Meghan had a weird dream during the night. She tossed and turned, her (tail?) diving between her legs in fright. She was standing on the front porch of Murphy and Eric's frat house. She looked down and saw she was an anthro lioness wearing sweatpants and a blue sports bra. She looked up and saw Eric and Murphy, wearing black suits and mirrored sunglasses, leaning against a large black van parked on the road in front of the house. Five other anthro lions, all of them much more muscular than Eric, were leading a handcuffed Grace, Zoë, Whitney, Lucy, and Julia towards the van. They were all expressionless and somber. One of the lions opened the van door, and the five placed hoods over the five female's heads. Then they were ushered into the van, and the five lions got in with them and closed the door behind them. Then Eric got into the driver's seat, started the car, and drove off down the road. Murphy looked up, saw her on the porch, smiled, and walked up, embracing her as he got there. Then they started making out, tongues lolling in each other's muzzles. Murphy's sunglasses fell off his face and landed on the slats of wood, cracking the lenses, revealing his golden eyes. She felt Murphy start taking off her...
BRING! BRING! BRING!
Meghan sat bolt upright in bed and almost screamed. She slammed her hand down on her alarm clock, shutting it off. She looked down, running her hands all over her body. It was her own, no fur, no claws, no tail, no muzzle, no nothing. Shivering, she got up and examined the floor by the window, where she had stared out at the backyard in her dream(?). No stain was there. Her hands went up, like startled doves, towards her neck, where the lion's tooth necklace still hung. She quickly got out of her pajamas, slipped on some jeans and a yellow jersey, and went downstairs.
Her mom was waiting for her in the kitchen, sitting at the breakfast nook sipping a cup of coffee. "Sit down, young lady." She instructed in a grave voice. Meghan obliged, sitting on the bench across from her mom. "Listen, I'm sorry I yelled at you yesterday. I know, sometimes you just need to take a walk and clear your head. But that does not validate you not answering your phone or at least texting me to tell you where you were. I'm not going to punish you, but I'm going to have to ask you to call me whenever you got off the bu..." her mom's words trailed off when she saw the necklace hanging around Meghan's neck.
"Where'd you get that?" she asked, reaching her hand up and running her fingers over it. "Uh... Julia gave it to me for my birthday. I didn't get around to wearing it until now." Her mom's eyes sparkled as she caressed it. "It's... beautiful. What kind of tooth is it?" she asked. "Uh... lion, I think." Meghan stammered, becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the tone of her mom's voice. She looked down and saw her mom's hands slowly curling around the tooth, as if to rip it off her neck.
Meghan suddenly jumped up. "Oh shit, look at the time. I have to get to school. Bye. Love you. See you tonight." She said quickly, scooping up her backpack and grabbing a cereal bar from the box in the pantry. She rushed out the door just as the bus pulled up. In the kitchen, Whitney looked out the window at the frat house. Dark shapes were moving behind the the blinds, in the middle of the usual morning rituals of brushing your teeth, making your bed, and getting dressed. She realized she had never met her new neighbors. Sipping her coffee, she decided she would bake some cookies and go over to the house with them later.
At school that day, Meghan couldn't concentrate. She kept thinking about her strange dreams(?) last night, her mom's fascination with the necklace, and whatever had happened in the field yesterday afternoon. She was in her English class, staring out the window, when her teacher yelled, "MISS DAVIS!" She screamed audibly and sat bolt upright in her desk. "Since you've been paying so much attention..." Mr. Sharpe snarled, "Can you tell the class why Macbeth sees the dagger in the air before him?" Meghan gulped and said, "I don't know, sir." Shaking his head, Mr. Sharpe returned to his desk. "Kids these days..." he muttered.
School finally let out and Meghan was gathering her things from her locker when Julia walked up to her. "Hey." She said, leaning on the next locker. "Hey." Meghan replied. "Listen, I don't know what that was yesterday, but that was an AWSOME prank. Those guys totally looked like real lions. How much did the suits cost?" Meghan looked over at Julia and saw that she thought that everything yesterday was a total prank. "It creeped me out at first, but it was actually brilliant. How'd you do it? Who were those guys?" Julia took an eager step forward, getting close to Meghan's face. Her stomach dropped and she backed away. "Meg? Is something wrong? What did I say?" Julia said in a concerned tone. Meghan instead turned tail and ran down the hallway towards the buses, leaving Julia standing alone in the hallway, confused and concerned for her friend.
When Meghan got home, the house was quiet. That was strange, cause her Mom was always home on Friday afternoons. "Mom? MOM?" she called. She walked all around the house, into the kitchen, dining room, living room, and all five bedrooms, but there was no sign of her mom. Or Zoë, for that matter. She was about to go out and look for her when she spotted a note lying on the kitchen counter.
Dear Meg,
I baked some cookies to take over to the neighbors. I dropped Zoë off at Ms. Rosewood's house, because I wanted to have a nice long chat with them. I probably won't be home for an hour. See you then!
-Love, Mom. 1:30 PM.
There was one problem. It was 4:00. According to this note, her mom had gone over to Eric and Murphy's house 3 1/2 hours ago. Meghan thought back to all the strange dreams, her transformation(?) and the necklace, which her mom seemed so fascinated by. She began hyperventilating, grabbing her stomach and collapsing on the living room couch. She thought of all the tings that had happened to her since Eric and Murphy had arrived, and couldn't imagine them happening to her mom. Getting up , she walked through the kitchen towards the back door to go confront Eric and Murphy. She was about to open the door when she heard the front door open and close. Gulping, she walked back though the kitchen and saw who had just entered the house.