"Hey, man, I'm real sorry about calling you away from the party," was John's voice from the darkness at the front of the apartment. "I can't believe that piece of shit car broke down on me again."
"No worries, man. I wasn't going to score anyway," was Conner's voice to follow it in. Closing the door behind the two of them, Conner locked it and hung up his car keys on the little hook beside the front door. Flicking on the light switch, the older man walked on into the room and tossed his jacket onto the hanger at the back of the living room. "I'm going to find another dive… maybe in the town over or something."
John shrugged, taking off his East Hampton High school jacket. He was the only one of the three roommates still in high school and just barely. He was only just about to begin his senior year even though he was already old enough to have graduated by now. Failing twelfth grade once will do that to a person. Who knew the school was serious about how many days you could miss? Still, he had held his job at McDonalds for long enough that his friends let him move in at a smaller share of the rent. Smaller share, smaller room, and less say… but no more parents, so that was good. John followed after Conner as he asked: "You ever think about dating girls?"
"About as often as you think about dating guys," Conner said as he walked over to his forty-five inch high-definition Samsung TV in the living room and turned it on, reaching for his wired Rock Band Guitar and hitting the Home key to turn on the system. "Its no easier to find a girl as a guy than it is to find a guy as a guy. That's a myth," he grinned. "Game?"
"Yeah, sure," John shrugged, pulling the drum set over to the couch and hitting the Home on it as well. "I suppose you'll want to open up with Metallica then?"
"Hells yes," Conner smiled, ejecting Modern Warfare 2 out of the system and putting it in its case. "Eh, really wish you guys would put away my shit when you're done with it." John held up his hands, drumsticks already held, with a look of 'wasn't me'. "I know. I know. It was Sam," he sighed, taking out Rock Band 2 and putting it into the vertical tray. "Guy's so wrapped up in his magical mumbo-jumbo that he can't find the time to put a game back in its case? I think not!" Conner pointed at John while hitting the green key on the guitar to start the game disk.
"Yeah, but he contributes the most towards rent… probably because he doesn't have to worry about car upkeep or gasoline," John said, scooting forward. Sam had one of those cop-out jobs best utilized in a story where your change of appearance would be detrimental to normal life. His journalism classes were a lot of his time, but he could do a lot of that by logging online and posting on the class forums. Besides that, though, he also did freelance webpage and technical support for people around town which often didn't even require him to leave his room. He gave better service than Geek Squad and way more flexible hours.
"After the first set, let's do some Green Day," John added.
"Damn, dude, if we have to," Conner said as he skipped the opening video and entered Band Quickplay to start selecting some songs as a Playlist. "I can't wait for RB3, though. I've gotta get me one of those new guitars and go Pro Mode. Expert just isn't cutting it for me anymore," he smiled as he hit Start and began selecting all the Metallica tracks that he owned. Somewhere in the back of the apartment, Sam's door opened slowly as she contemplated departing the safety of her dark room.
"Dude, I am down with drums, but keytar? Sam actually plays keyboard… no more slacking off plucking away on bass… we can actually make a group out of it," John said as he tapped his sticks together in preparation for the coming colored notes. It was just about that time that Sam slinked into the living room from the hallway behind them. She was wearing an XL Ithaca College shirt her grandmother had bought her when the family thought there'd be enough to send Sam there instead of GTC. It was gray and matched the pair of gray boxer-briefs she wore over her wider hips. Neither John nor Conner noticed as she creeped aside softly on her new toes and into the kitchen to find something to eat, her tail swaying softly behind her as she walked.
Sam sighed, stepping over to the toaster oven and flicking it on to start pre-heating. Reaching up to the freezer she opened the door with too much ease and felt the refrigerator shake in place as she nearly pulled the door off of its hinges. The cereal boxes sitting on top of it shook and fell over, making noise as she softly cursed to herself. "Whoa, Sam," she said softly in her still-male voice. "You are way stronger than you think," she noted, looking through the freezer and pulling out a combination pepperoni and sausage one dollar pizza. "I guess these things happen when you're designed to fight mystical creatures, aliens, robots, and whatever else the people in chats can think up," she continued talking to herself.
The song in the next room ends and Conner's voice comes clear as day in his often complaining voice: "Sam, is that you? You left my game in the system again. You know I hate that," Conner said as the next song started its intro rhythms.
"Sorry about that, Con. I was late to my meeting," Sam called into the living room without opening the little shutters over the bar. They couldn't really be seen through, so that was handy. None of the boys knew what kind of house design put shutters indoors to block off view of the kitchen from the living room, but they seemed rather convenient at this juncture. She leaned back against the countertop and tried to think of how to reveal herself to her friends. Would they freak out? "I may be on the way to a Pulitzer with this one… I'll make it up to you," she said aloud to the living room, a smirk on her face.
"Is that what's with that Mustang out front? You get a giant payday, or is that a neighbor's?" John asked, slamming his drumsticks into pads as he went along to the song that Conner had chosen. Sam blinked and realized the light on the mini oven was off. Taking the pizza out of its packaging, she slid it onto the tray and back into the toaster oven. Sam had no idea what he was talking about, but she hoped it wasn't what she was thinking. "You can probably see it from where you are," he offered as he hit the green note to start Overdrive.
Sam stepped over to the kitchen window and moved the little blue curtains out of the way as she looked out to the street. There, between her car and Conner's car on the narrow street was a black mustang parallel parked right between them. It had a little bar of light on the front of it that glowed a light green and kind of fluctuated back and forth… not unlike KITT from Knight Rider. "That's not mine, but I think I might know whose it is," Sam sighed. "Got its Knight Three-Thousand color wrong, though. KITT was red, KARR was yellow… that one's… green," she blinked, realizing the teenager's eyes from earlier were green. "Actually, that makes sense," she said softly to herself. "If he's supposed to be able to talk like KITT, then maybe the whole computer system is in there and everything," she wondered. "Liz must have been thinking of the new one when she said it… poor taste in shows, though… that new Knight Rider was kind'a… bad."
Sam reserved herself to go out and talk to the car in a couple of minutes. Right now she was feeling really hungry and couldn't be drawn away from the kitchen. Running her hand up the side of her neck through her new mane, she couldn't help but continue touching herself all over. Reaching fingers up into her mouth she felt the two different lines of teeth that she had already felt with her tongue earlier. Scratching her canine nose, she listened to Conner and John play Rock Band for a good long while in the living room. She had already pulled out and eaten her pizza and sat on the counter top for a good long while before before she heard the sound of John turning off the X-Box 360.
"Now or never," she sighed, "Hey, guys… I need to show you something… could you close your eyes?" she asked from the kitchen as she walked closer to the doorway leading back to the living room. Conner and John looked at each other and Conner shrugged and closed his eyes.
"If you want to show us something, why are we closing our eyes?" John asked, glancing to Conner again.
"Nevermind," Sam said, shaking her head. Her mane fluffed out around her neck and down over her back as her hair moved with her head. Stepping out of the kitchen and to the back of the living room, behind the couch there, Sam looked over and saw John with his eyes still open. They grew wider and his jaw dropped. "I found someone today with the town curse," she moved her right hand outward in a gesture of explanation as if her statement was nothing big.
"No shit?," John commented out of shock, his eyes traveling up and down over Sam's new form. "Isn't that," he motioned at her form, "the girl you draw pictures of… Furry chick, right?" he asked, then looked over at Conner who still had his eyes closed and was shaking his head. "Dude, fucking look at this," he said elbowing Conner in the side as he stood there. "Her tits are fucking huge."
"Ow! Bitch. It's just a picture," Conner said, opening his eyes as he looked at John. Sam was looking down at her chest thinking to herself that she'd only thought the breasts were large because she was so close to them. She wasn't that great drawing female anatomy and never considered them being oversized… probably from using comic books as examples. Reaching up, she cupped her breasts like she had done before in her room and squeezed them a little, noting how her mane would mostly cover them if not for the shirt she was already wearing.
"Not just a picture!" John almost squealed, still in startled by the revelation. He pulled up his left hand and pointed squarely at Sam's chest from the other side of the couch.
Conner raised an eyebrow and slowly turned his head towards Sam, "The hell are you talking about?" Then, he saw Sam for who she now was. His arms went up and he took a few steps back, crossing himself. "Holy fucking shit!" he said, falling backwards over the footrest to the Lay-Z-Boy and landing hard on his back. "Wolf or Dare! Wolf or Dare!" he yelled as he rolled over onto his hands and started trying to crawl towards the kitchen.
"Don't give me stupid ideas," Sam rolled her eyes, stepping around the couch and walking towards him. "And I've no intention on using The Curse now that I have it. Screw that. The moment you let it get away from you, its all back in your face, Aliens-style… face-raping you."
As Conner rounded the backside of the dining room table, Sam stopped just opposite it from him, John at her back. Conner crossed his index fingers in front of him like he was trying to ward off a demon or something. "Dude, this is not even cool. Where's Sam!" He blurted out. "Did you fucking eat him!? Swallow his soul!" he asked, picking up the candle-holder in the middle of the table as Sam took another step closer. "Stay away, bitch. I'll fucking gut you!" he swung the holder out in front of him, over the table.
"Yer gunna gut Sam with candle holder?" John chuckled.
"Shut the fuck up! That's not Sam!" Conner roared.
Sam held up her hands towards Conner, stepping in such a way that him being opposite her put him into the back corner of the dinning room with no where to go. "OK, dude… lower your voice," she began. "I'm a Furry. I've got boobs. We're all going to have to deal with this like civilized people," she explained, "…because otherwise the neighbors are going to start shooting up the place just to shut us up," she said.
"Or call the cops," John noted with a smile, loving Conner's freak out.
Conner shot the younger man a look, "We're surrounded on all sides by druggies, prostitutes, bangers, and pimps… there's no fucking away any of them are calling the cops," he frowned, looking back to Sam. "So I agree with the bitch on that one."
"You're so kind," Sam said, standing there and watching Conner. An unexpected consideration of him acting like prey stuck in her brain for just a moments before she shook it off. "Bitch or not, I'm still Sam. You were talking to me the whole time I was standing in the kitchen, remember? Did any of that seem out of place?" she asked, watching as Conner looked over towards the dining room's opening to the kitchen and then back at Sam.
"You did, in fact, sound like Sam," Conner said as he took a deep breath. "Did this just happen to you… in the kitchen? Something you ate?"
"No, Conner," Sam sighed, rolling her eyes a bit at the idea of this being food poisoning. "Elizabeth Warner had the town curse on her this whole time and hadn't been using it. Best I can figure, Kyle Perkins or Jennifer Smith used a Dare to make her forget she had it and then it just… never came up," she shrugged, watching Conner's hands begin to lower as he became more at ease.
"Never used it? You told me that lead earlier… that stuff on the football field happened over eight years ago… you're saying she didn't accidentally use it in all that time? That's highly improbable," Conner frowned, dropping his hands to his side.
"Not when you think about it," Sam offered, holding a hand out to her side. John had stepped up to the table beside her and was taking the time she was looking at Conner to not-so-subtle stare at Sam's new chest. "She seems to remember being told to forget. If she forgot the town curse and its rules then it's possible it didn't come up until she move off to college and away from Glendale… You've heard me tell this, right? That the curse only seems to work within the region in and around the city itself," Sam said. "Then, even if she did find out about it… even if she did remember it… she wouldn't have had an opportunity to see if it worked until she came back into town… like she did today… for the interview."
Conner set the candle holder down onto the table beside him, looking over at Sam. He was still across from her, but he was doing his best to focus on Sam's words and not the dual-layered rows of teeth he saw every time she opened her mouth. "So, she keeps the curse with her without knowing about it for a time… learns more about it while she's away… and only gets to use it for the first time in a conversation with you in which she turns into your 'Furry Persona'—" he said doing the quotes in the air with his fingers, "—for some reason," he added. "Might I say… that whole plot seems anorexic."
"I know, right? It's a little thin, but it makes a sense… and here I stand before you," she said, motioning to herself smiling a toothy grin. Glancing to her side, she saw John staring at her chest. She cleared her throat and he looked up at her face. "I didn't think you were into Furries, John."
"I like boobs," he laughed, giving her a thumbs-up. "But seriously… are those really real?" John asked and Sam rolled her eyes a bit, nodding. "Can I touch them?"
"Dude!" Conner moaned at the immature question.
"You be gay all you like," John said, glancing to Conner, then looking back to Sam. "But I'm a breast man, and yours are easily, like, F-Cup or something," he grinned.
Sam blinked, then frowned. "I'm a bad judge of sizes, and I don't even know cups, so I'll just take your word for it," she said, crossing her arms under them. "And having read a transformation story or two… what is it with gaining breasts causing your friends to want to touch them? I didn't want you touching me when I was a guy… why would I want you touching me as a girl?" she asked, her frown deepening.
"I can't believe you two are having this conversation," Conner slapped his forehead and then headed for the kitchen. "I need a beer," he said, and vanished into the darkness therein.
"Valid as those points may be," John said, raising a finger upwards. "You haven't actually said no. You're curious aren't you?" he grinned.
"Curious of what? I've already touched myself plenty. I don't need your help with further exploration," she said, then thought about going into heat in a few days. She made a note to be far away from John and his libido during that period.
"Too much information!" yelled Conner from the kitchen.
"Oh, shut up!" Sam growled in Conner's direction. "If you go turned into a girl, you'd be all 'whadafuck?' too," she said, looking back to John who had gone back to staring at her breasts. "This is a one time deal," she said, then grabbed John's head. She was a little forceful and he yelped in pain, but was subsequently muffled by Sam's breasts as she pulled his face down between them. She shook her upper torso side to side as the mane that came down over her shirt covered his eyes for a moment. A moment later, she pulled his head up away from her shirt and turned his head to look her in the eyes. "You touched them. Now be quite about it."
"Yes, ma'am," Jeff grinned wide, reaching up to fix his hair.
"You let him touch them?" Came Conner's head from the kitchen as he looked back out at them.
Sam looked back at Conner and just rolled her eyes. "What do you care?"
"Nothing I guess… just figured that if one of us was going to sleep with one of the others, it'd be me," Conner winked at Sam. "I mean, three guys in an apartment… odds are in my favor, right?"
"There will be no together-sleeping tonight," Sam stated bluntly. "Are you two better now?" Sam wondered, looking back and forth at each of them. "Because this is what I'm stuck as until further notice and I can't have two of my best friends freaking the hell out in a permanent fashion over this."
"I think this is all a big gag for now, but I'm better…" Conner shrugged, sipping his brew at the doorway to the kitchen.
"I'm good," John nodded. "I live with sexy beast now, so that's great," he grinned at Sam. Sam just gave him an even stare, then rolled her eyes and walked over into the living room, sitting down on the Lay-Z-Boy with her tail fluffing out to the side and over the armrest. "So, can I play?"
"It's a curse, not a game," Sam sighed.
"It's a game which curses people," Conner noted as he moved over at sat on the couch.
"Fine. It ends in curses," Sam gave up. "Curses are bad. You don't want them," she stated sarcastically.
"You seem to have turned out OK," John said, sitting down on the footrest of the chair. "Can't be all bad… you turned into your innermost desire or something, yeah?"
Sam put her hand on her head and did her best not to respond to that. In her heart, she knew that most everyone was a freak on the inside. Day by day, night by night… everyone had desires, wants, weird quirks or concepts that got a rise out of them. It was just the way of things. The difference here was she was now a freak of her mind as her body. Extra nipples for multiple smaller breasts with two super heroine ones up top… reinforced bones… the ability to swallow a full-sized cow whole… and all the other little quirks of this alien incarnation of her inner self that hadn't even come up yet. Sure, she loved what she was now… it was the reactions from others she wasn't really looking forward to.
"I must have misunderstood… you wanted to be that…" Conner asked.
"Don't change the subject," she said to both of them. "Curses are bad. End of story. I'm trying to figure out where this one came from… maybe even stop it," she admitted.
"C'mon… this is awesome. You can't just let this slide away into nothing. I wanna see this thing in motion," John pleaded. "I'll be good. I wont curse you back," he nodded. "Scout's armour."
"Honor," Conner said to John. "Scout's Honor, you ditz. And that only works if you were ever a scout, which you weren't."
"I was too. I made pine-wood derby cars with my dad," John smiled, then looked back to Sam. "Please. Let's do this thing."
"No. Well… No, stop asking!" Sam sighed deep.
"I wouldn't trust him either," Conner agreed.
"Trust who. Me?" John asked, looking over at Conner. "What's to trust me… Sam's got the curse. It's all in his court… or her's."
"I'm fine with 'his'," she admitted. "But you know the curse better than that from my stories and research, John. I curse you and you get the curse… that's the equalizer of the whole thing. The curse doesn't have a 'no tag-backs' or anything, so you can turn right back around and curse me back… and while me not trusting you is only because no one can be trusted with this thing… I don't even trust myself," she explained. "It's too much power to just be passing it around. That's what happens. The curse gets passed around a lot real quickly and then goes dormant. I would guess its because someone gets it and can't pass it on for some reason… but it always resurfaces again later," she rubbed her chin, then slid a hand through her thick mane over the top of her shirt. "No explanation for that either."
"Well, you know the curse better than anyone, ever," John said with a shrug. "I'm sure you know the rules too it and could protect yourself," John said. "C'mon. This is so cool."
Conner watched Sam as she tried to think that concept over. "Yes… I know of a couple of ways one can probably cheat the curse. I suspect they may have lasting repercussions… karma, you know… but," she shook her head. "If we're doing this as friends, then… what would you want to turn into?"
"I gotta be transformed?"
"Why would you want to be Dared? You could just do something without being Dared to do it, so obviously you want a transformation," Sam reasoned. "So, what into?"
"Uh, I dunno," John admitted. "Surprise me!" he grinned.
"Oh, God. I'm out!" Conner said, holding his hands up. "I am going to bed and wake up to find this was all a hangover dream," he said, waving to the two of them as he stood up from the couch and headed for the hallway. He stopped and looked back for a moment before shaking his head. "John, if Sam makes you gay then let me be clear: you're not my type," Conner said, then slammed the door to his room behind him.
"You could make me gay?" John blinked, having not considered that option.
"Dude, I could make you a thousand dollar bill if I wanted," Sam groaned. "Gay is easy, yes. Everything is easy! You've always just got to worry about it coming back at you is all," she said again.
"I meant what I said, man. Surprise me," John repeated himself.
Sam sighed… she didn't like this. She still had other things she wanted to get done and if John stabbed her in the back, this was never going to work out. Taking a deep breath, she considered her options. "OK," she said. "I'll make it something non-permanent just to make a point real quick. When do you go into work tomorrow?"
"One in the afternoon."
"Fine. You may not like this… her goes," she said, having thought the situation through. "John… Transform or Dare," she asked him and he grinned. As he opened his mouth to say something, she quickly lunged forward and cupped her hand around his mouth. Holding on almost so tight as to bruise him, she held him there in place. "When you don't say anything for a minute, you get both," she repeated something said many times before. A minute went by, and without John answering, she let go of him.
"You didn't need to do that," John frowned. "You could have just asked me not to say anything."
Sam didn't answer right away to what he said for fear that a wrong word here or there would be interpreted as her giving him a comment or transformation. Taking a breath, she began: "For your Dare, John, I Dare you to ask me Transform or Dare once your transformation is complete… and having done that, I want you to make my transformation to be that I can shift my vocal cords around so that I can sound male or female when speaking in either human, wolf, or dog," she stated, "And also that I will be able to understand the language of all canines in order to be able to communicate with them."
"Why the hell would you do that? What's the point?"
Sam knew that if people who had gotten the curse before had been turned into canines—which a lot of stories seemed to indicate—then being able to talk to them would open up a lot more interviewing possibilities. However, not wanting to risk setting off John's transformation wrong, she kept those thoughts to herself for the moment.
"Now, for your transformation… the next form I am about to describe will last until noon tomorrow. At that point you will change back into the form and appearance I see before me, but laying safely in your bed. You will keep your mind through the whole experience and remember everything you experienced while changed as soon as your form has finished reverting," she detailed. "Having said that, the form I'm going to give you is—"