Chapter 8: Chapter 8

Most of the storage rooms in the shop were near replicas of one another; cold, sterile walls, washed out overhead lighting. They reminded Chris of hospital rooms, more often than not.

Room 93,288 was something of an exception. The room was itself an anomalous magical item being contained at the shop, in that it served whatever purpose the current occupant needed it to serve. Certainly other rooms like it existed elsewhere in the world, even inspiring other, less talented TERFy fiction authors.

The true nature of the room was unknown to Chris, of course. He was simply stunned to find a room with a huge television and the most modern game consoles, along with a comfortable-looking armchair. Everything was even scaled down to be proportionate to his Knot’s size, which was great!

He powered up a console and grabbed a controller, plopping himself down in the chair to enjoy some quality gaming time. 

Hours passed, and though there were theoretically infinite games to play, Chris felt the need for a break.

He noticed a closet door on the north wall that he hadn’t seen when he first came in. His curiosity piqued, he hopped off the chair and walked over to the closet door, grasping the handle in his claws and turning it.

The closet opened to reveal a long row of various dresses and other outfits, each very girly.

‘What? Why are these here?’ Chris wondered, stepping into the closet and walking along the row, trying to find anything masculine to cover his Knot.

After several minutes of searching, he had yet to find anything. Something had caught his eye though. A flowy white sundress practically jumped off the rack at him, and he kept finding himself coming back to it.

‘Well, I guess it’s better than being naked… and it’s not like anyone can see me in here trying it on.’

He took the dress off the rack and held it up to himself, looking in the mirror at the end of the closet.

With a bit of imagination, he could almost see the girl that his glamour had looked like. Maybe a little older. No, definitely older. A girl his true age. She was pretty, with long, flowing auburn hair, deep green eyes, a healthy complexion… 

He sighed wistfully and pulled the dress on over his sackcloth body, letting it fall around him.

Strangely, just having it on made him feel good. A smile slowly spread across his features, and he did a little twirl in it like he’d seen girls in movies do while dancing. The skirt flared out a bit, and he couldn’t help but laugh as something bubbled up in his belly-fluff. 

‘Okay. Maybe I’m weird… but who cares. It’s just for today, right?’ He stepped out into the room, finding that it now looked much… girlier. The TV and consoles were still there, still paused on his game, but the color scheme of the room had become warmer pastel colors. 

‘Uh. That’s weird,’ he thought. Then the realization hit him. What this room was. ‘But wait, if it’s a room of fulfillment why did it have a closet of dresses? I’m a guy, after all.’

His stomach fluff growled, and he watched as a kitchenette scaled to his size miraculously grew out of one of the walls.

‘Convenient,’ he thought, approaching the fridge. Opening it revealed a plethora of ingredients for all his favorite foods.

Reminded of his hunger, he set to work cooking a simple ham steak and a regular steak. Meat had remained his primary dietary element, after all. Other things tasted awful.

He found himself subconsciously swaying back and forth as he cooked, enjoying the swish-swish of the dress. Somehow, standing here cooking in a sundress made him feel particularly girly, which caused another weird fluttering sensation in his chest fluff. 

With the steaks done to rare, he pulled them from the stove and plated them up, cutting them into roughly bite-sized pieces. A quick jaunt back to his comfy chair, and he was settled back in for more gaming.

He didn’t bother with a fork - his metal fingers were sufficient for spearing a piece of meat and popping it in his mouth.

‘When did these claws become a natural thing to me?’ he wondered.

He worked his way through the diced-up cubes of meat, gnashing until they were gone and his stomach fluff was sated. 

The meal finished, a wave of lethargy overtook him, and he sprawled out in the chair to take a nap, kicking his feet up.

For the first time since all this had started, his sleep was peaceful, and untroubled by dark visions.

In his dream, he was at a fancy restaurant with Aiden, who looked fantastic in a nice suit.

Chris smiled as Aiden told a joke that he’d told a dozen times before. It still always made him laugh.

“Joking aside… you look great tonight, ####.”

‘Huh?’ The last word had come out as a muddled, muted mess. He couldn’t understand it.

Still, he knew the compliment had been aimed at him, so he smiled and gave a curt “Thanks, you too.”

For some reason, his face felt quite warm, and he found himself fidgeting with his hands in his lap, tracing the swirled embroidery of his dress. He’d specifically chosen this one to look nice for Aiden after all.

He knew an invitation to a place this nice could only mean one thing, and his heart was aflutter waiting for Aiden to pop the question.

As if taking his cue from that thought, Aiden got out of his chair and took a knee beside Chris.

“####, will you–”

The dream ended as he found himself being gently shaken awake.

“Chris, you okay?” Cailyn asked, looking down at him.

“Mmh… yeah, I’m fine.” He climbed off the recliner and languidly stretched out.

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“Nice dress,” Cailyn teased.

“Huh?” He looked down at himself, seeing the white sundress.

‘Oh no. Cay saw me wearing this. She’ll never let me live it down.’

“Ah! I can explain! Uh, I came into this room and I was looking for clothes to wear so I wasn’t naked anymore, you know, since my Knot looks a little more human now, and uh, all the closet had was dresses! Yeah!” Chris raced through his justification for his attire.

“Uh-huh,” Cay said, smirking. “Hey, don’t worry about it. If you wanna wear a dress, that’s fine by me. Knots are the best time to experiment, you know?”

‘Experiment? What would he be experimenting with? That was just ridiculous. It only made sense to imagine himself as a girl to wear this dress. And that dream was just a product of those silly imaginings! Aiden wasn’t into guys, after all.’

“I’m not! I’m just… I needed something to wear, okay?” Chris shot back defensively.

“Hey, okay, sorry.” Cailyn held up her hands in a pacifying gesture.

For a moment he had a brief flash of seeing her bloodied and torn open before him, entrails spilling everywhere.

‘Why…? I thought the evil was gone…’

“Anyway, come on. Observation period is over, and Nate wants to talk to you.” Cay motioned for him to join her by the door.

“Oh, right.” He trudged over to her, his mind now swirling again on the demon’s last words.

‘Am I really… like it? Am I a monster too? Is that why my Knot looks this way?’

Nathaniel welcomed them into his office, which had been cleaned up from the ritual.

“Thank you for retrieving him, Cailyn. Good to see you back with us, Christian.” Nathaniel took a moment, looking Chris over from head to toe.

If he found the dress odd, he said nothing to that end. 

“I am glad to report that there are no lingering traces of the evil entity we pulled from your Knot Thing. However, there is an unexplained darkness that remains within your own essence. It is possible that there was some degree of corruption during the period of possession, so we will need to do weekly check-ups and ensure that all is going well.”

“Sure, no problem,” Chris said.

“Good! Then you are free to return to your temporary lodgings with Aiden and Cailyn. I’ll see you back next week.”

“See you then, boss.” Chris gave a quick wave as he turned to leave the office.

“Don’t forget this,” Cay said, tossing him the glamour pendant.

He quickly pulled it on, causing the previous illusion of the young girl to sweep over him again. 

Somehow, he felt more comfortable and relaxed with it on.

“Someone’s happy to be going home,” Aiden said as Chris and Cay emerged from the back of the shop.

“Heck yeah!” Chris beamed.

“Yep, since it’s my day off I guess it’s my turn with Knot-Chris,” Cay said, looking down at him.

“Yeah. I got shop duty today. But it’s you and me tomorrow, Chris!” 

Chris smiled at that. “Cool. Well, we’d better get back. I’m starving!”

“I guess you would be. You’ve been asleep for two days,” Cay said.

“Wait, what? Two days?” Chris asked, dumbfounded.

“Yeah. You were only supposed to stay overnight for observation, but you fell into such a deep sleep that Nate was worried your soul might have been damaged in the extraction process. Thankfully he ran some tests and figured out your body was just preparing for some changes,” Aiden explained.

“Changes?” Chris asked. How had he not noticed any changes?

“Yeah… Did you not look at yourself when you woke up?”

“No, I guess I didn’t,” Chris said, pulling off the glamour pendant.

He looked down and realized he was holding it in his hands. Actual hands. Made of the weird burlap material still, but they looked like real hands. Looking at his reflection in one of the glass display cases, he realized that he looked more human overall. Sure, his teeth were still pointy metal, as were his finger and toenails. But he looked like a small person now, instead of a monster.

A smile bloomed across his new face, and warmth stirred in his chest fluff.

Finally, he could start getting back to normal.

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