He is turned in the opposite direction as me and I cannot see his face. I notice he is wearing my sweat pants and white t-shirt. The same clothing I had on before my transformation.

I sit up with my legs crossed on the floor and try to say something but he beats me to it.

“You are truly beautiful,” he says, his voice is deep and familiar.

“Thank you,” I say. Some confirmation on the subject was extremely flattering. I try to slide over a bit to see his face but he looks away.

“Before you look at me perhaps we should talk first. Trust me, it’s for the best,” he responds again in a voice I am certain I have heard before.

“Okay, if you’d like. Let’s start with who the hell are you?” I say, as this mystery begins to annoy me.

“Forget so soon? No doubt you recognize the voice,” he says.

“Yes! Damn, it is so familiar. I know you somehow don’t I? From somewhere else, perhaps?”

He laughs. I can see his shoulders shake as he sits there and chuckles with delight.

“Are you making fun of me?” I say, taken aback and frustrated.

“I should be allowed to make fun of you after what we have been through together,” he responds still glaring in the opposite direction.

Enough of these games! Turn to me,” I yell as he has tested my patience for too long.

“Listen to me, Raquel. You need to know some things first. Please let me explain.”

“How do you know my name?” I am shocked. As a man, my name was Mark. Raquel would have been the name I would have chosen and did choose. There was no way for him to know that. He is the only person to lay eyes on me since I became a woman.

“We picked it together. Then you came here to the old woman. The very same old woman who tricked you into drinking her little formula and played to our desires. It was for her own agenda I think. But I can’t be sure about that right now.”

“Who the fuck are you?” I stand up and stomp around the front of the fireplace to face him. He doesn’t bother turning away this time. He looks me straight in the eyes and I feel woozy. I feel…

Some time has passed and he is kneeling over me slapping my face. I look into his familiar face again and nothing had changed.

“But how can this be?” I say as he smiles.

“You fainted. I, well we never fainted before. It is me, it just is. Don’t ask me how or why? That lady did a great job, wow,” he says as I shake my head back and forth trying to deny what I see.

“What happened to your face?” I ask. I am very concerned. He has lacerations all over his forehead, jaw, and cheeks. He has done the best job he could to clean them up but they were very obvious.

“I don’t know. It is has something to do with this place. Where we are?” He speaks as if I had known more than he.

“I have no clue. But how can this be?”

“I don’t know. I am you before the transition. I am Mark. You know it, I know it. Let that fact of matter just be for now.”

He has a good point. I let go of logic and try to reason with my former self.

“What do we do now?” I question.

“It seems like the winter has impeded our progress. But there is something more beyond those trees. It is a mirage or some kind of trick. They do not extend as far as we think. There is something more out there. Perhaps the answers are there?” Mark sits back down in front of the fire and awaits my reply.

“What is beyond those trees?” I ask as I too sit back down to enjoy the heat of the fireplace for however long we have left.

“There is a lake, Raquel. On this side it is snowing and on the other side it looks as if it is as hot as a summer day. We could start there.”

“And the old woman?” I question, wondering if he is thinking what I am thinking.

“She is the key to this. We must find her again.”

He was thinking the same thing, after all he is me.

To be continued….

Tags: featured, fiction, Identity

Category: Fiction, Transgender Fun & Entertainment