Extracted - Chapter 7 – The Psycho and Delic Hallucination – Part 1 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 7 – The Psycho and Delic Hallucination – Part 1 of 2

 

In the New York hospital, Steve looked dejectedly out through Nancy’s eyes.  He was being sent to a shrink.  He wasn’t sure if that was the right answer for him or not, but one fact stood out perfectly clear.  He needed help!

He was leaving the hospital now.  Being thrown out.  They couldn’t help him, so they were making him leave.  He was seventeen years old and a strong boy, at least on the inside.  He was a football player who could handle anyone who came up against him.  It was just his new physical body he seemed to have that he couldn’t handle…not to mention the life that this body might entail.  Like it or not, he had to admit, just the thought of leaving the safe confines of the hospital, scared him.

Despite his physical appearance that he could still only put down to some kind of hallucination, he wasn’t a young girl at all.  But as the hallucination seemed to continue with no seeming end in sight, he didn’t know what he could do about it.  He wasn’t going start trying to act like a girl, especially a little one, he knew that much for sure!

But now they were making him leave the hospital, and his whole strange new family was there to make sure of it.  He was unfamiliar with his new hallucinogenic body.  He was unfamiliar with his new family.  He was unfamiliar with New York.  He was unfamiliar with everything he could think of.  But mostly, right at that moment, he was unfamiliar with the clothes they had just handed him to wear.  They had to be kidding.  Everything they had set on the bed next to him was…tiny.  He guessed like his new body.

This strange mother figure who called herself Wanda…what a dumb name…helped him remove the hospital gown he had been wearing, exposing the girl’s panties he had just put on underneath.  Then came a little off-pink thing that kind of looked like some kind of little bra that was pulled over his head and down his chest, covering the tiny bumps that were all the breasts he had.  Dumb and stupid.  And what was the point of all the lace on the thing?  Tiny shorts that left his legs mostly bare soon covered his panties.  After that, a tiny shirt covered the bra he could see no use for and that felt weird underneath the shirt.  And finally, tiny sneakers where the original laces had been replaced with a double set of pink and yellow ones, making them difficult to tie and making the bold mixed colors stand out.  Why?  It was all so dumb.

He thought he was ready to go, but his replacement mother had other ideas.  She grabbed him and started attacking his long unwanted hair with a hairbrush, brushing it over and over again before pulling it back.  Emily handed this new mother something and he felt her doing something different with his hair that eventually left it in what he could only guess was a ponytail.  At least it was out of his face now.  The ponytail felt annoying back there as it seemed to move around with a life of its own, brushing the back of his shoulders and back.  He also wasn’t happy about the constant feel of every bit of the hair on his head being constantly pulled back so tightly.

“There’s my little girl,” his replacement father said with a smile.

His little girl?  That’s what he thought.  Steve had other ideas on the subject.

“Let’s go,” Daddy told everyone.

Steve was put into a wheelchair and one of the hospital aides wheeled him all the way down and out through the doors.  As they went out, Steve got the impression that these doors were not the front main entrance to a hospital.  There was a man in a suit waiting for them just outside.

“Congressman,” he greeted the man claiming to be his father.  “Mrs. Stiller,” he greeted the woman claiming to be his mother.

There was a car pulled up to the curb and the man in the suit opened the passenger doors.  Steve was ushered out of the wheelchair and directly into the backseat of the car.

“Push over a bit,” Emily said as she got in next to him.  His supposed mother hurried around to the other side and got into the backseat with them, leaving him in the middle.  The man who claimed to be his father got into the passenger side of the front.  The man in the suit got behind the wheel and in seconds the car was pulling away from the hospital.

“Anyone notice you?” Mike asked his aide.

“Not that I could tell.  I think we’re okay.”

“Good!” the congressman replied.  “How about the psychiatrist?”

“All arranged.  They know to expect us as soon as we get there and they know that discretion has to be their main concern.”

“Thanks Bill,” Mike told him.

“Any improvement?” Bill asked.

“Not yet,” Mike admitted.

Bill looked over at his boss, then back at the road.  He didn’t know what the girl’s exact problem was, only that it was some kind of mental problem.  But any kind of problem like that could turn out to be very bad for the congressman.

In the backseat, Steve tried to follow what little had been said between the two men in the front seat.  They weren’t happy about something.  They weren’t happy, but he was the one who was really unhappy with this situation.  Not to mention, he was unhappy about the way his damn ponytail kept hitting the back of the seat so that he couldn’t really lean his head back.  It was more annoying than the feel of the tiny fake bra thing he was wearing under his shirt.

Bending his head forward so the ponytail wouldn’t poke the back of his head was difficult because  all his hair was trapped behind him and it had his head literally tied back.  He leaned his entire body forward and reached around, grabbing the ponytail.  He pulled it over his shoulder and left it there.  Much better!  Well, not really, but at least his dumb hair no long kept his head from moving.  Annoying!

With his head free, he turned it to look at his new supposed mother.  She was looking at him.  Watching him.  He wanted to say something nasty to her, but decided against it.  Something told him it would do no good.

He turned to look at the girl who claimed to be his sister.  He never had a sister or brother before, and considered his life as an only child to be perfect.  A brother or sister would probably get in the way of all the time he and Melody had gotten it on in his bedroom while his mother was out of the house.

Now, according to what they had told him, he was on his way to see a psychiatrist before going home.  A shrink.  Just then he wanted something to shrink all his problems down to nothing and let him be himself again.  He still could only consider this to be one big hallucination because he simply didn’t have any other explanation for it.  Maybe the shrink had a better idea of what his problem was.  He could only hope.

The drive from the hospital was fairly long, but eventually the car pulled off the road and up to the front entrance to a building.  Steve noted that Bill was quick to get out of the car and open the door for his fake mother, but everyone else opened their own car doors.  It seemed like Bill and his new father were trying hard to usher everyone inside the building as fast as possible.

They were met inside by two people, an older man and an older woman.  Nothing was said at all as the two people led them directly into an office.

“Congressman,” the man said as he shook Michael Stiller’s hand.  He turned to Steve’s new mother.  “And Mrs. Stiller,” he said as he shook her hand.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  He turned to the woman with him.  “This is Doctor Isabella Montcliff.  She’s agreed to look into your daughter’s little problem.”

“Thank you,” the congressman told him.  “You are aware of our need for strict security on this issue.”

“We were told,” the man who hadn’t introduced himself replied.

“You have no idea what something like this could do to my position in the government,” the congressman said.  “If people find out that my daughter has mental problems, that could easily reflect on me and cause a lot of trouble with my entire constituency and the things I’m trying to achieve in congress.  If anyone finds out that she’s having problems, people could think that maybe I might have those same mental issues as well.  Or, since she was kidnapped, they might think that I’m being blackmailed over something.  So please, nobody must find out.”

“I…we…understand,” the unknown man assured him.  “We’re a psychiatric clinic.  Discretion is one of our primary concerns.  In this case, I can assure you that we’ll be extra cautious.”

“I agree, and understand,” Doctor Montcliff told them.

The congressman nodded.  “Thank you,” he said.  “How do we proceed from here?”

“Since this is our first meeting,” the doctor said.  “I’d very much like to just have a quick talk with your daughter here.  Even with children I prefer to do this alone, but since she is a child, very often at least one of the parents or at least some kind of guardian is present as well, so I have no problem with either or both of you sitting in with us.  As I said though, I prefer to do it alone simply because I don’t want the issue of parents getting in the way of anything she might want to tell me.”

The congressman considered that.  “I can see that,” he agreed.  He turned to his wife.  “Do you want to be there?”

“Yes!” Wanda told him.  Then she added, “But no.  If she feels it would be better to talk with Nancy alone, then I’ll agree, but only so long as someone tells me what went on.”

The doctor looked at her.  “Possibly!” she said.  “That’s all I can tell you.  I do need to build up a degree of trust.  That’s important in any kind of work that I do.  However, I already know that before long I’m going to want to sit down with you alone, and maybe your husband as well, and get your thoughts on whatever her situation is and how it’s affecting the rest of you.”

“Of course,” Wanda agreed.  “Anytime.”

“Then maybe we should get started,” the doctor suggested.  “If you want to wait in here, I’ll take…I understand her name is Nancy?”

“Yes,” Wanda confirmed.

“I’ll take Nancy to my office so we can chat.”  She turned to the young girl in the room.  “Come on dear.  Let’s let our hair down for a bit.”

Steve followed the psychiatrist out of the room they were in, down the hall, and into another office.  The office looked very nice.  Comfortable.  The doctor sat down in one of the chairs and picked up a notepad and a pen.  She motioned toward the seat across from her and Steve sat down.  The doctor sat there staring at her, saying nothing.  Steve stared back for a few moments then said, “What?”

“Do you want to tell me about your problems?  Your mother said your name is Nancy.  Can I call you that?”

“I’d rather you didn’t!” Steve said nastily.

The doctor was surprised.  “Then what would you like me to call you?”

“How about my real name.”

“And what’s that?”

“Stephen.  Or Steve.”

That threw the doctor, but only for a moment.  “And why do you think…”

“Oh for heavens sake!” Steve exclaimed angrily.  “You’re another one.”

“Another what?”

“Another part of this big hallucination!”

“Hallucination?  What hallucination?”

“This life I’ve got.  This stupid little girl body I’m stuck in.  It’s not mine and nobody can seem to understand that.  The entire world is now one big hallucination, and I can’t find my way out of it!”

“A hallucination.  Tell me about it.”

“Tell you what?  I’m not this little girl named Nancy.”

“You said your name is Stephen.  Can you at least tell me about Stephen then?”

“Ask me anything you want.  I can tell you anything and everything about him.  What I can’t tell you about is who the hell this stupid little body I’m in actually belongs to.”

Doctor Montcliff considered that.  “Okay,” she finally said.  “Tell me about Stephen.  I guess you’ve got parents.  Who are they?”

“Easy!” Steve declared.  “My dad is Henry Marsh.  He’s the Philadelphia D.A..  My mother is…”

“D.A.?” Isabella asked.

“District Attorney.  He’s the Philadelphia District Attorney!”

“Okay,” the doctor replied.  “Just making sure of what we’re talking about here.”  The mention of district attorney seemed strange.  Would a girl that young know what a district attorney was?  “And your mother?” she continued.

“My mom’s name is Agatha.  Agatha Marsh.  She doesn’t work.  She likes to throw a lot of dinner parties for my dad’s friends and political associates.”

“Dinner parties,” the doctor said, the word associates sticking in her head.  Obviously this girl used an advanced vocabulary.  There was something else about the way she was speaking as well.  What was it?  “Political associates?” she asked.

“Yeah.  My dad’s got tons of them.”

“I see,” the doctor replied.  “Any brothers or sisters?”

“Nope.  Just me.”

“Okay, tell me about you.”

“Like I said, I’m Stephen Marsh.  I’m actually seventeen years old and I’ll be starting my senior year of high school in a few weeks.  Next week in fact, I’m supposed to be going to football camp to get ready for the season coming up.”

“You like football?”

“I love football!”

“Do you have any friends?”

“Friends?  I’ve got tons of friends.”

“Who’s your best friend?”

He laughed.  “My girlfriend, of course.  Melody.”

The fact that he claimed to have a girlfriend and even had a name for her surprised her, but only a bit.  Obviously this fantasy world was more complete than she originally thought it might be.  “And how often do you see her?”

“Huh!  All the time.  We hang out together every chance we get.”

“And what do you do when you hang out?”  She was surprised to see the look on his face change as he sat there saying nothing.  “I see,” she said.  “So you don’t know because you don’t really have a girlfriend.”

“What?  Of course I do.”

“Then what do you like doing with your girlfriend.”

“If I answer that, will you tell my parents?  I mean, my real parents?”

“Nancy, I promise.  I…”

“Don’t call me Nancy!  Please,” he added more contritely.  “I’m not Nancy, no matter how much you think I am.”

The doctor looked at him for a moment then continued.  “I won’t tell anyone.  What is it you do with your girlfriend, although I can pretty much guess what you’re going to say now.”

Steve looked at her for a moment then said, “Sex.  We like sex together.  Okay?  Both of us.”

“Mm,” the doctor replied.  “Tell me about the sex.”

“I’d rather not.  And I’d really rather you didn’t let anyone know.”

“Trust me, I won’t.  All these conversations we have are strictly confidential…unless you or your parents say I can divulge that information.”

“But it’s my parents that I don’t want to know about it.”

“Those parents?” she asked, pointing toward the door.

“They’re not my parents!  I really don’t know who the hell they are.”

“Then what are you worried about?”

“My real parents.  My father is the D.A. remember?”

“I remember,” the doctor replied.  “I made a note of it to make sure.”

Steve nodded, satisfied.

“What about your other friends?  Any who are boys?”

“Huh!” Steve grunted.  “I play football, remember?  I weigh almost two hundred pounds.  The entire team are my friends.”

“I know a little about football,” the doctor told him.  “What position do you play, quarterback?”

“No, linebacker, and I’m good at it.  I’ve got a really good chance of being drafted to play on a college team next year.”

“College,” she replied.  “And what college are you hoping to go to?”

“Ohio State.”

“Ohio?  But you live in New York?”

“Actually, I live in Philadelphia, remember?”  Then he shrugged.  “I like Ohio.  And from there I’ve got a better chance of maybe making a pro team.”

“So you’ve got big football aspirations.”

“Absolutely!”

“Except…if you look in the mirror, you don’t exactly have the body for it, do you.”

Steve grew angry.  “This damn hallucination.  I’ve got to find my way out of it!”

“Steve,” she said.  “Did you ever stop to think that maybe this hallucination as you called it, could be the other way around?”

“What do you mean?”

“That maybe you really are a little girl, and the hallucination is this football player named Steve that you’ve dreamed up.  That’s your hallucination.”

He shook his head and stood up angrily.  “I’m not some stupid little girl named Nancy, no matter what you think.  My name is Stephen Marsh, and I’m a big, seventeen year old boy.  And I…want…my…life…back!”  With that, he angrily stomped out.

Doctor Montcliff was left sitting there with no choice but to consider everything that had been said.  She wasn’t sure what she was dealing with here.  One of the things that bothered her the most was the voice inflections.  She would swear they weren’t the voice inflections of a young girl…or an older girl either.  They were more like those of a young adult male.  How would a young girl learn to talk that way?  And there was another thing she had noticed about the voice inflections.  She had grown up in Philadelphia.  Nancy’s accent sounded a lot like a Philadelphia accent.

Was she dealing with a mental he here?  The young girl certainly seemed more like a boy, and an older boy at that.  Not to mention, how had she come up with all those details so quickly.  A linebacker?  She would have thought the girl would pick someone more like a quarterback for her fantasies.

She needed more information.  The girl had said she was seventeen, but she insisted she was a seventeen year old boy, which she obviously wasn’t…physically.  But mentally, she had sounded just like one.

She had to wonder, which way did Nancy’s hallucination really go.  Was she a boy hallucinating that he was a girl, as he claimed?  Or as she had suggested, the most likely and obvious case, was she a girl hallucinating she was a boy?  Except, there was simply too much disturbing detail.  Way too much!  Enough that it really bothered her.  Worried her too.  There simply shouldn’t be that much detail!

The reality of it was that what Nancy, or Steve, believed had happened, was simply impossible.  You certainly couldn’t take someone’s entire personality and stick it into someone else.  It just couldn’t be done.  So what the heck was going on?  But this had been only the first meeting.  She had no doubt that many more meetings would follow, and something told her that right now those meetings needed to be often!  At least two a week, or more.  And the next meeting she wanted to have, needed to be with the mother.  Alone!  Since her father was a U.S. congressman, she had no doubt that getting a session with him was going to be impossible.

In the meantime….  She looked down at her notes and wondered how much information she could find on the internet.  Who really was the Philadelphia District Attorney?  And if it really was someone named Marsh, what information could she find out about his family?  Building a framework for a fantasy would be much easier if all that information was available online.

 

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Extracted - Chapter 6 – Welcome To My World

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 6 – Welcome To My World

 

Nancy, in Steve’s body, remembered what she had seen for the first time just a few hours ago, and shuddered.  It was so gross.  It was so disgusting!  It was so…awful!  But it had also seemed so real.  What was she supposed to do about it?  And worse, it seemed to go along with every horrible thing that her pretty body had become.  She knew what the boys called it.  They whispered about it at school all the time.  The girls though whispered the word even more.  Cock.  Penis.  There were other words for it too.  Words she’d rather not think about.  Somehow, that banned word.  That banned…thing!  Was now a part of her.  She had one.  Somehow.  Ugh!  She wanted to scream!

Those weird people were in her room again, the ones who somehow believed they were her mother and father, even though she knew for a fact that they weren’t.  Did it have something to do with this stupid monster body she seemed to suddenly have?  That’s the only conclusion she could think of.  Did God hate her so much that he stretched his hand out and somehow gave her this ugly stupid body?  She didn’t know, but it seemed like it.

Like it or not, she wasn’t being given a choice in the matter.  The hospital was throwing her out and she was told that she had to go home with these…strangers.  It was like she was being kidnapped…again!  Mommy, Daddy, Emily, where are you?  I miss you!

Once again she dragged her stupid monstrosity of a body out from under the covers and hung her huge hairy legs over the side of the bed.  Just the sight of them made her want to barf.  Her huge legs were so long they reached all the way to the floor.  Her father handed her some underwear.  She stood up on those monster legs and stepped into the, um, boxer shorts he had called them.  Stupid.  She pulled them up under her hospital gown, especially covering her…did guys usually call it a penis or a cock?  What was she supposed to call it?  From here on out, maybe she’d just call it Gross!

Covered that much, one by one, she put on the clothes she was given.  White gym socks, a pullover shirt, jeans, and then she was handed a pair of sneakers.  She sat on the bed and stared at them.  They were so big they looked like clown shoes.  Every piece of clothing she was wearing was huge.  Too big.  Too…stupid.  She felt stupid.  She felt ugly.  She was ugly.  She was…cursed.  God hated her too much.

Once the shoes were on and tied, she stood up.

“Okay,” her father said.  “Let’s go.”

A nurse held a wheelchair for her and she sat in it.  Together, the entire fake family made their way through the maze of hallways in the hospital, and she was finally let out of the chair when they got to the parking lot.  Henry…her father…ran to get the car.  A few minutes later, they were all in it and heading…home.

Where in the world was home?  She already knew they weren’t going back to New York where she belonged.  As far as she knew, they were in Pennsylvania somewhere.  Someplace called Philadelphia.  She had certainly heard of Philadelphia.  She had just never been there.  From what little she could already see, so far, it was just another dirty city.  Nothing magical about it at all.  But then somehow magic had ripped her from her pretty little feminine body and stuck her here in this stupid ogre’s body instead.  Magic for sure.

Everybody kept calling her Steve, even when she had told them countless times that her name was Nancy.  She supposed she could understand that, sort of.  She certainly didn’t look like herself anymore.

She knew the car she was riding in was nice.  In fact, it was kind of like her father’s car.  Her real father’s car.  But her father was a really important man.  A U.S. congressman.  She didn’t know what this guy who was pretending to be her father did for a living, but it couldn’t be anywhere near as important as that.  Maybe his job was to pretend to be a fake father to people.  People like her.

There were too many things for her to remember during the long drive, but when her father pulled into the driveway of a house, she suddenly paid more attention.  From the back seat, she looked at the place carefully.  Nice.  That surprised her.  Not as nice as her real house in New York, but still pretty nice.  At least it wasn’t a dump like she expected…so far.

She got a brief glimpse of another car parked on the far side of the driveway before everything grew dark as her father pulled the car into the garage and the garage lights all came on.  As the garage door came down, everyone opened their car doors and got out, so she did too.  She saw another nice car parked next to this one.  A third car in the family.

She had no luggage, nothing to carry.  His mother held a plastic bag containing the pajamas she…this body…had been wearing the night she…or he…had been abducted.  Not knowing where to go, she followed everyone through a door that led into a small room of some sort where coats were hung and boots were lined up on the floor.  From there it all led into a kitchen.  A really nice kitchen.  Big!  Like the one her family had at home.  Her mother and father both seemed to be heading in different directions.  Not knowing where to go or what to do, she wandered.

The kitchen and family room were all one.  Huge.  Her father had gone through a doorway off of the family room.  She headed cautiously in that direction and saw him sitting down at a desk in a really nice home office.  He was back at work already.  She stopped to watch him for a minute until she saw him look up at her…him.

“Anything you need?” he asked.

Nancy shrugged, then looked around.  “I’m…lost,” she explained.  She noticed the look of annoyance that seemed to cross his face.  Before he could say anything else, she asked, “What do you do?”

“What?” he replied angrily.  “You know perfectly well what I do.”

She shook her head.  “I haven’t a clue,” she replied before starting to walk off.  She didn’t need more confrontation.  She was only twelve and was completely confused by her situation.

“Steve!” Henry called.

Like it or not, she walked back to his office door.  She would have said ‘yes Daddy’ but she refused to call that man her father in any way, shape, or form.  Instead, she just stood there, looking at him.

“Tell me about who you think your father is,” he said, his voice only a bit more moderated.

“He’s U.S. Congressman Michael Stiller.”

“A U.S. congressman,” Henry repeated with distaste.  “From what state?”

“New York of course,” she replied angrily.  “That’s where we live.  I’ve never been to…Philadelphia.  I don’t know anything about it.”

“Well in case you need reminding, which it looks like you do, I’m the Philadelphia D.A.”

“What’s a…D. A.?” she asked nastily.  “Never heard of it.”

“District Attorney!” he yelled in return.  “And you better start remembering that!”

She shook her head.  “I have no idea what that is!”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know!” she yelled back.  With that she started crying and ran off.

Henry was totally surprised.  He got up from his desk and went out to follow his son.  He found him leaning against the wall next to one of the windows at the far end of the room, standing there hugging himself like a child and crying.  It was only then that he remembered that his son Steve seemed to have no memory of anything at all, except the fantasies that were somehow running rampant through his brain.

Softly, Henry said, “Sorry.”  He saw Steve look over at him.  Despite the bit of beard stubble, his son’s face looked more like a child than he could ever imagine as he stood there crying.  Henry sat on the arm of a chair and watched him for a moment in wonder.  Parents always say their kids grow up too fast.  He knew that for a fact now.  Yet here his son was, looking like…he didn’t know what.  Just…a child of some sort.  He sighed.  “A District Attorney processes all the criminal cases for an area.  I’m the head guy.  The man in charge of all that prosecuting for the entire area around Philadelphia.”  A thought occurred to him when Steve just kept looking at him.  “Do you know what prosecuting means?”

“No,” Nancy replied.

“When someone does something criminal…  Do you follow me so far?”  He saw Steve nod his head.  “Then they have to be punished.  They have to go through court battles.  I’m in charge of deciding which cases go into court and I’m responsible for making sure that the criminals are punished the way they need to be.  Do you understand that?”  It was a moment before he saw his son nod.

“I think so,” Nancy told him.  “Thanks.”

“As you can see, it’s an important job.

Nancy shrugged.  “Not like my real father.  A U.S. congressman.”

This time it was Henry’s turn to shrug.  “Maybe, maybe not.  I imagine, that both jobs are pretty important.”

“Thanks,” Nancy replied, a few tears still falling from her eyes.

“Dry your eyes.  Get a drink,” Henry told his son.  He was disgusted to see him crying like that, but there was something awfully wrong with him just then, and something else inside him made Henry feel bad for Steve.  What the hell was his son going through?  And why this elaborate fantasy?  A U.S. congressman?  Where the hell did that come from?  “I’ve got work to do,” he told Steve.  “Are you going to be alright?”

Nancy nodded, but stayed where she was.  She watched as the man left her and went back to his office.  She stood there for a while, then finally wiped her face with her hands.  She moved from the window and continued her small tour of the house.  From where she was, there was a wide doorway on the opposite wall.  She went through into a beautiful fancy entryway.  She looked around.  There was a big chandelier light on the ceiling next to the staircase.  On the other side of the hallway from where she was she saw another room.  She went in.  Her eyes found her fake mother there, even while she realized that the room was some kind of nice living area, but there was no TV or anything, just nice looking seats and sofas.  Her family had a room like that in their house.  Her mother and father held a lot of parties there.

Her fake mother was sitting in one of the seats.  “You okay Steve?” she asked.

“Sort of,” Nancy admitted.  “This is nice,” she said looking around.  “Do you hold parties here?”

“Of course,” her fake mother confirmed.

Nancy nodded.  “We’ve got a room like this where we live too.  We have a lot of parties.  Or my parents do.  I don’t usually go.  Neither does my sister.  It’s all usually grownups and business people.”

Agatha nodded, noting the detail that Steve had put into the statement.  It sounded so real!  “What kind of house do you have?” she chanced asking.

“I guess, a lot like this, but…to be honest, I think yours is a bit nicer.  We’ve got a big kitchen too, but we’ve got a huge dining room where we hold lots of fancy dinners.  Or my parents do.  Emily and I usually eat in the kitchen.”

“Emily?” Agatha asked, remembering that Steve had mentioned the name a number of times in the hospital.

“My sister.  She’s older than me.  She’ll be a junior in high school in…a few weeks.”

“And you?” Agatha asked.

“Seventh grade.  Junior high.”

The detail was so real, and surprising.  It was like she was talking to a real child.  But Steve’s big muscular body was right in front of her.  It was difficult to combine the two properly.  She pointed at another doorway.  “Our dining room is right through there.  Take a look.”

Nancy did just that.  She went as far as the doorway and looked in.  The room was beautiful, of course.  “Our dining table is bigger,” she noted.

Agatha decided to chance something.  “I guess your family is wealthy?”

Nancy shrugged.  “I don’t know.  We’re not poor, I’m sure of that.  I get a good allowance every week.  Emily gets more.  A lot more!”

Again, the detail.  As if she was talking to a real child.  A twelve year old child she guessed.  “What do you do with your money?”

Nancy was shocked.  “Shop, of course.  Mom and me…Emily too sometimes, we go shopping all the time.  I love buying clothes.  You should see my closet at home.”

“What else do you like?” Agatha chanced asking, the fear in the pit of her stomach growing with each answer.

Nancy shrugged.  “Clothes, makeup…even though Mom doesn’t let me wear much.  Emily sneaks me some of hers though and she’s been showing me how to use it.”

“A good sister,” Agatha noted.

“The best!” Nancy replied.

“What else do you like?”

“I don’t know.  Boys, games, dancing.  I love dancing.  I’ve been taking ballet lessons since I was six!  But what I really like doing the most is getting together and doing things with my friends.  I don’t get to do that too much though cause of…”  She shrugged.  “Security stuff.  It’s so annoying sometimes.”

That was a detail Agatha hadn’t expected.  The distress in the pit of her stomach grew quite a bit.

Nancy turned and faced her fully.  “So…do I have a room somewhere or something?  Or am I going to be chained up in the basement.  You did kidnap me.”

“We didn’t kidnap you!” Agatha said quickly.  “And you’re Stephen, our son, not some….”

“I’m Nancy!” Nancy shot back quickly.  “Stop calling me Stephen!”  With that she walked away quickly, the tears starting to fall from her eyes again.  She walked straight through the dining room and found herself in the kitchen once again.  She went through the kitchen and back into the mud room next to the garage.  There was another door there, it was locked but she unlocked it easily and went outside.  The yard was nice.  Real nice.  She sat down on the steps that led from the big patio to the grass and let the tears out, hugging herself and crying.  She was just so confused.

Agatha saw Steve sitting on the steps crying.  Softly she opened the door and went outside.  She sat down next to her son, who also wasn’t her son.  If she was this confused herself, and if there really was some young girl living in Steve’s body, how confused did she have to be?  She put her arm around her son’s big body and pulled him into her, letting him cry.  It was so strange to see him crying.  She didn’t think her son had cried since he was very young.  Much younger than the twelve year old girl that he was claiming to be.

Finally, when Steve’s tears seemed to be subsiding, she said, “You really don’t remember anything at all about being Stephen, my son?  There’s nothing in there at all?”

“No.  Not at all.  I only remember everything about me.  And I mean I remember everything about me.  Everything!”

“It seems like it,” Agatha admitted.  “Come on.  Would you like to see your room?”

“Yes please.”

Please.  Her son never said please.  With a shake of her head, she stood up and waited until Steve, or Nancy, or whoever it was, stood up too.  She led the way into the house, through the family room and up the stairs.  At the top of the stairs was another hallway.  She pointed to the left.  “Our room is down there.  The rest is guestrooms and a bathroom.  She pointed to the right side of the house.  “Your room is that way.  I’ll let you…experience it for yourself.  I’ll go back downstairs and leave you to it.”

Nancy watched as her fake mother went back downstairs.  She wiped her face again with her hands to clear some of the tear residue away, then she turned to the right and headed down the hall.  There were four doors, two on the right and two on the left.  She opened the first door on the left and found a  nice bathroom.  She tried the door across the hall and found another nice bedroom, all made up.  Was that her room?  Something told her it probably wasn’t.  The next door on the right held another bedroom.  It looked nice too, but it was decorated differently.  They were like the guest rooms in her own house in New York.

There was one final room.  It was on the other side of the hallway, and there was an ugly poster stuck on the outside of the door.  She guessed that the poster was from some band she had never heard of.  She opened the door and knew immediately that it was supposed to be her room.  What a disaster!  The room was an absolute mess, and one of the biggest things she noticed about it was the smell.  Awful!  It smelled like old gym socks or something.  She backed up across the hallway and stared into the room.  How could anyone breathe in there?  If she went in, would she die of asphyxiation?

Taking her life in her hands, she entered the room.  There were clothes and things strewn everywhere!  It took her a minute to figure out what all the ugly black things were that seemed to be all over the room.  Weights.  For exercise or something.  She was guessing the ugly red bench thing by the window went with all the weights too.  But why did they have to be thrown all over the room?  The bed not being made didn’t surprise her in the least.  The big desk along one of the walls had so much stuff on top of it she couldn’t figure out how anyone could work there.  She noted though that the computer there looked pretty nice.  Better than hers at home.  Kind of like the laptop that Emily had.  The wall above the desk was filled with papers and pictures and the shelf had trophies and model cars.

The top of the dresser was another disaster.  There didn’t seem to be any order to what was on it, just…everything!  And it was piled deep!  There was a door next to the dresser.  She opened it and found a closet.  Lots of clothes and the floor of the closet held all kinds of things, most of which she was guessing were sports related.

There was another door across the room.  She opened it and found a bathroom.  She was guessing it could have been a nice bathroom, but again, it was a disaster.  The bathroom attached to the bedroom though seemed nice.  It was just that she couldn’t figure out how anyone could live in that room.  Especially with that smell.

She hurried out of the room and all the way back downstairs.  She saw her mother in the kitchen.

“Did you find your room alright?” Agatha asked.

“How can anyone live there?” Nancy replied.  “Especially with that smell!  It nearly killed me when I opened the door.”

Agatha shrugged her shoulders.  “It’s your room.”

“It’s not my room!” Nancy was quick to point out.  “It belongs to that…other person.”

“That other person is my son…who you also happen to be,” Agatha reminded her.

Nancy simply stared angrily back at her.  “I don’t want to be your son!  Sorry, but I just want to be me again.  Badly!”

Agatha stared at him, then softened her look.  “I’m sure,” she replied.  “We’re hoping the new doctor will help.”

“When do I see him?”

“Tomorrow,” she told him.

“Tomorrow,” he said.  “What am I supposed to do till then?”

Agatha shrugged.  “Pick up your room.”

“It’s not my mess!”

“But like it or not, it’s still your room.  If you don’t like it, fix it.”

Nancy threw her arms up and turned away.  “How?”

“And while you’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt you to shave your face a bit!” Agatha called after him.

Nancy turned back toward her.  “Shave?”

“Yes!  Your razor is up there…somewhere in that mess!”

Feeling like the entire world just dropped into an entirely new level of strange, she went back upstairs to her room.  The first thing she did was to open the window, letting some much needed fresh air into the room.  She looked all around.  What was she supposed to do with it all?  There was a dirty pair of boxer shorts on the floor at her feet.  She reached down and gingerly picked them up with two fingers.  She held them up.  “Ew!”  She looked around.  What was she supposed to do with them?  What was she supposed to do with her life?

Ew!  Ew!  Ew!

 

Extracted - Chapter 5 – Warp Ten Achieved

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 5 – Warp Ten Achieved

 

During the day, Nancy had enough family constantly around her to keep those areas of her brain stimulated enough to prevent them from being overwritten, but at night, when she was basically alone with only an occasional nurse creeping in and out, that wasn’t the case.  All day long the process had continued, working on other areas of the brain that the soul could more easily access since those areas weren’t in use, but at night, there was nothing preventing the process from invading the more immediate memories and traits.

By the time the nurse came into her room, early in the morning, the process had proceeded far enough that the major portion of Nancy’s memories and personality had been finally overwritten with Steve.  Unknown to Nancy, for all intents and purposes, she was now a boy in a girl’s body.  She had almost no memory left of being Nancy.  Therefore, it was Steve who opened his eyes to watch the nurse silently going about her duties.

Steve didn’t move a muscle as the nurse checked the monitors and a few other things around the room.  He considered her to be good looking.  A bit old for him, but still, she had a body he’d love to explore.  He dared not ruin things by letting her know he was awake and watching her so he continued to lay quietly, only his eyes could give away that he was actually awake.  In minutes, he was disappointed to see her leave.

A visit from Melody just then would be nice.  Especially if they could be alone for a while.  Would Melody get off doing it in a hospital room?  Something told him she would love it.  He certainly would.

It was only then that he realized that the spinning around in his head had finally stopped, or nearly stopped.  There was a bit, but it was so slight he could easily ignore it.  He was ready to get up.  He was ready to go home.  He was ready to do something.  Maybe practice some football.  He was ready to…go the damn bathroom!

It was only as he was getting out of bed that he was hit with the problem.  He remembered being hit with it yesterday.  Hair!  And a damn tiny girl’s body.  What the hell?  And he was feeling so good!  What was going on?

Having no choice, he made his way to the bathroom and sat to pee.  Once again he felt all around but found no sign at all of his penis.  What the hell?  What was going on?  Not knowing what to do about it, except hope that things would straighten out soon, he went back to bed.

He was tired of lying there though.  He needed to move.  He needed to exercise.  He should be getting in his morning run, preparing for football camp and the football season.  Not to mention, he had all those weights back in his room at home that he should be exercising with.  But being stuck in a hospital room left him with nothing he could do at all except sit there and fume in frustration, and sleep of course.  But he was getting tired of sleeping too, especially since his head was so much better today.

Where was that doctor?  He wanted to go home!

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

In Philadelphia, Henry and Agatha Marsh walked out of their house and headed to the car, heading once again for the hospital where their son was.

“I sure hope he’s doing better today,” Agatha said.

“Me too!” Henry agreed.  “I’ve got work to do.”

“Henry!  He’s our son.  Show some interest in something besides your damn job.”

“I’m worried about him too,” Henry admitted.  “He was doing a lot better yesterday.  What I want to see is for him to be able to go home today.  Finally!”

“Yeah,” Agatha agreed.  “Me too.  It’s just that….  What worries me is how confused he seemed last night.  Like everything he was talking about was all mixed up.”

“Huh!  Tell me about it,” Henry grunted as he got into the car.  “Who the hell is Emily that he kept talking about?  I thought his girlfriend was Melody.”

“She is.  I never heard of Emily, but I’m guessing she must be another one from school that’s caught his eye.”

“Obviously!” Henry agreed.  “Let’s just hope it’s all straight in his head by the time we get there.”

“Amen to that!”

A short while later, they walked into the hospital room and saw their son sitting up in bed.  The look on his face was strange, full of anger.

“Your back!” they heard Steve say somewhat nastily.

Agatha and Henry were a bit surprised by the attitude.  “Of course we are Steve,” Agatha told him.  “How are you today?  Is your head still spinning?”

“Hardly at all,” Steve told them.  “But why are you here?  I know who you said you are, but you aren’t.”

Both Henry and his wife were shocked.  “We’re not what?” Henry asked.

“My parents.  My mother and father.  My family!”

Agatha’s mouth hung agape.  “What?”

“Where’s my real mom?” Nancy demanded angrily.  “Where is she?”

“Steve!  I’m your real mother.  How could you think otherwise?”

“No you’re not!  I want my real mother.  I want my real father.  I want my real sister.  Where are they?  Because you’re not them.”

“Steve, what are you talking about?  Of course….”

“Stop calling me Steve.  I’m not Steve.  I’m Nancy.  Get it straight.  I’m Nancy.  Now where’s my real mother and father?”

Henry and Agatha could only stare at their son in disbelief.  “Nancy?” Henry asked.

“Nancy!” Nancy confirmed.  “Now go away and get my real family!”

“Stephen Marsh!” Agatha said angrily.  “Stop this stupid foolishness right now.  You certainly are not Nancy.  You’re my son, Stephen.  Stephen Marsh.  And we love you very much.”

“You are not my parents!” Nancy screamed back.  “And my name is Nancy, not Steve…or whatever you claim it is.  I’m Nancy.  Nancy Stiller.  And you better watch out because my father is a U.S. congressman, so don’t try and pull any funny business.”

“A U.S…” Henry started in disbelief.  “What the hell are you talking about?”

“My father.  He’s a congressman in the U.S. government!  He works in Washington.  Now go get him!  And stop trying to hand me all this other stupid bullshit about being someone else!  Go!  I want my real family, not you!”

Neither Henry nor Agatha knew what to do.  “Let’s find a doctor.  Fast!” Agatha said softly.  Together, they quickly left the room.  What had happened to their son.  Nancy?  A U.S. congressman?  Nothing was making sense!  Things were suddenly worse than they had been.

Together they hurried down to the nurse’s station.  “He’s ranting and raving!” Agatha exclaimed.

“He’s completely out of his head!” Henry added.

The nurse nodded.  “Yeah.  He was like that earlier when the doctor went in.  He ordered another CAT scan to see if anything shows up yet.”

“But what are we supposed to do?” Agatha asked.

The nurse shrugged.  “Wait and see what the scan shows.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

In New York, the doctor was a little behind on his morning rounds, but that was nothing new.  He walked into Nancy’s room and saw her sitting up in the bed.  “Feeling better today?” he asked hopefully.

“I’m living in a hallucination.” Nancy’s body replied.

The doctor was immediately concerned.  “You’re hallucinating now?  In what way?”

“All I see is a girl’s body.”

“Where?” the doctor asked.  “Does she talk to you?”

“No!  I have a girl’s body.  Completely.  I even have to sit down to pee.  It’s ridiculous.  And don’t get me started on how real it feels as if I’ve got long hair.  It’s annoying, to say the least.”

The doctor was confused.  “But you are a girl.  A twelve-year-old girl.  And a very pretty one at that.  Why should you think…”

“I’m not a girl!” Steve shouted.  “Why can’t you see that?  Oh.  Shit.  You’re part of the hallucination too.  Damn, this is so real, I can’t believe it.  What kind of drugs did you give me?”

“Nancy.  We aren’t giving you any drugs at all.  All those drugs you were given while you were kidnapped should be out of your system by now.”

“Well, something isn’t, because they’re making me think I’ve got a stupid girl’s body.  Completely!  I can’t even feel my penis.”

“But you don’t have a penis, because you’re a girl.  You are very confused today.”

“You’re telling me,” Steve agreed.

“How is your head?  Is the room still spinning?”

“Not really.  Barely at all.  What a relief!  It’s just…now I’m hallucinating like you wouldn’t believe, and it feels so real.  I’ve got to get past this.  I’ve got football camp next week.”

“Football camp?”

“I’m a linebacker on our high school team,” Steve explained.

“Football!” the doctor muttered, trying to make sense of things.  “Nancy,” he said.  “I think I’m going to…”

“Nancy?” she said quickly.  “Don’t call me Nancy!  Stop calling me anything else.  My name is Steve.  Stephen Marsh.  Not Nancy!  Stop trying to make this damn hallucination worse than it is!”

“Nancy…Steve…Nancy…” the doctor said.  “I believe I’m going to send you for another CAT scan, and we’re going to put a rush on it!”

“Whatever!” Steve replied.  “I just want this hallucination to stop.  I just want the world to return to normal.”

“That’s what we’d all like,” the doctor agreed.  “I’ll set up the test.”  He quickly walked out.

Steve shook his head.  This was the darndest hallucination he could ever conceive.  It seemed so real.  Absolutely real, in every way.  Real enough that the doctor was ordering some kind of scan for him.  He really hoped that scan would find something to explain it all.  Otherwise, who knew how long he would be sitting to pee.  Ridiculous!  Not to mention, football camp was next week!  He needed to get better!

He was still sitting there fretting over everything when his room was invaded by three people.

“There she is,” Wanda Stiller said happily.  “You’re sitting up and looking so much better!  How are you darling?” she asked as she walked over toward her daughter.

Steve shook his head.  “Whoever you people are, why do you keep showing up?  You keep saying you’re my family, but I don’t know you.  Any of you!  It’s almost like you’re all part of my massive hallucination too…except I keep remembering you from when you were here before.  Who are you anyway?”

“Nance!” Emily exclaimed.  “What’s wrong with you?”

“I don’t know you either,” Steve told her.  “Even though you’re really pretty and I’d love to date you sometime.  Maybe when all this is over I can get your number.  But in the meantime, I just want something to start making sense!  I want to see someone that I actually know.”

“Someone you know?” Wanda asked, totally aghast.  “You don’t recognize us at all?  You don’t remember us?  You did yesterday.”

“I…don’t…know…you!  Even though yes, I remember you being here before.  I just want to see my own family.  I want to see people I actually know!”

“Like who?” Michael Stiller asked.

“Like maybe my father.  That would certainly be nice.  Even though he’s always working.”

“And who do you think your father is, if it isn’t me?”

“Who?  Who else?  Henry Marsh of course.  Philadelphia’s District Attorney.  That’s who my real father is.  Not you…whoever you are.”

“Henry Marsh,” Mike Stiller repeated, then shook his head.  “Nancy Stiller!  You stop this crazy ranting right now.  We’re your family.  We’re your mother and father.  Your real mother and father.  Not some made up, fake…I don’t know what!”

“I’m not making anything up.  And stop calling me Nancy.  My name is Stephen.  Stephen Marsh, and I’m not a girl, I’m a boy, and this is all driving me nuts!”

“This is so weird,” Emily muttered, staring at her younger sister in disbelief.  Her mother could only agree.

“Come on,” Mike told them.  “Let’s see if we can find a doctor.  Things just suddenly got a whole lot worse, and I didn’t see any of it coming.”

“Neither did I,” his wife agreed.

“Bye!  And don’t come back,” Steve called from his hospital bed when he saw them finally leaving.  The nerve of some people!  Now.  How the hell was he supposed to get this stupid hallucination to end?  If only it wasn’t so real.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Once again the CAT scan showed nothing wrong with Steve’s head.  The problem was that Steve seemed to be thoroughly convinced that he wasn’t Steve, but a twelve year old girl named Nancy instead.  With the CAT scan coming up clear, it was time to switch tactics.  Steve didn’t need a medical doctor.  He needed a psychiatrist.  A good psychiatrist!

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

The tests they ran on Nancy showed no physical problems at all.  Nancy had them all completely confounded though.  How could she possibly think she was a boy?  Some boy named Stephen.  And Nancy had made up so many facts about him that made it all seem so real.  Football?  It was crazy.  Nancy hated football.  Nancy was the epitome of a girly girl.  She loved dolls, makeup, clothes, and stuffed animals.  Certainly not sports of any kind.

In the end, the doctor sat down with Mike and Wanda Stiller and explained that there was nothing medically wrong with Nancy that he could find at all.  He was now going to refer her to a behavioral clinic in hopes that the psychologists there could do something with her.  It was time to send her to someone more knowledgeable about what was now a completely mental issue.  He was going to dismiss her from the hospital just as soon as he could make arrangements with the doctor he thought she needed.