All things considered, Melissa figured she never should’ve made it to the apartment complex.
Considering the luck she’d been having today – waking up to find that her body was changing, being confronted by a treacherous Serenity, getting stuck in her car while it was raining – she had honestly thought she never would’ve made it.
She’d avoided getting pulled over by the police despite her erratic driving. She’d avoided getting into a wreck. She hadn’t run out of gas. She hadn’t transformed while driving, managing to keep her legs apart. It had all worked out rather well. Well, some people were pissed at her, and she probably deserved it. Sure, she’d almost gotten into a wreck several times, and she might have run a few red lights and stop signs. It was an emergency. They’d do the same, were they in her shoes. Flippers.
Whatever.
And now, here she was.
The staircase leading to the second floor wasn’t too far away. That’s where Emily lived.
And all she had to do to get there was go through the rain.
Surely she could make it. It wasn’t that far. And one she was up the staircase, she’d be under cover and out of the rain. There wasn’t anything to it. She’d just have to run, and run fast.
Biting her lip, Melissa glanced up at the sky. It was a depressing grey – there was no sign that the rain would let up anytime soon. For all she knew, Serenity was directly responsible for the weather. She’d already conspired to transform her into a mermaid – who knew what the hell that bitch was capable of?
Glancing at the mirror, she once again surveyed the face that was familiar and alien at the same time.
It was enough to remind her of what was at stake.
The changes had progressed during the drive. Slower than they had been under direct water, but progressing all the same. The pink metallic scales had spread, covering her legs completely down to her knees, and continuing in large splotchy patches down to her feet, which had also turned a bright metallic pink. Her toes had started to merge and flatten, looking almost like she was wearing flippers. If she concentrated, she could move the toes apart, but they were webbed.
She could make it.
She was a fast runner. She’d been on track in high school. She’d jogged throughout college. She went to the gym regularly.
She could do it…
Despite the rain.
She had no choice. She could either wait and transform in the car, or take a chance and run the risk of transforming on the stairs. Either way, she would be screwed. One was slower than the other. And the stairs were a greater chance of her getting to Emily and getting help.
She turned off the car. She grasped the door handle in a shaky hand, and then faltered, despite herself.
She just had to do it.
She wrenched open the door and threw herself out of the car.
Only then did she realize that she’d never put her pants back on, or her shoes, leaving her feet and legs completely exposed to the water.
“FUCK!” she screamed.
The water struck her unprotected skin and the tingling began, intensifying with startling speed.
For a terrible moment, she hesitated. It cost her precious seconds as she stood there, debating what to do – should she go for it, should she get back in the car, should she grab for her pants?
Cursing again, she went for the stairs. She left the car door open. There was no time!
The tingling sensation almost overwhelmed her. It was pleasurable – incredibly so. Enough to make her knees want to buckle. As it was, she had to let out a moan of pleasure, while trying to focus and keep running. She reached the stairs and started up, but her legs were starting to feel weak and she stumbled. She kept at it, ignoring the sensations coursing through her body, grasping at the handrails with slick hands.
About halfway up, she almost fell. She glanced down to see that her feet had elongated to the point where she couldn’t even see her toes anymore. Now they really did look like flippers, except they were growing wider!
She pushed on. But it was becoming harder and harder to walk. Her muscles were burning, straining, morphing as she moved.
But she kept moving. She dragged herself up with the handrail and managed to stumble up the remainder of the stairs. It wasn’t easy – her feet were slippery and it was almost impossible to walk as her bones started to shift – but she made it.
She’d gotten up the stairs – and into cover, out of the rain.
Plop.
She fell forward , barely catching herself with trembling arms.
Her legs were completely unresponsive. She felt them spasm.
“Shit!”
Melissa flipped herself over in time to see the final changes occur. Her feet were first – they merged together and flattened, spanning out into a caudal fin that flipped up and down involuntarily. From the ankles up, her legs started to merge together, the gap between them becoming invisible as it swept up – when it reached her knees, they disappeared, showing no signs that they’d ever existed. Her thighs grew together and merged, and then it reached her groin – a pleasurable spark like nothing she’d ever felt shot through her like an electric shock and she let out a gasping moan. She watched as her panties ripped, and the last of her legs disappeared into the bright pin fin, which gleamed in the pale light of the cloudy sky.
As the orgasm faded away, she felt a stretching sensation, like someone was tugging on her fin, and she watched, incredulous, as her legs - or rather, tail - grew longer, stretching out until it was as long as Serenity's had been.
Reaching out with a shaky hand, she felt the tail - sleek, smooth, almost oily. There was no sign that the tail had once been legs. The bright pink fingernails on her hands only served as another reminder of what she was now.
A freak. All because she'd been too slow. Perhaps she would've been better off going to the beach after all.
She could almost hear Serenity’s mocking laughter in her ears.
Emily’s door at the end of the row - seven doors down.
But it was too late. It had happened.
She’d transformed into a mermaid.