Violet clung tightly to Meryl’s arm as they weaved through busy sidewalks.

  While the embrace hadn’t been unusual, the emotions Violet felt were. She and Meryl had shared many ugly cries over the years, through breakups and worse, but never before had they come with this warm flow of caring and reassurance directly from Meryl’s soul – or brain, or wherever this new, visceral empathy came from. Nor had they ever been preceded by such a strange and confusing day. Just as Violet had begun to spiral into panic, her friend had been there, physically consoling her and, without realizing it, offering to directly replace her fear with caring and love. And Violet held on tight, the physical connection a symbolic gesture by comparison.

  The streets buzzed with awakening nightlife as they made their way to Meryl’s apartment a few blocks from the bar. Violet could feel the buffeting sea of emotions and sensations swirling around her, feared she might easily be lost in it if not for her anchor. Touching, being touched, dozens of feet hitting the ground, nervousness, impatience, joy, loneliness, sometimes a flash of something stronger through the noise like a couple kissing near their car. She wondered what would happen to her sense of self in an emotional mob, especially one with unified purpose. The thought sent a chill through her.

  Violet refocused on Meryl, on the sensation of her own hand grabbing Meryl’s wrist, on the way Meryl’s blonde hair kept brushing her neck, on matching Meryl’s rhythm rather than having to worry about the sensation of four feet hitting the ground. She tried to allow the rest of the noise to blend together into meaninglessness.

  Matching Meryl’s pace seemed to be forcing her to take awkwardly long strides. As they turned off the busier street toward Meryl’s, Violet skipped a few steps to walk beside her friend. She marveled at Meryl’s determination to protect her, to help her, and at how lucky she was to have someone so kind as a friend.

  Self-conscious embarrassment slid into Meryl’s expression as she glanced at Violet and noticed her wide eyed stare.

  “Sorry,” Violet said softly, looking down. “I don’t know how to stop.”

  She squeezed Meryl’s arm a little more tightly as her friend blushed and smiled back at her.

  “Just, um,” Meryl began nervously, “I don’t really get how this works but remember thoughts can’t always be controlled either, especially the little ones.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, I can’t read your thoughts, only how they make you feel.”

  “Oh, right…”

  Meryl was obviously not sure how much less she should be worrying with that clarification. Violet considered for a moment as they walked.

  “You want to console and protect — probably me. Along with determination, those are the strongest feelings right now. And excitement, maybe curiosity? And they all flare up when you look at me or I squeeze your arm.”

  Meryl’s cheeks were bright red now, but she was smiling.

  “And, of course, nervousness, probably also because of me.”

  She watched Meryl for a moment, then continued, “And it’s only fair for me to share too. I feel incredibly grateful, and I feel safe. I was panicking back at the bar and you gave me something stable to hold onto. That crowded street would have been so much more overwhelming without you.” Violet squeezed lightly again. “And if you’re ever wondering what I’m feeling, please ask! I promise, I’ll be honest. Oh, but I can let go if you want–“

  “No,” Meryl assured her, catching Violet’s hand in her own as it left her wrist. “Thank you for telling me.”

  This time Violet blushed, and they continued holding hands in silence as they walked.

  “Would you like some wine?”

  “Sure,” Violet replied, hanging her coat and following Meryl into the kitchen. Meryl pulled two wine glasses from a cabinet and began to pour them both something white.

  Meryl’s apartment was a blend of cozy and industrial, and it felt secluded, up on the eighth floor. It was also small, a single bedroom plus one living space, the end of which became the kitchen. Hanging lights above the kitchen island and a few lamps near the sofa at the other end of the room dimly lit the space with warm light, the sparkle of city lights visible through the otherwise dark, small-paned window covering the far wall.

  “Thanks,” Violet said as Meryl set a glass on the island in front of her. “God, I really really need to get this bra off!”

  Violet pulled her arms into her relatively loose sweater and a few seconds later her lacy bra came out in hand. She tossed it onto the bench by the door, beneath their coats. The relief was incredible, as was the unfamiliar weight and movement of her chest as she turned back to the island.

  “You did get shorter! Ha!” Meryl laughed, putting her hand on Violet’s head and ruffling her hair.

  “Hey!” Violet grinned and pushed her hand away. “Or you got taller!”

  Meryl rolled her eyes. Violet knew her friend was right. She’d had trouble keeping up on the walk here, and now that they were standing face to face Violet found herself staring at her friend’s chin rather than her usual view of Meryl’s light blue eyes. She looked up slightly to find them beaming down at her.

  Weird, Violet thought, considering her slightly altered perspective of the world around her for the first time.

  Meryl seemed to be inspecting her.

  “Vi, did you notice your hair? It’s half white.”

  “Oh, yeah. I think I forgot to mention that,” Violet said with a shrug, then watched Meryl’s eyes drift to the tips of her ears where they were poking through her hair.

  “Can I…?”

  Meryl could barely contain her excitement as Vi nodded and pulled her hair back, and her heart skipped a few beats at the tiny twitch Vi’s ear made as her hair slid over the tip.

  Meryl had always had a thing for pointy ears. She dressed up as some sort of elf, fairy, or fae — or a witch, witches were always a great choice, and they usually ended up with elf ears anyway — almost every year for Halloween, or any other excuse she found. And now, impossibly, her best friend was standing right in front of her with the real thing.

  And they looked real. Despite being made of soft, delicate curves, her ears as a whole were very straight and about three or four inches long, most of that distance stubbornly pointing out to her sides. She doubted there was any way to completely hide them with her hair. Meryl wondered what they felt like and considered asking to touch them, but that seemed like it would have been going too far.

  She let her eyes wander to the rest of her shy friend’s face. Her lips had a slight sparkle. Perhaps a subtle or faded lip gloss? Her long eyelashes swept perfectly from her eyes, the corners of which also had a feint shimmer, though she couldn’t see any other signs of makeup on her impossibly perfect skin. Her skin didn’t normally look like that, did it? Meryl finally settled on her eyes, unusually bright in an even more unusual light shade of lavender. She could see her friend in this face, but with everything added together the differences were striking.

  “Vi… you’re beautiful… I– I mean– not that you weren’t always pretty but now it’s like… startling.”

  Violet’s cheeks flushed a vibrant pink. Had she gone too far? She reminded herself that it probably wouldn’t have mattered if she had said nothing. Violet would be able to feel her wonder, and she’d been staring for far too long, anyway. She was incredible. How had any of this even happened?

  Meryl raised an eyebrow, “Are you not wearing any makeup?”

  “Nope, I showered and painted my nails.”

  Vi held up her black fingernails as if to prove her claims and Meryl inspected her face again.

  “Fascinating…”

  Such small changes, and yet she looked so different.

  Oh my god, I’m the worst. So what if she looks a little different. She’s my best friend and she’s had a difficult day and I need to stop treating her like a freak. That’s the whole reason she reached out to me in the first place!

  “Come!” Meryl said, suddenly, turning and pulling Vi toward the sofa. “You said you wanted a normal evening! Let’s chat!”

  Meryl asked about Ryan — for details other than his erection — and Violet told her about the odd, tense interaction they’d left things on. Violet also shared an inclination toward ending their relationship, that it had mostly been about sex and she’d already been having second thoughts even before the day went sideways.

  Serves him right. He scared her and pushed her out in a vulnerable moment. Vi deserves better.

  Her job at the coffee shop still wasn’t paying very well but at least it was chill most days. And her sister would be visiting next week and they’d planned on getting lunch. She briefly panicked about that interaction, given recent events, and whether she should try to cancel. Meryl tried to imagine how that would play out. Anyone who’d known Vi her whole life would find her recent changes hard to ignore.

  Then Meryl shared some of her work drama. It was boring, of course, from the outside. Vi probably didn’t really understand what she actually did at her product design job, or how it could possibly take two months to nudge the same pixels back and forth and still not have final decisions made and then have engineers complaining to her about needing to push out their timelines and on and on, but there really wasn’t anything she could do about it. Management was just horribly indecisive and there were always too many people in the room. Vi nodded sympathetically anyway.

  Shit, she doesn’t have to understand the details, if she can sense the way she claims, she just experienced exactly how frustrating it is. This absurd ability is going to take a while to get used to. It’s practically mind reading! How is that fair!?

  Meryl shook her head, trying to reset her thoughts, then started panicking when she saw Vi’s expression slip into concern.

  “Sorry, Vi, sorry! I’m overthinking that mind reading thing of yours again. It’s hard not to be self conscious and second guess every feeling, you know?”

  “Don’t be sorry! It’s my fault. And don’t worry, none of that was weird!” She paused, then continued, “I probably shouldn’t have told you about all the empathic stuff. I bet it just makes things feel really one sided.”

  “No no, it’d be even more one sided if you hadn’t, I just wouldn’t have known that it was. I’m glad you trusted me. I still can hardly believe any of it, and it will probably be kind of weird for a bit, but I meant it when I said we’d figure this out.”

  Vi smiled, fidgeting with the sleeve of her sweater, then she sighed, “We’re going to have this conversation a lot, aren’t we?”

  Meryl nodded, considering for a moment, then added, “You probably know this already, but you should be really careful who you tell.”

  “Well, duh! That’s like the first rule of getting super powers,” Violet replied and they both laughed.

  “Gotta pee. You want any snacks? Or I’ve got leftovers. Did you eat dinner?” she asked as she stood for the bathroom.

  “I, uh… maybe? I guess I am kind of hungry. I was so caught up in everything else, I didn’t even think about dinner.”

  “Vi! Ok, well, give me a sec and I’ll heat you up something,” Meryl called back as she closed the bathroom door.

  As she sat in the bathroom, Meryl froze.

  Oh my fucking god, if she can feel me peeing right now… that’s so messed up. What kind of range does she have anyway? Does she need to be looking at me? Or paying attention? Does it work through doors? Does she just know I’m feeling something or does she, like, literally feel it?

  It took Meryl a minute to suspend those thoughts and persuade her body to finish. When she opened the bathroom door, however, she couldn’t resist glancing at Vi to see if she had felt anything awkward, but the smile Vi returned to her didn’t reveal anything specific. Meryl decided not to ask. A few minutes later, she returned to the sofa with a small plate of reheated lasagna and sat down again beside Vi.

  “This looks amazing, thank you,” Vi said, taking the plate.

  “Of course! My mom used to make it when we were little, you remember? She sent me the recipe and I’ve been making it a lot lately. You ok?”

  Vi had paused with her first fork-full of food just in front of her open mouth.

  “Take a bite,” Vi said as she redirected the fork to her.

  “I didn’t poison it, Vi,” Meryl said as she leaned forward and took the bite of food.

  Vi looked confused. “It tastes great when you eat it!” she said, sounding frustrated.

  What a sentence, Meryl thought, now looking confused as well.

  “I can’t do it. The thought of swallowing it when it got near my mouth, I felt like– like I definitely would’ve thrown up. I don’t know how to explain.” Before Meryl could reply she added, “It’s great, honestly, I literally just tasted it, but… I don’t know. I can’t.”

  Meryl peered at her inquisitively, taking the plate and another bite. She glanced at Vi’s wine glass, untouched since she set it on the coffee table. Now that she was thinking about it, did Vi even try her drink at the bar?

  “Vi,” she said after swallowing, “When was the last time you ate?”

  “Um… yesterday, last night.”

  “And you still forgot about dinner?”

  Violet stared at her, “I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t hungry. I didn’t even think about it. I was starving this morning, but I couldn’t eat lunch either. Then it just went away.”

  Meryl nodded slowly. That’s another point for the succubus theory, Vi, she teased in her head. That, of course, was absurd.

  Is it that absurd? More absurd than mind reading and shrinking and growing elf ears?

  Yes, it’s insane, drop it!

  Vi pulled her knees up to her face and wrapped her arms around her legs as Meryl set the mostly full plate down on the coffee table, then placed a hand on Vi’s knee in a consoling gesture. They sat in silence for a while, listening to the occasional noises of the city.

  Meryl’s thoughts raced. Should she suggest seeing a doctor again? Drastic changes in appetite were usually a bad thing. Did anything fit the rest of her symptoms? She wasn’t a doctor but she doubted it. Certainly not her empathic ability, that was completely impossible.

  Meryl suddenly imagined shady government scientists locking her up somewhere to study her. That was only a thing in movies, right? Maybe that’s why Vi had reacted so negatively when she’d suggested doctors.