That he was stealing somebody else's life did not bother Leopold as he stopped in front of the creature and gazed down at it. After a moment, he set down what he was holding and reaching for the slipper-like shoes, he removed them and placed them on his own transformed feet, feeling that that was where they should be, but at the same feeling conflicted because he was staring at a naked version of himself.
Running a hand down the dress he was wearing, Leopold blinked and as he touched the swell of his chest, he felt something inside his mind shift and closing her eyes, Leopold attempted to figure out what was that just shifted, sure that it was something to do with her outlook toward the world around her. Opening her eyes, Leopold peered at the creature, still with the subtle curiosity of one studying a unique insect. After a moment, she reached down for the collar, which now had the amulet affixed to the front where the license and other information would go.
Picking up the collar, she stared at the latex gloves covering her hand, sure that something was off, but unable to really determine what, if anything, might not be right. Taking a deep breath, Leopold touched both the collar and amulet to the unconscious creature, hoping that whatever transformed him was indeed in the amulet and it wasn't something else she was missing.
Before her eyes, the creature that looked so much like her began to sprout soft, brownish-yellow fur. Stifling a cry of amazement, Leopold watched and listened as the creature before her slowly shifted and transformed not into a cat, like she had thought would happen, but into a small dog.
"Chihuahua," Leopold thought as she watched the spine extended out into a tail and gazing at the collar, she figured that it must have been a dog collar and not a cat collar.
Taking a couple steps back from the dog, watching as the penis and testicles fully formed, clearly marking the creature as a son of a bitch, Leopold reached for the needle full of chloroform and as the transformation completed itself, she plunged the needle into the flesh of the front paw, doing what something her memories said she had done multiple times in the past, which seemed rather conflicting and contradicting as she could not really come to the conclusion as to when she had down such a thing.
"Now your life is mine," Leopold announced as he watched the creature twitch as the chemical slowly worked its way through the animal.
Smiling, Leopold turned away, knowing that the dog would be dead within the hour, but feeling unsure as to how she knew such a fact. Blinking, she dropped the needle on the counter near the sink and returning to the hidden room, collected the collar and amulet and returned to the chair she had awoken up in what seemed like hours ago.
As she stared at the blank wall, a new plan began to form and muttering, "If this does what I think it does, then I can keep myself alive for eternity," and smiling, Leopold thought about her next move, sure that what she really wanted was to become a guy again.
****
A couple hours later, Leopold stood in front of the mirror once again, using her new memories to stand in what she hoped where sexual possess. Running a hand over her body, she shuddered at the thought that was prominent inside her mind, the idea of actually engaging in sexual interactions with a boy, torn between thinking that what she felt was normal and hating the notion of getting naked with a boy, feeling that somehow, such a thing was surely wrong.
Exiting the bathroom, Leopold said aloud, "I am Annabeth," as she tried to force herself to really be the girl that she remembered being all her life and not some end result of a magick amulet.
A feeling of confusion descended over her and returning to the hidden room, she peered at the dead dog, sure but also unsure that at one point it had been a creature that looked exactly like her. Picking it up, Leopold decided that it wouldn't do any good to have the thing lying about and stinking up the place and heading across the apartment, she decided to dispose of it in the same fashion she done with all the other creatures that needed taking care of.
Returning from the boiler room, she finally noticed that she was still wearing the latex gloves and stripping them off, she tossed them aside as she sat down once again the chair that she had been in when she had changed.
As she gazed at the wall, conflicting thoughts of how she should go home, but that she was home, that her parents would be worried, that she really did not care what her parents thought as her father was dead and her mother never really loved her, crossed through her mind as she started to doze. Staring at the blank wall, she asked herself, "Am I Annabeth or Leopold? And I a creepy old man or am I a thirteen year old girl with an underdeveloped set of genitals? Do I want be a boy? Or do I want to be a girl?"
"I want to be a boy," Leopold suddenly cried out as she sat up, looking about, confused about where she was, sure that it wasn't her bedroom.
Sunlight streamed through the cracks in the heavy paper covering the windows and blinking, Leopold fumbled about, looking for a clock that should be nearby. After a moment, she remembered that the only clock was in the bedroom and standing, she stumbled toward the bedroom, where she found that it was about twelve thirty eight in the afternoon.
Yawning, confused, Leopold stumbled out of the bedroom and towards the bathroom. Afterward, not really paying attention to what he was doing, he ambled towards the kitchen area, thinking that what he needed was a shower and a clean dress, his mind shifting rapidly back and forth between the life of Leopold Rogers and Annabeth Trevors as he peered into the fridge, looking for something to eat. After a moment, she found something that passed as edible and heading back to the chair she had slept in, she sat down and stared at the wall as she ate.
A glint of something out of the corner of her eyes catches her attention and looking at it, she remembered the amulet and what it could possibly do. Reaching for it, glad that she had taken it off the dog collar, she peered at it, her mind trying to sort out if what had happened the previous evening had been a fluke or if it had actually happened.
After a moment, she told herself, "Only one way to find out," and standing, she finished her breakfast and taking another glance about the apartment, making sure that there was nothing that she needed at the moment, Leopold quickly located her coat, the one the creature might have been wearing at one point her mind insisted on, and placing the amulet inside the pocket, she grabbed the key for the door and exited, deciding that the best way to test out the amulet was by making herself a guy again.