Unicorn Part 2

Continued from: "Unicorn Part 1" 


It took Chastity very little time to get back into the swing of things.  She was riding a longer bus route to school since her parents had switched schools to help her make a new start of things, but she didn't let it bother her.  The same bus picked up kids ranging from kindergarteners to a few unlucky seniors from the surrounding farm houses, and she really loved watching the littler kids play on the bus, she imagined one day she might have a little boy or girl just like them.  Sometimes she even played with them, and a couple of the littlest ones saw her horn as well, but no one seemed to pay any attention to their little fantasy lives.  One of the meaner juniors started calling her Unicorn Girl because some of the little kids did, but it was obvious he meant it as a mean joke, so Chastity simply ignored it.  She didn't get mad, but she did feel bad for him, because one time he brushed by her and she could feel how sad, hurt and alone he was.  She made a few attempts to say hi and be nice to him, but he brushed her off and told her to go play with the babies, so she left him be.

Mostly, though, Chastity's life was calm and happy, and in the smaller school, she didn't have to face as much pressure either, although the only groups that really accepted her very much were the volleyball players and the drama kids.  Marie hung around her all the time, and they talked on the phone after school fairly often, and Marie convinced Chastity to try out for the school's production of Tom Jones.

It was a Friday morning in late January, and the Midwest weather had dumped a ton of snow on the roads, most of which melted and refroze or packed into ice on the roads before the plows could get through.  The bus driver was experienced with such weather, and simply drove more carefully, but as he turned onto the highway, an SUV coming the other direction skidded past the stop sign and barreled into the bus, knocking it off the road and into the ditch where it turned on its side.

Inside the bus, children screamed as books and small objects flew around like bullets and people flew over seats to land in a heap on the side of the bus that was now under it.  One little boy, a kindergartener, took the worst damage, as the bus skidded on its side, his leg went out the window and came back in the next window, bent at a very unnatural angle.  The little boy screamed in agony as the bus slid to a stop, and Chastity landed next to him.

She didn't even think about it as the child's screams ripped into her heart, she ducked her head and her horn parted the metal frame of the window like a hot knife through butter.  Even as she marveled at the power, she dipped the horn to the boy's ruined leg, and his screams trailed off to a whimper.  Tilting her head back up, she saw the leg was completely healed, though the jeans were shredded.  Other kids still screamed in fright, but none held the edge of pain the little boy's had.  In the chaos, no one seemed to noticed the boy's leg being ruined then healed, but now that everything had stopped moving, she could hear sirens approaching, and people climbing back upright.  Chastity smiled at the sniffling boy and held her finger to her lips in the gesture of secrecy, and the boy nodded, though he did reach out to touch her horn in wonder.  In the back, a boy suddenly thought long and hard about calling the girl who played with all the little kids Unicorn Girl.

When little Jimmy touched her horn, it felt like love, pure and innocent.  She knew then that she would give anything to have such a child of her own, some day.

The police and ambulances took care of frightened children and minor cuts and scrapes, and the newspapers marveled for days about the fact that in spite of major damage to the bus, no one received any serious injuries.  Most called it a miracle from God, and Chastity smiled at the thought, keeping the truth a closely-guarded secret.

-----

The remainder of the school year passed in peaceful bliss.  Chastity grew as teenagers tend to do, gaining perhaps an inch in height, and filling out a little more.  No matter how much she played and ran in the sun, her skin never burned nor darkened, but she helped the volleyball team go to state, and the production of Tom Jones was a rousing success.  Over the summer, she spent days at the community pool swimming and playing with her friends, and practicing volleyball with her teammates.  A few boys approached her, but she demurred, managing not to hurt any feelings, and several of the boys remained her friends, perhaps with some hope of becoming more one day.

The next school year, she again rode the bus, and watched the little children play.  This year she had chosen to take Family And Child Sciences (they changed the name to keep up with the other schools) simply as a refresher, and to imagine herself a mother during the class.  It had become something of an obsession with her, though a harmless one.  She even started dating a boy, Eric Lassiter, who had been nice to her all summer.  He was a basketball player, but also had a strong love of books, and they spent hours in the library where she read about unicorns and mythology and he focused on the classics of literature, or at the gym, watching each other play.  The year slowly passed, until again classes ended leaving students to spend their summers in leisure.

Chastity was now sixteen, and felt the stirrings of her body.  She wanted children of her own, and she knew exactly how to get them.  Eric seemed amenable, judging by the times they'd spent in secluded areas, going to the lake with classmates only to separate into pairs and find secret spots.  Eric's kisses left her breathless, and his exploring fingers brought warmth to her middle entirely unlike the warmth her horn brought, yet wonderful in its own way, a fire that threatened to consume her in passion rather than the comforting warm glow.  Yet something stopped her, some sensation of wrongness, always before he could drift too close to her jeans.

"Eric, I can't...  Oh God I want to, but I'm not ready yet..."  Chastity gasped in unfulfilled need.

"Why, Chastity?  Why are you holding back?"  He didn't mean to push her, but his own desires clashed with his common sense and left him little room for thought about his words.

"Eric, I just can't!  I don't even know why except I'm not supposed to yet.  It's really confusing, but I just know I can't yet!"

"Fine, well, if you're just gonna lead me on, I'm gone.  You get me all worked up and then think you can just turn it off!  I can't stand it, and I'm not gonna deal with it!"  The ride home was particularly tense, both of them too angry to speak to the other, and yet Eric couldn't bring himself to leave her alone at the lake with no ride back.

Chastity's mother was supportive and sympathetic about her pain at being dumped, and her father wanted to go teach the boy a lesson, but she stopped him.

"Daddy, don't it wouldn't solve anything, and besides, he didn't really do anything wrong.  It just didn't work out."  Her father was obviously at a loss for what to do, but settled for joining in the hug with her mother while she cried out her pain.

After that, Chastity decided to take a part time job at the local day care, watching children during the summer.  She dealt with more than a few cuts and scrapes, kissing hurts better with a little touch of her horn.  Everyone noticed her natural touch with the littlest children, and she was soon the most trusted childcare provider in the area.  She offered her free time to babysit, and made enough money to buy herself a car, a used beetle that she was sure would last forever.  her parents could have bought her a nicer car, but were very impressed at her sense of responsibility and independence.

She still visited the lake at times, thinking about the wonderful moments spent so close to Eric there, sometimes going for a swim in the water by herself.  The lake had always been a little murky and had a vague smell of dead fish, but in recent years she had noticed the water was clearer, almost every time she swam in it it seemed she could see farther into the water.  It seemed to smell better too, so she swam in it more and more over the summer, when not babysitting or working.

And Jeremy Matthews, who once called her Unicorn Girl, watched from the cliffs overlooking the water, as the water grew noticeably clearer the moment her head dipped under, spreading quickly across the lake.  One moment all he could see was a girl splashing in green water, the next the rocks under the surface were visible, like looking through a wavy window.

-----

Chastity thought maybe she had an idea about her horn.  Assuming of course she was not caught up in some delusion she shared with her possibly deluded friend and some little kids, she thought maybe she really was a unicorn.  Not the horselike creature of myth, but something similar.  She seemed to be able to heal wounds, and she had started to think maybe she was purifying the lake each time she swam in it.  Her horn must be magic, if it truly did exist, because it cut through steel bus window frames like nothing, and no one seemed to see it except those with pure hearts.  She even thought maybe that's why she couldn't bring herself to be with Eric, that somehow making love to him might damage her own purity and the magic of the horn.  Of course, she couldn't test that theory without compromising it, so she was stuck in the same rut as before.

She tried to make up with Eric, and explain that she really loved him, but just wasn't ready for sex yet, but he told her he was with somebody else now, that he wasn't angry at her and didn't blame her, but that he simply moved on.  She cried some more for her loss, but accepted his choice, and tried to move on as well.

As more time passed, all the local children came to know about the Unicorn Girl.  They didn't tell their parents about her, because of course parents don't understand such things, but they spoke among themselves about the beautiful girl who could do magic and make ouchies go away.  Spending time with the children helped Chastity out as well, when caring for them the pain in her heart vanished like smoke in the wind.

As the cold days moved on and the snow and ice began to melt, Chastity let go of Eric, and did in fact move on.  The children talked more and more about her, making up fanciful stories of how she must have run down from heaven to bring magic back to the world, and how she fought off monsters and defended people from danger.  All of which led to the fateful day when one mother went to tuck her child in, and found her daughter praying.

"Dear God, thank you for sending unicorns back to the world, Miss Chastity is so magical and beautiful, I just know everything in the world will get better now.  Amen."

The woman realized her child was being taken in by some nonsense and actually believing it.  It was one thing to believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, everyone knew that was part of being a child.  But if her little girl actually believed this Chastity was a unicorn, then maybe she was brainwashing all the children, like a cult!  She said nothing to her little girl, but went back downstairs to call some other mothers in town and find out exactly how far this was spreading.

-----

"It's abominable!  That girl is teaching all of our children things that aren't real!  Did you know she taught my little Jacob to pray to her?  Like she was God!"

"That girl is a nuisance, filling my girl's head with lies.  Unicorns!  It's bad enough all these teenagers with their dragons and dungeons go around on killing sprees in the big cities, now she's spreading that filth here!"

"Something has to be done about her before she gets any more kids infested with her cult mentality!"

Seventeen children listened in fear while their parents discussed in loud voices clearly audible the next room over.  They couldn't understand what was wrong, why everyone was so mad.  Even if they didn't believe, couldn't they just like her because she was nice?  Cathy, the oldest of the group of children, stood up and put her fists on her hips, just like she saw her mommy do when she was saying something people were supposed to listen to.

"Don't worry everyone!  Even if they're all mad, Chastity will make them see the truth!  She's magic, all she has to do is wave her horn and they'll all see she really is a unicorn!"

But just then, her mother walked in the room, a decision having been made by the adults, and struck the very same pose her daughter held.

"I heard that!  You listen to me, young lady!  We're going upstairs right now and wash your mouth out!  I won't have a liar in my house!"

"But MOMMY-"  Mrs. Stevens grabbed her daughter up and went upstairs to do exactly as she said.  Other angry parents joined her, grabbing squirming and scared children up to take them home.

-----

Jeremy Matthews sat on the cliff over the lake watching once again as the Unicorn Girl splashed in the water.  This time, as soon as she immersed herself, the lake became so clear he could see the fish swimming in the deepest parts, even from his height.  He could also see the pale form of Chastity Davis splashing like a mermaid, playing like a child in the water.  He couldn't bring himself to look away, a rare smile exposing his teeth.

Chastity was just drying off from her swim when she heard her cell phone ring, her home phone number showing on the display.

"Hello?"

"Chastity, come home right away please.  There's some trouble and we want to be sure you're okay."

"Alright, Mom, I'm on my way home now.  what's going on?"

"Some of the neighbors have called, they said some awful things, and we'll talk about it when you get home.  Just be careful, okay?"

As Chastity climbed into her beat up beetle, Jeremy rand down the slope of the hill to follow after.

-----

Chastity rounded the corner of her house as the sun slowly set in the west, to find a line of cars blocking her entire block.  She parked on the back side of the block and snuck around to the back door of the house and let herself in.  Her dad immediately enfolded her in a hug.

"Honey, I'm glad you made it safe, some of those people are dangerously mad, there's a mob out there!"

Her mom wordlessly joined in the hug, a scared/relieved look on her face.

"What's wrong, what do they want?  Did the hospital leak about Brian?"  Chastity was scared, and her parents were making he even more scared.

"It's the kids...  They say you're brainwashing the kids into thinking you're a unicorn, or God, or something!  How can they even think that, it's just crazy!"

Chastity stiffened in their arms, her eyes and jaw open wide.  They were picking on the kids because they could see her horn!  Because of her!  She broke free of her parents and ran out the door, where a group of angry parents stood in a line, while scared children huddled behind them.

"There she is!  How dare you teach my child your crazy beliefs!"

"You'll never babysit my angel again!"

"You had my sweet darling praying to you instead of God!  You'll burn in hell!"

Chastity let the throng throw accusations and insults at her, though none raised a hand or weapon, with their kids watching.  With each insult the mob grew louder, and the children in the back looked more scared.  She could see that they wanted her to stand up, to prove the adults wrong and make everything right again, but she knew she couldn't.  Finally, the sheriff appeared with a bullhorn and shouted at the crowd to shut up.  As they settled into a disgruntled murmur, he spoke again through the bullhorn, his words loud and clear to the throng.

"Now all of you go back to your homes.  There won't be a lynch mob in my town, and any complaints need to be filed with my office, so I can deal with them.  You all go home now!"

Chastity knelt on the grass, crying, and her family appeared around her with more hugs, asking why she'd come out, why she would risk herself like that.  She didn't even know, but she had seen the children's faces, they had expected her to gallop in and save them, kiss away their fear and heartache at the terrible things their parents had said, and she couldn't.  She had failed them, and with their parents' guidance, they would stop believing in her magic.  For some reason that hurt more than she could ever explain to anyone.

-----

The next day, Chastity found she had been fired from her job at the day care, although some of the other women there had rallied in her defense.  All her babysitting jobs were canceled, and she knew no one would call for her to watch their kids.  When she rode the bus to school, none of the little kids sat near her, nor did they play at all.  A few of them looked at her like they still thought she might save the day, but the rest quietly sniffled and stared at their shoes.

She cried quietly in her seat, while Jeremy Matthews watched from the back.

As the days wore on, little children scraped their knees and cut their hands, and Mommy's kisses, while not as magical as instant healing, began to be considered good enough, and dreams of unicorns turned to thoughts of horses and knights.  Chastity trudged to and from school, and felt the weight of her life grow heavy again.  She once again drew Eric Lassiter's attention, and spent some spring days at the lake.  She didn't feel the same love she once felt for him, and he seemed more insistent now and less romantic, but she went with him nonetheless, hoping to fill the void she felt with his children soon...  But diminish as it may have, that persisting voice in her head told her that this was somehow all wrong still, and she once again demurred.  Eric shoved her from his car in disgust, and she lay on the rocky soil among the hardy pricker weeds in her white cotton dress, and felt something break within her.

Now this thing that broke within her, it had been fading over the weeks since she was denied access to the children of the town.  It had grown weak as the children's belief waned, and the lake's waters once again grew slowly murkier.  Jimmy Carter, the boy whose leg healed during the bus ride, managed to break that same leg in several places, falling off of a playground toy onto a tree branch.  And finally, her own belief in the magic that existed in the world and in herself... shattered.

The horn she had felt for so long, a part of her, began to crumble, tiny specks of silvery dust floating away on the wind.

She felt her body begin to grow, to change and sprout hair and muscle.  The pain of the process was only outdone by the horror, the soul-crushing agony of knowing she was going to become Brian again.  Maybe the whole thing had been a delusion, maybe she'd never really been Chastity.  She couldn't take that, she couldn't be Brian again, she would rather die a hundred times!  Fighting through the agony, flecks of horn crumbling away with every movement, she climbed her way up the hill to where the cliff stood overlooking both lake and gravelly shore.  a fall from that cliff to the gravel would kill her, maybe before she finished turning back.  A lance of fresh agony filled her middle as the final proof of her sex began to change inside her, and she knew it was time to leap.

"Chastity!!!"  The voice froze her, some hint of desperation held her paralyzed looking down over a perhaps sixty-foot drop.

"You really are what they said, aren't you?  I can still see you, you know.  I see you changing, I see how much it hurts you, but I can still see you as yourself.  You don't have to turn into a unicorn and gallop back to the heavens!  Please!  Stay here.  The world needs you.  The kids need you.  And most of all I need you.  I believe in you.  I watched you clean this lake, I saw you heal Jimmy's leg, and even if I can't see it, I *know* you have the horn the kids always talk about.  So you don't have to leave, you can stay here, because I believe!"  She never told her body to turn, never noticed it happening, but one moment she was facing the cliff, and the next she was facing Jeremy Matthews, the boy who used to call her Unicorn Girl in that insulting tone.

And he believed in her.  In her magic.  In her horn.  He couldn't even see it, or feel it like she could, but he believed in it.  She reached up to touch it, and only a nub remained, a tiny rounded bump under her forehead, but it felt warm and comforting, just as it always had.  Looking down, she saw herself as he saw her.  Exactly the way she had been just that morning, pale, female, pretty...

"Beautiful."

He closed the space between them, pulled her away from the cliff only to kiss her, his lips catching hers with a mix of fire and lightning, sound and fury.  Her blood rushed in her ears and her body heated up to burning intensity inside, in a way that Eric had never been able to arouse her.

When the two pulled away out of mutual need for air, both stood gasping for air for long, long seconds.  Chastity vowed to herself never to leave this man, the one who saved her from her own failure to believe, and she meant to keep that vow.

-----

Miss Chastity Matthews, formerly Davis, gasped in agony and pushed with all her body.  With a final groan and sigh of relief, she lay back, just in time to hear the anguished cries of a child not ready for the world outside Mommy's tummy.  After a moment of cleaning and dealing with cord and afterbirth and all the messy stuff, Doctor Mitchell handed her a tiny baby boy, with the cutest tiny nubbin on his forehead.  Mommy touched her nubbin to his for a moment, before Daddy swooped in to greet his new son.  For his belief and hers, one more spark of magic appeared in a world where children are taught not to believe in such things.