Everything for Craig seemed to slow down and for a brief moment, he experienced things twice. As he sat in the car, crammed in the front seat with Thomas, Jake, and Ryan, howling with pleasure about why he decided on the particular car he owned, he found himself stumbling out of the house and toward his car, which was now doing closer to thirty-eight as it swerved up on the sidewalk. He could hear himself screaming, "Hey! Look out!" as he agreed with the others it was time for a beer run and then, as he and the others denoted Thomas as the driver, he watched as the front passenger fender clipped someone and they flew off into the darkness.
Things still moved slowly as the car screeched to a halt and he could hear not only Thomas breathing heavily, but also himself doing the same. His hands aching, Craig slowly released his death grip on the dash panel as, next to him, Jake wailed, "Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. We've killed someone. We actually, accidentally, ran someone down. You all saw it. It was an accident. They shouldn't have been in the road," over and over.
Time seemed to revert back to its normal speed and as Craig fumbled for the door level, Ryan screamed, "Shut the fuck up. It's kind of hard to say they ran in the road when we're on the motherfucking sidewalk, you numpty."
Somewhere far away and close by, Craig could hear a door open and as he was blasted in the face with the cold October air, he realised it was both the door he was trying to open and Thomas opening the driver's side. Stumbling out, he jammed his hands in his coat pocket, felt the piece of costume jewellery he'd found earlier and as a way to calm his nerves, he took it and began absently fidgeting with it as he searched the dark. Behind him, he could still hear Jake crying out, mixing his articulates with, "Tell me it's an animal. It was only someone's dog," every so often, which was always answered with, "Shut the fuck, dude," from Ryan, who, like Jake, still hadn't gotten out of the car.
Trying to ignore the two still in the automobile, Craig continued to scan the dark, searching for what they had hit, certain it hadn't been no dog, but that had been a person. The elated sensation he had been feeling about the great season and how great tryouts were going left him with a sensation that was colder then the night air. Watching as Thomas came around the car, he barely heard the other when he asked, "You see anything? Please. Please. Tell me Jake is right and that we actually didn't hit anything. Or, if we did, it was a dumb animal. Or even a mailbox or trash bin."
Before he could answer, from inside the car Ryan screamed, "Holy jumped up fucking shit," and before Craig could figure out was happening, the car, which had been slowly rolling away, can close to running him over as it slipped back onto the road.
Both Thomas and Craig leapt toward the vehicle in an effort to stop it, but, before they could, Ryan slid over into the driver's seat, jammed his foot down on the brake, missed, twisted the wheel, straightened the car out, and, as if he was finally able to think straight, yanked the shifter into neutral and shut the engine off. The two outside breathing a sigh of relief, Craig thumped a fist on the roof, which caused Jake to utter a high squeal of alarm, and looking over at Thomas, he grinned and proclaimed, "Dude. At least it is off the sidewalk," to which his friend merely nodded, turned and stumbled in the direction he believed the thing they had hit had flown.
His moment of levity passed and Craig stepped away from the car. Still fidgeting with the medallion, unaware that he was, he cast a look back at Ryan, who was sitting, pale faced, and staring at nothing in particular, and Jake, who was still gibbering like a moron, then turned away and began looking about the darkness. From a couple feet in front of him, up on someone's lawn, he heard, "Ah, fuck," and moving in the direction of Thomas, he stopped when he saw the crumpled form lying the grass.
Unable to process what was before him, Craig eventually whispered, "Is she dead," as he stared at the shadowy form he soon realised was a girl he thought to be around twelve or thirteen.
"Dude. I don't know," Thomas whimpered from close by.
Mad thoughts began to race through his head, including the notion of fleeing, and staring at the slightly twisted form, he wondered why there wasn't any blood or that the owners of the house hadn't come out yet. Certain the noises from Jake and Ryan should have gotten the attention of whoever lived at the place, Craig tried to figure out what they should do. After a moment, he squatted down and hating the idea of touching a corpse, he braced himself for what he felt he should do. Reaching out, about to touch her neck, he stopped when suddenly Thomas grabbed his arm and hissed out, "Dude. What the fuck are you doing?
Without even giving his friend a look, Craig explained, "Going to see if there is a pulse," in a tone that was so low, Thomas almost didn't hear him. Yanking his arm away, he took a couple more deep breaths, stared down at the crumpled form, thought she might have crawled here after being hit, then, before he could change his mind, he reached down and started to touch her neck.
Unable to find a pulse, he panicked and shifted where he had placed his fingers. The amulet he was holding slipping as he did this, Craig was barely aware of when it made contact with the girl's neck and his fingers as he suddenly pulled his hand back, dropping the necklace as he did, when he felt something like a jolt of static electricity. Next to him, Thomas hissed, "What is it," then added, "Oh god, we killed her," to which Craig found he was unable to answer as a strange sensation he could not explain washed over him.
He knew he was drunk, as he had drunk his fair share of the twenty-four pack his dad had left him and his friends. But now, now he didn't feel the least bit drunk. Instead, he felt clearheaded, among other things that he didn't associate with drunkenness. Confused about this, he tried to ask Thomas about it, but instead doubled over as first a ticklish sensation, then a sharp pain, ripped through his abdomen and groin. Spiking up into his chest and down into his legs, Craig gasped, whilst next to him Thomas took a step backward, stating, "Dude. What's wrong with you. Are you going to hurl. Cause, if you are, I cannot take that," as he did.
Flecks of spittle escaped his mouth as he tried to tell his friend that something was wrong. But, unable to do that, Craig dropped to his knees as he felt like something had grabbed his nuts and dick, and was now pulling both betwixt his legs. The pain growing into a burning sensation, barely aware of Thomas slowly backing away, Craig tried to cry out, but only managed a whimper as his body compressed itself down from a height of six foot one to five feet. Whilst this was happening, his hair darkened slight to a medium brown and began growing from the normal crew-cut shortness he preferred out into something fuller and down a little ways past the midpoint of his back. Struggling to raise a hand, to cry out for help, Craig felt like someone was pressing his nuts up into the area between his legs.
A few steps away, unable to see fully what was happening to his friend, but knowing something was wrong, Thomas stopped and stood, a surprised look on his face. He wanted to call out for Ryan and Jake, to get them over here, but found himself unable to make a sound. Petrified beyond what he thought was possible, Thomas wondered if maybe the sight of the body and the beer had fucked up his friend somehow. Finally able to make himself move, knowing he should get the other two over to where he and Craig were, Thomas took half a step, then stopped when he noticed something looked different about his friend. Staring into the dark, barely able to make out the shadowy form of Craig, it took him a moment before he concluded that his friend's hair looked a lot longer. Then he was struck by the thought, "Good shit. He's all wasted away."
In front of him, down on his hands and knees, Craig wished whatever was happening to him would end as he felt an itching, sensitive sensation wash over his chest. The wish starting to circle and repeat continuously inside his mind, he gasped as the compressing feeling returned, unaware it was due to his weight dropping suddenly from two hundred and one down to ninety eight pounds, whilst his nuts, which had been drawn up inside his body, morphed into a pair of ovaries. Exterior female genitalia and internal reproductive organs forming as his neo-ovaries shifted to the ends of what was becoming Fallopian tubes, Craig again gasped, a noise that sounded closer to a cry of pleasure, as his body was given its first heavy dose of female hormones over male hormones. Reproductive organs going to work as his chest pushed out into a double A cup then a single A cup, Craig's transformation ended slowly with the burning sensation receding back into the pain he had felt before to finally a discomfort in his abdomen and groin as his body began its menstruation cycle.
Still unable to get up, Craig remained where he was, spitting every so often, wondering why there was something long obscuring his vision every so often. As his thoughts drifted to the moist sensation in his underwear, and he thought, "Crap. I think I peed myself," he had no clue that during his own transformation another change had been taking place about two feet to his left.
Finally able to push himself up into at least a kneeling position, thinking as he did that his clothes felt weird, "Like they are suddenly too big, and uncomfortable against my skin," he thought, Craig gazed at Thomas, who was peering back at Craig. And as the transformation next to him finished, Thomas exclaimed, "What the fuck?!" as Craig demanded, "What the fuck are you staring at?" then promptly slapped a now small, dainty hand over his mouth the instant he heard his voice.
The two staring at each other for a moment longer, it was finally Craig who broke the silence by stating, "Why the fuck do I sound like a girl?" to which all Thomas could whisper in response was, "Dude. You're a girl," at which both stared at each a minute longer, then looked in the direction of the girl's body and received another start as they finally witnessed what had happened to her.