Food.

The smell of fast food breakfast wafted into my nose, and I licked it eagerly.

I went from being fully asleep to fully awake in the span of seconds. It took me however a bit longer, after I'd laid hold on a breakfast burrito to realize... Jackie was playing the Switch.

She glanced at me.

"Oh you're awake," she said, "I got a duck! And he floats in this pond!"

I laughed, but I soon pulled back to reality. Jackie had a fluffy tail, much like mine, covered in light yellow fur sticking out behind her. And she was wagging it.

As surprising as that was, it was more surprising to find that fur had now started to coat my whole body. When I walked into the bathroom, sure enough, I basically had the ears and black snout of a dog.

I sighed and turned away from the mirror quickly, going back to sit on my cot, and look at what Jackie was doing in the game.

"You got a cat?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah this lady came up and asked if I wanted to to have a dog or a cat, and I have had enough crap with dog stuff."

"Makes sense," I said. I then realize something else. "Wait... did you change my character into a girl?"

"Calm down," she said, "I did that co... whatever mode thing, and now I live in this cabin on another part of our farm."

Oh? It was our farm now was it? I walked up and picked up the extra controller, and... we just had fun. Not only was it nice to have something that distracting me from what was happening, it also felt good to finally connect with Jackie on something, let alone a game. To my astonishment, when I'd been asleep and she'd been playing a bunch, she had talked to a bunch of people in town, and could tell me all about them.

By the time my Mom came in around noon, we were having a debate over the strategy we should take in our planting for the Fall.

Reality once again spat in the face of having fun, as my mom stared at me. Her hold body was tensed up in shock, barely moving.

"I'm sorry Matt," she said, "it's... it's just a lot to take in. I'm glad though that you two at least seem to be doing alright. Did you have the food that I got for both of you Jackie?"

"Yes Mrs. Hewitt," she said, "thank you."

"Mom," I asked, "has... has Dad..."

"I'm sorry Matt," she said, "he's working a great deal, but they haven't found, as he's said, the "lynchpin" that is causing all this in the mess of dog DNA that was in the original treatment."

"Okay," I said. I felt my ears droop. It was going to be hard to get used to that.

Mom stared at my face.

"Is it... that bad?" I asked.

Mom sighed. "It's just... really unnerving watching this happen to my son."

"How has Ashley reacted?" I asked.

Mom shrugged. "I don't know. Shocked. She hasn't said much about it. She's not making fun of you if you that's what you're wondering. When we've shown her pictures of what's happening... she doesn't say much. I think she's in denial."

"I would be too," I said, "if not... if not for the fact that all this is attached to me."

"What...," she hesitated, "... what does it feel like?"

I shifted around, and wagged my tail slightly, and then licked my nose.

"It... it feels surprisingly natural. That's what's so weird about it."

"They said... they said that could happen," Mom sighed. "I... I don't like it. But they said that resisting your... your new instincts, it might actually be harmful."

I licked my nose again. I guessed that it wouldn't feel very good if it was super dry. I doubted that I could even keep myself from doing it.

"But whatever happens," Mom said, "I just want to remind you that we love you, no matter how you look."

I made a slight smile, tinged with disappointment. But I wagged my tail still. It made me feel a little better.

My mom sighed, and then pulled down her mask. "They said that it was alright for me to be in here unprotected."

She pulled off her gloves too, and hugged me. I didn't realize that I'd needed the reassurance, and my growing fur pressing against her felt weirdly comforting. I suddenly felt a strange sensation. Mom was scratching behind my floppy dog ears.

And it felt amazing. I wagged my tail happily.

Mom made a nervous laugh. It sounded like she might be crying slightly even as she tried to smile. "You really are just a little doggie aren't you?"

I let my Mom do it. Part of it told me that it was really weird for her to be so affectionate towards her teenage son. But I also had been wracked with fear since all this had begun. It felt good to just embrace my mom like I was a little kid again. And it felt like she needed this reassurance as much as I did, that I was okay - even if I had changed.

"Maybe...," she said, "maybe we'll be able to get through this after all."

"I hope so," I said.

Mom had to leave as Melina came in, and did our daily examination of heart rate, DNA samples, and stuff like that.

"You're actually doing somewhat better than yesterday and the day before," she said, looking over data on a tablet. "I'm not sure whether it's because you're both in a better mood, or because you're nearing the end of the changes."

"Wait what!" Jackie suddenly said, "you mean we're not going to become animals?"

Melina fidgeted with her mask. "Well... we know you're not going to fully become dogs. From our data the rate of change in your DNA is slowing. But whether you've become animals... I guess that's up for debate."

"But can we change back?" Jackie asked with urgency.

"Genetics," the Melina sighed, "is difficult. It's far more complicated than we understand, case in point, what has happened to you. We thought that the treatment all those years ago wouldn't cause complications. It did. And because we don't know exactly how you changed at the moment, it's going to take a while to pinpoint things."

"But how long will it take?" Jackie asked.

"There's a lot of variables," the Melina said. "It'll take extensive testing and studying of this. You'll need to come into the lab on occasion to be monitored."

"How long?" Jackie reiterated.

"Honestly," Melina frowned, "I don't know. Could be years. Could be months. And that's only to find out what the cause is. An effective treatment that doesn't cause more problems could be years beyond that."

"So basically," Jackie said with frustration, "we are going to be perfectly capable of functioning in the normal human world, but we're going to look like absolute freaks."

"Under the circumstances," Melina said, "you should be grateful that it didn't get worse. We're still hoping that you don't lose your opposable thumbs."

I glanced down at my hand, and rotated my thumb around. It didn't seem affected, but that was what I'd thought about the rest of my body a week ago too.

"Bottom line," Melina said, "you two, and by extension, everyone affected by this, got out way luckier than you had any right to. You're not going to become pets, and since this only transmits via saliva and blood - ie, direct DNA, we have much less risk of some transformational epidemic."

"If it's not transmitted through the air or anything," I asked, "why are you still wearing a mask?"

"To be honest," Melina said, "I have pet allergies... your fur hasn't been too bad, but I'd rather avoid it when I'm doing such long shifts."

The odd thought came to my mind of what could happen if someone started changing like we were, but had pet allergies. Sounded awful.

"I need to get to something that's probably not important," Melina said, "but I'll be laid into if I don't get to anyway. I'll check on you guys later."

She left. I leaned back against my pillow, filled with exhaustion. I didn't pant - I was more exhausted mentally than physically. I looked at my turned off phone screen, able to see my unnatural reflection looking back at me. It was hard to see in the improvised mirror, but the fur was more evenly coating my face now.

This was going to be my life. In some ways, the horror of fully becoming dogs was less stressful than what I'd probably need to face. In that life, I would be lowered to the status of animal, of pet - but I wouldn't have to ever face the agony of walking around at school like I was.

Maybe I could convince my parents to let me do some online program for the rest of high school. Then I could move out to some mountain cabin and work remotely for the rest of my life.

It all was just so depressing. I'd already felt anxiety about the future but this was too much. So with a headache coming on, I eagerly picked up a switch controller, and did all I could to escape reality.



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