"OK! Since you don't believe me, I'm going to have to demonstrate." Lauren said this all sarcastically, but I saw tears welling up in her eyes, smudging her mascara. "All right, let's see it then!" I yelled at her, not believing a word of her horseshit story. I backed up against the wall and folded my arms across my chest, ready to watch her burst into laughter and tell me it was all a prank.
Instead, she sighed, reached her fingers down into the waistband of the waitress uniform she was still wearing from her job, and down towards her vagina. I twisted my face up. This was disgusting and wrong. "You're one sick FUCK if you're going to masturbate right in front of me just for the sake of this batshit prank." I whispered. I started backing towards the door. The curtains to our apartment were open and I saw the night sky and the moon over the buildings of the city. Lauren, meanwhile, had reached her...destination. I could hear her moaning. "You ASKED to see this!" she sobbed. Right as my back hit the door, hands out in front of me, it started to happen.
Her moan got deeper and more guttural. I looked at her head, and it seemed to swell in size. Her mouth and nose pushed out into a muzzle and thick black fur grew all over her head, her hair turning jet black and slicking down. Her ears moved to the top of her head and became rounded. Her eyes slowly intensified from brown to lime green. "What the fuck....Lauren, what..." I stuttered. She opened her muzzle, teeth growing sharp and pointing out as she tried to speak, but a loud roaring came out. I saw her feet ripping her shoes apart, pants ripping in the back as her body started shifting towards a quadrupedal position. Her hands shortened and thickened, becoming large paws.
That did it for me. I yelled in terror, turned around, flung the door open, and slammed it. Panting and breathing heavily, I backed up against the wall facing our apartment door just as a huge weight hit it. I heard a roar and a scratching sound at the door. Gulping, I turned tail and ran down the apartment building hallway. I flung open the stairwell door and ran all twelve flights down, keys jangling in my pockets all \the way down. I reached the lobby door, flung it open, and ran across the deserted front hall (it was 10:00 PM, after all), and out into the cool night air. Caleb, our doorman/night watchman, wasn't there, so I didn't have to stop and tell him where I was going.
I don't know how long or how far I ran. I ran down block after block, the apartments, stores, and skyscrapers rising up in the starry sky above me like monoliths. I was sobbing the whole way. Late-night joggers and druggies started at me as I ran past to get as far away as possible from the...thing I had just seen. I almost got ran over by a cab and ran into at least five people. I didn't even bother to look back, no matter how many curse words the guy yelled at me. I ran through a small parade, across a bridge, up a hill, through a neighborhood, and up a long flight of steps. Some time later, I happened to run through the gates of a deserted, misty park. It was still dark out, but the eastern sky was flickering every now and then with bursts of yellow and orange light.
The park was dark and misty. I ran down a paved path around a pond surrounded by trees. I suddenly felt very tired and saw a bench with a lamppost next to it. I collapsed on that and sat there, panting, for about twenty minutes, looking at the mist swirl and dance around the dark mirrored surface of the pond. The frogs croaked and the crickets chirped along with the occasional honking of a far away car. It was peaceful. Soon after that, the first signs of life began to stir in the park. A few joggers ran past me, and birds started chirping in the early morning light. The sky was starting to light up, and the buildings overlooking the park I could see from the bench got hit with the first few rays of sunlight of the day.
I was about to get up and go back home when I heard a voice behind me.