Marco felt relieved in a way, now that the annoying little kid was gone. Luckily for him Mr. Mendes and Ric were gone out of town for two days on a trip to a science fair for Ric’s school.
Marco had picked up the phone and ordered Chinese food from a local restaurant. He then walked just two blocks down the street and picked up his dinner, which was waiting for him at the take-out counter at the restaurant. Marco paid and took his food, which was packed in a Styrofoam box, and walked back home with.
Once he ate his teriyaki chicken dinner, he grabbed the plastic bag which contained a fortune cookie. He ripped the plastic open and pulled the cookie out. He broke the cookie and two, and saw a small, narrow piece of paper come out. A chill went through his body when he read the message on the paper:
“Don’t cause unnecessary harm to others for your evil deeds may come back to haunt you…”
At that moment a violent wind began to blow outside. The sky turned gray as thick, dark clouds began to block the sun’s rays. The wind blew one of the windows shut, causing Marco to startle. He then stood up and closed all the windows and doors that were open in the house. Then Marco walked over to the kitchen, where he saw the first rain drops coming down.
There were a few rumbles in the sky as thunder and lightning began to strike from the air. Marco continued to watch the storm as he looked out over the back yard of the house, overlooking the spot where Josh was transformed into rat turd, which he buried there after pissing on it.
For just a brief moment, Marco had realized what he had done. What’s going to happen after Francisco and Ric come back? How is he going to explain what he had done to Josh? Will he be arrested and tried for murder? What’s going to happen when people realize that Josh was missing? Won’t the school principal wonder what may have happened to the twelve year-old boy? Will Marco be sent to jail? Will Marco face the death penalty? How will Marco be able to explain that he strangled the boy to death and then used the magical book to transform the boy’s corpse into rat turd? All these thoughts began to fill his mind, and he became very scared. He realized that he would need to face the consequences of his actions, and he became very nervous, even to the point of tears.
He walked over to the table and grabbed hold of the old book. He wondered if there was any way to bring the boy back again. He flipped through it and he didn’t find anything, except for one page witch had seven paragraphs of warnings and consequences listed. But he skipped over them and he just read the last paragraph, which was in red letters. It indicated that a recently deceased person could be brought back from the dead, but that it could only happen through the magical powers of the book.
Marco became very happy when he read that and he immediately decided to try out the spell.
But Marco neglected to read the other six paragraphs, which explained that the magical transformation powers would manifest themselves into the person who is resurrected, and that this person would possess them forever. There would be dire consequences for the person who was reading this spell if the resurrected person was at odds with him and that using this spell would have unpredictable results.
Marco became so concerned about what would happen to him that he forgot to read the warnings. He just wanted to bring Joshua back, no matter what the cost. All he cared about was himself and his own well being. He really didn’t care about Josh at all, but he also didn’t want to face the consequences for his rash behavior and his actions. He strangled the boy, but he didn’t want to pay the price for his actions. He couldn’t handle the thought of going to jail and facing a murder trial, so he decided to do whatever it takes to bring the boy back to life just so that he wouldn’t get arrested for murder.
He opened the back door and stood under the roof of the back porch, looking out over the large, fenced back yard behind Francisco’s house. He read the spell out loud while holding the book in his hands, and then he slammed the book shut. The rain kept coming down as flashes of lightning were followed by claps of thunder. But nothing unusual happened, and Marco became worried. He slowly walked into the living room and set the book down. He grabbed the newspaper as he sat down on the couch.
Suddenly, he heard a loud thunder. Immediately following that, all the lights went out in the house. He got up and walked over to the back porch, since it was now too dark to read the newspaper. As he looked out over the back yard, he was suddenly shocked when a flash of lightning struck his back yard, exactly at the location where Josh was buried!
Before he could do anything, he heard a weird humming sound come from his dark living room. When he turned around, he noticed the Book of Transformations. The cover of the book appeared to have some mysterious, blue glow to it, which became more intense as the humming sound increased.
Marco became scared when he saw the glow come from the book. He carefully walked towards the kitchen, while trying to stay away from the book as much as possible.
“What… what’s g… ggg… going on here? What is this?” he said out loud, as he became very, very frightened of the book.
Flashes of light, which seemed like electrical sparks, came flying out of the book, as the blue glow became more intense. Marco’s jaw dropped wide open, as he carefully backed up against the front door. Things were getting too weird for him, and he now just wanted to get out of the house. But when he opened the front door, he was confronted with a short figure of an adolescent boy!
“Joshua?” Marco said in complete disbelief, as the boy slowly walked in to the house.
Marco slowly backed off for he couldn’t see the boy’s face in the dark. But the bright, light blue glow from the book was growing even more intense, and at the moment when Josh was standing within arm’s length of where the book was, a bright, thick, beam of blue light emitted from the book and struck the boy’s body.
Marco could now clearly see that it was Josh. He was only wearing his shorts and his sandals. He looked the same, except for his eyes. His green eyes were now bright blue! His entire body began to glow, as the light from the book continue to strike Josh in the chest. Within seconds, the blue glow diminished, leaving Marco and Josh facing each other.
“You strangled me and turned my dead corpse into rat turd? And to top it off, you pissed on me too? What have I done to you to deserve this, Marco?” Josh said, as he calmly walked towards Marco.
“Listen Josh… it was a mistake… I was so angry at you for using that stupid book on me…” Marco began to say to him. But Marco felt really scared for there was something weird about Josh. He was still the same twelve year-old Hispanic boy, but he seemed different. He was very confident, strong, and powerful. Marco felt scared of Josh, and he slowly stepped back every time Josh came closer to him.
“Don’t worry, Marco. I’m not going to use the book on you anymore…” Josh whispered to him.
Marco let out a sigh of relief, and he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his right hand.
“I don’t need the book, because from now on I got the power…” Josh said, as he showed an evil grin on his face.
“Power? What… What kind of power?” Marco wondered out loud, still feeling very uneasy about seeing a dead boy standing before him in his living room.
“I got the power to make you SHRINK!” Josh shouted at him, while still showing the evil grin.
Immediately Marco began to dwindle in size, as he felt his clothes get bigger on him while Josh appeared to be growing taller right before him.
“No… oh no… NOOO! Josh! PLEASE! I didn’t mean it!!!” Marco began to plea to the boy, who has somehow gained the power to transform Marco even without looking at the book.
“I have the power to make you AGE!” Josh shouted next.
Marco started to grow back to his original height, but now he suddenly began to feel something different. He began to age rapidly. Even though Marco was still in his twenties, he suddenly grew older. He gained even more hair, and his face showed signs of maturity since his chin stuck out a little more while his eye brows grew thicker. He looked like a man of thirty, but he was still aging rapidly.
Within seconds, he grew a mustache and a beard! Moments later, his brown hair began to show strands of gray, as he now resembled a middle aged man. Seconds passed and Marco was now all gray, and wrinkles began to form on his face. His hands, arms and legs now began to show the signs of a man in his sixties, with wrinkles showing up everywhere.
“No… Josh… NOOOO! Stop this! PLEASE STOP!” Marco pleaded, while looking down at the young boy.
“Alright then, Marco. I also got the power to make you GROW YOUNGER!” Josh said out loud, with his bright blue eyes lighting up like fire.
The aging process then went into reverse, as the old man began to grow younger, gaining back those years that the twelve year-old boy had just taken away from him with such little effort. As power came from the boy’s eyes and struck Marco, Marco slowly regressed back to his real age. The gray hairs turned brown and the mustache and eyebrows became thin again. His face was that of a young man once again, and for a brief moment Marco was glad to have his life back.
But the aging process continued to go in the reverse direction, as Joshua continued to wield his mighty powers over his mentor’s adult boyfriend. Josh was obviously enjoying the fact that he could just say the command and he could change anything about anyone.
Within seconds, Marco began to shrink rapidly as he passed from his mid twenties to his teens. Marco lost all his hair on his chest, his legs and his arms, and his skin was now smooth and soft. He dwindled down to 5 feet tall and continued to shrink, as his body became younger and younger.
“I’m a LITTLE KID!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? STOP IT, JOSH!! STOP… STOOOOPPPPP….. STOOOHHHH WHAAAAA WHHAAAAAA” Marco shouted, as he passed the 5 year-old mark and shrunk rapidly into a toddler. While still regressing in age, he lost his ability to talk as his pleads turned to cries. And Josh could just look down with satisfaction, for he now welded the power to do whatever he wanted.
Josh bent down and pulled the oversized clothes off of the little, helpless baby that lay crying on the floor. He smiles at him, for this is what Marco had now become to him. Helpless. Completely helpless.
At the same time Josh felt strong, powerful, in control. He could do to Marco or anyone else whatever he wanted and he could control them and read their minds. He could make them do whatever he wanted, and he could change them any way he desired.
Josh quickly became tired of hearing the little baby cry, and decided to try one more thing before changing Marco back into his old self again.
“Guess what else I can do to you, Marco? I can TURN YOU INTO A RACCOON!” Josh laughed out loud.
Immediately the helpless, little baby on the floor began to change, as a layer of brown fur began to cover his skin all over, as his body began to shrink even further. The baby stopped crying at the point where it lost the ability to do so, as it now realized it wasn’t a human anymore, but a raccoon!
A brown, furry tail with wide bands of black rings of hair began to grow from the end of his spine, as he was now completely covered with a black, furry coat. His arms and legs became short, like that of a small raccoon. The brown coat of fur became thicker and denser, as the baby began to sit up on his short feet. His face was changing as well, as his eyes became narrower while his mouth and nose stretched out to form a muzzle. A small, black nose now stuck out on top of the muzzle, with his small mouth beneath it. A mask of fur now slowly covered his face completely, and whiskers began to stick out from both sides of his muzzle just beneath the nose.
Within moments, Marco had transformed into a small, baby raccoon.
“Now I can change you into a pet raccoon whenever I want!” Josh said, as he squatted down on the floor. He took a moment to pet the little raccoon, and he commanded it to run into his bedroom.
The raccoon hopped into the bedroom and looked around, wondering why it was even there. Then Josh walked in, removing the sandals from his feet and setting them in the corner.
“So tell me now, Marco. How do you feel now that you’re a raccoon?” Josh said, with a chuckle.
The raccoon just stared at him and let out a few squeaks.
“I will allow you to think and speak just like the old Marco!” Josh commanded.
“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?? CHANGE ME BACK, JOSH!!” Marco pleaded, as his childlike voice came out of the raccoon’s mouth.
“I will change you back, Marco. But first, I want you to know that I will be watching you! I’ll leave you alone, as long as you don’t bother me or my brother. But when you say or do something that can hurt us, I will remind you of my power and I will change you into anything I want to!” Josh carefully explained to the talking raccoon.
“WHAT?? ARE YOU CRAZY?” he shouted back at Josh.
“Fine, I guess I’ll have to make you stay as a raccoon for awhile… Too bad!” Josh said calmly, as he slowly got back up on his feet and turned around, walking out of his room.
“NO!! NOOOOO!! JOSH!! PLEASE CHANGE ME BACK!! I’M SORRY!!” the little raccoon began to cry out loud.
Josh took pity on his helpless adult friend who was now a baby raccoon, and he turned around to face the little animal, which was still standing in the middle of his bedroom.
“Alright, Marco. Quit your crying… I want you to grow back to your old self again.” Josh said, as he took a deep breath.
Josh then pointed his right finger at Marco. As power left Josh’s finger, it struck the raccoon, causing it to have a bright, light blue glow around it. The raccoon then began to grow bigger while the furry coat began to disappear. Human skin began to form once more, as the tail shrunk back, his arms and legs grew longer, while the feel now began to resemble human feet again. His muzzle retracted back into his face as the raccoon’s nose grew back into a human one. His eyes grew as they shifted, and the raccoon ears disappeared while human ears formed on the sides of his head. Human hair began to form over his head and chest once again, as Marco continued to grow bigger and taller. It wasn’t long until Marco was standing in the bedroom, completely naked.
“I want you to wear your clothes” Josh said in a quiet tone of voice. Immediately Marco’s clothes disappeared from the living room floor, and reappeared on Marco’s body, as if he had never removed them at all.
Even though Marco was now once again the young adult male in his mid twenties, he felt scared of what Josh had become. The magical Book of Transformations has duplicated itself in the form of Joshua Spencer, the twelve year-old boy who now had the power to transform others, and he would have this power for the rest of his life.
As he looked down at Josh with those big, blue eyes, Marco could only feel one thing. He was completely helpless against Josh. And Josh knew it, for he now had the power.
Marco vowed never to hurt Josh again. All he wondered about now was how he was going to explain the events of this day to Francisco and Ric when they returned?