NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7: Nightmare
TW: Severe homophobia, transphobia, violence
I wake up, staring at the ceiling of our inn room. It takes only a moment for me to sit upright and just be content with myself. But suddenly, in front of my eyes, the room begins to twitch, to change. Nausea builds up in my chest as this nice inn room gets transformed into my room back home.
“W-what, what’s happening?” Oh, no, my voice.
I grasp my throat and feel my prominent adam’s apple, my hair, again short and spiky.
My body, disgustingly male.
“No, nonono, nooooo!” I scream out, trying to find the D3u5XMachina, nowhere to be found.
Footsteps rumbling up the stairs, the door flies open. Dad standing is in its opening, fuming with a bright red face. “You were dreaming about being a girl again, weren’t you, faggot!”
“No, Dad, please!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll beat those ideas out of you pretty fast.” He takes the belt from his pants and takes it in his hands. He locks the door and approaches.
I scream, “No, no! Élise, help!”
“No-one will come and save you; no-one will hear you.” Lifting the belt to lash out at my exposed skin. The first hit immediately draws blood. Dripping from my thigh on my bed sheets. The pain is almost immeasurable. I curl up, trying to protect my face. The stinging pain now nailing my back, time after time. My screams muffled by my mattress, now soaking wet with both tears and blood. “Yes, keep crying you fucking homo.”
“Amicia!” Suddenly, everything’s gone.
My eyes open, for real this time, my body covered entirely in sweat, my eyes aching from crying. My sister embracing me.
“É-Élise?”
“Thank the Goddess, you are finally awake, Hilda came running to get me, saying you were screaming in your sleep. My poor little sister.” Her embrace tightens.
It was just a nightmare. I feel the tension in my body melt away.
Tears of relief are streaming down my face.
“Shh, you’re safe now. You should scoot up a little though.”
I brush my tears away. “Huh?”
“It’s barely midnight, and if you think I’m gonna let you sleep alone now, you’re wrong.” She crawls under the blanket and cuddles up to me.
“What about Nikki?”
“Eh, she has Hilda to toy with for now, she understands.”
Only now I realise I’m still completely naked under my blanket.
“Uh...Élise...”
“Hush now,” anticipating what I was about to say. “We’re sisters aren’t we? Just try to sleep a bit more. If you need me, I’m right here, okay?”
“Mhmm.” I blush. “You are the best sister I could wish for.”
“I know.” She giggles and gives a kiss on my cheek. “Good night, little sis.”
“Good night Élise.”
It doesn’t take long for me to fall asleep again, and this time the nightmares stayed away.
When I wake up I don’t feel my sister next to me anymore.
“Huh, sis, where are you?”
I hear mumbling from next to my bed, seeing Élise lying on the floor with a blanket over her.
“That derp of a sister of yours must’ve rolled out of bed and just continued sleeping. I covered her with my blanket when I came to get my clothes, you two sure like sleeping au naturel!” I hear a voice coming from the doorway.
“Oh, hey Hilda.”
“Good morning Amicia. Are you alright?”
“I’m fine now, thank you.”
A smile appears on Hilda’s face. “I’m glad to hear that, you gave me quite a shocker.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s nothing.” Hilda tugs her scarf. Wait, since when does Hilda wear a scarf?
“Why are you wearing a scarf Hilda?”
Her face goes bright red. “Uh... no reason.”
“Wait, you slept in Nikki’s room…Did she…?”
“I...I…Yes...” She grabs her scarf a bit tighter
I burst out in laughter “Oh goodness!”
“Yeah, you are definitely feeling better I see,” she pouts. “Anyway, would you care to wake up your sister? I’ll go and look for my niece while you get ready.”
“Okidoki.” I give Hilda a thumbs up. “Oh by the way, don’t grab your scarf that hard, it makes one of the bite marks poke out above it.”
Hilda quickly tucks up her scarf and leaves the room “Goddess, how am I ever going to survive these sisters.”
After Hilda leaves I poke my sister on her cheek. “Hey sis, are you gonna wake up?”
“Mhmm, just five more hours please.” She rolls on her side away from me.
“Geez, guess I’ll get dressed first then.”
It doesn’t take long for the sound of me getting dressed to wake up Élise from her slumber.
“Oh, looks like I fell out of bed, teehee.”
“Ye, Hilda covered you up when she came to check on us.” I say, pulling up my trousers and sticking my tail through its designated hole.
“Make sure to remind me to thank her! By the way, are you getting used to your tail - it isn’t too annoying, is it?”
“Not at all! I still forget about it sometimes when sitting or turning over in bed but I’m definitely getting the hang of it.”
“And the rest of your body?” My sister sits upright and starts clothing herself. “Have you tested it out yet?”
With her shirt over her head I couldn’t see it but I could definitely hear her smirk.
“Uh...I…I’m actually not really interested in that...kind of stuff...”
“Oh, is that so?” She finally manages to get her shirt on.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love this body, I love it to bits. It’s definitely gonna suck when I’m out of the game, whenever I think about it I feel my chest tighten immediately...”
“Oh, is that what your nightmare was about?” Élise almost trips trying to get on her padded trousers.
“Mhm.” I nod in confirmation.
*Bonk!*
Correction: she did trip trying to get on her trousers.
“Are you okay, sis?”
“I see at least some of my clumsiness runs in the family.”
“Ey, don’t make me grab your tail.” Her painful expression turns into a playful smug.
“No, no touchy.” I protectively put my tail against my chest.
“Anyway, as I said yesterday, we’ll figure something out about your IRL body, okay?”
“I know but…”
“It still doesn’t fully reassure you?”
“Ye.”
“I get what you mean, it must be incredibly hard for you.” She gives me a quick hug. “So don’t feel afraid to ask me to come and cuddle you up if you need someone.”
“Okay, but sometimes I get these attacks out of the blue, it’s hard to anticipate the need for cuddles.”
“Guess I’ll need to be with you all the time, then.” Élise laughs.
“Haha, thanks sis.”
Shortly after, we both finish dressing up and make ready to head out.
“Before we leave, can I ask something, Amicia? About something you said earlier.”
“Sure.” I look at her questioningly.
“You said you weren’t interested in testing out your body right?”
“Mhm.” I nod
“Could you explain it a bit more?”
“Uh, well, I like touching my boobs once in a while. Because they are soft, and I just like the feeling.”
“World cold and hard, tiddy soft and warm, am I right?” Élise laughs
I blush. “Exactly... But whenever genitals get involved…I’m happy I don’t have, you know, that thing anymore. But I don’t really want to have sex or anything like that, even with this body.”
“And when you see attractive people?”
“I mean, I definitely think some girls are cute, but I want to cuddle them, not have sex with them.”
“I see, I see.” She comes closer and ruffles my hair “It’s good that you know what you like and dislike. It doesn’t matter how anyone leads their life, as long as they enjoy it.”
“Yes!”
“And now that I know you are into girls as well, we can gossip about them all day long!”
“Élise, please.”
“I’m joking, I’m joking. But feel free to talk to me about things like this though. That’s what sisters are for, especially if they are as gay as me.”
I snicker. “I will, I will.”
“Anyway, let’s go, Hilda will be angry if we are too late.”
“Oh, that reminds me, Hilda wears a scarf now.”
“Haha, Nikki?”
“I think so.”
“Oh, she’s gonna hear about this all day long.”
“Yep.” We giggle as we leave our room behind.