Curses! - Ch.14 - Tempted To Be Naughty (Patreon)

After reading the first chapter of Tabby's story I lowered my phone and stared at the ceiling for a bit, thinking about what I'd just read. On the one hand I enjoyed it and I was eager to keep reading, but on the other hand I had a bunch of questions for my friend.

Like I already knew the protagonist was her own self-insert, but she never said anything about naming the other character after me. They weren't based on my original guy-self though. What really surprised me was the other character was a girl named Cheryl Weaver. 

And at first I was baffled how she could have based a character on girl-me in something she'd written months ago, until I vaguely remembered a conversation she and I had some time last year. I had some questions about her transition stuff, and somehow she turned it around and did a what-if thing with me. Like pretend I was trans, what name would I pick and would I want to go on HRT and would I want to dress really femme and all that sort of thing. So at least that explained how she knew I'd be called Cheryl.

The other thing that confused me was it seemed like Tabby got our roles reversed in her story. Like space-Cheryl was a smart take-charge leader type, while space-Tabby was a lot more passive. The story even described space-Tabby as kind of submissive. I wasn't sure I'd call myself submissive, but I was definitely a lot more like space-Tabby, while I always thought real life Tabby was the smart assertive type. 

I couldn't help wondering if there was a reason Tabby wrote our characters that way, or if it was just a random coincidence or something. Then again I wasn't even sure if space-Cheryl was actually supposed to me, or if that was just a coincidence too.

That line of thought didn't get very far though, before I heard Avery calling me from downstairs. Dinner was ready so I got up and hurried down to join her in the kitchen, and I quickly forgot about The Captain's Pet. For now at least.

"Thanks for making dinner tonight sis," I said as I scooped up another forkful from my plate. "This is great!"

Avery smiled, "You're welcome Cheryl. I'm glad you like it."

I just nodded since my mouth was full again at that point. My sister made us pasta with a creamy red sauce, and it had some bits of chicken and veggies mixed in as well. It wasn't actually that complicated to make, like the little pasta spirals came out of a bag and the sauce was from a jar, but Avery was careful to prepare it all correctly. And she added the veggies and stuff too. 

For me, cooking was usually just warming something up from the freezer. Or ordering something in. Or making sandwiches or whatever. My sister didn't really have time to do fancy cooking from scratch, but she was pretty good about making sure we both ate veggies and stuff like that. She'd kind of taken over from mom that way after she was gone. Or even before she was gone, when me and Avery were younger, my big sis did a lot of the cooking and stuff when mom was working. Or when she was sick.

"Hey Avery?" I said quietly after a few minutes. "Thanks for looking out for me the last few years and stuff. I probably don't say it enough but I really appreciate it. You're a great big sister."

She watched me as she had a gulp of her water, then teased "Twenty-four hours as a girl and you're already getting mushy and sentimental huh?"

"It's got nothing to do with that!" I insisted. "I was just enjoying the food you prepared for us, and wanted you to know I appreciate everything you've done for me."

My sister was obviously still in a teasing mood as she replied, "Well how about you show your appreciation by washing all the dishes after we're finished?"

I rolled my eyes and teased back, "Is that an order, Mistress Avery?"

She actually facepalmed again and sighed, "I honestly don't understand how you can make jokes about that Cheryl. If someone used that curse on me I'd be livid. I'm still pissed off with her for using it on you, even if it's going to wear off in the morning."

"It's not that big a deal," I replied with a shrug. "Maybe if she tried to do something awful with it I'd be more annoyed? But literally she just had me focus on math for an hour. Like you had me doing homework and chores earlier?"

Avery had some more of her pasta as she watched me, then asked "Don't you hate doing chores? Weren't you angry I made you do the laundry and clean the kitchen?"

I shrugged again, "Not really? It was my turn to do laundry, and I left the kitchen a mess. If you'd made me do laundry when it was your turn then maybe I'd have got a bit grumpy?"

She watched me for a few more seconds then shook her head, "You're too laid-back, but I guess laid-back Cheryl is better than angry or upset Cheryl."

"So are you going to order me to do the dishes or not?" I asked with a grin.

"Fine," she sighed again. "After we've both finished eating tonight you will wash the dishes and the two pots then tidy up the kitchen again."

I just smiled at her, "Ok Avery. It's only fair since you made this delicious pasta for dinner."

My sister gave me a look, "You're actually tempting me to push this thing even further, aren't you. Do you want me to try and take advantage of you?"

"I know you won't," I shrugged. "You're my big sister who loves me and looks out for me, you won't make me do anything awful."

Avery frowned, "Now I know you're trying to tempt me. What if I made you do all the chores in a cute french maid outfit?"

I grinned, "Sounds like fun. But I know you don't have a cute maid outfit, or if you did it wouldn't be in my size anyways. And I'll bet that sort of thing's expensive, I know you wouldn't waste money on it just to try and mess with me."

She gave me a hard look as she asked, "All right smart-ass, what if I made you do your chores naked? Or in nothing but an apron?"

"Ooh, now you're getting kinky!" I teased.

"Oh my gods," my sister face-palmed. "You didn't turn yourself into a girl, you turned into a brat! You want me to do this stuff, you want me to take advantage! You're just trying to wind me up enough that I'd actually do it!"

I didn't bother replying, I just giggled quietly as I ate some more of my pasta. Avery gave me another look, then she got back to her dinner as well, and the two of us finished eating without any more silliness.

"Thanks again for dinner sis," I said as I finished up. "Do you still want me to do the dishes?"

She gave me another look, which shifted to a sort of evil smile after a few seconds. "Ok Cheryl, since you asked for it. You'll wash and dry all the dirty dishes and the pots I used, then tidy up the kitchen afterwards. And you'll do it all while stripped down to your bra and panties."

I was positive she wanted me to complain or make a fuss, or maybe she figured I'd just flat out refuse since I had that option. Whatever she expected though, she obviously wasn't prepared for what actually happened.

"Ok Avery," I replied with a grin. Then I started pulling off my dress right there at the table in front of her as I added, "I should have known you were the naughty girl in the family."

My big sister's cheeks went red as she blushed and sputtered, "You can't call me naughty while you're the one getting undressed at the dinner table!"

"Because you wanted me to," I reminded her as I turned in my seat to remove my sneakers and thigh-highs.

Avery got up and grabbed herself a can of cola, then made her escape upstairs to her bedroom while I just giggled again. I left my clothes on one of the chairs, then took all the dishes over to the sink.

Before I got started on the dishes I closed the kitchen blinds so nobody in the units across the street would be able to see me. I wasn't sure if they would anyways, the rain was still coming down pretty hard outside as I got started on the dishes.

Just like before, I didn't have to worry about distractions or procrastination. I just focused on the task at hand until it was done, and I even made sure to do a good job too. The only difficult bit was putting some of the stuff away on the higher shelves. Even that wasn't a big deal though, and less then ten minutes later I was all done.

I gathered up my clothes, then grabbed a cola for myself as well, and finally headed up the stairs to see if Avery wanted me to do anything else.

"Hey sis," I said as I stood in her doorway. 

Avery looked up, then grimaced when she saw I was still in nothing but my undies.

I smiled as I told her, "Dishes are done, the kitchen's clean, everything's put away. Got any more orders for me?"

"Nope," she shook her head. "If you want to keep being a brat then go bug your catgirl girlfriend."

"I don't mean literally go to her house and bug her in person," she added quickly. "At least not without putting your clothes back on first! Or I don't know, do what you want. I'm studying though, so please don't bug me anymore tonight."

"Ok Avery," I replied with a smirk. "Oh, are you done with the curse book? I was thinking I might read through it again. Me and Tabby had a theory earlier today, I want to check something."

She nodded, "Yeah help yourself, it's ontop of my dresser. Then get your butt out of my bedroom and leave me alone. And don't curse anyone!"

"Ok Avery," I said as I grabbed the book. "And don't worry I won't curse anyone. I just want to read it."

I went back to my room and dumped my clothes in the laundry hamper, then grabbed my phone and lay down on my bed with that and the book. I sent a quick text off to Tabby to see what she was up to and how she was doing, then I put my phone down and opened up the Hexinomicon.

Starting at the very front again I turned past the first blank page, but stopped when I found two lines of text on the second page. I knew last night the first three or four pages were blank, but now there was text on page two, and it was printed in the same gothic font as the rest of the book. That wasn't even the freakiest thing though. What it said was even spookier than the words being there at all.

"This book is property of:"

"Cheryl Weaver"

I stared at my name in crisp black text on the page. I poked at it, rubbed it a bit, but it didn't smudge or smear or anything. It's like it was always there, as if my name was there all along.

"Ok," I said quietly to myself. "This is weird, but it definitely confirms the whole 'book can change its contents' thing."

Then I turned to the next page, which was also supposed to be blank. Instead it just had two words, printed in the very middle of the page. And those two freaked me out even more than the stuff I found on page two.

"Hello Cheryl."

I gulped as I stared at the book. There was a chill down my spine and butterflies in my stomach as I looked at it. No matter how I tried to rationalize it, I couldn't shake the feeling like the book was trying to talk to me.

"Uh, hi?" I finally responded. "So are you able to talk to me or something? Can you hear me?"

The text didn't change, there were no flash magic effects, not even a fade-in fade-out kind of thing. Just those same two words in the middle of the page.

After a minute or so it occurred to me that maybe I needed to turn the page, like maybe it was going to post each message on another page or something. Except when I flipped to the next one it just had the title text from before.

"Hexinomicon ~ A Compendium of Consistently Curated Curses for the Casual Caster"

I frowned, then turned back to the previous page and nearly dropped the book when I found the text there had completely changed. The two word greeting was gone, in its place was a reply to the questions I'd just asked.

"Yes Cheryl, I can hear you. No, I cannot talk to you. Not with a voice anyways. We can communicate though, as you are now beginning to understand."

My eyes widened as I just lay there staring at that text for a while. It was like my brain couldn't quite process the fact that this magic book full of real working magic curses was also able to communicate with me.

Eventually I figured I should keep talking or something, so I asked "Uh, what do you want? Is there something you want from me? Oh and what should I call you? Do you have a name?"

I ended up staring at the book for another minute or so before I finally remembered I needed to turn the page to get it to change. So I flipped to page four, then back to page three, and sure enough the text had changed yet again.

"My name is Hexinomicon silly girl, but you can call me Hex if you prefer. My friends call me Hex, and I'd like to be friends with you."

"As for what I want from you, that's easy. I want you to use me."

"I'm a book of curses Cheryl, I exist to be used. I've done my part and removed the curses that offended and upset you, I've provided you with the sort of curses you want, the curses you like. And I'm pleased you've already made use of me."

"You, Avery, and Tabitha all got off to a good start. But then you stopped. Why did you stop? Why won't you use me Cheryl? I exist to be used. I belong to you now, I'm your book of curses. Please use me."

I gulped again as I stared at the new text on the page. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be friends with a book, or how that would even work. I could guess what my sister would say though. She'd probably freak out and demand I got rid of it immediately. Like throw it away or send it back to the store or something.

It was harder to guess how Tabby would react. On the one hand the curses she tried on herself had some unexpected side-effects, but on the other hand she seemed happy about them. The only thing I wasn't sure about was the collar, she wasn't exactly pleased when that tag appeared. And she didn't want to tell me what it meant, having my phone number on there.

Then I got an idea and grabbed my phone. I opened up the camera app and focused it on the open book so I could get a picture of that page with Hex's answers to my last questions. Except when I looked at the screen to line up the shot, the page was empty.

"Huh?" I frowned and lowered my phone.

All the text was still there on the page, but when I looked at it through the phone's camera the page was blank. I could see the text with my bare eyes, but it didn't show up on the phone's camera.

I flipped to a random curse in the middle of the book and tried getting a picture of that page, but the same thing happened. The text was there if you looked at it, but it was invisible to the camera. Like some kind of magical copy protection, as far as the phone camera was concerned I had a book full of blank pages.

"Dang," I sighed as I set my phone aside. 

Then I flipped back to that page with Hex's answers on it, but when I got there the text had changed again. My eyes widened as I read the book's latest message to me.

"Sorry Cheryl, my pages cannot be photographed, videoed, photocopied, or duplicated by any other mechanical or electronic means."

"You could try and copy them out by hand, but I really wouldn't recommend it."

"Now let's get going with the curses. Pick one, pick a target, and get to work."

"Unless you need me to provide some extra incentive to get you started?"