Chris braced his hands against the sides of the sink in the men's room and sobbed. Tears ran down his face copiously as he contemplated his fate. For all of his life, he'd been the odd man out. Unlike some of the gay guys he'd met at Pride or student union meetings, he was honestly -well- "effeminate". It wasn't an affectation; he'd just grown up that way.
As a youngster, he'd always felt more comfortable playing with the girls in the neighborhood rather than with the boys and their more violent games and sports. In fact, the one time he'd ever played baseball, it had ended up with him getting chased off the diamond by the taunts and yells of the only boys his age.
Even in High School, he'd found it best just to keep his head down until Senior year. It was then that Matt, a fellow student in the 12th grade, had gotten permission to start up a student Gay-Straight Alliance and Chris, after many months of nervous procrastination, finally joined up and made a few friends. But then, they all graduated and college awaited.
It had been the most nerve-wracking time of his life and only the near-immediate bond he'd formed with Tyler, Dave and Sid had made the transition any good. Now, near the end of his first year, he realized just how much he had valued those guys and their friendship.
A friendship that the damned game had just stolen from him.
Oh sure, they teased him about his lisp and stereotypical love of musicals and other "gay interests" but it was all in good fun. Even straight-acting Tyler owned a copy of "Le Mis" and knew all the words to every song in "RENT". The mutual ribbing was just part of their social dynamic.
But to lose that ... to lose his friends, even for a short while; well, that was sheer Hell.
The door to the bathroom opened up and Chris left his head down, partially turned away in hopes that his newfound fame wouldn't betray him.
"There you are; come on, jackass ... you got doubles. You have to roll again."
Chris looked up to see the diminutive form of Tyler standing there, scowling at him.
"Ty, look; that game... You were my friend just a few minutes ago..."
Tyler rolled his eyes. "Look, I tolerate you, Ok? You're nothing more than a fuck-up with delusions that we actually like you..."
Chris felt a lump swell in his throat and turned away again, new tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "How ... how can you be so cruel?" he asked, his voice cracking.
Tyler sighed. He had to get this jerk back to the table or any chance of them finishing the game would be moot. "It's surprisingly easy when I don't give a damn about you," he found himself saying. Then, with a sigh, he put on his game face. "Look, it's not like we don't like you," he lied, "but you make it so hard... All you ever talk about is boys' cute butts and how well hung they are..."
"So do you..." Chris replied, turning back around.
The small man rolled his eyes. "Well, duh... But at least with us, we can back it up. I mean even Sid, before he became an extra from "The Lion King", had a pretty decent build and sense of style... At least he wasn't a stereotypical screaming queen..."
Chris scowled, his tears drying up. "We've talked about this: it's just how I am!"
"Yeah, and people like you set back the gay rights movement thirty years!"
"Right. And I suppose that by denying those of us who are a little bit effeminate makes closet cases like you think you can get by in life, easier, hunh?"
"I'm not in the closet, jack-off," snarled Tyler walking up to the taller student. "And even though I am small, if you say that again, I'll kick your ass..."
Chris snorted. "Yeah, right..." He stepped to the side and walked around Tyler deftly, heading towards the door. "Look, tiny, you can theorize all you want about nancy-boys being the core of all the world's problems but -in the end- it's just your own prejudice shining through!"
"Oh, you don't know when to quit, do you?" snarled Tyler, his previous attempts to sound more friendly fading in the face of his intense dislike for this man. Neither man, however, noticed that Tyler had begun to shrink again. "You don't know me; don't even pretend that you do!"
"Don't know you?" Chris spun around as he reached the door. "I fucking slept with you for three months as your boyfriend, fucker!"
"Don't remind me," he replied, getting another inch shorter. His oversized clothes, which he'd tightly bound around himself when he'd left the room in search of Chris, were now getting baggy again. "I don't know what got into me, then..."
"My seven inch cock, if I remember correctly," retorted Chris, bitterly. "If there's anyone who's activities hurt the gay movement it's your gotta-have-a-new-fuck-partner-every-two-months antics. Did you ever think it might be nice for straight folk to see gay folks settle down once in a while?"
Tyler shrank some more. "Don't you dare blame me for having high standards! I'll find the right guy eventually; you don't get to judge me!"
"Why? Because I'm right?"
"Oh, that's it; you're gettin' pasted..." With that, Tyler charged Chris, his teeth gritted. However, as he ran, his right shoe, now too small for his shrinking foot, slipped off and made him trip. The tiny man scrambled to keep his balance but ended up falling flat on his face and skidding to a stop a few inches away.
Chris felt his stomach's knot grow tighter. Still, he leaned down and extended a hand to the fallen man. "Geez, Tyler... You've gotten smaller..."
"Don't remind me..." muttered the tiny man, brushing aside the offered aide. Slowly, he stood and surveyed the damage his short altercation had taken upon his pride. Judging from the height of the sinks coming up to his chest, he figured he'd lost a half foot and shrunk to four-foot-six. Gritting his teeth once more, he glared up at Chris and kept his tone even. "Ok, I don't like you; but right now you're what's needed to finish this damn game. Are you going to come back and help?"
Chris contemplated the situation. If he went back, the game could make even worse changes to him. On the other hand, the change he'd gotten had said it would only last for 2 turns. His heart beat nervously as he tried to quell his fears. The game was in charge, here; not him. He hated being someone's plaything and this whole situation was nothing if not 'controlling'. Finally, he nodded, quietly.
Opening the door for Tyler, Chris let the small man, holding his loose clothes tightly to his body, walk back out into the corridors of the dorm. Chris grabbed a towel from a nearby rack and threw it over his shoulders and head, to hopefully keep from being recognized on the way back.
"Y'know, I could still earn your friendship," he said in a low voice as he and Tyler made their way through the chaos of campus living.
"Don't bet on it, rich-boy," muttered Tyler in response as they reached the door to Sid and Dave's dorm room. Reaching up a bit higher than he had to go into the hall, Tyler turned the knob.
Inside, before their shocked eyes, Sid, his leonine form still sitting in his chair, was leaning back, eyes closed with a look of pure rapture on his face as the Incubus sucked on his all-too hard erection.
"Oh ... my ... God..." Chris felt his heart fall even further. He and Dave had been seeing each other on and off for several weeks now. To see him going down on another man, especially as alluring and irresistible as he was, was sheer torture.
Tyler averted his eyes and rushed into the room. "Get them apart!" he shouted to Chris and, for a second, Chris thought that he actually was feeling sorry for the betrayal Chris must have felt with his lover making out with another man.
Then, Chris saw the truth. As the Incubus pleasured Sid, the lion was getting visibly thinner and sicklier... Smaller ... less muscular; fur growing more sparse...
Tyler reached Sid's chair and bodily ripped it out from beneath him. Simultaneously, Chris tackled the Incubus and threw him back on his long, spaded tail. "Dave! Snap out of it! You're killing him!"
The demon snarled and with his superhuman strength, tossed Chris aside like a rag doll. The wealthy man hit the floor and skidded a couple feet against the card table. Above, the dice jostled and bounced as Chris groaned.
"Don't touch me, mortal..." snarled the demon, rising to his feet angrily.
"Dav... Incubus!" Tyler was cradling Sid in his lap, the look of pleasure slowly fading from the latter's face as the full realization of what the Incubus had been doing to him dawned on him. "Demon, please ... this isn't right; we've got to finish playing the game!"
Chris moaned and sat up, rubbing his head. He felt odd and couldn't put his finger on why.
"Shut up, midget, or I'll suck you down to an even smaller size," snarled the Incubus stepping towards the lion and Tyler.
"Incubus: think... This isn't you. You didn't want this. Please, we've got to let Chris roll the dice again and get on with the game. Otherwise, in the end, you'll have killed us all! Don't you see? That's the real challenge of the game: to finish playing in one piece!"
The towering godlike demon paused, looking down at his two friends. A look of concern fell over his face. He gritted his sharp, pointed teeth and set his jaw, turning his head aside and nodding, slowly. "Okay... Okay... Gods, it's hard for me to ... to focus. It's like I ... I had to do that; it's compelling me to act... I had to go after Sid; I swear it wasn't my fault..."
Tyler stood up laying Sid on the floor in hopes he'd get some of his strength back. "Look," he said, concerned, "we'll make it. But in order to do that we'll have to fight our basic urges and just ...well... force our way through."
"Tell me about it," came a muttered comment from across the room.
All eyes turned to Chris.
There, still dressed in the beautiful, wealthy clothing of his previous metamorphosis, was a delicate, slender, humanoid rabbit. One ear drooped over his left eye, his white fur rustling in the soft breeze from the ceiling fan in the room. He looked about ready to cry, his eyes still blue and not red like a true albino rabbit's eyes would be. "I ... I think I rolled the dice," he said, miserably.
The others rose and looked at the board, Sid propping himself weakly against the back of Tyler's chair. Indeed, Chris' piece now stood on a pink space and all the pink spaces now said "PHYSICAL" on them. Also, there, in the middle of the board, they could just see a new rhyme fading out:
TEMPORARY CHANGE"Fuck," said Chris, getting up.
- 7 rounds -
"Think you'll bear the loneliness;
The crushing, cold despair?
Perhaps you can but now we'll see
How you beat it as a hare..."