Rachel looked around curiously as they sat eating dinner. David was an only child, which didn't really surprise her, but it kind of meant that there was nobody to draw the focus from her. It didn't bother her terribly, though; both of her friend's parents were having a hard time diverting their attention from the naked devil-girl dining with them, but they seemed neither leering nor indignant. And as long as that was the case, she was happily bemused by the reaction.
She noticed, though, that the two unchanged adults were glancing furtively at their daughter in between looking at her. She smirked, wondering what it was they were thinking. Of course she was sure they were still concerned for David; she'd only been this way for about a week, after all. But still...she figured there were probably some amusing questions raised by the boy-turned-girl's hanging out with her.
"So, um, Rachel, was it?" the angel-girl's mother asked. The devil-girl smiled and nodded. "If you don't mind my asking...do you always, um, go around like that?"
The devil-girl couldn't quite suppress a snicker, and David's mom looked a bit embarassed for asking. "No, it's all right," she said, trying not to laugh, and trying to hold back her urge to be...playful about it. "Yeah, when I can. School's still being stubborn about it, but I figure they'll give sooner or later." After all, they already let Sarah go around naked just because she was a harpy - they couldn't keep up the double standard for long!
"Oh. Hmm," her hostess said. So far so good, she didn't look offended or truly uncomfortable with this. Rachel had seen this mix of confusion and polite withholding of comment multiple times by now, but it still amused her. People were so funny when confronted with things they didn't quite understand...
Robert stared into the old silver mirror, stared at the woman's face that stared back at her. The red hair, the slightly glossy red skin, the horns...and those eyes. Those fully human eyes, looking back at her...
Was that her...her real self, the human man locked away in this body? But they weren't her old eyes, the piercing gray ones that seemed just a little too large for the sockets; they were a soft, deep blue, large but perfectly in proportion to her altered face. And if it were a symbol of her will to escape this, why would the devil-girl, who brazenly embraced her change, have them? What did it mean? Did it mean anything?
She needed guidance, she couldn't figure this out herself. But the Lord was saving the answers to her questions for His own good time...and in the meantime, then what? What was she supposed to do?
Live as she knew was right, Father Maxwell had said...but how far was she supposed to take that? Did he really mean for her to...to live as a woman until she changed back? ...if she changed back? But how could she do that, when God had let her be born as a man? He didn't make a mistake in so doing. But if He had let her be changed into this, then...augh! None of this made any sense!
But if God had let her become this, if the senior pastor was right that she ought to live the life now set before her...where would that end? Should she...should...all kinds of images, thoughts of possible futures, flashed through her head. What if she did accept her circumstances as God's will? What if...when the time came for her to return to her rightful form, what if she was in too deep? If she couldn't readjust...no! She couldn't let that happen...
...but then, what?
