The bus haunted Gerry's dreams. Those gaudy bands of powder blue, pink, and white along the side of it. The hand-drawn banner with the words "Down with Cis" draped over the side. The occupants of the bus.
In his dreams, they'd come flooding out of the bus again. They'd surround him. Force him to his knees as he begged them to stop. "Down with Cis" they'd chant as they flaunted their...their...sinful bodies. They'd fill his head with all these awful thoughts. Thoughts he could never act on! Thoughts he could not name or recall. That was what maddened him the most about their cruel taunts: he could not recall them. All he knew was that they were there, even a decade on from that frightful day.
That night, he had just turned 18. He and his buddy Cole were out at a club, trying out their fake IDs. The person who'd done them seemed pretty sketchy. The guy had scraggly, long hair and wore a half balaclava when they'd met him. The air in his workshop - a generous name for the cramped woodshed behind his one story colonial house - smelled stale and sweet. "Chemicals," he'd said, waving a dismissive hand. Then he gestured to the two of them to take their pictures. They took a lot. Lots of bright flashes. Gerry's head spun as it flashed and flashed. At one point, he'd had to clasp Cole's hand to keep from swaying. He'd even thought they were facing each other for one of them, tongues dancing, but no. That would be weird for a fake ID.
They'd ended up getting them an hour later. They reeked with whatever chemicals that guy had used and their pictures seemed washed out. It made Gerry's face look softer. He was worried that it made him look younger, but the bouncer hadn't seemed to much care. He just glanced at IDs, glanced at the two boys hold them, then gave them a grin. Gerry and Cole were so pumped to get in that he'd not stopped to think at the time why the bouncer gave them that look. In the years since, he'd discovered that it was the bouncer who'd tipped off the bus the first time. That's what Cole said, before their falling out.
Gerry and Cole danced to their heart's content that evening. He'd never felt so free, so uninhibited. Maybe he was still a bit buzzed and loopy from the fumes and the bright lights, but he just felt...light. He was untouchable as he danced. Such grace. And when he spotted a cute girl in a pink dress across the bar, he got her number. Her name was Betty and she was the only good thing to come out of the attack. In the aftermath, she'd helped Gerry to convalesce and they'd fallen in love. Oh, sure. She'd tease him every now and again about the bus. It was never anything cruel, though. Just good-natured ribbing from his spouse about how if she'd not shown up, he'd be in a dress and heels right now. She always seemed to say it when he wasn't looking at her, but one time, he turned as she did. He caught a strange look in her eyes, along with a flush in her cheeks. It made Gerry fall more in love with her that she was so mad on his behalf. It also made him a bit sad because he knew she was fond of Cole.
Betty, Gerry, and Cole had been particularly close after the bus incident. It was frightening, seeing all those people in their definitely not at all sexy "Down with Cis" shirts crowding around Cole and Gerry. Cole got the worst of it. They really hurt him. That's what the officials had said at the hospital, despite Cole only seeming to have a few scratches. Gerry had fought back the hardest. He was lucky that Betty - who'd followed them out of the club - was nearby. She'd been the one to chase them away, even though she let Gerry take the credit. That was his Betty, after all: shy to a fault. He loved her so much.
It's why tonight stung so much. It'd been a decade removed from her chasing them away. He brought it up, thanking her. She seemed off about it, though. Saddened. She must be sad about Cole, surmised Gerry. His best friend had dropped off the map after trying to track down the bus. Cole had spun all these ridiculous conspiracy theories about it. "They're kidnapping people! They're changing them, don't get you it, Ger? They've got people everywhere! That bouncer was just the first!" He'd seemed almost manic when he'd sprung the news on Gerry. Poor guy. He couldn't let go of it. 
Eventually Gerry and Cole fell out of touch, despite Betty's attempts to mend the ever-widening gulf between them. Gerry didn't want to think about the bus. He'd survived it, hadn't he? Just a brief brush with something so strange. Those women with their...bulges. Why couldn't Cole just move past it? It'd been two years since he'd last heard from him. Time had gone by so fast, though. He had a life to live. Tonight, though, a decade to the day, Gerry was haunted by dreams of the bus.
He woke from his nightmare. Betty slept next to him in their bed. It was late, but he couldn't get back to sleep. The night was warm, though, and Gerry thought that a walk would be fine. He'd just stroll around the block. This was a safe suburb. It'd be absurd for anything bad to happen in a place like this! He laced up his boots, made sure to slip out of the house quietly, and headed down the the street. The first thing he noticed was that most of the houses at night seemed so much more imposing. Even the gentle glow of the streetlights couldn't help him shake the feeling that something was in the dark.
It was nothing, though. He turned the corner at Wright and Oak and headed down the street. He passed by Phil and Desdemona's house. Phil had been his new grill buddy ever since Cole had gone completely whack-a-doo. Phil wasn't as solid of a guy as Cole, but...he was still pretty cool. Phil and Dez's house was beautiful, too. It was mostly glass, buttressed by wide columns of textured concrete and exposed steel. Gerry had tried his best to not stare since that one night he'd been out on a late walk a few weeks ago. He'd seen Phil against the window, pressed up against it as Dez-
The air of the night must've been getting to Gerry because he felt a shiver down his spine. He picked up the pace past Phil and Dez's and had almost made it to Oak and Pine when he heard something. Footsteps. Not his own. He shoved his hands into this coat pockets and moved a bit faster. As he rounded the corner, he made sure to tilt his head just enough to see who it might be. Maybe it was a neighbor, also out for a midnight stroll.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw bright red heels glinting off the warm light of the street lamps. He also caught flash of a white shirt...and a word that horrified him to see again: "Cis". Gerry panicked. He bolted down the street, not stopping. He heard the clacking of heels behind him. Fast, so much faster than they should be! How could anyone run in heels like that? Breathing hard, Gerry didn't wait to get to the corner of Pine and Citrus. Instead, he cut through the Badakshanians' front yard and vaulted the fence. Still his pursuer was on him. He swore he almost felt a well-manicured claw of fingernails grasp at the hem of his pant leg. He ran and ran, head swimming, heart pounding, until he made it to his own backyard. He raced to the back door, thankful that he left it unlocked, wrenched it open, pushed himself inside, and slammed it closed. 
He flicked the lock and then peered through the glass of the door. Nothing stirred. It was silent. Blood hammered in his veins. He felt the hand on his shoulder and he wanted to scream. Instead he was so exhausted that it caught in his throat, becoming a terrified yelp. He jolted away and turned, only to see Betty's confused face. She wore an inside-out printed tee and pajama pants.
"Sweetie, are you okay?" She took his hands in hers.
Gerry let out an anxious breath. "Yeah, no, I'm fine. I just- I thought there was someone in the neighborhood. Maybe it's just this night making me crazy."
"Aw," Betty said, pulling him into a hug. "I'm sorry, honey. I know this is hard for you." She drew in a breath and there was silence for a long moment, like she was considering something. "Why don't you come back to bed? Dylan's at his friend's house tonight..." Her voice was low and now his poor heart beat faster for a different reason. She pulled him away from the door and up towards their room.
Gerry didn't even notice that the door was unlocked now. He was too busy kissing the beautiful woman in front of him as they slammed into the wall just outside their bedroom. She giggled, hand grasping for the doorknob to their room. It took her all of two tries as Gerry planted kisses down her neck. Once it was open, he hoisted her up. Her legs wrapped around him as they made their way inside.
"It's been-" Kiss. "-far too-" Kiss "-long, Bets." Kiss. His hands traced up and down her body, searching. Wanting. Knowing, but nonetheless relearning the map of her curves.
"I know. I'm sorry I just...ohhhh. I've been so selfish." Betty gasped at his ministrations. Gerry slid off her inside out shirt and tossed it to the bed. “I haven’t been this turned on in like…two years!”
"I didn't even know you wore t-shirts still."
"Did you read it?"
He frozen. "Wh-what?"
"Did you read the shirt, babe?" There was something dark in Betty's tone. And he knew.
"Betty, please." He tried to struggle away from her, but her hold on him was too tight.
She yanked him down on the bed. They landed inches from the shirt. "Read it."
Gerry opened his eyes. "Down with Cis" in black block lettering stared back at him. He looked at Betty, who smirked at him.
"I told you I've been selfish, not sharing you with the rest."
He wriggled, trying to free himself. It was a costly mistake for his fraying self-control. He'd shed his pants at the base of the stairs and the wriggling only served to let him feel how warm and wet his wife was through the thin fabric of his boxers. "Y-you can't be one of those people, Betty!"
"Oh, yes. She/they can be, Gerry," came a voice from the doorway. The light flicked on and Gerry blinked. He saw the red heels that had chased him earlier that evening. He followed them upward until he saw a woman he thought he knew. She was familiar, somehow, and she looked at Gerry with a similar recognition.  It couldn’t be. There’s no way it was-
“C-Cole?”
“Close, baby, but I go by Colette.” She jutted her jaw towards the bed. “Silver was the one who got me, didn’t you?”
“Well I had to do something!” Silver said, exasperated. They didn’t stop grinding their hips into Gerry as they spoke. “You were getting too close for your own good, little Mx. Snoop!” Gerry looked to his wife - no, to Silver. There was a devilish smirk on their face. They looked to Gerry, though, and it turned into a pout.
“Aw, come on. Not even a little turned on that I force femmed your friend and betrayed you?” Gerry couldn’t believe this person had been married to him for ten years. Of course he wasn’t turned on by that! He didn’t want to think about the time he’d caught sight of her after she’d talked about him being in a dress and heels. The flush in her cheeks. They’d-
Oh god, they’d been turned on at the thought of it! Every time they said it, they’d been thinking about this moment. Gerry tried to ignore the way his cock twitched and ached. He latched on to a single word. “Why?”
“I could give you a long-winded explanation, but simple version? I love freeing gals and being undercover? Mmm, so good. Makes the harvest of your masculinity so much better. I aged you like a wine.”
Gerry groaned, eyes fluttering closed. He didn’t want to come. He was so close, but even still he wanted to fight back. Then Silver started speaking again. “Don’t you remember what I’d whisper, all those nights? Those nights you’d pretend to forget. Maybe you should…remember, Gerri.” Silver’s final word was low and throaty. Familiar.
No. No, no, no. Gerry felt something breaking within. Long suppressed thoughts came flooding back. Of two girls named Gerri and Colette making out as they got their fake ID pictures taken. “Remember this, girls,” the person taking the photos had said. Gerri always thought their voice was a little strange. Like a disguise.
And then Gerri was older. Lying in bed in a suburb. Listless. Trying sleep, but troubled about waking up the next day as she waited. Silver’s hand pumped Gerri’s cock. “You’re a woman, Gerri with an ‘i’. My woman. I’m going to do wonderful, terrible things to you. We all are. You’ll beg and plead for us to use you. He’s already lost and he doesn’t know it. I love you so much, baby. One day, if you’re real lucky, I’ll peg you.”
Gerri came hard. Harder than ever before as her mind broke. She spasmed and then collapsed into Silver’s cleavage. She felt numb, only dimly aware of the cum soaking through the cotton of her boxers. “Fuuuuuuuuck,” she moaned. Silver’s hands carded their way through Gerri’s hair.
“How do you feel?” Silver asked.
Gerri looked at Silver. “Ten years…”
“Yeah.”
Gerri gave her a manic grin. “You’re so fucking hot.” She leaned forward and gave Silver a deep, passionate kiss. 
“I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it…” Colette said. Without breaking the kiss, Gerri snapped her fingers at Colette, then gestured for Colette to come closer. It was only when Gerri felt Colette next to the bed that she broke the kiss with Silver. Gerri gripped Colette’s shirt and pulled her into a blistering kiss. 
After a long moment reconnecting with her beloved friend, Gerri separated from Colette. “Don’t you dare ever leave me again, you bitch.” She pressed their foreheads together. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you, too!”
Before she could do much more, though, there was a honk from outside. Gerri looked to Colette, then Silver, then to the window.
“Wanna meet the others?” Silver asked.
No way Gerri was gonna get the bus out of her dreams after this.