Masenia: Chapter 2 The Changes (Patreon)

Chapter 2

The Changes

The question was innocuous enough, one that any concerned sister would ask, yet looking at her hair, Maria could not herself determine what was causing the sudden change in her hair. Her hair, much like her sister’s, had been a deep silky-smooth shade of midnight that many swore, appeared to radiate with a purple glow under certain lights.

Now however, her hair was changing, as if by magic.

In fact, the only reason why Maria had noticed the change at all, was the way her scalp felt like it was mildly tingling, then there was a pulse as she could almost feel her hair changing to an ash white color. Looking at the hair, it still felt the same as it had always, but now rather than looking at a shade of midnight black, she saw how the strands next to her right eye appeared to be ghost white. Worse, it was spreading, just as the tingling sensation on her scalp was moving, expanding on her mind, so too was the hair that seemed to be physically affected by the sensation.

For a moment, the two just stared at each other. Then Anita did what anyone would do in such a situation, she tried to solve this problem effectively.

“MOM! Dad took Maria’s phone and now she is going into shock!”

Stomp, stomp, stomp.

The sound of tiny feet thundering up the steps could be heard. These were the steps made by someone of small frame and stature, but still had a massive presence that was hard to explain to anyone who never met the small statured woman. An instinctual part of Maria’s brain registered the increased power as a form of soul power, referring to the fact that the woman was likely geared towards mental and mind attacks. The thought went through her mind and was then discarded so rapidly that Maria almost wondered if she was going crazy. This instinctual portion of her mind was also the same one that told her not to worry about the hair, as it was a natural sign, and actually a perfectly normal reaction, but the only problem was, she didn’t know what this was a reaction to exactly.

Wham.

The door slammed open, as Maria all but felt the slight spiritual presence of their mother as she made her presence known. The look on her face and posture of her body spoke of someone who was about to lay down the law. All of that lasted for a moment, just long enough for Maria’s mother to lock gazes with Maria and see what all the hollering was about.

“Oh, my little girl, my niña.” Mother said, charging forward and all but grabbing Maria tight for an embrace by the small woman. Then after a second, she pushed back, to see Maria. Rather than retreat or stop its progression at the sudden appearance of a parental figure, the tingling sensation on Maria’s head only intensified, as if super charged by the aura being exerted by the diminutive woman. By the time she pushed herself back the entire transformation had been nearly completed. By now even Maria’s eyebrows and eyes all began to tingle slightly.

Once every portion of her head tingled, it just stayed like that for a second, then seemed to fall dormant for a moment. Again, Maria couldn’t explain why, but she didn’t think anything was wrong with the sudden tingling sensation on her head. Though given the reaction that her mother was having right now, as she held her hand to her lips and forcefully tried to suck down a sob, Maria figured telling anyone else that the sensation was now traveling down her spine and heading directly towards her heart would be a bad idea. Again, she couldn’t quite explain why, but part of her told her that this was to be expected.

“My baby, what happened? He said you didn’t care, that you stared defiantly at him, all but demanding he do more. Had I known, had he known he would have given it back. In fact, you are no longer grounded from your phone.”

“My phone?” Maria snorted, thinking it mildly hilarious that anyone would dare to link the two events. Though given the set of circumstances Maria could see how others would make the conclusion that the losing of her phone was what had caused this set of reactions. Honestly, Maria still didn’t care about the phone. Yes, she remembered it being part of how she identified herself not twenty-four hours ago, but so much had happened since then, hadn’t it? “I don’t need my phone. In fact, I don’t think a phone will be that useful after today.”

***

An hour later, the twins were on their way to school. As part of Juan’s new responsibilities, it was his job to drive the twins to school, the idea being that since he was already up and awake, he should go job hunting, applying for jobs in person, and trying to give a good appearance. Realistically, this was just their parents’ way of ensuring all the kids were out of the house at the same time, giving them a moment to think to themselves.

This morning the tensions in the car were tense. While the twins were both old enough to drive and both had their licenses, they were unable to get a car due to insurance costs, which would only be fixed when they went to college, or when they got a full-time job to pay for their personal expenses, like car insurance. At first, both twins had been annoyed that Juan had taken their car, then further annoyed at the fact that their chances of getting an after school job were all but impossible, especially with her parents now focusing on correcting their mistake, the mistake being the way they raised Juan to both work full time, while going to college, something that he apparently failed spectacularly on both accounts. This alone would have been enough to normally cause problems with Anita, but given that something had clearly startled Maria so badly in her dream that it caused her hair to drastically change color, now not only had her personality seemingly changed overnight, but her entire appearance had seemingly transformed to match said changes.

In all, it was very concerning for Anita. Currently Anita had three main concerns that were plaguing her. First, what had she dreamed about that caused her to change so drastically? Currently Maria either didn’t know, or refused to give a definition for what had happened to her. The second major concern was whether the changes noted were permanent or not? If they were permanent, then, well on the bright side they would no longer get confused for one another. While Anita had been making changes recently to note distinctions, in particular hitting the gym and putting on muscles, her sister had seemingly surpassed her overnight. The changes were subtle at first, but over time Anita noticed how the muscles on Maria’s body slowly began to first expand, then constrict, forming layer after layer of densely woven muscles. The changes were subtle, and hard to notice, unless you started looking at certain spots, first and foremost was her neck, that seemed to have grown by at least an inch since this morning, though that could also be a way her neck is more visible through the shock white hair. But the biggest tell of all was how big her chest was seeming to get. Not that Anita was jealous, far from it, the fact of looking old for a bigger chest was a deal she did not want to accept. This of course brought her to her third and final concern, namely since this happened to her sister, could, or rather would it also happen to her? Gods she hoped not, except for the larger chest, well and the muscles, and the fact that she went toe to toe with father and won, that was pretty cool. In fact, thinking on it, she would likely take everything, except the old lady hair, though to be honest, despite the coloring, it didn’t make Maria look old at all, rather it made her look more mature, like she was at the peak of health, not that she was a teenager going through an odd growth spurt, or an elderly lady being driven by her grandchildren to school.

Also, despite being given her phone back, Anita noted it was conspicuously absent from her hands. Normally, while being driven to school she would be texting her boyfriend or on of her fellow band members, by contrast, seeing her staring defiantly out the window made Anita wonder about her in a way that a twin should never have to worry about their counterpart. While Anita herself didn’t have her phone in hand, her rationale for not having her phone was simple, she was watching her sister to see if she showed any other reactions. She had been ordered to watch her sister by her parents, her mother especially, that if she should change or something else should happen to her, she should immediately get Juan to take her to the hospital.

Still, again Maria was healthy, more than healthy actually, as she appeared to be the picture of health.

***

Maria stared out the window, it was a mostly quiet ride to school, only the sound of the alternator belt missing every eighth revolution was any sign that something foreboding might happen shortly. Other than the sound everyone was quiet. Juan who was not a morning person just drove, not even seeming to notice the hair and eyebrows, that or if he had noticed, he kept blessedly silent. Even her sister was oddly quiet, only a faint reflection in the top portion of the windshield allowed Maria to spy on Anita, just as much as she was spying on her from the backseat.

The fact that she had been able to go to school at all was a blessing. Her mother had been adamant that she go to the doctors first thing, while Maria had been able to appeal to her father’s frugal nature and convince them all that the best course of action would be for her to go to school and have the school call for medical assistance should any be needed. Of course, Maria knew that she wouldn’t need medical assistance, besides the mild tingling sensation, she never felt healthier. She couldn’t explain it, but for whatever reason, that dream had made her feel like she was queen of the world.

“Mom said she would get black hair dye today, while she was out.” Anita finally said from the backseat.

Maria just nodded, she didn’t want to say that such a purchase would be unnecessary, as she didn’t think the tingling sensation of her body would end until something else happened, though what that other thing was she didn’t know. All she did know was that it would happen soon, she could all but feel it.

A silence filled the car again, while Maria felt more than comfortable being quite, it seemed that Anita was not the same way as she all but squirmed in her seat as she seemed desperate to get Maria to interact with her.

“What are you going to tell Mark?”

“Who?” Maria asked, the name sounded familiar, though only in the vague abstract way a detail of a dream would sound familiar, if someone else had been able to speak about something that you finally remembered from your dream.

“Mark Price, you know, your boyfriend? The one you have been dating since middle school?” Anita said, as a note of challenge filled her, that was only false bravado as this was clearly affecting her more than she was trying to let on. How had Maria forgotten about her boyfriend? Though, the length of time would indicate why exactly the name sounded so familiar to her. Unfortunately, despite the name sounding familiar, didn’t mean it meant anything to her.

“About what?” Maria asked, suddenly trying to understand where her sister was coming from.

“About your hair, about your attitude, what the hell happened to you? And don’t tell me it was all just a dream, you were fine for an hour at least after you woke up, you took a shower an everything.” Anita paused, then a slight look of confusion filled her face, “that’s it, you used some type of slow acting hair dye? Wash it in, then it takes effect sometime later?”

Maria wanted to immediately laugh at the crazy theory but given her sister’s scope of knowledge of recent events, this might be a fully plausible explanation. She could of course go with this as being the answer, but a quick check of the bathroom trash bin and other searches would prove that this was in fact not the case as a dye like that would have had to come from something, but maybe she could use that as an excuse. A sudden allergic reaction to her shampoo? That isn’t a bad idea and one that seems plausible, though thinking about it, Maria ultimately decided she didn’t care enough to come up with an excuse, other than the truth. She went to bed, had a bad dream, and when she awoke, her body was ready to make its first biological evolution.

Badump.

The words just came to her mind, as mysteriously as the words themselves sounded, yet hearing them, Maria couldn’t help but feel that there was truth to them. This wasn’t the odd logic of dreams, nor was it the strange logic that seemed to suddenly pop into her mind from time to time, instead it felt like something that she somehow instinctively knew.

“That was it, what was it, just for men?” Anita asked, her mind still stuck on the conversation from so long ago, though given how little distance their speeding vehicle had traveled, Maria guessed that it had really only been a few seconds, yet her mind was able to take and process information so quickly that the mere act of slowing down her mind to try to keep up with Anita was mindlessly numbing.

Still, this was a solid logical conclusion that Anita came up with, and given the totality of circumstances, Maria couldn’t help but feel impressed.

Flash.

Her mind pulsed, as a glowing symbol seemed to burn its way brightly into her mind. Pausing for only a moment, Maria blinked, only to be able to still see the symbol burning brightly behind her eye lids, it was as if the sun itself had become this strange symbol, and was not incessantly burning its way into her mind, no not just her mind, but into her very being. The symbol was of a burning circle, with an arrow at the top, and a few random markings within the circle. Looking at the symbol, she paused, her mouth coming open in slack-jawed amazement as she tried to place the symbol or what it meant, but it eluded her. Yet, she couldn’t help but feel the way the strange symbol called to her. Feeling its pull and presence, Maria paused for a moment, but then feeling the inspiration, she reached into her backpack and pulled out a piece of paper and pen and began drawing the symbol from her mind to the parchment. The symbol was crude, bumpy as little etchings in the cover of the book she used as an easel for her drawing made caused her pen to veer off at random areas. Then opening her eyes, she saw the image, honestly it was remarkably well drawn given the circumstances, but Maria knew it could be better. For the first part, some of the inner markings overlapped where they should only touch. The other glaring concern was that it was not a perfect circle, but rather a close facsimile to one. The third and most important problem was the coloring, there needed to be a color associated with it, while black would work as a universal baseline, if she wanted to gain the full benefits of this symbol it would need to take on a color, or aspect.

At that revelation, Maria paused, as once again a foreign word filled her mind, but she had no context for it, no clear reason as to why she would even think of the word. Nor was there a clear link in her mind of how she associated the word aspect with colorings. Again, there was a lot she was missing here and not just everything was from context.

“What is that?” Anita asked from the backseat, once again her entire focus today, well for this entire car ride was on watching her and seeing how she reacted to things.

Looking at the image, Maria didn’t know. Well, that is not entirely true, she did know, it was like that one song that you hear one time and immediately get the lyrics wrong, then you try to tell your friend about the amazing song, only for them to have no clue what you are talking about. Actually, this is a terrible analogy, but somehow it seemed to make sense in Maria’s mind. In this case, the symbol, the one that she couldn’t name, was the song lyric. Just like good song lyrics, if they are more than just words to a fancy beat, the lyrics will provide meaning and context to one’s life. In this case, this symbol too can provide meaning and context, even without truly knowing the name of the symbol.

“I don’t know, but I think I want to get it tattooed on my back.” Maria said, then reaching her hand back, she felt the exact spot where she wanted the symbol to go. Well not this symbol, but one that she had a chance to improve upon, to get just right. Even now she could still see the image burning its way into her very core, but it was slightly hazier now, as it was clear that her first attempt had been close enough that should she want, this version would be enough. Unfortunately, Maria knew that the difference between close and perfect would be two drastically different things, somehow.

“A tattoo?” Anita asked incredulously.

“What, didn’t you want to get those stupid wings on your back.” Maria said.

“Stupid wings? You said you liked them too!” Anita said, a bit defeatedly.

The truth was, Maria did like the wings, so much that she even got them in memory of her sister. Of course, this only caused her no end of problems in the future as her best and most important slot had already been taken up by what was effectively a junk symbol, though she did remember learning to fly slightly earlier than others, which she attributed to the broken tattoo. Wait? Where did that thought come from? That wasn’t her thought, not truly, but she remembered it all the same as if it had been something she had to deal with for years. Still, maybe this was the time to set things right.

“I did, but that was before. I think I want to get this one now.” She said, holding up the strange image that all but seemed to glow with an innate magical property as she looked at it, as if the symbol itself was somehow drawing in ambient energy of the world and pulling it into itself.

Blinking, Maria tried to dismiss the strange glow from the paper, but then after a moment, she was unable to stop seeing the colors there. Colors that should not be there at all. With a pause, she looked at it, then found herself asking her sister, “what color do you see when you look at this?”

Anita just looked annoyed for a moment, but then shaking her head answered truthfully, “black, like the pen you used. Duh.”

At that, Maria just nodded, as she saw blues, purples, greens, and even some golden colors fill the symbol. As she looked on, she realized two things, first she was definitely going to get this tattoo, and secondly, she was going to have to choose a color, or aspect, sooner rather than later. Still her mind tingled, as she felt strangely calm, as if by identifying this odd symbol she had finally found a piece of herself that had always eluded her.