If I were a stronger man I would never admit it. I would never bow and let you win. If I were a stronger man, I would have persevered. But in the end, I’m not sure even God could stand in your way. Know this, Arbiter. When the time comes and when you are faced with the truth, you will see. You are wrong. So. Very. Wrong.

-John Doe, The Philosopher

An alley, puddle ridden and smelling strongly of the garbage bin that was its only occupant, was the sight that greeted Val’s eyes in the moments before her world ended. She had barely escaped the rambling drunk soliloquy of Dr. Berry Cotton, apparent mid-life crisis-er, horrible conversation maker, and probably the worst flirter she had ever met when it happened. It started as a buzzing in her ear. At first, blending in with the constant ringing that most who frequent loud bars and clubs are accustomed to, the sound slowly crescendoed toward the warning sizzle and crackle that those who work with high voltage are intimately familiar with. It began only in her ears before spreading slowly to the rest of her as a tickle that grew into an itch before blossoming into a screaming burning pain that coursed through every inch of her body. She started screaming but she couldn’t hear it over the buzzing. Her eyes, her ears, her nose. They were all bleeding, but she could not feel it over the burn. Had she the strength she would have run in the vain hope it would help her. If she had the capacity for conscious thought she would have been begging for unconsciousness or even death. But even that was robbed from her by the pain. No, all Val did, all she was capable of doing, was falling into the puddle filled alley to land face first in the dirty water, all the while screaming and writhing as her body betrayed her. The pain lasted for thirteen seconds. Thirteen seconds that felt like an eternity. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the pain was gone and Val’s consciousness went with it.

Val woke up feeling wrong. The pain was gone but her body felt off. Like wearing hand-me-downs that didn’t fit you. Except instead of it being the clothes that felt clunky and big, it was her entire body. She barely pushed herself up to a sitting position before she threw up all over herself. Her head ached, her skin felt sore and she knew she was burning up from a fever. Fuck going back to work. Val was going home. If she could make it. 

It took what felt like ages before she could stand up without falling over. It was even harder to start the arduous process of walking home. But slowly, step by step, she made the journey. What was normally a thirty minute walk took her an hour and a half and by the time she arrived she was barely conscious. Her arrival home greeted her with the shocked face of the only other occupant in her small two bedroom apartment. That of her little brother and ward, Cade. He immediately rushed to help her all the while asking a thousand and one questions that she barely registered. Val ignored him completely except for sparing a few mumbles that she wasn’t sure even formed words as she stumbled for her destination. Finally, after navigating two doors and certainly not tripping over the coffee table, she arrived. She succinctly face planted onto the covers, consciousness leaving her before her face even made contact with the blankets.

…

Everything after her return home was fuzzy to Val. She had brief periods of lucidity where her brother fed her chicken noodle soup or she would see him sitting by her bed with the scrunched up look he gets when he’s worried. During one such period, Cade took her hand and leaned over her, paused, unsure of what he was about to ask before saying, “Val, what happened? Please, I need to know.”

Val replied as best she could. “Bzzzzz.”

…

When Val finally woke up it was to the drone of news. Apparently Cade had pulled their bulky old tv into her room to watch while taking care of her. The news anchor was talking about some sort of university explosion. Cade was nowhere to be seen. It was only now as she was coming back to her senses that Val had the sense to wonder what the hell had happened to her. Did she have some sort of stroke? She sniffed. No burnt toast smell. She opened her mouth, “Sally sells seashells by the seashore.” The words sounded normal to her and as far as she could tell there was no slurring. Just as she was about to get up to test her motor functions. Cade ran into the room. Probably summoned by the sound of her voice. “Val!” He practically shouted upon seeing her sitting up in her bed. Val was always surprised by how tall Cade was these days. He looked a lot like dad, with windswept curls and a crooked smile, but he had mom’s big nose and hazel eyes. Currently those eyes were ringed with circles and it was obvious he had not been sleeping well.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Hey Bud,” Val replied with a smile. She immediately opened her arms and raised an eyebrow. “You look like you need a biiiig hug.” It was a game they had been playing since he was little. She would go on about how he needed a hug and he would run away claiming to be too old for them. Every once in a while she would guilt him into one, but these days they were few and far between. So it was to her complete shock that she almost fell over as Cade rushed over and hugged her tight. It was only as she heard sniffles that she began to worry.

“Cade… its okay. I was just a little sick. It’s okay buddy. Everything’s fine.” She said softly, gently patting him on the back.

“You.” Cade took a shuddering breath. “You scared me. Bad.” He pulled back out of their hug enough to glare at Val. “And you’re wrong.”

“About what?” Val asked, puzzled.

“About everything being alright.” Cade half chuckled. “The only way you could think everything was alright was if you spent the last week half-comatose. Oh right. That’s exactly what you did.”

Val almost ribbed back, but instead decided to press for more. “What do you mean?” She asked. “What happened?”

Cade pulled away completely before replying, “A lot. But first I think we need to start over. One second.” With that he ran out of the room before Val could say anything more. Val found herself sitting in puzzled silence for several seconds before he came bustling back in, but this time he was carrying the full length mirror that was usually hanging on the bathroom door. He closed the door to the bedroom and propped the mirror against it. “Okay,” he said “Just get up and look in the mirror.”

Val wanted to ask more questions but she knew the best thing to do when her brother was being weird was usually just to go along with it and ask questions later. So she slowly slid out of bed and stood up, expecting her legs to be weak. To her surprise, they weren’t. But the bed sure did seem a lot lower to the ground than she remembered. She was wearing batman pajamas which she’d changed into at some point during her fugue state. The pajama pants only came halfway down her shins and the shirt barely worked as a crop top. “What the hell…” She looked at the mirror, looked behind her, then back at the mirror before finally letting her jaw hit the floor. Standing, looking back at her in the mirror was a giantess. At least compared to who she remembered seeing in the mirror for the last twenty three years of her life. Her driver’s license listed her as Valence Harroway. five foot three inches, brown hair, blue eyes, one hundred fifteen pounds. The woman standing in front of her must have been at least six feet tall and saying that was probably an understatement. If she had to guess she would say she was closer to seven. The blue eyes were still there. But even more striking than the height, if it was possible, was her hair. Pure white.The sort of white you only see in wigs and very good dye jobs.

Val, mouth hanging open, looked at the mirror, down at herself, back to the mirror, down at herself, over to Cade, back to the mirror, down at herself, then she screeched as eloquently as she could, “WHAT!?!”

Cade half-giggled then said in response, “That’s what I want to know. And that’s only the beginning. Wait till you hear about everything else.”

“Everything else…” Val muttered before plonking herself down onto her bed. She sat there for several moments in bemused silence before she caught a glimpse of her brother standing uncertainly next to her bed. Okay. Enough. He had done enough. He had taken care of her through all of this weird change. He had almost definitely missed school, friends, track practice, and all the other regular high school things he was supposed to be doing while taking care of her. He already missed out on enough ever since their parents died and she would be damned if she made him miss out on more because she couldn’t handle it when shit went down. Val was the one who was supposed to take care of him and she had spent the last week bedridden. It didn’t matter that even the thought of what happened to her made her want to start screaming again. She needed to be there for her little brother. Val took a deep breath before facing Cade. “Okay,” She said, “Tell me everything.” 

He never got the chance.