Trudging along the roadside, trying to forget your encounter with the witch, you try to keep your mind focused on making it to the gas station where you might be able to use a phone and get some help with your car. It’s a very uncomfortable walk, though, since your stomach still aches and gurgles, and now an odd swelling feeling is affecting your ears. You reach up to rub them and feel nothing out of the ordinary at first, so you just keep walking and try to ignore it.
Cars keep passing by, and you continue to pass tree after tree as well as the occasional rural house. You recognize a familiar farm and gain some encouragement. “About one mile to go,” you remind yourself. Your ears are very sore now, and very sensitive. It’s as though every passing car is ten times louder. “Just stay focused on the gas station,” you tell yourself. You can just buy some pain-killers while you’re there and focus on how your going to get home.
By the time the gas station appears at the bottom of the hill, things are really starting to get weird. Your nausea and abdominal pain have faded gradually into a kind of butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling, but your ears feel extremely swollen, and your getting some wobbly, twitchy feelings up there that just don’t make sense. You finally reach up to feel one again and are surprised to feel something long and fuzzy sticking out of your scalp. Confused and increasingly concerned, you duck into the crummy old outside bathroom and gasp at your reflection in the mirror. You find yourself staring at a long, furry pair of ...