NOTE: Hello! Thank you for reading this note, I know you want to get to the story. Just wanted to give a quick, but massive thanks to Amaranth, Baltimore Rogers, Covert Hypnotist, and G-Man001. They aren’t responsible for this mockery of storytelling before you, but they did help enable me. Their kind words, advice, and criticisms kept me going when I would’ve quit. These guys rock. I owe them a ton. They all write too, so go check out their stuff. Now. They’re in the archive and much better at writing than me.
While you’re doing that, in case you’ve been doing something more important than keeping track of awesome authors in the MC community, go check out the works of Limerick. He is a delight. And a massive influence on this story. While you’re reading top tier authors like that, also check out the works of Cristina Prince. Again, a delight and massive influence. Both in the archive as well. I hope they can forgive my poor imitation.
Have you gone to read all that stuff now? Okay, do one more story. Mine. This story is a spin-off of Second Changes. It’s supposed to be completely optional for the enjoyment of this story, but since the two share a continuity and some characters, some details may make more sense. While I’m talking about it, thank you to everyone who has sent and given feedback. It makes a mopey person like me very happy and proud.
Rumination
By Charles Wallace
Prologue
NATALIE GORMAN, OUTSIDE A FRIEND’S APARTMENT
It was a beautiful Saturday in Haustin, TX. Bright and sunshiny. It was the kind of day that made one want to get outside and play. The few places Natalie had been today were brimming with people. Even in the lingering exhaustion of a much-too-early rise, Natalie felt like laughing as she pulled her car into parking space outside Annie’s apartment. She did. It felt good.
Natalie undid the top button of her shirt, sighed, and let her head fall back against the headrest. She turned the key and the engine died. Everything got quiet. She smiled, sighed, then relaxed for a moment.
Her parents were going to kill her. This was job interview two that she’d flaked on. Well, at least she was still in school. Soon, she really would be a hairdresser, rather than a student that moonlighted as one in between real jobs.
Natalie perked back up, smiled at herself in the rearview mirror, and opened the car door. What mattered right now was that she had a poor, sick friend in need of a doctor. Then, maybe some tender love and care with a healthy dose of My Neighbor Totoro. Poor Annie hadn’t sounded okay on the phone. Now she wasn’t answering texts. Neither was her sister, Janie.
Natalie made sure she had everything in her bag, then packed it over her shoulder to head up to her friend’s apartment. If she hadn’t seen the broken beer bottle pieces, she might have even kicked her annoying, clicking heels off. Definitely not her thing. Her mom had insisted she wear them today. To look nice.
On the bright side, the rest of her ensemble did kinda look like a schoolgirl outfit, if one squinted and imagined the skirt was riding a little higher. It was cute. The shirt was cute. Her bronze pixie-cut was cute. She did look cute. This look just wasn’t her.
The stairs were their own challenge, but Natalie made it up those too. She missed her beloved, well-worn sneakers. At the top she sighed again, and knocked at the door. Someone moved inside. Annie was apparently still home. Janie hadn’t come to get her. Natalie had made the right call.
The sound of movement stopped, and Natalie put on her best smile to greet her friend. Nothing happened. The door stayed closed. Natalie hesitated, raised her fist again, and considered whether to knock again. This was always awkward. Before she could decide, the lock clicked, and she lowered her hand. She fixed her smile, and waited for the door to open.
Annie looked like someone had rearranged her. Her starkly nude body was an elegant geometry of feminine curves, marred only by a crusty white residue covering her torso. Her breasts were enormous, tipped with matching elongated nipples. Her rusty hair was limp and matted. Her eyes were large, blank, needy, and dark. The smell of sweat and dairy was overpowering.
Natalie immediately knew something was terribly wrong, but she didn’t know how to react. What had happened to plump, workaday Annie to turn her into...this?! Whatever this was.
Annie had more strength than Natalie realized. he smaller girl tumbled forwards then backwards into the rank apartment, colliding with a wall in the entryway. The door slammed shut. Natalie’s tardy scream was cut short by the hot, sweaty, turgid flesh of Annie’s breast in her mouth. Sweet, creamy fluid rolled over Natalie’s tongue. She looked up into Annie’s inhuman eyes in absolute terror. What was happening?!
An explosion of absolute bliss in the middle of Natalie’s brain ended all questioning. Somewhere a cow mooed.