“Well this is the best I could’ve hoped for…” The new Annabelle Perth spoke before realising what she’d let slip.
“The Fuck!?!” Melanie yelled as she looked at Annabelle Perth staring at them.
“You did this!?!” Lucy added as Kelly nickered and whinnied at her, not looking very happy.
“Explain yourselves! Now!” June demanded.
“This…will take a while then.” Annabelle began as she tried to work out what to say. “Well, I started out there, in the stables…”
“That means you’re just a horse then?” Mary cut in, to which Annabelle nodded.
“It wasn’t long after, that, that a number of others were targeted. Daniel and Kelly being the obvious examples. In short those who had been, mistreating us.”
“And how does that include us!?” Melanie screeched. “Look at us! We’re barely here so how the fuck are we a part of it!?!” She waved a hand to the others, Mel still admiring herself.
“Want to know why? I’ll tell you why.” The new Jacob Perth marched in, roughly pushing Annabelle to the side. “You think yourselves the Master of All? You think yourselves superior? Think again!”
The others had their attention on him now as Annabelle steadied herself after the rough push she’d been given.
“You’re behind all this?” June spat venomously as she advanced on him, only for Jacob to slug her across her long face with a heavy right hook. One that knocked her down onto the ground as the others recoiled in shock.
“”You’re all the same!” Jacob roared at them. “Always using us as your fucking tools! Pushing us around and making us do all the work as you lap it up! I’ve seen it. And now you’re all going to know what it’s like.”
That was all Annabelle needed to hear, as she slipped behind Jacob, her memories from her new form alerting her to a move she could make. Powering her right leg up, the hood at its end struck him in the side of his head, a sickening crack resounding from it, as he stumbled for a moment, before collapsing onto the floor.
“As are you.” She addressed his prone form as she reached down and pulled the Ring from his finger, slipping it onto her own right index finger, the Ring itself reshaping itself to fit.
“This, is how it all happened.” She addressed them as she sat down in one of the armchairs. “While I don’t know the precise workings, I do know it’s able to make the wishes you make a reality if you wear it.”
“So that’s how all this happened.” Mel spoke up as she helped June onto her feet, a little blood trickling from her thick lips.
“That it is.” Annabelle confirmed.
“So what, about, him?” June pointed to the unconscious Jacob, hatred towards him in her eyes.
“I’ve worked that out. For all his talk about making humans understand, I suspected from earlier that revenge was all he was really interested in. To be quite frank, I couldn’t tell the difference between him and the humans he despised.”
“Fair enough.” Mel conceded once she had June on the couch.
“Now. What about us?” Melanie added referring to themselves and Kelly who (for reasons not her fault) had been largely silent. “And him?”
“If you stay the night here, and think it over, and let me know in the morning.” Annabelle offered. “For him, he’s getting the one thing none of us can have.”
“What’s that?” Mary asked.
“To forget.” She explained as she made her first wish with it. “I wish that the unconscious Jacob will revert to the horse he was, and have no memory of his time as a human.”
Now they all watched, as his face pushed out, teeth reformed themselves, while his chest barrelled out and tore away his clothes along with his pants and shoes. His arms lengthened to match his legs as his hands twisted themselves into hard hooves as his body lengthened, a tail sprouting while his ears became pointed and moved up his head. Now they were all looking at a horse on its side, as Kelly snorted to display what she thought of him.
“I wish Jacob was back in the his stall in the stables.” Annabelle added, watching him disappear, knowing when he woke up he’d never know that anything he’d done had ever happened.
“And now?” Lucy asked, her arms sweeping in an arc to mean themselves.
“For the morning, like I said.” Annabelle promised them. “For now, I think we should get some sleep, the bedrooms are free and I think a good night’s sleep will help.” She explained as she rose and left the room, making for the master bedroom where she slipped under the covers and nodded off almost as soon as her eyes closed.