Crystal turned on the sorceress. "You've done this wicked thing, you're a monster! We aren't pets, we're human beings!" Cole was unsuccessfully fighting his urge to eat feed off the ground. His lips poked out a bit to form a beak, which he now used to suck up the morsels.
Vanessa only laughed. A dry, hoarse cackle. It seemed out of place coming from this seemingly youthful woman. "Human beings is a term that would never even loosely describe the two of you. Least of all, your brother! Yes, I have done this to both of you. But most of all to him, as perfect retribution."
Crystal was beside herself. "But WHY? He's innocent in this. I'm the one who hit you with my bike! He's... my little brother..!"
"Eh, only by two years." Vanessa waved her hand. "Yes, I know all about you. I know about everyone in this town of Goshen Falls. It's one of the major poultry hubs of this entire region, with very friendly locals. All in all, an excellent way for me to turn a profit in these modern times, without having to give up the old ways... It has a very low crime rate, you know. Do you know why? There are simply no criminals left!"
Crystal looked at Cole, helpless. He had stuck his hands under his armpits to form a pair of wings, and was clucking round and round in a circle. His hair was sticking to itself, to form a crest. He could no longer control his animal instincts, but he still had his human mind. It was horrible. Vanessa didn't care.
"So all the birds in your yard..."
"Humans, all. Every type. Black, White, Hispanic. The very old (which make excellent turkeys, by the way)... and children. Children always make excellent chickens."
Crystal's face contorted in disgust as she realized, at last, that all the rumors were true.
"Hey, the criminals are the first to go, but sometimes their accomplices simply get caught up in the excitement. Don't worry, kid. You'll be able to look after your brother. I've decided to keep 'him'. I've got something in mind for you, too..."
Then Crystal spotted them. Stone gargoyles, dotting the fields. Silent sentries, never moving. Crystal's form shifted from half-chicken to male gargoyle. "They'll come looking for us, you know. They will..." Crystal's tirade broke off, defeated, as Vanessa mouthed a single word.
"Amnesia."
* * *
The first few months had been hard on Crystal, now a stone statue, unable to communicate with the outside world. Every full moon she found herself able to move, but movements were slow. Fleeting. She relished each brief moment of freedom, though she never moved more than a few inches.
Cole never had finished transforming into a chicken. Not completely. He still had his human shape and size, but found himself unable to leave the bird pen, addicted to the strange seed Vanessa placed in the field every morning. Some days he simply felt like a chicken, and went about his business, laying large eggs obliviously. Whenever he had a more lucid day, he prayed it was his last. To look at himself in the water, or a window, filled him with despair, and he would break down, clutching at his still smooth, yellow legs with still feathery arms, unable to do much else than to fill his stomach with the hallucinogenic seed.
Passers-by would come by constantly. Daily. And this was the most frustrating portion of Vanessa's curse. They would see everything, of course. Vaguely human stone gargoyles. A half-chicken teenager running about the yard or babbling to the gargoyle standing near the bird coop. Some people would knock on Vanessa's door, demanding answers to questions they could barely conceive of. Most were turned into chickens instantly. Some, of course, were ducks. Crystal had seen groups turned into trees, which Vanessa zapped elsewhere on the property. A few simply exploded into piles of bird seed, saving Vanessa the trouble of scattering it for the next few days. But these occurrences were very rare, fortunately. Crystal thought, in a way, that it was the most horrible fate of all. She could hear the seed screaming in her mind as it was eventually devoured. Crystal hoped she was simply losing her mind, however.
Other passers-by, though, turned and ran, and so were spared the curse, stricken with amnesia as soon as they were a certain distance away. Crystal was thankful that this later group included both of her parents. Twice. And so they continued on with their lives. Crystal never saw them again.
Years passed. Decades. Crystal and Cole never seemed to get any older. It seemed there was no release for them...