Troy’s eyes snapped opened. His body was filled with a strange serenity – on the one hand he felt a deep, satisfying calm, while on the other he felt raw energy surging through his veins. He would have felt invincible, were it not for the pain lancing through his right hand.
A quick glance down reminded him of what had only recently transpired – a bloody sock was wrapped around his right hand, while a German Shepard sat next to him, its tail wagging and its eyes eager with a single-minded desire to please its master.
“Fuck” Troy cursed. Although the bleeding had stopped, a quick peek under the sock told him that he was going to have to go to the hospital and get stitches. He couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of possessing the ability to alter reality at his slightest whim, but still needing to go to the hospital for a minor hand injury. Or did he?
Troy picked the Book of Beast back up and took a quick look at the rules. Sure enough, there was a vague warning about making permanent changes to reality, though the book didn’t quite specify how he would go about doing that. Was it enough to just cast a spell on himself?
“Half,” Troy said as he formed an image in his mind of his human self with an uninjured right monkey hand.
The world briefly blurred as he felt a small amount of… vapor? Get sucked out of his mouth. As his eyes refocused he could just make out a translucent white mist disperse into nothing.
A throb of pain brought his attention back to his hand. It still looked kind of like his old hand, just covered in brown fur. Unfortunately, a quick peak under the sock confirmed that while he now had a monkey hand, he still had his injuries from before.
“Half,” Troy said as his hand transformed back to normal.
The sounding of panting from behind him reminded Troy of why he was in this predicament to begin with.
Turning to glare at Dustin, he couldn’t help but shout “You fucking bitch! You ruined my hand!”
But for all of Troy’s shouting, there was no obvious effect. Dustin either didn’t understand or, if he did, didn’t care as he sat there, staring happily at Troy while his tail wagged.
It was that latter thought that triggered a peculiar rage to swell up within Troy’s chest. Troy didn’t consider himself to be a malicious person, but he felt the energy from before swirling around in his chest. It was like a torrent of rage firing out of his heart and flooding the rest of his body.
Troy couldn’t control himself. Sitting on the floor next to him was his best friend, one of the few people he would have died for just minutes ago, now reduced to a dumb animal. In his mind he felt pity and sorrow for even considering inflicting such a fate onto Dustin. But revenge coursed through his veins. It forced its way up his neck, past his jaw, and straight into his brain.
He could feel the energy laden blood bathing every neuron, overwhelming every synapse. Troy struggled to push it down, to retain his sanity, to force his mouth to utter the word that would turn Dustin back. Kindness, hope, and love welled up in him.
Troy was about to win, about to save both himself and his best friend. And it was in that moment of victory and joy that a black wave snuck up behind him. Rushing through his mind, it smashed through his kindness and love, leaving only a feeling of betrayal and anger at the “friend” that had injured his hand.
“You wanted to be a guinea pig Dustin? Fine, let’s see if you can fix my hand!”