Chapter 1

It was the last day of term before the summer holidays and following tradition, it was a no uniform day. Casual clothes were in, schoolwork was out, or at least, the pupils thought school work was out. Instead of the usual lessons and coursework, there were board games, fun energetic outside (if the English weather permitted) games, and the ability to listen to music of your choice in class. Well the music was put to a vote and the over-riding majority won. The board games were carefully selected, Chess for the more cerebral, Risk and Monopoly for the less strategically adept. Whilst they were deemed by the students to be more ‘fun’ than lessons, they were chosen for their hidden merits. Risk taught planning and fore-thought, as well as teaching the ability to adapt to unexpected problems. Likewise, Monopoly taught budgeting and basic fiscal understanding. Outside games like five a side sudden death football, with the scoring team staying on, promoted teamwork agility and reacting under pressure. Rounders’ promoted hand eye co-ordination and the sudden sprints were good cardio, as well as providing a pressure release for hyperactive children. All good hidden learning and a fun day for all.

Well, almost for all.

Peggy hated it, hated it with a vengeance. Hated it and all the other kids, running around, Laughing, having fun.

Peggy was 14 years of age and 14 and then some, stone in weight. Her long hair was always greasy, no matter how much she tried to make it otherwise, and no matter what product she tried, it had no effect on her unhealthy pallor and frequent acne eruptions.

So it was no surprise that the other kids had quickly taken to re-naming her Miss Piggy. Along with the associated snorting and grunting noises with which they found endlessly entertaining.

Peggy escaped, when she could, to the library, devouring the latest teen fiction, especially the ones where the hot fit boy ignored the beauty bitches and made out and off with the ugly duckling. And if none were handy, she just reread the Twilight saga. All she had to do was survive the day and it would be seven weeks of bliss. Peace, quiet, no grunting, no pig squeals, no shouts of “Oi! Oink face!” or “Pizza face!”.

She sat on her own in class. The other girls discussing holidays they were going on, swimsuits they had bought in preparation for weeks on a beach. Peggy hadn’t been swimming since she was ten. The endless whale jokes had seen to that.

The one saving grace of the day was that the other members of her year were too distracted from boredom that they had no need to amuse themselves at her expense. Stepping of the bus, she slowly waddled in the direction of home, stopping occasionally to regain her breath. Her house was a bungalow, her parents finding the negotiation of stairs a chore. “I’m not fat! I’m big boned.” was a frequent comment from her mother to any suggestion of a diet or a healthier lifestyle.

But Peggy had a plan.

That night, shortly before midnight, she slipped out of the house. Not far away from her bungalow was a copse of trees. It had been part of a larger forest, which had been decimated to make way for the urban sprawl that had had been rampant in the area over the last few years. The only reason the trees still stood was because of the old stone circle in the middle. Though stone circle was a bit of an exaggeration. When people heard about it, they immediately thought ‘Stonehenge’. What they actually got, was a couple of one metre diameter boulders in a rough approximation of a circle with an alterish-if-you-really-squint-your-eyes-and-have-a-good-imagination slab of stone, three metres long, a metre and a half wide and half a meter high off the ground, stuck in the middle. But it was enough for some hippies, and bored with nothing better to do archaeologists, to camp out for a few weeks and complain about the encroaching urban sprawl. All the while preaching free love and engaging in the behaviour that nine months down the line, added to the very thing they were protesting about. But they saved some trees that the developer had no intention of cutting down in the first place. Trees that helped increase the sale price on the new estate and provided an area for all the proud new owners to empty their dogs, with just enough vegetation to hide the toileting dogs from view and therefore, the need for the owners to clean up after them.

Even this close to midnight, there was still a strong presence from daylight. The summer equinox had been and gone, but Peggy was sure resolve would win over occult symbolism every time. She watched her step closely on the path, as some dogs didn’t even have the decency to stray from the path to do their business. Nervously, Peggy approached the central stone, looking up. The moon wasn’t above the stone. It wasn’t even close, but it was visible in the fading daylight, and that was good enough for Peggy. She knelt at the side of the stone, this close; the residual smell of many a dog’s bladder content was strong. Peggy scrunched her nose up at the smell and using the stone for leverage, stood her considerable bulk back up again, brushing her hands futilely against her cloth covered kneecaps.

Placing her hands on the stone top, she fervently prayed to every, and any, deity going. She prayed and demanded that her classmates and a good proportion of the school’s student population, met horrific, painful and horrifically painful deaths. Repeatedly painful deaths. She put everything she had into it.

And yet, nothing. No flash of light, no clap of thunder.

It. Just. Wasn’t. Fair.

She cried, sobbing as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

It. Just. Wasn’t. Fair.

The tears, the frustration, subsided. She removed a hand from the stone, squeezing the moisture from her eyes. Wiped the back of her hand across her snotty nose. Sniffed, Placed the hand back and tried again.

Nope. Nothing.

Above, a pipistrelle bat flitted back and forth, on the hunt for food.

Weren’t blood sacrifices required?

She wasn’t about to slash her wrist-any time soon. Mainly because she didn’t have a knife. There was some broken glass from what looked like an Irn-Bru bottle nearby, but seriously? Eurgh. There was no telling what bugs were on those shards.

However there was an ‘Option B’.

She released the button on her jeans and slipped a hand into her underwear. After a moment of fumbling, she withdrew her hand with her prize. She slapped the sanitary napkin bloody side down on the stone and tried again.

There still wasn’t a peal of thunder or blinding flash of light.

She hunched over the stone as the tears took over again. Salty tears and snot dripped out onto the stone, lost amongst the lichen and the remains of dried bird shit.

She wasn’t alone. Peggy looked up. There was a shimmering willow the wasp thing the other side of the stone. It had worked!!! She immediately launched into her list of demands. Instant wealth, a body to die for, well maybe not quite to die for, one to be really happy with? At least. Devine retribution for all those that had mocked her. It was a long list.

She paused to take a breath and the phantasm moved closer, over the stone, and then she was within the nimbus, or it was over her. One of the two.

“Obey me spirit!” She demanded, raising her arms up, palms above her head.

Her hands lowered. She tried to lift them back up and failed. Memories flooded back. The route to the circle, her house, the day at school. She found herself focusing on specific items-cars, phones, computers. All against her will. The most bizarre sensation spread through her body and she felt the loss of control as something took over, forcing her into the depths of her own consciousness. She screamed and railed but nothing came out of her mouth. Her vision waivered as her body moved. Haltingly. Jerkily. By the time she left the trees whatever was controlling her had some measure of control over her body. The rape of memories continued unabated, as she re-traced her route home.

In the small space of her mind that she was locked into, she demanded, she pleaded, she begged.

There was no reply.

Powerless, she watched as her body drunkenly moved with increasing surety along the street. At home, in what had been the unassailable safety of her bedroom, she watched helplessly as her body looked through her wardrobe, her hands running along the fabric of the various items inside. She opened drawers and turned the bedroom light on and off like a curious child. Her mind replied to unheard questions, she barraged the entity within her with questions, demands, but no replies were forthcoming. Her hands clumsily stripped herself and she walked in front of her mirror. She felt her body shudder in what she knew was revulsion. Her memories were mined again and she stepped into the shower. The temperature of the water hotter than she would normally have tolerated. She continued to watch helplessly, as the direction of her view changed at the whim of the entity that had taken over. She towelled herself dry and slipped naked -she never slept naked!- between her sheets and her eyes closed. Peggy screamed and screamed as the darkness of her closing eyes enveloped her, leaving her alone in the darkness.

She didn’t know when she had fallen asleep, only that she had experienced the worst nightmare of her life. Upon awaking, her bladder was full and she made to open her eyes and leave her bed. Only that nothing happened. She still had no control. Her eyes opened. She stretched; she listened to the birds noisily squabble outside. Like a voyeur, she watched her body move and react to the commands of another. She relieved her bladder, wiped herself dry, stood again in front of the mirror, her eyes studying the rolls and folds of fat. Her mind was still remembering details, recent news articles, types of weather, geography. There was no obvious connection between what she was being forced to remember.

Her body chose loose fitting clothes and a pair of trainers and left the house. She started a faltering jog only to fall back to a walk a few houses later. Again the entity tried to run, only to fall back to a breathless walk. Peggy felt the burn of her lungs, the burn of her legs, and yet she could do nothing. She begged whatever was controlling her to stop, to provide respite from the pain and exhaustion, but her body kept on going. Soaked in sweat, she finally staggered back home. Her parents were up, in the kitchen eating. She screamed at them, but nothing came out of her mouth other than laboured pants of breath.

“Do you want something to eat love?” Asked her mother, shovelling a chocolate covered pancake into her mouth. Peggy just shook her head and headed to her room.

Her mother watched her leave and turned towards her husband, who just shrugged “It’ll be some teenage fad love; she’ll get bored of it in a day or two.”

In her room, it continued. She packed a bag full of clothes and lifted it above her head until her trembling arms could take it no more. There followed press ups and sit ups till it felt to Peggy, that her whole body was on fire, and still she hadn’t eaten. That was her day, an endless workout. Her parents come in briefly throughout the day, showing concern but she just waved them away as Peggy screamed at them from inside her prison. Barring some toast and lots of water, her body had consumed nothing as it slipped naked and exhausted back under her covers.

The next day proved to be much the same. Little to eat, continual exercise, silent dismissals to the concerned questions from her parents, all while she cried and raged inside.

And the same the next day.

And the day after that.

Her body was a constant inferno of pain, sustained only by water and a few slices of plain toast.

Dearglil Ardatlamash looked at the body in disgust. But it was what she had to work with. The world had changed so much since she had last been upon it. While humans as a race had moved on, humans as an individual had appeared not to have. Still the same desires, fears and petty squabbles. She lifted her new arms, watching the fat ripple. No, that had to go. It still screamed and railed inside.

It was so beautiful.

The pain, the fear, the hopeless futility emanating from within was so ... seductive and she hadn’t even started yet. She plundered Its thoughts again, learning the words, the cadence, the quirks of dialect. There was so much more knowledge, so much more information available than the last time. It should have been harder, more dangerous yet perversely it seemed easier. Whilst hiding in backwaters after the previous birth had provided enjoyable playgrounds, it had made it harder to see when danger approached. A lesson she had found out the hard way. Dearglil was in no hurry to repeat THAT particular mistake. She flicked through Its ‘phone’, a fascinating device and so much easier and a damn site faster, than the tediousness of creating a summoning circle. She had briefly toyed with the thing called the World Wide Web, expecting to see one of her sisters in control, but of her brethren there was no sign. Whilst that was of both surprise, and worry, there didn’t seem to be any sign of the hunters either. It was as if both had faded from memory. If that was the case, then she was about to have herself some serious fun.

Anyhow, it was time to burn off some more of those ‘calories’.

The weeks passed, she got slimmer, faster, and stronger. Nobody or more importantly, no-thing, had appeared to investigate her arrival. She saved the little power she had available just in case. She was ten stone now and felt all the better for it. Her ‘parents’ still shared concern at her rapidly reducing shape, though they were easily brushed off. Her ‘mother’ had moaned about the ‘waste’ of good food through her bulimia. Dearglil had pointed out that to be bulimic she had to eat something to throw up. Technically, she did neither. Her mother hadn’t taken that well either and demanded to know why she was speaking in a ‘funny voice’.

More work needed on the voice then.

Another run, another shower.

Dearglil pinched at a fold of loose flesh. A downside to rapid weight loss, she mused as she stood under the hot flow of water needling into her head, she allowed a bit of power to slip out and tighten up her loose skin.

The voice inside had lapsed into a resentful, sulky silence. She missed Its screaming.

There was but a week left of the holidays before she was back at school. Dearglil was looking forward to the experience. She walked back into the house after her latest run. Stripping off, she dumped the clothes in the corner. So far in this reincarnation, she was finding showers to be one of the highlights. Bathing in streams, buckets and animal troughs had been somewhat of a torturous chore, especially when you had to take into account the societal rules of when and where a woman could bathe. That wasn’t to say that she had some very pleasant bathing experiences in the past when she bathed where decorum said she shouldn’t have had.

Towelling herself dry, she dropped the towel and stepped onto the scales. Just over seven stone. One hundred pounds, she corrected herself, they used a different unit of measurement these days. It wasn’t her first change of measurement unit and doubted/hoped that it wouldn’t be her last.

Slipping into a clean tracksuit, she picked a banana off the bunch next to her bed. That was another perk of this age; global transit meant that a vastly greater array of food was available to her, than at any time before in her lives. Now that all that horrible excess flesh was rid of, she had to get her stomach used to food again. She threw the peel into her rubbish basket and collected the towel and soiled running clothes and went into the kitchen to feed the washing machine.

The relationship with Its parents had slipped into one of polite avoidance. Both being of ‘Large stature’, Its parents hadn’t taken well to her rapid weight loss. A parcel lay on the table for her. Another pleasant surprise of this age. The ability to look at items and have them delivered to your door within a day or two. No tedious slog by foot or horse to a market, another tedious haggle to purchase the item, and then a tedious wait of days or even weeks, for the item to be made before Another tedious horse/foot journey to pick it up. That would be her new school uniform then, since the one of the previous term had no hope in hell -she laughed- of fitting her.

Her alarm sounded and she all but leapt out of bed. She put on her underwear and pondered whether to wear a skirt or trousers. She went for the trousers as she was all but out of power, having used most of it up tightening her new skin and didn’t want to attract too much attention too soon. Thankfully, the change in diet along with the harsh exercise regime had taken care of the skin problem and reduced the grease on her hair. Till she absorbed more power, keeping a low profile was a priority. Using Its memories, she walked to the bus stop, Its memories providing names and details to the faces already waiting patiently for the school bus. Faces turned and stared, and started to whisper amongst themselves as she approached. There was a rise of anger and hate from It inside. Which was pleasant. It had been VERY quiet these last ten days.

She sat in Its usual spot and copied Its disinterest in those around her. Dearglil watched her familiar running routes change to fresh scenery. Well fresh to her. It had seen it all before. The bus slowly filled up. A boy in her year, Terry, according to It, changed seats to sit beside her, egged on unsubtly by his mates.

“New here? What’s your name?” Dearglil ignored him in the futile hope that he would go away. Or at least shut up. Terry did neither, each silent rejection to his verbal advances causing much hilarity amongst his mates. Meanwhile, the other girls surreptitiously studied her intensely, their conversations quieting when they thought that she might answer one of Terry’s questions, ears straining above the rattle and clatter of the bus, determined not to miss anything that might prove important gossip later on.

It was a relief when the bus pulled up at the front of the school and they all rushed out. In order to escape the unexpected and unwanted attention, DeargliI retreated to Its favourite hiding place in the school, the library. As usual, per Its memories, the only other person was Kerry, a pretty girl in her own way, but terribly shy. Kerry looked up from the book she was reading but quickly returned to it when her gaze met Dearglils. Giving Kerry a wide berth, Dearglil dumped her new school bag - there was no way she was going to school with those stickers adorning her bag- ontop of the table. Unlike It, she had no book in the bag to pull out and read. Leaning back in her seat, she breathed in deeply, savouring the scent of fresh young flesh. The air was full of hormones and enthusiasm. A heady, intoxicating mix for her. It was Kerry’s ‘time of month’ as they called it now. She could smell the blood lingering around her. Unconsciously, she licked her lips, remembering previous times she had drunk such a heady nectar direct from the source. A harsh bell woke her from her reminiscing and she made her way to her first class as dictated by a thing called a’ timetable’, provided by the school, based on the subjects chosen by It before the summer holidays. The corridors were full of jostling excited youths. The smell of blood was strong. Dearglil had never been amongst so many girls on their menses at once. Her teeth ached at the taste in her mouth. So much potential power in one place. Still using Its memories, she made her way to her first lesson and more out of Its habit than design, sat in Its seat. She was still attracting curious stares and nudges amongst friends as they whispered about her. She could have used some of her power to listen in to what they were saying, but her last remnants of power were worth more to her than the knowledge of what they were saying.

The teacher, Mr Smith, came in with an arm full of coursework for the coming term. He dumped the load on his desk “Right, settle down you lot. Time for you all to get your academic heads back on. May I remind you all that mobile phone use during school hours is prohibited. I know you have all got used to them being stuck in front of your face for the last six weeks, but that was then. I’ll take the register and then we can crack on.” He pulled out a single sheet of paper and looked around the room, stopping suddenly at the new face in the room. “Ahh. I wasn’t told we had a new student! Welcome to our esteemed educational establishment. And what is your name young Miss?” The room quietened and all eyes turned towards her. Dearglil met Mr Smith’s gaze head on with her own.

“I. am. not. a. new. student. Mr Smith.” There were gasps around the room at her brazen retaliation.

“You’re not?” Mr Smith was caught off guard. “I’m afraid if that is the case I have forgotten your name and face young miss.”

“My name is Peggy Lancaster.”

“Holly shit! “, “What the fuck! “, “No way!” “Miss Piggy?”, “Damn Miss Piggy is HOT!”, “Fuckin’ ‘ell!” Mr Smith had to raise his voice to be heard above the raucous.

“Could you all settle down now please, and can I remind you all of the schools low tolerance to profanity. It wouldn’t be a good start to the term for most of the class to end up in detention now, would it? Well Peggy, you certainly made good use of your summer break. That is some transformation and just goes to show what we all can achieve if we put our minds to it. Well done Peggy.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Right, now back to the matter at hand...”

And with that, Dearglils’ plan to quietly go through the first few days of term went out the window. After class she made her way to her locker, opening it to stash Mr Smith’s course work. She shut the door, twisting the key and stared at all the Peppa Pig stickers that had been stuck on over the last term. Dearglil ignored them as Peggy had. Groups of kids watched her, some with their phones out taking pictures. She ignored them and headed to her next class.

At break time she escaped to the library, in the futile hope that the short attention span of children would enable her to slip back into relative obscurity. Kerry, as usual, was by herself, squirrelled away in a corner. Dearglil was planning on avoiding her, but changed her mind at the Last moment. Dumping her bag next to Kerry’s she slumped down on the chair beside her. “Hi.”

“Hi” There was an uncomfortable pause. Kerry looked over. “I was expecting to see you over the holidays”

Dearglil checked Its memories. Yes, she would have had. Dearglil shrugged “I’m sorry. Other things came up.”

“I can see that.” Another silence. “You look fantastic by the way. I was a bit ... hurt ... but I understand now.”

That tantalising smell of blood in her nose. The rich and heavy scent. Dearglil abandoned her original plan of hiding out for a few weeks and decided to go on the hunt instead.

“I know. I’m sorry, really really sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”

“You don’t need to, you know that.” Another check of Its memories.

“I know, but I should have stopped by.” She slipped an arm round Kerry’s shoulder, giving her a companionable hug. Kerry tensed at the unexpected physical contact, but relaxed into it quickly enough. “Can I pop round tonight?”.

“Yeah, sure! Was it hard?”

“Hard?”

“Losing all that weight?”

“Ugh, like nothing you would believe. Literally. A slice of toast a day, lots of water, and ten hours a day of exercise.”

“Ten hours!” Kerry looked at her in disbelief.

“Yeah, no pain no gain night? I could have done fewer hours, but it would have taken longer and I wanted it done by the start of term.”

“Wow!”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t sound the same either.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. It’s just ... different ... like you have a lilt or something.”

“Probably the absence of fat around my vocal cords, or something. Is it ... bad?”

“No no no, it’s kinda nice, really.”

“Oh.”

Companionable silence.

“Can I pop round tonight?” Dearglil asked.

“Yeah sure. I would like that.” The school bell rang and they headed to their next classes. By now, word of Peggy/its transformation had spread throughout the school. The second teacher of the morning also congratulating her on her transformation. The lunchtime bell rang and the pupils headed for the class room door. Dearglil met up with Kerry in the corridor as they headed towards their lockers. She stopped in front of hers. Someone, or someone’s, had removed all the Peppa pig stickers. Opening the door revealed that slips of paper, lots of slips of paper, had been slipped through the gap between door and locker frame. She flicked through them.

“Hey sexy, call me. Todd.” A mobile number followed.

“Wowzers!” Another name, another number.

“Damn! You is hot! hot! hot!” Terry, a number.

“You might have lost some meat, but I have a big sausage you can Eat!” James, a number.

“Call me, please.” Grace, a number.

No name or message, just a number on the paper.

“I hope your tits fall off and your cunt smells.” No name, no number.

“Someone is certainly popular all of a sudden.’” remarked Kerry as she watched Dearglil collect all the bits of multi-coloured paper into a bundle and stuff them into a textbook.

“If they weren’t friends before, I doubt they will be proper genuine friends now.” She deliberately met Kerry’s eye. Kerry blushed and looked away.

As much attention as she drew from afar. The other children kept their distance, seemingly unsure quite how to proceed with this new but not new pupil within their midst. Over lunch, she arranged to stop by Kerry’s house after school and eat her evening meal there. She texted Its mother to let her know, received the textual equivalent of a disinterested grunt back.

Kerry’s bedroom was a little bit too pink for Dearglils’ taste. A shelf along one wall played stable to a row of multi-coloured pony’s with colourful manes. A scent diffuser plugged into a power socket released a fragrance that made her nose twitch like a rabbits. Kerry dumped her bag and coat on the floor and jumped onto her bed, falling back to stare at the ceiling. Dearglil dumped hers next to Kerrys, and joined her on the bed. She slipped a hand into Kerry’s. They both stared up at the ceiling.

“Does this mean I will see less of you now?”

Centuries of experience allowed Dearglil to hear the insecurity in Kerry’s voice. She smiled inwardly. Kerry was ripe for the picking; she would be hers easily before the week was out.

“How come?”

“Well, you have pretty much the pick of the boys now.”

“Hmm, true.” She admitted. Dearglil turned her head to look at Kerry. Kerry turned her head sideways to meet her gaze. Dearglil squeezed Kerry’s hand “But I will be double dating with you.”

“What!” Kerry blushed red.

“We will be going out together.”

“I can’t be around with a boy! I go to pieces. You know what I am like, I get the shakes, I can’t breathe. I can’t speak. I’m not beautiful enough for boys.”

“Woa, woa! Stop right there girl. You ARE beautiful, sexy and hot! You just need a bit of self-confidence and you will be killing them like the best.”

Kerry nervously giggled “You think?”

“I know.”

“Hmm...” It was obvious that Kerry didn’t share Dearglil’s optimism.

“If I can lose half my body weight over summer, you can get a boyfriend in the next term.”

“I don’t know...” Kerry turned to stare back up at the ceiling. “Do you think I can?”

“If you are willing to work and work hard for it, yes.” They both stared at the ceiling “It won’t be easy.”

“And you can help me?” Kerry turned her head again.

Dearglil looked across. “Like, duh!” She raised a hand and swept it down her body with a flourish.

“I still can’t believe the transformation.”

“It wasn’t easy, believe me.”

“No, I don’t suppose it was.” Kerry unconsciously circled her thumb against Dearglil’s. “Do you think it was worth hit?”

“Tots!”

Dearglil had planned on just running home; after all, it was just two miles away. But once Kerry’s four year older brother, Chris, caught sight of the mark two Peggy, he suddenly became astoundingly chivalrous, and stated that he would drive her home. The streets weren’t safe for young girl blah, blah blah. Dearglil managed, just, to keep a straight face and not roll her eyes. On the short ride home, Chris managed to spend more time stealing glances at Dearglil, than he did the road ahead.

She reckoned that she was about to gain another number.

Chris pulled up outside Its home. She released her seatbelt, opened the door and prepared to step outside. “Thanks for the lift.”

“Wait!” Here it comes ... Chris rooted around in the glove box, pulling out a pen and a scrap of paper. Bingo! He scribbled down a number. “If you need anything, like a ride or something, give me a call, okay?’ She took the proffered slip of paper with a polite smile

“Okay. I will do Chris, thanks again for the lift!