You continue looking at yourself in the mirror as your mind races through options. You try to calm yourself as you think through what to do, but the strange image that peers back keeps renewing your panic again. You can't be seen like this. You don't know what the timetable is before the pencil decides to change you more, but you know you can't just go about your life like this. You need to do something ASAP.
Normally, you'd like to think that you would never consider passing such a curse off on another person, but desperation has opened your mind. It's still early in the evening, people are still out and about, and it's already pretty dark. If you're going to do this, now is your best chance.
The more you consider it, the more you feel yourself giving in against your moral qualms. This is your best option for now. You can try to fix things or figure out the proper course of action once you have some breathing room. You take a deep breath, committing to your decision, and head back for the front door.
On the way, you grab a hoodie and pull it on. After some finagling, you manage to tuck your ears back into the hood and pull the strings tight enough to keep them there. It muffles your hearing slightly and looks a bit unusual, but it's nothing compared to how conspicuous the rabbit ears were.
With the pencil in your pocket, you head out the door and back down the road. You don't want to do this too close to your home, but you don't want to be out any longer than necessary either. You decide to go to a bus stop on a semi-crowded street about fifteen minutes away.
Once you've made your trek, you're relieved to find that the area is still busy without being overly crowded. The buses haven't finished running for the evening, and a small crowd waits around the nearest stop while others make their way up and down the sidewalks. You lean against a near building, trying to blend with those waiting nearby while also providing enough distance to discreetly do what you need to.
You scan around for a decent candidate, and a woman catches your eye. She's pretty attractive, but what's more, she's standing alone a bit away from everyone. She should be out of the middle of anyone's eyesight, especially as those nearest her have their gazes fixed to their cell phones. You wait until she's turned away from you, then you pull out the pencil and get to work.
You quickly settle on an image, imagining her with two rabbit ears poking out of her hair like yours. Without thinking about it, you change the style to be a bit more long and slender than yours, closer to a Halloween costume or cartoon. For some reason, it just felt right in the moment, even though it would make them stand out even more than the ones you were given.
After you've finished your sketch and the detail starts to fill in, you realize that you still aren't done, as she's about to have four ears – one human set and one non. You think back to the way the pencil worked on you, and you focus on drawing again before letting your vision return to normal. With the world eerily flattened in front of your eyes, you flip the pencil around and quickly rub the eraser over the woman's old ears. To your relief, they disappear as you hoped.
Now she looks right. Of course, she'd match better with a tail. You continue focusing and draw a tuft of fur extending out of her clothes from the base of her spine. Though even with that, the whole piece is still a bit off. You could adjust her proportions, or maybe add some fur, or...
Wait. What are you doing?
You hurriedly stuff the pencil back in your pocket before your vision has even had time to stop wavering completely. You're not sure what came over you, but you need to get on your way fast. The woman has already starting feeling her head and is looking around in confusion, but few people seem to have noticed yet. You pretend to check your phone and then start off back around the corner.
“What is this? What- what's going on?!” you hear a female voice begin to shout behind you. You're already well away before any panic starts.
You make it back to your home without issue and try not to appear too visibly rushed as you haste inside. You pull the sweatshirt off, allowing your ears to pop free. You take out the pencil and hurry to the nearest mirror, eager to get back to normal. Once you see your reflection, however, you aren't sure what had you so worried to begin with.
The ears aren't that bad. In fact, they have a certain aesthetic quality to them, fitting you far better than you recall. You remember being panicked by them originally, but maybe that was the shock of it all. Sure, they're different, but do you really want to get rid of them?