Kyle was entirely frozen, staring at a creature that certainly wasn’t her sister. The more she moved, the more the traces of how glassy and transparent she had looked faded. Her brain fought against what she’d seen, and already the memory of it seemed hazy. Someone changed into a horse—that was terrible, but it also wasn’t unexpected. Fay had already shown she had that power.
She shook her head once, and when she looked again, she couldn’t see through Kara anymore. Her hair had a strange sheen to it, and there was a glint to her eyes that she couldn’t quite place.
Kyle glanced back down at Fay, making sure she was still sleeping. It was probably the medication—but then she had fallen asleep soon after changing Kyle. Once she’d eaten, anyway.
Kyle hesitated in the hallway a moment, giving the mysterious doctor a chance to scurry away with his equipment. This should’ve been you. Or maybe your partner, since Mars was the one who wanted to start without me. Absolute morons, you already knew she could do this! And now Kara was the one who paid the price, instead of the ones who deserved it.
Kyle strode quickly into the bedroom prepared for her, settling Fay near the center of the bed. It wasn’t the safest—she could still roll too far to one side or the other and fall. But a naked mattress on the floor didn’t give her much height, particularly with how big she was to begin with. It would have to do.
She shut the door quietly behind her, finally turning back towards Kara. The horse-creature didn’t look anything like her, not from the yellow of her coat to the pastel blues of her mane. Oh my god now she’s going to be naked all the time too.
Kara looked up, her eyes the same hazel she remembered, only much larger. Tears streamed down her face, though she was obviously fighting them. “Bro?” she asked, watching her as she approached. Kara was still shorter than she was, now that she’d been changed. Almost like their original heights had somehow been restored.
Was I transparent like that when I first changed? But my hair doesn’t look like hers. Kyle stopped just beside her, reaching out and settling one foreleg on her shoulder. It didn’t feel the same as touching her own body. Kara was smooth and cool to the touch, but not quite like skin. She fought her instinct to shiver, just meeting her eyes. “Yeah, Kara?”
“I need you to tell me I’m dreaming,” she said. Kara shook out her head, prodding at herself with one hoof. “I need you to help me wake up from this. I dozed off, or that creepy doctor lady jabbed me instead of the baby. I need you to tell me that.”
Kyle was silent for a few seconds. She didn’t pull her leg away, and soon enough she found Kara leaning up against her chest. Those were her pajamas torn to ribbons on the floor. She should’ve been petrified with embarrassment, but somehow just… couldn’t feel it.
“I would if I could,” she began. “When it first happened to me, I… I didn’t believe it either. Still doesn’t seem fair, or real, or…”
“Why?” Kara whispered, her voice barely even loud enough for Kyle to overhear. “What did I do?”
You could’ve tried to get me once they started poking at Fay. But that wasn’t what her sister needed right now. It still wasn’t her fault; she’d just been the one to take the bullet. “Nothing. It shouldn’t have been you.”
“Yeah.” Kara closed her eyes, whimpering quietly. “It shouldn’t have been you either, though. What were you supposed to do, just leave it to die? That’s not what happens in the movies. Aren’t things supposed to get better for the ones who do the right thing?”
What does that even mean? Kyle nodded stupidly anyway, doing her best to reassure her. It had been years since she’d been the one to reassure Kara, instead of the other way around. High school had turned their lives upside-down.
“It’s real,” Kara said, her voice still heavy with disbelief. “Even though it… can’t be. People don’t turn into animals.”
Except that doctor seems to think they do. And there’s the person I’m emailing, who even has a name for it. “No, they don’t.”
Kara was silent for a long time. Kyle could try to reassure her, but it still rang hollow. There was no arguing with what patently had happened. Kara wiped the moisture away from her face, before finally rising to unsteady hooves.
Kyle had been through this process before, so she didn’t need to watch closely. She could still remember that disorientation, fighting the instinct to stand up properly every moment. But when Kara tried, all she could do was wobble on her hooves before flopping back down with a click of hooves on wood.
It’s not the same sound as mine make. You’re something different. Why? “What happened, Kara? I thought you were going to wait until my exam was done.”
“That was the plan,” she said, spinning a slow circle to try and look at her tail. Once she found a mirror, she wasn’t going to like what she found.
Though it probably won’t be as hard for you. It can’t be that different than what you’re used to.
“But then Mars showed up, and started making demands. Your baby was not happy with her in the room, and she started freaking out so much I couldn’t really control her. That’s when Mars decided she needed drugs.”
At least some of Kara’s original energy was still there. “I’m not sure if she was aiming for Mars, or maybe it was the same as last time.”
“She might’ve felt threatened,” Kyle agreed. “So, she reached for the first person she trusted, and changed you. But it doesn’t seem the same as what she did to me. That’s… strange. I wonder why.”
“We’re not the same?” Kara asked, settling back onto her haunches. There was a hint of embarrassment on her face as she did so, tail tucking between her legs. So, she’d recovered enough to realize she was naked. “I sure feel like a fucking horse, bro.”
And if I had my phone handy, I’d take a selfie. “You’re a horse, but… there are some differences.” She poked her side, then touched her forehead. Kyle was even more careful than she would’ve been with a human. What if I break her by accident? Can people shatter? “No horn, no wings. You’re something else. Something hard. And you’ve got a mark, I don’t.”
Kara glanced over her shoulder, staring at it. It might be made of something like stone, but it was apparently just as flexible as Kyle’s. “Is that a stork?”
Kyle nodded. “Looks like one to me. I… have no idea what it means, don’t ask. I don’t know what any of this means. I’m just glad Fay didn’t kill you.
“Oh, there’s still time for that.” She rose, puffing out her chest. “How the hell am I supposed to hide this at school, Kyle? Varsity soccer plays tonight at six, what are they supposed to do without a point guard? We’ve got a meet for swim on Saturday, and aca-deca has a qualifier a week from now…”
You don’t have to rub it in. I get it, you had a life. “I want to change back as much as you, Kara. I’ve been doing my own research. I put up with that gremlin of a doctor even though I knew it was a waste of time.”
Yet even as she said it, the words felt untrue. She hadn’t expected any family doctor working for her grandfather to know anything. But both of them had acted entirely calm around them, and responded to the supernatural with scientific curiosity instead of terror.
But I can’t ask what the hell’s going on, because now they’re hiding from us. How is this worse than last time? You already knew Fay could change people.
“How close are you to that?” Kara rose, prodding her on the shoulder. “Go on, Kyle. Let’s see this miracle. Only you get to test it on me first, because if you do yourself and I’m stuck, I get to trample you to death. Horse rules.”
We don’t really look like horses. “Yeah. I’ll work on it. Laptop is out back, I’ll grab it. I don’t know what Mom and Dad can do now, though. Maybe they really should call in the national guard and quarantine this whole place. Like… what if it gets worse? We don’t know how powerful Fay is. What if she’s a little push needed to eradicate all humanity out of a false vacuum of biostability. Maybe she’s going to end the human race, and we could’ve stopped it.”
“Sure.” Kara glared at her, with the same expression she always used when Kyle had said something dumb. “But if we’re going to greater good ourselves, why not just use gasoline? It’s not like the army will do differently. They’ll just feel a little bad about it first.”
She was probably right, but some part of Kyle couldn’t help but think they were being selfish. Ultimately she dismissed the thought—not because of fear for herself, but Fay asleep in the other room. That baby wasn’t evil, and it wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t expose her to something like that, to get attacked and destroyed for something that wasn’t her fault.
It wasn’t even her fault she changed Kara. Mars should’ve been the one to get blasted. Then they could take as many samples as they wanted without making me hate being alive.
“I’ll be right back,” Kyle promised. “Same thing as before, run if Fay wakes up. But I’m just grabbing some stuff from outside.”
Kara nodded, standing again. “Cool cool, I could… use the privacy for a sec. And if I hear her, my signal will be that I’m running away in terror. I’m not going to let the little monster finish the job.”
Guess the brainwashing didn’t work on you.
Kyle walked past her, opening the door and settling it shut behind her moments later.
Her parents were both feet away, watching from a window inside the house. Mom had somehow got her hands on a surgical mask, which she wore like it would make a difference. Dad didn’t bother, holding Mom with more strength than Kyle had for Kara.
In his eyes was all the disappointment and despair Kyle had thought to expect. Do you think it’s my fault? I should’ve just left the baby to die? But the man didn’t turn away, or start yelling. Instead he reached forward, opening the kitchen window a crack. Enough to talk.
“We have to stay away from you,” he said. “Tell your sister that we want to be there for her. Unless you… are Kara. Are you?”
“No,” Theresa answered. “She wasn’t as big. Looked different.”
“Right. Well, tell her then. My father’s people… they’ll try to help. But now both of you are missing. It’s going to… make this harder to deal with. Harder to hide.” He braced one hand on the wall, steadying himself. Somehow, he managed to sound calm through all of it, and didn’t look away in disgust. “We’ll leave food on the doorstep for you. Please don’t leave any more than you have to. If the baby infects anyone else, this could be impossible to control.”
As though it isn’t already. “I will,” Kyle promised. “But you don’t have to stay that far away. Fay doesn’t just attack things at random. She only did that because they were giving her a medical exam without me there. She freaked out. She won’t do that if I’m there.”
Maybe her dad could hear the uncertainty in her voice. “We can’t let this spread,” Dad said again. “Doctor Imset seemed sure he had an angle.”
“How?” Mom asked, not even looking at Kyle anymore. “What’s the goddamn angle, Alan? My children are farm animals, and we might be next.”
Kyle backed away, towards the stable. She barely had enough strength left for herself—if she started trying to help Mom too, she’d probably just melt into a pile and die.
But Alan only made an unhelpful expression, the same the unnamed doctor had made. Or… Imset, maybe that was it? He did seem old enough. “There’s nothing else we can do, Theresa. The time to run from this ended as soon as Kyle brought it in the house.”
Kyle felt the weight of those words all the way to the stable. She didn’t try to argue—Dad was right.
This isn’t Kara’s fault, it’s mine.