Animal I Have Become

At first I didn't remember how it happened. I lay there, not a care for the rest of the world around me. Were my friends still there? Looking at my malformed body? Were they like me? So many unanswered questions I had, no one to answer them but me. I couldn't move, I was paralyzed, blind. Was I dead? Did the enormous amount of pain I had endured caused my death, or was I unconscious?

Through the darkness I saw a large white light. This is the end, I thought. A person with near death experiences often talked about seeing a white light, and beyond that was supposed to be the afterlife, or heaven, or whatever that person believes was waiting for them. Maybe it was consciousness, and that white light was opening my eyes. It turned out that neither of my predictions was right, and in fact it was my memory of what had happened tonight.

My mom had just dropped me at my friend's house; I had my party favors and food in one hand. I knocked on the door with my free hand; my friend Charlie was there to greet me with a smile.

"Hey Sam, what took you so long?" he asked.

I held up the bag and said, "I had to get some party favors."

"Well then come in, we could use another player"

He led me into the house just as my mother's car drove away. Inside the room were two of my other friends, Jessica and Brian. Through the dimly lit room I could only make out minor details, Charlie had brown hair and green eyes and was usually seen wearing some kind of rock band T-shirt. Jessica had blond hair and bright blue eyes; they practically glowed. Brian had blond hair much like Jessica's and brown eyes. Me, I had black hair and green eyes like Charlie. We were all 14 except Jessica who was Charlie's girlfriend; she was 13.

"Hey Sam," said Jessica, "we were going to start the tournament without you."

What she meant by tournament was the new video game that Brian had bought. It was a fighting game, the kind that I absolutely sucked at. I sat in the recliner in front of the TV with the controller in my hand, while Charlie and Jessica got the couch and Brian got the beanbag on the floor.

"So Sam," said Brian, "I brought the game, Charlie supplied the house, and Jessica supplied the extra controllers, what did you bring?"

"I brought the snacks," I replied.

I poured the contents of my bag onto the floor. I bought chips, dip, soda, and a little something of my own.

"What is this?" asked Charlie.

"That would be the reason I was late."

What he held was a little candy that looked like dog noses. Black, squishy, and animal like.

"What are they?" asked Brian.

"Are they… real dog noses?" asked Jessica almost dropping hers.

"No," I reassured her, "they're just candy, or so the guy at the counter told me."

"Where did you get them?"

" Eh, some store a few blocks from here. It was called, something House, I can't remember."

"Well are we going to just sit around here playing twenty questions," asked Charlie, "or are we going to beat each others heads in?"

We all then ate our false noses and picked up our controllers, the candy tasted like black licorice. While we played the game, we decided to tell each other our favorite animals.

"Mine would definitely be a lizard," said Jessica.

"Mine too," I said

"You guys are totally unoriginal," said Brian, "mine is a fox."

Charlie finished up by saying, "My favorite animals are wolves."

About a half hour into the game, we all started to feel sick. We had eaten all the food I had brought. Stomach aches, headaches, the works. Then out of the blue, Charlie cried out in agony.

"Charlie! What's wrong?" asked Jessica.

Not two seconds after the words came out of her mouth, she grabbed at her head and started screaming. I rushed to her side, but I didn't get far before I suffered the same effects. My skin was burning, my jaw ached, I didn't know what was happening around me, and all I saw was myself. I saw my skin turning a kind of blue color as it sprouted scales, and my fingers elongating and sprouting claws. I didn't want to be changed, to become some hideous animal. Yet some part in the back of my mind wanted this to happened and it eventually won. At that point the pain had become so intense that I fell to the ground.

Now here I am, wondering what's happening in the conscious world. Was the whole having your life flash before your eyes overrated? Was it more like the last hour of your life? Now a second light came, what could it be, death? Only one-way to find out, so I went towards the light.

I opened my eyes and returned to the conscious world, it was pitched black; neither the light bulb above nor the TV screen gave any light. Brian was right beside me; I could tell from his bad breath cause he ate most of the onion dip.

"Sam, wake up." he said in a low whisper.

"I'm up," I told him.

I stood up and leaned on the wall to get my footing.

"Where is the light switch?" I asked.

I heard Charlie's voice say, "it should be right next to you," his voice sounded full of sorrow. I felt around and finally found the light switch. When the light came on, all I could do was stare open mouthed at what I saw.

There wasn't a single human in the room, I knew that the things in front of me were however my friends. Brian was standing there in front of me, he was covered head to toe, or should I say paw in red fur and his chest was covered in white fur. He also had a large tail that was covered in red fur, and tipped with white fur. Beside him was Jessica, she was covered in blue scales from her now lizard like head to her clawed feet in blue scales, and covering her chest to the underside of her extremely large tail was very small white scales that looked smooth to the touch. I looked at my reflection in the mirror beside me; I had the same scaled pattern as Jessica. I also had a very long tail that even though I was standing up, its tip was dragging on the floor. My face had also changed into a reptilian extended face. Lastly there was Charlie, Jessica was leaning against him crying as he stroked her head with his paw like hand. He was covered in shaggy grey fur and he had a wolf like head, snout ears and all. Although we all looked like animals, we were the same size as we had been earlier and we could still walk on two legs. Unfortunately all of our clothes were gone, they were nothing but shreds of cloth on the floor.

"What is this," asked Jessica through sobs, "some kind of nightmare?"

"I only wish it was," I said. She then switched positions and laid across Charlie's paws and rest her head on his tail, then brought her own tail to her head and rested her head on that as well.

"Look guys, I'm really sorry about this, I didn't know the candy could do this."

"Its not your fault," said Charlie, "no one could have known this would happen."

I walked over to where Charlie and Jessica were lying, and tried to forget about the fact that they we were all naked.

"Thanks," I said, "and Jessica, I am still really sorry about what I did."

She then sat up and hugged me saying, "I forgive you, and no one can be blamed except that store." She then returned to her previous position and cried some more.

"Well this party is officially crashed," said Brian. "I think we should all get some sleep, we will need it to find out what we are going to do tomorrow." That being said, he retreated to the spare bedroom.

"I will sleep down here tonight on the couch," I said, "you two can have the bedroom up stairs."

"Thank you Sam," said Jessica.

"No problem," I said.

The two of them then started to climb the stars slowly, making sure not to trip with their new feet. I stood up and walked to the couch. I sat down and immediately stood up, seeing that sitting on my tail was extremely uncomfortable. Instead I draped my tail beside me on the couch. That was another failed attempt at being comfortable, as my tail wouldn't stop twitching every time it touched the cold leather of the back of the couch. So I turned over and lay they're facing the back of the couch, and moved my tail so it was draped over myself. Before my mind drifted into sleep, I tried to remember the name of the store, but all I got was the last word in the name, which didn't help me at all. Something House, what could that first word be?