Chapter 4 Puberty Speedrun and Missing Mothers
“What the hell is she even blabbing about?” Kai asked, still half-laughing at the Force wave.
The words came out normal—until they didn’t.
A soft, crawling itch started at his hairline.
His short black hair began to lengthen in real time, strands sliding past his ears like someone was gently pulling them.
The color drained out of the roots first, black bleeding into a warm chestnut brown that caught the purple RGB light.
The new length tickled the tops of his ears.
He brushed it away on pure reflex, fingers sliding through silkier texture than he’d ever felt on his own head.
Cole’s eyes went wide. “I have no idea. Dude… what the hell is up with your hair?”
As he spoke, Cole’s own voice cracked, then dropped. The high prepubescent tone thickened with every syllable, settling into a deeper, adult register that vibrated in his chest. He touched his throat like he expected to find someone else’s.
Kai blinked. “What do you mean? Why do you sound like your balls finally dropped?”
“First off, fuck you.” Cole’s new voice made the curse land heavier. “Secondly—what the hell do you mean? Wait. Woah. Holy shit. I sound like an actual adult.”
Kai looked up just as a heavier curtain of brown hair swung forward and veiled his face. He shoved the locks aside with both hands and stared across the dual desks. The basement suddenly felt too quiet except for the soft whir of the fans and Emmi’s delighted breathing on the speakers.
On stream, Emmi clapped her hands together and pointed straight at the camera, straight at him. “Brown hair, huh? Aww, that’ll look so adorable on you, Zoey.” She dissolved into bright, helpless laughter.
Kai’s stomach flipped. “What the fuck is happening to us? Who the fuck is Zoey and—”
The rest of the sentence died in a sharp, invisible punch straight to the gut. Air left his lungs in a punched-out grunt. Heat flooded low in his belly, wrong and intimate.
Cole’s chair scraped backward. “D-Dude… your voice is starting to sound like a girl. Holy shit. I think you’re turning into a girl!”
He barely got the words out before his own legs seized.
Massive, rolling cramps tore through his thighs and calves as the bones lengthened in sudden, sickening increments.
His socks, already tight from the growth, dug into the soft flesh above his ankles.
The seams at the toes stretched, then tore with a soft ripping sound.
He hissed through his teeth, gripping the edge of the desk hard enough to turn his knuckles white.
Kai heard his own reply leave his mouth and the sound stopped him cold.
“B-bullshit… I do not sound like a—” The rest came out higher, smoother, unmistakably feminine. A soft, shocked squeak. “What the hell? Is that my voice?!”
Panic spiked hot behind his ribs. He clapped a hand over his mouth, but the new pitch was already burned into his ears.
Emmi’s voice purred through the speakers, warm and merciless. “Oh, it’s not bullshit, hun. Is it not obvious? You two were such sexist assholes to me just because I’m a girl who happens to enjoy playing video games. Now I’m punishing you for it.”
Kai’s new voice cracked with pure terror. “Fuck this shit. I’m out of here!”
He shoved away from the desk so hard the chair slammed into the concrete wall.
Bare feet slapped across the floor toward the unfinished wooden staircase.
He took the first three steps at a run—then both legs locked in simultaneous, brutal cramps.
The bones kept stretching, the muscles reshaping, the angles of his hips and knees shifting under him.
His right foot caught the edge of a step.
His knee smashed hard into the wood. White pain exploded up his thigh.
He cried out in that new, higher voice but forced himself upward anyway, limping, half-crawling, until he burst into the open kitchen at the top of the stairs.
Behind him, Emmi’s delighted giggle rolled out of the basement speakers. “You better go catch up with your friend, Cole-y Poo.” She spun a full lazy circle in her pink racing chair, clearly enjoying the show.
Cole didn’t need telling twice. He bolted after Kai, longer legs already carrying him faster than they should have, Emmi’s laughter chasing him up the stairs like a physical touch.
Upstairs the house felt wrong—too quiet, too still.
Cole followed the sound of Kai’s new voice calling for his mom down the hallway toward the bedrooms. A moment later Kai limped back into the living room, one hand braced against the wall.
His face had already softened: cheekbones higher, jaw finer, the last traces of boyish sharpness melting away under the chestnut hair that now hung past his shoulders.
“Cole—I can’t find my mom.” The fully feminine voice trembled. “Her car’s still in the garage but it’s like she just… disappeared.” He stared at Cole, eyes wide. “Holy shit. You look really tall. I used to be a couple inches taller than you and now it’s like you’re a whole foot taller.”
Cole’s gaze dropped to the way Kai was favoring his right leg. “You alright?” The question came out automatic. Then the new height registered and his stomach dropped. “Now that you mention it… you do seem really short. You’re five-foot-seven and a half.”
The exact number arrived in his head fully formed, intimate and invasive, like someone had whispered it against the inside of his skull. His eyes went huge.
Kai stared at him, then shook his head hard. The long brown hair swung across his face in a soft, feminine arc that made something twist low in Cole’s gut. “And you’re like six-foot-two… Shit. How do I even know that?”
Kai took a limping step back toward the basement stairs, new voice tight with desperation. “Maybe if we apologize that crazy bitch will reverse whatever the fuck is happening to us.”
Cole followed, already taller, already heavier in the shoulders, the adult depth of his voice still foreign in his own mouth. “We have to try. I don’t want to be an adult yet…”
The wooden steps groaned under their changing weight as they headed back down toward the glowing monitors and the witch who was still watching.