Once Mary felt confident in her new stature, she readied herself to face Max, pulling off the remnants of her now shredded sundress. With her newfound height, the tips of her pointed ears could nearly brush the top of the door frame when she stood on her hind feet despite her hunched posture, and she had bulked up to the point where a little more, and she would have to turn to fit through the doorway. Involuntarily, she let out a satisfied low growl, which startled her for a second, but also excited her.
"Now, to teach that mutt a lesson," she thought.
While the pads on her hands made it difficult to turn the knob, Mary managed to open the bathroom door. She could smell Max right outside, and was certain he could catch her scent as well, although it had changed greatly in the last few minutes. As the door swung open, she look down on a Max that appeared much shorter than she was. Max, nervous but somewhat territorial, had backed up and was growling agitatedly, debating his next course of action. Since he didn't show any sign of submitting to her authority, Mary dropped down on all fours, glared into Max's eyes, and let loose a snarl that sounded more akin to a dull roar.
Finally convinced he was in over his head, Max yelped and scurried off behind the sofa, whimpering. After watching a second or two to ensure that Max wasn't coming back out, Mary stood back up with a pleased grunt. Walking heavily on her rear paws to the coffee table, and carefully picked up the human vial, she returned it gingerly to the box. Everything would be fine now, she was certain, all she had to do was drink the human vial and return to normal before John got the message and came back.
Or so she thought. However, after picking up the other vials and returning them to the box to refill, she noticed that the human vial was only a tenth full. At the rate it was filling, if John had gotten the message, he would be back long before the vial had even filled halfway. "Was it because the whole thing was spilled?" Mary wondered, starting to panic. She couldn't be seen like this! How would she explain it? And how would John react when he found out the way she treated Max?
Deciding she needed to buy some time, Mary grabbed a large overcoat and hat out of the hall closet. Not bothering with shoes or other clothes, she grabbed the box of vials, tucking it carefully under her arm, and went to the door. However, the front door knob was a much heavier mechanism than the bathroom knob, and she couldn't get enough of a grip with her stubbier paws to turn it. After a few frantic tries, Mary decided she didn't have time to waste. Taking a few steps back, she charged at the door and rammed it with her bulky shoulder, splintering the wood. On the third try, the door flew apart, pieces landing all over the hallway. Hiding herself as much as possible in the now-tight trenchcoat, Mary ran for the emergency stairs, barely making it out as an old woman a few doors down nervously opened her door a crack to see what the commotion was about.
With the vials under one paw-like arm, Mary dropped forward on the stairwell and used her other three limbs to leap from landing to landing, making it down to the ground floor in a few seconds. Bursting through the exit door, Mary bolted for the woods just as the emergency alarm on the door began to let out a shrill wail.
Scared and desperate, Mary ran into the trees at full speed and kept going deeper and deeper into the woods, not caring about her direction. After nearly 20 minutes, she finally halted in a small clearing the middle of some thick scrub brush at the base of a hill, her sides heaving. She realized that the transformation had continued to the point where she no longer sweat, but cooled her body through panting. Despite her exhaustion, Mary remained alert for the sound of anyone following, but heard nothing but the occasional bird chittering, not even the building alarm in the distance.
Sitting down awkwardly on her haunches, Mary stared at the box of vials and considered her next course of action. She didn't have any money, credit cards, ID, a phone, clothes apart from the trenchcoat and hat, both of which were pretty grimy from her wild flight through the woods, and she had no idea how she would explain what happened in the apartment. As she saw it, the only real option she had was to use the vials...but which vials and how?