I hope you don't mind if I borrow your setting...

==

“Even so, isn’t having a twin just like having a built-in friend?”

For a long second she just looked at Andrea, her lunch momentarily forgotten. How was she supposed to react to a crazy claim like that? They were sitting off to the side of the schoolyard, spending their lunch break in the shade of a tree, and the conversation *up until now* had been reasonable enough.

“Friend?”

Her voice was shaking from suppressed emotion. Mirth, mostly. She couldn’t get angry at her best friend, not just because she was so utterly, horribly, horrifyingly wrong, but she sure could correct her. Her voice rose. “Friend, you say?”

“Isn’t he?” Andrea’s red hair gleamed softly in the sun, as she turned her head towards Alyssa. “I remember, when you started here you got bullied a bit. That lasted about a day.”

“Oh, sure. He won’t let anyone else hurt me…”

Or vice versa, she refused to say.

It didn’t help very much. He’d teased her mercilessly on the way back home after that day. She might have preferred the bullies; at least they didn’t know precisely the right buttons to push, and there was a limit to how much they could do.

“Look,” she continued, glancing around to make sure no-one else was near before she pulled her t-shirt up over her head. “That’s just from this morning. We got into a fight over the GameStation last night, which I won, so he snuck into my room while I was sleeping to get back at me.“

“I thought you looked a bit flatter than normal.” Andrea chuckled, the three years older girl completely unsurprised by the ‘revelation’. “Did he find a better hiding place, or something? You’re usually up so early, I’m surprised you didn’t fix yourself.”

“Or something,” Alyssa groaned. She looked down at her flat-as-a-pancake chest, wondering what her breasts were doing right now. They wouldn’t even grow back, not like this; as far as her chest was concerned she was perfectly healthy, just… flat. She let her t-shirt drop back down.

“Actually…” Andrea looked her over dubiously, from head to toes, making her shift uncomfortably. “That’s weird. Did your hips get narrower? You look younger, almost, only not quite…” She blinked, then grinned. “Oh, huh. So that’s how he did it, is it? Lucky you we don’t have PE today. Hey, wait. Which means, that limp…”

She absolutely would not blush.

xxx

Last night, shortly after she’d fallen asleep.

The door to her room opened just a crack. Alex snuck in, careful not to make any noise or let the hallway light hit her face, a task made more difficult by the fact that his right leg was still only barely functional. Andrea had twisted it right *off*, just to keep him distracted, and there hadn’t been time for more than a quick patch-job.

He could admire her, a bit. At fifteen, nearly a year older than him, she still hadn’t filled out very much—he had, so they were just about the same size, and he was stronger—but she was still usually the victor in their little fights, if only because she fought dirty.

Not that it’d stop him from doing what he was about to do.

He quietly closed the door behind him, pulling out a scalpel that he’d purloined from the infirmary at school a while ago. It gleamed in the dark.

…

Okay, no it didn’t. But he could pretend that it had, right? There was no-one here to tell him otherwise. Except for Alyssa, and shortly she wouldn’t be able to say anything at all. She would be… *silenced*, permanently. Or, well, for long enough. Hopefully she wouldn’t wake up at all, that’d ruin everything…

He stopped worrying about it, and tip-toed over to her bed. The room was almost pitch-black right now, but he’d seen her positioning before he closed the door. Leaning over at just about the right spot, he froze for a second as her breath tickled the back of his hands… then, oh so slowly, he traced the contours of her head by the indentation it made on her pillow until he found her neck. He’d only get one shot at this; the scalpel was sharp, enough that she shouldn’t feel it, but if he cut the wrong thing she’d just wake up, and since he was naked right now he didn’t feel like the ensuing explanation to their parents would go well for him. If it *worked*, she’d be too embarrassed to tell.

Ever so slowly…

The scalpel tickled the back of her neck, breaking her skin without causing pain. Alyssa shivered in her sleep, her dream suddenly changing to one where she was being hugged, from behind, by an ice-cold penguin. The deeper he dug, the riskier it got, but there was at least a couple millimetres.

The scalpel hit one of her vertebrae with a barely noticeable, inaudible ping, then slipped in between two of them. In her dream, Alyssa’s penguin had heated up to body temperature, but she felt a little uncomfortable—it tugged on her cheek—

He’d done it perfectly. Inside her neck, the scalpel slid through a membrane and hit a nerve, literally; he felt around, as much as he could with something that sharp, until he’d cut all the nerves except the one for her lungs. Preventing her from breathing might not kill her, but it sure would wake her up.

He pulled the scalpel out, and breathed a quiet sigh, as her heart rate steadied and her breathing slowed. Inside the dream the penguin was no more, but the dream itself was slowly fading; she felt relaxed, absolutely, as the various aches and twinges from her recent fight had all cut off at once—along, of course, with every other sensation except from her head. If she’d been awake, the paralysis might have made her panic—but she wasn’t, and it didn’t, and if she could have *trusted* Alex she might have asked to sleep like this every chance she could.

If she’d wanted to stop him from what he was doing, then now was far too late.

Alex pinched her side, just to make sure. No reaction; not even the faintest twitch. There was a vague scent of ammonia spreading through the room, but that was as he’d expected, and he doubted she’d wake up from that. It was hardly the first time she’d gone to sleep incontinent.

Then he got to work.

Her pyjamas was first. She was only paralysed from the neck down, not sedated, so he couldn’t pull it off the normal way. He returned to the scalpel, instead, cutting away at the seams of her clothes until he could pull them apart. This revealed her bare body, technically; he couldn’t see it, but he ran his hands over her chest and between her legs safe in the knowledge that she couldn’t possibly feel it. She was an excellent example of a girlish physique, if he dared say so himself; all the more so for being fully intact. It would make what he was about to do all the sweeter.

Scalpel out, and cutting around her waist. Soon he could push his hands into her guts, where he methodically went about pulling them out. No sense in making this harder on himself. Carefully, though; he had to do it without moving her head too much.

Her spine gave way, leaving a lower half with only the essentials. Kidneys, the very lowest part of her digestive tract, her reproductive system—her womb, and everything that went with it. Now freed from needing to be so careful, he went to work with her legs with abandon; they were still only barely healed, and Alyssa’s left leg actually came free with just a little tug. He wondered how she’d gotten upstairs—hand-walking, maybe?

Not that it mattered.

He dragged a finger across the lips of her pussy, feeling the hairs.

Actually, wasn’t this a unique opportunity? There was no way he could convince her normally. And he was already naked. So—

Disgust overwhelmed him at the thought. Whatever else she was, she was still his sister!

Eager to get it over with, he turned to her upper half and started cutting. This would be tricky; he’d broken her chest into pieces before, but this time he had to cut off the front of her rib-cage without actually harming her insides, while normally that was the entire point. He had fond memories of one time, he’d fooled her into drinking some kind of acid and her bones had gotten incredibly brittle, which left her practically falling apart at the slightest touch. That had ended when he’d accidentally crushed her brain, leaving her a vegetable for nearly a day…

Mom had been really upset at him, because she’d missed school, and Alyssa had been even more upset because she’d missed her favourite show. He frowned. Maybe not such a good idea to repeat, especially after the way she’d gotten back at him.

He’d finished cutting, and tugged at the bottom edge of her ribcage with one hand. It moved perhaps a millimetre, the suction being plenty enough to keep it in place. Tricky; if he used much more force, she’d probably wake up. Instead he jammed one hand into her entrails and felt for her backbone, levering his elbow against the top of her chest while he felt around for the attachment points with his other.

That worked. Her floating ribs slowly came free, making her look a little bit like a box he was opening… or a chest he was opening, he supposed, heh. He started cutting, puncturing her flesh here and there to release pressure and even separating her fixed ribs from her backbone. Then he got a little careless. He used too much force, making a rib-bone audibly crack as it snapped in two, and Alyssa’s breathing suddenly sped up.

He paused, desperately hoping she wouldn’t wake.

Minutes passed. Slowly, her breathing went back to normal; even more slowly, so did his.

The rest was easy, relatively speaking, and soon Alyssa was split into five pieces. Two legs, hips, a ribcage, and finally the sole part of her body that was still connected to her, her arms, backbone and organs. She’d be a pitiable sight, if he’d dared to turn on the lights, and for a moment he thought of leaving her that way. It was a little bit more extreme than usual, but she still had her arms—which, he knew from bitter experience, was likely enough for her to beat him in a fight if she’d been awake and able to use them. It was certainly enough for her to put herself back together.

But, that hadn’t been the plan. And he wanted to do something that would embarrass her at school, which meant he had to do something that she *could* hide from their parents. Bringing them in would embarrass them both, but he’d be the one who got punished.

Making a last-minute decision, he cut off her arms as well before picking up the pieces of his sister, all save her head-parts, and silently vacating the room. The next part would be far easier with decent lighting.

xxx

“Hey, Alex!”

He looked up from his desk, to see Lucas looking oddly at him.

“I was going to invite you to our soccer game, but… are you feeling okay? Isn’t that clothing way too hot?”

He shook his head, even though he was soaked. Cursing himself for last night’s decisions. He was wearing a baggy sweater, and equally baggy pants; they fit him about as well as a tent would have. Which was the point. And no, he didn’t feel okay; he felt weak. His books all seemed to weigh more than they should have. Which was to be expected, but—

“Maybe tomorrow. I need to work on some homework,” he excused himself.

“Well, suit yourself.” Lucas shook his head sadly before leaving the room. “Homework, huh.”

xxx

Bathroom door, locked.

His hearing felt hypersensitive, but all he could hear were the distant sounds of lifters and auto-cars. Their parents were asleep, and they’d better stay that way.

The bathroom had a full-length wall mirror, which came in handy as he sat down on the floor and started cutting himself apart. Legs first, of course, and hips; he gave his dick one sad tug before severing his spine, and with it all sensation. He’d been hard, of course; he got hard at pretty much any excuse, but it quickly deflated after being separated from his body.

Then, the crucial part. Cutting off the front of his own chest was at once easier and harder than it had been with Alyssa. Easier, because he could feel what he was doing and didn’t need to worry about waking *himself*. (And it hurt, even if that level of “maximum hurt” was something he’d long since learnt to ignore.) Harder, because he didn’t have the same sort of leverage, and any mistake—even just not getting the cut exactly the same as on his sister—might mean needing to start over.

He persevered, though. It was one of his better qualities; that even if he lost, he’d come back and try again. Of course, when the thing he’d lost at was one of the twins’ interminable games of “who can first render the other down for parts before being torn apart”, his attempts at trying harder were often a little grotesque.

His ribcage clattered to the floor.

It was an odd feeling. He felt exposed, utterly. His organs were kind of hanging loose, tugging at connective tissue that wasn’t connected to his bones anymore. He could see his heart beating, and feel the warm-but-not-body-temperature air stroking across his insides, quickly cooling him down. Which meant, of course, that his sister—stuck in a much colder bedroom, and just as exposed—had to be feeling pretty cold by now. He’d better get a move on.

xxx

Penguins. Penguins as far as the eye could see.

She shivered, turning her head up towards the merciless, cool blue sun. Then she took a step, placing a naked foot deep in the snow. Then another.

Her feet broke off, then her legs. She kept walking, losing more and more parts of herself.

xxx

Cut off one arm, leaving him at the most diminished he’d ever been on his own. He thought—his memories were vague, but many years ago, before they’d started fighting so much, he thought he remembered Andrea having taken them apart, rendering them down to individual organs just to see what the difference was, and then *leaving*. Just up and running away, because she’d remembered there was a TV show on.

Then, a cat had showed up and started batting them around, mixing up all the pieces and eating bits of his skin!

She’d put them back together an hour later, the longest hour in his life, and he still wasn’t sure if she’d gotten it right. He had a niggling feeling, growing stronger ever since they’d hit puberty, that she’d actually gotten it horribly wrong, but they’d been six at the time and Andrea barely eight; he didn’t remember it well enough to be sure.

Reattach, *Alyssa’s* arm, and it clicked into place like it belonged there. Then the other. Funny, she’d always seemed so strong, but her arms were thinner and he could already tell that they were also weaker. Completely hairless, but he was light-haired; nobody would be able to tell the difference without looking close, and he had a sweater that’d hide them.

Her ribcage.

He gulped, a funny sensation in his current state, because right now he was sexless; after he attached the ribcage, he’d effectively be a girl. He’d have breasts, and those would be far more noticeable than any amount of hair. He’d be a she…

He felt a kind of tingling sensation in his gut, excitement at what he was about to do. Or was he going to back out now? It’d be a funny enough prank just to swap limbs, and with far less risk of discovery.

No. No, he wouldn’t back out.

After all that thought, actually putting it on was anticlimactic. It felt sort of like stuffing a turkey; the ribcage was stiff, while his organs had sort of slopped downwards. Once he got everything roughly into place, however, he quickly felt the tingling sensation of his flesh healing… fusing to someone else’s. Quickly he put on Alyssa’s hips and legs as well, leaving him as a real, one hundred percent girl… still with his own face and scarcely-noticeable hints of a beard to come. One that wouldn’t come, so long as he stayed like this.

It felt odd, just for how normal it felt. Apart from the inherent fragility of having barely healed, he felt pretty much like himself. (*Although*, a hand sneaking across his vagina told him, he no longer had the one feature he’d gotten really used to, that made almost every time he was called up to the blackboard an exercise in embarrassment. He guess that wouldn’t be a problem for tomorrow.)

It was strange. He’d been expecting to feel horny, but he kind of didn’t. Curious, of course, but not enough that he’d ruin the rest of the night; he needed to sleep, and soon, because he had to be out of the house before Alyssa woke up. Maybe he could find a secluded spot on the way to school… nah. Too much bother. After school, maybe, if Alyssa didn’t corner him there.

xxx

“So you’re a boy now.”

“Only at the moment!” Alyssa protested. “I’ll force him to switch us back the moment I get home from school. Don’t tell anyone else. You won’t, right?” She looked pleadingly at Andrea, who looked far too amused. “Please don’t! I’ll just *die* if my classmates learn about it.”

“Relax.” Andrea smirked at her. “Do you think you’re the only one who’s tried this? In fact—“ She counted off on her fingers. “Carlos, Juliana, Tim…”

“They’ve all done the same thing?” Alyssa’s voice betrayed her shock. “Well, Carlos and Juliana I can maybe understand, but Tim…?”

Andrea shook her head. “That list would be about half the class. Those three are the ones I’m pretty sure were born a different sex than they’re using right now. Maybe. Tim, definitely, but I have no idea about the twins, and I think neither do they. *You* two, on the other hand…”

She’d known Tim for half her life—

“Live a little, will you?” Andrea sighed. “You know what? I’m calling in a favour.”

No. Nonono.

“You’re staying like that for at least a month. It’ll do you good, to see how the other half lives.”

She couldn’t be serious.

“I’ll tell the teachers for you, okay? So make sure you use the right changing room, I don’t really want a boy to see me naked.”

Absurd! Ludicrous!

Alyssa jerked with every new pronouncement. She couldn’t go against Andrea, and the girl knew it.

“That just leaves thinking of a name. Simple enough, I guess… I’ll see you later, Alex. Hey, maybe if you’re a fast enough learner you can get a girlfriend before the month is out? I always really liked you, you know.”

Andrea winked.