The sky was dark outside. The lights were low. The flicker of a television set filled the room as Damon flipped through channels. It was the first night in several days that Monica hadn't slept over with him in his apartment. Thomas, now having been a pet rat in a cage for more than a week, was flopped over in his cage, either sleeping or sulking. He hadn't been eating well, but occasionally he would wander over and munch on one of the pellets that Damon would occasionally drop into his cage. Mostly he just lounged around and tried to ignore his new life, often even hoping for death.
Damon was trying to forget about his break-up with Monica. He really was. It hadn't even happened in this new reality where he owned Thomas, but it still consumed him. When he was snuggling with Monica in the apartment or spending time with her on a date, he could sometimes convince himself that nothing had changed between them. But whenever they had sex it was all he could think about. And when he was alone, like he was right now, he would either drink or distract himself and try to think about anything else. And when Monica would bring in toys for Thomas or cuddle him in Damon's apartment, Damon could only see red. He could contain himself, of course. But he still felt like he could strangle that little rodent if it wouldn't hurt Monica so bad.
Click, click, click. Finally Damon just shut the TV off and through the remote across the room. Thomas's ear twitched, but the undersized rat's body didn't otherwise budge. Damon found the lamp and rubbed it in a frenzy.
"Good evening, master, I take it you are ready for your second wish?"
"I can't stand it any longer, genie! I thought, I truly thought that having Monica back would make me feel better. But she, I know what happened, even though it didn't happen because Thomas is a rat. I know if he were a man, she would be with him. I just can't trust her, ever again. I keep thinking she will leave me again, for another man."
"I see, master. So you wish for me to return things to the way they were."
"What are you crazy? If I can't have Monica then no one will. But I can't really have Monica like this. Every time she looks at another man, or goes to my rat's cage, my blood just boils on the inside."
"So you are jealous."
"I know what is in her now. I can control Thomas, but I know I can't control Monica. But you can change that."
The genie didn't like the sound of that. "Now master," she said, "maybe we can--"
"Turn Monica into my property, too?" finished Damon. That was NOT what the genie wanted to say, but Damon continued, "I'll never be satisfied with her as my girlfriend, but I can't let her leave me again, either. At least I can have her like this. I wish that the next time Monica enters my apartment, she will transform into a...