Revenge - Chapter 35 – Part 1 of 2

Revenge

By Karen Singer

Chapter 35 – Part 1 of 2

Diane was perturbed…and excited.  She was excited because she was anxious to see what the Sorceress was going to do with Steve.  She was perturbed because she was sitting in her car, outside of Steve’s apartment, waiting for him to come out.  And since she had no idea what time the Sorceress would send him somewhere, most likely the mall, she had decided to come early and wait.  That is, if the Sorceress’s magic didn’t just somehow pick him up and magically move him somewhere.  And by some of the things Diane had already seen, she wasn’t going to rule that possibility out. 

Come on Steve.  Where are you?  Come on!  She had been sitting there in her car for almost an hour now.  It was already after nine o’clock.  All the stores would already be open, and the Sorceress had mentioned wanting to get an early start with him.  So where was he?  She was very tempted to get out of her car and go knock on his door.  She didn’t though.  She continued to wait…impatiently.

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It was so good to get to be a girl again!  Over and over again Karen thought that as she primped and got herself ready for a day out shopping…and humiliating Steve, who just then was sound asleep in her head, and would continue to stay that way until she decided otherwise.  She had no set agenda, other than what Susan had told her to do – go out and enjoy the stores for as long as possible!  She wasn’t happy about the fact that Susan had told her to spend as little money as she could get away with, but she understood that.  She and Steve were quickly running out of money, and that was after they had just gotten paid the day before.  By the time Steve paid all his bills, there wouldn’t be that much left.

Karen had spent a wonderful morning bathing and pampering herself.  It could have been made better by having Steve awake to “enjoy” it, but Susan didn’t want him to know anything was going on until much later.  That was going to be fun.  At least for Karen. 

She had finally chosen a pretty light dress that she had gotten in Saint Thomas that she hadn’t worn yet.  It was all white, with a white belt, but the material was beautifully embroidered – in white.  White on white.  Very pretty.  Very light.  Very…girly.  She knew Steve would absolutely hate wearing some of the higher heels all day, like particularly those gold ones, but Karen knew they weren’t appropriate for shopping that long.  Not that that was a major concern, but she had to spend the day in those shoes too.  So on her feet, she wore the cork heel wedges she had gotten in the islands.  That was such a good trip!

Her nails were done, her makeup was done, she had everything in her purse that was slung over her arm.  She was ready.  She was really looking forward to today.  The only worrying thing she could think of was Monica and her friends.  She kind of hoped they wouldn’t show up later.  It would really be a distraction from the fun she planned on having with Steve.  With a huge smile on her face, she opened her front door and headed out.

She was almost to the car when she suddenly saw Diane running right at her.  Darn!  Of all the worst times!

“Steve!” Diane called rather desperately as she headed for him. 

As far as Karen was concerned, Susan too for that matter, this little scenario had been the worst one that could have happened.  It was also going to be the most difficult for Karen to deal with. “Diane,” she said.  “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you!” Diane replied somewhat breathlessly.

“What’s wrong?” Karen asked, seeing now that Diane didn’t exactly look relaxed.

“Nothing,” Diane told her.  “I’ve just been waiting…a long time!”

“For what?”

“You!”

“Why?”

“Cause I didn’t know what time you were leaving, or even where you’re going for sure, or anything!”

“Why?” Karen asked again.

Diane was a bit frustrated.  Especially after having to wait so long for him to get out.  “Cause I don’t want to miss anything!”

Karen stared at her for a moment.  She should have figured.  Actually, Susan had thought of the possibility.  They were both simply hoping it wouldn’t happen.  Well, it had!  Now she had to deal with it.  “I’m heading to that mall on the north end of town,” she told Diane.  “If you want to follow me, then go ahead.”

“Why don’t I just ride with you instead?” Diane suggested.

Karen shook her head.  “It’s going to be a very long day.  You might want to leave before I do.”

Diane shook her head and headed to the passenger side of the car.  “Not likely!”

Karen had little choice.  Her truly beautiful day was already going bad.  She’d just have to see what she could still salvage out of it.  She unlocked the car, and they both got in.

“So what are you planning for today?” Diane asked excitedly as they drove out of the parking lot.

“Please don’t talk to me right now,” Karen told her.  “I have to concentrate on driving.”

“Concentrate on driving?  And you can’t talk?”

“Please.  It’s difficult,” Karen replied.

Diane wasn’t sure why that should be, but she held her tongue – for a while.  Karen was just glad she had found a way to keep Diane from asking any difficult questions.  But Diane didn’t stay quiet for long.  “Like your dress,” Diane said.  “It’s pretty.”

“Thanks,” Karen replied simply as she did her best to concentrate firmly on the road. 

“Where’d you get it?”

“Saint Thomas.”

The answers Diane were getting were minimal.  Very minimal.  Even though it really was a pretty dress.  She tried asking a few other things, but either got no answers or very minimal answers.  She finally gave up for a while.  But the moment they had parked, somewhat close to the mall itself, Diane had to ask.  “Now what?”

“Now we go in and see what I can find,” Karen told her.

It was as they were walking towards the mall that Diane realized how relaxed Steve had suddenly become.  What was it?  Was he more of a nervous driver than she had thought?  But once inside, she realized something else.  Steve was moving a little differently.  He was moving a little more…femininely.  She thought anyway.  And she didn’t miss the broad smile on his face either.  “Anything in particular you’re looking for?” Diane asked Steve.

Karen was simply delighted to be out as a girl again.  She was delighted to be out shopping again – even if she couldn’t spend much.  And she was more delighted thinking about how much “fun” Steve was soon going to have.  But she still had to answer Diane’s question.  “I don’t know much about this place,” she told Diane.  Well, it wasn’t a mall that Steve had ever been to more than once or twice in his life.  “I’m just going to have to see what I can find.” 

Karen stopped and stared around her, but it took her only a moment to spot a good possibility.  It was time to get this show on the road.  Time to wake up Steve.  She just had one problem.  “Um…Diane,”

“Yeah?”

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure.  Anything.”

“Stay here for a few minutes, please.”

“Uh…okay.  Why?”

Karen was already moving as she replied.  “Because it’s time to wake up Steve.”

Wake up Steve?  But she had just been talking to him!  Her mouth hung open as she watched Steve walking away toward a cheap trinket shop not far from the door to the mall.  It wasn’t until then that she realized it.  She hadn’t been talking to Steve at all.  She had been talking directly to the Sorceress!  Wow!  No wonder the Sorceress had wanted her to be quiet while they were driving.  It was hard enough driving normally.  It had to be far more difficult if she was somewhere else, driving through Steve’s body.  Incredible!  Waiting behind now wasn’t going to happen.  “Sorceress!  Wait!”

Ugh!  Karen had heard Diane call her Sorceress.  It was just what she didn’t want to happen.  She stopped in her tracks and saw Diane hurrying towards her.  “I thought you were going to wait back there.”

“But Sorceress…”

“Not Sorceress!  Don’t call me that.  Ever!  It’s Steve.  All the time.  Especially here.  Only Steve.  I’m going to be…gone.”

“Gone? But…”

“Diane.  I’m not here.  I was never here.  Now please wait here for a minute until Steve wakes up.”

“Wakes up?”

“As far as he knows, he’s still sound asleep in his bed.  Now it’s time for me to leave.”

“But can’t I ask you any questions?”

“No!  Not now,” Karen replied as she started walking off again.

Diane stayed right with her.  “Why won’t you make Steve love me?” Diane asked.  “I bared my soul to you.  I told you things I’ve never told anyone!”

Karen didn’t really know what Diane was talking about.  “Please wait here,” Karen told her.  “I have to leave.”  She continued on into the trinket shop, annoyed because Diane was right there with her. 

“But Sorceress!”

“Steve!”

“Okay, Steve!” Diane replied, fully perturbed now.  “How do you do all these incredible things?”

Steve had been getting plenty of odd looks from people since he got out of the car.  Diane calling him Sorceress had added to the attention they were getting – which was mostly what Karen wanted…for Steve anyway, just not herself.  She needed to wake up Steve somewhat decently.  And with Diane there, the sooner the better.  She did her best to ignore Diane.  “Oh look!” she said as she spied a cheap gold bracelet.  “Isn’t that pretty?”

Light.  Sound.  Talking.  Commotion.  Steve opened his eyes, and found himself staring at a thin gold bracelet on someone’s wrist.  His brain was foggy, but the panic was setting in quickly.  The wrist with the bracelet moved – as he moved his own arm.  It was his own arm!  “What the hell?” he exploded.

“Sorceress?” Diane yelled, suddenly frightened.  She stepped back a bit out of fear. 

Steve looked around.  Where was he?  How had he gotten there?  He quickly looked down at himself.  “Damn it!” he yelled.  He was dressed completely like a woman again, and his loud exclamations were gathering all too much attention.  But just then, he didn’t care in the least. 

He looked around a bit more and spotted Diane.  “Diane!” he spat.  “What the hell did you do to me now?  Where are we?”

Diane was shocked.  She had no doubt at all that it was now Steve talking to her.  And she had no doubt at all that he was pissed.  Maybe she should have stayed back out of the way like the Sorceress had suggested.  “Uh…we’re at the mall?” she told him, asking it more than telling him.

“Damn it!  Why?  Why did you do this to me again?” he demanded.  “Why do you keep doing things like this to me?”

“Uh…it wasn’t me?” Diane replied meekly.

“Yeah right!  And you just happened to be standing right there?  Bullshit!  Where’s the witch?  Where’s Monica?”  He headed angrily for the door.

“You!  Stop!  Wait!” someone urgently shouted.

Steve turned angrily and saw a store clerk.  “Now what?”

“Are you going to pay for that bracelet?  Pervert!”

Steve looked down at his arm and ripped the bracelet off.  He literally threw it at the store clerk.  “Where’s that witch?” he yelled as he stomped angrily toward the door. 

Diane started to follow, then noticed something.  “Don’t forget your purse!” she yelled after him.

Steve stopped, and turned.  He was more than angry.  More than upset.  He looked around and spotted one of the purses he had gotten in Saint Thomas sitting on the floor.  He went back, picked the damn thing up, and walked out.  Diane followed after him, but stayed back for her own safety.

“Damn those witches!” Steve muttered angrily as he looked around at where he was.  And just where was he?  It looked like a mall, but he wasn’t familiar with it.  So just where in the world was he now?  At least it wasn’t Saint Thomas…he hoped.  He spotted the door leading to the outside, completely ignoring all the people looking at him…and moving out of his way.  They better move aside.  He’d clobber any of them that came close.  If he could.  He was certainly angry enough.  But he had no doubt at all that the witch was watching him.  In fact, one of those witches was there with him.  Maybe the others too.  He stopped and looked around again, but the only one he saw was Diane, stopping and staying back from him.  Good!  No telling what her witch magic would do to him if he somehow managed to try to kill her…again. 

He stopped at the mall display near the door and saw what mall he was in, and where he was.  At least he was still in the city.  That much was a big bonus.  Now he just had to find his damn car and get home again.  He walked straight outside, and was so preoccupied that he didn’t even realize that it wasn’t him that turned his body to the side and sent him looking in the wrong direction for his car. 

Up and down the long aisles of cars he walked.  After a while, he finally dug his key out of his damn purse and started hitting the horn button on it occasionally to help him locate his car.  But never once did it do anything.  He kept going, searching more diligently at the cars the furthest from the mall itself.  But still he couldn’t find his car.  Where the hell was it?

He turned a few times and noticed that Diane was still following him, back a ways but she was still there.  And then it dawned on him.  She drove him.  He should have known that immediately.  He began berating himself for being such a stupid dunce.  “Where’s your car?  Take me home!” he demanded.

Diane was still somewhat in shock.  Steve had been literally searching most of the parking lot.  “I don’t have it,” she told him.  “We took your car.”

“Bullshit!” Steve replied.  “I just searched this entire parking lot, and my car isn’t here!”

“Um…I know,” she said.  “I was following you.”

“So where’s my car?”

“Um…I don’t think you’re supposed to leave yet,” she said instead.

“Not supposed to leave?  What’s that mean?”

“Not for…a long time,” she told him.

Steve now had even more reason to kill the witch.  “What the hell am I supposed to do?” he yelled as he stomped angrily toward her.  Actually, stomping in those wedges wasn’t much like the stomping he wanted to do. 

“Uh…shop?” Diane suggested. 

“Shop?”

“Uh…yeah?”

Steve stared angrily at her.  “You’re all just trying to drive me bankrupt!” he spat angrily.

“Um…no.  Actually,” Diane replied, “as I understand it, I don’t think you actually have to buy anything.  Just stay out where everyone can see you.”

“I don’t have to buy anything?  But I have to let everyone gawk at me?”

“Um…something like that,” Diane told him.

“Damn!  You don’t know how much I hate this.  You witches have no idea in the world how much I hate all this.  How much longer is it going to last?  What more can you do to me?”

“I don’t know!” Diane said, more forcefully than she had said anything since Steve had woken up.  I’m just…watching today.”

Steve rolled his eyes.  “You just want to see me make a mockery of myself!”

“Well…yeah.  Really,” Diane told him.  “I kind of do.  You’ve got to admit, it is funny.”

“Not to me, damn you.  Not to me.  So now what am I supposed to do?” Steve asked.

“I don’t know?  I guess that’s up to you.”

“I can’t find my car…and I’m not going back in that mall!  I’ll just stay right here until you say I can go home.  So you may as well go get your car right now and pick me up, cause I’m not going back into that mall!”

“But I didn’t bring my…”

“No!  No, no, no, no, no!” Steve suddenly yelled as he started moving toward the mall. 

“Now what?” Diane asked. 

“I said I wasn’t going back into that mall!” he yelled.  “And now you’re making me?  I hate you!  I hate you all!”

“Making you?”  But she followed as he yelled and ranted – and headed straight back inside the mall. 

“I hate you all!” Steve said to Diane as his body somehow carried him back inside.  “I hate every last one of you.”

“I know, Steve,” Diane said meekly.  She wasn’t sure what had just happened, except that she was sure that somehow the Sorceress had just gotten her way again.  And since the Sorceress was once again around, or at least mentally present…somehow…she felt somewhat safer around him.  She took a chance and linked her arm through his.  “As long as we’re going to be here for a while,” she said.  “Let’s go shop.”

Steve rolled his eyes.  But he already knew it would do no good to protest.  He was fairly sure that Diane wasn’t the one controlling him.  But he had always known that the real power was Monica.  She was the real witch.  He might not see her…just then, but he knew that Monica was the one guiding everything he did.