Leopold/Daniel couldn't believe it, but looking at a calendar he realised that a week had gone by without him realising it. And what a week it had been.
He had gone back to where Daniel lived and immediately learned more about the life of the boy he had assumed as he ran into his father, who thought of him as a good-for-nothing slacker, first, then his sister, who was absolutely repulsed by him and greeted him as "Jerk face", and around dinner time, his mother, who seemed distant and by the end of dinner, Leopold/Daniel understood this was because she found it difficult to connect on any level to her teenage son.
But none of this really bothered him and taking it all in, he let the rest of the day slip by, content with letting his new set of memories telling what he normally did and did not, which included being a total snot whenever Johanna, his sister, was around.
The next day, Leopold/Daniel went to school and nearly found it laughable that anybody in today's day would even bother attending, understanding why it was that Daniel had not been in school yesterday. And after meeting the three people that were his friends, Leopold/Daniel came to the conclusion that living as Daniel would be a simple matter and letting his memories take him, he slipped completely into the role of being Daniel, deciding that to look back would be an error.
****
Coming home a week after he had stolen his new life, Leopold/Daniel found himself amazed by the fact that a whole week had gone by and dropping his coat on the back of one of the dining room chairs, he started for his bedroom. As he passed Johanna, he grinned and told her, "How's it going, puke-face. I see you still haven't gotten that issue of the growth attached to your next cleared up."
As his sister stuck out her tongue and called him a jerk face and a couple of nasty things, Daniel smiled even more and turning headed for his room. Inside, he sat down at his desk and clicked on his laptop. Taking out one of his notebooks from his backpack, he flipped through until he found the assignment that was due tomorrow, figured he still had time to do it and turning his attention to the computer, he began to surf the internet.
Outside his room, Johanna slowly pushed open the door to her brother's room and peering through the crack, she watched as her brother started to goof off in front of his laptop. Glancing down, she looked at the amulet she was holding in her hands that she had found in her brother's room a couple days ago.
Knowing what the medallion could do and that it was called the Amulet of Zulo, she thought about what she planned to do to Daniel.
A creaking noise distracted her and thinking that Daniel was getting up for something, Johanna stepped away from the door, glanced up and down the hallway and after a couple seconds, headed for her room. Inside, she closed the door and walking toward her desk, she set the amulet down next to a collar that she had bought at a pet store in the mall.
Knowing that her brother was a heavy sleeper, she thought to herself, "Tonight, you pay for it all," and opening the top drawer to her desk, she took out a pair of cleaning gloves her mother usually kept in the drawer under the stove.
Not one for wanting to suffer from the effects of the amulet, Johanna was taking every precaution she could think of as she prepared herself for when she would finally get back at Daniel. As she set the gloves down, she thought about what she was doing and how it could be misconstrued as wrong, or even petty, but after a moment, she decided that her brother deserved what was in store from him and making sure that the gloves where on top of the amulet, not that she had to worry about many people coming into her room, she figured that with something as powerful as what she had, why take the chance.
Getting up from where she was sitting, she flopped down on her bed and staring up at the ceiling, she told herself, "It all goes down tonight," and smiling, she wondered what life would be without Daniel and what type of breed Daniel would be.
Inside his room, Daniel leaned back in the chair again, frustrated that his search for information on the amulet wasn't going to well. He had found that it could be only used every twelve hours and that it did not affect pregnant woman, which, he figured, had something to do with the fact that there was two people instead of one to change.
But beyond that, his search had turned up nothing. Opening the desk drawer, he shifted the stuff about, slammed it shut when he couldn't find the amulet and opening another drawer, followed by another and then another, he sat back, frustrated that he had misplaced the amulet and that all he had planned to do would not come to pass. Thinking, "Maybe you put it somewhere else and forgot," and standing, he wondered if maybe the amulet naturally disappeared, just as a precaution against people attempting to do what he wanted with it or to give more than one person a chance to use it.
Dismissing these ideas as foolish, Daniel began to slowly turn his room upside down looking for the amulet and afterward, slowly putting everything back the way he had it. When it became clear that the amulet was no longer in his possession, he grimaced at the thought of not being able to do all that he had planned and returning to his laptop, he resumed his search until his mother called him down for dinner.
When her mother called her down for dinner, Johanna almost told her that she wasn't hungry, but instead decided that there was nothing wrong with having one last meal with her brother. Passing him in the hall, she almost regretted her decision as he made some off comment about her face, again, but instead just smiled and kept on her way, skipping the need to call him a jerk face. And taking her place at the table, she watched throughout the meal as her brother put away three plates of the spaghetti their mother was serving, wondering if he would eat this much as a dog.
After dinner, she whiled away the hours, make shallow attempts at doing her homework, finding that she was suddenly anxious about tonight, wanting it to be the time for Daniel to be asleep. And when she glanced at the clock next to her bed, not for the first or even the fifty first time, she nearly leapt up with joy when she saw that it was already past eleven o'clock.
Pulling on the gloves, she picked up the collar and the Amulet of Zulo and creeping across her room, she listened at the door. When she was certain that it was silent out in the hall, she clicked off the bedroom light and opened the door. Peering out into the hallway, she waited a couple more seconds before slowly sneaking down to where Daniel slept and pressing an ear to the door, she listened for any noises from within. When she didn't hear any, Johanna slowly pushed the door to her brother's room open a crack and peered in.
When it became clear that her brother was indeed asleep, Johanna opened the door even more and peering at the sleeping figure of her brother, she took a deep breath and crept slowly across the room, unsure why she was doing so, knowing that Daniel was a heavy sleeper.
"You could drop a packet of Roman Candles in here and he still wouldn't wake," she thought as she stopped next to his bed.
Peering down, she thought, "You deserve this," and reaching out, she touched two objects in her hand to her brother, the anxious feeling that she had been feeling all evening returning as she thought, "And maybe, someday, I turn you back."
Before her eyes, what she could see by the moonlight, Daniel began to shift, morph and after moment, shrink. Dropping the amulet onto the nearby dresser, Johanna wondered if it would be worth the effort to turn on the bedroom light, but in the end decided against it as she pulled off the gloves and after a moment's thought, placed the collar around her brother's neck, which she could just make out was now covered in a soft, white pelt.
Nearly giggling aloud, she reached down and removed, with some difficulty, Daniel's boxer shorts, thinking, "You shant be needing these for a while," as she did so and after a thinking about for a couple seconds, the shirt he was sleeping in, noting that his transformation was almost complete.
Thinking and watching her brother's transformation, she Johanna struck on what she thought was a marvelous idea and whispering, "You know that you are supposed to be sleeping outside," she reached down and picking up the dog and then shifting the animal so that she had a better hold, she turned toward the door to the bedroom and headed out into the hallway and toward the backdoor, which she opened with only minour problems and after a couple minutes of shifting her transforming brother about in her arms, deposited him on the back step.
As she reached down to pet the dog, Johanna noted that the transformation was pretty much complete and running her hand through the soft fur, she thought that his species might be Bull Terrier, but couldn't be a hundred percent sure. Daniel shifted in his sleep and suddenly Johanna had a full glimpse of the dog's underbelly and giggling, she whispering, "Why, Daniel. I do believe you have a full set of teats," and running a hand over the dog's genitals, confirming what she suspected, she silently giggled out, "Dear, Daniel. It appears that the reason you have a set of teats is because you are a bitch in heat," and standing, deciding that what happened to Daniel was so far more then she had thought could happen, and was silently pleased about the outcome, Johanna turned and returned inside.
Heading back for Daniel's old room to collect the amulet, thinking that after a couple years she would turn her brother back, she stopped when she reached the bedroom and unsure what she was looking at, she fumbled about for a moment before finally turning on the light.
Unable to believe what she was staring at, Johanna whispered, "When did this happen? And why?" as she shifted about some of the boxes in her way, suddenly realising that with her brother's transformation, his room had also changed and become nothing but a storage room. Heading to where Daniel's dresser used to be, knowing that it wouldn't be there. And when she confirmed it, she thought about the amulet, wondered where it had disappeared to and after a couple minutes, whispered, "Well, Daniel. Hope you enjoy your new life. Because I don't think you are going to ever be human again," and clicking off the light, Johanna stood in the dark room, hugging herself and wondering if she could live with what she had just done.