Turn 8 of 16
Jess attempts to speak normally, but her voice has changed into a valley-girl style. No matter how hard she tries to talk like herself, only the new speech pattern comes out.
Jess stood frozen on the sidewalk under the streetlights, her black patent platform boots planted wide in a stance she could not correct. The confident hip sway that had taken over her walk refused to fade even when she concentrated with all her might, her surgically enhanced curves shifting in the tight skinny jeans and Fendi bodysuit with every tiny adjustment. Shame burned hotter in her chest as Leo stared at her, his alarm plain on his face, and she opened her plump filler lips to reassure him that she was still fighting this curse. The words that emerged instead came wrapped in a light, breathy valley-girl lilt that sounded nothing like her usual measured tone, all rising inflections and drawn-out vowels that made her sound exactly like the loud escorts from the restaurant.
"Oh my gawd, Leo, like, this is totally not me right now," Jess said, her voice carrying that new husky valley-girl cadence despite the panic surging through her mind. She clapped a hand over her mouth, the heavy gold rings and long crimson nails flashing, but the damage was done. The sound of herself speaking like that sent a fresh spike of horror through her, deepening the shame that already made her want to disappear inside the brown fur coat. She tried again, focusing hard on forming her old crisp sentences, yet only the same exaggerated pattern spilled out, each attempt sounding more natural to the curse's design.
Leo took another half-step back, his eyes widening as he processed the complete shift in her speech along with the rest of her transformed appearance. The city night continued around them with passing cars and distant conversations, but Jess felt utterly isolated in her plastic, glamorous new body, the fake LV bag hanging from her shoulder like a taunt. She willed her voice to drop back to its normal register, concentrating on simple words like her own name, but the valley-girl inflection persisted stubbornly. A tiny, unwelcome warmth bloomed alongside the shame, hinting that part of her might eventually find this new way of talking exciting or fun, and she shoved the thought away with desperate force.
"Like, I am so trying to stop it, but everything keeps changing and I can't even sound like myself anymore," Jess continued, the words tumbling out in that inescapable style no matter how she clenched her jaw or focused her thoughts. Her thick fake lashes fluttered rapidly with each blink, the deep tan of her skin flushing beneath the heavy makeup as embarrassment threatened to overwhelm her. The refined nose and plump lips shaped every syllable into something sultry and performative, reinforcing how far the curse had already progressed in rewriting her from the inside out. Leo's confusion only grew, his position as her steady partner beginning to fracture under the weight of these relentless alterations.
Jess adjusted the brown fur coat around her shoulders, the heavy gold necklace and belly ring shifting against her Fendi bodysuit, while she struggled to find any thread of her old self in the voice now coming from her throat. The platform heels kept her posture confidently poised with that uncontrollable sway, narrowing her options as the night stretched ahead and the transformation showed no signs of slowing. She looked at Leo with pleading eyes, desperate for understanding, yet terrified that her next words would only push him further away from the woman he once knew.