Just Desserts by Schitz Wolfie

 

Sitting on the stained mattress, his tail shifting nervously back and forth on the concrete floor of his cell, Shawn stared at the walls blankly. The only thoughts pounding in his head were how much he couldn't stand the confinement. Had to get out... walls are closing in… heart beats pounding in his head.

 

Mind you, he deserved to be in there. He really deserved a lot worse; locked up for killing his 'girlfriend' after he raped her. Shawn was funny that way, everything had to be by his rules or he'd have to do something about it, so when she fought back, she had to be punished. Being arrested and forced to wait in this cell for his trial was not in his list of rules by a long shot. But fighting the officers didn't work. Kicking out the squad car window didn't work. Trying to make a break when they unloaded him from the car didn't work.

 

... as far as Shawn was concerned, this hadn't been one of his better days.

 

The moonlight shone in through the cell window, dimly lighting his surroundings... he hadn't even been locked up for a full day, and he was already going stir crazy, the moonlight wavering on the floor as if it were being viewed through running water, sweat dripping and stinging into his eyes. The thin opossum stared down at the moonlight swirling on the floor.

 

"Cain't take it no mo'e... I gots ta get owt... gots ta get owt..." muttering in a whispering, shaky voice, his lack of edjumacation flagrantly obvious to anyone who was listening. But no one was; he was all alone with the moonlight.

 

"How much?" ... a soft woman's voice penetrated the still air of the cell. Shawn looked around nervously, his ears twitching and turning to the direction of the voice; squirming as he sat forward on the mattress.

 

"How much do you want to get out?" The voice asked again. Shawn's eyes were wide as he stared around the cell. Jumping off the mattress, he pressed his muzzle against the bars, but the corridor was empty. He turned around back into the cell… only to see the patch of moonlight swirling on the floor, a small face melting out from the center. The mouth moving slowly as it asked a third time, "How badly do you want to be freed from this prison?"

 

"Ah... ah... I… goin' crazy? Y… you tahkin'... to me?" Shawn nervously stammered out the question, not believing his senses. The face swirled, growing more defined on the floor, a woman's face with ears sticking out the top of her head, actually poking up from the floor.

 

"You're not crazy... and I am talking to you. I can get you out of here if you want it bad enough, but you have to do something for me in return." Her voice was soft, barely louder than a whisper as the words sank in to Shawn's mind.

 

"Y… you cin get me free?" he nervously asked, his sweat dripping from his frightened face; wanting so badly to get out that he would pretty much have agreed to anything at that point.

 

"Yes Shawn, I can... but only if you promise to do something for me afterwards. Think about it bef..."

 

"Yes! I gots ta get owt o' here! Get me owt!!!" Interrupting her warning, Shawn raised his voice. Finally, someone was listening to him, and he was going to get what he wanted.

 

The face glided across the floor of his cell, creeping closer to him, smiling sweetly. "As you desire. This may hurt for a moment, but I'm just going to change you so that you can leave this place."

 

Shawn looked puzzled as the moonlight crept closer, his feet slowly backing away into the corner of his cell as his tail twitched, "Change... me? Wha… wait..."

 

Not even listening to his protests, the moonlight crept over his toes, slowly crawling up the fur on his legs... a slight tingle rolling up his body as her... form crawled up his body. "Wait! Stop!! Whatcho doin'!?" Shawn’s voice trembled as he shouted, nervously protesting whatever was happening. But she didn't stop; her form slithering up his shaking body, coating over his hips and rolling up his chest. The tingles rolled slowly down his arm, tickling under his sweating pits; trickling down over his fingers slowly; as her form swam up and smothered his neck, his breathing got tighter as she crawled up over his face, muffling his screams and smearing over his terrified, wide open eyes... completely engulfing his body.

 

The pain suddenly wracked at his senses, pulsing and seeping in through his nerves all over his body all at once, Shawn’s muscles jerked into a painful stance before his knees buckled, sending him crumpled into a screaming heap on the ground. He could feel some kind of liquid pouring in through his skin, seeping in; the sound of droplets of liquid dripping and trickling against his bones themselves echoing in his ears. Hs screams got muffled as his throat felt like it was being melted by battery acid, and his snout melted and curled on his face... terror shrieking into his fear-drenched mind.

 

Outside, the soft glow of light engulfing Shawn's body shimmered as his mummified form writhed around on the ground, his features slowly melting down... muscle and bone liquefying. The outline of his legs merging together into a single limb as his feet shriveled up to a point; the line between his legs disappearing as his tail sunk against his thighs in the moonlight tomb. His hips shrank inward; his hands that earlier thrashed against the bonds smelted down. His fingers dissolved into his hands, which quickly followed, and his arms melted and merged into his sides as his wrists were receding. And his screaming head... shrank down; becoming the same thickness of flesh as the rest of his body; his entire form being pressed down into a thin mass.

 

Inside the liquid wrapping, the pain had stopped, as had Shawn's ability to complain about it. He tried speaking, weeping weakly to the voice that had tricked him, but to no avail. He knew that he was being eaten, he couldn't feel his limbs anymore; only his body... but, something was strange. His eyes hadn't been affected at all, and his hearing seemed muffled, but still normal. He couldn't figure out why, but something felt different. As suddenly as the moonlight had swallowed him up, it began melting back down his body... revealing his head first.

 

The first thought that entered into Shawn's head was such amazing relief that words could not do it justice; followed by the realization that he was very close to the floor. He looked down... but his neck didn't seem to work right... and his arms felt like they were missing... and his vision was wrong, there was a brown lump under his eyes that was constantly in his way. The moonlight pooled off his feet, and the voice returning softly "Now you can leave as you wish. No one will even pay attention to a small snake like yourself..."

 

A small... WHAT?!?!?!??

 

Shawn's head whipped around quickly; actually, his body whipped around quickly. Looking at his long form, his tail flicked where his feet should have been. The voice was right, his entire body was a small brown snake with a little bit of yellow sneaking out from his underside. He sat frozen in horror for a minute, before looking at the moonlight... which... was... gone?

 

He started crying. Well, he wanted to cry, but snakes don't seem to have tears. Wriggling into a coil, he sat to think; a sharp feeling of hunger creeping into his belly. He hadn't eaten earlier in his captivity, and he was regretting it now. Something was making his mind itch... a certain smell... a warm smell... and the sounds of scratching nearby was just making him more hungry. His body started creeping on the floor, slithering through the bars of the cell, moving closer almost automatically to the... mouse? Yes... a mouse. An ugly, filthy, meaty... warm... delicious... prey. The thoughts were melting in his head, morbid disgust mixed with a primal instinct. His senses were reeling with the stalking, getting hungrier with each twitch in the air, every movement of the mouse. His eyes flashing as his body coiled back into a snake spring... before lashing out, his jaws snapping and stretching open to sink his fangs into the spine of the rodent. The feeling of the catch was a greater rush than anything Shawn had ever felt before in his entire life... primal... real... his rules... his way, his new way; the only way that mattered. The mouse's body wriggled softly as it struggled; Shawn's throat squeezing the very life out of his meal.

 

The swallowing itself took what seemed like an eternity of bliss, as Shawn’s body coiled softly on the ground. Looking around lazily, he realized that he had moved out of his cell. The voice had been right; no one would notice him out here as small as he was. He could slither out of the jail as he wanted and feel the rush of the kill again; live as he wanted for the rest of his life. He moved to the wall, crawling down the corridor, wriggling under doors, right through the middle of the guard posts; and out the front door. A free man... err… snake. The night sky felt so cool on his new skin, his senses reeling at how different the world smelled. He looked up into the sky to thank the moon for sending the wonderful angel... only he didn’t see it. The moon wasn't there; just a star filled sky.

 

He crawled across the lawn, coiling under a tree, trying to think of what he should do now. There were plenty of places that he could go now, almost anything he wanted... when he suddenly heard the voice again.

 

"Is your new form to your liking, Shawn? Is it everything I promised?" her voice was just as soft as before, only more soothing now that Shawn was so happy. He looked up, seeing the moonli... well, the light shimmering above him on a branch of the tree, and he nodded back. The light looked like it smiled back at him as it crawled down the trunk, getting closer "Good, I'd hate to think you hadn't enjoyed it... but we need to talk a bit more, Shawn."

 

It finally dawned on him that she had called him by name... how did she know his name?

 

A confused look crossed his snake face as the light crept closer, "I told you that there would be a price to pay for all this, Shawn. You promised to repay me afterward, and I need that payment now." She crept closer, almost touching him; a nervous instinct ran up his spine, turning to slither away as she... no, as it crept in; but the light had already wrapped around his tail. Panicking, he lashed back in a hissing bite, lunging at the light with his fangs spread wide in his maw, only to plunge in head first into the light. The earlier pain and feeling of liquids rushing into his body seared back in his nerves as the thing slithered over his snake body, smothering his new form. His scales burned and sizzling inside the light. Crying in his thoughts, Shawn knew that there was nothing he could do... he was helpless in her grasp...

 

The pain was only momentary, though, lasting only a few seconds. Shawn watched and waited, wondering what he'd look like this time, feeling his body getting smaller and smaller... but something was different this time. His vision seemed to change, slowly seeing in all directions at once, like he wasn't even there; and his hearing was filed with soft voices, growing louder as his eyesight changed. Yelling... screaming... crying voices... men and women, all wailing into his ears as he melted. The screams were all around him, all wailing in a chaotic whirlwind... all screaming for release.

 

The light creature slithered on the ground as her head slipped out from the light; her thin body emerging, wisps of thin strands forming wings on her back. Her bone-thin hands stroked lazily at her belly. "You borrowed my power to escape, Shawn... now I have taken it back, and you with it. You will have the same freedom that all who I have gifted do... to be anything I desire, anytime and anywhere I wish; and you will see everything... forever." The creature slowly melted down, as her body oozed deep into the ground and slowly disappeared from sight. The vision of being dragged beneath the dark ground was all Shawn or anyone else there could see.

 

Inside her body, only one thought repeatedly coursed through what was left of Shawn's mind, and his sanity; the only thought that would forever echo in his ears… "Cain't take it no mo'e... I gots ta get owt... gots ta get owt..."