Joy's eyes darted between the card on the floor and Julie's outstretched hand. The tiger-woman mewled, surprising the both of them how animal-like she sounded.
Julie squinted to look at the card, but the distant words were upside-down. Too difficult to reorient the words in her head. The pounding of baser instincts against her skull didn't help. "Whatever you're reading, don't believe it. Those cards are lies. Believing them makes them come true."
Joy didn't seem to hear all of what she said. Her eyes were fixed on Julie's hand. "Take it," Julie insisted a little more angrily than she meant it.
"I... I don't want you to cut me."
Oh. This wasn't good. Julie breathed in slowly. "I won't. Look at my fingers. I cut my nails the other day, with you. Remember? I have normal human fingernails. Tell me you can see that."
She nodded. "I can, but... what if they grow in when I touch you? What if you cut me on accident?"
"I won't. My nails won't grow as long as you don't believe it."
Joy swallowed hard and finally looked up at Julie's face. Her eyes locked with her sister for a second, then drifted downward, seemingly searching for something.
"Belief!" Lupo exclaimed to the crowd. Julie looked up and grimaced. There must have been over twenty people watching now. Probably patrons from next door wondering what all the commotion was about. "Belief is the most important tool in a magician's arsenal." He began pacing the stage, drawing all eyes to him. Including Joy's.
"Because what good is magic if you don't believe in it? If you think all the tricks are fake, why come to the show? And even if the tricks ARE fake..." He turned back to the sisters toward the back of the stage. "...if you can't figure out how they're done, they might as well be real." Lupo thrust his ratty-sleeved arm toward Julie. "Do you see a tiger woman on the stage?"
The crowd shouted a mix of different affirmations and claps.
"Does she look like a real tiger woman to you?"
There were a few solid claps. Julie took Joy's head in her hands to turn her away from Lupo and toward her. The girl jumped a little in surprise at the touch, but allowed it. "Joy, please. Listen. Believe in me. Believe that I'm your twin sister and I look and act just like I used to before we came in here."
Lupo continued unabated. "Look at how the fur shines in the spotlight. Look at that tail move." Joy's eyes wandered to each feature as he listed them. "I bet she's even hiding a set of retractable claws inside her fingers and fangs under those dark lips." Joy gulped again. "What's easier to believe? Is this an elaborate costume, or has Julie become a real tiger woman?"
The excited roar of the crowd battered Julie's ears. She felt every inch of her body resisting...something. There was a force she couldn't quite name pressing on her fur, her scalp and her tailbase. It reminded her of when Joy's belief in Julie's stripes made their follicles root in her skin. There was another, different kind of sensation in her mouth and fingertips. "Joy... please...," she said through flat teeth.
Joy was hard to hear over the din, but Julie somehow managed by concentrating on her sister's lips. "What if...," Joy murmured. "What if you're the one imagining you aren't changing? I saw all the changes before you did. Everyone saw them. What if you're in denial?"
"Then you need to be in denial too, or you're going to lose me forever!" Julie said desperately.
Joy winced. "Julie, y-you're hurting me."
Julie realized she was still clutching Joy's head. Her hands were pressing so hard against her skull her wrists were shaking. She pulled them away. Still no claws, thankfully. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! Joy, please, we've got to run. Lupo's hypnotizing us somehow, and it's making the changes real."
Joy gripped her own head, her face contorting. "The changes ARE real!" she shouted. The crowd went silent. Lupo turned to Joy in genuine shock. Julie's heart skipped a beat. That force around her got stronger.
"No...," Julie whispered.
"I can't imagine what it's like for you to change like this, but you can't keep denying it! I know it's hard to believe. It should be impossible! But from when the lights flicked back on and I saw those stripes, I KNEW it was all really happening." Tears streaked down her face. "I thought this ass was a hack, but his magic is real. It's fucking real and now my sister has fur and a tail and fangs and claws and... and... you can MEOW for Christ's sake! I heard it! You look and sound and act like a tiger! You ARE a tiger!"
"No... Joy, noowwrrr..." Julie fumbled the syllables breathlessly. She couldn't tell if it was her own sense of defeat or the shifting of something deep in her throat that caused it. Either way, she definitely sounded like the animal Lupo intended her to be. Her gums went sore as her fingernails itched.
The pressure surrounding her broke through. It flooded her very being. Julie cried out in pain, even though it hurt very little. The onlookers heard something less sympathetic. Less human. Her fingers flared and curled repeatedly as her nails grew, sharpened, and twisted vertically to become fierce claws. In her open mouth everyone could see her new fangs.
A few audience members leaped out of their chairs and ran for the exit. Joy stood transfixed, face awash in awe and terror.
The force that had invaded her body swept through all of her tiger features one by one, setting them in. Making them "right." Julie wasn't sure exactly what that meant, at first. But very quickly, as the shifting finally settled down and the storm battering her mind calmed, it became clear.