Of course, there wasn't any reason to publicly advertise Dan's identity. Her weirdo brother could get the experience he wanted in the tank at the restaurant with none the wiser, if he could get himself fully transformed in time. She was torn, but finally decided they should not go through with it. She stepped back and pulled open the door...
When Kat stepped into his room, she towered over him like some fairytale giantess. It had happened! He was full-on lobster-boy now. The rapid reduction in his mass had left him disoriented and dizzy, and his eyestalks wobbled as they focused on Kat's looming shape. He tried to scuttle across the floor, but he felt like he was being smothered in thick blankets. He popped from beneath his heavy, slightly dampened clothing, but he continued to experience a suffocating breathlessness.
Kat watched, mesmerized despite herself, at the frantically thrashing lobster on the floor. "Dan, my silly sibling," she said, reaching down to grasp the crustacean's crusty carapace. She winced as a still struggling Dan flicked some droplets of moisture on her arms. "Do calm down," she said. "If I'd known you were going to speed things along..."
She paused and did a simple conjuring spell to produce a modest 35-gallon aquarium already provided with the requisite cool seawater. An instant later, Dan felt much better as water cooled his gills and he sank to the bottom of the spacious and otherwise unoccupied tank. He scuttled excitedly from one side of the tank to the other before he used his dark eyestalks to stare through the distortion of the glass pane at Kat...
Who scared him silly with a sudden, "How do you like it?"
Only the words were not spoken. They popped into his brain.
"How are you doing that?"
Kat sighed. "I am a witch, remember?"
"Oh, right." Dan chuckled and clacked his claws against each other. "This is fantastic! And you look huge!"
"Well, pace yourself," Kat said.
"Are you kidding? I can hardly wait for your party. I am going to really like being on display..."
From Kat's perspective, her brother's black eyestalks lacked any expression as they swiveled and followed her every move outside the tank, but from what she could sense of Dan's bubbling emotions, for a lobster he was downright giddy.
"That's enough...I don't want all the details, way too much information," Kat insisted.
Dan scuttled wildly, enjoying the feelings of moving about the tank of eight thin, spiky walking legs.
"Perhaps we should pop over to the restaurant now," Kat communicated suddenly, intruding into the her little lobster brother's happy thoughts.
Dan, always ready to suspect the worst, thought a single word at her. "Why?"
"I'm just thinking we present mom and dad, especially mom, with a fait accompli," Kat said. "You know how they like to micro-manage."
That much made sense to Dan. "I guess you're..."
Suddenly, he and Kat vanished in a burst of light, only to emerge in an empty dining room at the restaurant that had been booked for the big event. With a furtive glance, Kat, her brother in hand, opened the lid on the eatery's lobster tank and dropped him inside with the other lobsters.
It happened so quickly Dan felt shocked, especially when he came eyestalks to eyestalks with his own kind. It was better than any mirror as he stared at another alien-looking, armor-plated lobster that looked identical to him except in one respect.
Kat noticed the discrepancy at almost the same time. "Oh, we should have banded your claws so you can truly blend in," she said.
Dan waved his antennae as he scuttled to the front of the tank. "I think I am fine like this," he said, now feeling a little nervous about how deep he had gotten into his rather outlandish fantasy.
"Nonsense," Kat said and went off to find a restaurant employee to notify them of the unbanded lobster. As she returned, with a hapless male employee in tow, she remarked, "I didn't want it to frighten or hurt the other lobsters," Kat said.
Dan, not fooled by Kat's display of concern, objected. "That's a load of..."
He got interrupted by the vise-like squeeze from a pair of metal tongs tearing into the middle of his hard shell. The employee carried the dripping lobster into the kitchen and dropped him on a gleaming metal table. The stainless steel surface felt weird beneath Dan's eight thin legs. Kat must have picked wisely, because the employee proved quite talented at his work, pinning the stranded crustacean onto the table long enough to slide some thick rubber bands around each of Dan's claws, tightening the blue restraints before again snatching him with the tongs and carrying him back to the tank.
The whole time, Dan felt a rush of icy excitement as the way the employee manhandled him in such a powerful, humiliating manner. When he landed with a whoosh back in the chilled water of the tank, he could only stagger and sway on his thin, spiky legs. He bumped into a fellow lobster and felt bewildered enough to try to mutter an "excuse me" to the other bound crustacean. He couldn't talk, or even make any sort of sound, which only fed the delicious thrill of being treated like a lesser life-form by someone without a clue to his real identity.
Kat did a mental finger snap to gain his attention. "There's one other reason I want us to go incognito, at least for now, about your identity, brother dear."
"What's that?" Dan asked, still feeling woozy from the process of having his claws bound and restrained by the tight blue bands.
"Bethicia Irons," Kat said, unable to disguise her venomous resentment.
"The cheerleader?"
Of course, Kat thought, that would all Dan would have noticed about Bethicia. "And a witch, too," Kat warned him.
Dan cringed inside his inflexible shell. "Umm, is she a good witch or, you know, a...ummm... a bad witch?"
Kat chuckled. "Well, compared to me?"
"How about just in general? You're the one who felt the need to warn me about her."
"Point," Kat conceded. "Let's just say that even if you were your old self, you would want to steer clear of Bethicia."
Dan let a little flare of sexual interest escape his control. "Why am I not surprised?" Kat said dryly. "I'll grant you, she has looks, but there's a reason she doesn't keep boyfriends for long."
"What does she do...ummm...with them?"
"Never you mind," Kat decided she didn't want to risk fueling any more disturbing fantasies Dan might surprise her with. "You just do your best to act like a perfect little lobster. We'll both enjoy our evenings, and then it's back to the hum-drum of everyday life."
"All right," Dan relented.
"Now, I have to go home and get ready for this evening."
"Wait!" Dan felt a sudden spike of panic. "You're just leaving me here?"
Kat smiled wickedly, even though she guessed that was part of what Dan wanted from her. "You said you wanted to be put on display," Kat said. "Knock yourself out."
Before Dan could think another word, Kat ended their connection and transported herself back home. From inside the tank, Dan studied with his black eyestalks the poor waiter who saw Kat vanish. The guy looked like he doubted his sanity.
Dan chuckled. "If only he knew," the new lobster thought to himself.