Mary made it home without encountering anyone else, and she was very glad as that meant no one witnessed the momentary difficulty she had trying to open her apartment doorknob. Right as she was about to turn the doorknob, her outstretched right hand and forearm began to twitch and spasm. With a slight yelp of surprise and discomfort, she let go of the doorknob. In the same motion, her shoes fell to the floor as her left arm joined the first.
A quick glance at her arms revealed more muscle tone winding its way along her arms, ending with palms that were popping as they grew wider. Small groaning sounds occurred as the bones in her forearms stretched another inch longer.
Glancing fearfully around to make sure no one else was in the hall, she did her best to grip the knob between pulsating palms. She struggled for a moment but was able to make it twist enough to open.
Thank goodness she hadn't locked it behind her, Mary thought as she kicked her shoes over the threshold. She hobbled inside her apartment and fell back on her door, shutting it behind her.
Leaning on the closed door, Mary breathed heavily, feeling the changes wind down as her arms relaxed. She hurried down the hall to the large mirror in her bedroom, anxious to see how she'd progressed since taking the larger dose. Upon viewing her reflection, Mary was stunned by her appearance.
"I can't believe Jane didn't seem to notice anything strange!" she murmured to herself as she reached up to touch her face. Her nose had shrank back further, now appearing upturned and tiny, if still human. Her mouth below it was pressed out even further however, pulling her lips and jaws out into what appeared to be a very short, simian muzzle!
"Maybe this only happened on the way from the park." She thought, a little worried. Skimming her monkey-like hands over her nose and muzzle, she could feel the change in their structure as well as smelling Max on her apish fingers from when she'd been petting him.
Removing her sunhat, Mary could see that her ears had grown a lot since she'd left the house, and were just a bit too large now to be viewed as normal human ears. The hair on her head did seem quite a bit shorter now - though the reduction in length seemed to be slowing. Where before it had reached just past her shoulders, now it swung in a short bob mid-neck, looking wilder even as the black coloration had taken over more locks.
Mary was amazed at the power of the vials, and a part of her wanted to down the rest of the monkey vial and finish the changes. A slight fear niggled at the back of her brain though, telling her to be wary. What if she became a monkey in both body AND mind? Would she be trapped that way forever? Who would know to look in her apartment and why in the world would they ever think the monkey they found was formerly Mary?
As she pondered this, a slight aching sensation sprang up in her feet, and she clenched her long toes against the carpet. A twanging and stretching sound caused her rounded ears to twitch, and the arches of her feet began to alter further. Unsteady on her morphing feet, she stumbled backwards, tripping and falling atop her bed. Lifting her legs, she got a good look at her feet. They stretched wider again by an inch, her tendons pulling tight.
She let out a very simian shriek at this, whimpering and trying to flex her toes to ease the tension. The toes grew again in length while while their shape shifted and cracked. She felt a pressure building in each joint and tried harder to flex them. She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as she strained, finally hearing sickening crunches even as the pressure released.
Opening her eyes and angling one leg slightly toward her, Mary could see that the joints on each toe had altered their configuration, looking completely like thick fingers. Not to be outdone, her big toes pulsed and cracked next, pulling up along her arches some more and growing thicker than the others.
She felt the same pressure as before in the joints of her big toes, and flexed hard, forcing herself to watch. With simultaneous pops and cracks, her big toes shifted, becoming fully like thick, opposable thumbs.
The tendons and bones in her arches pulled once more, widening and strengthening, with the strain reaching to her ankles as she felt bones and ligaments shifting. With a final round of popping, her feet and ankles relaxed and were silent.
"Whew", Mary said to herself, "that was intense". She sat up and pulled a leg closer to herself. While retaining some minor semblance of humanity, her feet now looked incredibly apelike. Her toes were long and thick, looking more like fingers with dark nails at the end. She clenched and unclenched them, feeling their increased range of motion. Her big toe didn't deserve the title, sitting higher on her arches and with a greater mobility as befitted the thumbs they had become. Her soles themselves were much wider than her tiny feet had been yesterday, almost palms in shape. Mary guessed she would be several shoe sizes up from before.
If any could fit these. She thought, marveling at the altered shape of her arches and toes. She brought her feet together, interlocking her toes and gripping tightly. They felt much stronger than before, and she marveled as the soles rubbed against each other. Mary doubted she would have any trouble with the trees outside now.
Frowning slightly, she sat up and swung her legs over the side of her bed. Her monkey feet hit the carpet, her long toes clenching against the fibers as her soles lay flat.
"Okay" she murmured, biting her lip with larger simian teeth, "here goes nothing."
Her large hands pressed into the mattress, stronger arm muscles surprising her as she pushed herself up quickly onto her new feet. She teetered momentarily at this before regaining her footing. Tentatively, Mary took a few steps around her room. She expected to be wobbling about like a drunk, but apart from a little adjustment to her gait, her new stance felt completely natural.
Mary smiled at her new feet, not even noticing that she oo-oohed with excitement, her large teeth bared in a monkeyish smile. Belatedly, she realized what she was doing and shut herself up, sliding thick lips down over her big chompers. She stared at the mirror again, looking at her monkefying form.
That settles it. She thought to herself. This may be fun but it's definitely moving quickly, definitely smarter to have backup. She decided that the best course would be to let someone else in on this crazy, magical experience, and who better than...