Shadows of Room 213

The rain hammered against the windows of Bethany Hall, casting a pall over the campus of Redwood University. Shadows danced on the walls as the storm raged outside. Inside Room 213, Lily was busy unpacking her belongings, humming softly to herself, relishing the idea of having her own space but wishing her friend had been granted a spot in the same dorm.

Lily and Sam had been inseparable since middle school. When they both got into Redwood University, it seemed like destiny that they should be roommates. However, the university's strict rules about gender-segregated housing had intervened. Lily had pleaded with the office, but rules were rules.

Lily had always been a girl of peculiar interests, dabbling in the occult in her free time. Sam, on the other hand, found it amusing but couldn't help but be nervous that one day she'd take it too far. Tonight was going to be that day.

With a determined glint in her eye, Lily opened an ancient tome she’d acquired from a shadowy online bookstore. She had spent months researching and preparing for this moment. The spell she needed was archaic and intricate, but she had faith in her abilities.

As the old grandfather clock struck midnight, Lily began to chant, her words soft but loaded with power. She started the incantation, pulling out a strand of Sam's hair she had discreetly taken days ago.

Meanwhile, in the men's dormitory, Sam suddenly felt an inexplicable chill. His heart began to race as an unnatural warmth spread through his body. He looked at his reflection in the mirror; his eyes wide with confusion and fear. An unseen force began to pull at his skin, reshaping it slowly and surely.

"No, this can't be happening," Sam muttered, wrenching himself away from the mirror, trying with all his might to resist the change. But the force was relentless.

Back in Room 213, arcs of energy swirled around Lily, who was now fully engulfed in the ritual. "Audire me! Fiant super nos! Mutatio completur!" she chanted, her voice crescendoing in power.

A sharp pain coursed through Sam's body as his chest began to push against his shirt, forming a more feminine contour. His waist cinched, hips flared out, and his Adam's apple receded. His hair grew long and silky, cascading down his shoulders as hormones surged, remolding his very being.

Sam—or rather, Samantha—dropped to her knees, gasping for breath. Panic consumed her, but the transformation was unstoppable. Memories began to warp; realities twisted like wrought iron under immense heat. Everyone now believed she had always been Samantha, the quirky girl next door.

Samantha, still clutching her head in confusion, tried to call for help, but her voice was now unmistakably feminine, a high-pitched cry that echoed in the dormitory hall. "No one will believe me," she realized with a rising dread as she heard the laughter and chatter of girls outside her door.

Samantha darted out of her room, intent on finding Lily. People glanced up, smiling or waving at her—their faces a cruel reminder that their perceptions had been completely altered. "Hey, Sam! Looking great today!" someone called out.

Her heart sank further with every step. When she finally reached Room 213, she burst in without knocking. "Lily, what did you do to me?" Samantha screamed, her voice broken with a mix of anger and despair.

Lily looked up, a smile of both triumph and sympathy on her face. "I did what I had to do, Sam. Now we can be together, just like old times."

Samantha staggered backward, her mind reeling. Every attempt to remember who she used to be felt like grasping at smoke. "This isn't right. You had no right!"

"But I did it for us," Lily insisted, extending her hand. "We can face everything together now."

Samantha's eyes filled with tears. She had never felt so betrayed, so violated. "You’ve destroyed me," she whispered before fleeing the room.

Weeks turned into months, and Samantha tried in vain to reverse the spell. But the ancient magic was irrevocable, interwoven into the fabric of her existence and the reality around her.

Despite her reluctance, Samantha slowly began acclimating to her new life. She had no choice. The world only saw her as the girl she had become, and any resistance was met with utter bewilderment or dismissive laughter. She attended classes, joined study groups, even forced herself to smile at Lily, though her trust was forever shattered.

Lily watched from the background, her heart aching with guilt and love. She had gained a roommate but lost the friend she cherished. The eerie silence between them became their new normal, an unspoken testament to the horrors wrought by selfish desires.

The storm had passed, but the shadows of Room 213 lingered on, a constant reminder of a transformation that could never be undone. Samantha, once Sam, now navigated her life through a nightmarish blend of old memories and a new, surreal identity, haunted by the terrible knowledge that the friend she had once loved had irrevocably changed her fate.

This story was generated by user grokuo87 with assistance by one of OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model; prompts used to help generate the story are shown below.

Images were generated with OpenAI's AI system, DALL·E 2, or uploaded by the user.

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