A soft sunlight simmers through the dew-soaked trees. You open your eyes. Are you... on the ground? You raise up and look around. You're definitely in that big park just beside your quiet residential neighborhood here in the north part of town. You can feel damp leaves and dirt on your bare ass.
Shit! You're naked!
"Well, it looks like the nudity was real," you say to yourself, checking to make sure no one is around. It's still the early morning, so there shouldn't be too many people out here yet. If you can just make it back to where you think you were when this all started...
You carefully sneak through the trees, managing to avoid the main walking trails, and staying just out of sight from a few early morning joggers. You finally make it back to the slightly secluded spot where you first started freaking out. Surely all your stuff is still there...
Damn! You really did rip your clothes. You breathe a sigh of relief, though, when you see that your phone is still there. It's dirty, but it still has almost a full battery. It's a good thing you didn't cheap out. You manage to sneak into the public restroom, knowing there is one person you can always call.
"Hey, Bethany?" you say seriously after the two of you exchange greetings. "Could you get an outfit together and bring it to the restroom at Recreation Area #2, right down here at Pendleton Park?" You lend each other clothes all the time, so you know it's not going to be a problem.
"Sure, I'll bring that adorable black skirt and the peach blouse. They're yours anyway. Is... is everything okay?" You've been best friends since school, and she can tell from the sound of your voice that something isn't quite right.
"Something happened, and I'm fine now, but... well, it's kind of embarrassing, and I don't want to go into detail over the phone, but... I don't have any clothes."
"Say no more, I'll be there in 15 minutes."
You're thankful to have a friend who knows you well enough to not ask questions. Of course, she's going to want to all the details when she gets here, but you'll figure out some excuse by then. You're definitely not going to admit you spent the whole night spaced out on hard drugs from a seedy vending machine down the street. She don't roll that way, and you don't either, but how were you supposed to know what would happen?
You can still remember some of it. You had three heads, dammit! They kept wanting to chase after things so you could eat them. Your snake tail kept snatching up rodents behind you as you walked. Your goat head munched on leaves out of the lower branches of trees. You even remember killing an urban whitetail and eat its carcass with the lion part of your body. It was insane! And every time one of your heads was eating, the rest were on the lookout ready to scare off fellow predators or alert the rest of you to any danger. You came upon a few drug deals and late-night orgies in the bushes, but those dispersed pretty quickly, and you managed to remind your bestial brains that they were human like you used to be, so your monstrous body let them flee to safety. You have to admit, being such a force to be reckoned with was... exhilarating!
You're still shivering in the stall, reflecting on your psychedelic experience, when you hear the unmistakable clatter of your own high heels on the tile floor. Bethany's voice echoes through the room.
"Hey, Latasha, you okay girlfriend? Are you in here?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, except... well, you know. Did ya bring 'em?"
"Yeah, I'll slide 'em under the door. You wanna tell me what happened?"
No, not really, but Bethany deserves some sort of answer.
"Yeah, I ain't hurt or anything, Bethany, it all turned out alright. Just let me get these on first."
"Sure, anything you need, Tash. You know, when you called I was worried that maybe you got mugged or something, or maybe you even had a run-in with that freakshow out in the woods."
"Freakshow?" you repeat inquisitively.
"Yeah, it went viral on social media last night. The mayor had to put out a statement tellin' people it was probably a hoax and to basically just chill out. Some people was sayin' it had two heads, some people was sayin' it had three. They're callin' it the Pendleton Park Monster. Them nasty ol' crackheads from Fifth Street even said they seen it eat up a whole deer, but you never can go by that. You really ain't heard about all this yet?"
Your pulse quickens as you slide on the skirt.
"Uh ... no, nothing like that, Beth."
"Well, it's another big bunch of drama over nothin' if you ask me. In two weeks this place'll be forgotten again like always."
"Yeah, it sounds pretty crazy," you say, getting ready to come out of the stall. Thoughts of last night are rolling around in your brain, but you don't want to speak them. "My night was just... I did get mugged. That's what happened. They took off with my clothes, but I didn't have much money in there. They didn't see my phone fell out, so I made it over here and called you."
"Oh, Latasha, you must have been so scared. You can call me anytime. Let's get you home and make you breakfast or something."
You make your way out of the restroom with Bethany, trying to put it all out of your mind as some sort of freaky-ass coincidence.