+Notable Author: [JerusalemTulip] Stories~collected

[JerusalemTulip]

Thanks Arc!

I'd love getting a chance to read other stories from you.  I read One Way Ticket, and the one about the paranormal investigation of the house was awesome too.  If there are others, I don't remember them being posted.  At least not over here.

[arcomniflash]

I have a bunch, actually.  The problem is that a lot of my stories feature futanari as well as FMG heavily, so I don't post them here.  I do post them on another site, though.  I have one story called 'Idol Hands' that isn't finished yet but has reached a near novel length in size.  I have a story called Ulith that is finished but is probably full of plotholes and is one of my earlier works anyway. 

There's a Final Fantasy VII parody one shot involving materia called "Transforma", and at the moment I'm writing a Street Fighter parody which I have posted several chapters of because it's light and easy to write while I'm busy with other things. 

Another thing I was working on, but is unfinished, is Raewyn, a story about a D&D-esque fantasy world where thanks to the awaking of some kind of demon queen, all the men in the kingdom have fallen into magical slumber, while the women slowly grow into what he demon wants them to be.

So yeah, I posted most of these things over at the futanari palace (and if you want to help me edit what I've written so far on Raewyn, I'd be more than happy to send it to you - I love getting other people's impressions and going through my work over and over again is difficult right now because I'm so busy).

- Arc

[JerusalemTulip]

A/N:  This is intended as a one-off.  I think the point of departure represents the most suitable ending, but let me know what you think.  A bit less ambitious than my first story, but hopefully some of you will still be able to enjoy it.

The Cellar
by JerusalemTulip
A Tribute to John Collier


Molly Smith peeled off her charcoal gray tank top and scrunched it up in her right hand.  She started applying it to her brow to mop up the sweat, cement and dirt pooling there, then stopped.  There was a chill winter breeze flowing down into the cellar now, and the trickles of sweat dampening the labyrinthine contours of her painstakingly chiseled body were no longer hot but pleasantly cool.  She must have forgotten to close the front door.  No point in making her top any more soiled than it already was.  This one fitted her well, and she didn't have enough of them like that left. In the past five years she had added over fifty pounds of muscle to her once slender 5'4” frame.  The needs of her wardrobe and nutrition expanded alongside and the necessary expense had become a frequent point of contention between Molly and her husband Ethan.

That thought planted a furrow in the middle of Molly's otherwise unlined brow.  Ethan had long since ceased to be the strong one in their marriage; if indeed he ever was.  His brooding ego had found solace in the realization that doing nothing was its own display of power, and he clung desperately to his grip on the household's purse strings.  Even this hold was increasingly illusory and one that Molly merely permitted out of sensitivity.  In truth, her income from the trust she'd inherited from her uncle was paying the mortgage and supplying capital for Ethan's troubled consulting business.  She had long ago entrusted the proceeds to him though, as he was the MBA and at the time there weren't any hints of trouble in paradise.

As newlyweds, when they first moved into Ethan's dream house, the biggest one in the small town where he had grown up, he took her out shopping all the time.  He had made handsome bonuses from the sales of mortgage securities at the investment bank he worked for and they were flush with cash.  Then came the great recession, he was fired as a scapegoat for the mistaken policies of others and was considered too toxic to be hired within his industry any longer.  He eventually had to go into business for himself, setting up a consulting agency, his few clients mostly friends who took pity.  Money grew short, and their lives grew meaner. 

Molly had offered to go back to work, her nursing had supported them while Ethan was getting his MBA after all.  But she quietly desisted after seeing how much the thought hurt him.  Instead she concentrated on cleaning and maintaining their too large house.  It was old and required a lot of repair that they couldn't afford hiring someone for, and which Ethan lacked time to address himself.  The nature of his new work often had him out of town on weekends.  Building retaining walls to prevent hillside mud from suffocating their lawn, hacking and hauling away invasive Brazilian pepper trees, pulling out the stumps, all became tasks for Molly, and she didn't have the strength and energy for it; not at first.

When Molly realized she needed to get into shape, she fixated upon a different collection of shapes than most women do.  No Zoomba or spinning for her, she was instead lifting weights with the men.  It quickly became apparent that she had terrific genetics for building muscle.  In just six months, she had grown strong enough to easily dig through the hard layer of clay lying eight inches under their lot.  In one year, her grip had strengthened enough that she could tackle nagging plumbing problems that Ethan was too weak for, and her body now looked like Aly Raisman's.  After two years, she was visibly bigger and stronger looking than sedentary Ethan.  And now, well now it was pointless to try and compare herself to celebrities or acquaintances; she might be in a class of her own. 

She swaggered up to the turned off flat screen TV on the cellar wall and scrutinized her reflected image.  “You've come a long way baby.” she remarked to herself softly.  Clad in only a sports bra and yoga pants, the exaggerated size and definition of her physique was apparent even within the dim and fuzzy limits of the screen. 

The overall impression was wide, thick, and rippled with waves of muscular power at the slightest movement, as if someone had shaved an oversized pitbull and cropped Molly's beautiful face onto it.  The face rested on a thick powerful neck that looked unnaturally short due to the steep traps that sloped around it.  From end to end, her shoulders now measured over half her height.  She extended her arms sideways level with her shoulders, like Samson at the Philistine temple, watching the sharply defined individual muscles in her deltoids flare in to life.  Along her arms, her huge sculpted triceps peeked out from behind her relaxed biceps.  Her Popeye like forearms made the two-inch gap between them and her biceps look unnaturally conspicuous.  From her armpits, thick fibrous ribbons of lat muscle flowed down to a tight, rigid twenty-two inch waist, girdled by eight-pack abs that didn't merely keep her core tight but rather pushed out like a brick portico.  Her yoga pants were stretched tight like bark around the tree trunks of her thighs, accentuating rather than hiding the thick curves and cuts underneath.

Keeping her arms stretched, Molly now drew her hands together in front of her, her fingers forming the impression of a gun.  The action squeezed together the rugged ridges of her pecs into an impressive shelf of muscle cleavage, her already small breasts having been largely lost to lack of body fat.  “Pow” she mouthed as she pretended to shoot.  Shoot who?  Ethan?  In months past perhaps, no need for it now.  Her solution to his weak insecurity and frigid cohabitation was nearly complete and required no gun.  Besides, she didn't have any guns.  She slapped her forehead.  Silly girl, of course you do.

She dropped her arms to her sides and shook out them out.  She then stepped right next to the screen and flexed her right bicep.  It swelled up and out from the plane of her arm like an angry young mountain arising from buckling fault lines.  She softly blew a warm breath onto Mt. Molly, the breath misting in the chill breeze and giving the illusion of appropriate cloud caps to the split peak.  Her guns would shame anything from Smith and Wesson.  What was her body capable of?  Hell, what wasn't it capable of?

She grabbed a ¾” by 18” steel reinforcing bar from the pile left over from the latest retaining wall and placed it on the back of her neck.  She started pushing forward.  The pressure built up against her rigid neck muscles, but they were in no peril, being every bit as hard as the bar.  Even her skin didn't chafe, toughened up by years of rough toil and exposure to the elements.  She ignored the protest of her tendons and the lactic acid building up in her forearms.  Slowly, inexorably, the bar bent at the sides to curve into a hoop around her neck.  She took it up in her hand once more and stared at it for a second.  She had brought such a trophy to Ethan once, claiming in her most girlish voice that the supplier had included a crooked one by mistake and couldn't he please straighten it out for her?  But the attempt at humor failed, and in consideration for him she even started being careful about how tightly she screwed jars or how far she pushed the parking brake on their truck.

But it wasn't even Ethan's resentment of her being stronger, or his lack of appreciation for all that she did around the house that stung the most.  Ethan had seemed to stop finding Molly desirable.  Her peak physical conditioning had heightened her libido, she was always making overtures, initiating, and yet he even begrudged her the thirty-second special. She couldn't understand.  Her body exhibited perfection of the human form, was lush with passion, capable of doing things in bed that few if any other women could.  She had wondered if he was suffering 'male problems' but his roving eyes never ceased to check women out.  He still showed clear signs of arousal around other beautiful women, just not for her.  His usual excuse was that contraception wasn't fail proof and that they couldn't afford for her to get pregnant.  Aside from the feeling of a lie, the reminder of their parsimony couldn't help but drive the wedge deeper.  He started staying later at work, complained about headaches, fatigue, and then would disappear for the weekend on 'business trips' that only seemed to leave their finances lighter.

Molly tried to refocus on the task at hand.  She went back down on her knees, picked up her trowel and finished leveling off the wet cement until it was about flush with the rest of the cellar floor.  When it dried, she would need to make the color match.  She intended to move out from this overgrown relic that kept leeching her labor, love and money.  It wouldn't do for anyone to notice or discover what she'd needed to do here.  She had dug a good six feet under the floor in order to do what was necessary,

It was no use, each stray thought was adding fuel to the fire raging in Molly's head.  She needed a release, the morning's labor and trick with the bar weren't enough.  Her eyes came to rest on a replacement water heater leaning against one of the limestone walls.  She had been meaning to install it in place of the cranky old one, but had kept putting it off.  Maybe she could play around with it before fixing it in its final resting place. 

The label indicated that it weighed one hundred and twenty pounds empty, and had a capacity of thirty-five gallons.  She easily hefted it up to her chest and then pressed it overhead.  Only the size, and not the weight, slowing her down.  She removed one hand, then switched to the other, too easy!  There was a way to make this more of a challenge.

She fitted a hose to the cellar faucet, put the other end in the tank, then turned the water on.  Thirty-five gallons represented an additional two hundred and eighty pounds, bringing the total to four hundred.  She screwed the cap on tightly, squatted next to the tank, leaned her head forward, gripped one handle in her left hand and carefully tipped it over onto her shoulders with the other arm. 

The tremendous weight settled uneasily onto her shoulders and she managed to grip the other handle to steady it just in time.  Her knees buckled under the strain, she wasn't quite fresh.  Mentally, she retreated into the void.  Nothing mattered except the weight.  Her muscles could do anything when she concentrated.  Slowly the weight rose and Molly's legs straightened then dipped back down.  Over and over, she lost count, and was able to shed the unwelcome thoughts of Ethan.
   
Her reverie was disturbed by voices filtering down into the cellar from the foyer.  They belonged to her workout partners Mackenzie and Paula. 

“Yoo hoo! Molly babe where are you?  Its leg day.  We're gonna have that squat rack begging for mercy!  Remember?” asked Mackenzie.

“She's home right? The door's open.  Her car is in the driveway, so is Ethan's.”

Molly froze and stayed quiet, hoping they would go away.  She looked like a mess right now and she didn't really want anyone to know what she had been up to.

“Maybe she's sleeping?”

“I don't think so.  It's after ten.”

“Should we go upstairs?”

“She won't mind, but her loser husband might.”

“Yeah, I definitely don't want to walk in on him.  He's probably playing a little five-on-one to Alizée en concert right now.”

Molly's footing slipped a bit.  Okay, so he had jerked off to the memory of some pop starlet, and others knew, it could be a lot worse.  She herself had had a few date nights with her hands, though not from choice.  The thought brushed her womanhood like silk and not all the damp pooling in her panties now was from sweat.

“Holy shit!  How did you hear about that?  Phil swore me to silence.”

“Oh please!  Its got to be the worse kept secret in town.  Its not like he ever does any work in that office, and he forgets that the door has a window.”

“I don't understand why he even needs to.  He has a horny live-in muscle goddess to worship.”

Thats right!!

“Well, we grew up with him remember?  He always dated waifs and pixies; like Molly used to be.”

“That's right.  But its not as if she looks like a guy.  She's more like the ultimate woman.  Hell, I wish I looked more like her.”

“Me too!”

“Imagine weighing one seventy and benching four twenty.”

“Yeah, the trainers hate her.”

“I wish she'd share that one weird trick with us.”

“Seriously!”

One weird trick?  Are they talking about the void?  That water tank was really starting to make its weight felt.  Molly's muscles were going cold and her tendons shrieked at the thought of another rep.  Her shoulders and neck were beginning to slump in defeat.  She didn't think she could set the tank down gently enough to avoid alerting them to her presence.

“Ethan never grew up.  He always thought he was smarter than the rest of us, still does.” 

“Yeah, going to that fancy school blew up his head.”

I paid for that school too.

“He keeps pretending that he's twenty-five, because he thought he was so awesome then.”

“The rest of us went to State and got C's, but we're ahead of him now, and he hates us for it.”

“Too proud to ask for help too.  He could have set up a business in town, rather than hold on to stuff no one trusts him to do anymore.” 

“He hates that Molly's trust fund is paying the bills.  He wanted her weaker than him, dependent on him.” 

“Kind of ironic how her money is paying for him to show other girls a good time at night and on the weekends.”

Molly snapped.  It was bad enough that she herself had suspected Ethan's infidelities.  To hear confirmation from her friends was too much to bear.  In the grip of rage and adrenaline, the four hundred pound tank was weightless.  Deep currents of power in her legs jolted her back up, she could heard lycra ripping down there, could feel a breeze against newly bare legs.  She pressed the tank over her head and threw it against a wall, shards of limestone showered down and she knew the girls heard, she didn't care anymore.

“What was that?”

“I don't know.  Hey, the cellar door's open and there's a light on down there.”

“Lets check it out.”

Molly heard footsteps creaking down wooden stairs.  There would be no hiding this, hopefully the girls wouldn't gossip about it.

“You smell that Paula?” exclaimed Mackenzie, waving a hand in front of her nose as she caught sight of Molly's tattered pants.  “Molly just busted some mass!” 

“Yeah!  Call 911 she's cut!” added Paula.

After a moment's pause.

“You're really quiet this morning Molly.  Didn't you hear us shout out?” asked Paula.

[continued silence]

“What are you up to Molly?  Why does part of the floor look different?  Oh wait, its wet.” said Mackenzie.

“Listen girls, I've already had my leg day.  You two run along, I've still got a lot cleaning up to do.”

“I bet the floor started cracking right?”  Paula asked.  “I hope your foundation is okay.  You shouldn't be having to do this all by yourself.  I'm going upstairs and dragging Ethan's worthless hide down here.  Let him clean up.”

“Yeah!” interjected Mackenzie.  “Forget about the gym.  We'll take you out, you're eating alone too often.  We can go out shopping too, maybe catch a movie.”

“He's not home.  He said that he's visiting an old friend of his mother at the hospital downtown.  A Mrs. Slater who used to live on the same street when he was a kid and was real nice to him.”

“Um, his car is still in the driveway.”

“He took the bus.”

“Ethan took the bus?” Said Paula incredulously. 

“The only bus for downtown stops six miles away, and it doesn't run on Sunday...” added Mackenzie.

“They added another one special for just today.”

“What time?”

“Nine-Thirty.”

“You wouldn't have had time to drop him off and get this much done by now.”

“He walked.  I told him he needs the exercise.”

“God knows he does...but I live next to the stop Molly.  Paula and I would have seen him on Main Street along the way.”

“He said he was taking the short cut through the woods.”

“With a suitcase?”

[silence]

“Molly...we grew up with Ethan remember.  There was no street.  It was a farmhouse.” 

“Yeah, his mom didn't have many friends.”  added Paula.  “None of them was named Slater.  I don't remember anyone by that name ever living in town.”

“She might have remarried, and changed her name.”

“Wouldn't he refer to her by the name he knew her by.”

“Look, I'm just telling you what he said.”

Mackenzie and Paula exchanged a nervous glance and took a second look at the wet patch of cement.  It was just the right dimension for…heck even an experienced undertaker couldn't have measured it off more expertly.

Mackenzie swallowed back the bile rising in her throat.

“Oh Molly.  I wish it hadn't come to this.  We should have talked sense into him earlier.  He wasn't a jerk in high school.  Arrogant maybe, but he didn't use people, lie to them, steal from them.”

“Is it about the life insurance?” gasped Paula.  “Before Ethan got down on his luck, Phil sold him one whopper of a policy.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.  Ethan and I just hit a rough patch” said Molly faintly.

“Listen, we've got your back on this.”  insisted Paula.  “The town will too, we'll see to it.  No one likes him anymore, their sympathy is all with you.  My dad's the judge and Tom the Sheriff has always been sweet on you.  Can't understand how an amazing woman like you could be so alone and unappreciated.  You could play up to him.  He's cute...”

“Girls!  I'm tired, I'm going to clean up and go to sleep.  Forget what you saw this morning, don't say anything to anybody.  I repeat Ethan and I are fine.  He'll be back in town soon enough, and I don't need any help from you with him.”

“Okay, have it your way Molly.”  Mackenzie winked.  “Paula and I didn't see anything.  If anyone asks, then we saw him with a suitcase getting into a Benz driven by some woman we've never seen before.”

“Will you be alright?  Call us when you're ready okay.”

“Out!”

When their footsteps receded, and she heard the front door close, Molly slumped down to the floor crying.  She had been bravely pretending to maintain the illusion of the happy marriage for the benefit of friends and acquaintances.  Paula and Mackenzie had confirmed her worst fears about Ethan.  This knowledge would seem to justify the resolution she had come to last night, but that was cold comfort.  She would still miss Ethan, the old one anyway.

After a little while, she heard the front door open back up.  A reedy voice called out.

“Would you believe it Molly?  There was a bear on the wood trail, no way around him.  Are you gonna make a fuss still if I drive into the city?”

“Tell me dear, did anyone see you walking back here?”

“No, everyone is staying in to watch the Eagles lose again I guess.”

“Say are you done down there?  You know I would have fixed the foundation myself, if you could have just waited a few days.  That's man's work, we can't afford to have you mess it up.  It could drive down the value of the house a lot.”

She wiped her tears.  A new emotion overtook her.  Perhaps the nature of the consultation she had scheduled with her attorney tomorrow would change.

“Is that so dear?  Well maybe you should come down and take a look at this before it dries...I'm thinking about redoing it.”

[JerusalemTulip]

So we're actually getting into Roald Dahl-like literature now.

I like that a lot. Thank you for writing this!

I haven't actually read any of Dah'ls stuff since primary school library pre-millenium, and I don't remember him very well.  Just curious what you thought was similar? Would you recommend reading his non-children's books?  Anyway, I'm glad that you liked it. 

[El_Roy_1999]

You should definitely try his "Tales of the Unexpected". It's a similar short story format, the situation is recognizable. I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy them.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login DOT wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Unexpected_(short_story_collection)

[JerusalemTulip]

A/N:  Better late than never I hope.  I split this up because in my experience it is difficult to avoid skimming beyond a certain length.  I might post another part in upcoming days if sufficient interest exists.

It Started on Halloween
by JerusalemTulip
_______________________________


“Please Diego, let me help you.” implored his sister Maria.  “You say that your memories about what happened to you tonight are hazy, that you don't trust them.  But everything is right there locked in your brain, it only needs a key which I'm holding. “

“I probably just had to much to drink.”  He shrugged then immediately grimaced.  “I'll be fine after I've slept a bit.”

His reaction wasn't lost on the girls.  Stephanie, he and Maria's mutual friend, grabbed the sleeve of his shirt, and held on doggedly as he once again gritted his teeth in pain and tried to pull away.  She pulled back the sleeve to reveal a mass of fading bruises on his forearms.

“Oh my God, what happened Diego!”  She tried to cup his chin in her hands but couldn't catch hold of him as he shrunk back against the wall.  Something about her seemed to be triggering an intense rush of conflicting emotions in his bright brown eyes.  Fear, distrust, longing, hope and guilt revolved in random order.

“Why are you looking at me that way?”

“I don't know Steph.  There's something at the edge of my mind, something about you that I should remember, but its like trying to catch rain with my fingers.  Those bruises...I probably got really drunk and fell.”

Maria who could smell liquor on a man's breath three blocks away wasn't fooled.

“I'm studying criminology and psychology at Junior College.” she reminded them.  “Those marks aren't consistent with a fall, they look more like fetal response shielding.  You were trying to protect your face from a beating.”

“Now you have to let me hypnotize you Diego!  We need to learn who did this to you and why.”

“Maria, you're my sister and I love you, but you're a long way off from being a psychotherapist.  You're in your first semester.”

“I've read way ahead” she interjected

“I don't believe that this stuff works, how do we know that its even safe.”

“You have nothing to lose.”

“I'd really like to sleep.”

“Let me do this, and I won't say anything to Mom and Dad when they get back from vacation Wednesday.  They'll never know that I dropped you off at a bar last night, or about the bruises, or that you didn't come home until right now.” 

“Fine Sis, but I'm really beat.  When I decide this farce is over, its over.  Got it?”

“Of course Diego.”

A few minutes later...

“Do you think it worked?” whispered Stephanie.  Diego was slumped in a chair, his eyes blankly staring at a fixed point on the wall.

“Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?”  Maria whispered back.

“Well...”

“That was rhetorical Steph.”

“Oh...I mean, yeah, I knew that.”

“Uh huh.  Sometimes I worry about you.”

“Worry about Diego instead.” snapped Stephanie

“This is so exciting Stephanie.  Like that time we sneaked a peek into your Aunt Mildred's jewelry box.”

“That didn't work out so well for us remember.  If he's actually hypnotized, why are we whispering?  Are you really sure he'll respond to you?”

“Diego!” called Maria out loud, “Make me a cheese sandwich.”  He started to rise from his chair to comply until Stephanie shoved Maria hard.

“Take that back!  Have you never heard?  With great power comes - “

“Great insanity, yeah yeah got to stay grounded.”

“Diego sit back down please.”  He sat down.  “Relax Steph.  You asked for a demonstration remember.”

“Diego tell me what happened to you tonight.  Specifically tell me why you're bruised all over, why you got home so late, and why you never called.”

Diego opened his mouth.  Mechanically he began to relate:

“I lost my phone playing with the Cat Woman, and then I got lost myself and found by the wrong people.  The Kool Aid got to Batman and Tom Cruise and they beat me up.  It was Stephanie's fault, sort of.” 

“What the...he's lying!  I've spent the entire night with you Maria.”

“Okay backup Diego.” clucked Maria in exasperation.  “Your explanation isn't explaining anything.  Just give us a brief recap of your Halloween night, start from when we dropped you off at the Bones and stop when you get home.”

“Yes but hurry Diego.  I want to treat those bruises.” said Stephanie

“Stop interrupting!  Or this really will take forever.”

“Stop being so bossy!  He's hurt don't you care?”

The dialogue promised to ascend into their usual self sustaining cycle of sarcasm, rage, fury, and desperation until Diego's requested monologue interrupted them.

**

“I was nervous about entering that bar.  It wasn't really my kind of hangout.  You can get in without waiting in line or paying a cover if you're a hot chick.  But the dress code for guys is Tap Out, Affliction or Ed Hardy, with a shaved head and steroids.  And here I am with Seinfeld's pirate shirt, only in black, a black sombrero, black bandanna with eye slits across my brow, you get the picture.  Yes, Zorro lame I know - “

“I thought you were actually quite dashing.”  interjected Stephanie.

“Silence Steph!  Tighten things up Diego, I know you fancy yourself an artist, but we don't have all night.”

“My friends must have preceded me into the bar, I didn't see any of them while waiting in line.  When I reached the door, the ogre guarding it relieved me of my rapier and snapped it across his knee. 

'Twenty dollars' he said palm stretched out. 

'The guy in front of me only paid ten!' 

He leaned down and pitched his voice for my ears alone.
“Kid, do you really want me to check your ID.  I'm not saying all you Mexicans are illegal, but you don't look twenty-one and something tells me you don't want to be wearing a bracelet tonight.” 

Maybe he wasn't such a dick after all.  I paid, and even swallowed the automatic reflex to point out that my ethnicity was actually Colombian.

'Word of advice' he went on.  'Don't look at anyone's girlfriend inside or you'll get your ass kicked for real.'

“Can he really remember the exact conversation from hours before do you think?  Or is he making it up?” wondered Stephanie aloud.

“Hypnosis allows a patient to recall minute details from his subconscious that focus and concentration alone could never retrieve” explained Maria in a superior tone.  “Please stop interrupting.  Go on Diego.”

“It was really packed inside and loud.  Five Finger Death Punch cranked up to eleven.  You'd think they would be playing something more congenial to dance to, but I digress.  The air was heady with the mingled scents of sweat, pheromones, reefer smoke, spilled drinks, Sex Panther, and Axe body spray.  I was looking for a lioness, a witch, a harlequin, and Trump.  It looked like each of my friends had spawned multiple doppelgangers.  I decided to climb up to the second story balcony where I hoped to more easily spot the pink handkerchief that Sascha said she'd be tying around her tail.”

“As I started up, I spotted a tufted tail attached to a very shapely, feminine ass, like Sascha's, disappearing into an alcove.”

“If I have to listen to much more about Sascha, then I'm going home” asserted Stephanie petulantly.

“Quiet! Or we'll never learn how you're responsible for him getting beaten up.” 

“I already told you that I never -”

“In the shadowy strobe light, it was impossible to make out much detail in the recess that she was occupying.  I didn't spot any pink handkerchief, but anything could have happened to that, and she was scrolling through the screen of her phone.  She was looking for something, maybe looking for someone, much as I was, and that gave me the confidence to approach.”

“As I got closer, I realized that this this cat couldn't be Sascha.  Sascha is a head shorter than me and slim, this girl (it was unmistakeably female in silhouette) was far more...substantial.  She was tall, possibly taller than me, broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist, thick legs and arms squeezed into a too tight leather catsuit, her breasts were much larger, exaggerated conical curves that were already triggering a salivary response in me. Her cat mask only covered part of her face and her complexion was far more tanned than Sascha's.  Her hair was shorter, and more like true black than Sascha's brunette.  They really only had green eyes in common.  From the laugh lines at the edges of her eyes and lips I would also have guessed her to be older, perhaps around thirty.”

“She looked up from her phone, and as her eyes met mine, she squealed and barreled into me.  I felt like a matador who didn't step out of the way of a charging bull.  I probably looked like one too.  I mean, she was solid! The impact stunned me, would have bowled me over if she hadn't swept me up in a pair of powerful arms.  Those biceps felt as large and unyielding against my ribcage as stuffed sandbags.  In her enthusiastic embrace, I felt my lungs deflating, like my pride the day when Maria told me that dad had begged Coach Taylor to include me on the track relay team.”
 
“You, you evil person!  Why would you do that?” sniffed Stephanie.

“Truth is healthy and pride isn't” explained Maria.  Though her voice wavered and it was clear that her conscience was bothered.  “He's kind of sharp you know.  He would have figured it out eventually.  Running one more lap or two around the track in between bouts of rest wouldn't have really tired out the stars for their individual heats and finals.”   

“'Lawrence!  You're everything I imagined!'  the not-Sascha purred sultrily as she set me down and gave me a thorough once-over with her sparkling green eyes.

'I think you've shortchanged yourself though.  You're much closer to 5'9” than 5'6” and if you're really 160 and not 140 than it must be all in the right places.  I know that everyone lies on their profiles but they usually do it in the other direction.  Is it the submissiveness I wonder?'

'I...uhhh...'

'What's the matter?  Cat got your tongue?'

'Always I hope.'

Before I knew it her fingers were twined in my hair.  Our lips slid together and we were sharing the same breath.  I drank deep of her, desperate to slake a thirst I never realized that I had.  After an indeterminate time, I felt the light brush of her teeth on my tongue, the faintest hint of a nip.  By unspoken agreement we each drew back to regard one another afresh.  My heart fluttering inside my ribcage like a bird seeking to break free and soar.

'Then I'll continue to hold it in trust' she said with delight, her lips curving into a lascivious smile.

'Like what you see Lawrence?'

'Yes Ma’am.  You're everything I ever imagined too.' I said, blessing my good luck that her date was presumably dressed as Zorro, while cursing my ignorance about everything else. 

'Ma'am!' she exclaimed in mock outrage.  'You weren't kidding about not knowing how to talk to girls. Stick with Caroline for now, like we do online.  We can give each other pet names later on.' she added with a wink.

She slipped a heavy arm around my shoulders.  She had turned out to be quite a bit taller than me.  It was possible that her fluffy claw slippers were boosting her with some padding, but no more than I was receiving from my riding boots.  The easiest way to reciprocate was with an arm around her taut waist instead.  Underneath the catsuit I could feel an intricate mosaic of muscle sheathing her core. 

I had known her for only minutes, yet I could already feel her stamp being chemically imprinted on me, stronger than I had ever been affected before.  Her smell, the outrageous hard curves of a body that I had never imagined let alone seen on a woman before, the keen thrill of mutual attraction reflected in her eyes, the heat in that muscled limb itching to fan out and kindle answering flames in me, it was all soaking in and leaving me forever changed.  Could normal women ever measure up to her in the future?

'Lets get out of here and get to know one another better.' she whispered into my ear.

I still hadn't spotted my friends, but I was more interested in my new one.  They would understand.”

**

“So that's what he likes?  Women with muscles, and taller than him?” whined Stephanie.

For an instant Maria considered busting out the world's smallest violin, but in turning around to upbraid her friend once again, she felt the contempt within her perish.  There was genuine agitation on Stephanie's morose face, Maria had never realized just how attached her friend had become to her brother.  A stir of real sympathy was now dulling the sharp edges of sarcasm's siren song. 

“Not at all Stephanie” she replied trying to sound reassuring.  “You know as well as I do, the girls he's dated up to this point, do any of them remind you of SheHulk?”

“Well no, but maybe he didn't realize what he wanted because he hadn't been exposed to it.  I can't compete with someone like that.” 

“You're wrong!  He tends to romanticize the moment and yield completely to whatever he's experiencing then.  But he needs a real rock to return home to after his flights of fancy.  Someone he can talk to, who likes the same TV and literature.  Someone who can provide thoughtful feedback on his art.  Someone who packs awesome Japanese bentos and shares them with him...”

“Haha, yeah they are pretty awesome huh!” said Stephanie with a smile, recovering some of her equanimity. 

She had fond memories of her semester abroad in Kobe as an exchange student, everyone seeming to fuss over the cute blonde with the big blue eyes and the unreserved American smile.  Picking up culinary skills from her host family mother was probably the funnest part, but she had also acquired a taste for manga and brought it back with her, pushing it on her aspiring artist friend and crush.  People in Japan thought she looked like a real life manga girl and she had hoped that Diego might be inspired to adopt a new favorite subject for his artwork, and perhaps be forced to confront the feelings that she had hoped were germinating in him about her.

The smile slowly faded as Diego resumed his tale.

**

“The odd couple of Caroline and I strolled down Central Street attracting curious glances from all passersby.  Even with the boost from my Sombrero, she was clearly taller.  Not to mention wider, thicker, a symphony of powerful flowing curves that her outfit clung to, rather than the array of severe straight lines that my outfit hung limply from.  But their eyes were drawn not just by the contrast but by the lodestone of her own unique magnificence.  Some expressed admiration, many guys were whipping out phone cams, and one of them gave me a thumbs up, his wistful expression seeming to say 'you lucky devil you'. 

We walked a fair distance to the slowly dying neighborhood known as Little Tokyo.  For over thirty years, the landmarks had been gradually getting rundown.  No Yaohan, no Rafu Bussan, the boutiques had fled from the now slum-like Weller Court.  Practically everything that moved out seeming to get replaced by Korean restaurants.  We turned left upon reaching First Street and on the same block ducked into one of the remaining cornerstones, the Miyako Hotel. 

'I live way out in the burbs and hate the traffic getting back home.  I usually stay here when I'm catching a concert downtown or a game at Staples Center, or sometimes even just partying.  They have a wonderful spa, would you like to checkout the hot tub with me now?'

Her soft throaty laughter washed over us as I stumbled over my tongue in my haste to emphatically assent, quickly resorting to a vigorous nod.

“Did you remember to wear swimming trunks underneath your costume like I asked you to?”

“Doh!” I exclaimed while face palming in an attempt to conceal any surprised reactions that might help her unravel the deceit.  “I knew I was forgetting something.”

“We'll just have to improvise then.”

We entered the spa, there didn't seem to be anyone in the foyer except one attendant, not surprising given that today was Halloween.

'Good evening messier and madame.  How can I be of service?'

'Happy Halloween David!' Caroline boomed, squinting at his name tag.  'Is anyone else using the hot tub right now?'

'No madame.  Most guests have plans tonight as you can well imagine.  The pool and the hot tub are both unoccupied though of course the lifeguard is on duty.  The room is all yours if you and the gentleman wish to take a dip.'

'All ours?  What a delightful concept!'  She counted out four Benjamin's from her purse and placed them on the desk in front of David.  'My friend and I would like to take advantage of the available privacy afforded to us tonight.  Is there any chance I could persuade you and the lifeguard to have a good time at my expense and let us literally have it to ourselves, just until the next guest arrives here?'

Greed waged an anxious but brief war with professionalism on his face. 

'Certainly madame.'  He fiddled with something under the desk.  'The security camera is temporarily off.  I will explain the situation to Tony, I am certain he will oblige you.  Please rinse off under the shower before entering the jacuzzi or the pool, there are towels on the benches.  I will flicker the lights if the two of you are about to be disturbed.'”


**

'I'll get this thing started, go ahead and rinse off, I'll catch up' said Caroline inside the pool room. 

Some people are entirely comfortable with their bodies.  I'm not.  Back when I was a fat kid in middle school, I was the guy who always wore a T-shirt in the swimming pool.  Even when Maria and I stood up to mom and persuaded her to cook more healthy meals, and I started running obsessively, and slimmed down dramatically, I was very shy about showing myself, afraid that I wouldn't measure up to others.  There was in addition the normal nervousness a man and a woman will feel when naked before one another for the first time.  Not having trunks mattered a lot to me at that moment. 

This was the good kind of nervousness though.  Nervous excitement.  I had never felt so eager to trespass on someone's ground of mystery.  There were so many things I wanted to know about her.  How could she cavalierly pay $400 to have a poolroom to herself for what could possibly amount to just minutes?  How was such an incredible woman single?  How did she become so incredible?  How was I going to broach any of these topics without her figuring out that I was an imposter?  I told myself to play it cool, do whats necessary to get to the next screen.  I mastered my modesty and quickly stripped off everything except the mask.

She was standing under the shower now. She turned around to face me, slowly pulled the zipper down on the catsuit then shrugged her shoulders out.  Her big breasts lifted up and out of the suit as she breathed a deep sigh of relief.  From the way it had been painted on, the costume must have been very constrictive.  Her breasts were lifted by, and suspended from, a pair of ripped chambers of pecs separated by a clear deep valley that joined seamlessly with the gulf in her bosom.  I know plenty of guys and girls with broad shoulders, but the difference between them and Caroline was staggering.  Her shoulders weren't simply capped with some muscle.  There were shredded ribbons wound so thickly between her arm and collar that an abducting alien conducting its probe would never guess that there was a joint underneath. 

Her abs were exposed now.  Those rugged knobs looked far thicker and harder than any fist.  The crisscrossing cables of her obliques were also clearly defined, drawing my eyes toward sweet hips that voicelessly cried for a man to grab onto them and well, let instinct take over I suppose.  I felt a mad urge to find a ball bearing and film it gliding across her full graceful contours like in that old Lexus commercial.”

“After I marry and have kids, remind me to never ask Uncle Diego to tell stories to them.  It'll take him hours to describe one bite of a Madeleine!”

“Isn't the point to put them to sleep?” giggled Stephanie.  “Maybe he was trying to visualize all of her in order to sketch later on.  Or were you referring to his neurosis?  I wonder if his art is going to turn in a new direction.  Do you suppose that if I looked like-”

“Caroline seemed to be having trouble getting her arms out of the sleeves.  After a moment of frustrated tugging she looked at me speculatively.  And beckoned for me to approach.  I was held in thrall by her allure, my self consciousness over my nakedness forgotten, even with the painfully hard erection that I had hoped to hide in the water, and was quickly at her side.

“Watch this!”  She stuck her right arm in front of my face and tensed it, the 'relaxed' bicep leaped to attention.  She clenched a fist and slowly pulled it closer toward her shoulder like an archer pulling back her bow.  I could almost hear the tension.  The bicep in that sleeve slowly started pushing out the sleeve, like the lid on stove-popped popcorn.  I asked the obvious question with my eyes and she indulgently nodded.  I placed a hand atop the muscle that now occupied almost my entire field of vision.  Even through the leather it was throbbing with unimaginable pulses of power.  I colored a little bit with embarrassment as I felt pre-cum begin to dribble out down below in response to my own answering throbs.  The creaking of leather being taxed to its limit was now resonating through the room's excellent acoustics.  Abruptly the massive muscle burst through its sleeve like a potato whose skin hadn't been pierced before baking.  A thick white rope erupted from me in answer with enough velocity that I had no idea where it landed. 

This reaction was possible from just the sight, and a momentary touch, of a woman's muscles?  My adolescence was in retrospect a wasteland.  A universe of possibility opened up to me, that had been patiently waiting for me to take notice.

'Hello!  Earth to Lawrence!'  During my reverie she had done the same to her other sleeve, and stepped out of the suit entirely.  She was clad only in her ragged pair of improvised leather gloves, and a scandalously spare bikini, that only served to draw the eye to what it didn't hide.  Her pouting lips indicated that my lack of reaction had been noted.

'Who?' Oops.  'Who will ever believe what I just saw!  You're incredible Caroline.'  She blushed and I relaxed a little bit. 

'You look a lot younger without your beard.  I knew you said you were shaving it, but I barely recognize you from your photo now.'

'I know right!  Its why I grew it in the first place.  I didn't want everyone to think I was just a boy, the slender build makes things difficult enough.  But my own mother wouldn't recognize me now.'

'Well I guess Jennifer liked the boyish look.'

'Yeah, I guess she'd address me as “handsome strange”' now too.'

Caroline was silent for a moment.

'From heaven?  She'll never forget you.  Oh I'm sorry Lawrence I shouldn't be bringing her up.'

'Uh…that's okay...I know what you meant.'

How long could I keep this charade up?

“You always said that flexing out of clothing was one of your favorite fantasies.  I listed them up during my training, I intend to make ALL of them come true tonight.”

Caroline's sexy voice caused me to stiffen all over again.  She grabbed me by the convenient handle and tugged me along to the tub.  She picked me up and cradled me in her arms and I found myself instinctively gazing up at her face in adoration, nuzzling her deep chest fondly like a hound reunited with its master.  She maintained the hold as she stepped in.  I settled down in her lap.

The effervescent turbulence of the water seemed to reflect my own consciousness at that moment.  Feelings like desire, attraction, and excitement have many flavors and meeting Caroline had caused plenty of new ones to bubble up and burst in my brain.  The tub seemed to heighten my arousal and sensitivity, hers too.  We couldn't keep our hands off one another.  All thought of a skillful interrogation was discarded, along with our masks.  My mouth, hands, eyes and mind were fully occupied.

At length, she let me come up for air.  Staring deep into my eyes she said 'I'm not waiting for the room.    I want you inside me right now.'

This was my new dream come true.  I could see one hand underwater slip toward her bikini bottom while the other one cupped my ass and started guiding me closer very slowly.  Her eyes continued to study me an inscrutable expression on her face.  Unfortunately, my long dormant dignity chose that moment to rouse itself.  I hate situations that bring out the best in me.

I rolled out of the tub and backed away toward my discarded costume.  She made no move to follow, just continued to watch me.

'I can't do this Caroline.'

'What's the matter Lawrence?  Is it too soon?'

'There's something you don't know. I...I'm not-'

'You're not Lawrence Goldstein.' she finished the sentence for me and began a slow clap.

'That's his last name.  Well done young man.'  Her shoulders shook with mirth and she was now smiling
unreservedly.

'You knew all along?'

'I started to suspect on our way to the hotel.  The street light was much better than the lighting in the bar.  Lawrence was widowed years back, but as far as I know still wears his wedding band.  I wasn't positive though until I saw your foreskin.  Lawrence is Jewish.'

'So don't feel too guilty my friend.  We were both stringing one another along.  I know that our conversation was making you squirm.'

'Why didn't you call me out?'

'I was having too much fun.  The whole dynamic of masks, costumes, fluid identities for one day, its intoxicating to me.  And lets continue to be honest with one another, I was in full control of the situation.  There's nothing you could have done that I didn't want you to and nothing that I wanted to do that you could stop.  I was curious too.  I wanted to test you and see your quality, to my great relief you passed.  Who are you anyway and how old are you?'

I bent one knee and bowed with a flourish of my cape. 

'Diego Zapata at your service.  I'll be twenty-one in December.'

'I could eat you up right now.'  She sighed.  'But Lawrence and I are soul mates.  We connected on muscle role play forums three years ago, and I've been spending considerable time and resources building this body up to match our fantasies.  He's due to arrive in that bar very soon, and he'll be waiting, all alone, wondering if I'm playing some joke on him.'

'You don't need to explain Caroline, I've walked a few miles in those shoes...go get him!' I insisted, trying to muster the right note of authentic sounding cheer for her.

She climbed out of the tub and joined me in getting dressed.  I waited for her to finish with her now bare armed catsuit.  She passed me a business card. 

'If you ever decide to hit the gym yourself, try mine, but only if you're serious.' 

'New Legacy Gym.  1313 Mockingbird Ln.  Owner/Operator Caroline Muschamp' the card read.

She bent down to kiss me on the forehead and ruffled my hair. 

'Farewell my might-have-been!' and she was out the door, almost as soon as I'd found her.'” 

**

“See Steph, you worry too much.  Romeo is still very much available for you to snag.”

There was only silence in response.  Maria turned around to face her friend and saw that there was no relief or glee on Stephanie's face; only sympathy.

“He's not some prize in a contest Maria.  For one hour or so he knew someone unique that made him deliriously excited about life.  I'd love to be able to do that for him, but right now I'd still give her back to him if I could.”

Maria audibly swallowed down not a small amount of shame.

“Well, what happened next Diego?”

**

[NinjaStar]

You're the master of the hook, my friend. Please, go on. What happened next?

[Jeremy Lightning]

So she had the gym on the former address of the Munsters house? I wonder if there are any spirits haunting it? Hehe, other than that though, very nice start. k+!

[JerusalemTulip]

Yeah Jeremy, I wish I could take that one back.  Names, addresses and stuff like that are kind of afterthoughts for me, and I wasn't counting on anyone recognizing that bit.



“I exited the hotel aimlessly.  I didn't have a destination in mind.  Even if my friends were still at that bar, I wasn't ready to run into Caroline again quite yet.  I kept my eyes on my feet as they trod a random path. By the time that I stopped feeling sorry for myself and looked up to try to get my bearings, I was in some unfamiliar warehouse district. It was time to call home and arrange for a ride back, but then I discovered that I no longer had my phone.  I must have forgotten it in the pool room while getting dressed.

Fortunately, there was a bus stop nearby here on this distant stretch of...I guess it was Fourth street near the 'river'.  I sat down on the bench provided, right next to an ancient looking swarthy fellow in a ratty bathrobe and some kind of weird conical hat slumping down onto his bushy eyebrows. According to the schedule, a ride should be available in just a few minutes.

I tried to make some small talk to pass the time.

'You from around here?'

'You trying to get me to drop my robe boy?'

'That obvious huh?'

'You look like you could use the laugh.'

'Its not that bad, I just have an expressive face.'

'Oh.  So you're a panhandler?'

'Its more a product of constant self portraiture.  Nice costume by the way Pops.  Wizard?'

'What costume?'

'Never mind.  Say, do you have any change?  I need it for the bus.'  I pulled out a five dollar bill.

After a moments pause he took it from me, stuck it in his wallet, and gave me a different five dollar bill back.

'That's not change!  That's more of the same!'

'Forgive me young man.  I have no singles to spare.  However, you could come back with me to my shop. I could get you change out of the register.  Its just a few doors down that way.'  He motioned down a dark alley in the distance.

'The bus is due any minute!'

'That schedule is the most outrageous piece of fiction I've encountered in my long life.  Trust me, you have a long wait ahead of you before getting home.'

He started walking down the alley.  Every instinct in me screamed that something was wrong.  The stupid thing to do would be to follow.  I followed.”

**

“I caught up with him about a hundred feet down the alley and to my surprise there actually was what appeared to be a little shop sandwiched between warehouses.  The old man clapped his hands and an opaque glass sphere above the door lit up.  'Omardicar's Mystical Emporium' announced a plaque nailed above a shuttered window. 

He turned around toward me with an expectant look in his eye, and I graciously put my hands to my cheeks and gasped 'how did you do that?'  He grinned and winked 'Magic.  Welcome to my collection of unmatched treasures young man.'

He fished out his keys unlocked the door and ushered me in.  I slipped off my sombrero and wedged it into the doorway, still not sure that a trick wasn't being played on me.   He started busying himself around the register.

'Please have a look around.  I don't get very many customers anymore.  Find anything that you like and I promise you we can work out a fair price.'

I was kind of curious, and since he was doing me a favor, I guess I could afford to buy some trinket.  The shelves were filled with all kinds of oddities. A remarkably real looking severed left human hand blackened and charred with long claw-like fingernails, a magnificent rod of seven fitted segments with the words 'Ruat,' 'Caelum,' 'Fiat,' 'Justitia,' 'Ecce,' 'Lex,' and 'Rex', inscribed on them, a plain but extremely old looking earthenware goblet,  and a golden falcon with jeweled eyes all fought for space on the nearest shelf.  What looked like a preserved skeleton of some human primate hybrid was mounted against the wall next to the door.  But what drew me on like a magnet was a thick green glass bottle shaped like a heart, it was sealed at the top by some sort of dull (lead?) metallic plug attached to a silver chain.  A phosphorescent mist writhed within.  I could almost imagine a voice distantly calling to me from inside.  'Your hearts desire' was written in silver etching on the glass.  I had to have it.  A tag on it said $1000.

“How much do you want for this?”

'Ah, you have an excellent eye my friend.  The most pecious item in the shop.  How many of us ever realize our hearts desire after all?  For you?  I can let it go for $1000.'

'A thousand dollars!  Are you kidding me old man?  Do you think someone like me has even seen a thousand dollars?'

'I offer low interest financing-'

'You indicated that we could bargain.  Forget it.'

'Ah!' he announced striking his brow with his palm.  'I forgot the occasion, today is still Halloween and we are cutting all prices in half.'

He approached me with a big, wickedly pointed pair of shears and I found myself backpedaling toward the entrance.  My hat was gone somehow, the door was closed.  He rushed upon me and I screamed 'Help!' pulling frantically at the unresponsive door.  An instant later the split ends of the price tag fluttered to the floor.

'Like I said friend.  We are cutting prices in half.  You can have it for $10 instead of $1000.' 

He shrank back from my glare.  'Deal' I said raggedly 'Don't forget I need change for the bus” handing him a twenty.  He gave me back a five and five ones.  He clapped and the door opened seemingly on its own behind me.  I felt my sombrero being placed on my head, I whirled around to see only the mounted skeleton against the wall.

'I won't be riding the bus with you after all young man.  I have quite a lot of unfinished work.  Thank you for your business and good luck.'”

**

“Are you sure that he's hypnotized?” asked Stephanie.  “I think he's trying to have a little fun with us.”

“Of course he's hypnotized!” insisted Maria.  She took a lighter and brought the flame within a hairs breadth of his cornea without him flinching.

“So he believes that what he's telling us is true?”

“Yes.  I know it seems crazy, but if he keeps talking we'll certainly find an explanation.”

“Please continue Diego.”

**

“I made it back onto Fourth street just in time to see the faint taillights of a bus disappearing in the gloom ahead. 

'Fuck!'  At this hour, I'd be waiting another forty-five minutes.  Maybe a cab would happen by.  I think I had enough cash left to interest one in taking me to Inglewood.

I took a rueful look at my new bottle whose acquisition had cost me my ride.  To my surprise, the mist inside was no longer an amorphous cloud.  It was a flawless ethereal finger holding my undivided attention, beckoning me to get closer.  A part of me was indignant at the notion of heeding an unknown summons, but the rest of me was curiously thrilled by the crooking of that finger.  My face was practically pressed against the glass, and now I could clearly 'hear' a voice in my mind once more.

It was repeating syllables in an unfamiliar language.  It sounded like 'Saa'adinii!'  The voice seemed frightened and distressed.  A jinni in a bottle?  I hadn't realized that to be my 'hearts desire'.  Nonetheless if it were true then ten bucks sounded like a steal.  I decided to pull the plug on the bottle and find out.  What's the worst that could happen after all?

The voice cried more quickly, insistently, as I grabbed the plug in hand and yanked.  There was stubborn resistance, years of gunk must have settled inside the neck, but it eventually popped off.

A stream of mist billowed out, far more than should have been able to fit inside it.  Over the course of a few seconds it coalesced into a vaguely humanoid shape.  A tendril of mist shot out and poured into my nostrils.  There was a creepy feeling of an alien presence inside me, swimming through my blood, searching out everything that I hid from the world.

The tendril retreated back into its body, and the body quickly acquired a familiar form and features.  In only seconds, Stephanie Pilcher was standing before me, naked as the day she was born.”

**

“I knew it!” bursted Stephanie.  “He wants me too!”  She went on, “But really Diego, naked?” with some scorn but also a deeper note of something mysterious catching in her eyes and the set of her lips.

“Why so surprised?  You were there after all.” insisted Maria laughing.

Stephanie grabbed a pillow off the bed and thew it at her.

“Maybe there were mushroom spores or some kind of narcotic gas inside that bottle, if there even was a bottle.  He doesn't have it anymore.”

**

“She's so pretty.  I've always thought so.  In that moment, I knew also that truth was being revealed about myself and about her.  The crescent moon overhead smiled down at her and the stars twinkled brighter.  She was like a precipitation of all that I've ever dreamed of love.  The bus stop in that moment becoming chastity's sweet bower.  Her creamy skin shimmered in the moonlight.  Her hair flowed golden down snowy shoulders and the graceful swan's curve of her neck.  I felt love stirring at the revelation of her breasts.  They had personality: the left one turning slightly to the left; and the right one likewise to the right.  They weren't large, but they suited her, riding high on her chest and round.  Her paps like budded roses.  Her heart-shaped face was bookmarked by the blushing apples of her high cheeks, and her full, moist lips were curved in a mysterious smile. 

We gazed at one another for I don't know how long.  I was lost in her big sapphire eyes.  They seemed to hold the entire world, or at least the spinning blue planet I was standing on.  I finally broke the silence.

'Is that really you Stephanie?'

She wouldn't answer.  I was beginning to feel helpless under the layers of meaning in that smile.

'It gets better.' she said at length and winked.

Seconds passed and nothing seemed to happen.

Then she gasped and threw her head back, her arms were now spreadeagled, her palms raised up in supplication.  I felt a stiff breeze emerge from nowhere and blow my hat off. A second later wind was sweeping onto the street from all directions and began to swirl around us. To my amazement, Stephanie began to lift, to levitate into the air, until her feet were well over my head.  She began to slowly revolve like a dreidel. 

I was startled off my feet by the deafening clap of thunder, and from the clear night sky, bolts of lightning began to lance into her.  There were spots scoring my vision.  The sharp, sweet smell of ozone seared my nose, but curiously no searing or scorching was marring Stephanie's flawless skin.  Instead, her body was convulsing in ecstasy. 

'Yes!' she exulted.  'Finally!'  'Spirits of the elements restore my power!'

There were now fantastically colored ethereal filaments streaking through the air wrapping in tight blurring orbit around her.  I was unable to focus on them, any time I tried, they slid off to one side like inconsequential thoughts, never pausing long enough to be fully apprehended.  Her convulsions intensified, and she began moaning in rapture.  The moans grew louder, her revolutions grew more rapid, the lightning and thunder grew to become continuous and I realized that Stephanie was growing along with them.

The slender milky columns of her legs were expanding and lengthening.  Her feet were spreading apart,  the burgeoning mass of thick shapely quadriceps and full bellied spades of calf muscle pushing everything wider.  Her hamstrings swelling and folding into the fleshy equivalent of overstuffed Gladstone bags.  The flat, formless plane of her butt was lifting and rounding into glamorous globes of gluteous glory. 

Her soft, slightly protuberant girlish belly was withdrawing into her abdominal cavity and hardening into eight distinct plates of steel.  Her lovely breasts now swung from sharply slatted shelves of pectoral muscle.  Her narrow shoulders were stretching outward, no longer slumping, the bony balls disappearing under newly hatched deltoids.  Sturdy traps were now climbing above her collar, forming the base of the classic trapezoidal profile of power, topped by a muscular neck whose swan curves had straightened into strength.  Her back was now a wonder to behold.  Like everywhere else, all traces of her skeletal frame were receding under a sheath of expanding muscle and sinew.  The deep valley of her spinal column was the centerfold where tips of muscle triangles came to intersect.  Last, but not least, my eyes latched onto her arms.  By now, her biceps were football sized spindles of corded muscle.  The droop of her limp underarm had hardened and explosively mushroomed into thick cut triceps.  She was so jacked that her arms too were being forced away from her torso.

There was a final flurry of thunder, lightning, and howling wind. It culminated in a blinding flash and a massive wave of sonic energy, that knocked me down once again and left my ears ringing.  Stephanie's hulking form then dropped to the ground, landing with concussive force, that bounced me where I sprawled on the street.  The already cracked sidewalk (LA remember) crumbled into rubble where she knelt.  Her flanks were heaving with the effort of containing what I imagined to be unbounded power in a human frame.

Slowly she stood up, surveying her new world with the mien of an eagle.  She was like an Olympian representation of Eve before the Fall, with no concern about her nakedness.  Her eyes lighted on me and that singular smile returned.   She began to approach me, I was held motionless by the seductive sway of her walk and the force of her gaze.  She gestured and I felt blasting jets of wind pick me up and stand me on my feet.  We were only a couple feet apart, she was conspicuously taller than me now, well over six feet, her spectacular musculature made Caroline look like a waif.  Her thighs were thicker than her waist, her arms easily thicker than my thighs, her shoulders seemed twice as wide as mine.

'Who?  What are you?' I asked desperately.  'Have you done something to Stephanie?'

She stood considering me, one exquisite finger idly twirling around her strong jaw. 

'I am the answer to your innermost wishes.  The face and form I now wear is the first flowering of your heart's desire.  The image you will hold in your mind every time you spill your seed.  A promise of things to come.' 

Well...how's a fella supposed to respond to that? 

'I have done nothing to your Stephanie.  But in accordance to your wishes, possibilities have been unlocked for her.  If it helps to understand, then you can think of me as Stephanie.  One possible Stephanie.  The rest remain in the bottle.'

'How can that be?'  I picked up the bottle and examined it once more.  There was still mist writhing, and I imagined that I could hear a clamor of voices from inside. 

'The bottle represents an inter-dimensional pocket.  There is room for many, but only one can leave the bottle at one time.'

'The Stephanie I know is in there?  I saw her only hours ago.' 

'No, Stephanie remains Stephanie.  She is your heart's desire, but earlier tonight you realized that you want her to be something more.'

I automatically began to protest but then stopped.  The jinni, if that's what she was, wearing Stephanie's face was right.  I knew I had feelings for Stephanie before, but the image before me now was like female perfection in a manner that I had scarcely considered.

'So who else is in the bottle?'

'Other possibilities of Stephanie.  I am the least among them.  The shortest, weakest and plainest.  It is why I had to recharge once you released me.'

'Fascinating' I replied stroking my chin in contemplation.

'Oh but never you mind about those other Stephanie's.' she cooed with a dismissive flick of her hand.

She put that hand on my thigh and started rubbing in gentle circles.

'How shall we spend the time?' she whispered warmly into my ear.

She was driving me crazy.  Down below, a new rapier was forming to replace the one I'd lost.  Yet once started on this track I couldn't help stretching my grasp further.

'Tell me more about these other Stephanies.'

'Oh you wouldn't like them.  Wouldn't you rather have someone smaller and daintier like me?  Besides, only one of us can come out at a time, and I'm not ready to go back in.  If you want their company, you need to hang out with them in their fabulously appointed palace within the bottle.'

'Tell me more about this palace.'

'Oh hundreds of servants, fountains of champagne, lost masterworks of art decorating the walls etc.  You've seen one, you've seen them all you know.'

'I can enter the bottle?'

'Sure!  You can enter and exit at any time by mentally picturing yourself as a cloud and flowing in or out of the bottle's mouth.'  She gently placed one of my hands on her breast, and started tracing lines of my face with her tongue.

'But please don't!  Stay with me instead.  The others are busy entertaining your old classmate Maurice anyway.'

'What!  That asshole is in there!  Are all of you naked?'

She nodded.

'Oh Diego! Do you think he is behaving as less than a gentleman?  We only love you...I think.  But our essence has been waiting in there very lonely for a long time before we changed into Stephanies…'

'I've got to get in there and stop him!  Don't worry babe, I'll be back.'

I looked at the bottle and was able to visualize myself as a cloud with surprising ease.  I flowed in through the mouth and took a look around.

There wasn't any palace, or Maurice or any Stephanie in sight.  It was only the tight space inside a glass bottle.  That jinni was full of shit!  I intended to go give her a peace of my mind but then PLOP! the stopper had been replaced over head.  I was locked inside the bottle.

Disbelieving laughter reverberated all around me.  A voice in my head spoke:

'You have my thanks human.  By taking my place in the bottle, you have now truly released me to bring peace back to this world.  I hope you don't bear me too much enmity for that trick.  If it is any consolation, as a mere mortal you are not bound.  That cruel silver chain it is gone you see.  The next time the bottle opens you'll recover your form and can go on with your life. Who knows? Your loved ones might even still be alive.  By the way, I didn't lie about everything.'

'Let me out you bitch!' I shouted out or tried to in my currently amorphous composition.

'Whats that?  A shame that lady dogs can't open bottles.'

Through the green glass I could see the being outside shimmer for a moment and its visage change.   She retained the same height as Super Stephanie, but was slender, with white hair and gray eyes set in a severe, angular face.  She looked human except for the unreadable expression or lack thereof in her face.  In the next instant, her nakedness disappeared under a jacket and leggings of some sort of hide.  Sealskin perhaps?  She soared back into the air and was quickly gone from sight.

I looked for a gap at the top to escape through.  Next I tried going through the glass walls.  I tried willing myself back into my body.  Nothing worked.

**

“Moron!”, “Pig!”, “Men!”, “Jealous jealous thing!”, “You must have been adopted!”, “You, you unintermittently stupid person!”

From their sputtered reactions it seemed that what Maria and Stephanie really thought about Diego must have escaped their vocabulary.  As it wound down, Maria noted Stephanie running a critical eye and hand over various parts of her own anatomy and muttering to herself;  “formless” “slumping” “limp” was about all she caught until “how did he know about my breasts?”

“Wait Stephanie, this can't be real remember...verdict still stands though.”

“Definitely!”

“Well, how did you manage to make it home Diego?”

**

“Some time passed, I'm not sure how long, there was no way for me to tell.

'It was over here.'

'You sure?'

'Yeah, right where the sidewalk looks busted.'

A trio of very drunk looking men arrived at the bust stop, arrayed in some of the sorriest Halloween costumes I'd ever seen.  One was Adam West as Batman with the angry eyebrows on the mask, another was I guess supposed to be Tom Cruise from Risky Business, but with legs three times hairier, and the really fat one had body painted his chest and belly to be the Kool Aid guy.

'I'm telling you Bill, there was this blonde chick, really beautiful and jacked like Schwarzenegger but still feminine and butt naked.'

'You think?  You've drank a whole case on your own tonight, anything would look good to you right now.  It was probably some dude who couldn't afford a shirt or a haircut.'

'No way.  It was a woman, she was laughing, like crazy and then talking to herself.  I didn't see anyone else.  And then she turned into another woman and then flew away like Super girl.'

'Have you been holding out on us Gary?  You said you didn't have any dope.'

'What is the point of bringing us here if she's gone?  We're looking for pussy.  I've spent way more than I can afford buying drinks for girls tonight and no play.'

'Dude, we're lucky that some bars are even letting us in.  You in your underwear and all.'

'What's that on the ground?'

'Its a green bottle.'

“Maybe its a Heineken!'

'It looks wrong and its got a cork.'

Batman picked me up and shook me.

'It feels empty, there's something inside looks like fizz or head.'

'There's no label, but there's some kind of lettering on it….Your Heart's Desire.'

'Cool.  Want to make a wish guys.'

'Sure, why not?'

'Yeah, got nothing better to do.'

Batman pulled the plug and I was back in my body on the street.

“Thank you gentlemen for letting me out.  You have no how scared I was.  I figured some bum was going to cash that bottle in at a recycling center and I'd get my ass cooked.'

“Who the hell are you?”

'What kind of sick joke is this?”

'I definitely wished for a girl not some little spic undertaker.'

'Watch your mouth you cheeseburger locker!'

'What did you call me kid?' said Kool Aid pushing me toward the others.  One of them shoved me in the back and I staggered back into his big belly, knocking the wind out of me.  All three were bigger than me, and spoiling for a fight, but they were nearly too drunk to walk.  If I could just slip out of the perimeter, I'd be alright.  I could feel hands pawing at my arms from behind, and stamped down with a satisfying crunch on a foot.  Curses rang out and the hands dropped away.  “Kool Aid swung a haymaker that would have pulverized me had it landed, but I barely needed to step aside to dodge.  This was too easy.  He was overbalanced, and I sent an uppercut crashing into his pubic clump of beard. 

Not good.  It seemed to make no impression on him.  Even worse, like a noob I had my thumb tucked into the fist and it hurt like Hell.  In the instant that I paused wondering 'now what' I heard glass shattering and white hot pain blossomed from the back of my head.  I slumped to the ground, my arms wrapping around my head.  They closed in on me, and kicks started raining down from all sides.  At least no one will get stuck in that bottle any longer.  Not all my luck was bad.  I passed out and didn't feel most of the blows land. 

They didn't do anything worse than thoroughly kick me.  I guess they just left me there after they'd had enough, at some point they might not have even remembered why they were beating me up.  No one else happened by I expect, because I wasn't robbed.  I woke up in time to crawl onto the last bus.  When I got back to our stop, Oscar spotted me and gave me a lift.”

**

“What do you think Stephanie?  He shouldn't be able to lie to us in this state, but I find it difficult to suspend my disbelief here.”

“Steph?”

Her friend emerged from the bathroom with clean towels, bags of frozen peas and Tylenol.

“I was asking you about-”

“It doesn't matter to me anymore.  Help me get his clothes off.”

“Oh...yeah I was just about to uh.  Diego hold still while we undress you.”

They sucked their breath in while surveying the damage.

“Its not too bad actually.” said Stephanie after some careful probing.  “Most of it landed on his forearms, shoulders and upper back, the left side of his ribs are tender but not broken.  I was most worried about his head, but no glass stuck in his scalp.”

They wrapped the cold packs around affected areas, picked loose glass out of his hair and laid him on his stomach in bed.

“Diego swallow these tablets, you are feeling sleepy once again, in one minute you will fall asleep.  When you awake, you will not remember anything that happened between now and when you arrived home.”

“You know Steph, I could compel him right now to show up to your house with flowers and Taylor Swift tickets if you want, why waste time?”

“Don't you dare!  I think I'll enjoy this particular game.”
“Fine.  But if you two become an item, make sure to carry some mace around.  I don't think he represents much protection.  Those goons would have been helpless if he'd run around pelting them with rocks or something.  He has no imagination”

“Oh?  I think he has a vivid imagination...or have you changed your mind about his story?”

“Ha! Good point.  It'd be just like him to release some ancient evil back into the world and blame you for it.”

“I was actually thinking about a different part of his story.  Well, I'll see you later I guess.  Make sure he rests.”

“Thanks for helping me out with him.  There weren't many trick-or-treaters last night.  We've got a bunch of scrambled eggs and natty light left, help yourself.”

“I'll pass.  Later.”

“Later.”

Stephanie's stomach was actually rumbling, but she had more nutritious plans for assuaging it from now on.  She felt more alive than she ever had before.  Knowing that Diego reciprocated her feelings certainly helped to curl up her toes, but it was more than that.  She actually did feel an infinite horizon of possibility stretching out before her.  What was the name of that gym that Cat Woman operated.  New Legacy?  That part wasn't hallucinated; he had showed them the card.  What would it be like to be strong, muscular, have Diego drooling over her sculpted physique instead?  Scare off drunk assholes with one flex of her biceps?  Oh dear, her panties were unaccountably damp.  She needed to hurry to make it to work on time, but she stashed these delicious thoughts away.  She'd continue to extract the juice from them later.

**

[Jaguar]

Excellent story!  I hadn't noticed it before and only looked it up because we were messaging. 

Like a script from the golden age of TV: Roald Dahl, Twilight Zone, or Hitchcock's TV series.  Not many stories like that any more.


Extremely well written, I love it!   

[JerusalemTulip]

@ Jaguar  thanks for the kind words and bringing this story back to my attention.  Maybe I'll dust off something else I had started writing about Molly and try to make it presentable.  The story isn't quite in the same vein, takes its time a bit more, but I guess some people might still enjoy reading it.