"Goodnight, see you next time!" Said Emily, starting to close the door.
"Now hold on there." Rebuffed Michael, gently blocking the door with his hand. He looked down at Emily and smiled.
"It's been a great day so far, why not make it a great night?"
"Oh no, oh Christ..." Thought Emily. Was Michael a sexually abusive asshole like all of the men she'd been with before? No, there's no way her luck was that bad. He was being assertive is all. Nothing wrong with that. All she had to do was...
"Sorry but no. I'm busy tonight." She looked up at him and smiled confidently.
"Busy? Can I help?" Michael chuckled and forced himself inside, shutting and locking the door behind him.
"Oh shit oh shit oh shit... this can't be happening..." Emily thought, beginning to panic. She took several steps back. She picked up her purse and made a big show of reaching into it.
"Back off, get out of my house, and never speak to me again. This is your final warning." Emily recited out of her self defense preparations.
Michael looked at her, looked down at her purse and then laughed.
"I checked your purse earlier today. No gun, no taser, no pepperspray. You've got nothing to defend yourself with. Cut the bluff, missy!" Michael said as he slowly walked towards her.
"I'm warning you!" Emily shouted, gritting her teeth and grabbing something in the purse.
"Quiet, bitch!" Michael said, reaching down and covering her mouth.
'Bitch', ironically, was the last word Michael would ever say.
Emily dramatically pulled a cute, purple and pink dog collar out of her purse. Before Michael could react, it was already being tightened around his neck. He removed his hands from Emily as he gagged on it and attempted to get it off. But within seconds, Michael was dizzy and getting dizzier. He fell on his ass and started writhing in pain.
Once Emily had finished recovering for air, she watched as Michael twisted and contorted on her floor. She sat down on her living room recliner and turned it to face him. She found herself surprisingly enjoying the spectacle.
"Hmm... I would ask you if you were doing okay, but I know you aren't." She chuckled. Emily surprised herself; she actually quite enjoyed taunting him like that! She decided to keep it going. She sat back and crossed her legs.
"Well, Mr. Mason, I'm sorry to say that the two of us just aren't working out. But I'd hate to break up with you without a parting gift. I hope you're enjoying the collar."
Michael tried to yell at her, but found only nonverbal wails coming out. His vocal chords were clogged or dysfunctioning in some way. Then his clothes began to fall apart, and then they completely disintegrated.
"Wow! You've really got an impressive body. It's a shame, I'd have really enjoyed fucking you if you cared about consent. Why are all the hot guys such assholes?" Emily sighed.
Michael's bones began to move around. His skin changed in color and texture. He watched in horror as his own penis retracted inside of him and split open. His own view of his groin was then interrupted by a sprouting in his chest.
"Ha ha ha, I think you look a lot better with a pair of tits. Oh, and here comes another pair! ...aaaand another pair!" Emily laughed. "This is too much. I hate to miss the growth of your fourth pair of nipples, but I simply MUST get a drink." Emily got up for the kitchen.
By the time she returned with her tall, cold beer, Michael looked very different. His hands and feet were webbed. His arms and legs were reshaping. He had grown all around much smaller, and his skin had sprouted a thin coat of fur. Emily sat back with her legs crossed. She spent the next few minutes enjoying the spectacle, chugging her drink, and verbally assaulting Michael.
"I'm glad to see you getting what you deserve. You never liked women, you just wanted to use them. Typical man. Well, I guess we can't call you a man anymore, now can we?" Emily chuckled.
"Are you enjoying your present? It's a special little thing I got at a little store in town. 'The Magic Shop' was selling this cute little dog collar that would turn anyone who wore it into a female dog! I thought that would be the perfect self-defense weapon. Oh what, you thought you were the first guy who had the bright idea to force himself on me?" Emily burst out laughing.
"Not by a long shot. My stepdad touched me for years. I'M the one who got in trouble when I finally told people. An ex of mine raped me when I broke up with him. He ALSO was not arrested, for lack of evidence. Assholes like you are so confident because you know you'll get away with it, huh? Well not this time. Heheh."
At last, Michael had been fully transformed into a medium-sized female dog.
"Aww, look at you, look at you! Good girl!" Emily said, petting Michael as she lay exhausted on the floor. "I think I'll call you... Nilla! Hope you enjoy your time as a dog, Nilla."
Nilla was regaining her energy and returning to her feet. She looked up at Emily, trembling in fear.
"You know, it's amazing the collar turned you into an Appenzeller Sennenhund. Because, well..." Emily chuckled.
"...that's the exact breed of the dog I have!" She smiled, guiding Nilla to the back door. She opened the door and let in a very, very excited hound of her own.
"This is Cookie! Say hi to him, won't you?" Emily said.
Nilla was shaking with discomfort as Cookie began sniffing her all over.
"Oh and did I mention, I never had got around to neutering him?" Emily smiled. "Now look, Nilla girl, tomorrow I'm gonna turn you back into a man. Then we can both go our separate ways. But until then, I'm gonna make sure you learn your lesson. Okay? I have a nice, cozy cage in here for you and Cookie. I'm gonna leave you alone together for the night." Emily chuckled as she locked the two of them into the cage.
"No... please... I'm sorry..." Nilla tried to say, but was completely unable. She pulled out every little puppy-dog beg move she could, but Emily took no notice.
"Oh god... oh fuck... this can't be happening. What the fuck is going to happen to me??"
Emily yawned.
"By the way, I lied when I said I'm busy tonight. In fact, I'm going to bed right now. I hope you two lover pups have a good time, and I hope you learn a thing or two about respecting women, huh? Heheh. Goodnight Cookie. Goodnight Nilla."
----
The next day, at the Magic Shop customer support desk.
"...and so now you can't get her turned back into a human?" Asked the service worker behind the desk.
"I thought taking the collar off would de-activate the spell!" Emily spouted. "I mean come on, that makes perfectly logical sense!"
"Oh yes, oh yes. The most common problem customers have is unknowing usage of permanent effects. We put a 'WARNING: EFFECT IS PERMANENT' label on such products like the collar. But well, as we can see, people don't tend to enjoy reading."
Emily blushed as she suddenly remembered the bright red sticker she tore off without reading it.
"H-hey... how does a store like this stay in business with such rude customer service?" She joked.
"The Magic Shop is paid for in magic, not money." The worker shook his head, smiling. He grabbed a Magic-Evaluation device and asked Emily to let the unfortunate little dog out of her kennel.
"I see... I see... I'm getting a very high magic intensity on her. It will take three-to-five months for a reversal spell to get her back to human."
"What? How?! How is that possible?!" Emily asked.
"It's very common. Magic is much easier to do than undo. And there's all sorts of variables that can change the intensity. Depending on circumstance, the same spell cast twice can have two very different effects." Said the worker.
"That's very interesting, but also very stupid." Emily said, extremely ticked off.
"You were the one who put the collar on her, correct?"
"Yes."
"Then you should have all the information we need. Ma'am, you've been reluctant to talk about what exactly happened last night. But I'm gonna need you to be honest about it if we want to diagnose the problem."
Anxiously, Emily told the story.
"...I see." Said the worker. "I'm sorry that happened to you."
"Thank you, THANK YOU!" Emily exclaimed, very pleased that someone was willing to believe her.
The worker continued,
"Now please tell me the rest."
"What?? Haha, what do you mean 'the rest'??" Emily sweated.
"You're clearly hiding something. And after you give her a name, the narration abruptly cuts out."
"Oh, well, um, um..."
Very, VERY anxiously, Emily told the REST of the story.
"Yes, yes I see." Said the worker. "Now the intensity level of Nilla's transformation makes sense. If you force someone into a dog-like role within 90 minutes of a dog transformation, it tends to make their spirit bond to their new body. The more emotionally charged the activity, the more powerful the bonding. Needless to say, she had quite a wild time with her new boyfriend."
"Am... I... in trouble?" Emily asked.
"No, not at all."
"Oh thank god..."
"Yeah, no, stuff like that is perfectly allowed in magic culture. Crazy sex stuff is constant,."
"Wow. Sounds horrible."
"You're telling me! You think it's bad being touched by your step-dad? Imagine being turned into a dildo and used for anal pleasure by your obese male co-worker."
"Hey, that was only twice!!" Yelled another employee from a distance.
The worker chuckled. Emily couldn't believe her ears. What a crazy and messed-up magic society this is.
"Well anyway, ma'am, we'll use a Reality Alteration spell to ensure nobody misses Nilla for however long it takes to get her turned back into a man. As for you, miss Emily, you have two options here. Option one: Nilla moves in with you and you take care of her. Option two: you leave her with us."
"Geez... I'd feel guilty for not doing anything to help... after turning her into a dog and everything..."
"I'd recommend option one. For obvious reasons, you and Nilla will probably not like each other."
"I guess. But how good of care is she going to be in? Don't tell me it's like a pound back there."
"Ohhh, ha ha, not at all. We won't be keeping her in this store. Trust me, she'll go somewhere very nice. A private island, in fact!"
----
About a month later.
"...and that's everything that happened up to Nilla being brought to the facility. A pretty straightforward case so far, but then it turned out she was pregnant!" Says the employee in the animal care department.
"And this was from the night she had with Cookie?" Asks the director.
"Our scanners confirm it, yes." Says the animal worker. "We asked her what she wanted us to do about that. And, well, Nilla, how about you tell the director what you told us?"
Nilla rises to her paws. Wagging her tail, she punches out a message on a giant floorbound keyboard.
"I WANT TO STAY A DOG AND RAISE MY PUPPIES."
"What a lovely little thing you are." The director says, kneeling down and petting Nilla. "This isn't that unusual a case, actually. It's common for abusers and tyrants to completely flip around when turned into submissive animals."
Nilla continues...
"DON'T WANT TO BE MICHAEL AGAIN. I HATE HIM. HE WAS MEAN TO EVERYONE. IM GLAD I GET TO BE FEMALE. BECAUSE NOW I KNOW HOW EMILY FEELS. HOW ALL MICHAELS VICTIMS FELT."
"Hey, there's more to womanhood than victimization!" Says the animal worker.
"Ahh go easy on her. Can't expect too much gender theory from a dog." The director laughs.
Nilla barks at the director. She growls for dramatic effect, but then starts wagging her tail in good humor. Another round of petting ensues.
Alex is standing by, watching this all unfold and completely without words. She and her family had all turned into horses a few times. It was for fun, while on vacation in the country. Other than that, her experience with animal transformation was limited. She never could have fathomed a situation as dramatic and specific as this. She was realizing, now, just how crazy the magic world can be, and just how sheltered she'd been in her family. It was looking like she really would need the experience of this job before getting into magic school!
"Nilla, please understand that all of your kids will have to be fixed. You'll have to be fixed too, as soon as that's possible. We can't be taking care of too many dogs that aren't even magical. Our island is big, but not that big." Says the director.
"DONT WANT TO STAY ON ISLAND." Nilla responds.
"...say what?" The director asks.
"WANT TO LIVE WITH COOKIE."
"Astounding! But Cookie is Emily's dog. You'd need her permission." Says the director.
"I CAN BEG. IM GOOD AT BEGGING NOW."
"But Nilla honey, YOU would be Emily's dog too. You'll lose all your human rights, and Emily would be your owner."
"DONT CARE. WANT COOKIE. WANT FAMILY."
The director rubs her chin for a moment. Alex watches her deep in thought.