By FoxFaceStories

An Anonymous Commission

Evelyn is a mean, close-minded girl belonging to a hyper-religious family. Fearing what ‘evil liberal’ college could do to their daughter, her parents decide to send her to a female-only college with a strong Christian charter. But little do any of them know that this particular institute worships the nature of Eve herself, viewing her as a pure sexual creature in tune with nature and other women. And they intend to make all of their students just like her . . .

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Part 2: Odd School

Evelyn found herself initially more encouraged in the following days. The College of Eve was no doubt fanatically devout in its worship of the good Lord; there were Bibles in every room, for instance, including her own. There were also crosses, crucifixes, displays devoted to the various female figures of the Bible such as Mary Magdalene, Esther, Ruth, Hannah, Sarah, and the Virgin Mary herself, and so forth. Her room was also comfortable, though frustratingly the internet connection was limited to only certain times of days, as the students were encouraged to remain focused upon their studies and remain separate from the world. Part of it, but not of it, as Evelyn reminded herself. Of course, it was still an all-girls school, and Evelyn was anxious and frustrated about that fact. This was not the lively college campus experience she had envisioned for herself. No boys, no playing around with them, no cafes and visits to the mall nearby or hanging out with strange new people on the quadrangle and so on. Instead, it was to be a college experience with only women who were as obsessively Christian as herself. She knew she should be delighted, but part of her felt . . . threatened.

Which was why it was a marvellous day when she was introduced to her roommate, who arrived just two days later, though her stuff had been present from day one. Evelyn had spent that time getting adjusted to the college, viewing its gardens, praying at its expansive chapel twice a day, and becoming more familiar with the staff, particularly Zuri, who even Dean Grace seemed to defer to when they were walking together, for some reason. It gave her the ickies seeing such a reversal of what she felt should be the norm. Thankfully, she was distracted from that irritation when Peyton arrived. She was a chubby girl with freckled white skin and carrot-orange hair that was far too curly. 

“Oh, you’re my new roommate!” she exclaimed, adjusting her glasses. “I was told that someone would be coming, but I didn’t know what to expect. You’re - you’re really pretty.”

Evelyn wished she could say the same of this girl, who looked far too piggish in her mind. Still, that was a good thing. She couldn’t stand having friends who ended up more attractive than her; she vowed that Jessica would be the last. And this girl already looked passive enough. 

“Thank you,” she said, though she didn’t return the compliment, instead emphasising her own lovely blonde hair. “Your Patty, right?”

“Oh, I’m Peyton!” the other woman said, thrusting forward a hand.

“Good to meet you, Peyton. Do you mind if I take top bunk? I have a health condition. Oh, and I’ve put my makeup on the dresser. Sorry, I don’t mean to be mean, but some of your things looked a little cheap, so I hid them in the drawer. I’m sure you understand; God wants his women to look beautiful, right?”

Peyton looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “Oh, I - I didn’t realise. I mean-”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! No need to apologise! We are called as sisters of the faith to look out for one another. I need someone to look out for me, Peyton. I didn’t expect to end up here, so I need a friend to make sure I stay devout and true to my life’s mission. And if you become my new best friend and ally, I’m sure I can help you become the future beauty who will score her own husband, too.”

The chubby redhead broke into a naive grin. “Really? You’d do that for me?”

“Oh, absolutely! I just love helping out people, especially my roomies. I might just need a leg up on some work, that’s all. If you don’t mind me saying, you look like a bit of a nerd.”

Patty - no, Peyton - blushed heavily. “I - well, I try to be good in my studies. My parents sent me here because I needed to devote myself more to them. And because of my sin.”

Evelyn raised an eyebrow. “Your sin?”

Peyton looked left and right nervously, as if someone might be listening, then leaned forward and whispered. “I masturbated.”

“What? Really?”

“It was just the one time! I swear!”

Evelyn had to hold herself back from laughing. Of course, self-pleasure was a sin, but in her case she had good reason to; her hormones were simply too strong. God would forgive her. She wasn’t one of those wanton sluts like that girl she’d mocked. But the thought of Peyton viewing this as the darkest possible sin amused her. 

“Well, I promise to tell no one,” she said, putting a hand on her roommate’s shoulder. “Even if it is a shameful secret.”

Peyton blushed again, clearly terrified of her dreadful sin getting out. Evelyn smirked. She was going to like Peyton, she suspected. She liked the idea of having such a pathetic peer around who hung off every word.

And naturally, each word would be Biblically approved. How could it not be? Evelyn was a good Christian woman, so anything she said was Godly.

***

Classes began just two days later. Evelyn had been considering the various elective courses that she could choose, though each of them were fairly similar given the college’s obsession with Eve:

Womanhood 101: Becoming the Feminine Idea in the Eyes of God

Gardening the Land and the Soul: Agricultural Studies in Service ot the Lord

Genesis Studies: The Origin of Woman and her True Purpose

Had her father even read about these courses? What use were they? Surely no other Bible-based college had such a needlessly niche obsession with just one topic!? She knew her life plan: get a fine, handsome, wealthy white husband, have his babies, and raise her children as a devoted stay-at-home mother. That was the right way. Why make it complicated?

In the end, she chose Genesis Studies: The Origin of Woman and her True Purpose. She did so because Peyton was taking it, and she knew the other woman could easily do the hard work. Not that this was cheating, at least in Evelyn’s mind. Heaven forbid! No, it was simply that the Lord had given Peyton the skills to study, whereas Evelyn had the skills to manage. She’d seen how her mother could sometimes steer her father, and she intended the same for her future husband.

So it was that she and roughly thirty other girls sat in the lecture theatre, many seats unoccupied due to the campus’ small population, and took notes while Professor Zuri spoke. Yes, Professor Zuri. That one had been quite the shock to Evelyn. A professor? With her . . . heritage? And if she was ‘just’ a professor, why did the Dean always seem to bow slightly when they passed one another in the gardens, uncaring who saw them? Evelyn pondered this as the woman spoke. Most of her lecture was just on the archaeology of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the original interpretations of Genesis and so on. It was all just context stuff, which wasn’t at all Evelyn’s interest. But then, halfway through the lesson, while Peyton’s pencil was practically sending up clouds of smoke from her furious note-taking, Professor Zuri dropped a bombshell. Well, more of a nuke, given the crazy argument she proceeded to make.

“Eve,” the woman said, emphasising the word with deep and serious intonation. “Forget what you know of the Biblical Creation Myth story, and what you think you know about it. Forget the six days where the universe was formed and the single day of rest that followed. Forget the rumours of ‘Lilith’ and the existence of Adam and the way the first woman sprung from his rib. Forget it all, girls, because this course is designed to reshape your understanding of Genesis through the lens of Eve herself.

“Make no mistake, Eve is the central actor in this story, in this unit, and the grand symbol and guiding mentor for this college. She is a woman who has been unjustly maligned by historians, Biblical scholars, theologians, Catholic diatribes, and hateful misogynists. But Eve was God’s finest creation, and as this course will show, she was created alongside Lilith, the pair one and the same, and only subjugated to Adam later. Split apart by the first Sin; the desperation of man  to mitigate the freedom and creativity and womanly love that Eve espoused. They would recast her as submissive to man, to the patriarchy, but Eve rose above each of these. The great tragedy, as we shall learn this semester, is that Eve did not take the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil; it was foisted upon her by Adam! 

“Yes, you may think these claims are ridiculous, but you will come to see anything but. Before I go on, and knowing that many of you will perhaps be already writing furious notes to your parents demanding you change courses, I’m going to get you to come with me to the gardens, to an area that has been closed to you before now, where we shall all pray for wisdom and guidance, and enough open mindedness for each of you that you come to see the light of Eve and all she has to offer.”

She led the confused, muttering, and frankly shocked procession out of the lecture theatre. Evelyn was almost speechless. In just a couple of minutes at the end of an otherwise boring rote Bible study lecture, the woman had dared to challenge every preconception of the original Eve that everyone knew, and that her father had ranted about for years from his pulpit.

That Eve was the first sinner.

That she was responsible for Adam’s fall.

That he had dominion over her.

That Lilith was just a myth.

And that woman was intended to be submissive to man from the very beginning by God’s own holy mandate, and that this submission was even more supplicant and necessary thanks to Eve’s legacy of introducing Original Sin into the world.

“This is fu - uh, freaking nuts,” she hissed to Peyton. “What kind of crazy liberal elite heresy is this?”

“I must admit, it intrigues me as a concept,” Peyton said nervously. “But it flies in the face of all evidence and what we know. Um, did I make a bad call coming here?”

Judging from all the other girls showing confusion, she certainly hadn’t. One, a taller brunette who looked like a young and brash athlete, looked back at the pair of them.

“We all made bad calls,” she said. “And mine was letting my fuckhead religious nutter parents push me to go to this madhouse. You girls are all crazy.”

Evelyn frowned. “Let me guess, you’re some amoral atheist who distanced herself from God so she could do drugs and have sex whenever she wanted?” The woman, surprisingly, grinned. “That’s me, alright! Call me Becca.”

Evelyn narrowed her eyes. “I’ll pray for you, Becca.”

“Yeah, well, pray that I can find a way to escape this place. You know, like finding the car keys to the professor’s sedan or something.”

To hear such a woman blaspheming openly like this was disgusting, but Eve swallowed her instant dislike of Becca. Far better to play the long game and humiliate her for her sins later on. Besides, Zuri had just stopped before an impressively tall statue of what could only be Eve. The statue was not painted, but it was clear from the way the marble had been carved that she was depicted as an African-looking woman, or perhaps more of an ethnic blend: a Roman nose, a set of full lips, wavy but not curly dark hair, but a curvaceous figure that was not at all the slender, dainty perfection that Evelyn had always seen her depicted as.

“It looks like a pagan statue,” she said, loud enough for Professor Zuri to hear. “It should be torn down.”

“Do not say such things, Evelyn Gardner! This is one of four statues, which combined are our holiest relics. Come, sit in a circle and pray with me.”

It was a circular space surrounded by gorgeous flowers of all colours, the voluptuous and ethnically vague statue of Eve looking over them. 

“She must be a DEI hire,” Evelyn whispered to Peyton. The latter bit her lip, looking a bit awkward at that comment, then shut her eyes as Zuri started to pray.

“Our heavenly Creator, you who created Eve, the perfect woman and greatest feminine ideal to strive for, hear our prayers. Let us see the truth of your designs for these women. Let you take their forms and ignite in them the passion, love, and wild-natured side of Eve. Let them be emptied of the knowledge of good and evil foisted upon them, so that they may know Eve as she was in the beginning. May the power of your relics bring them and their bodies to the light!”

Evelyn found a strange comfort settling inside of her, a pulse that seemed to thrum with a Godly presence. She gasped quietly, shocked to feel this. An actual presence, just like her father had described it. She opened her eyes and looked up at the grand statue of Eve and-

***

The light of God shone upon Evelyn. The Garden of Eden was spectacular, a place of beauty and brilliance, untamed by knowledge, untamed by shame. She was naked in this dream, as was everyone else. Zuri was there, as was Dean Grace, both women looking no older than thirty, their figures divine. Peyton was beside her, but something looked different about her, as if she were not quite so chubby. Evelyn wandered through the garden as if in a dream. She plucked the fruit from the vine, smiled and laughed with others as if she had not a care in the world. Her nakedness mattered not, but something was wrong with it. Her breasts seemed heavier, and her skin did not look like her skin. Her curves were pronounced, her height increased, and her beauty seemed to radiate beyond any other’s. Confused, she ran to a nearby pond to gaze at her reflection.

In it, she saw the incredible olive-skinned beauty of Eve herself.

***

Evelyn blinked. She was back in her dorm, and it was morning. Where had the time gone? What had she even done the rest of the day? Well the rest of yesterday now, because her phone confirmed that it was now Friday. And yet the last thing she remembered was Zuri’s strange prayer session, followed by a sensation of holy power - or blessing - within her. 

Slowly, the woman rose and stretched, then rubbed her head. She climbed down the ladder, uncaring that she was shaking it in order to deliberately wake up Peyton. The woman snored and sat up, nearly hitting her head on the top bunk.

“Whoa!” she exclaimed. “What happened? Wait, why am I back in our room? Weren’t we just praying.”

Evelyn folded her arms beneath her breasts. It was meant to be the start of an interrogation, but she cringed a little bit, holding back a whimper. Her breasts were, for some reason, quite sensitive. It reminded her of puberty when they had started growing, not that they ended up growing much, to her chagrin.

“I don’t remember much either, just that the so-called ‘Professor’ was making wild claims about Eve that did not match up with the truth. I should know, I’m a pastor’s daughter.”

“Wow,” Peyton gasped. “That’s incredible.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

“Yes, because my father is a pastor too! We come from a small town, but he has a congregation of nearly two hundred.”

“Well, my father has a congregation of nearly eight thousand, Peyton, so let’s not indulge in the sin of pride, shall we?”

“But you just-”

“Anyway, this experience is weird. Did we eat something for dinner last night? Did we - what are you staring at?”

By this point, Evelyn had been pacing backwards and forwards in her silken pyjamas, the ones mother had gotten her using the ‘spare’ money from the tithe offerings last year. She’d thought that pudgy, passive Peyton had been looking at her body with jealousy, but now she just saw concern on the woman’s face.

“Well, Evelyn, um, this is kinda awkward to say . . .”

“Just spit it out! You think you’ll ever find a husband who wants you if you get tongue-tied like this all the time?”

Peyton nodded meekly. “You’re r-right. Okay, maybe I’m just crazy. I haven’t known you for long, but . . . you look different from yesterday.”

“I look different? What the f-frick do you mean?”

“Well,” Peyton continued. “You look like you’ve had a tan. Or a spraytan. And your hair is darker, like you’ve styled it.”

Evelyn frowned and darted to the bathroom without another word. She was prepared to bring Peyton down another peg, perhaps quite a Bible verse about not judging one another, even if it didn’t exactly fit into such a scenario. But instead she froze at her reflection. She did look like she’d had a tan, and her hair was definitely a noticeably darker shade of blonde than it had been. Her nose also looked different, somehow. Almost like it had swollen a bit, except it only in the vertical sense, the bridge of her nose being taller.

“What the hell?” she said. “I mean, what the heck?”

She shut the door immediately and perused her visage further. 

“Did I get a spray tan?” she asked herself. “But then why does my nose look different? This has got to be some rash or infection or reaction or something!”

The young woman frowned, more than a little alarmed by this. She opened the door and stormed back out, but only when she was about to go out and ask Professor Zuri what had happened did she notice that Peyton, too, looked a little strange. Her skin was slightly darker, her freckles slightly less prominent, and her red hair had dulled.

“You’ve changed too!” she announced.

“I have?”

“Yes, same as me! That’s it, we’re going to get to the bottom of this. I wasn’t sent to this college so someone could prank me with a spray tan that makes my nose look all wrong!”

She grabbed Peyton’s arm and tugged her along for the ride. 

***

“What do you mean, it’s ‘all-natural’?” Evelyn demanded. The pair had tracked down the young, dark-skinned professor’s office, which was filled to the brim with flowers and plantlife to the point where it looked more like a greenhouse than anything else.

Sister Zuri smiled in her friendly manner. “It’s simply part a result of the all-natural produce we use for our cafeteria, as well as our healthy mineral water, the greatest quality in the world. Eden-like, you might say, and certainly fit for our little Eves!”

“But my nose looks weird!” Evelyn complained, gesturing to it. “It’s longer! Which is just yuck!”

For a moment Zuri’s smile faded just a little. She was the proud owner of a magnificently regal nose herself. But then her good cheer turned genuine again.

“My dear, it’s just a side effect. It should revert, and your skin will adjust, I promise you. You’ll notice all our fresh college girls are undergoing the same. Trust me when I say it will all seem ordinary soon. Besides, you look wonderful with a bit more colour in you!”

Evelyn was about to say something back, but something in the woman’s comment tickled her, making her cheeks go a bit rosy. For some reason, the idea of not being so pale actually seemed . . . okay. She couldn’t even say why.

Zuri noticed this physical response. “There we are! See, you’re already coming around to the idea of being one of our new Eves, here in New Eden! I promise you, the more you pray, and the more we meditate beneath the statues of our great patron Eve, the more you will come to love our curriculum and the lifestyle choices we offer. The Path of Eve is one filled with freedom and love, and even more than a little passion, and you will be lifted up, as all our students are. You’ve just got to have faith!”

Evelyn wasn’t entirely convinced, and when she left the office she immediately turned on Peyton.

“Oh, nice speech in there, by the way!”

“I - I didn’t say anything!”

“Exactly!” the blonde woman snapped. “You didn’t say one blasted thing. Next time, I expect you to be a bit more loyal.”

“I mean, it doesn’t sound that bad, does it? I’ve always wanted to be a bit more tanned. And besides, it’s probably just temporary. And I had this wonderful dream of being in the Garden of Eden, and I was naked, and . . .”

But Evelyn wasn’t listening. Zuri’s answers had broadly satisfied her, but this place still gave her the creeps. There was something odd about this school, even though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Maybe it was the obsession with Eden, or the general worship of Eve, or just the fact that it didn’t seem anything like her father’s evangelical church. There wasn’t even a mention of fire and brimstone, or the homosexual menace!

“It’s like there’s something hidden here,” she murmured as she stepped out of the building and into the fresh, admittedly very fresh, air. “Almost like - hang on. What the heck is that!?”

She pointed Peyton’s attention to a group of older students, all of them with beautiful darker olive skin and model-like bodies and faces, walking together towards the campuses belonging to the more senior years. Their white school dresses were much, much shorter than those of Evelyn’s year group, and some of the women didn’t even appear to be wearing bras beneath them. Each of them were beaming and giggling like a bunch of secular, sex-hungry bimbos, but even stranger was what they were carrying between them; a large painting in a heavy frame that displayed a very naked woman in the garden of Eden, her entire nudity on display with nothing hidden. Nothing, of course, except the area beneath her breasts, where a pair of slim arms encircled her, and her left shoulder, where a woman’s face was nuzzled over it in a loving embrace. Not a man’s. Not Adam’s. A woman’s. Both of the figures in the painting had olive skin just like the students. And judging from their expressions, both were deeply amorous.

“That’s - that’s blasphemy!” Evelyn squeaked. “Eve . . . as a fallen lesbian!? What is this place!?”

To Be Continued . . .