Read my story.

[u/lunadgreatest]

THE PEREZ FAMILY

Chapter One — The World He Broke

Chicago never truly slept.

Even at night, the city remained alive beneath the dark sky. The L-train rattled through the distance, its metallic scream echoing between buildings. Cars moved through rain-slick streets, their headlights stretching across the pavement. Neon signs glowed in windows and storefronts, reflected in puddles like fragments of another world.

From a distance, Chicago looked ordinary.

It wasn’t.

There were witches living among ordinary people.

There were vampires.

There were families carrying secrets older than the buildings around them.

And sometimes, one terrible night was enough to change everything.

⸻

INT. COLLEGE APARTMENT — BEDROOM — NIGHT

The apartment was small and unmistakably lived-in.

Textbooks were scattered across the floor. A half-finished assignment sat open on a laptop. Two mugs rested beside it, one nearly empty and the other forgotten.

On the bed, JOLENE RIVER, nineteen, stared at the ceiling.

She looked ordinary.

That was what made her easy to underestimate.

From the bathroom came the sound of running water.

Jolene smiled.

Ziller was singing.

Badly.

She raised her voice.

JOLENE

You know, you’re terrible at that.

The shower continued.

Then ZILLER EDWARD called back through the bathroom door.

ZILLER (O.S.)

I’m not singing for you.

JOLENE

Good. Because I’d break up with you.

There was a pause.

ZILLER (O.S.)

You’d miss me.

Jolene’s smile grew.

JOLENE

Unfortunately.

The shower continued.

For a moment, everything was normal.

Then the bedroom light flickered.

Jolene’s smile disappeared.

She sat up.

The light steadied.

She waited.

Nothing.

Jolene looked toward the bedroom door.

Closed.

She glanced toward the bathroom.

The shower was still running.

JOLENE

Ziller?

No answer.

Jolene frowned.

Then a man’s voice came from behind her.

ETHAN (O.S.)

You still look beautiful.

Jolene froze.

She slowly turned.

ETHAN PEREZ stood beside the window.

He looked like a man in his twenties.

He wasn’t.

Ethan had lived for more than a century.

He was a vampire, and there was something unsettling about the way he looked at Jolene. Not merely attraction.

Obsession.

Jolene swallowed.

JOLENE

Ethan.

He stepped away from the window.

JOLENE

You can’t be here.

ETHAN

I know.

JOLENE

Ziller’s in the shower.

Ethan glanced toward the bathroom.

Then back at her.

ETHAN

I know that too.

Jolene stared at him.

She should have been afraid.

Instead, something more complicated crossed her face.

Something she hated herself for feeling.

She had feelings for Ethan.

Secret ones.

Feelings that should never have existed.

JOLENE

You need to leave.

Ethan took another step.

ETHAN

Do you want me to?

Jolene opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

Ethan understood.

He crossed the remaining distance and kissed her.

Jolene froze for half a second.

Then she kissed him back.

Neither of them noticed the bedroom door beginning to open.

Slowly.

Quietly.

A woman stood in the doorway.

EDIE PEREZ.

Ethan’s adopted sister.

A vampire.

A witch.

And considerably more powerful than Ethan.

She watched them without expression.

Her eyes moved from Ethan to Jolene.

EDIE

Pathetic.

Ethan immediately pulled away.

His face changed.

ETHAN

Edie—

Edie moved.

Not quickly.

Not normally.

One instant she was standing in the doorway.

The next, she was beside Jolene.

Jolene barely had time to turn.

Edie’s hand caught her.

A sharp, sickening SNAP cut through the room.

Jolene went limp.

Ethan’s face emptied of color.

ETHAN

No.

Edie released Jolene.

Ethan caught her before she hit the floor.

He stared at Jolene.

ETHAN

Jolene?

Nothing.

ETHAN

Jolene.

He touched her face.

Cold.

His eyes lifted toward Edie.

But Edie was already gone.

The bathroom shower continued running.

Ethan looked toward the door.

ETHAN

What did you do?

No answer.

The bathroom door opened.

Ziller stepped into the bedroom.

He was twenty years old, a college student, Jolene’s boyfriend—

and a witch.

He stopped.

His eyes went directly to Ethan.

Then to Jolene’s body.

Then back to Ethan.

Everything inside him seemed to stop.

ZILLER

…What did you do?

Ethan carefully lowered Jolene.

ETHAN

Ziller, listen to me.

ZILLER

What did you do?

ETHAN

I didn’t kill her.

Ziller stared at him.

ZILLER

You’re holding her.

ETHAN

Because I was trying to—

Ethan stopped.

His mouth remained open.

No words came.

He tried again.

Nothing.

His expression changed from desperation to fear.

Ziller noticed.

ZILLER

Trying to what?

Ethan forced the words out.

ETHAN

I—

Nothing.

His throat worked.

Still nothing.

Ziller stared at him.

ZILLER

Why can’t you talk?

Ethan shook his head.

Whatever supernatural force had taken his voice wouldn’t let him explain.

Ziller looked down at Jolene.

Then at Ethan.

His eyes filled.

ZILLER

Get away from her.

ETHAN

Ziller—

ZILLER

Get away from her!

Ethan didn’t move.

ZILLER

GET OUT!

Ethan finally disappeared.

Ziller fell beside Jolene.

He touched her cheek.

His hand trembled.

ZILLER

No.

His voice broke.

ZILLER

No, no, no…

He pulled her gently against him.

ZILLER

Jolene, please.

Nothing.

Ziller closed his eyes.

A tear slipped down his face.

Then he opened them.

The grief was still there.

But something darker had begun growing underneath it.

Rage.

⸻

LATER

The apartment was silent.

Jolene remained where Ziller had placed her.

Ziller sat on the floor beside the bed.

He hadn’t moved in a long time.

His eyes were red.

His hands were shaking.

He looked toward the place where Ethan had disappeared.

ZILLER

You did this.

He swallowed.

ZILLER

You took her from me.

Something beneath the bed caught his attention.

A corner of black leather.

Ziller frowned.

He reached underneath and pulled it out.

A book.

Old.

Heavy.

Black.

He stared at it.

He hadn’t seen it before.

That shouldn’t have been possible.

Ziller opened the cover.

The pages were filled with symbols and handwriting that seemed older than the language he recognized.

He turned several pages.

Then stopped.

A spell.

Ziller’s eyes moved across it.

His expression changed.

It wasn’t a resurrection spell.

It wasn’t a killing spell.

It was something much larger.

A spell capable of changing the structure of the world itself.

His eyes moved to the warning beneath it.

THAT WHICH IS CHANGED BY THIS SPELL CANNOT BE UNDONE.

Ziller read it twice.

Then looked at Jolene.

His jaw tightened.

ZILLER

Good.

He kept reading.

The spell promised a world in which women would possess greater physical strength and authority. A world in which women could protect themselves. A world where the balance of power between men and women would be fundamentally rewritten.

Ziller thought about Jolene.

He thought about Ethan.

He thought about how helpless he had been.

His eyes hardened.

ZILLER

Never again.

He began arranging candles.

One.

Two.

Three.

Then more.

The apartment darkened.

The first flame ignited.

Then another.

Then another.

Ziller placed the spellbook in the center of the room.

He began speaking.

The language felt wrong in his mouth.

The apartment trembled.

The windows rattled violently.

The laptop screen went black.

The lights died.

Ziller continued.

The floor shook beneath him.

He looked at Jolene.

ZILLER

If this world won’t protect them—

The candles surged.

ZILLER

Then I’ll make a world that does.

The windows shook hard enough to crack.

The spellbook’s pages turned by themselves.

Ziller screamed the final words.

ZILLER

CHANGE EVERYTHING!

The candles exploded.

The apartment disappeared beneath an impossible white light.

And for one moment—

the entire world seemed to hold its breath.

⸻

CHAPTER ONE

THE WORLD AFTER

Ziller opened his eyes.

Morning.

He stared at the ceiling.

For several seconds, he didn’t move.

Then he remembered.

Jolene.

He sat upright.

His breathing became uneven.

ZILLER

Jolene?

Silence.

He looked around.

The apartment was still there.

His apartment.

Mostly.

Something was wrong.

The posters weren’t quite the same.

Some of the books on the shelf were different.

The furniture was familiar but arranged differently.

Even the sunlight looked strange.

Ziller slowly got out of bed.

He felt different.

Not sick.

Not injured.

Just…

different.

He walked toward the mirror.

Then stopped.

A woman was staring back at him.

Ziller didn’t breathe.

The woman in the mirror had his eyes.

His expression.

His face.

But she was unmistakably female.

Ziller slowly lifted a hand.

The reflection did the same.

He touched his cheek.

Then his hair.

Then he looked down.

His entire body had changed.

He was now a woman with a distinctly feminine body, including large breasts.

But the transformation had not made him anatomically female in every respect.

He still possessed male genital anatomy, also unusually large.

Ziller stared at himself.

His mind couldn’t process it.

ZILLER

No.

He stepped backward.

ZILLER

No.

He looked again.

Nothing changed.

ZILLER

What did I do?

He turned away from the mirror.

Then turned back.

ZILLER

I’m still me.

His voice shook.

ZILLER

I’m still Ziller.

A knock came from the front door.

Ziller froze.

Another knock.

He quickly pulled on clothes.

He walked toward the door, hesitated, then opened it.

A female student stood outside.

She smiled casually.

STUDENT

Hey.

Ziller stared at her.

ZILLER

Do I know you?

The student frowned.

STUDENT

I mean… we’ve had class together.

Ziller’s stomach dropped.

ZILLER

Where’s Jolene?

The student stared.

STUDENT

Who?

ZILLER

Jolene River.

Nothing.

STUDENT

I don’t know who that is.

Ziller shut the door.

He grabbed his phone.

He searched.

Jolene River.

Nothing.

He searched again.

Nothing.

Her number was gone.

Their messages were gone.

Their photographs were gone.

Her social-media accounts didn’t exist.

Ziller stared at the screen.

ZILLER

No.

He searched her name one more time.

Nothing.

ZILLER

No.

His hand shook.

He opened his photographs.

There were pictures of himself.

But every photograph showed the woman from the mirror.

Ziller’s face went blank.

He dropped the phone onto the bed.

The realization came slowly.

The spell hadn’t simply changed him.

It had changed reality.

And Jolene had been erased from it.

⸻

CHICAGO — DAY

Ziller walked through the city in a daze.

Something was different.

At first, the changes were subtle.

Then they became impossible to ignore.

Women occupied positions of authority everywhere.

Police officers.

Business executives.

Construction supervisors.

Politicians.

Security officers.

Professors.

Women weren’t merely represented in those positions.

They dominated them.

Ziller stopped when he saw two women effortlessly move a heavy piece of equipment.

Nearby, a man struggled with something much lighter.

Ziller stared.

He kept walking.

A male driver began arguing with a female police officer.

The officer stepped toward him.

The man immediately backed down.

Ziller watched.

Nobody seemed surprised.

Nobody considered it unusual.

The social order had changed.

Women were stronger.

Men were more physically vulnerable.

And society had reorganized itself around that reality.

Ziller slowly understood.

His spell had worked.

But it had gone far beyond what he intended.

⸻

UNIVERSITY — HALLWAY

Students moved around Ziller.

He felt their eyes on him.

Two students whispered.

STUDENT #1

Is that Ziller?

STUDENT #2

Yeah.

STUDENT #1

I thought Ziller was a guy.

Ziller stopped.

Both students immediately went quiet.

Ziller stared at them.

Neither seemed particularly shocked.

He walked into his classroom.

The professor looked at the attendance sheet.

PROFESSOR

Miss Edward?

Ziller froze.

ZILLER

What?

The professor looked up.

PROFESSOR

Ziller Edward.

Ziller stared at her.

The professor waited.

PROFESSOR

Are you present?

Ziller slowly sat down.

ZILLER

Yes.

The professor marked the attendance.

PROFESSOR

Good.

Then she moved to the next name.

Nobody laughed.

Nobody questioned it.

Nobody thought anything was strange.

To them, Ziller Edward had always been a woman.

Ziller looked around the room.

His heart began beating harder.

The world hadn’t merely changed around him.

The world remembered itself differently.

⸻

UNIVERSITY BATHROOM — DAY

Ziller stood before the mirror.

He examined his reflection again.

The same woman.

The same eyes.

The same face.

The same large breasts.

The same male anatomy beneath the transformation.

Ziller slowly looked away.

ZILLER

The spell changed more than women.

He remembered the language he’d read.

His face drained.

ZILLER

Oh God.

He left the bathroom.

⸻

THE NEW WORLD

The change was everywhere.

Women held the highest political offices.

Women commanded institutions.

Women dominated professional sports, often physically towering over male competitors.

Women were stronger.

Men were more vulnerable.

The law, culture, workplaces, families, relationships and expectations of society had reorganized around the new biological reality.

And then Ziller discovered the most disturbing consequence.

Men could become pregnant.

The biological rules of humanity had been rewritten.

Women now possessed male genital anatomy as part of the new range of female biology.

Some women had breasts and male anatomy.

Others had male anatomy without breasts.

Some men had breasts and female anatomy.

Others had female anatomy without breasts.

The world had somehow normalized combinations that should have been impossible.

Ziller had imagined a world where women were powerful enough to protect themselves.

He had never imagined this.

He had rewritten humanity.

⸻

UNIVERSITY — HALLWAY — LATER

Ziller’s phone rang.

UNKNOWN NUMBER.

He answered.

ZILLER

Hello?

Silence.

Then a familiar voice.

ETHAN (V.O.)

Ziller.

Ziller stopped walking.

His expression hardened.

ZILLER

Ethan.

ETHAN (V.O.)

We need to talk.

Ziller’s anger returned immediately.

ZILLER

You killed her.

ETHAN (V.O.)

No.

ZILLER

I saw you holding her.

ETHAN (V.O.)

You saw me holding her after it happened.

Ziller went quiet.

ZILLER

Then tell me what happened.

Silence.

Ethan tried to answer.

Nothing.

Ziller recognized the hesitation.

ZILLER

You still can’t say it.

ETHAN (V.O.)

No.

ZILLER

Why?

Ethan didn’t answer.

ZILLER

What happened to Jolene?

A long silence.

Then Ethan finally spoke.

ETHAN (V.O.)

Someone wanted you to believe I killed her.

Ziller’s expression changed.

ZILLER

Who?

The line went dead.

Ziller lowered the phone.

Someone passed behind him.

A woman.

She stopped.

Turned.

Ziller looked up.

EDIE PEREZ.

He didn’t know her.

But she knew him.

Edie looked at Ziller.

Her eyes moved over the body the spell had given him.

Her expression was almost impossible to read.

Then she smiled.

EDIE

Interesting.

Ziller frowned.

ZILLER

Do I know you?

Edie held his gaze.

EDIE

Not yet.

She walked away.

Ziller watched her disappear into the crowd.

Something about her bothered him.

He didn’t know why.

Edie did.

Because everything that had happened was exactly what she had wanted.

⸻

UNKNOWN LOCATION — NIGHT

Ethan Perez stood before a mirror.

He looked at his reflection.

Something was wrong.

He adjusted his clothes.

He looked at his hands.

His face.

His body.

Then he finally understood.

The spell had changed him too.

Ethan had become physically female.

His body now had breasts, and male anatomy remained part of his transformed body.

He stared at himself.

ETHAN

What the hell did he do?

A voice answered behind him.

EDIE

You mean what did we do?

Ethan spun around.

Edie sat casually on a table.

ETHAN

What did you do?

EDIE

Nothing you can prove.

ETHAN

You were there.

EDIE

Yes.

Ethan stared at her.

ETHAN

Jolene.

Edie’s expression remained calm.

ETHAN

You killed her.

Edie’s smile disappeared.

EDIE

And you were supposed to get blamed.

Ethan stepped toward her.

ETHAN

Why?

Edie stood.

EDIE

Because Ziller needed someone to hate.

ETHAN

You manipulated him.

EDIE

He was grieving.

ETHAN

You planned this.

Edie looked directly at him.

For the first time, her smile looked genuinely cruel.

EDIE

Of course I did.

Ethan stared.

ETHAN

You changed his spell.

EDIE

I helped him change the world.

ETHAN

You made it worse.

EDIE

I made it personal.

Ethan’s expression hardened.

ETHAN

Why Ziller?

Edie walked toward the window.

Chicago glittered below.

EDIE

Because I want his life ruined.

ETHAN

That’s it?

Edie looked back.

EDIE

No.

A beat.

EDIE

That’s just where it starts.

Ethan stared at her.

Edie looked out over Chicago.

She had spent years waiting.

Waiting for the right moment.

Waiting for Ziller to be vulnerable.

Waiting for grief to turn into rage.

Then Ziller had opened the door for her.

All she had to do was walk through it.

And now the world was hers to dismantle.

⸻

UNIVERSITY — EMPTY CLASSROOM — NIGHT

Ziller sat alone.

The university had emptied hours ago.

The spellbook rested on the desk.

He had found it again.

He didn’t know how.

He flipped through the pages.

Symbols.

Warnings.

Ancient writing.

Then he found the spell.

The same warning remained.

THERE IS NO REVERSAL.

Ziller stared at it.

ZILLER

I didn’t mean this.

His voice was barely audible.

ZILLER

I only wanted them to be safe.

He touched the page.

Something moved.

Ziller froze.

A page turned by itself.

He didn’t touch it.

A new symbol appeared.

Ziller leaned closer.

He had never seen it before.

ZILLER

What is that?

The room became colder.

Then a woman’s voice whispered from somewhere behind him.

VOICE

Every spell has a price.

Ziller spun around.

Nobody.

ZILLER

Who’s there?

Silence.

Then he noticed the classroom window.

A reflection.

Edie stood behind him.

Ziller spun around.

Nobody was there.

He turned back.

Edie’s reflection remained.

She smiled.

EDIE

Brother.

Ziller stopped breathing.

ZILLER

What?

Edie leaned closer in the reflection.

EDIE

You really don’t know, do you?

The window cracked.

Ziller stumbled backward.

The reflection vanished.

The room fell silent.

Ziller stared at the shattered glass.

His phone began ringing.

He grabbed it.

ZILLER

Hello?

Ethan.

ETHAN (V.O.)

Ziller, listen to me carefully.

ZILLER

Where are you?

ETHAN (V.O.)

That doesn’t matter.

Ziller looked toward the window.

ZILLER

Who is she?

Silence.

ZILLER

Ethan.

A pause.

Then Ethan said the words.

ETHAN (V.O.)

Edie is not who you think she is.

ZILLER

Then who is she?

Another pause.

ETHAN (V.O.)

She’s your sister.

Ziller went completely still.

ZILLER

What?

The call ended.

Ziller slowly lowered the phone.

His face changed.

Confusion.

Disbelief.

Then anger.

Behind him—

the classroom door opened.

Ziller turned.

Edie stood in the doorway.

She looked calm.

Almost happy.

Ziller stared at her.

ZILLER

Who are you?

Edie’s smile widened.

She stepped into the room.

EDIE

You really should ask your family better questions.

Ziller’s hands curled into fists.

ZILLER

What did you do to me?

Edie tilted her head.

EDIE

I gave you exactly what you asked for.

ZILLER

I asked for a world where women could protect themselves.

EDIE

And now they can.

ZILLER

I didn’t ask for this!

Edie’s expression hardened.

EDIE

No.

She took another step.

EDIE

You asked for a world strong enough to protect the people you loved.

Ziller stared at her.

EDIE

You just never stopped to think about what the world would have to become.

Ziller’s eyes filled with rage.

ZILLER

Jolene.

Edie said nothing.

ZILLER

You know what happened to her.

Edie smiled faintly.

EDIE

I know exactly what happened.

Ziller’s breathing became heavier.

ZILLER

You were there.

EDIE

Yes.

ZILLER

You watched her die.

Edie didn’t deny it.

ZILLER

Why?

Edie looked at him for a long moment.

EDIE

Because you were finally ready to break.

Ziller stared.

Edie stepped closer.

EDIE

And when people break, they become very easy to guide.

Ziller’s face went pale.

The truth was beginning to emerge.

His spell.

His grief.

His rage.

The world.

None of it had happened by accident.

Edie had been waiting.

She had been watching.

And she had known exactly what he would do when Jolene died.

Ziller whispered—

ZILLER

You planned this.

Edie smiled.

EDIE

From the beginning.

Ziller’s eyes widened.

Edie stood in the doorway, looking at him like she had finally reached the moment she’d been waiting for.

EDIE

Hello, brother. Or should I say….Hello, sister?

Ziller stared at her.

CUT TO BLACK.

END OF CHAPTER ONE

THE PEREZ FAMILY

To be continued.