Sam mumbles to himself about Dean, using very colorful words. The deafening music obscuring most of what he says to the nearby patrons. He stops and looks around at the park once more, and then to his watch. It was getting late, or early if you preferred. Several young men were passed out on benches and on the sidewalk, while others were blissfully drinking an taking advantage of everything the island had to offer.
Suddenly, a sound caught his attention. A group of boys were laughing and cheering in a circle. Sam jumped to try and see what was the commotion, assuming it was a fight. Then a loud bray caught his ear. He nudged his way through the crowd to find a young man on top of a donkey, riding it like you would a bull. The donkey brayed in protest and kicked up trying to throw the rider.
“Where’d the donkey come from?” Sam asked a nearby drunk. “Oh man, it just wandered out of the funhouse. Muss’a got loose.” Sam thanked the gentleman for his input wondering where the donkey may have gotten loose from. The rider grew bored with the donkey and leaped off into the crowd who caught him. “Let’s get out of here, he shouts to some friends.”
The circle is quick to disperse and the donkey is left agitated. Sam starts to leave with the rest of the crowd, but notices something strange about the donkey. It looked like it was wearing socks. Before he could get a better look at it, some uniformed men came in with a rope and quickly escorted the animal down an alley.
Sam got loose of the crowd and followed the men down the alley, but they were gone, and a large wooden gate blocked his way. He peeked through the slats of the gate as the men escorted the donkey further down the alley into darkness. Sam pulled on the gate a bit, but it wouldn’t budge, so with a vertical leap, Sam grabbed the top of the gate and struggled his way over the top.
He walked down the dimly lit alley in the only direction it seemed to lead, away from the park. There were all manner of metal doors down the alley and as Sam approached one, it flew open toward him. Sam stayed flat against the wall, using the door as cover as two other Uniformed Men came out with another donkey. “Come on, you stupid ass,” the Uniform yelled, slapping the beast. The donkey brayed and tried to shake the rope off, but it only got tighter.
Sam peeked around the metal door, getting a look at the two men as they walked the donkey down the alley, but he got a better look at the donkey. On both ears of the donkey, were a series of silver earrings pierced all the way down. He waited a moment before following the men further down into the dark alley.
At the end, the sound of braying and the smell of animals became more and more powerful. Sam did his best to stay out of the light as the alley opened up to a large set of corrals that were mostly empty. He counted only a few dozen donkeys, but men would arrive every few minutes with more. Sam looked out toward a large pillar of smoke coming from some kind of incinerator.
The Uniformed men were tossing heaps of fabric, shoes, and apparel into the fire. The donkey in socks was lead over to the incinerator as the two Uniforms removed the socks from the donkey’s hooves and thoroughly looked him over before leading it on the way to the corral.
A single man over saw the whole operation. A tall heavy man dressed in all red, inspected each of the donkeys as they were put into the corral. “STOP!” he yelled as a donkey was brought up. The Man in Red looked at the donkey’s mouth and lifted its lips up. “Braces,” he said, “see? They gotta come off. Can’t send a donkey out with braces on its teeth, now can we.” The Uniforms were quick to agree and escorted the donkey away.
A lot of noise came from an alley as several Uniforms run towards one of the entrances to the corral and they force a young man yelling into the yard. “Help me, please, what’s happening,” the man shouted. Sam tried to sneak a closer look as the brought the young man to the Man in Red. Sam couldn’t quite see what was happening, so he tried to get closer as he listened. “Please, please help me,” the man cried. “How old are you,” asked the Man in Red. The man groaned, “twen… tweeeeeeeen. Twenty.”
“So, old enough to know better,” the Man laughed. Sam got a little closer and peeked up over top of a box. He gasped getting a look at the 20-year-old. He had a long pair of ears on either side of his head, the ears of a donkey. “Please, I didn’t do any… any…” The man groaned and grabbed his rear, “noooo!” The back of his shorts bulged out slightly, and then a thick brown tassel burst out and grew into a full tail.
The Man in Red snapped his fingers and the Uniforms came by and started to strip the boy forcefully of his clothes. “You wanted all this freedom, and you think there’s no price? You gave up your right to being a human being,” The Man in Red bellowed. The man just pleaded for help and tried to fight off the Uniforms, but the stripped him nude.
Sam couldn’t believe what was happening, the man was quickly being covered in thick brown fur. “Please, I don’t… I… I… aahh AWWW HEEE HAW,” the man brayed and then groaned as his face started to lengthen. “You wanted to make a jackass out of yourself, and you did,” The Man in Red smirked and gestured to the corral. The Uniforms through what was left of the man into the corrals filled with donkeys. He brayed and forced out a few more human sounding words before his hands and feet formed into hooves. He started kicking about as his body filled into the proper shape for what he was, a total and complete jackass.
It hit Sam suddenly. “Dean,” he said to himself and quickly made his way back down the dark alley.