"Turn that off!" yelled Mary.
"If you want to," said the shopkeeper, "but it's not going to bring him back."
"Then whatever you have to do to bring him back, bring him back!"
She lunged at the shopkeeper... who disappeared. A voice came over the loudspeaker, which sounded like it had a different tone to it. As if someone other than the shopkeeper was speaking. "I think you misunderstand exactly who has the upper hand here."
Brandon looked around the apartment for a mirror. There was nothing until he found the bathroom... and he nearly ran into a penguin waddling its way out. Just where was he?
The image in the bathroom mirror kept changing. He was turning into someone else. A woman. A cartoon woman, in fact. There were no blemishes on her skin; it was a solid shade, and a darker shade when in shadow. Her red jacket and short dark pants were also a single shade of color--the clothes had no texture to them. They seemed to be too large, but they were getting more comfortable as the minutes passed, for some reason. Brandon realized she had to go find out what Shinji's real problem was...
But that was silly. He wasn't a "she" and he didn't know anyone named Shinji. But somehow he was turning into this woman, both in body and mind....
By the time Brandon left the bathroom, the clothes were only a little bit too big and the room had gotten noticeably smaller--or he was growing noticeably taller. She realized she was responsible for Shinji... or, the woman he was becoming realized that. She instinctively called out for Shinji and realized her voice was strange. It wasn't really any higher pitched since Brandon was a young boy anyway, but it was different. It was someone else's voice.
