A Just Punishment For Sinners

I awoke to find today was like most others in my life.  Which meant that I’d have to get up, get dressed, and go to work.  Boring, unimpressive, and occupied by talentless imbeciles, my job was currently my largest source of stress.  Had I been as devout a Catholic as I was raised to be, this would be a trifling nuisance, something I could brush off.  But I’d never gotten than hang of turning the other cheek, of forgiving my coworkers their sins.

As such...  I sighed, picturing their faces, names, how they wronged me...

There was Candace, the secretary who brought a box of donuts every day just so she could eat them behind her desk.  I’d worked alongside her for ten years, and not once had she offered me—or anyone else one.  I’d ask if I didn’t know she’d say ‘no’, looking at me in vacant confusion.

Though her usual vapid look was nothing compared to any that could be found on Jane—by far the laziest person in the office.  She was something else entirely, always putting in the bare minimum of work, showing to work late and leaving early...  Of course, our office never used time cards, the machine having been deemed too hard to install in a leased office.  Freaking Manhattan.

To be fair, though, our accountant never bothered too much with that request.  Robert was a hell of a guy, stingy with all expenses that didn’t have to do with him.  “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” sounded hollow when it came from the lips of a man who proudly drove a Hummer.  He was the only one—aside for me, naturally—who was competent at his job, cutting down on expenses across the board.  A pity his never seemed to get slashed.  I wondered how much his gym memberships, suits, even how much his lattes cost.  Probably best I didn’t know.

Of course, while I didn’t know too much about his affairs, I knew plenty about the ‘office couple’.  They were Fiona and Thomas, a pair of lovebirds who constantly made love throughout the office, pretending like nobody saw.  Though, to be fair, nobody else ever scolded them, either because the lovers were correct in their assumptions, or because everyone else was too stupid to care.  I suspected the latter.

And Ben—Ben somehow envied these people.  He wanted their lives, wanted to be rich like Robert, or fat like Candace, or in love like Tomas.  And he moaned, he complained about this constantly—to the point where I could practically recite his grievances by heart.  Not once did he realize that if he was so sick of looking at all of these people, he could just quit!  Find some people worse off than himself to make him feel better.  Cretin.  But he was the only one in the office that wasn’t completely garbage to talk to, so I had to give him some credit.

And who better to lead this collective waste of life than Gregory, our esteemed leader?  He watched all of this from his office, from the fornication to the procrastination to the lamentations, and he was somehow proud of it all.  Not proud of us—not by any means, no.  But he enjoyed his job, enjoyed holding it over us whenever we went out for a company dinner.  “Oh, I’ll pay—no need to worry, I can afford it.”  Ass.  He’d even soundproofed his office, making it so that he had his own little world where he could pretend we were just as good as he thought we were.

Were it not for me working there, the small company would probably have gone out of business anyways.  I sighed, looking myself in the mirror as I prepared for yet another day in the hellhole that was Staton Consulting.

“Damn, I wish I didn’t need up to put with my coworkers.”  I muttered, glaring at my reflection as I combed back my hair.

“You rang?”  My reflection spoke back, and as my gaze rose to meet it, it winked at me.  That wasn’t—wasn’t possible. I fell against my wall, my pulse racing as the man in the mirror winked conspiratorially at me again.

“Feeling okay there, champ?”

“Holy—”  The rest of the sentence wouldn’t come out; words were failing me.  Ever since I was a child, I had been afraid of my own reflection—literally.  The thought that my mirror image could behave differently, change whenever I wasn’t looking...  I started to hyperventilate as my reflection watched on, the smile faltering for a moment.

“Hey, easy buddy.  You die, that means no contract for me, yeah?”  The thing in the mirror spoke again, its skin darkening from my pasty white to an almost midnight black.  Its eyes turned golden, its face reshaping, and I realized I wasn’t looking at my reflection any more, but...  Something else.

I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn’t work.  Dimly I became aware of a growing dampness spreading from my groin, as I realized my death was fast approaching.  Hell of a way to die, of a way to be found.  “Wh-what are you?”  I asked, the only thing coming to mind.

“The closest word in your language is ‘demon’.”  He said with a chuckle, a mane of shock-white hair growing from his scalp as he leaned to the edge of the mirror, pressing against it.  His form just... pushed through the mirror, his skin stretching against him as he forced his way into out reality.  I whimpered, unable to do anything else.

He probably had something to do with that, locking me up so I wouldn’t hurt myself.  Not that I’d thank him for it, or anything.  “So, do you have a name?”  I offered, trying to take my mind off of the fact that I was clearly talking to something not of this world.  “I’m James, James Randolph.”

“‘Demon’ will suffice.  No sense in giving you any extra power over me, right?”  He smiled, his teeth blood-red in his mouth.  “Isn’t that right, James?”

“Oh.”  I muttered meekly.  “Yeah, I guess I was a little stupid there.”  It was pointless to pretend I had given him a fake; I’d always been a terrible liar.  No, I’d have to live with the consequences.

The demon laughed.  “Stupid?  Yes.  But entertaining.  This is why I come to the human world, you’re all so fun to watch.”  He pulled the rest of his body from my mirror, dropping to a cat-like crouch on my counter.

“But if you wanted to watch, why make yourself known?”  I hazarded, arching an eyebrow.

He laughed at me, as though I was a simple child.  For a moment, I forgot my place, anger coursing through my form.  But I kept it back, waiting for him to continue.  After a moment, he spoke, apparently satisfied by my lack of action.  “I’m here to make things more interesting, to give you the power to make your world better.  Sound good?”

“And you want my soul?”  Not that I believed in having a soul or anything, but I also didn’t believe in demons until a minute ago.  I figured it couldn’t hurt to have my bases covered, just in case.

To my relief, the demon smiled again, that familiar and unsettling blood-red glint of teeth.  “If I wanted your soul, I’d have taken it by now.  What I want is to test you.”

Somehow I couldn’t help but think this would be worse than if he’s stolen my soul outright.  I mean, I was pretty awesome, but what if he wanted me to do something impossible—could I still pass the test then?  But if he wants to set an insurmountable goal, he probably would have just outright taken my soul...  Yeah, I had to trust him, as bad of an idea as that was.  “Test?”  I asked, more than a little nervous.

“A good question!”  He applauded me softly, though I could detect a trace of sarcasm in the action.  “Test.  I cannot help but wonder what you will do with such power.  Will you be consumed by it?  Let it run wild, dominate your frail human body?  Or will you be the saint you think yourself to be?  It’s completely, and utterly fascinating.”

“And if I say ‘no’?”  I hazarded the question.

“I give you the power anyways, and conduct this experiment on an unwilling volunteer.”  He said dismissively.  He paused, offering a simple sentence by way of explanation:  “I’m exceedingly bored.”

Lovely wealth of choices I had.  “Well I guess I accept.”  I said it slowly, unsure of myself.  Then, I held out my hand, grinning uneasily.  He shook it with his right, holding up his left to create a ball of blue fire.  Before I could ask what that was for, he drove his palm into my stomach, the burning orb suddenly vanishing within my body.

Frantically, I broke the handshake, patting my chest down to find not so much as a sign of a burn.  As a matter of fact, I felt completely normal.  I looked up to the demon inquisitively, and he shrugged.

“You won’t feel too much at first, but trust me, the power’s there.”

“Yeah.  Right.”  I nodded.  “So what now?”

He shrugged again.  “You have a TV?”  I led him to the family room, and he nodded appreciatively.  It wasn’t a big flatscreen, but it wasn’t anything to scoff at either.  “Perfect.”  He dropped himself onto my couch, waving his hand at the device.  My eyes widened as it flickered on, showing a third-person view of me.  I turned slightly, watching my on-screen image repeat the motion, its eyes as wide as my own.

“Beats using a crystal ball, eh?”  He gave me an easy smile, then looked at the clock.  “Ah, shit.  You’ll be late for work.  Hold on a tick.”

Before I could protest, those blue flames of his overtook me, swallowing me in a cold embrace.

I shuddered awake on the subway, my eyes wide as I looked at my surroundings.  Nothing was out of place, save for the fact that I’d been able to get a seat today.  Must have gotten a lucky car—that only happened one or two times a month.  I sighed with relief, then laughed out loud, heedless of the car’s other occupants.  Thank God it was just a dream!

“Don’t worry people, just remembering some comedy bit.”  I offered to the other people, before realizing the futility of the statement.  Let them believe what they wanted—I still had my soul!

For the first time in years, I waked into work with a smile on my face, only to be greeted by Candace at the bottom of the elevator.  She’d managed to hit the call button, but her customary box of donuts was making it a little hard for her to work the next panel.

I considered ducking out of the way, letting the doors close—but of course she saw me, her pudgy face breaking into a grin.  “Oh, hi Jim!”  Jim.  Always hated that nickname.  “Mind getting the floor for me?”  I sighed, leaning in to send the elevator to its destination.  Then I backed out, moving to the stairs.

“Oh, why not take the elevator?”  She called out, not bothering to hold the door despite her kind words.

“Because we work on the second flood, Candace!”  I shouted, hoping the sound would carry through the elevator doors.  “You fat cow.”  I added under my breath once I was safely out of earshot.  Probably the worst part about this was that I’d be seeing her again just as I reached the top.  But this was the only way for me to get any exercise at a desk-job...

I sighed, opening the door to the stairwell.  Just in time, the door to the elevator slid open with a quiet ‘ding’.  “Enjoy your trip, Candace?”  I offered, just in case she’d picked up on any of my irritation.  Life was made much easier when people didn’t know how much you hated them.

“MOO!”

I blinked, taken off-guard.  Did Candace just—

A moment later, my questions were answered as some...thing barreled out from the elevator.  It looked like some sort of cow-woman hybrid, a cow’s head sans muzzle atop its shoulders; hooves for hands and feet; a set of udders below its chest.  They most disturbing thing about it, though, was the human brown hair atop its head, the bright blue eyes it sported—the exact same as Candace’s.

In fact, the closer I looked, the more similarities I saw: tattered clothing, earrings, mashed donut sticking to its hooves.  There was no way that this thing could actually be Candace, could it?  As I watched, white fur coated the rest of its—Candace’s?—body, and something in her hips popped.

“UH-MOO!”  Candace bellowed again, her tongue lolling from her mouth as she fell onto all fours.  Judging from the bulk she’d put onto her already-impressive frame; she wouldn’t be getting up again.  A rippling shudder went through her body, and her eyes widened as a tail sprouted from her rear.

She let out another loud bellow in fear, and I took a wide step back as her nose stretched out, growing large and broad, her nostrils flaring out to those of any common bovine.  She snorted loudly through them, her jaw hanging loose as she choked out another loud moo.  I could see her teeth becoming flat, blocky, and perfect for chewing greens.  Funny, greens to her were like garlic to a vampire—unless if they were covered in a pint of ranch.

I snickered and Candace looked up at me, her eyes watering as her hair receded into her scalp, leaving her a complete cow.  “Um.  Candace?”  I ventured, leaning in closer.  I arched an eyebrow, flinching back in surprise as she bellowed loudly, bobbing her head up and down.

“Is that a cow?”  I turned, looking at Ben standing in the doorway.  While he was definitely the person I minded the least in the office, he was also the last person I wanted to talk to right now.  And right now, it looked like he was too focused on the animal in the hallway to notice me.  Maybe if I were to edge away...

Candace bellowed again, bumping at me insistently, like she wanted me to hold some sort of conversation with her.  It was a little funny, actually, and I snorted with laughter.  Too late, did I realize the sound would draw Ben’s attention to me.

“Hey James!  How’s it going?”  Ben jogged up to me, pausing as he studied my animal companion.  “Ah, I get it—dress up a cow like Candace for her birthday!  Not a bad prank, buddy, not a bad prank!  Though I doubt our cow of a receptionist would approve.”  He chuckled, patting me on the shoulder.  I noticed Candace’s hurt look and I shrugged at her helplessly, turning back to Ben.

“Things are going...  Well, they’re going.  But enough about me, how’re you doing, you snake in the grass?”  I beamed at Ben, determined to distract myself from the fact that Candace had become an animal.  It was probably one of his stupid pranks, something dumb to freak me out.  Yeah, people didn’t just become animals, they probably hooked Candace up with some special effects gear.  Even if it looked real enough...

I swallowed, looking up at Ben nervously.  “Hey man, you think that people can turn into animals?”  Before I knew what I was saying, the words spilled from my mouth, a half-confession of sorts.  I looked up to Ben to find him quietly snickering with laughter, soft hisses filling the air.

“You okay, Jamessss?  On ssssomething?”  He seemed to be having trouble with his s’s, and I looked at him a little closer.  Did...  Did Ben always have that green pallor?

He noticed my stare, and opened his mouth to say something else.  Before he could give voice to anything, his tongue flicked out, long, thin, and black.  It hung out from his mouth, flicking at the air even as its tip bifurcated.

Ben looked at me, his eyes wide and pleading even as his arms and legs snapped together.  It looked like his arms were shrinking, and though he was the same height, his waistline kept lowering as though his legs were sinking into his body—his increasingly scaly body.  I looked on in horror as his skin became an emerald green, and when I my eyes met his, his eyes were a shockingly bright yellow.

Okay, that was too much.  I shoved him to the ground, pretending I didn’t notice him armlessly flailing, trying to get back up.  “Don’t—Don’t follow me!”  I shouted at Ben and Candace, stumbling back to the door to our office.  I practically fell as I opened it, my legs oddly numb.

I had to splash some water on my face, get some sense into my thoughts, and try to work out what was going on with the world.  I had to go to the bathroom, think things through.  Hopefully it was just a dream.  Yeah, a dream.  Because dreams were this real.  My thoughts distracted me as I swung the bathroom door open, and it hit Robert, the big man spilling his latte.  Some of it got on his designer shirt, and his face reddened.  “Hey, watch it!”  He shouted.  “You know how much these cost?”

“Hey, sorry Rob, I just need to go through and, uh... use the sink.”  I mumbled, trying to push past him.

“Hey, Jimmy-boy, not so fast.”  He slapped a hand against the doorway, his well-muscled arm barring my entrance.  Jimmy-boy?  A tinge of irritation broke through the fear that had so gripped my mind.

“Easy, big guy, I really need to get through.”  I spoke calmly, trying to keep my emotions level.  I didn’t want to lose my control, especially not in front of someone who could probably beat me to death unarmed.

Robert tutted, waving one of the fingers on his other hand.  “Without an apology?  Nah-ah.  I don’t think so.  See, you’ve messed up this good shirt, and you haven’t even thought to ask how much you owe me, how much this cost.”

I frowned, my anger getting the best of me, and before I knew it, I’d started to speak.  “What the hell do I care, you greedy pig?”

I don’t know what it was—maybe some desire to actually change him, some curiosity to test proof of concept...  Whatever the case, it was too late to go back now.  All I could do was hope that it would work—and if it didn’t, that his punches were softer than I assumed they’d be.

“What did you just call meeEE?”  His voice drew to a high squeal, and he snorted with surprise, his nostrils flaring out form his face even as his nose flattened, leaving him with the beginnings of a porcine snout.

“So, I guess it wasn’t a dream after all.”  I muttered with relief.  My shoulders sagged, then snapped upright, driven with purpose.  Finally, it dawned on me—now I had power.  I could change people into animals.  Not bad, not bad at all.

“Whuurn wrrnt drrunt.”  Robert managed, his words degenerating into grunts and snorts.  I watched with amusement as his clothing started to stretch out around him, the fabric creaking as he gained dozens of pounds.

“Oh, nothing.”  I waved at him dismissively, mimicking the demon from my dreams—though I guess they weren’t actually dreams, were they?

Robert grunted again, louder this time.  I remembered that were outside of the bathroom, in plain sight.  Quickly, my gaze flashed left and right.  Jane was the only one in the office, and she hadn’t hurt him this far, so...

I pushed Robert back into the bathroom, manhandling his changing form into a stall.  Thankfully, Robert hadn’t sprung to fund us getting any decent locks, settling on a cheap two-way turner instead of a more secure slider.  I slammed the door after him, using one of my nails to twist the lock closed.

“Not such a good idea now, eh piggy?”  I laughed tauntingly, hearing him squeal in distress.  He struggled against the stall door, but hooves lacked the dexterity of fingers, and he was unable to actually twist the lock open.

“I’ll be back for you, just try not to make too much of a mess.”  I said with a smirk, leaving the bathroom to find Jane waiting outside.

“Something the matter?”  I tilted my head at her, trying to plaster a calming grin on my face.

“I—I just heard noises, and I thought something was wrong.”  Jane said, trying to lean past me to look in.  Robert let out another volley of squeals, and she snapped her gaze back to me.  “You sure everything’s all right?”

“Of course, of course.  Old Rob just had some Indian food for an early lunch.”  I guided her away, leading her back to her seat across from mine.  She followed, her docility overriding her concern.

“It’s 9 in the morning.”  She protested.

I paused at that, tossing her a winning smile.  “Just trust me, everything’s just fine.”

Then a large crash sounded from the bathroom, and Robert stumbled out, squealing loudly with distress.  He was on all fours by now, the last human part about him his face.  His eyes glared at me judgmentally even as they clouded over, darkening as his face pushed out into the muzzle of an animal.

The hallway door opened, and Candace trotted in the room, mooing loudly.  Ben followed her an instant later, his serpentine body slithering hurriedly so the door didn’t close on it.

So much for keeping things quiet.

I glanced back to Jane to find her face white with shock.  She looked to me, somehow putting two and two together.

“Yeah, you’re next.”  I said boredly, picking at the dirt under my fingernails.  Then I gave her another winning smile and she screamed, running for the door in a hitherto-unknown burst of speed.  If she could work half as fast as that, maybe she wouldn’t be in this mess right now...  But she didn’t, and now she wasn’t fast enough.

“What’s the rush, you lazy sloth?”  I grinned at her, turning my chair so I could get a better view.

She stumbled to the floor, falling in a heap even as her actions grew more and more sluggish.  Slowly, her expression of fear melted away from her face, replaced with one of blind content.  She barely even noticed her pinkie and thumb receding into her body, her fingers lengthening to claws, her torso plumping out.  No, her attention was held by her arms lengthening to be almost as long as her body.  She flexed the limb wondrously, then slowly curled into a small ball as thick fur grew to cover her body.

Come to think of it, that wasn’t too unnatural: she probably was a good deal warmer thanks to her new coat.  I was tempted to wake her, but the door to the break room opened, and suddenly I had other thoughts on my mind, Fiona and Thomas walking into the room.

“Well, if it’s not our office pair of rabbits.”  I grinned at them, watching them freeze with shock.

“Uh, what?”  Thomas blinked, no doubt in a post-coital stupor.

“Did you do this to them?”  Fiona gasped, one of her hands flying to her head as her ears tripled in size.  “Are you doing this to us?  As she spoke, I noticed her front teeth seemed a little larger.  A glance to Thomas revealed the same could be said of him, and once he saw a fluffy cotton tail just above his butt he hurriedly began to strip, tossing his shirt to the ground.

“Um.  What are you doing?”  I asked, caught completely off guard by his actions.  My discomfort swept to a slightly guilty arousal as Fiona joined suit, her furry breasts soon bouncing free of their confines.  She was definitely attractive, but she was Thomas’s girlfriend-soon-to-be-partner.  Though her bunny ears, coupled with the snow-white fur gave her the look of a fetish model...  I glanced back to Thomas, awaiting his response.

“Transformation fetish!  Thanks, bud!  Once in a lifetime, right here!”  Thomas flashed me a thumbs-up, watching in rapture as his thumb sank back into his hand.  He left his pants on, instead choosing to kiss Fiona deeply.

“That’s a thing?”  I couldn’t help but ask.

“Hell yeah, it’s a thing!”  He muttered out the side of his mouth.

He was ecstatic.  Ecstatic.  This was a punishment, he wasn’t supposed to like it!  Did Actaeon enjoy his transformation?  Did Arachne enjoy becoming a spider?  Did any of Circe’s victims enjoy their forms?  No!  What right did Thomas have to take pleasure in this?

I glared at him in anger, a brilliant idea coming to my mind.  “Well, what if you two were to swap genders?”  Some of my thoughts’ venom leaked into my voice, but my statement had its desired effect.

They both looked up at me, surprise in both their eyes, but horror in Thomas’s.  That was more like it.  He broke the kiss, hurriedly taking off his pants to find he was now the proud bearer of female genitalia.  Fiona practically purred with joy at that, tossing her own clothes aside.

Though I hated them as a couple, Fiona wasn’t that bad on her own.  Honestly, I was more than a little glad that she enjoyed this change—Thomas was the one who deserved to suffer.  No sense blaming the lock for being picked when the thief was in front of you.

“Enjoying your changes now?”  I grinned as Fiona slipped behind her new girlfriend as she nibbled at the rabbit-woman’s neck.  Judging from the look on Thomas’ face, Fiona’s sex had completed its own changes, and the newly female rabbit definitely didn’t approve of them.

Thomas’s nose twitched as it pulled away from her face, forming a small rabbit’s muzzle, and she couldn’t do much more than squeak at the loudest.  Still, Thomas tried to communicate her distress to me—to which my response was nothing more than a smile.

“Oh, sex doesn’t seem so good now, does it?  Look on the bright side, Tom—you’ll be a lot quieter about it now.  Maybe now the whole office won’t have to hear when you two go at it like nothing more than mindless rabbits.”  As the last two words left my mouth, Fiona started shaking his head, and Tom’s eyes clouded over.

I looked Fiona in his eyes, and I could almost see the intelligence drain from her mind.  She dropped to all fours, as if to confirm these suspicions, starting to hump at her lover without further ado.

“Well, then.”  I glanced back, my eyes alighting on Robert.  “Hey, over here you fat waste of space.”  I snapped my fingers, and his fearful eyes met mine.

“You’re a stupid sow.”  I grinned as his eyes widened for a moment, his equipment no doubt changing even as his mind did.  Within seconds, all fear had left his eyes, and he blinked slowly at me, uncomprehending.

I nodded.  “How about that.”  I grinned from ear to ear, then looked to Gregory’s office.  He’d had it soundproofed earlier—something about not wanting to have to hear the minutiae of our lives.

“Hey Candace, go and break Greg’s door, would you?”  She blinked, looking at me in confusion.  What, did she need me to spell it out?  Fat idiot.

“Yes, I’m talking to you.  I’m giving you this one chance before I make you a bull, consider yourself lucky.”

That got her moving, and she kicked the thick door down, mooing loudly as her hooves met wood.

“God damn, they don’t make them like they used to!”  I grinned, stepping over the splinters to look at a very confused, and very irate Gregory.

“What the hell are you doing, Randolph?”  He shouted, standing up in a flurry of motion.

“Oh, I’m sorry.  Rather proud of that door, were you?”  I glared at him.  The door had probably cost as much as a week’s pay for me.  “Lion.  Now.”  I snarled, unwilling to even bother with subtlety.  The animal seemed a good fit for someone who prided themselves as the star of the office.

Adding the time qualifier seemed to make all the difference, as Gregory literally exploded out of his clothes, a very startled lion thudding to its front paws before me.  It grunted with shock, shaking its head in disbelief.  Some small scraps of clothing fluttered from its mane, and I frowned.

That was probably a designer suit, too—worth more than a year’s salary.  “You know what?  Make that ‘lioness’.”  I said coldly, grinning as the mane receded, and Gregory whimpered loudly.  “Consider that repayment for all of the times you’ve looked down on us.  Yeah, that’s right Greg.  I remember each and every time you pissed me off, and now this is happening.  Maybe you should have tried treating us as equals, yeah?”

I turned my back to her, walking back out to the office.  All of my coworkers were there, the wildly screwing rabbits in one corner, the mindless pig nearby, and the rest of them cluttered together.  Maybe they shared the comfort of their intelligence.  Maybe not.  I’d probably never know anyways.

“But maybe it’s best Gregory never treated us like equals.”  I said loudly, standing on a desk.  “Because since he hasn’t, I’m practically a god.”  I laughed at the ridiculousness of the statement.  “Me, a god.  Think about that.  And you—all of you are sinners, sinners asking to be punished, and who have received your just reward!  What do you have to say to that?  Who among you dares to challenge your superior?”

A low growl sounded from behind the desk, and I turned to find Gregory leaping at me, her fangs bared.

I had time to say two words.  “Oh crap.”

A second later, she thudded into me, her teeth digging a deep chunk out of my body.  “Get off me!”  I wheezed, my hand flying to the thick wound in my torso.  Gregory obeyed, of course, but that wasn’t my concern.  “Heal!”  I frantically gasped, looking at the wound in my side.

Much to my relief, the blood stopped gushing from the wound, and new flesh grew over the tear.  “Better.”  I muttered, slumping to my back, laughing with joy that I was still alive.  Alive, despite Gregory’s best efforts.  She had to be taught a lesson.

I rose, glaring at the lioness even as my lips curled back into a snarl.  “Cub.  Now.”  I grinned as he yelped comically, a cub dropping to the floor where once a mighty lioness had stood.  “You dare to touch me?  You dare to touch a god?”  I advanced upon him, picking him up by the scruff of his neck.

“You’re nothing more than a simple, mindless animal!”  I shouted in his face, tossing him aside once I saw the intelligence drain from his eyes.  But that wasn’t enough, not by far.  Candace had hesitated when I gave her an order, and Jane tried to run from me.  “You, and you!”  I pointed at each of them.  “Filthy, brainless animals!”

They shuddered, the last of their humanity fleeing their bodies.  It felt right, felt good to be in control.  I spun, pointing at the cub.  I opened my mouth to speak, then paused.  Why did I have to speak?  She was going to become an obedient lioness.  At my thoughts, the cub grew once more, shaking its head as it looked over its new body.

I let out a loud, hysterical laugh at that.  What a fool I was, wasting my words on filth like them!  It was a pity I had to spare them my thoughts, but that hardly required as much effort.  Finally, my righteous fury ebbed away, and I leaned back into my office chair, beckoning my new pet lioness forward.  I scratched her behind her ears, relishing in her satisfied purr.  Yes, today I’d had my revenge.  And tomorrow?  I’d find those deserving of some... changes.

A slow, prolonged clap came from the doorway, and I looked to see my mirror image standing there, smiling quietly.  As he crossed the threshold, his visage changed back to the black-skinned demon I’d contracted, and I rose to greet him.

“Demon!  My friend!  Do you like what you see?  I’ve done the Lord’s work, punished these sinners for their transgressions!”  I bowed, trying to state my achievements without overstating them.  I excelled in being humble, and the more I could flatter the demon, the more I could serve.

“Hm, quite.”  The demon smirked, looking over each of the animals in turn.  My former coworkers quailed from his gaze, sensing his presence though they could not see him.  Even my lioness backed away, hissing with apprehension.  The demon nodded, satisfied.

Then he turned his gaze onto me; that quiet smile still plastered on his face.  “Indeed.  None of them have been spared your... wrath.”

I frowned, catching his meaning.  Did he dare to imply that I was as guilty as the rest of them?  That I could be compared to these animals that lay before me?  I stood up taller, mustering the boundless power, my mind contained, power that... that was ebbing away by the second.

I looked up at the demon with impotent rage in my eyes, my anger beginning to give way to fear.  What did he want with me?  Well, that much was obvious.  What could I do to stop it?  That answer came slower, and with it a tidal wave of helplessness.  Stripped of my power—the power he had lent me—I was as weak as my coworkers had been.  And he would do the same to me that I had done to them.

“And now you understand the nature of your plight.”  He said, his skin stretching as his smile grew wider, impossibly wide.  For the first time I realized just how abhuman he was, the heresy of my oath.  His fingers twitched, and a small ball of energy formed in his hand.  He was going to transform me as I had my coworkers.  It was then my fight or flight instinct kicked in, and for the first time in my life, fight won.

I charged him angrily, my right hand stretched out for the orb.  If I could somehow take it, somehow reach out and grab it, take back what was rightfully mine!

The demon laughed, snatching his hand away, sealing my energy back into his form.  “Too little, too late.”  His mocking smile infuriated me, and I turned my thoughts from theft to all-out attack.  Of course, he ducked my flailing punches, my frantic swings—but I had to try, damn it!

“My my, you are an angry one.”  He spoke with a grin, fixing his gaze on me.

I knew what was coming, yet was powerless to stop the twisting sensation that ran across my body.  My hips popped loudly and I was flung to all fours.  My hands thumped on the ground, and I glared up to him.  “God da-AA-AAAH”

“Don’t say His name!”  He hissed, the sound somehow impossibly louder than the strangled bleats that were leaving my throat.  I couldn’t make any other sounds than that, and I loudly gave voice to my discomfort even as my neck stretched away from my body.

It felt like the changes were ending at my neck, but that didn’t keep the transformation assailing my head to be any more comfortable.  A muzzle pushed away from my face, and I felt a pair of horns sprout from my head.  My ears tingled, and I could hear by cries grow louder as they lengthened to have pointed tips.

The demon laughed, wheeling around a chair to have a front-row seat to my changes.  “But all the same, wrath isn’t your only sin, is it?  While it was what kept you changing these poor clods, I believe that there’ve been others in your life.”  He held up two fingers, looking me in my changing eyes.

“First, your envy.  That which drove you to accept my power.  Don’t lie, you wanted all of this, the secretary’s food, your boss’s power, the love of those two rabbits...”  He lowered his middle finger, grinning at me.

For a moment, nothing felt like it was changing across my body, and I’d be left on all fours with agoar’s head.  Then, the base of my spine ached, and I bleated loudly as a long tail blossomed from it.  I hurriedly looked back, finding a green-scaled appendage just above my buttocks.  I watched as a seam appeared down its middle, and a black tongue flicked out from it.

Something was wrong—I could taste the air behind me, I could smell through its developing nostrils, and...  I watched as a pair of eyes blossomed on its head, and suddenly I could see in two places at once, see both the head on my backside and the head between my shoulders.  It was nauseating, and I hurriedly focused all four of my eyes on the demon, if only so that I’d be seeing the same thing.

“And the pride you felt after I gave you a taste of power.”  He laughed, jabbing me in the throat with his extended finger.

I both hissed and bleated as my shin bubbled, stretching out into a new shape.  I leaned my head down to look at it, and I could feel my head sliding back along my body to rest between my shoulderblades.  I considered moving my serpentine tail to look at it, but a new pain blossomed from the growth, and I reared back onto my hind legs as it split open, a loud roar bursting from what had to be a forming mouth.  It sounded familiar, and this new head ached as it stretched a little further out, growing a neck that was soon covered with a long mane of fur.

Two more eyes added to my growing confusion, a new snout giving me a wealth of scents to sample.  This nose was more sensitive than my other two, the eyes sharper, too.  I closed the eyes of this head, and those of my goat’s head—I had to see what this looked like, and this was the simplest solution.

The world became crisper as I narrowed my vision to a single pair of eyes, and I looked first on my legs, which were rapidly changing into those of an animal with golden fur.  That, coupled with my mane...  I worked my tail so its vision slid along my changing back to my head, where my eyes met a lion’s head, its eyes closed in concentration.  I snorted in disbelief, the action coming from the lion’s dangerous snout.  I was a chimera, torn straight from Greek mythology.

This realization brought with it exultation, not the fear that the demon had so surely craved.  He had made a mistake; he had left me in a truly lethal form.  I snapped open the other two pairs of eyes, focusing all of my gazes on the demon, coiling back my hips in preparation of a lethal pounce.

Of course the second I thought of such a thing, I felt my muscles lock up.  The demon held as much control over me as I had Richard—I shouldn’t have expected otherwise, even though I felt my desperate hope wasn’t unwarranted.  I’d gotten distracted, hadn’t I?  Why couldn’t he have fallen into the same trap?  My lion’s maw opened into a growl, my fangs bared in frustration and anger.

Then everything went numb; my body froze.  For the first time since I’d started changing, genuine helplessness crept into my body.  All four of my legs started to feel cold, and from what my frozen eyes could see, my paws were turning grey, heavy and... cold.

As more and more of my body changed to this dull color, I could feel it better—it was hard, yet soft.  Not quite metal, but... Plastic?  My torso went numb, then my neck, then my face...  I couldn’t even look at the creeping wave of cold that was running over me, and only when the plastic began to slip over my muzzle could I see the rest of my changes.

Helpless, I focused my gaze back on the demon, who chuckled to himself happily, satisfied with his progress.  He pulled a mirror from his coat, holding it in front of my head.  I watched as the outer rim of my eyes turned to a shining pale white.  It continued to spread over me, leaving me with a pair of pearls for eyes—pearls which I could still impossibly see out of.

“Hey, tell me if you can still see.”  The demon laughed cruelly, tossing the mirror over his shoulder.  It shattered as it fell to the ground, and all the animals in the room winced with fear.

“Yeah, poor unlucky Jim—do you mind if I call you Jim?  Of course you don’t.”  The demon smiled, strolling over to Jane’s desk.

“Such a shame you had to become a chimera, especially since they don’t exist anymore...  Well, not in a flesh-and-blood sense, at least.”  He picked up Jane’s handset and started typing in a few numbers, looking up at me with a smile.

“But hey, you’ll enjoy being a desk toy.  It’s immortality, right?”  As he spoke, my entire body ached, as though I was being shoved in every direction at once.

Things started to get larger, the room expanding around me as I started to shrink.  At least, that’s what assumed was happening—it felt like I had to be shrinking, getting so small, barely a foot long.  The world loomed up around me—even Fiona and Thomas seemed to be larger than I was, let alone Candace’s gigantic form.

“Hello, 911?  Yes, I’d like to file eight missing persons reports, and also get you to contact Animal Control.  You’ll see when you get here.”  The demon chuckled, placing the phone carefully on the desk.  He hopped down, strolling towards the bathroom, no doubt to jump through another mirror.  “It’s been fun, Jim.  Thanks for the entertainment.”

The last thing I heard from him before the door closed was a snort and a laughed word.  “Sinners.”