"O-o-okay," Jennifer decided. "Traaansform or Daa-aa-aare?"
"Transform," Claire said, a bit hesitantly.
"Yo-o-ou're going to tu-urn intooo a spider-girl whooo caa-aa-an ma-a-ake the be- e-est silk in the wo-o-orld, a-a-aaand everyone but yooou a-a-and mee-ee will act like yoou've alwa-a-ays been thaa-aat waa-aaa-aaay."
Jeez, she thought, I'd better remember to ask Claire to take this stupid bleat out of my voice.
Jennifer heard a shriek over the line. "A spider? A spider?!"
"Whaaa-aat's the deal?" Jennifer asked. "Yooou wa-aaanted--"
"I'M AFRAID OF SPIDERS!" Claire took a couple of breaths and her voice calmed down. "Very funny, Jen. You had me going for a second. We'll see if I ever talk to you aga--"
Jennifer heard Claire pause in mid-sentence and she knew it had begun.
* * *
Claire had been in her bedroom, doing homework. She was wearing a pink tank top that ended above her belly button and bell-bottom jeans. She had removed her socks in favor of a pair of yellow bunny slippers. She had been talking to Jennifer at her desk, but a sudden twisting that could be felt all over her body caused her to drop the phone and come uneasily to her feet.
Her entire body felt distorted. It wasn't exactly painful, but it was certainly a disturbing sensation. She moved her arms across her upper body, trying to feel out anything unusual. It wasn't until she looked in her vanity mirror that she began to realize the Transform or Dare curse was real.
Her tan skin grew to a dark brown, and thin feelers grew at irregular intervals out of her arms. A new flurry of sensations in her pants made her realize they had grown on her legs as well. Lumps appeared underneath her top, on either side of her body. She watched the lumps twist and grow, attempting to escape from the confines of the fabric. Claire was so afraid she couldn't even lift it off herself. Eventually her new pair of arms tore their way out, looking very long and lanky and with feelers of their own. Their thin hands only had two thin fingers and a thumb the same size. Claire saw that her original hands were reshaping to match; her pinky and ring fingers shrunk and disappeared into her thinning palms, and her remaining digits thinned and grew slightly longer. They all ended at fine points.
"This isn't happening...," Claire stammered. "Jen...tell me this isn't happening!" She hugged her body tight with all four of her arms, shivering with fear.
Then she felt a pressure at the base of her spine. The waist of her pants began to tighten. In the mirror she could see another bulge forming...this time above her rear. The tightening grew worse, yet she couldn't bring herself to undo her pants and behold what new horror was being done to her. After another excruciating minute, a large mound of flesh tore her pants apart. Its connection to her lower back was very slim compared to its sheer size. It was the size of four footballs--and it had a similar shape--but it hadn't stopped growing.
Now that her pants were demolished, they had fallen to her feet. Claire saw the familiar brown skin and feelers on her legs. Kicking off the pants and slippers, she saw that her feet, like her hands, were longer and thinner now. They both had only two toes, short and pointed. On each foot, the toes curved toward each other like pincers.
Her vision split. It was as if she was seeing six or more pictures of her room all overlapping. She placed a couple of hands over her head, disoriented, and suddenly her vision cleared. She looked in the mirror and saw where her hands were placed. A cold chill ran through her as she slowly lifted them to reveal six brand new eyes. One pair had grown next to her original ones, toward the sides of her face. All four looked identical. Another pair was placed in the middle of her forehead, and diagonally outward from there was the final pair. These four were small and beady, and all eight of her eyes were a deep, cold black.
She opened her mouth and tried to mutter something, but her shock was too much. She slowly backed away from her mirror in disbelief and disgust at what she was becoming. Meanwhile, her spider abdomen was continuing to grow, causing her significant trouble balancing. After only a few steps, she fell over, experiencing a sharp pain from her new protrusion. She rolled to her side, her hands clutching the soft carpet, eyes shut in denial.
She felt the next stage of the transformation. Her legs split apart, forming an identical pair only a foot from the original. Her waist lengthened slightly to accommodate. Her teeth sharpened and two small bulges formed on either side of her gums. Soon they sprouted four-inch opposeable fangs that curled inward from either side. Her lips reshaped to allow these fangs to always protrude out from her gums while keeping the rest of her mouth closed. Finally, her short blond hair darkened to a deep, silky black. Although the strands were thinner, they had a vibrant shine to contrast their shade.
Lying still on the carpet in silence, Claire heard Jennifer's faint voice over the phone.
"Claa-aaire? Aaaare yooou o-o-okaaay?"
"Jennifer," Claire whispered. "She did this." Claire slowly tried to stand up. It was difficult attempting to maneuver four legs and a bulky abdomen sticking out of her back, but she eventually succeeded. She saw that her abdomen had grown to a frightening size. It was almost three feet long and very plump. She wondered how this ghastly thing could stay attached with a connection at her spine only a few inches across. Looking at its other end, she saw that it came to a slender tip which curved slightly downward. So I'll be a silk spinner for the rest of my life, huh? she thought. Let's see if I can share this pain with Jennifer. Claire's fear had turned into anger and hatred. In fact, the more she looked at her newly transformed body, the more she started liking it, much as it scared her to admit.
Jennifer's voice was still calling over the phone. Claire walked back to her desk, finding that her four new legs and long feet had made it much easier to balance her strange body. She accidentally brought both left arms down to grab the phone, and after some confusion over which arm was getting what signal from her brain, she managed to pick it up.
"Okay, you bitch," Claire said vindictively. "If this curse stuff is real, then you're about to get a doozy."