Seri flinched back on instinct when Preston slammed his wine glass down on the table, shattering it to pieces. Wine spread across the white tablecloth as he yelled, “Did I ask what you preferred, Seri?! I didn’t, did I? I told you to change. And when I tell you to change, you change! Woman, man, I decide what you are, not you. Look!” The man let out a growl, shaking out his hand. “Look what you made me do?!”
He didn’t move to clean up the mess. From experience, that would likely piss Preston off more. Yet…he pushed still. He had to. His identity—it was the one thing he had left. The one thing he had to cling on to as hard as he could. The one thing that he knew if he let Preston take it from him, he’d really be a corpse living.
Licking his dry lips, he softly pleaded, “Preston…please…”
Seri jumped out of his chair as fast as he could when Preston surged to his feet…but it wasn’t fast enough. Yelping, he found himself yanked forward by his hair. Seri closed his eyes tightly, waiting for the hit to come, even as he was forced to arch his neck painfully. But then nothing happened…there was just hot, angry breath against his face.
“Why must you test me?” Preston ground out, voice low and dangerous. “Change before I do something we both regret.”
Slowly, he opened his eyes. Preston’s face was inches from him, his expression was more an animalistic snarl than anything. Tears pricked at Seri’s eyes, but not from fear or sadness, they were from anger and frustration.
He wanted to scream ‘no’. To tell him to fuck off and die. To yell as many obscenities and threats as he could think of… And if it were still just him…he would have. But it wasn’t.And the fact that he couldn’t was devastating. The fact that he had no choice was soul crushing.
It killed something inside him, but he reached for his other unwanted half and initiated the change. A simple action that only took a thought and the will to do it.
As his body reformed, breasts taking shape, genitals shrinking and reshaping, his prison switched from being Preston’s house to being his very own skin. Making him feel more trapped than the walls around him ever could.
“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Preston said with a sneer. Releasing Seri’s hair, the man sat back down. “Sit, eat!” he barked, when Seri continued to just stand there.
With a hand that was too thin, too delicate to ever be his, he fixed his long hair. Hair that he hated touching and looking at just as much as he hated this foreign body he was constantly forced to change into.
Not daring to look at the man, Seri slowly sat back down. Obediently, he picked up his fork and knife, and began to eat again while his mind focused on one thing—leaving.
Seri had to leave here. If he were to hold on to any self-worth he had left, any dignity, any sanity, he had to escape—soon. Seri had to escape before he was too far along, before he gave birth… Before…Preston crushed what was left of him.
Seri gasped,his eyes snapping open, he stared at the unfamiliar bright room.
Free of the dream…or rather, the memory, he swiped at the tears on his face. Swallowing hard, Seri did his best to banish the images in his head.
A bitter laugh slipped out. Escape and freedom… He had escaped…but by the Goddess, he was not any freer than before…
Sitting up on the bed, Seri glanced at the room. Wallpaper with yellow flowers, wood furniture—it was homey, in an old-fashioned sort of way.
He slipped off the bed, gasping when his pants fell to the floor. He quickly pulled them back up. Severo had changed him back as they waited for the Passbooks to be ready, but Seri had left the outfit and fake beard on when he’d laid down for a nap with Skya. The judgmental look his little girl had given him…
Moving to the crib, he wiped away the last remnants of tears, before reaching down to lightly trailed his fingers through Skya’s curls. The little girl was still fast asleep. Only three-months-old, and already she had grown so much. Her hair had changed from a tuft to a full head of curls. She was heavier now, taller too. Skya was…as healthy as could be. Which was all a parent could want and hope for. While he’d done some check-ups himself, he’d managed to get her all her shots by bribing a few doctors in the various walk-in clinics he passed.
Seri looked at her features, tracing each one with his eyes. She had his nose, his lips, his eyes…his hair… Yet…
He took a deep breath and pushed back the tears that tried to form.
No matter how much she looked like him…the fact was…Severo was right. She likely would develop into her Dweller powers… And he needed to fucking get over his hang-ups. Because she deserved to be loved, without him fearing the things she could do. Skya didn’t deserve to suffer because of his baggage. And just because she would be a Dweller too, didn’t mean anything. Preston…wasn’t the same as all Shadow Dwellers…right? Severo was different from him, wasn’t he? He was… Really, Severo was…
Ah—fuck!Seri apparently still needed to convince himself that was the truth, and that Severo wasn’t going to one day turn around and be all the horrible things that Preston was.
He glanced towards the door when Severo, still looking like a woman, walked in.When the man turned him back into that man…they were going to be an interesting couple, no matter what,he thought.
“ID Passbooks are ready to be used. We are Mr. and Mrs. Doe.”
“I had to put a finger tab on my thumb for it to work last time.”
“Yep, we got those too. Can’t have your thumbprint bringing up your real photo. We have an extra set of Passbooks, and thumb stickies as well. Just some random people I can turn us into. I hid them in the baby bag, in a way that they wouldn't be picked up by the scanner. Also, I think I’ve got the female voice a bit better now.” Severo cleared his throat, and when he spoke next, his voice was higher and feminine. “How do I sound?”
It wasn’t…horrible. “I mean, you sound more believable at least.”
Though, he may get looks for a very different reason now. The voice Severo was using was very husky… Kind of…phone sex husky…
He turned back and looked down at Skya as he asked, “So…what are you going to do?”
