Nathan held the shimmering stone in his hand. He was feeling pretty stupid right about now. Why the hell had he bought this damn thing anyway? Was he seriously desperate or just plain gullible enough to believe what the eBay seller's description had said? A stone that granted a wish?
He had stumbled across the eBay page a week ago, on one of his nightly internet trawling sessions, on his laptop in bed, his fiancé slumbering next to him. Nathan didn't share....normal guys' attractions. Well, not all of them. He was just as attracted to any classically beautiful or sexy woman as the next guy, and his fiance was that. Gorgeous, brunette, in shape, just like him. But he knew he had a few "kinks" that other men didn't share. So, when he stumbled across the "stone of bodily transfiguration" on the auction site, he knew that there was something there for him.
The stone, wrote the seller, had the ability to grant the user's most fantastic wish regarding the human body, all "changes" guaranteed harmless, reversible, and free from any "deal-with-the-devil" curse-like twists. Want to be a foot taller? Done. Want a bigger male organ? Easy. Want to see how life as the opposite sex weighed up? Wish = granted. The stone came with "one charge", and promised a "free returns" perks immediately after usage.
Maybe it was the reviews from past buyers, maybe it was the seller's lavish descriptions of the stone's powers, but something made him believe that this was the real deal. Some reviewers talked about gaining insane physical resilience, some talked about a complete bodily makeover, some talked about things like bringing out their own "feminine side". But the one that really struck Nate was one sentence in the seller's personal description. "With this, the human form has no limits."
That was it. That was the sentence that sealed his fate. It all sounded good to somebody with no other options for specific "interests" as Nathan had. Free returns? Reversible? After a few nervous jitters, and with a little glance over to see if Alicia, his fiancé, was sound asleep, he approved the paypal purchase for $150. Sure it was pricey, but he had a decent job, and he'd just gotten his tax returns back. He had some spare cash.
The day after the order, and after a sleepless night of regret over such a stupid and rushed purchase, Nathan emailed the seller requesting to cancel his order and refund the money. A surprisingly quick reply came to his inbox, that read:
"Nathan,
I understand your decision to cancel the order. However, please allow me to ask you to reconsider. I guarantee that this product will suit your every need. If you say it does not, I will make sure any effects the stone causes will be undone, and your $150 will be refunded to you immediately. I have never had a dissatisfied customer, and I have a feeling you will be no different.
Take a day, let me know what you think.
-S."
Nathan, reading the email, decided it would just be best to let the thing come and see what happens. After all, he'd get his money back when it turned out to be a dud. He had a seller verified e-mail that he could use as leverage in a complaint to eBay if he reneged on his promise. He responded with an agreement not to cancel the order, and went about his day.
The week dragged on. Nathan went to work every day thinking about the stone. About what he had in mind for his wish, and all that could come from it if this was the real deal. His work suffered, but he didn't care. Alicia told him he was being distant, and Nathan played up a decent act of being stressed out from his job, but every night he lay awake, staring at his girlfriend's back as she slept.
Day by day, he waited, rushing home every night to see if maybe it came early. On Friday, he finally came home to a small envelope in his mailbox, sent from a "private address". Running inside, he checked if Alicia was home. When he was sure she wasn't, he tore open the packaging to find a smaller envelope with a lump inside it.
The envelope itself was an ornate gold-lined piece of soft paper, almost like a silken papyrus. The front, in a gorgeous script, simply read "Nathan". He opened the envelope, and tilted it until a small rock, almost the size of a pebble, smooth and with the form of a misshapen oval, slid out into his palm. The rock itself was a milky white, and almost a little see through, with a cloudy complexion in the middle. It had a magnificent shine to it, and as he looked closely, he could see that the 'clouds' inside were actually swirling about, billowing like a smoke bomb or a witches cauldron. He could tell this was not any ordinary stone, and if it was still a scam, it was a damn convincing one at first glance.
Nathan noticed a slip of paper inside the envelope. Pulling it out, he began reading the handwriting in the same script as on the envelope.
"Mr. Nathan,
Enclosed is the stone you requested. I warn you to proceed with caution, and word your desires very specifically. You only were able to find the stone because you are worthy and of good heart, but you still must be extremely descriptive in your wish if you would like it to work properly. To use the stone, proceed as such:
1. Place the stone into a small box.
2. Over the stone, place a RECENT picture or likeness of yourself, in which you appear as close as possible to the way you do now.
3. Place above that a handwritten note detailing exactly what you would like done to your body. BE SPECIFIC. IE: "Changed into a merman with the upper half of a human" would give the stone a better idea than "Changed into a merman", just as "Changed into living stone" would likely be more enjoyable than "changed into stone". The stone fills in any blanks you leave in the description with it's best guess, but it is not a mind reader. When you finish writing out the wish, sign your full name at the bottom.
4. Close the box.
5. Open the box.
The effect will take place in 3 hours or less. Again, as I am aware of your hesitance, I give you a complete satisfaction guarantee IF you follow the directions, or your money back. Additionally, by sending me an e-mail, you can request the wish be undone at any time in the future, even if it satisfies you initially.
And Nathan. As I'm sure you may be wondering, you can indeed place a picture of another subject you know well inside the box. (Just do not do this while they are driving).
Happy wishing."
That was it. No signature, no initials, no identification of any kind. How the hell was he going to get ahold of the seller without a name? He hoped he wouldn't have to.
He sat for a long time, contemplating what he was about to do. It was nuts. Crazy. Something a toddler would dream up. The fact that he even considered this could be real, and that he spent so much on it, made extremely embarrassed. But this person, this mysterious internet seller, had known things about him. They could have gotten his name from the shipping address of course, but what about that last add on? How did they know what he was planning?
After a lot of back and forth thinking, and pulling his hair out a little bit, Nathan gathered up the materials. He brought them all together and sat on his bed upstairs. He had the instructions, an old shoebox, a pen, a piece of paper, a picture from his office desk downstairs, and of course, the stone.
He placed the stone inside the box, and the clouds inside it began almost storming.
Step one.
He went all pins and needles as he reached over and grabbed the picture.
The picture of Alicia.
It was from their vacation 5 years ago. It was between this picture and another one of her on his desk, the other picture being an embarrassing baby picture of herself. But he liked this picture more, and the instructions did say a recent picture.
This picture was taken by him on the beach. They had escaped the brisk winds of the New England late fall for a trip down to Florida for a week. They were both young professionals, working newer jobs after their college graduations a couple years earlier. In the picture, she stood, hands on her hips, a drink in her hand and a smile on her face. She had a now-nostalgic tan from their fun in the sun, her hair a little more mahogany than brown from the exposure, and she looked about 20 pounds lighter than she did now, as a 29 year old, and her 24 year old face looked a little more youthful. Her butt was a little more shapely back then, her stomach a little flatter, and her breasts just the slightest bit smaller and perkier. She was still in shape these days, just not as much of a gym frequenter as she was when the picture was taken. He still loved her body now. But he knew he could love it more if this worked.
He wasn't really considering any of that however at the moment. Nathan took a deep breath, and placed the picture on top of the stone inside the box.
Step two.
The stone began to glow beneath the photo paper, and he heard a slight high pitched tone begin to come from the box.
His hand shaking, he took the pen and paper, and turned to his bedside table to write. His heart pounding, he thought of what to write. The letter said to be specific, and Nathan had plenty good an idea in his head of what he was trying to accomplish. After years of surfing forums, blogs, and sites in languages he couldn't read for the kinds of pictures and stories he was looking for, he had given himself a plethora of descriptive words to work with when searching. As he took a few sharp breaths in and out, he put pen to page, and wrote.
"Change the entire person and all her parts into a living, breathing, organic, elastic material. Able to stretch, reshape, deform, modify, shift, or change their form in any way they desire, without any lasting damage or any pain. Mass can be created or removed at will. No loss of memory or personality. The changing of their body produces pleasure when they want such pleasure. No change in bodily function, the body and mind will be able to sustain themselves and operate at peak efficiency no matter the shape or state they choose.
Signed Nathan Jacob Farmer."
That just about covered it. He thought long and hard, making sure he didn't leave anything out. The seller had promised no trickery, but he wasn't taking any chances.
Turning back to the box, he held his wish over the top. As he slowly let his hand drop towards the stone, he heard the high pitch whine grow louder and stronger, as the glow from the stone grew brighter. He could see it emanating from beneath the picture of Alicia, looking like molten lava, as his hand came within a centimeter of the surface. Gingerly, the sound growing deafening, he let the note fall out of his hands, and as it settled, he felt the box begin to gently hum, the glowing from the stone turning a bright green.
Step three.
Suddenly, with the high pitched whine having been replaced by the hum of the stone apparently accepting his wish, he heard a sound from the hallway outside the bedroom. He turned his head to focus on it, as he did so, he saw the door handle to the bedroom begin to turn.
