Interactive: Something Wicked, finale (Patreon)

Luke only half-heard Andy’s frantic question.  He didn’t know what they were turning in to either, and his attention had been grabbed by the sound of a deep, electric throb.  They’d heard it off and on as they’d been making their way through the waking nightmare, but it had been growing steadily louder.  He could almost feel it vibrating the ground underneath him.  He didn’t know why, but some instinct told him it was important.  He’d heard it groan to life for the first time when they’d flipped the switch after first arriving.  If it was a power source, maybe they could find it and turn it off.  

Andy was still clutching at his new clothes.  He tugged on the mesh shirt straining around his massive new pecs and was half-mortified, half-turned on at the sight of his solid legs squeezed into the stockings.  His impossible package bulged out proudly, a stark contrast to the high heels on his feet.  “I don’t...I don’t even know who I am anymore…” he stammered.  The competing identities in his head were tearing him apart.  

“Quiet, babe!”  Luke blushed when he heard himself.  Andy may have had a helium squeak, but he was apparently adopting the vocabulary of a sixteen year old girl.  He knew all too well what his friend was going through, he was experiencing it too, but the thought of a possible escape was keeping him grounded.  “Do you hear that?”  

Andy cocked his head and listened.  The electric hum faded in and out like a heartbeat.  “What is that?”  

“I think it’s a generator of some kind…” Luke looked around the room before darting over to a gap between two of the booths.  “Over here!  Listen!”  

Andy sauntered over, his stomach dropping at how natural the heels felt.  He reached out a hand and could feel the wall in front of them vibrating in time with the sound.  Looking closely, they could see the outline of an access panel underneath the chipped, stained paint on the wall.  

“Is that...it is!” he grunted, his impressive arms flexing as he pulled the panel open.  They’d have to crawl, but it was big enough for them to fit inside.  “I am, like, sooo over going from room to room.  I say we try in here,” he said, balling his fists on his curvy hips.  

Andy was far less confident.  “But...what if that’s what it wants?”  He bent down and looked into the small chamber, not much larger than an air duct.  It was lined with all manner of wires and piping that vibrated with the humming sound..  He couldn’t see the other end before it faded into darkness.  

Luke shrugged.  “What other choice do we have?  Keep going through here and keep changing forever?”  

“What if the exit’s right around the next corner?”  

Luke turned and wrapped his meaty arms around Andy’s tight waist, burying his head against his friend’s burly chest.  “Honey, the exit isn’t around the corner.  You know that as well as I do.”  He was trying to force his old self to the surface to sound more confident.  “This place isn’t going to let us go unless we make it.”  

Andy melted in Luke’s grip.  His friend’s tight little body against him was only making it harder to focus.  “Okay...okay…” he said as he bent forward and gave Luke a peck on the top of his head.  More than anything, he didn’t want to be separated from the other man.  “It’s not like we have much to lose.”  

The buff little redhead reluctantly pulled away.  “I’ll go first…” He said, crawling inside.  

“Don’t mind this view at all,” Andy laughed, his face inches from Luke’s large, round bubble.  He leaned forward and bit one of the plump globes, eliciting a loud giggle.  

“Hey!  We, like, neeeeeed to focus,” Luke said, slipping back into his new persona.  “Save it for when we’re out of here.”  

“I admire your optimism,” Andy sighed.  “What if...what if we can’t change back?  What if we’re stuck like this when we get out?”  He was having a hard time crawling with his exaggerated proportions.  His heavy chest was throwing his balance off, and the hefty weight between his legs constantly threatened to fall out of the jock.  

Luke was silent.  He’d been wondering the same thing.  The part of him that was a burly, blonde straight man was horrified at the thought of spending the rest of his life as a very gay, ginger little gym bunny.  But at the same time, not being with Andy seemed just as terrible.  “Honey, I have no idea.  I guess we’ll figure that out.  As long as we...hey...wait…” Luke abruptly stopped crawling, causing Andy to face plant into the ass he’d been fixated on.  There was a growing light at the other end of the dark corridor, and the loud humming sounded like it was right on top of them.  “I think I see the end.”  

They crawled forward cautiously, discovering a large, vaulted chamber.  Like the tunnel they’d crawled through, the circular room was covered in wires and piping, all of which led to a gigantic, pointed crystal formation in the middle.  The clear stone was massive, stretching at least fifteen feet in the air with a circumference that wasn’t much smaller.  It pulsed and changed colors in a steady rainbow rhythm, the wires buzzing and humming with each throb.  

“What...the….fuck…” Andy said as he clambered gracefully to his heel-clad feet.  His whole body seemed to vibrate and tingle as they stood in front of the crystal.  

“Well, well!  I don’t get too many visitors in this room.”  

They spun at the unexpected voice and saw a thin man standing on a raised platform on the other side of the room.  He had on tattered overalls, a plaid shirt, and dirty black boots.  The angle of the platform and the ever-changing light kept them from getting a good look at his face as it was kept constantly in shadow.  

Seeing another person, let alone one who might be responsible for what happened to them, brought Andy’s anger rushing to the surface.  “What did you do to us?!”  He squeaked.  “Change us back!”  

“Whoa, easy there,” the man said, raising his hands in front of himself placatingly.  “I didn’t do any of this.  I’m just the caretaker.  This...place...does what it wants.”  

“What do you mean it does what it wants?”  Luke’s sassy hand motion diminished the threatening demeanor he was trying to convey.  “Who are you?  How is any of this,” he motioned to himself, “possible?”  

The man sighed and pointed to the crystal.  “Look at it.  Just give it a sec’...tell me what you see.”  

They stared, seeing only lights at first, but eventually the rainbow colors faded in and out as other shapes and people blurred into view.  They saw a group of guys who looked to be about their age stumbling along just as they had.  It was clear they’d all been affected. One of the men was lumbering along in what looked like a diaper while another pair seemed like they were made of plastic.  

“What would you say if I told you those fellas were in here right now, too?” the man asked.  

Andy tried to make out their faces.  “Are those our friends?  Did they come in after us?”   

This time the man laughed.  “No, they were here before you.”  

Andy didn’t understand.  “How?  There was no one outside.  Is there another way in?”  

“You could say that,” the man said cryptically.  “Better question might be to ask where you really are right now.”  

“What...what do you mean?”  Luke instinctively reached for Andy’s hand.  

“That crystal is old.  Real old.  Been around longer than people have been on this planet.  You think that’s a rock in front of you?  It’s alive.  Or maybe something inside of it is.  All I know is that it exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time.  I don’t know why it looks like a funhouse right now.  It hasn’t always.  Sometimes it’s a house.  Sometimes it’s just a cave.  It’s even been a city once.  In any case, when things line up juuuust right, you can come inside.  That’s when the fun starts.”  The man took a deep breath and let it out slowly, his thin shoulders drooping.  “I’m no expert on these things, but from what I’ve seen, the world, hell, the universe even, is like that crystal down there.  Faceted.  Different planes and angles and all that.  Usually they’re kept separate, but in here, those versions come together.  Bits and pieces from all over stitched together on top of who you used to be.  It’s why you look the way you do now.  It’s why they do, too,” he said, nodding at the group of men again.  “You think they’re in the same town?  They’re not even in the same dimension, fella.”  

“But...how...that can’t be real.  None of this can be real…” Luke said, swaying on his feet at what he’d just heard.  “Another dimension?  How do we undo this?”  

The man shook his head.  “There is no undoing.  You enter as one thing, you leave as another.  Whatever it is you used to be is good and gone by now.  Sure, you remember it, so does everyone else, but from here on out this is the new you.”  As soon as the man stopped speaking, the buzzing grew louder and the steady pulse of the lights came faster.  The other men faded from view as the room started shaking around them.  

“Uh oh.  Sounds like we’re movin’ on.  It never does like it when people show up in here.  Unless you boys want to come with, I’d start crawling back the way you came.”  

Andy and Luke exchanged a nervous glance.  “But...wait!  What do we do?  You can’t leave us like this!” Andy begged.  

The man shook his head and shrugged.  “Not up to me.  Or you.”

“No!  Wait!”  Andy wasn’t ready to accept the future he saw unfolding before him as a squeaky, hung, kinky stud.  

Luke, on the other hand, just wanted to run.  “Come on!  We have to go!  Now!”  The room around them was literally fading from view.  

“No!  But...damnit!”  Andy didn’t have a choice.  He dropped to his knees and desperately crawled behind Luke.  The tunnel around them was vibrating and shaking like they were in an earthquake.  The hair that remained on his altered body stood on end as waves of what felt like static electricity washed over them.  He made the mistake of looking back.  Instead of the dark tunnel behind him, he saw a sea of stars.  An infinite void filled with dots of light and swirling galaxies was creeping closer and closer.  “Go!  Hurry!” he cried, feeling an icy chill creeping up his leg.  He started to feel like he was floating.  His body was numb and he felt the vastness of open space spread out around him.  

Then Luke’s hands were tugging on his arms and they were out.  They landed in a heap on top of each other in what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse.  

“What...what was that…” Luke panted.  He looked around at the large, decaying space and saw sunlight filtering in through the crumbling roof.  “Where are we?”  

Andy lifted himself up and scanned the surroundings, finally seeing his car through an opening in one of the far walls.  “Oh...oh shit...we’re out.  We’re out!”  His joy faded when he heard his squeaky voice and saw Luke’s crimson hair.  They were still in their altered bodies with their new personas swimming just below the surface like the man had said.  

Luke’s head still spun from the implications of what they’d just experienced.  Everything he thought he knew about the way the world worked had just been upended.  “So, like, what do we do now?”  He didn’t even try and fight the new version of himself.  Already it was exhausting trying to be two people, and he knew his old self couldn’t hold out forever.  It was only a matter of time.  

“I have no idea…” 

Andy was cut off by the sound of tires crunching on gravel as a car pulled up next to his.  They watched three young men get out and look around before being spotted by the trio.  He and Luke reluctantly untangled from each other and climbed to their feet as the three men approached and looked them up and down warily before asking the question on everyone's mind. 

“Who the fuck are you two?”