Chapter 5

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

It was about three in the afternoon by the time the two girls got off the number forty-nine bus at Churchill Square. It was packed with shoppers, all of whom had little or no interest in either of them.

They headed for the phone boxes on the opposite side of the road and leafed through the directory to find somewhere for the night.

They chose one, just off St. James' Street. The phone had been answered by someone who sounded extremely effeminate and Denise thought that this might be a place that wouldn't ask too many questions about two girls sharing a room.

"It'll have to be a double, I'm afraid." said the man, who looked a lot like Jimmy Somerville from the Communards and even had a voice to match.

"It'll have to do." said Stephanie sounding a bit dubious.

"Well don't get over excited luv."

Stephanie scowled at the man who pointedly ignored her facial expression by pursing his lips, thrusting his nose in the air and mince, mince, minced out to the room at the back. Denise couldn't help laughing.

Once they'd dropped their stuff (the one rucksack was all the two of them were carrying between them, apart from a small clutch-bag that Stephanie (had) had from the night before), they left the hotel and ate a belated lunch at a small café in West Street, before wandering along the promenade.

"Oh smell that sea air." said Denise.

"What, you mean the air tinged with more than a fair chunk of rotting fish?"

"Have you no sole?" asked Denise, with more than part of her tongue thrust into her cheek. Stephanie groaned. "Sorry. I couldn't resist!"

The sea front was littered with curiosity shops, shops selling candies, fish and chips shops and even a shop that was marked "Palmist".

"Let's go in, it'll be a laugh." said Denise and dragged a protesting Stephanie into the shop with her.

"Good Avternoon girls." said the woman as they entered. "I've been expecting you."

Stephanie and Denise exchanged glances.

"It's alright Stephanie. I know you don't believe in people like me." Stephanie sat down with a thud. Denise went pale and sat down beside her.

Madam Sylvie went to the door, turned the "open" sign to "closed" and turned the key, locking the three of them in. She also adjusted the Venetian blinds and the room was plunged into a kind of red half-light. The two girls got noticeably agitated.

"Please. Do not vorry. I heff no desire to do you harm." she said, returning to a large gaudy-coloured chair opposite where the two girls were sat.

"I can see zat sings are not quvite vot zey seem, no?" Neither girl said anything.

"No? Vel anyvay, zey are not. You heff secrets, zat is off no matter. Evorybuddy heff secratz. I can see all." she said turning tarot cards over with a flourish forming a cross-shaped arrangement.

"Ah, zo, Denise, or should I purhap call you Denis?" Denise paled.

"Denis?" said Stephanie, shocked.

"Vell, she used to be. She's not now, ess you ken see. Heff you heard of Strange Fellows Day? No? Vell, it ees zer day ven zer Devil eemself ees said to valk zer streets, granting vishes zat are not alvays zee true vishes ov whouvver ist choozen."

Denise was busy examining the toe of one trainer as this was being said and Stephanie was looking daggers.

"It vould seem zat our friend 'ere made a vish zat vos granted. Ees zat not true?"

"I guess it must be." said Denise in a barely audible voice and then turned to Stephanie with a look of abject apology on her face, mouthing the words, "I was going to tell you..."

Denise though couldn't remember actually wishing for a change. She could vaguely remember wishing that the feelings wouldn't end after shaving and getting into bed. Perhaps that could have been interpreted as a wish, at a stretch.

"Don't blame 'er, Stephanie. She vos goink to tell you, but sings heff been moving too quickly." She laid another card.

"Ah, but eet seems zat you heff secrets too, no?" she said looking Stephanie square in the eye. This time, it was Stephanie that saw something on her shoe that needed investigation.

"It seems zat Stephanie 'ass not told you zer truce eizer." she said raising an eyebrow and sending shivers down both girls' spines. "But it vud seem zat she could not do vot she vos supposed to do and she ees een big trouble now, no?"

Stephanie nodded.

"Zo Denise," the strange woman continued. "You heff been turned into zer girl no?" Denise nodded. "You vill need to ect quickly eef you vont to go back." Denise blushed and looked mighty uncomfortable. "Ah. Ziss iss not zo velcome, no?"

She shook her head and once again Stephanie looked shocked, annoyed and more than a little puzzled.

"Eets not zo unusual. You didn't know zis vos goink to 'appen did you?" she asked and again Denise shook her head.

"Stephanie. You are in zer greatest danger. Zer men who seek you out are angry. You make zer bargain no? And now you heff broken zat bargain. But you broke zer bargain for luff." she looked up and gave her a big wide smile, then looked at Denise. "Ahh, young luff. I remember such times, ven I vos much, much younger; zo, maybe not zo long ago really."

"Zer rest of zis iss not clear. You need to find a smart man 'oo, ees not so smart and not so old eizer. Eet ees 'im 'oo ees be'ind all zis. Zer police are useless. You need to get to ziss sing's bottom as zey say."

Stood outside, the two girls were completely gobsmacked. Stephanie wouldn't look at Denise as, as far as she was concerned, Denise had lied and Denise wouldn't look at Stephanie, for exactly the same reason.

Stephanie broke the silence first.

"I need a drink."

"I think I could do with one too - maybe two too."

They walked together past the Palace Pier and across the road to the Hungry Years. Complete with drinks, they say opposite one another at a table.

"Denis?" said Stephanie after a while. Denise blushed.

"So it's true?"

"What about you and who are you in luff, er, love with?"

Silence and more blushes from the other side of the table.

"You want to stay like that?" asked Stephanie.

"You want to tell me what you were supposed to do?"

More silence.

"I'll get us some more drinks shall I." said Denise and went to the bar.

"Okay, truce." said Denise, feeling the weight of all that had been revealed pressing down. "I used to be Denis up until two days ago..." She told the whole story to Stephanie, who sat with her mouth open most of the way through.

"So now it's your turn."

"You want to stay as Denise?"

"Well yes. I don't know, but I feel it suits me better. There are some things I'm not so sure about and I have a lot to learn about being a girl, er, woman, but..." she shrugged. "And you?"

"I've always been a girl."

"No silly, what's your story?"

"My brother got into trouble. It was drugs mainly, then some petty theft as well. Next thing we knew, he was into this gang or something and owed them money. I bailed him out once, our parents bailed him out too, more than once, but it got worse.

"Anyway, he died about a year ago of an overdose, but I didn't believe it. He'd been getting himself together, trying to kick the habit and then out of the blue, he was dead.

"Next thing I know, I am being held responsible for his debt. They told me that I could either come up with fifty thousand or I would have to work to pay off the debt. They said that they just wanted information and I didn't think that would hurt anyone, so I agreed.

"When the robbery happened at Fellows, I told them about you and last night, Paul, who was the one who I've been working for told me I had to silence you. At first I thought I could do it, but I realised that I couldn't. I don't know whether it's love or not, but I couldn't do it and I couldn't let them either."

"Why couldn't we go to the police?"

"Because I would have to admit to leaking information for the last year or so."

"Thank you anyway and if it helps, the feeling's mutual."

At this point, both girls went red and started examining marks on the table before them.

"I'll get some more drinks." said Denise and made a bee-line for the bar.

They stayed in the pub for some time, well hours actually, neither knowing quite what to say to the other as conversations started and stopped, each of them trying to avoid the gaze of the other.

Stephanie couldn't get her head round the fact that Denise was really a bloke, although she knew that wasn't strictly true. The fact was he used to be a bloke and now he was, apparently a fully functioning 'she', although Stephanie wasn't to know it to that kind of detail.

Denise on the other hand couldn't believe that Stephanie would even consider the idea of 'silencing' someone and whilst she didn't quite know what being silenced entailed, she was sure it wasn't likely to be anything nice and possibly decidedly unpleasant — terminally so.

They staggered back to the hotel and were greeted by the same man who had been there earlier.

"Oooh. Look what the cat dragged in."

"I could get to thoroughly dislike that man." said Stephanie.

"Easy tiger. I might let you tear him to pieces tomorrow." said Denise, giving the man a sly wink.

Denise set about the complementary instant coffee in their room as soon as the door had started to close.

"Would you really have killed me?" she asked.

"Dunno. I might."

"You're heading for a nights sleep under the pier, you know that don't you?"

"No. Of course I wouldn't. I didn't know that's what they would ask me to do and then when faced with it, I tried to tell myself that it was no big deal; that people do it all the time."

"Most people don't." said Denise, shocked at the casualness of Stephanie's statement.

"No well, most people haven't got a bunch of heavies ready to break bones or kill them either. I thought at first 'kill or be killed', but when it came to it, I couldn't."

"You have no idea how comforting that sounds." said Denise dryly going back to making the coffee and spraying creamer all over the place whilst trying to get the little foil lid off the plastic container.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Denis. It's just that every time I tried to say something, something else turned up. It's been non stop since Fellows and I really haven't even had time to get used to being Denise yet."

"You seem to be doing a pretty good job so far."

"I haven't had much choice. It was never my intention to let things go like they have. I only found out that I had changed as it were when we were in the Italian restaurant. I went to have a pee and couldn't find, well, you know."

"No. Do tell."

"Alright I realised I hadn't got a willy." said Denise, going the default shade of crimson.

"Really?" said Stephanie sitting up. "Go on."

"Then I discovered that my breasts were my own and the wig had become my own hair too."

"Just like that?" said Stephanie sceptically.

"It seems so. I wouldn't have believed it, but that's honestly how it happened."

"Can I see?"

"What?"

"Your bits."

"Bits?" asked Denise almost sweating with the heat she was generating from blushing.

"Yeah." said Stephanie and pointed to the area just below Denise's waist.

"I-I don't know, I mean you'll laugh. It's embarrassing."

"Why? I've got one."

"Bet yours isn't shaved though."

"You didn't."

"I did, but not yesterday. I shaved everything from my head hair down before this all happened. It seemed to carry over to when the change took place."

"Well aren't you just the dark horse."

"It's a bit more 'Pale Rider' now I think." said Denise giggling. She couldn't deny, this talking about it was getting her pretty hot and wondered whether this qualified as oral sex — sitting around and talking about it.

"Go on. Show me. I'll show you mine."

This was getting to sound a bit like a game of doctors and nurses between two young children, but it was certainly upping the temperature.

Denise thought "what the hell" and pulled down her jeans and panties.

"Well your shape is definitely not male."

"Well duh!"

Slowly, the two garments descended past the thighs and when Denise stood back up, Stephanie had a look that was nothing short of wonder on her face and scooted across, kneeling before Denise on the floor. Denise was trembling and wondered what was next.

"Wow, cool." said Stephanie and reached across to touch her mons veneris. Denise couldn't help but gasp slightly, an involuntary spasm causing her to jerk. "Sorry. Are my fingers cold?"

"N-no. Don't stop."

Stop?

Stephanie hadn't even got started and already Denise was like a bitch in heat.

"God, it's so soft and smooth. I've always wondered what it would be like, but never had the guts to try, I mean I do my bikini line and keep it trim, but wow, this is awesome."

Denise couldn't believe the feelings that were coming from Stephanie just lightly stroking the top of her sex. She hadn't got anywhere near the interesting bits yet and already, her knees were only just holding up. She could feel the warm wetness and it was starting to trickle slowly down her inner thighs. Eyes closed, Denise let her head hang back as she stared unseeing at the ceiling and just let Stephanie indulge her curiosity.

"That's amazing Denise. I don't suppose mine's going to be nearly so interesting, but well, here goes."

Denise slowly tilted her head forward, wondering why the nice feelings suddenly stopped and opened her eyes to see Stephanie yanking her own jeans and panties down and stepping out of them. She stepped out of her own clothes and knelt in front of her friend.

Stephanie was as trim as she had stated earlier. A narrow 'V' of short pubic hair was visible above her sex as she stood, legs slightly parted, showing her labia as the cleft disappeared between her shapely legs.

Like her friend had done, Denise reached out and touched her pubic hair, marvelling at the softness compared to men's pubes.

"This is a lot softer than I expected. Nice." she said, taking the opportunity to glance up at Stephanie and see how she was reacting. She was looking down at Denise, a quizzical look on her face as Denise went back to stroking her.

It was apparent that Stephanie wasn't as sensitive there as she was and Denise wasn't sure whether to leave it at that — a sort of, "she's seen mine and I've seen hers" kind of thing, or whether to take it a stage further.

Curiosity got the better of her and she started to trace her finger nail along the outer lips and down the inner thigh and judging by the way she wobbled, that had a pretty marked effect. So she did it again and was repaid by Stephanie's lips parting and glistening in the half light.

Denise let her fingers slide slowly and gently in between the lips and Stephanie's legs started to go. She was forced to hold herself up by resting her hands on Denise's shoulders and as soon as that happened, Denise started to take it further.