Accidental Yacht

Kyle and Jade had been dating for several years by now. Everyone in their friend group knew they were heading for marriage eventually, with some of them even asking when it was going to happen. A few of them even encouraged Kyle to propose.

They weren’t rich by any means, but they did well enough for themselves. They lived in a sizable home in a good neighborhood and held down good jobs that paid well. But it was never enough for them, more specifically for Kyle. He loved the water and had been boating his entire life. His life-long dream was to own a yacht, not necessarily the gigantic ones that needed a staff of twenty-odd people to keep it running, but at least one that he could live on for weeks at a time.

Jade knew this, and while that wasn’t exactly her dream, she supported him. They put away money each month for the eventual purpose, but life tended to have different plans. More than once, they had to pull money from the yacht fund for some household expenses. The most recent one was a new roof, which basically drained the account completely. 

Kyle was distraught, more than usual. After a week of moping, his determination to get that boat came back harder than ever. Though he had changed. He now no longer thought that just putting money away would cut it. So he started to explore other alternatives. And as crazy as it seemed, he ended up landing on magic, which wasn’t as far-fetched as it might seem.

Magic wasn’t exactly commonplace, but there were enough powerful practitioners that it wasn’t unheard of. And while most people would not ever meet one such person, it just so happened that Jade’s aunt, Amber, was one of them. Kyle, with Jade’s backing, talked to her, trying to convince her to, either to conjure the yacht of his dreams, or to raise the money. Amber refused, warning that even if magic could do that, it would come at a great cost. Not to mention it was incredibly immoral to use magic for personal gain in that way.

Kyle was devastated. He was convinced it was easy but that Amber was being selfish by withholding it. His obsession didn’t cease, and Amber ended up having to cut off contact with him completely after he would not stop demanding access to her magic. Jade tried to keep peace between them, but ended up quietly on Kyle’s side. One night when Amber was out, the two of them snuck into her house and rummaged through her magical artifacts until they came upon an odd scroll, one that promised to fulfill a single wish in exchange for something the caster loved.

They took the scroll and headed home, searching the house for something Kyle loved to offer up to the spell. They landed on a Babe Ruth autographed baseball that belonged to Kyle’s father. The ball had been his prized possession for years before handing it over to Kyle. Despite holding that ball in a special place in his heart, Kyle was willing to give it up for his dream yacht.

That night, after the sun set, they traveled to the marina, breaking in and making their way over to the berth that Kyle had reserved for years in anticipation of getting his own boat. Jade stood off to one side, holding the baseball in her open palms while Kyle prepared the spell. He chanted the words and the air in front of them started to become thick with magic, shimmering like the heat mirage off a hot grill.

Kyle could feel the magic welling up around him, swirling around and through his body. When it came time to offer up the subject of Kyle’s love for the spell to consume, he turned attention to the ball in Jade’s hands. He reached out with his mind, selecting the ball as the object to be sacrificed.

Suddenly, a pain shot through his head, the spell lashing out at him in anger for such a paltry offering. Kyle felt the spell fighting him, reaching out for something else. At first he was curious, hoping that it would find something worthy of granting his wish. When it did, a chill ran down his spine.

The spell had selected Jade herself as the object of his love. As Kyle felt the invisible tendrils of the spell reaching out and grabbing onto his girlfriend, he cried out loud, trying desperately to break off the magic. But the spell had reached its point of no return.

Jade started to feel it too, the heavy, thick air around her taking a hold of her and flowing through her body. She screamed as the magic started to lift her off the ground. The autographed ball fell to the dock, forgotten by them both. Kyle watched in horror as her screams stopped as her body started to change shape. She grew significantly in size, her arms and legs pulling into her body as her features changed to a flat white color. She floated into the air, moving over the surface of the water.

Soon she was unrecognizable and Kyle recognized the horrific truth that she was being transformed into the yacht he dreamed of. A moment later he was standing on the dock, stunned into silence, staring at the exact boat he had dreamed of for years. He only looked down for a moment when he felt the scroll dissolving in his hands. The bits of parchment floated off into the breeze, its magic expended.

After he came to terms with the fact that he wasn’t dreaming, he walked slowly to the gangblank and climbed aboard. His steps were slow and deliberate, his eyes still not believing what he was seeing. It was here, the yacht of his dreams was here!

Though there was that nagging voice in his head asking what happened to Jade. Without really knowing why, he made his way to the helm. He walked right over to the main console, the complex controls surrounding a tablet-sized computer screen in the center of the dashboard. Kyle stepped up to it and pressed the power button, causing the panel to come to life.

Suddenly and without warning, Jade’s face appeared on the computer screen in front of him and her scream emanated from speakers in the dashboard as if already in progress. Kyle nearly jumped out of his skin, and he instinctively stepped back from the controls.

“What the hell happened!? Where am I?” she screamed, her face showing her terror.

“Um… Jade…?” Kyle asked cautiously, approaching the screen again.

“Kyle? Kyle, where are you? I can’t seem to look around,” Jade asked, still panicked.

“I’m here, can you see me?” Kyle stepped up to the console, right over the screen, and the embedded camera that served as Jade’s eyes.

“Oh yeah, there you are,” Jade sighed in relief, though she was still panicking internally. “What happened? I feel so… weird, and wrong…”

“So um… I think the spell transformed you into the yacht…” Kyle spoke slowly as if not wanting to admit what happened.

“What the fuck!?” Jade’s scream was so loud, the sound from the speakers spiked and distorted. “Get me out of here!”

“I can’t!” Kyle practically screamed in response, his own panic grabbing him. “The scroll disappeared when I cast the spell!”

“Well call Amber, get her down here to fix it!” Jade screamed back, her voice more in control, but still very angry.

“Just give me some time to figure this out.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN FIGURE IT OUT!? CALL AMBER!”

“What we did was very illegal, Jade!” Kyle shot back. “The unlicensed use of magic could get us both locked up for a very long time! Just give me some time to think of something!”

Jade started yelling, her voice so full of rage that it was rendered incoherent. Kyle looked around frantically, as if there would be an ‘undo’ button somewhere on the console. What he did find was what looked like a volume control complete with a ‘mute’ button. Slowly, experimentally, he hit the button. Immediately, Jade’s voice cut off, though her face was still visible on the screen.

Jade knew what happened, and got even more angry. She tried to scream and yell, and even willed herself to reach out to grab Kyle by the neck, but with her voice taken away, there was nothing she could do. Kyle looked down at the screen with a sad and apologetic expression.

“I’m sorry babe, I really am,” he started, his voice low and genuine. “But I just need some time to think, I’ll… I’ll be right back.”

Klye turned and walked away, leaving Jade’s line of sight. Her mind went from rage to panic in a second, and she tried to call after him, apologizing and begging him to stay where she could see him. But it was to no avail. 

Leaving the bridge, Kyle still felt terrible about what happened, but his curiosity about the yacht reached a peak. He walked out to the deck, taking in the layout and design of the boat. It really was exactly what he wished for. The deck was spacious and luxurious without being lavish, like a penthouse suite at a mid-level hotel.

Now that Jade knew what happened, she realized that she could feel him walking around. When he was on the deck it felt like a pleasant massage on her skin. But then something happened, the sensation changed. It felt like something was moving around inside of her! The feeling was strange and foreign, but not wholly unpleasant. Almost like her stomach was rumbling down through her vagina.

Kyle had indeed gone inside to the living area. He was blown away by just how perfect this ship really was. The kitchen and interior lounge area was all one space, and managed to fit everything a standard home would need in a small space, all without seeming crowded. The wall at the back of the boat seemed to open like a garage door to the back deck, allowing for a sizable hybrid interior-exterior space. He kept going, walking through the dining and living areas all the way back into the sleeping areas.

As he made his way through the interior, the feelings Jade experienced continued to change. The sensations of Kyle’s footsteps continued to move through her, though exactly where inside of her was unclear. Her body now was very different than what it was as a human, and locations within the yacht didn’t fully translate directly to a point on her human body.

Kyle walked down a short hallway, a full bathroom, small, but full, on one side, the other a small room with a couple of bunks, and at the end, at the bow, a space with a queen-sized bed and enough storage for a couple weeks on the water. Light from the marina spilled in from the narrow windows over the bed, illuminating the tight but comfortable space.

“Jesus, this really is something else…” Kyle said to himself. “Sure I’ll change her back when I can, but maybe I can take her out for a ride first?”

Even saying that out loud made him feel bad and he made his way back to the helm, where Jade’s face was still staring out from the console.

“Alright, I’m sorry I left you, I just had to clear my head,” Kyle said, trying to calm her down before he started a new conversation. “Will you stay calm? I want to talk, but yelling at me isn’t productive.”

Jade nodded, her expression still showing her confusion, panic and several other conflicting emotions. It looked like she was trying hard to keep her feelings in check, maybe like she was hiding something.

Kyle clicked the ‘mute’ button again, giving her voice back.

“Did you seriously say… that you wanted to… take me for a RIDE before transforming me back!?” Jade struggled to keep her voice calm, but near the end of her sentence she was screaming again.

Kyle hung his head. “You um… you heard that?” He asked, not wanting to admit what he was thinking.

“There are microphones all over this… all over me,” Jade responded, her anger barely hidden. “You need to turn me back RIGHT THE FUCK NOW! And if you can’t THEN CALL MY AUNT!”

Jade had lost it completely, her panic translating into rage and she took out all the frustrations on Kyle.

Kyle just hit the mute button again and watched, wracked with guilt as Jade’s face on the screen freaked out. Her anger was beyond anything that he had seen before, but it quickly fell away, turning to pleading, her eyes softening and begging Kyle to do something.

“I’m sorry, but I just need some time to think, and you need some time to calm down,” Kyle responded, his voice sad and sympathetic. “I’ll come talk to you in the morning…”

Jade watched as he walked away. She was stunned into silence at the fact that he would leave her like this. Granted she couldn’t speak anyway, but her mind was silent now as well. She didn’t know what to think.

Meanwhile, Kyle made his way down to the bedroom, where he sat down on the bed with his head in his hands for a moment. Eventually, he pulled off his shoes and jeans before climbing into bed and closing his eyes.

}[]{

Three weeks later the now-christened Jade Falcon was out on the open water, anchored far off the coast, far enough that the buildings and trees on land were only just barely in sight. Kyle was sitting on the back deck, his button-up shirt left open to the breeze, with a beer in his hand. He stood and walked into the interior space, nodding at his guests, his best friend, Steve, Steve’s girlfriend Beth, and Beth’s smoking hot sister, Janice.

“Great fucking boat, man, glad you finally got it!” Steve said, raising his own beer toward him in a ‘cheers’ gesture.

“It really is great, isn’t it!” Kyle responded, winking at Janice, who smiled in return and adjusted her bikini top on her way out to the deck. “Well I’m gonna raise anchor and head down the coast a bit. There’s gonna be live music at the Alpine dock at sunset.”

“Sweet,” Steve responded, taking a swig from his beer.

Kyle made his way to the helm, where he flipped a switch to recall the anchor. He dropped down into the seat and started up the engines, throwing a quick glance down to the screen in the middle of the dash, the one that had long since been covered over with a framed map of the local waterways. The mute button remained pressed, silencing whatever Jade had to say.

Kyle only felt bad for a second before throwing the boat in gear and heading off…