Megan shut the door behind her and turned the deadbolt. She didn't want any more interruptions until she, Nicki, and Katie/Keith/Carter had a chance to get a few things sorted out. Nicki and Keith were at the far end of the hall, whispering again. When they heard the click of the lock they both turned and briefly regarded Megan before retreating further into the living room. Disliking their secretive manner Megan stormed down the hall after them. Nicki was sitting in her favorite chair once more, a relic from the old days when she had been Megan's boyfriend instead of her teenaged niece. Keith sat as close to her as he could at the end of the nearby couch where Megan had been watching TV before her morning went sideways. Megan strode directly up to Keith, deliberately crowding his physical space, glaring down at him while he sat there.
"I was sitting there. You get down there," Megan pointed to the end of the couch furthest away from Nicki, "You don't come near her until you start explaining a few things."
"I want to, Megan, I do," Keith smiled, made a placating gesture.
"I said get over there so you get over there now!" Megan's voice snapped like a cracking whip. Keith scooted down the sofa so fast he almost fell off of it. "And you can call me, Ms. Dunnbar. My friends call me Megan. You aren't one of them Katie, Keith, whoever you are!"
"Megan, please! I understand you're trying to protect me, but I'm not a child!" Nicki's voice was tight with supressed emotion. Her eyes were huge, imploring, desperate, "I can handle this! Don't ruin it for me!"
"Be quiet, Nicki," Megan said firmly, but evenly, "I love you more than you'll ever know, but you have made me feel guilty for six years now! Yes, it was my fault the medallion got lost - - that you were a girl and had to grow up all over again.
"But I didn't make you stay that way! I didn't keep you like this for the last three years!" Megan pointed accusingly at the young man on the end of the couch, but no one was in a state to appreciate the bizarre irony of her next words, "She did!"
"I had a reson for that, Meg- - Ms. Dunnbar!" Keith's eyes were as desperate and imploring as Nicki's, "You have to believe me! I would never deliberately hurt her!"
"Look at her, Keith!" Megan gestured toward Nicki with a wave that took the teenage girl in from head to toe, "Does she look happy? Does she look like she's been enjoying this?"
For a long moment Keith regarded the young woman who had once been his/her best friend. Nicki had grown a lot in the three years since Keith had stolen the face and identity of Nicolas Andrew Masters, leaving the original trapped in the life of a sixteen year old girl. Nick had gotten one night back as his old self, his true self, and then Keith, Katie back then, had returned him to the rapidly maturing prison of Nicki's female body. And what a body it was. She was most definitely a woman now. Only a little taller than Megan, Nicki shared a "family" resemblence, face, build, complexion, but she was more lithe, traces of well toned muscle moving beneath the soft sheath of her skin. Also her butt was kind of big like Megan's, but Nicki's was round and firm. Her boobs looked bigger too and Keith wondered why that should be. Logically, Nicki should be growing up to look just like Megan. Maybe it was the difference in their lifestyles that had caused some key change. Keith knew that was what Megan had been referring to when she asked if Nicki looked happy.
Her hair was wild, nothing at all like Megan's, dyed a blue so dark it was almost black, broken by one long narrow lock of bright red. Her eyes were angry and suspicious and scared. Keith wondered if she looked like that all the time. Almost like a wild animal trapped in a cage. Her face was pale, the eyes shadowed, but Keith couldn't tell if that were from troubled sleep or last night's makeup. Nor was he sure if the jagged DANZIG logo surmounted by a horned skull was supposed to distract from or attract attention to her chest. It was somewhat larger than the last time Keith had seen her. Nicki wasn't wearing a bra and Keith could easily see the outline of her nipples. He could tell Nicki's breasts were proud and firm, seeming to almost float on air, and briefly fantasized about touching them before he chastized himself. The tattered cut-off jeans were white trash chic and the striped tights looked like something from a Tim Burton movie, though the strips did do interesting things stretched as they were over two very shapely legs. Again, Keith chastised himself. It was hard to keep his thoughts and his raging hormones seperate. He wondered what Nicki's hormones were doing to her formerly male mind.
"No," he said at last, "She doesn't look happy. I can't blame her if she hates me, if you hate me, but I do know how she feels."
Megan snorted in disgust, "You know how she feels? Sure."
"I do! Didn't you read my letter?" Keith said, a trace of anger in his voice, "It happened to me too, you know! And it was for a lot longer. Nick, I'm sorry you've had to spend the last three years like this, but before I took the medallion from you I spent the last eleven years as Katie. I didn't just go through puberty, I practically had to grow up all over again. I almost went insane!"
"Yes, I read your letter. I had to," Megan spat back, "Nicki was too busy crying to read it!"
"God, shut up, Megan!" Nicki said, suddenly embarassed, "I don't want him to know that!"
"I didn't have long to write it," Keith said apologetically, "If I said too much you;d try to follow me, get the medallion back, and I needed it. But I wanted you to know I knew how you felt and that I would be back to make it right!"
"Did your friend betray you?!" Nicki suddenly shrieked, her face becoming bitter with anger, "Did someone you trusted use the medallion on you? Do you know what that feels like?!"
Keith dropped his face into his hands. None of this was going like he had hoped. Maybe the truth was the only thing that could help him now, "As a matter of face, Nicki, yeah, I know what that feels like too."
"My name, before it was Katie, used to be Carter, Carter Halloway. I was an art dealer. I bought and sold oddities to rich people who wanted stuff to show off at their parties."
"Excuse me, I need a drink," Megan stood and quietly left the room, but stayed within earshot. She did need a drink, but she left the room for another reason. Finding her purse hanging on the banister of the stairs leading to the second floor, she rooted around and dug out a small handheld tape recorder which she used when taking depositions for her job. Making sure there was plenty of tape she tucked the recorder in the back of her jeans, fetched a soda from the fridge, and hurried back to the living room. She would fix herself an extra big, extra strong drink later, as a reward for herself. It didn't sound like she had missed too much so far.
" - - mostly "found art" from old buildings or neo-primitive stuff, you know, shit made out of bones or feathers and rocks and stuff. I knew a few famous people, mostly jet-set types, some people in bands, a few actors. No one who is still a big name now. Anyway, I did pretty well for myself, had galleries in New York, LA, Miami, a few others. On a trip to Brazil, one of my buyers found the medallion. It looks old and it was kind of kitchy with the little angel or whatever it is carved into it. They mailed it back to my home office, addressed to me. Maybe they didn;t know about it's powers, maybe they did. I never heard from them again.
"I was headed out of town and took the package with me. I knew someone here in town, a woman, and stopped to see her on my way to Nashville. Later that night, at her place, I decided to open it up and see what was in it the little box. Needless to say it was a pretty eventful night. The next morning, when it was time to turn back, she ambushed me. Instead of us going back to normal, she stayed in my body. Me, I started getting younger. When it was all over I was a four year old girl. That was fourteen years ago. I never did find out whose daughter I was turned into or how old the original was when it happened. She dropped me off with the police, said she found me abandoned at a bustop. I was placed in a foster home and my life as Katie began."
"Oh my God," Nicki breathed in horror, "That's twisted. Why did she do it?"
"I don't know. For the money, I guess. I wasn't super-rich, but I was very, very comfortable and moved with influential people," Keith shrugged, "We went to college together. We were fuck buddies, but I bailed on her when she wanted things to get serious. She had a miscarriage before I even knew she was pregnant. She never would tell me if it were mine or not. I was kind of a bastard, back in the day, but I definitely didn't deserve what she did to me."
"Is that why you left?" Nicki silently kicked herself, knowing she should be furious with Keith even now and that she had let her curiosity get the best of her, "To get your old life back?"
"Well, yes and no," Keith considered his next words before continuing, "I'd be in my fifties by now if I got back my original body, but I was male again. Big. Strong. You kept youself in pretty good shape. I was going to beat the fake me to within an inch of her life and then fix it with the medallion - - and a few other things as well."
