Fall of the Rightful King

Chapter Six

I let go of both my phone and my shirt when I saw my back. I looked at myself, back at my phone, and then back at the mirror again. I turned around again, looking over my shoulder into the mirror, and pulled my shirt up. There was fucking grey fur growing over my back and starting to come up my neck.

Fucking hell, horse girl’s story was for real and she infected me. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. I let go of my shirt and started walking around the motel room, not sure where to go. Should I pick up the phone and call the cops? Wait, why? I needed to go to a hospital right? Nah, I hated hospitals, and doctors listen more to drug companies than what people actually need. Still, maybe I didn’t have a choice this time. Yeah, hospital. Maybe this was some disease that they could cure me of. Or maybe they’d just study me.

My knees started to hurt again and I actually felt my legs buckle for a moment, sending me to a knee as I braced myself with a hand. Maybe I was making it up, but I swear I could feel my fucking knees try to move up my leg. Fuck it, going to the hospital.

Fortunately, I knew that there was one not far from the motel. I pulled into the parking lot and got out. Fuck whatever it would cost me to park there, I was infected by something and needed a doctor. I walked into the emergency room lobby and this jock looking guy sat at the desk. He had a headphone in one ear and was typing something on a computer.

I slammed a hand down on the counter and said “I need a doctor right fucking now.” Mr. sports guy jumped a little when I hit the desk, and then just looked bored when he saw me.

“I need you to fill out these documents, and please tell me what’s happening to you, sir.”

“Look, man, I just need to see a doctor. I can’t… I can’t talk about it with anyone else. Just get me in.”

“Sir, we can’t get you in unless we know how serious your situation is,” he said. I noticed that he wasn’t looking at my eyes – he kept looking at something just above my head. I turned and looked at the ceiling in that direction. Nothing there but tiles.

“No, it’s your ears,” he said. “You get those for the convention? They’re pretty sweet.”

The fuck was he talking about? When I looked at him again, he pointed at a spot just above his own head. I really, really did not want to put my hand there, since I was sure I knew what I’d find. Somebody sneezed to my left and my… the thing on my head turned to face it.

Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out. Don’t freak the fuck out because you’ve got some fucking – no, come on. Lock it up. I tried as hard as I could to keep panic from breaking out. It was like trying to hold the lid on something hot and snarling. More like trying to keep a door closed on it, I guess. Hey, I’m not good at analogies when my ears are changing places.

Behind me, the doors slid open and someone walked in with a crying baby, by the sound of it. The nurse or whatever looked at them, then back at me, and sighed. Asshole, like I’m going to tell you I’m turning into a horse or something.

“I can’t get you in unless you fill out the paperwork first,” he said, pushing some documents over. The lady behind me pushed me aside and started talking to the nurse guy. Whatever, sure bitch, you’re more important than me. I sat down on a chair and started filling it out. It was some Asian lady with a crying kid she was holding. Kid sure was squirming a lot, and his fucking screaming was getting real fucking annoying. I couldn’t even concentrate well enough to write anything down. The fact that those things which were not my ears even though I could hear out of them were apparently really sensitive didn’t help. Finally I put the clipboard down and put my hands over those things. Just because I could feel the fucking things didn’t mean that they were my ears. They were parasites or something that I was getting cut off and my real ears getting back.

The kid finally stopped screaming, the little shit. I noticed the nurse suddenly stand up and grab the kid, then he started yelling and a few more people came out. They put the kid on a stretcher and I noticed a black tail just barely drop over the edge. Two nurses and the kid’s mom ran him down the hall, and I immediately felt like shit for getting frustrated with him. Damn it, can’t I get mad at someone without something horrible happening to them?

A distraction came into play in the form of G-men walking in the door. I angled my head down and tried to look inconspicuous, although you can’t be really unnoticeable with pointed ears coming out of your damn head. I glanced at them without moving my head. They went straight to the nurses’ desk, and I heard them introduce themselves. These ears were pretty good at hearing, had to give them that. They were immediately let in and went down one of the side halls, though one of them gave me a curious look as they left.

Shit. This transformation thing was probably a government program and they were looking for people infected by it. And I, being an absolute genius, had gone to the most obvious place in the world for them to look. Fucking shit. I stood up and quickly left the waiting area, trying not to make eye contact with anyone. Even as I walked to my car I could feel weird things happening inside me. They didn’t hurt, but you have someone squish your fucking intestines around and tell me if you like it. There were things fucking growing inside me, and I really didn’t want to think about it. Worse than that, my mouth started to feel like it was getting smaller. It took me a second to realize that my fucking tongue was getting longer. After a few seconds, it was too big to fit and it forced my mouth open, hanging out like I was a damn dog or something. People in the parking lot were staring at me, so I got inside my car and started the engine.

I had to get out of there and I had to do it fast. Where would I go? Home seemed like the best place to go at first – unless the G-men had gotten my info, I’d be safe. I had a mini panic attack when I remembered that I had been filling out ID forms. I glanced over, fucking tongue dangling, and saw crumpled ID forms sitting next to me on the seat. Weird. I hadn’t noticed that I had taken them with me.

I looked forward again and, wondering what else I hadn’t noticed, looked at myself in the rearview mirror. My tongue was dangling, way too long and wide to be normal, and my eyes had turned green. They were damn bright, too. Fucking hell.

Next thing I noticed was that things started to smell… more. Don’t give me that look, I don’t have a damn idea how to explain it better. I could smell the plastic and oils and rubber in my car, but instead of just smelling like my car, I could smell each of them by themselves, and it was all at the same time. I could smell my own sweat and something like cigarette smoke, probably from the motel room. There were a fuckton of things I couldn’t even recognize because I had never smelled anything like them before. I kept checking my face in the mirror, keeping an eye on the road so I didn’t crash into a pole or some shit.

My fucking face got bigger. It just started like filling out and moving forward. There wasn’t a pushing feeling or anything, it just kept stretching out, and fuck it felt weird. I could feel my teeth moving and I saw my tongue get pulled up into my new face. Sure, it was great to finally put the thing away so it wasn’t just hanging there, but this shit felt fucked up. That itching feeling started again and started spreading down my face. Grey hair started poking out of my skin like fucking pins and needles everywhere. Damn, my new face was fucking sensitive. It just itched when my neck grew fur, but it was like my whole face had gone numb and just started waking up. Then my eyes started to get blurry.

“Oh fucking shit,” I said, and pulled over. I did not want my eyes to change now. Fuck, I didn’t want them to ever change. There was this weird stretching feeling like something was sucking at the bones around my eyes and moving them away. My eyes felt like fucking warm bags that just spilled into the new area. I couldn’t see shit until they finished. First thing I did was look at my face.

“Holy shit…” I said, blinking two enormous green eyes and looking at some kind of horse/human hybrid thing. Glad I could still fucking talk, even if my voice sounded weird. It sounded higher, actually, almost like…

“No!” I yelled, and my voice came out higher than it had before. It kept getting higher and more… shit… feminine as I kept talking. “No, damn it! Not this shit too!” My voice got strained at the end as my throat tightened up and my huge eyes started to hurt. My hands started shaking and I slammed them against the dashboard. I squeezed my eyes shut and screamed, and damn it, I hated the sound of that voice. It sounded like some freshman girl’s voice. That voice belonged to girls who were perky and stupid and fucking not me because I wasn’t a damn girl!

I couldn’t take it. My shoulders just started shaking and my nose started running. Fucking thing. I got some napkins out of the glove box and clumsily tried to keep it clean. The thing was only a couple of inches in front of the rest of my face, but damn, it felt like it was a fucking mile long. It wasn’t enough that it was shaped weird and so fucking huge. It had to be surrounded by fur too. I lay there, girly sobs coming out of me, fucking eyes spilling tears everywhere.

This was so fucking unfair. There were tons of furry freaks who wanted to get horse faces or cat legs or whatever the fuck. Why couldn’t one of them get infected by this shit? Why’d it have to be me? I mean, all that furry shit’s fucked up. It’s like, why would you want to fuck an animal? I didn’t like any of it. Even that pony shit Nick watched was fucking weird.

Wait a minute. A stupid and scary idea popped into my head. I looked at myself in the mirror again.

I was a damn mess. Dark streaks were under my eyes and nostrils (I guess my whole fucking muzzle was like a nose and mouth now.) My eyes were red on the edges and my ears were hanging limp against the sides of my head. I blinked to clear my eyes and adjusted the mirror so I was looking straight at it. I kind of looked like one of those fucking ponies from his show. Horses, normal horses I mean, have this huge fucking snout that just stretches out their whole head, but mine was short and was curved softly. Kind of petite, actually.

Fucking shit. I’m cute. I’m turning into a fucking cute cartoon pony.

Wait, did that mean Nick could be involved? Nah, that was fucking stupid. Get a hold of yourself, Alan. He’s not some fucking supervillain. You’d probably have noticed if he had, like, biotechnology equipment. Ok, ok, if it’s not him, it’s something else. Maybe one of those fucking bronies actually had tech and pulled something like this off. Or maybe it was just some furries.

Wait, what? Was I actually saying that these guys were turning people into their fetish or something? I mean, whatever, there’s probably a few freaks who would do it, but I didn’t think any of them could. Probably not, anyway. I’d have to get home and see if anyone knew anything about it. They had to, right? I couldn’t stand the thought of being the only fucking one who this was happening to.

I looked at my hands, turning them around, looking for anything weird. Nothing. I pulled my shirt forward and saw that the grey hair had grown slightly down my chest before tapering off. At least it left me still able to drive.

It was a few hours before anything started happening again, and I was actually starting to feel ok about the situation. I wasn’t far from my place when my fingers started getting stiff.

“Shit,” I said, looking down at my hands and trying to keep driving. I started to have to stretch my legs to reach the gas and brake pedals, and it felt like they kept getting farther and farther away. “Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck…” I was starting to lose control of the car. My fingers were bending towards my palm and were changing color. Having a girl’s voice come out of my mouth was not helping for shit. I looked around frantically for a place to pull over, and seeing one, went for the handbrake. Something hard around my hand bounced off the handbrake. I didn’t have time to think about that. I pulled the steering wheel to the side as my feet came completely off the pedals. There was a crunch as I hit the curb.