Gradual Change – Halloween Special - Chapter 2

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The next day was typical for Erinna, just like any other, except when Heather picked her from the school, they didn’t go straight home. Oliver had left with Carol, which was weird since they usually went home together, whether in Heather’s or Carol’s car.

Instead of going straight home, they went to the mall. Seeing the confusion in Erinna’s face, Heather decided to explain.

“Joshua said he has something special for you, and he wants you to see it,” Heather explained.

Walking through the mall took a great deal of effort from Erinna and Heather to walk straight to the shoe shop and not go into every store they walked by. Joshua welcomed them as they entered the store. He still liked to look uniquely different with short hair, but now, however, it was a short pixie cut.

“Hi, Joshua,” Erinna greeted with a smile.

“Hi Princess, it’s nice to see you again,” Joshua said, and as he turned around on his 4-inch heels, he walked to one of the shelves and took out a box. Opening the box, he removed a pair of black thigh-high platform boots with 4-inch block heels.  Two red dragons decorated on one side of the boots, while on the other side, Erinna recognized the name on it and written in big red letters was Ruby.

They were identical to the boots she had designed for her Avatar in the game.

“When your mom told me about it, I had to do it. I created these boots myself, and I hope you like them,” Joshua exclaimed enthusiastically. He was happy to be working on shoes for a special young lady such as Erinna, so instead of getting black boots from stock and decorating them, Joshua decided to create these new boots from scratch for Erinna.

“Hold on. Did you make those?  In two weeks? Honey, you didn’t have to go that far,” Heather commented. Heather was happy that Joshua was giving special care to Erinna. Still, she only asked him to decorate a pair of boots so they could go with Erinna’s costume. Erinna was at a loss for words. Although she was beginning to understand the whole picture, she was amazed and unable to say anything.

“Nonsense, Mrs. Huston, I enjoyed working on those boots, knowing who will be wearing them,” Joshua said, turning to Erinna. “Now, please take off your shoes and try these on. I need to know if they are perfect or not,” Joshua instructed.

Following Joshua’s instructions, Erinna took off her shoes and took the pair of boots, pulling them on.  The boots had a long zipper down the back, which made them very easy to put on. They were a perfect fit and felt very lightweight and warm inside. She could tell that Joshua had paid a lot of attention to details when making the boots.

Walking out of the mall with a single shopping bag felt weird for both Erinna and Heather, but they didn’t have any time to waste. The event Erinna will be going to will be starting in two hours, and she needs to be ready by then. By now, Erinna could see the whole picture even if Heather didn’t tell her everything. She was looking forward to how her costume will look.  She was sure the outfit wasn’t that hard to find, but replicas for Ruby’s weapons may be impossible to get.

At home, Heather took Erinna to her room and started to run her a bubble bath. Having a bubble bath was not something she usually did in the middle of the week, and it consumed a lot of time.

“I will prepare your costume while you take your bath,” Heather said, and Erinna nodded.

Erinna started to remove her school uniform and folded it neatly. She then took off her bra, tights, and panties before placing them in the laundry basket. Outside Heather started to layout Erinna’s costume on the bed. It was not that easy to get, but it was worth it. She didn’t know how her daughter could be this creative, but she liked how fashionable it was.

The bubble bath was tremendous, and Erinna couldn’t help but smile and the flowery smell of the bath. She wrapped a long fluffy towel around her body that Heather had left for her. She then walked out of the bathroom. The moment Erinna saw the outfit on the bed, her jaw fell to the floor in awe. On the bed was everything, including the sniper rifle and the scythe. She couldn’t believe the lengths they had gone to that her parents were even able to get the replica weapons.

“So, what do you think?” Heather asked, walking in behind Erinna.

“It’s awesome, mom! Thank you so much,” Erinna said, hugging her mom.

“I am glad you like, now let’s hurry up. We don’t have much time,” Heather said, pulling Erinna towards the bed. She handed a pair of black panties and a bra that Erinna put on. After that came a belt that Heather wrapped around Erinna’s waist. Erinna could recognize the belt as a garter belt that her mom wore from time to time.

“Now, don’t get used to this. You’re still way too young to be wearing stockings and garters,” Heather informed Erinna, who nodded with a smile.

Heather pulled out a pair of opaque black stockings, and Erinna rolled them up and pulled them up her legs. Heather showed her how to connect them to the garters. The stockings felt way better than the tights or the thigh-high socks she was used to, and she also loved how her legs looked in those stockings.

After the stockings came, the mid-thigh kilted skirt, a white blouse. The over-top corset was only for decoration and not even cinched up.  Erinna already looked more mature and older than kids her age, and Heather didn’t want to add anything to that. Heather didn’t want her daughter to look too sexy, and she was way too young for that.

Before putting on the hood, Heather sat Erinna in front of her vanity table and started to add curls to her blonde hair with a curling iron. Once she finished with Erinna’s hair, she applied some makeup, keeping it to a minimum. Heather then sprayed some perfume and finally allowed Erinna to look in the mirror.

“Woooow!” was all Erinna could say. She looked exactly like her Avatar; it was truly amazing.

“Alright, let’s get you into the rest of your costume. You don’t want to be late for the event,” Heather commented, pulling the red hood around Erinna and tying the two laces around the neck. On the back of the hood were two straps made to hold the sniper rifle and the scythe.

Once both the sniper rifle and the scythe were in place, Erinna pulled on the boots when she heard a car horn outside. Erinna could recognize it as George’s brand-new car that he received when he turned 16 and passed his license test.

“Ugh, men in this family have no patience,” Heather said, rolling her eyes making Erinna giggle.

“Don’t forget to take your phone with you,” Heather said, handing Erinna a red purse. Erinna just smiled and nodded. Hurrying up to her room, Erinna retrieved her phone. She then ran downstairs, where George was waiting in his car outside of the house.

“Wow, you look just like Ruby. Get in,” George said, folding the front seat enabling Erinna to get into the back. Once she was in the car, George drove to the Collins house. Oliver and Nancy stood out front, both dressed like their Avatar, only that Oliver looked precisely like his Avatar, ‘Oli Captain.’ Once everyone was in the car, George drove to the event. It took place in an E-sports center, and the whole place was buzzing with music, with many people already going inside.

One entrance was for everyone, and the other was a VIP entrance for mystical ranks only. The main entrance had a long line of people waiting to enter, while the VIP entrance was empty. George parked the car, and they all walked towards the VIP entrance. As the message stated, any mystical rank player can enter with a group of five or less. At the VIP entrance, the security guard stopped them.

“Only mystical ranks can enter here. Go stand in the main lineup,” the guy said, blocking their way.

“I am a mystical rank,” Erinna said, showing him the email and the ticket.

The guard took one look at it and started to laugh. “ There is no way Ruby is a little girl, and girls can’t play video games, so go home and play with your dolls or something,” the guy said, shocking everyone.

George stepped up and stood right in the guard’s face.  The guard was about 5’7”, while George was already 6’1” and could make that guy swallow his words.

“I want to speak to your supervisor immediately,” George said loud enough so everyone could hear.

The guard looked at George, obviously intimidated. If a fight started, George could beat the crap out of him before anyone could pull him away.

“There’s no need for that, just....”

“What’s going on here?” The guy was interrupted by the sound of a girl coming from behind him. She had dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. She was wearing an event T-shirt like everyone working here, with a skirt,  black hose, and a pair of black ballet flats. Her name tag showed that she was a supervisor.

George was surprised to see her here since she was an intern at his father’s company and a senior in the university. George had worked with her on several projects when he used to help his dad at work.

“Oh, Hannah, I didn’t expect to see you here,” George said, a bit surprised.

“George!” Hannah walked closer to see what was going on. Now she was more interested. “And you must be Erinna, George, and Mr. Houston talks about you all the time.” Erinna blushed a bit, mouthing a thank you.

“Now, what’s going on here? You’re not causing trouble again?” Hannah asked, turning back to the security guard. He shifted uncomfortably. Seeing that he wasn’t about to answer, she turned to George again. She asked George the same question, and George happily explained everything to her.

“Is that so? Can you show me the email, sweetie?”

Erinna nodded and held her phone so Hannah could read the email along with the VIP ticket.

“Alright, come in,” Hannah said. The security guy was about to complain, but Hannah shot him a glare that shut him up. Once inside, Hannah pinned a golden badge to Erinna with her Avatar’s name on it. This NTW badge will allow your group into the reserved VIP section. There, you can buy any drinks or food by using your gold NTW coins so that you won’t need money here. Sorry about what happened earlier, and please enjoy yourselves,” Hannah said mainly to Erinna.

Nancy was the only one who didn’t like her much, Hannah was standing way too close to George, and she was also sweet-talking Erinna. She didn’t like that at all since George was her boyfriend and Erinna was her little sister.

The four of them soon found a table in the reserved VIP area and sat down, checking the event for today. There’s a custom competition, team competition, and 1V1 BVB competition. Both Nancy and Erinna signed in custom competition, and they all signed for the team and the BVB competition.

“I am hungry,” said Oliver making everyone laugh. “We can all have a snack,” he said, pointing over to the snack bar menu.

“What do you guys want?” George asked, and everyone told him what they wanted. He had a lot of gold coins from farming, so he didn’t mind buying a snack for everyone. Besides, he was almost a mystical rank because of Erinna. After bringing the orders, everyone enjoyed their snack and then walked over to the custom competition.

Both Erinna and Nancy walked to a stage with other competitors. Some were boys who were trying to look like girls, but they didn’t look that convincing.  Some were girls wearing armor, a couple of guys wearing well-made costumes, and one was wearing a kilt, looking like a realistic Scottish warrior.

One of the organizers walked to the stage with a microphone in his hand as the MC.

“Everyone, welcome to the first event of the NTW competition. We will decide who the most popular NTW player is.  We have 50 of the top competitors on the stage.  This competition will be five rounds each round 10 competitors; in the last round, only seven competitors will leave. Then the last three will compete for first, second, and third place,” the MC said as the judges sitting in front of the stage received a list of names. “Every round, you can only pick the top three, and the seven who get the least voices will lose. Let’s start with our participants’ names, shall we?”

He started by asking everyone their first name and their in-game name. When Erinna answered, the whole room stayed silent for a second, then everyone started to cheer loudly after hearing her name, Ruby.  The crowd began to chant RUBY! RUBY! RUBY!  It made sense that she looked exactly like her character and even sounded like her when she spoke a few times.

“I think we already know who will be the winner,” the MC said as he moved to the other competitors. Once he finished his speech, the voting started. Each round, Erinna got first place, and Nancy got second. Erinna didn’t realize how famous she was until now. After every round, the number of competitors decreased until the last round where only ten stood.

Everyone wanted to win except Erinna, and she just wanted to do it for fun. In the end, Erinna won first place, Nancy followed her in second place, and surprisingly third place was the guy in a kilt, his Avatar was named Lugh, his first name was Mark.

After receiving their awards, everyone left the stage, and they then walked to the team competition event. They, however, faced a problem. Their team needed to have five members exactly, and that’s when Lugh approached them.

“Hi, guys, I noticed you need another player for your team.  Can I join you?”

Now that Erinna saw Lugh up close, she could tell he was younger than the way his Avatar looked. He seems to be around 12 or 13.

“Sure, if you want to join us, that would be great,” George said, noticing that Lugh was trying hard not to stare at Erinna. Although he hated it when people stared at his sister, he couldn’t blame him. Erinna was lovely and looked older than her age.

“Thanks... Can I ask something else if you don’t mind? Are you the real Ruby?” Lugh asked, stammering as he asked the question. He had been a big fan of Ruby since he started playing the game a year ago. He always had wanted to meet her and wished she was a real girl.  Now his two wishes had come true. Not only was Ruby a girl but a lovely one at that.

“Yes, I am Ruby. Why is everyone so excited to meet me anyway?” Erinna asked, not realizing how famous she was in the game.

Lugh looked at her with raised eyebrows. He couldn’t believe that she didn’t know how famous she was in the game. It made sense that she would turn down everyone who tried to make a deal with her. If he guessed, he would say she was the same age as him.

“Don’t worry about it, Erinna,  and just let it go.  Let’s get started, shall we,” George said, laughing a bit. After signing Lugh in as a member of their team, they all waited for their first match.

Once their first match was about to start, however, the other team looked worried. None of the other players were planning to face one of the best players in the game. Lugh played as a tank. He used a long sword and had very high armor and defense. Oliver was a warrior, so he helped take some of the damage as well. Nancy played as an assassin using a katana and two guns. George used a sniper rifle for long-range and used a long heavy axe close up for melee.

Having two highly skilled snipers was devastating to other teams. Not only could they get kills without the other team knowing where the shot came from, but they also exposed the enemy team’s position to their teammates. Both George and Erinna made sure to quickly remove any opposing sniper from the game, predicting where they would be hiding. Their team easily won first place, and each one of them ended up receiving the newest HR set and specially crafted weapon in the game.

In the 1v1 competition, Nancy was first to lose, earning 7th place. Lugh followed soon after making 5th place. Oliver lost after him earning 4th place. George lost to a mystical ranked player and ended up being in 3rd. The final match was between Erinna and the other mystical player whose Avatar name was Allylord. Before the match even started, Erinna got a message in the chatbox.

“Why don’t you go home? This competition is not a place for a little girly girl like you.” was the message from Allylord.

Erinna hated these guys the most. While she wouldn’t deny that she was a girly girl and Erinna preferred skirts and dresses over pants and shorts, that didn’t mean she wasn’t badass in the game. She vowed to humiliate that guy, and he would pay for what he said.

“Why? Is Mr. Allylord scared of losing to a girly girl like me? I am sure a macho big guy like you would hate to lose to a little girly girl like me,” Erinna sent back, smirking widely.

Before Allylord could reply, the match had started. The map was an abandoned ship that held a considerable advantage for Erinna. She knew that Allylord relied on a fencing sword and a crossbow as his ranged weapon, and he would charge the enemy and make as much damage as he could before pulling away and using his ranged weapon.

George only lost because Allylord caught him off-guard when he was trying to find a good spot for sniping so, Erinna decided to use his tactics against him. Erinna moved to expose herself to Allylord. He attempted to hit her with his ranged weapon, but she wore special boots that increased her movement speed. She was way too fast for him to shoot her with his crossbow.

Moving to the perfect spot, Erinna pretended to try and use her sniper rifle while seemingly unaware that Allylord had flanked her and stealthily approached to attack her from the rear. However, he was the one who was surprised as Erinna was waiting to ambush him and used her scythe instead. With just one hit, Allylord was dead, and Erinna won the match.

“She cheated,” said the angry voice of the defeated player.

“NTW scanned every device after every match, so unless you’re claiming we are incompetent, I suggest you suck it up,” Hannah said, giving Erinna a confident smile. She walked over to Erinna and held her hand high. “The winner of the 1v1 competition is Ruby. This match was fair and square, and anyone who doesn’t like it can leave.” The crowd roared their approval once again and chanted, “RUBY! RUBY! RUBY!”

After receiving their prizes for the 1v1 competition, the four of them left the E-sports center. They stopped at a burger place to have dinner.

“That was awesome. You killed Allylord in one hit. How did you manage to do that?” Oliver commented as he was about to stuff his mouth with French fries.

Erinna blushed a bit but smiled. She felt warm every time Oliver praised her. “I just used critical damage. In close-range combat, my scythe has 100% critical hit chance and  100% critical damage,” Erinna simply answered.

After dinner, they all went home. George dropped off Nancy and Oliver first before driving home. “You go in first, and I will bring in what we won in the event,” George instructed the sleepy Erinna, who just nodded and left the car.

Entering her house from the garage, Erinna saw Heather waiting for her. “How was it, sweetie?” Heather asked before hugging her daughter.

“It was fun,” Erinna said, yawning.

Heather couldn’t help but laugh a bit. Erinna was adorable more when she was sleepy. “Let me take a couple of pictures in your costume before you go to bed,” Heather said, kissing Erinna’s forehead.

“Do I have to?” Erinna pouted a bit. Nonetheless, she posed for her mom to take as many pictures as she could. She couldn’t deny that she didn’t mind even if she was sleepy.

Upstairs, Heather helped Erinna get out of her costume. Erinna then changed into one of her nighties, walked into her bathroom, brushed her teeth, and, with Heather’s help, removed the very light makeup she had applied to Erinna’s face. “Good night, princess,” Heather said, tucking Erinna in the bed and kissing her forehead. Heather then left the room quietly as Erinna had already fallen asleep, softly closing the door behind her.