This story is intended to be fairly wholesome and meant for most viewers. However…
*There are themes of transgender transformation, including one that is unwilling (but temporary).
*Fictionalized witchcraft, both dark and light, is depicted.
*Depictions of body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria are found throughout.
*Mild profane language is used.

Curse Upon the New Moon (Part 2)

Although Max was more comfortable in the clothes they got the day before, dread hung in the air over everyone in the house. They didn't know why, but they knew somehow Stacie had written their father out of their lives. Besides, Max had high school to attend the next day, and he was not looking forward to going as "Maxine."

No one coped very well Sunday. It was a haze of sorrow and confusion over what was happening to their lives. The day passed without much fanfare.

Monday morning arrived. Max picked out an outfit carefully to mitigate his new gender dysphoria while keeping appearances that he was still feminine. His pants were baggy, but his shirt was the same he picked out Saturday, with the addition of a camisole underneath so he wouldn't have to stare at cleavage every time he looked down. He threw on a baseball cap to complete the look.

Rather than take the bus like he usually did, his mom decided to drop him off. As they arrived at the drop-off area, she said "Max, if you can't handle being in school, we’ll figure out something to keep you home while we try to figure this out."

"Thanks, mom. I have to try to keep things normal. Hopefully, schoolwork will keep my mind off things."

They hugged each other tightly before Max made his way into the school. He took a deep breath before stepping through the door...

As soon as he did, though, he heard audible gasps.

"Wait, is that Maxine?!"
"What happened to her hair?"
"Forget her hair, look at her outfit!"
"She's so boyish now..."
"Well, I heard she IS a lesbian..."
"She isn't flaunting her figure like she used to."
"What a shame, she was such a prize to look at..." 

The whispers continued throughout his classes. He could hear them. Some of it was genuine concern from some of the girls, others of gossip. The guys generally talked about him like they did about most of the beautiful girls in school, which was to say treating him like a piece of meat, eye candy or art as opposed to an actual human being.

Everything was a haze. He wanted to tune it all out. He hated the compliments and the comments about how "beautiful" he was. Until lunch came around, he was on autopilot. Quiet unless spoken to, his body doing the work while he cradled himself in a corner of his mind.

As he gathered his lunch together, he heard a couple of voices call to him.

"Maxine, over here, girl!"
"Come sit with your friends!" 

He came over to them. Clearly the group of girls were his "friends" - except he barely recognized any of them. There was only one, Natalie, he knew a bit more of. She was short, with green eyes and black hair that had been dyed green at the ends. She was a friend of sorts. They weren't really close, but they talked on occasion. It seemed like they must have been closer in the altered reality he now lived in.

"Girl, your date must have gone horribly for you to come looking like that!"
"Seriously, what did he do to you?"
"Come on, girls, we know she's a lesbian. A girl did this to her."
"Is she going to say anything to us though? She's always kept her dating life private..." 

The conversation and speculation went on around him. Not that he cared. He couldn't stomach all the female pronouns being used for him. Had he been paying attention, though, he would have seen Natalie not joining in, concentrating on him as though she knew more than she was letting on - or maybe at least suspecting something was more off than she could understand...

As he looked around the cafeteria, the sea of students parted to give him a clear line of sight to his former flame, Stacie. They locked eyes from across the room. He could see it in her eyes. She was relishing in his suffering. She clearly didn't care for him at all. She had no remorse for her actions against him. The crowd gathered again, and when they parted enough for him to see where she had been, she was gone.

He was feeling uneasy. "Look, girls, I'm not really hungry. I'm going to go for a walk."

"Okay, just remember we're here for you, girl!" one of the friends remarked. She didn't realize the last word stung.

As Max got up and left for the field, Natalie followed. She didn't understand why, but nothing felt right about what was going on. She needed to talk to Maxine alone. Something wasn't adding up...

Max stopped in a remote corner of the school's field. He had to catch his breath. Every reference to him being a girl dug deeper into his psyche. He was barely holding together...

"Maxine?"

He turned to see Natalie. "What are you doing here?"

"Something doesn't feel right... About us. About you. I can't explain it..."

"I..."

"You know something, don't you?"

"I... I’m not Maxine! I'm Max! Just this Friday, I was a guy! Then Stacie did something to me, and now everyone thinks I am a girl!"

This stirred something in Natalie. She closed her eyes and started shaking her head. It was coming back to her. She indeed remembered Max. In fact, she loved him, but she never had the courage to say something. She even remembered warning Max about Stacie, that something didn't feel right about her...

"... And my body moves in ways I can't stand! Nothing feels right! My guts are all twisted up by this period I'm having! Everyone treats me like this goddess of beauty and I want none of it!" Max started breathing heavily.

"Max, calm down!" Natalie said, hoping it would reach him.

"I'm not a girl, I'm not a girl, I'm..." Max felt flush. He felt nauseous. Then he threw up and recoiled backwards, collapsing to the ground.

"I got you, Max!"

=======

Max woke up. He was lying on the couch at home, his mom, Maddie, and Natalie all standing over him.

"Honey, are you okay?"

"Mom, what happened?"

"Natalie brought you home after you passed out. She managed to convince the principal to let you go home."

"I told him you were dealing with a lot of stress on top of a period," Natalie explained. "I convinced him you might need a week to recover. It wasn't hard, given what happened... I also remember you used to be a guy. I'm sorry if I misgendered you prior to that, Max."

"Wait, how did you...?"

"Well, based on what you were saying, Stacie might be a dark witch. Her powers work on the absence of love. Most anyone else will only remember the reality she created for you. Only those who really loved you will break free of her spell..."

Max mulled this new information over before realizing, "Wait, Natalie, you loved me?!"

"... Surprise. This wasn't the way I wanted you to know, but..."

"Also, how do you know about this stuff?"

"My father is a light wizard, and I am following the family tradition by learning Light Magic myself - but I’m not technically a light witch yet."

Max started to get up. "Easy, Max," his mom said.

"So how are we even together in this altered reality?" Max asked. "Also, why is my father suddenly dead for years when he was alive on Friday?"

"Stacie must have been a very powerful witch to pull that off. She likely used your love for her to manipulate your life. She likely already sold her soul, and she’s trying to gather more souls to grow even more powerful..."

"That would explain why I never saw her family... She must have already taken their souls. But does that mean it's already too late for him?"

"Not necessarily. In the rules of witchcraft, new moons are a good time to get rid of things in your life. With Light Magic, this is a time to remove negativity and obstacles from your life. I would suspect that this is the time for dark witches to unload captured souls, when the light of the night is at its weakest."

"So, we still have time to save him!"

"Yes. To do that, we either need to turn Stacie back to the light, or..."

"Defeat her."

"Most likely. As for why we’re closer in this altered reality she created, it may be pushback from the light. You need help to return things to normal, and I happen to know about magic. The forces of light brought us closer together to undo Stacie's curses."

"I suppose that makes sense. How would we go about defeating her?"

"Holy or anointed water should do the trick. However, it's likely she knows the threat that poses to her. If she’s too far gone, drinking holy water could be a death sentence..."

Max looked around. Then he noticed a can of soda on the coffee table next to him. It gave him an idea. "Natalie, could any drink be anointed?"

"I can't say for sure, but it might be possible... Why?"

"I have an idea..."

=======

Max, Natalie, and their families put their plan into place. If Max was to get his father back, he would have to stop Stacie. It took the rest of the week and a considerable amount of money, but they had all the pieces in place. Now, it was up to Max to confront Stacie.

Max would return to school the following week. Over the course of the week, he contacted Stacie. He told her to meet him on the hillside where she cursed him. She was reluctant until he told her he harbored no anger towards her. She agreed and, on that Friday, two weeks to the day after she cursed him, they were once again on the hill that Max's life had turned upside-down upon.

"So, Max, you aren't mad about what I did to you?"

"I mean, this body does not feel right at all. I may have to find someone to undo your curse or transition back to male with medicine. But I'm not going to ask you to undo this. It likely took a lot out of you, and I must say it's... Impressive what you're capable of!"

Stacie was shocked. Max was... Complimenting her? "Really, you think so?"

"Yeah! And besides, you have given me a whole new perspective on life. I got to see what it is like to live as a woman, complete with a period. How many guys can say that?"

"Probably not many," Stacie said, with a slight chuckle.

"I figured we should make amends and celebrate your powers, so..." Max opened up the cooler next to him and handed Stacie an ice-cold bottle.

"No. Freaking. WAY!" she yelped as she looked at the bottle in her hands. "You found a bottle of Dark Choco-Cola?! This stuff is super rare!"

"And bewilderingly expensive, but you said you loved the stuff, so..."

"You have no idea!" she exclaimed as she gleefully and rhythmically stomped her feet. "The guy who made this stuff wasn't a chemist, he was a freaking alchemist! A mad scientist in all the best ways! Regular Choco-Cola tastes like regular cola with a hint of chocolate flavor, but this stuff tastes like you're drinking a bar of dark chocolate! It was only on shelves for a month before the guy behind it mysteriously vanished. When he did, so did his concoction. No one has ever been able to replicate his formula, even though he left it behind. Some say he moved to a remote corner of Oregon. Everyone else assumes he died. Well, if it was the latter, I'm totally using necromancy to bring him back and teach me his ways!"

"You might want to savor it, then..."

"No way, I'm cracking this open right now!" Stacie unscrewed the cap. A crack and a hiss later, it popped off. Fresh and ice cold, she whiffed the fizzy smell. That rich scent of melted chocolate. She began to greedily scarf it down, every drop tasing of a bar of rich dark chocolate, with the tingle of the fizzy carbonation. She drank it so fast that she didn't register the heat it had as it went down...

"Ohmygosh, that stuff is the best!" She then heard gurgling from the pit of her stomach. She let out a burp - one that came up with smoke. She didn't notice it, but Max did.

The plan was working.

"So, we're all good, then?" Stacie asked.

"Actually..."

Stacie burped again, this time a fireball coming out. She froze. There was no way Dark Choco-Cola could do this, unless...

"Wait, did someone make this with holy water?!" she screamed, now feeling the heat of her insides burning up.

"No. We just anointed the drink itself. I hope you enjoyed it, witch!"

"Please, what’s this about? I’ll do anything!" Stacie pleaded.

"I want my father back!" Max growled.

"Oh, s-" She couldn't say more, for the next burp enveloped her voice box in flames. Her powers were fading, and the holy soda was incinerating her from the inside out. Eventually, her skin took a darker tone as the heat rose to the surface. Glowing cracks enveloped her rapidly drying skin as the flames finished their work inside. She crumpled to the ground, at this point no longer among the living, as the flames engulfed her body and reduced her to ash. The dark witch was no more.

"Max!" he heard in the distance. Natalie and his mom had been watching from a distance with binoculars. "We saw it all! I can't believe you got her to drink it so quickly!" Natalie exclaimed.

"I knew how much she loved the stuff. We’d been dating for a month, and it came up more than once. And given how greedy she really was, it wasn't going to be long before she downed it. I'm just glad your father's anointment worked!"

Max's mom closed her eyes. "I can feel it. He's coming back to us..."

Max looked down at his own body. He could feel light tingling. Magic forces, this time of the light, were taking control of his body. He knew by the time he woke up tomorrow, everything would be back to normal.

"We should get home now," he said.

"Do you mind if I come and stay with you?" Natalie asked. "I want to make sure everything is alright, if you don't mind..."

"Of course!" said Max. Besides, he admitted he wanted to get to know Natalie better anyway...

END OF PART 2

By Erica Chrisman (CrystalSeaDragon44)