Stretching Your Luck

Nathan held the shimmering stone in his hand. He was feeling pretty stupid right about now. Why the hell had he bought this damn thing anyway? Was he seriously desperate or just plain gullible enough to believe what the eBay seller's description had said? A stone that granted a wish?

He had stumbled across the eBay page a week ago, on one of his nightly internet trawling sessions, on his laptop in bed, his fiancé slumbering next to him. Nathan didn't share....normal guys' attractions. Well, not all of them. He was just as attracted to any classically beautiful or sexy woman as the next guy, and his fiance was that. Gorgeous, brunette, in shape, just like him. But he knew he had a few "kinks" that other men didn't share. So, when he stumbled across the "stone of bodily transfiguration" on the auction site, he knew that there was something there for him.

The stone, wrote the seller, had the ability to grant the user's most fantastic wish regarding the human body, all "changes" guaranteed harmless, reversible, and free from any "deal-with-the-devil" curse-like twists. Want to be a foot taller? Done. Want a bigger male organ? Easy. Want to see how life as the opposite sex weighed up? Wish = granted. The stone came with "one charge", and promised a "free returns" perks immediately after usage.

Maybe it was the reviews from past buyers, maybe it was the seller's lavish descriptions of the stone's powers, but something made him believe that this was the real deal. Some reviewers talked about gaining insane physical resilience, some talked about a complete bodily makeover, some talked about things like bringing out their own "feminine side". But the one that really struck Nate was one sentence in the seller's personal description. "With this, the human form has no limits."

That was it. That was the sentence that sealed his fate. It all sounded good to somebody with no other options for specific "interests" as Nathan had. Free returns? Reversible? After a few nervous jitters, and with a little glance over to see if Alicia, his fiancé, was sound asleep, he approved the paypal purchase for $150. Sure it was pricey, but he had a decent job, and he'd just gotten his tax returns back. He had some spare cash.

The day after the order, and after a sleepless night of regret over such a stupid and rushed purchase, Nathan emailed the seller requesting to cancel his order and refund the money. A surprisingly quick reply came to his inbox, that read:

"Nathan,

I understand your decision to cancel the order. However, please allow me to ask you to reconsider. I guarantee that this product will suit your every need. If you say it does not, I will make sure any effects the stone causes will be undone, and your $150 will be refunded to you immediately. I have never had a dissatisfied customer, and I have a feeling you will be no different.

Take a day, let me know what you think.

-S."

Nathan, reading the email, decided it would just be best to let the thing come and see what happens. After all, he'd get his money back when it turned out to be a dud. He had a seller verified e-mail that he could use as leverage in a complaint to eBay if he reneged on his promise. He responded with an agreement not to cancel the order, and went about his day.

The week dragged on. Nathan went to work every day thinking about the stone. About what he had in mind for his wish, and all that could come from it if this was the real deal. His work suffered, but he didn't care. Alicia told him he was being distant, and Nathan played up a decent act of being stressed out from his job, but every night he lay awake, staring at his girlfriend's back as she slept.

Day by day, he waited, rushing home every night to see if maybe it came early. On Friday, he finally came home to a small envelope in his mailbox, sent from a "private address". Running inside, he checked if Alicia was home. When he was sure she wasn't, he tore open the packaging to find a smaller envelope with a lump inside it.

The envelope itself was an ornate gold-lined piece of soft paper, almost like a silken papyrus. The front, in a gorgeous script, simply read "Nathan". He opened the envelope, and tilted it until a small rock, almost the size of a pebble, smooth and with the form of a misshapen oval, slid out into his palm. The rock itself was a milky white, and almost a little see through, with a cloudy complexion in the middle. It had a magnificent shine to it, and as he looked closely, he could see that the 'clouds' inside were actually swirling about, billowing like a smoke bomb or a witches cauldron. He could tell this was not any ordinary stone, and if it was still a scam, it was a damn convincing one at first glance.

Nathan noticed a slip of paper inside the envelope. Pulling it out, he began reading the handwriting in the same script as on the envelope.

"Mr. Nathan,

Enclosed is the stone you requested. I warn you to proceed with caution, and word your desires very specifically. You only were able to find the stone because you are worthy and of good heart, but you still must be extremely descriptive in your wish if you would like it to work properly. To use the stone, proceed as such:

1. Place the stone into a small box.

2. Over the stone, place a RECENT picture or likeness of yourself, in which you appear as close as possible to the way you do now.

3. Place above that a handwritten note detailing exactly what you would like done to your body. BE SPECIFIC. IE: "Changed into a merman with the upper half of a human" would give the stone a better idea than "Changed into a merman", just as "Changed into living stone" would likely be more enjoyable than "changed into stone". The stone fills in any blanks you leave in the description with it's best guess, but it is not a mind reader. When you finish writing out the wish, sign your full name at the bottom.

4. Close the box.

5. Open the box.

The effect will take place in 3 hours or less. Again, as I am aware of your hesitance, I give you a complete satisfaction guarantee IF you follow the directions, or your money back. Additionally, by sending me an e-mail, you can request the wish be undone at any time in the future, even if it satisfies you initially.

And Nathan. As I'm sure you may be wondering, you can indeed place a picture of another subject you know well inside the box. (Just do not do this while they are driving).

Happy wishing."

That was it. No signature, no initials, no identification of any kind. How the hell was he going to get ahold of the seller without a name? He hoped he wouldn't have to.

He sat for a long time, contemplating what he was about to do. It was nuts. Crazy. Something a toddler would dream up. The fact that he even considered this could be real, and that he spent so much on it, made extremely embarrassed. But this person, this mysterious internet seller, had known things about him. They could have gotten his name from the shipping address of course, but what about that last add on? How did they know what he was planning?

After a lot of back and forth thinking, and pulling his hair out a little bit, Nathan gathered up the materials. He brought them all together and sat on his bed upstairs. He had the instructions, an old shoebox, a pen, a piece of paper, a picture from his office desk downstairs, and of course, the stone.

He placed the stone inside the box, and the clouds inside it began almost storming.

Step one.

He went all pins and needles as he reached over and grabbed the picture.

The picture of Alicia.

It was from their vacation 5 years ago. It was between this picture and another one of her on his desk, the other picture being an embarrassing baby picture of herself. But he liked this picture more, and the instructions did say a recent picture.

This picture was taken by him on the beach. They had escaped the brisk winds of the New England late fall for a trip down to Florida for a week. They were both young professionals, working newer jobs after their college graduations a couple years earlier. In the picture, she stood, hands on her hips, a drink in her hand and a smile on her face. She had a now-nostalgic tan from their fun in the sun, her hair a little more mahogany than brown from the exposure, and she looked about 20 pounds lighter than she did now, as a 29 year old, and her 24 year old face looked a little more youthful. Her butt was a little more shapely back then, her stomach a little flatter, and her breasts just the slightest bit smaller and perkier. She was still in shape these days, just not as much of a gym frequenter as she was when the picture was taken. He still loved her body now. But he knew he could love it more if this worked.

He wasn't really considering any of that however at the moment. Nathan took a deep breath, and placed the picture on top of the stone inside the box.

Step two.

The stone began to glow beneath the photo paper, and he heard a slight high pitched tone begin to come from the box.

His hand shaking, he took the pen and paper, and turned to his bedside table to write. His heart pounding, he thought of what to write. The letter said to be specific, and Nathan had plenty good an idea in his head of what he was trying to accomplish. After years of surfing forums, blogs, and sites in languages he couldn't read for the kinds of pictures and stories he was looking for, he had given himself a plethora of descriptive words to work with when searching. As he took a few sharp breaths in and out, he put pen to page, and wrote.

"Change the entire person and all her parts into a living, breathing, organic, elastic material. Able to stretch, reshape, deform, modify, shift, or change their form in any way they desire, without any lasting damage or any pain. Mass can be created or removed at will. No loss of memory or personality. The changing of their body produces pleasure when they want such pleasure. No change in bodily function, the body and mind will be able to sustain themselves and operate at peak efficiency no matter the shape or state they choose.

Signed Nathan Jacob Farmer."

That just about covered it. He thought long and hard, making sure he didn't leave anything out. The seller had promised no trickery, but he wasn't taking any chances.

Turning back to the box, he held his wish over the top. As he slowly let his hand drop towards the stone, he heard the high pitch whine grow louder and stronger, as the glow from the stone grew brighter. He could see it emanating from beneath the picture of Alicia, looking like molten lava, as his hand came within a centimeter of the surface. Gingerly, the sound growing deafening, he let the note fall out of his hands, and as it settled, he felt the box begin to gently hum, the glowing from the stone turning a bright green.

Step three.

Suddenly, with the high pitched whine having been replaced by the hum of the stone apparently accepting his wish, he heard a sound from the hallway outside the bedroom. He turned his head to focus on it, as he did so, he saw the door handle to the bedroom begin to turn.

Alicia. He must not have been able to hear her come home. Quickly, he slammed the box closed as the door opened to reveal his fiance with a confused look on her face.

Step four.

"Nathan," she said, her face twisted into a confused grimace, "Did you hear that?"

Nathan, throat as dry as cotton, found it hard to speak. His fiance had just walked in on a ritual of sorts, one that attempted to transform the very nature of her body. But, he thought, she was none the wiser yet. Stammering, he said, "Uh, wh-what? Hear what?"

She rubbed her ears. "That.....piercing high pitched noise. You didn't hear it?"

He shook his head hastily. "Nope. Well, I heard something, but, y'know, not....."

A nervous faux-smile crept over his face. "...not that!"

She looked around the room. "So odd. I could hear it before I even pulled into the driveway, and when I got inside I could have sworn it was coming from in here...."

Her eyes turned towards the closed box in front of him on the bed. "What's in the shoebox. babe?"

The lump in Nathan's throat grew three sizes that day. Nervously, he said, "Um...uh...."

This was it. He didn't know how he was going to explain the contexts of the box. He tugged at his shirt collar.

"Well, baby, it's-"

As he tried desperately to think of an excuse for the contents of the box, he opened it to look back inside and see if the stone was still glowing.

Step five.

The box was empty. Nathan's eye's lit up, and a smile almost crept across his face. Almost. "Baby, it's noth-"

He looked up and froze. Alicia was standing in the doorway just as before, but now, her eyes were glowing as bright as the stone had been, staring straight through him. Her mouth was ajar, and her stance was frozen in the place it was in when he opened the lid. The high pitched whine had returned, joined by the low hum.

"Alicia?! Are you okay?!" he cried out, almost forgetting the fact that the stone he had just used was almost assuredly causing her to be like this. He jumped up to run to her side, but as he did, Alicia was enveloped in a brilliant green light, and he was knocked backwards by an enormous force onto the bed. When he looked back up, Alicia's head was surrounded by swirling clouds, that spun faster and faster, before they began to disseminate around her body, splitting and spreading down her arms and torso, towards her legs. A wind swept across the room, blowing back Nathan's tie, and spilling books and knick-knacks off of the shelves and dressers.

When the swirling clouds had passed over all of Alicia's body, they suddenly vanished with a thunder-like rumble, and as the winds settled down, Alicia's eyes stopped glowing, and the loud noises faded into silence. Nathan, face as white as paper, simply stared at his fiancé, before she turned her head back to him.

"Well?" she asked casually

Nathan, cautiously and a little terrified, responded, "Well.... what?"

She crossed her arms. "What's in the box?" she said with a little bit of condescension.

Nathan wearily lifted up the shoebox, and opened it again, looking inside before turning the empty box towards her.

"Nothing....just an empty old....shoe box?"

She looked at him suspiciously, up and down.

"You're weird." she stated matter-of-factly. Walking to the closet and unbuttoning her dress shirt, she asked "How was your day?"

Nathan couldn't really think of anything to say or do. Whatever happened to her back there, she was completely unaware of it. It seemed like she blinked in and out of consciousness seamlessly when he opened the box.

Ignoring the question, Nathan prodded, "Are you, uh, feeling okay, hon?"

Alicia paused as she slipped her shirt off her back. "Me? I feel fine. Why? What is up with you?"

Nathan began to speak, but stopped short. He saw his fiancé's hair, in front of his eyes, begin to lighten, the deep brown beginning to evoke shades of copper. He simultaneously registered her skin begin to darken. From her scalp, traveling downwards, it was as if a paintbrush was painting her whole body with one broad stroke, her peach skin turning a more bronze complexion as her face skin was completely changed, the color sliding down over her neck and shoulders.

Already impatient with his non-answer, she got even less patient when she saw his eyes travel down from her face, over her neck, and to her chest. Annoyed, she pulled a towel from the closet and held it over her chest, "You wanna talk to me hon? Or you just wanna stare at my tits?"

"Oh, uh, sorry, I didn't meant to, yknow...." Nathan, positive that he didn't want his fiance to notice her pigmentation shifting, and him having no explanation for why, tried to stall her as he looked back up at her eyes. "Yeah, let's, let's talk. How was your day?"

Still annoyed with him, she gathered up the towel in one hand, and turned to walk into the walk-in closet to change into something to lounge in. "Long. Very long. We're not doing anything tonight, are we? I really just want to relax and watch tv, that okay?"

Nathan got up off the bed quickly and walked to the edge of the closet door. "Well uh, yeah, yeah no plans here..."

He watched as she took off her socks, her feet still paler than her now tanned upper body. The color change had spread to her legs but not yet reached her feet. Making sure she kept her focus on him, he blurted out "Well uh, maybe we could, I dunno, watch a movie or something? Rent a movie? Netflix?"

She smiled at him as she undid her dress pants. "Bottle of wine and a little bit of junk food? Could we? That actually sounds great."

"Uh, yeah sure, we've got all that downstairs." By the time he'd finished the sentence, he'd seen the tan slip over her ankles, and it was halfway over her foot as she slipped her pants down her legs. The clothes now around her feet, she stepped out of them, and as she did, Nathan saw her big toes finally darken along with the rest of her body. His fiance stood in front of him as if she'd just spent an hour in a tanning bed, picking up her pants to hang them.

Nathan was so lost. This wasn't what he wished for. A tanner fiance? That was it? He was definitely getting his money back. Impressive that a dumb stone he bought online could even do that, but it wasn't what he payed for.

"Good, I really don't wanna do anything else." Alicia said. Turning towards her husband, she began to undo her bra. "You seriously just gonna stand here and watch me change? I mean, by all means you can, but nothing's gonna happen. I'm tired and cranky and feeling gross." She slipped it off and dropped it into the laundry bin, standing bare save for her underwear in front of Nathan.

He was disappointed in the stone, but at least he could see the novelty of his girlfriend looking how she did now compared to a minute ago. "Well, yknow. Boys will be boys." he said. But just as he said that, his attention was dragged back down to Alicia's chest, which was, of it's own accord, moving.

Her breasts shuddered a little, before beginning to pull up into themselves slightly and towards one another. The skin around her nipples tightened, and both breasts rounded out and perked up, their shape changing, creating a gradual slope downwards before rounding up to her nipples, which then became a little lighter and a little more pronounced.

Nathan tried to look away from the process, which took only a second. But he couldn't. Alicia, not having noticed, cupped her hands over her breasts. "Alright, now you're just staring like some slack jawed yokel. That's a bit much there, creep-o." But even as she did that, Nathan's gaze had slid down to her stomach, which in turn sucked inwards, her pudge vanishing before his eyes, just as quickly as her breasts changed, to reveal a hint of a toned six pack that gradually faded into a V where her torso met her hips.

"You got a movie in mind then?" she asked as she turned away from him, and bent down to pull a pair of sweatpants from the stack on the floor. Her ass was pointed directly at Nathan, and, like clockwork, it too shuddered, before going through it's own lift of sorts. Both cheeks rounded out, pushing outwards and pulling upwards, all sagging eliminated underneath her black panties. Beneath her posterior, her thighs pulled inwards, leaving a inch wide thigh gap, as her calfs tightened and thickened out a little.

"N-no, I uh...no movie....no" he mumbled.

As she picked up a pair of sweatpants and put them on, she turned and grabbed an old sweatshirt from one of the top shelfs in the closet. Nathan could see her ribs poking out beneath her skin as she raised her arms over her head. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen that. In fact, she hadn't looked this good in years. Even her biceps looked more toned, and her neck was a bit slimmer. She looked like a co-ed.