Jackie looked down at the pile of clothes, automatically knowing that they must belong to a teenage girl, but wondered why a teenage girl would strip in the middle of a store and also wonder where that teenager was right at this moment.
Picking up the clothes, Jackie began to fold them, disgusted slightly when she found the girl's underwear...she had always been a bit of a prude when it came to other girl's unmentionables...and tossing the bikini briefs in the trash can, she took the rest of the clothes and set them in the box marked lost and found, figuring the girl would be caught eventually.
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Out on the floor, Mario leaned up against an endcap, and after a moment, he leaned over and looked down the aisle.
Noting that it was the one he first found the ferret in, Marion quickly scanned the aisle, sure that he had seen the furry creature run up this way. Adjusting his grip on the net, wondering what he would do with the animal once he caught it, he began to stealthily creep down the aisle.
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In the back, Jackie, who had come on her day off, sat down and began to write up a report, explaining as much as what she knew to be going on.
Afterward, she filed the report with stuff going out to head-quarters and standing, she decided to see if Mario had caught the animal yet and whether she could lend a hand. "I'll probably have to catch it myself while Mario tends to the customers," she thought as she cast about for another net.
A glitter caught her eye and stopping in her search, she leaned down and picked up the amulet that had fallen from Denise's clothes. Reading the word Zulo etched into one side, she flipped it over and looked at the other side.
Unable to come up with a way to describe what she is seeing, Jackie pockets the amulet, feeling for some reason that the medallion is calling to her.
Unable to find another net, she shrugs and figuring, "Mario can catch the beast," she prepares to go up front.
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Hours later, about seven o'clock, Jackie gave Mario a bit of last minute instructions, watched as local humane society took the ferret away, and thinking, "I dislike coming in on my days off. Even if I am a supervisor," she bid a goodnight to Mario, checked the work schedule to see who was coming in next and then left.
Cutting through the back hallways, Jackie quickly moved toward the parking garage where her car was parked. As she hurried along, the amulet slowly jounced about in her pocket until it was pushed out and dangling from her pocket, it started to swing about.
Unaware, Jackie passed a series of opened boxes, ready to be tagged and placed in one of the many department stores, barely noting that they contained a variety of boy’s clothes. Moving too close to an exposed shirt, Jackie barely saw that bright flash as the amulet touched it, but felt the prickle of static electricity move up her spine.
Stopping, Jackie placed a hand to her forehead, suddenly feeling a sense of vertigo wash over her.
Thinking, "I have been working to hard," and figuring she might need a day or twos rest before returning to Animal World, she started walking again.
Only to first trip and then stumble on what were now her ever growing clothes.
Terrified, she stopped and looking down, she realised that it wasn't her clothes that were growing, it was she who was shrinking. Horror swept over her and as she thought, "What the hell," she stepped away from her pants, underwear, socks and shoes, being careful not to trip over the larger garments.
A soft plop and the bra she was wearing fell to the cement floor, joining the rest of the clothes she had been wearing.
Scared, noticing the amulet, she wondered if it had anything to do with what was happening as a sharp, digging sensation rippled through her abdomen, groin and vagina.
Gasping out, barely able to move because of how much pain she was in, Jackie eventually managed to shrug off her shirt...only to watch as her breast finished shrinking and her clitoris and urethra pushed outward into what was clearly a prepubescent penis.
Wanting to scream, feeling she must be part of some elaborate hoax, she reached down, as her body fat rearranged itself, and touched the area between her legs, only to draw her hand away as she felt the area swell outward and two lumps formed, announcing the placement of her testicles.
"I cannot be a little boy," Jackie thought. "I am a thirty five year old woman who works at," she stopped, drawing a blank.
Taking a deep breath, Jackie told herself, "I am a thirty five year old," but stopped as suddenly she realised that something was off about this sentence, but was unable to tell what.
Breathing deeply again, Jackie thought, "I am a five year old boy," stopped and then, shaking her head, tried again.
Only to repeat over and over the fact that she was now a he and that he was only five years old. Terrified, the boy Jackie had become realised he was naked and reaching into the box next to him, he picked out a shirt with Johnny Test on the front, a pair of shorts and after a bit of searching, a pair of sandals.
Noticing the amulet, he thinks, "Pretty," and picking it up, he starts to wander.
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Hours later, lost and wanting his mommy, little Jack looked at the amulet, unsure what he had ever seen in it. Dropping the medallion, he turned about and started back the way he had come, sure that he would find his mommy eventually, unsure where to find her.