Chad's mind almost faded into the background at least initially as he became "Curious" The Chimp, doing tricks and making faces for all the infuriating, ugly humans that came by - and knowing he needed those treats and food items from the guy who'd turned him into this. He felt dimly aware of his glorious past, being the best looking guy at the school and the most popular man - a bright future ahead of him - even as he languished in his zoo home. The other chimps weren't that fond of Victor either.
One of them named Trevor seemed to nurse an especially vicious regard for the zoo keeper. He had to do some of the less dignified tricks, being trotted out and used for reality show gags - any time a suitably irresponsible show needed a chimpanzee, poor Trevor was chosen. He had the most marketable look, see. Chad almost envied Trevor for the way that the other chimp got to leave the area and go see the world. Though in other aspects, he didn't.
The chimps had their own way of communication. And Trevor was despite the opportunities completely miserable about it. Victor denied him dignity. Paraded him around. Pushed him in front of dazzling lights and exposed him to loud noises. He had to eat sickly sweet cakes and candies. Despite his preference being for fruits and meat. He'd prefer to sink his teeth into some capuchin instead of the cakes and candies that Victor insisted he adored.
Chad / Curious was bigger than him, so Trevor, with his lanky limbs, bright eyes, and less pronounced teeth was seen as a safe and cutesy alternative. Every day Trevor came home, Chad / Curious was there to hear the other chimp rail in his ooks and screeches about the day's events. It was like a slow build up to something - but being so heavily influenced by the personality of "Curious", he was incapable of reckoning with what that might be.
Victor was starting to get a little too comfortable after a few months.
The zoo keeper would spend more time around the enclosure, enjoying the nature of his victory. Nobody could even know what happened. After all, a chimp can't talk! So he got more and more at ease with them. They were his to control. To gain more fame and fortune from. He'd changed Chad, and acquired the others through...other means.
And of course there was the manhunt for Chad Jones. Victor of course had no worries about that. Sure that idiot jock from the school Ted Worthing had said that Chad had ran off after a secret admirer - but nothing could implicate Victor. And if anything, Victor took some dark glee in the fact that Karen Sinclair ended up under police suspicion for the disappearance of the school's golden boy jock. Victor had never cared for the rich bimbo - he just assumed she bought her way to the top of her class, or used another means. He almost giggled at the sight of her impassioned speech on behalf of Chad - so many big words!
Well, no matter what anyone involved at that school did, they would never see Chad again. Not like he added anything to merit this kind of grief. Victor sneered briefly as he thought about the wailing and the constant press releases.
He was walking around the area with a phone, listening to the complaints and pleading of Chad's mother, Eveline Jones - hearing her beg for her son to be released from whoever was "keeping him". She missed him. She wanted him back. She and the always so absent Caleb Jones both missed him terribly. She couldn't keep herself from sobbing on camera...and Victor evidently found this hilarious. "Man, if only she knew - if only she knew. But she's visited this zoo several times now. And she had no idea." Victor chuckled to himself, and Curious found himself chortling as well - not even recognizing who he was laughing at.
"She's never getting you back, Curious," Victor leaned against the enclosure's wire fence, the steep ditch around it plus the fence keeping the animals inside from getting out. Even Victor for all his ego knew chimpanzees needed to be treated with a degree of restraint. The only way in and out was a small land bridge and a gate Victor would open and close with a key card. He treated this as...sufficient security.
"Not like you really did much for her." Victor gloated, "You guys just talked about sex, sex, and more sex. You joked and preened and worked out all the time. Bunch of apes. Of course, now I'm the human. I'm the one in charge. The one in control. You guys make me a lot of money in a hurry every time."
And Curious, being a chimp, had no idea what most of those words meant. Chad was too far inside, too sublimated and pushed down, to really respond. But once Victor started walking away, he got a call on his phone. Seemed to be a reboot of a certain franchise, who wanted their third episode to involve a guest star chimpanzee, imminently. As in, tomorrow - due to this being a recent addition to the script. With the sizable backers that studio had, he knew there was only one chimp for the job.
"Well, Trevor, looks like you're getting another job coming up real soon. Let's get you to the travel cage." Victor promptly walked over to the entry point to the enclosure. Trevor flinched once he heard the enclosure's gate click and swing open. He may have been a chimp, but he could recognize that sound as good as anything. They were smart apes, regardless what Victor thought - they could recognize patterns and behavior.
"And what's with the flinching?" Victor noted how recalcitrant Trevor was. The ape inched its way against a tree, and Curious just watched, finding himself unsure of what was going on. Trevor never behaved like this, and Victor usually just got whichever he needed to play a role. Victor seemed to sigh as he took a look at Trevor, "I mean, you were even born a chimp, but I'd think you were the one transformed rather than Curious over there."
Not even giving Trevor any time to unwind or de-stress, Victor promptly tried to pick him up.
The chimp pushed back, and rejected the attempt - to which Victor sneered, "Ugh, bad chimp, come on we need to get you on the road to your next---" As he said this he tried again, wrapping his arms around Trevor more aggressively. More assertively. And the nervous chimp was now left shivering, twitching, as Victor tried to start back toward the entrance to the enclosure. Things - despite how odd and unusual the entry was - seemed to be proceeding toward a normal outcome. Curious would just sit there watching, and the magic man Victor would just carry Trevor out to go do a TV Show.
Except once Victor reached the gate, all hell broke loose.
Trevor erupted into a furious, hateful tantrum. Victor didn't even have the time or ability to react, but he was indeed about to scold Trevor for his behavior. The chimp was flailing in his grip, Trevor letting loose simian profanities and statements to how he didn't want to go again - which only Curious really understood. Victor managed to get out, "Stop---Stop thrash---" And then it happened.
Trevor sank his teeth into Victor's throat. The chimp's eyes widened as he seemed to realize some ancient violent impulse that had gone long denied in his time within the ape trade, long and strong arms whipping and finding purchase. He was thrashing with a purpose now. Victor was gurgling - and his pained whimpers and cries, screams, all they did was encourage the wrathful ape. Trevor screamed and cried and hollered, grasping with his hands and ripping skin - muscle - tendons - in those instants, Victor learned a very, very sensible lesson.
A chimpanzee is not a toy. It is a carnivorous ape.
And in return for all those times Victor had dragged the miserable simian out to go do shows, be irritated by the whining and squeals of children, Trevor eviscerated him. Curious was left whimpering despite his greater stature than Trevor. He didn't even dare do a thing - this was after all something he barely understood. But he knew Trevor was his pack friend. Trevor wouldn't do this without good reason.
Even as Victor's eyes rolled back in their sockets, the life being beaten and ripped out of him, Trevor kept on going. He outright dragged Victor over toward the middle of the enclosure, the only resistance he faced being a weak slap at the ape's chest. Most of Victor's head was...just gone. And Curious for his part felt something odd going on. A tingling, twitching and strange sensation inside of his head. Something told him the spark of life went out in Victor.
And this triggered something. Some working done on Curious being undone. And in one instant, the ape identity of Curious faded - and left Chad sitting there in the body of a chimpanzee. Seeing and hearing the crunching noises from further in the enclosure. Trevor...still wasn't done yet. Chad felt a shiver of fear run up his spine and he ran. He ran and didn't look back, even as he registered his fur starting to trail as he escaped out the gate.
Recognition of where he was seeping in. Memories of who he was, what happened, and who did this all to him hitting at once. Chad let out a loud shriek as he escaped the enclosure, managing to escape into another route as other zoo employees finally started to realize something was wrong. The zoo was a large and frightening place as the young man's mind asserted itself over remaining instincts. Chad ran, evading the sound of bootfalls and the worried chatter of the employees. He didn't even notice his feet starting to shift, his hands likewise beginning to alter.
Scaling the side of the zoo walls furthest from that scene that he still heard somewhere in his skull, Chad found that he was feeling less agile. Less capable of scaling these things. More awkward. His features continuing to shift as he landed. Black hair fading into curly blond on top of his head as he ran for it. His body hair falling off by and large except for a small trail from his groin to his lower abdomen. He cried out briefly as he felt his body shift and give, muscles pulsating, tensing and growing - becoming more human-sized.
Chad let out a half chimp half human scream as he felt his back crack and widen. Hair falling off more and more, hands crunching and shifting structure. Looking less like dexterous assistants and more like pale hairless hands. His teeth were becoming less pronounced, his eyes shifting toward bright blue. The weary and weathered eyes this time of someone who had been through...quite a lot. Chad grunted as his legs elongated, the changes rippling through him as he hid between a pair of cars.
He became aware of his naked shame, and let out one more grunt of pain as his groin returned to its human look. By the time he was done changing back, Chad was breathing heavily. Covered in a sheen of sweat. Naked. His tight, powerfully muscled form shivering as he wavered back and forth between the cars. His hair matted to his head. He glanced at his hands, then at his fully human form in the windows of the car next to him. "I'm...I'm human again."
He had to take a minute. He just had to. He sobbed, chuckled between tears, as he felt his face. Gripped his chest in his hands, and breathed. "Human human human again..." But when he managed to hear some activity going on in the zoo, he knew he couldn't chance the people in there not knowing what Victor was up to. So, even as he had to quiet his shame over it, he ran naked out of the parking lot at a full sprint.
He wasn't an athlete for nothing - if Chad could outrun and keep his position against offensive linemen, he could run for it like this. And with adrenaline powering him, Chad left the zoo behind him. He registered that his feet hurt from running on hot cement. He didn't care. He didn't - so long as he thought that zoo might be anywhere near him.
So the reverted jock escaped, ran, ignored anyone who might've seen him. He didn't care. He had to get out. After all that, he wasn't going to just stop for anything. His mind raced. He didn't even know how long it had been - despite "Curious" having heard all of that. He didn't know if he was missed. He didn't know if Karen knew he was gone - if she assumed he flaked, he didn't know what would happen with his friends on the sports team.
Did they know he was alive?
Did they assume he was dead?
Even as he ran along the side of a highway, Chad didn't stop until his lungs literally forced him to. The world almost felt like it was spinning. His feet were red and felt horrible. But he could keep going, once he caught his breath. But that didn't come. Evidently, a cop had been called somewhere along the line. Hearing about a naked guy running along the side of the highway. The cop, a rather fair faced ginger haired young man, seemed ready initially to ask how much Chad had to drink - he looked thoroughly unamused...
And then realization struck.
"...Chad?" The young cop asked. "Chad Jones?"
"Yeah...?" Chad blearily caught his standing and looked at the cop, "Who's asking?"
"Chad, I'm Lieutenant Beau Hargrove. You---everyone's been looking for you. You've been missing for months!" The cop swung open the door to his car before long, and helped Chad inside of it. The jock just slacking and relaxing against the seat. "Where---what happened? Why were you naked and running along the side of the highway?"
Chad knew that explaining he got turned into a chimpanzee by a magic using guy from the out of the way zoo down the highway was a non-starter. Even he knew that. He'd need to---to boil it down, once he was capable of explaining what happened. But right now, Chad was exhausted, he was out of breath, and he needed to get back to town. "I'll...I'll uh. I'll explain---you just...just get me home. Please." He'd never talked like that to his bros or anyone at school - but then, extraordinary circumstances demanded extraordinary responses.
"Will do. I'll bring you down to the police station first, let the missing persons case runners know that you've been found." And with that, Beau drove Chad down to the police station - and the jock just relaxed for the time, reclining in the seat.
----------------------
After getting there, Beau helped Chad into a change of clothes - his own extra uniform. It was kind of tight on the muscular star athlete, but it felt fine enough. The explanation he gave was a kidnapping / abduction. He supposedly never saw the abductor fully - the guy always wore a mask and trenchcoat. He always seemed to talk to other people about "sales". And the police accepted this - people were glad that this time, after these many months, that they had a living rescue instead of a dead body abandoned in a ditch.
Once Chad was dropped off at home, he was greeted with a hug from his mother and father, and a quick call was made to Karen Sinclair, to let her know as well. As Chad settled back into his home life, he just hoped that his family never visited that fucking zoo. And he hoped whatever it was Trevor did in all to Victor, that it hurt all the way through to the end.
Even as his home brimmed with activity, bliss and joy at the fact he was back, Chad asked to be able to go up to his room. It was all just...a little overwhelming. Especially after all that. His folks agreed, though he did assent to come back down to greet Karen Sinclair once she came over to talk to him. Though that might be a today or tomorrow thing, considering all the emotional investment she put into the case.
As Chad walked up and into his room, he just about threw himself on to his bed. Everything had been left exactly as it was that very same day. Per his mother's instructions - as she refused to accept the very idea her boy might be gone for good. The rack of dumbbell weights were still in the corner. The bench press bar, rack and bench were all in the same location. His laptop still rested on the side of his bed. His full length body mirror still rested opposite his bed.
As he stood in front of the mirror, Chad examined himself. Still every bit the absolute stud he was before the...before the thing happened. He bit his lip and looked down. It occurred to him he had no idea what was to come next. Could he really just go back to life as it had been before? Before this all happened to him? It was an element of anxiety Chad had never dealt with before in his time as an athlete there. Almost foreign to him.
He breathed and collapsed on his bed, still wearing that police issue button up shirt and pants - a gift from the PD after his check in there...