The Hermaphrodite's Curse

PART TWO - CAMBRIDGE

- 7 -

Gabe wandered in soft, green grass, his mind floating far away from the world. Everything here felt more heightened, more vibrant and alive. The soft grass beneath his bare feet, the warm sun beating down on his shoulders, the cool breeze wafting over his naked body, the sound of running, tumbling water; it all felt more real than reality. He never wanted to leave this place. He could just stay walking in this soft green grass forevermore.

He turned towards the sound of falling water. He began to recognise this place. He had expected to see a stream, but instead there was a fountain. It was built like a well, a round stone structure about waist height with a pool of water inside. In the centre of this pool, a jet of water shot up into the air before tumbling and splashing back into the water. Gabe felt an incredible urge to bathe his naked body in the cool, clear waters of the fountain.

As he headed towards the falling water, he saw a figure emerge up out of the pool. It was the figure of a beautiful woman, one that made Gabe's whole body instantly alive with excitement. Her tall, elegant body was completely naked, the waters of the fountain running right down it as she stood there, right in the middle of the fountain. Her hair, a rich golden shade, fell down to her waist and wrapped around her body. Gabe knew her instantly as the goddess that stalked all his finest dreams, Venus the Queen of Love.

"Come, my son," came the wondrous, musical voice, thrumming through every fibre of his being, "Come see what you are. Come look in my mirror."

She reached out her hand to him and Gabe found that he too was now standing inside the water as it splashed against his naked skin. He too stretched out his hand to touch hers so he was posed in an exact mirror image of the goddess. As his fingers touched hers, he felt a feeling like a burst of electricity exploding right through his body, from the tips of his fingers right down to his toes. He felt alive and throbbing with need. His body felt so soft and sensitive and yet, beneath the water line, he could feel all the blood rushing to his growing erection.

The goddess' perfect lips drew themselves into a smile. Red lips and bright white teeth conveying all kinds of depths of warmth, love and desire that made Gabe feel pretty light headed. He felt himself smiling back, his own movements almost involuntarily following hers. As she moved her hand from where it touched his, his own hand followed suit. She reached up and ran her hands through her golden hair where the shower of water fell on her head. Gabe copied and ran his hands through his darker locks, finding them seeming to grow longer with his touch.

Looking into the falling water, Gabe could see that the image of Venus before him was no longer the golden haired goddess he knew. She had darker hair, although the beautiful soft, pale skin and the curves of her breasts were still the same. Her face was now partly obscured by the water falling on her. Gabe reached out to touch her once more, but his hand passed right through the water without grasping anything. He realised that he was no longer looking at the goddess, but a reflection in the running water. He was looking at himself.

He looked down at his body. It was the usual awkward, skinny shape he was used to, the one that made him feel uncomfortable about himself. The image he saw in the mirror, however, was a different kind of him, one with a beautiful body, a soft, sensual, curvy form. He could feel an incredible yearning for the body in the reflection. He knew it was him and yet not him and he longed to change that, to feel as beautiful as she looked.

He reached out, trying to touch that soft skin, but all he got was wetness. Touching the face of his reflection just served to disrupt the cherished image. As he passed his hand through the indistinct face, it began to change again. The hair that had been blonde and was now a dark brown was beginning to turn a new shade. It was beginning to turn purple. It flickered purple for a moment, then shifted again to blonde, then bright red.

The woman in the water seemed to shift right through a rainbow of colours, red one minute, green the next. Gabe did not really understand what was happening in this transformation, but he remained fascinated, excited and rooted to the spot. The woman who had seemed his reflection until a few seconds ago now stepped forward naked from the shower of water. Her hair turned back to purple. It was Saphy.

This was not what Gabe expected at all. He was lost in the paradise pleasure of his dream world with his beautiful goddess, imagining himself far more comfortable in his nakedness than he could ever be in reality, then that dream world was invaded by the image of that frustrating, angry, aggressive girl. Still, he could not take his eyes off hers. Beneath the row of glittering piercings along Saphy's eyebrows, Gabe had never before noticed the bright green of her eyes.

"Gabe," she said, pushily, "Get up."

And then she seemed to burst into bubbles. One minute Saphy was standing there in the fountain before the naked Gabe, the next she was splashing water everywhere and had completely disappeared. The splash hit Gabe hard in the face, soaking him wet and bringing him to his senses.

He woke up slumped on a hard wood floor. His head ached worse than he could ever remember it and his eyes struggled to focus around him. It slowly dawned on him that he was still alive, much to his surprise. He was not dead, nor was he lost in a fantasy world. He would never feel this groggy if he were dead. Something, some kind of good fortune, had preserved him when he thought all was lost. All he remembered was the two sinister twins sticking a knife against his back and then he had felt a terrible pain in his head and he had blacked out. Now he woke up here.

After a few moments' effort to focus his attention, Gabe looked around the room where he found himself. It was a bare, empty room in some kind of basement or cellar. The walls were unpainted plaster and the floor wood. There were bars like a cage or a prison, behind which Gabe was shut.

From behind a door in the bars a man dressed in a sort of robe or cowl watched Gabe. He had a bucket of water, which he had just poured over Gabe to wake him. Beneath the hood of the cowl, the man was simply watching in silence. The robe he wore was black, but there was a design on it. It was a white shape, like a cross but growing from narrow points in the middle to a wide end on each of the cross' four edges. Gabe was not thinking very clearly at this point, but he felt frustrated to have understood one mysterious symbol only to be confronted with another.

He was about to open his dry mouth to ask the silent watcher some question, when the robed man turned and walked out of the room. Gabe could hear his footsteps going upstairs. He began to wonder what he had been brought here for. Why would they keep him alive? What were they going to do to him now in this dungeon? He slumped on the floor in despair, finding himself incapable of trying to figure out the whole situation.

As time went by and nothing happened, Gabe began to think a little clearer. He could no longer hear the footsteps anywhere in the building. Finally, he got up and walked around his small cell. Knowing full well that nothing would happen he leaned with the full force of his weight against the door. To his surprise, the door opened instantly, nearly throwing Gabe back down to the floor.

Not wasting any time considering why the door was left unlocked, Gabe ran across the room and up the stairs. He could still hear no noises in the house, but he wasn't taking any chances on checking the place out. Seeing the front door he headed straight out onto the street and started to run. He had no idea which way he was running or where to, he just knew he wanted to get away from there.

Running full tilt down the unfamiliar streets of Cambridge, with no idea of where he was in the city, Gabe almost ran headlong into a street sign. Looking up he saw it pointed in the direction of the railway station. Right then he knew that after his experience he wanted to put Cambridge as far behind him as possible. He remembered Saphy saying she would wait there for him until seven and then leave. He checked his watch. It was 6:55. Glancing up at the sign, he followed the direction it lead and broke once more into a run as fast as he could.

Seven o'clock had just passed when Gabe turned onto the street with the station on it. There was no sign of Saphy waiting outside. Gabe was severely out of breath, his body beginning to ache from all the running and his head throbbing with the pain of where he had been knocked out, but he had to keep running. He had to get away. He could not risk being caught again. After a moment to catch his breath, he broke into a run once more.

With his head down, he ran straight into the chest of a man who stood right over him. He felt strong arms grab him by the shoulders and panic ran right down his spine once more. He looked up in fear, preparing himself for the sight of the two bald assassins he had tussled with twice already. Instead, he found himself looking into the frowning, hard face of a policeman.

"You're in an awful hurry, sunshine," he said, "Running from something in particular?"