© 2003 Provolvere.

Chapter 1: The Visitor  

This morning was like any other morning: it was time to start another day of work. I was usually the first person in, so was always the one to begin the morning routine of unlocking the door of our office, turning on the lights, and starting the coffee. I didn't mind though, since I appreciated the quiet before things began to get busy around here: the calm before the storm, as I thought of it. 

I put my briefcase down on my desk and checked if I had any messages on my phone. There was one message from Facilities reminding me to begin packing. My department was in the middle of a move, as our area was about to go under construction to update the floor plan. Facilities was going to be in later that day to start looking at what would have to be removed in order for them to start. Luckily, I had thought ahead and already gotten some oversized packing boxes to try and fit all my paperwork in, and I had them standing next to my desk. 

My mind was elsewhere as I started making the morning's coffee and sat down at my computer, which was still happily going through its start-up sequence. "Come on, come on you stupid thing," I mumbled to myself. Finally the log-in screen came up. I entered my username "tbeeble" and my default password "newuser", which I should really change, but never remember to do it.

As my computer was taking it's good time in logging me in and loading my operating system, I opened up my briefcase and took out my daily planner to see what my day would entail. I closed the briefcase and reached down to put it below my desk, but it stopped and didn't go in all the way.

A chill went down my back. I would have looked to see why my briefcase was going in all the way, but a soft, repetitive gust of air was being breathed onto my hand. I had felt breezes under my desk before, but this didn't feel like any ordinary breeze. It felt like a warm, wet breath. 

"Maybe I just needed some coffee to wake myself up," I thought to myself. I tried to dismiss it as a warm gust of air, but I was frozen with my hand still on the handle of the briefcase. The warm air pneumatically breathed onto my hand and the intervals were decreasing. I felt it again and again, faster and faster. A cold sweat showered my body as my attempt to try and convince myself nothing was there was rapidly failing. I shifted one foot forward and hoped it would hit the wall. But instead my foot was met with a soft thump and a muffled whimper. 

"AGH!!!" My chair fell over as I pushed myself backwards away from my desk. My head was met with a loud thud as I tumbled to the ground. I nearly blacked out for a moment, but I quickly rolled out of my toppled chair and prepared myself for a confrontation with whoever or whatever was there. Even though it only took a second for my eyes to focus on what was under my desk, it took me a moment longer to figure out what I was looking at. And then another moment… 

Under my desk sat an unclothed young woman. She was curled up and trying to cover her body, but not doing a very good job of it. If her being nude wasn't startling enough, what surprised me even more was the fact that… she looked human, but I could not be certain. There were two problems that were throwing me off, one of which stemmed from the fact that she wasn't truly naked because her body was covered from head to toe with short white and gray fur. Gray fur covered most of her head and face, gently flowing down her neck and gradually widening over her shoulders. White fur fought back the gray fur from covering her white chest and limbs, but the gray fur still succeeded to cover most of her back and splash onto her soft sides, firm buttocks, and her trembling tail. 

Yes, her tail. That was the other problem. Not only was most of her body covered with this gray and white fur, but her body also included a number of canine features. She was trying to hide her face between her legs, but from what I could see, she had a long, slender snout that was capped with a wet, black nose and whiskers at the end her face. There were no signs of human hair atop her head, but they were instead replaced with her oversized triangular ears, dropping forward close to her cheeks. I noticed how she had her arms clenched around her buxom chest, and her round, compact paws clasped her sides. The feet on this creature were similar to her hands, just larger, but her legs were the most noticeable deformity. Her legs were shaped differently than human legs, as if they had another whole section altogether. The ankle had become more like a hock joint, which her foot extended to where only the front part of her foot was the rounded paw. Combined with her fur, these physical abnormalities gave this beautiful beast a very distinctive look. The look of a smooth fox terrier.

She was probably looking at me as frightened as I was looking at her. I couldn't help it, though, because it seemed like I was trapped as I gazed into her rather deep-set, dark brown eyes. They were full of fire, life, intelligence, and an intense fear. I could feel my heart pumping, my adrenaline rushing, and my mind speeding as I tried to decide if I hit my head too hard when I had fallen. I noticed I was breathing very hard and was holding… well, a pen to defend myself. I looked at the pen, it looked back at me, and I realized that this probably would not be a very effective weapon if this person… or animal… tried attacking me. But my fear was rapidly being replaced by an intense curiosity of what I was looking at. Questions began replacing my fear and flooding my thoughts. Was this a costume she was wearing? Could this be for real? Who was she and why was she under my desk?

Stuttering, I managed, "Who-hoo-hoo are ya-you? Wha-wha-what are ya-you?" I had no idea my chest was shaking as much as it was until I began speaking. I could barely get my own words out of my mouth. For what might have been a few seconds seemed like an eternity as I waited for her to answer. She never took her eyes off me, but after a moment she ducked her face further into her legs and let out a pathetic whimper.

"Ca-an you speak?" Again, I waited but was still met with silence. I was finally calming down a bit and my body was loosening up. I released my grip on my poor pen and put it down on the floor next to me before taking a deep breath, crouching down, and trying to take a step closer…

"Please don't hurt me… whimper." 

Immediately I stopped in my tracks, my mouth hanging wide open in surprise. I guess I wasn't expecting her to be able to talk, especially not in such a soft voice that was surprisingly clear despite the fact she was talking with her face in between her legs. My heart started pounding again and I took another deep breath. 

"I'm not here to hurt ya-you. You startled me, I wasn't expecting…well… anyone under my desk. May I ask who you are, please?" I watched her to see if I could get a response. She looked back at me and finally lifted her face from in between her legs. Her long, slender snout was now clearly noticeable. She was quietly panting with her mouth hanging open enough to reveal her sharp canine teeth and long pink tongue. If this was a gag, someone had gone to great efforts to make her look like this.

"Please don't hurt me, sir. I am hiding from them… I need to get away, I need to escape," she said before letting out another pathetic whimper.

"Who's them? Who are you trying to escape from?"

"Please sir, just don't let them find me. I will tell you everything if you just help me get out of here… whimper…" 

I had to catch my breath for a moment while I attempted to swallow what this stranger was telling me to do. "I can't do that, I don't even know who you are!"

"Please…"

"Listen, I'm going to call security and I'll make sure they will take care of you. I promise I won't let 'them' or anyone else harm you…" Although awe-struck by this woman's appearance, I knew there was no way I was going to be willing to help her. My curiosity was quickly replaced with concern. I did not know anything about this creature; she could be a criminal or something, and helping her could mean I could get in trouble or risk my own safety. I knew the best thing was for me to get some help while I still had the chance to do so. All I had to do was get to my phone, which was only a foot or two away from me on the desk. Dialing three numbers, 311, would get security up there immediately. It didn't look like she was going to offer me much of a fight sitting in the fetal position, so I reached for the phone.

I picked the phone up and put the receiver up to my ear. She didn't budge, but instead began shaking more. After listening for a dial tone, I pressed the 3, then the 1… but then I stopped. I couldn't help but notice how scared she looked. Tears began swelling up in her eyes and running down her face. Whoever she was hiding from had shaken her up really bad. In addition, it probably didn't help how I probably scared her to death the way I jumped back and got ready to attack her with my pen. Perhaps I was being too hasty. I knew I was going to regret it, but I put down the phone and leaned down close to her.

"Come on, calm down. Listen, I'm sorry I scared you like that. Please come out from under there and let's talk."

She lifted her head and looked at me with a confused face. As I sat there crouched down beside her, I was further taken back by how… well… how real her appearance looked. I was searching for some sort of inconsistency like a zipper or anything to try and prove to myself she wasn't for real. 

"Come on, I'm not going to hurt you, but it's not going to be easy talking to you under this desk," I said as I did something I shouldn't have done, but I did… I put my hand on her shoulder. It was an innocent touch, but it took my breath away as I felt her soft silky fur on my bare hand. 

"Even if I were to go to heaven," I thought to myself, " I doubt I would ever feel something as soft or smooth as your fur again." She shifted her head as if she could hear my thoughts, so I quickly removed my hand and tried to focus on the matter at hand.

"Please, let's talk. I can hardly have a conversation with you if you hide yourself under there."

"Okay," she said softly.

Surprised that I finally got her to agree with me, I stood up and backed up so she could get out from under the desk. As she rose, the bright light of the room seemed to illuminate her and make her fur shine bright. Her stance was somewhat awkward because of her canine-like legs she was standing upright on, but otherwise she stood normal. Her whole body was revealed, including two furry bumps that sat on her chest right below her breasts and two more on her stomach. I could feel myself blush as realized that the bumps were also breasts. When she saw the blood rush to my cheeks and my embarrassed look, she quickly crossed her arms in front of her body to cover herself.

"I'm sorry, let me help you," I said. I didn't want to be rude to her, but it was very hard not to notice certain… things… when somebody is standing in front of you naked. I made a silent promise that I would try to keep my eyes where they belonged. With that, I tucked one arm in my shirt and then the other arm. I'd seen girls take off their bras under their shirts before, so I was sure I could take my undershirt off the same way. I realized an undershirt wasn't going to do much to cover her, but I figured it was a good start. "Here you go," I said as I pulled it out from my shirt and pulled my arms back through my sleeves. "It's not much, but it's something."

"Thank you." She said as she took it from me. Watching her try to put it on almost made me snicker because she was apparently having difficulty trying to figure out how to so with her stubby paws. She clumsily fiddled with it for a few seconds, but backed away from me when I tried to help her. She finally to get her arms and head through, and then carefully slid the shirt down her body. It really didn't do much help to cover her, but at least I could try and concentrate a little better.

"So please, tell me who you are and where you came from."

"Only if you promise to help me escape from them…"

"That's not fair, I can't do that…"

"Please just promise."

I could tell she wasn't going to give this to me easy. At least she looked a little bit more comfortable now. The shaking had died down a bit, but she kept looking around like she was watching out for someone. I was biting my lip on this one, but decided to take a giant leap on insanity since I had gotten this far…

"Alright, I will try and help you. If you start telling me what's going on."

She took a nervous little side step and looked behind her again before looking back at me. 

"Listen, I'm part of a secret experiment. They take us in and give us food and shelter. In exchange they do experiments on us to make us look like… this. It has something to do with some sort of genetic research, and them needing human test patients. I guess they normally aren't allowed to test on humans or something. I don't know all the details." She paused. " I've been with them for a long time, but now it's getting out of hand, they are going too far, and I had to escape before it was too late…"

"Hold on," I interrupted. "I am having a hard time trying to swallow your story, it just didn't make sense. Alright, I will admit that you look quite… different… but what you are telling me just didn't add up. Why would they use human subjects? For what? And who's doing this? The government? Terrorists?"

"I don't know…"

"Oh come on, you have to be able to tell me more than that. What the heck are you doing in an office building? This isn't exactly some sort of scientific laboratory or something."

"They hide us in buildings like these where nobody would expect to look… there are secret rooms where nobody could expect them to be…"

"I don't buy that. I've worked in this building for years and I haven't noticed. I know this building like the back of my hand. Where exactly are…" All of a sudden she ducked down, scooting back under my desk. Before I could even react, my friend Dan's face popped into the doorway.

"Hey Tom! Up and at 'em early like usual, huh? Ready for today's 2 o'clock meeting?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her gray and white tail disappear under my desk. Dan didn't seem to notice because he hadn't reacted. My eyes were wide open and I think my heart stopped for just about a second. Coming back to my senses, I decided I better respond to Dan, who was intently looking for me to answer.

"Yeah, uh, the 2 o'clock. The one with the, uh, consultants we're bringing in for the, uh, Heidison project. I almost forgot about that, I was just, uh, going to check my daily schedule now."

Dan glanced over at the coffee and then back at me before completely stepping in the room. 

"You okay Tom? You seem like you've had too much caffeine this morning. And why is your chair is on the floor?"

I followed Dan's gaze towards my chair and realized I hadn't had a chance to right it yet. I bent down to pick it up, trying not to glance over at the girl as I lifted it.

"No, Dan, not exactly," I said in between deep breaths. "I just had a little accident this morning when I fell backwards in my chair."

"Ow, that must have been a sight to see. Why do interesting things always happen when I'm not around." If only he knew how true that statement was. "You okay though? Hey, you dropped your pen here, let me pick it up for you…"

"NO!!!!" I nearly knocked him over as I almost dived towards the pen. "I've got it!!"

"Whoa there, Tom! You are definitely acting way too strange today, and it's only about eight in the morning! You usually don't get like this until at least three," he joked.

"If it wasn't you that said that, I'd resent that remark, Dan." I cracked a smile. "But anyway, I'm sorry, I'm just a little bit tense with this move and everything that needs to get done. I'm just having one of those days."

"Alright, man, but you better settle down real quick. Sarah's coming in right behind me, and you know she's not going to care what type of mood you're in."

"Yeah, I know." I plopped back down in my chair as he walked to the center of the room to get his cup of coffee. 

There were four desks in this office, one in each corner, with me in the left corner next to the door, Tom in the right corner on the other side of the door, Sarah in the corner behind me, and Carl in the last corner, but he was on vacation. The coffee machine sat on a small table in the middle of the room that separated Sarah and Carl's work areas. 

As I turned my chair towards my desk, I again reminded myself of my guest hiding under there. Sarah was going to be in there any moment and the chances of her not spotting the girl were slim. Sarah always watched what I was doing, so I needed to think fast. The boxes next to my desk were the first items to attract my attention; they were still flat since I had not begun packing yet. I hurriedly grabbed them from beside my desk and slid them underneath in front of… the dog girl. I could tell Dan was probably giving me another strange look, but I didn't care. No sooner had I sat up, Sarah flew through the doorway.

Chapter 2: Back To Work 

"Busy day people, time to get to work." Sarah walked over to her desk and put down her bag. She glanced at me and gave me a look, but she didn't seem to notice the girl. Instead she noticed my screen had a blue error message on it, and she scowled at me like was my fault somehow. She probably thought I wasn't doing any work, which today she would have been right about.

While waiting for my computer to restart, I tried to ignore Sarah's glare as I finally opened up my daily planner. One reason I always made sure to get in early was so I would be settled down and working before the time she got in. That's just one of the many disadvantages to having a supervisor in the same room as you, especially sitting behind you. I could swear that every time it looked like I wasn't busy, Sarah would think that I was not doing work. 
Sitting there, I tried to calm myself down and get back in a working mode. Ignoring the person hiding under my desk was not going to be an easy task. I scrolled through the day's tasks: report due by 10:30am, meeting with Greg at 11am until 12pm, and 2pm meeting with the consultants about the Heidison project. 

"Great, a fully loaded day and I was somehow supposed to concentrate," I thought. Taking a deep breath, I tried starting my report that was due by 10:30am. I added necessary changes to the report that I had jotted down in my notebook the day before. It wasn't long before I found myself staring at the screen. All I kept hearing in my head was what the girl had said to me about he experiments, the secret rooms… it all seemed like it was out of some strange science fiction movie. How could any of that be true? Is her disfigured body enough to prove her story to me? Could I really trust her?

The girl herself was causing me much inner turmoil. Although she didn't know it, her mere appearance caused mixed feelings that tore me apart from the inside out. She was beautiful, and somehow her canine appearance made her seem more special. But I felt so guilty thinking about her this way. She reminded me of her being like somebody's pet, and thinking of her as being attractive made me feel uneasy. I just hoped that the reason why I decided to help this girl was out of pity and not lust.

I finished my report late, but I didn't care. At least I had gotten it done. I decided I had better get going for my 11am meeting. I was unsure if I should leave the room with the girl under my desk. I didn't want her to think I was abandoning her or running off and I didn't want anyone finding her while I was gone. However, I didn't have much choice. Besides, there was no reason why anyone would be going under my desk. Dan and Sarah were both busy with work in the morning, and even if they decided to start packing, they should have enough boxes of their own. 

Before getting up to leave, I whispered, "Don't worry, I will be back soon, don't go any where."

"I don't think your computer is going anywhere, Tom," Dan snickered.

I noticed I had whispered too loudly, and quickly retorted, "I don't know Tom, with the morning I've been having it doesn't hurt reminding it." Dan chuckled, but I didn't have to look behind me to know that Sarah was glaring at me again. I got up out of my chair and headed to Greg's office down the hall. 

At first I couldn't even remember what I was meeting with him about, and even if I had, I wouldn't have cared. I sat down as he started going on about us needing to successfully complete the data migration in order for our new software tool to access some database. I found myself paying him as much attention as I had my report earlier that morning. 

Watching every second tick by on my watch, I began to grow antsy as it approached 12pm. I had been completely ignoring Greg so that I could think about what I was going to do to get the girl out of the building. I had an idea, but in order to even attempt it, I was going to have to away from Greg soon. When it seemed like he was going to go on all day, I told him I had another meeting and left in the middle of him still talking.

I casually walked down the hallway, but my pace quickened as I approached my office. There were two men with hard-hats walking down the hallway in the direction towards me, but I took little notice of them until they turned into my office. 

"Oh no," I thought, "I forgot that Facilities is taking a look at the room this afternoon!" To avoid filling up our work cafeteria, our company has the Facilities workers eat at 11am, so they probably thought it would be a good idea to check the rooms while we were all at lunch at 12pm. I silently cursed to myself and followed the men in.

I quickly walked by the two men and sat down at my desk. Besides us, the room was empty, which meant Sarah and Dan were at lunch. I hoped that the two men would do what they needed to do and leave soon. Since they were probably the ones that would be taking my boxes out for me later, I didn't want to have to be rude and tell them to leave. I sat facing my computer, trying to make myself look like I was busy, while actually paying close attention to what they were doing in the office. 

They looked around the room counting out loud how many chairs and desks there were, and trying to decide what was going to be the best way to get everything out for the move. Then one man stooped down to look under Dan's desk to see where his electricity and the Ethernet outlet were located. Next they looked under Carl's desk, and then I really started to sweat when they looked under Sarah's desk. I knew what was coming next. I was thinking, "Please don't come over here, please don't come over here, just please don't…" 

"Excuse me, sir," the one man said as he came over. I tried to pretend I hadn't heard him, but that didn't deter him. He tried again. This time a little louder and more impatiently, he said, "Excuse me, sir. We are going to need to ask you to move for just a second."

"For what?" I tried asking politely. I was frantically trying to decide what I could do. I could just refuse to move, but they might find it peculiar and I'd get in even more trouble when they would find her under my desk.

"We need to check under your desk to see where your outlet is, sir."

"Wouldn't my outlet be in the same spot as the other outlets in the office?" I could tell that trying to be difficult wasn't helping and only succeeding in making them more annoyed.

"Whoever put together this area to begin with wasn't consistent, which is why I have Ned here with me. He's the one that is going to be re-wiring the place once we get everything out of here. We just need to glance at where your outlet is for a moment and then we'll be out of your way."

I knew I couldn't do this all day. Getting up, I said, "That's quite alright," and I got up out of my chair and out of the way. I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes as Ned crouched under my desk and pulled down the boxes I had put up to hide the girl. I held my breath and waited for him to gasp in surprise. 

I had no idea how I was going to play off the fact that there was a naked canine girl hiding underneath my desk. Maybe I could just try and pretend that I didn't know she was there. Or maybe I could say she was threatening to attack me. Or… maybe I could just tell them the truth… yeah right. I squeezed my hands into nervous fists as I awaited their imminent reaction.
 

Chapter 3: The Great Escape

Every second Ned sat crouched down peering under my desk, it felt like an hour had passed. Incredibly, his facial expression remained mute as he sat there examining whatever he was looking at. He put the boxes back as they were and stood back up. 

"It's in the same spot as the desk in the opposite corner," he said to his friend, "but not like either of the other corners. Man, whoever put this room together wasn't really using their head." He looked back at me, nodded, and said "Thanks for your time, sir" before walking out of the door with his buddy, leaving me there standing wide-eyed and in a dazed state of confusion. 

I wasted no time dropping to my knees and pulling the boxes out from under there. To my surprise, all that was staring back at me was an outlet! Where was the girl?!? Had she left while I was gone? Perhaps, but I didn't think so. I tried to calm down and think about where she might have gone. I glanced back to make sure nobody was behind me, but noticed something moving in the shadows underneath Sarah's desk. 

The way the office was set up, there was my desk area and a table on the wall adjoining my desk that I used to put my papers on that stretched from my side over to Sarah's. While I was trying to divert the two men from looking under my desk, I must have distracted them long enough for her to crawl to the other side. "Good girl," I mumbled to myself as I took in a deep sigh or relief.

"Hey there, I'm sorry about that, I tried keeping them from finding you as long as I could. I'm glad to see that neither of us was caught. I was afraid you might have run off." I watched as she slowly peeked her head out from under the table. I found that I was happy to see her strange face again.

"I have to find a way out of here soon. They know that I'm missing," she said.

"How do you know?"

"Those men…"

"They were just guys from Facilities… they were here because we are getting ready to move out of this office and they needed to…"

"Check your outlets?"

"Yeah, I guess, I don't know what they need to do. I got a call from them before I found you this morning, I just forgot they were coming…"

"I escaped last night. They are obviously looking around for me. I recognized those men, they are a part of them."

"That's impossible…"

"If you think I'm lying, look around your room. Do you really believe that the outlets are in different spots?"

"What do you mean? Of course they are. Why would they lie?"

"Look for yourself, then."

I walked towards Sarah's desk and looked underneath. Then I looked back at mine. Her outlets were in the same place as mine were. Then I walked across the room and checked the outlets over there. All were positioned in the same place on the wall. I couldn't believe it; those men fooled me to look under my desk. But why would they lie to me? What the hell was going on here?

"Now do you believe me?" For the first time all day I noticed a grin finding its way onto her face. 

"I don't know what I believe right now, but I am going to help you. I have an idea," I said glancing at my watch, "but we are going to have to hurry before Sarah, the woman that sits behind me, comes back."

I reached under my desk and grabbed one of the boxes and began putting it together. Once I was done, I looked at her and then looked at the box. It was a tight fit, but it would have to work. I was glad that I had at least picked up some over-sized boxes so that I could pack up more stuff into one box. Who knew I was going to be packing a person. 

My company let me either pack boxes to take to our new office or home. The only problem is if I am taking the box home, they tend to check boxes to make sure I'm not trying to run away with any office goodies. I wasn't sure this was going to work, but what else was I going to do?

After reinforcing the box with some extra tape, I motioned for her to get in. She knew what I was going to try and do. She sat down and curled up inside the box lying on her side. It looked rather uncomfortable, but I knew she wouldn't be in there for long.

"You are going to be a little cramped for a few minutes while I take you outside to my vehicle. I'm going to rest these papers on top of you in case someone asks to look inside." 

She tried to nod to agree, but the box was too cramped. I immediately began emptying a few random binders of mine and rested the papers on top of her, just enough to cover her. I folded the box shut and walked down the hall to see if I could find a flatbed. I spotted one outside of Greg's doorway and walked over to get it. I chuckled to myself as I heard him still talking about data migration and I had to wonder if he ever noticed me leave. 

I hurriedly wheeled the flatbed into the room and went to pick up the box to put it on. It was much heavier than I had anticipated, but eventually I heaved it on. I could have called Facilities to do this, but after being misled by those last two Facilities guys earlier, I didn't think I could trust them. 

It was 12:30pm already and I knew I had to get out of there before Sarah came in, because she would want to thoroughly check what was in that box; I had a better chance with security. The problem was I needed a 'Special Materials' pass to take the box out of the building, but only Sarah could sign for it. I made a quick search of her desk drawers and found the pass I needed. I looked on her desk to find a different form she already had already signed so I could copy her signature. It wasn't the most moral thing to do, but this situation called for it. With that done, I quickly headed out of the office with the flatbed and towards the exit. 

As I was going down the hallway, I passed some people I knew and politely nodded. This was no time for conversation. Once I got to the main gate, I held my breath and hoped I would get through. A man inside the security room looked at my pass and had me open the one flap of the box. When he saw all of the papers, he let me close it back up. Luckily he didn't need to see any more. They were concerned more about things coming in than out.

As I closed the box, I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. I had been afraid that they would have wanted to look through the box more and would have seen a paw or ear sticking out. I did find it odd that the security guard was armed. I had never noticed security having weapons before, but I guessed it was something I had never realized before. I had never done anything like this where I had to worry about getting caught. 

One guard that was sitting inside offered to come with me and help me put the box in my vehicle. Realizing how much trouble I had earlier just lifting the box to put onto the flatbed, I decided to accept his help.

I stopped as we approached my truck. It was an old, big and boxy '84 Isuzu Trooper painted with two lovely shades of brown. I could have probably bought a new vehicle, but I could never seem to find the time in my busy schedule to even think about that. My SUV might not have been pretty to look at, but I liked it because it had a heck of a lot of cargo space, which I was especially appreciative of having then. I opened up the back and we eased the box up and slid it in. 

"Awfully heavy there, mister. That's a lot of papers to be taking home."

"Yeah, I know, tell me about it," I tried saying with a smile, "thanks for the help." He stood there for a moment inspecting the box with his eyes before walking away.


Chapter 4: Talking to Lucet 

While watching the security guard as he disappeared around a corner, I tried to shake off my nervousness. Without any more hesitation, I made quick work of opening up the box. It was already warm inside, which made me work faster to clear the papers off of her.

"Are you okay?" I asked, with obvious concern in my voice.

She sat up with her mouth hanging wide open, panting hard. I located a bottle of water in my car and gave it to her. I glanced around the parking deck to make sure nobody was watching us and then looked back at her drinking down the water. I realized that I did not know this strange girl's name yet. I had been working so hard to help her, but I didn't know what I should call her. When she finished the last of the water, I gave her another minute before decided to ask.

"So would you mind if I were to ask you what your name is?"

She paused and looked at me. "My name is Lucet." 

"Lucet? That's an awfully strange name."

She seemed to take offense. "It means to shine. I like to think of myself as shining above the rest and being different."

"You definitely are," I said with a hint of admiration in my voice. "What's your last name?"

"I don't have one. I am just Lucet."

"You don't have a last name?"

"No. When I joined them I lost my identity. They gave me my new name and my new life. I don't really remember my past…"

"That's awful!"

"Not really. I've enjoyed being with them. They treat us well, but now they want to try new experiments. I knew I had to escape."

"Wait, you said 'us', there's more like you?" 

"Of course. Experiments like these have been going on like this for years. I live with two other friends like me, but I've seen many come and go… I don't know where they all go. But that's why I needed to get out. Before they go too far. I want to help my friends before it is too late."

"It looks and sounds like 'they' might have gone too far already," I said.

Had anyone else been telling this sort of story, I would have probably broken down in laughter. There's no way I could believe she was serious. But her obviously abnormal appearance reminded me that it wouldn't be easy to argue against what she was telling me. I didn't know what to think, but I just felt compelled to help her, whether or not "they" and these "scientific experiments" really existed.

"Alright, I'm going to go back to my office now and try to get out early so I can figure out where to take you, Lucet, and so I can get out of work early. You stay here. Try to stay low and… not to be seen." She nodded her head at me before I closed the back door. I went around to the side and opened up the windows a crack before walking away, just to make sure the truck wouldn't get too warm. I shut the doors and began walking away. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon," I said to myself as I took a final look back at her. 
 

Chapter 5: Asking a Favor

When I walked back into my office, Sarah and Dan were already busily typing away at their computers. 

"Lunch is only supposed to be 40 minutes, Tom. Not an hour or however much time you decided to take this afternoon," Sarah said as I came in. 

I was tempted on making a smart comment back, but figured that wouldn't help the situation. Getting Sarah angrier than she already was would only be more trouble than she was worth. If Lucet had tried convincing me that Sarah was one of 'them', I would have gladly believed her. 

Sitting down at my computer, I pushed Sarah out of my mind and tried focusing on the issue at hand. I knew I needed to figure out how was I going to get out of work early. Skipping my 2:00pm meeting was not an option because Sarah and Dan were both going to be there. Staring at my computer, I thought for a minute. "Hmm, it is already 1:15pm; I better come up with something quick," I thought to myself. I decided my best shot was to try sending an email to Dan about what I would be doing.

"Dan, I need a favor. I think when I fell this morning I hit my head too hard. I'm really not feeling too hot and don't think I'm going to be able to make it to the 2:00 meeting. I'm going to go home and lay down for a bit. Can you cover for me on the Heidison project? I'm attaching my part of what we need to present today so I wouldn't be leaving you guys stranded."

After pressing 'Send', I nervously waited for a response.

A minute later, he responded, "Hey Tom, getting lazy are we? Have to email me when I sit across the room, do you?" I looked over at him and saw a smile on his face. Reading on, he said, "I don't remember you ever leaving early, or even missing a day, so you must really feel bad. You think Sarah's going to like that though?"

I wrote back, "It should serve as a testament to how bad I really feel right now. As far as Sarah, that's the real part of the favor. If she asks where I am, tell her… well, I guess just tell her I'm sick. She's not going to be happy no matter what you tell her."

I pressed send and this time watched for his facial expression to see if he would signal yes or no. After he finished reading it, I heard him sigh and saw him close his eyes and nod his head yes. 

"Thank goodness," I thought to myself. He might be a pain sometimes, but he was a good friend when it came down to it. With that done, I tried to inconspicuously pack my briefcase like I had to go to another meeting or something. Once I threw some random papers inside and shut my briefcase, I got up and quickly made my way towards the door. 

"Where are you going, Tom?" Sarah called, "Don't forget about the 2 o' clock meeting with…"

I didn't dare stop and turn around to acknowledge her; she would have never let me out of there alive. I briskly made my way down the hallway and towards the main gate. My heart was racing, as I guessed it was catching up with my disbelief that I was actually doing this. I hadn't gotten very far, though, when I noticed two familiar men walking down the hall in my direction. They were the Facilities guys who had fooled me earlier! Before they noticed me, I quickly turned into Greg's office. I hid behind the doorway and waited for the men to pass. Greg was talking to himself and didn't seem to notice that I had come in, so I stood there with my back towards the doorway and pretended I was busy listening to him while the too men walked by. They were busy in a conversation of their own and didn't seem to notice me. I took a big sigh of relief and headed towards the door.

"So what do you think?" Greg looked up from his computer and said. His question startled me and I almost jumped out of my pants.

"Uhm, what do you mean?"

"About the data migration?" He had to be joking; there was no way he was still talking about that. 

"Uhm, well, I'd say just do it, and if anything goes wrong we'll work on smoothing out the problems from there…"

"Sounds good, thanks Tom." I didn't even know if what I said made sense, but it seemed to make him happy. I decided he was either one of 'them' or he was just a nut. Or maybe I was just a nut. 

"Oh well, I have more important things to worry about right now," I thought to myself. "I can worry about my sanity level later." I peeked out the doorway to make sure the two Facilities men weren't around and left Greg to his own little world while I was about to embark on my new one.


Chapter 6: Last Chance to Turn Back 

As I approached the main gate, I wiped a drop of cold sweat off my already drenched forehead. I politely smiled and nodded at the guard that helped me earlier, but he just sent me a cold stare back. "How friendly," I thought.

Ignoring the guard's stare, I swiped my security card through the reader, waited for the machine to beep, and then walked through the main gate. I didn't chance looking back and focused on getting to my truck. I was worried that the guard might have noticed me acting suspicious, or that Lucet might have been found. 

My Isuzu slowly came into sight, but I didn't notice anybody around it. There were no guards standing around it or officers peering into my car as I had envisioned. I was about 20 feet short of reaching my truck when I stopped. 

"This is my last chance to back out," I quietly muttered to myself. Past this point there would be no turning back. I could still turn around and get security. I could pretend like I found her in my vehicle, or that she had forced me to hide her in there. 

"If I turn around now, I could turn her in and start my day tomorrow like nothing ever happened. Start another dog-gone day." I realized the irony of what I just had said to myself. This was the most exciting thing that I could remember happening to me. Going as far as I had gone, it would be difficult to forgive myself if I backed out now

Could I turn her in? No, I knew I couldn't do that. I promised I would help her and that's what I was going to do. All I had to do was get her out of here, and then I would never have to see her again. A sad thought, but at least I could feel better knowing that I had helped her. I knew I was never going to be able to forget her face. 

"Alright, let's do this thing." I walked up to the side of my truck and casually opened the door. Without looking back, I sat in the driver's seat and buckled my safety belt. I shut my door and locked it as I put the key in the ignition.

Taking a deep breath, I tried calming down and then calling back to Lucet. "You alright back there?"

No answer.

I could hear her rustling in the back seat behind me, but she wasn't saying anything. Maybe she had fallen asleep back there or had something over her head and couldn't hear me. I looked in my rear-view mirror to try and spot her as I called out to her again. "Lucet, are you alright back…"
 

Chapter 7: New Friends

My body was frozen and my mouth hung wide open. 

There was a set of eyes staring back at me, but they were not Lucet's eyes. The more I stared, the more I began to notice the hair around the eyes, similar to dog hair around Lucet's, but a different color. Either way, I definitely did not know the person with those eyes.

Slowly, I turned my head to look behind me to see a woman that clearly shared canine traits that were similar to Lucet. I could clearly tell she was a Dachshund, though. She had a long snout with a wet black nose, but what helped me identify her as a Dachshund was the silky black hair that covered her face with a brown patch that stretched under her nose, around her mouth, and under her chin. Other than her brown paws and brown, short hair that covered her rather noticeable chest, the rest of her body was covered with the short black hair. 

I soon began to realize that she was not the only stranger behind me. To her right I noticed another girl staring at me, this one a Dalmatian. She too had a long snout with a black wet nose at the end of her face. Her big floppy ears were mostly black and her white hair-covered body was freckled with large black spots. 

Before I gave myself a heart attack, I caught a glimpse of Lucet in the corner of my eye. She was sitting left of the Dachsund girl I initially made eye contact with and noticed she had apparently taken off the shirt I had given her early. She was very much naked again, much like her companions were. My look of pure fear combined with dazed state of confusion must have been amusing, as all three had already begun to burst into laughter.

"Uhm, would somebody like to let me know what the heck is going on here?!?"

"Don't worry Tom," Lucet responded, "these are my two friends I told you about earlier, Valide," she said pointing to the Dachshund girl.

"Hello," Valide said with a smile on her face.

"And Volentia," Lucet said pointing to the Dalmatian girl who was still snickering. "They escaped too and were able to find me!"

"But, but how…" I said with my mouth still wide open.

The Dachshund girl, Valide, interrupted, "I can explain that one. Before Lucet escaped, she unlocked our cages and told us that we could escape if we wanted to, but she ran off before we could even fully wake up. When they saw Lucet's cage empty, they began looking all over the place. They were so busy looking for her that they didn't even notice our cages were unlocked. We were able to slip out a back door and then sniff out Lucet. Then we found her here and she told us how you were going to help free us," she said in an exuberant voice, seeming talking more to her friends than to me.

I was still trying to get over the shock of how there was not only one, but three dogs… or women… in the back of my truck. This was starting to become way too much for me to handle at once; I couldn't see my body being able to take this much stress for much longer. 

"We need a place to stay," the Dalmatian girl, Volentia, said, "and Lucet says you're a friend that can help us. We really do appreciate it, mister. You're a great guy."

"Now hold on, I told Lucet that I was going to get her out of here, I didn't say anything about her or anybody else staying with me. You three can't stay at my house, there's just no way!"

Valide grabbed my collar with her paw and pulled my face up to hers. "Listen, Lucet might be all nice and not be willing to bite your ears off to get you to help, but I am," she said in a much more ominous voice than before, "and if we need help, you are going to help us. Either you are willingly going to let us stay with you until we can figure out where to go next, or we are going to have to force you."

Her warm dog-breath filled my nostrils as fear began to flow through my veins. My sweat glands started working overtime as I stared her in the eyes.

"Hey," I finally managed, "I've been very lenient today and could have reported Lucet earlier, but didn't. Now you show up and have the nerve to start threatening me?"

She lifted her lip to reveal her sharp fangs. "I don't make threats," she said in a raspy growl, "start driving."

Finally she let go of me and I turned forward into the driver seat. I didn't like being threatened, but I realized that didn't want to be pummeled. She obviously wasn't fooling around, and considering how sharp her teeth and claws were; I understood that I would be quite vulnerable to an attack if I angered the beast behind me anymore. 

I turned the keys in the ignition and started the motor. I was still shaking and tried taking a moment to compose myself before I shifted into reverse and backed out of the space. In my rear-view mirror, I spotted them duck down in the back to avoid being seen by any one. Pulling out of the parking deck and onto the street, I was half-paying attention to the road while my mind was preoccupied trying to decide what I was going to do next. 

Chapter 8: Home Sweet Home 

My car might have only been going the speed limit, but my mind was going a mile a second. I was trying to pay attention to the road, but my focus was obviously elsewhere. Much had happened this morning, and it seemed like it was only getting more complicated. First I agreed to help one girl get out, now there were three girls that I was taking home. And that's ignoring the fact they are all half dogs. With one surprise after the next, I didn't want to think about what could happen next.

I was still pretty well shaken up with my encounter with the Dachshund girl, Valide. She reminded me that I had more to worry about than getting caught: I had to worry about my own physical safety. These girls might resemble humans, but these were still animals I was dealing with. 

I especially didn't like being scared into doing something like this… but at the same time I couldn't but help to think that maybe I enjoyed the rush. Before today, my life had become an endless cycle of continuous work. Every morning I woke up and came to work to do my little job. Other than surfing the Internet at home or occasionally hanging out with friends on weekends, every ounce of excitement had been drained out of my life by my job. I didn't like being threatened by Valide, but it really didn't feel any worse than dealing with my supervisor, Sarah, on a daily basis. 

As I drove towards home, I concluded that I was still going to try and help Lucet and her friends. I had contemplated parking in front of a police station, but that just didn't seem like what I wanted to do. These three were all desperate to be free, and Valide probably just panicked when she thought I might just drop them off in the middle of nowhere. Considering the circumstances, I would have probably been pretty upset too if in the same situation. 

Though I could hardly imagine ever being in the same situation as them. Three naked women that looked like dogs (or three dogs that looked like naked women, depending how you look at it) would be sure to attract attention rather quickly. Dropping them off in the middle of nowhere just so I wouldn't have to deal with them any more hardly seemed fair. I lived alone and had an extra room, so there was no reason why they couldn't stay with me until they figured out where they could go next. 

My house was only a couple miles from where I worked, but it seemed like it took forever to get there. I wondered how Dan was coordinating the meeting I was supposed to be at. One thing I knew I could be certain about was Sarah was probably fuming about my absence. I had turned off my cell phone to avoid getting bombarded with voice messages from her wanting to know exactly where I was. She would probably be really on my case tomorrow, but I didn't care. I needed to set these three girls up first before I could figure out how to put my life back in a semi-normal groove again. 

I pulled up to my small house and parked in my garage. My house wasn't really much to look at, since the olive drab paint was beginning to fade and peel and some of the roof shingles were starting to fall off. It was a sturdy old one-story house and was big enough for me to live in. I had once envisioned starting a family in this house, but after ten years of work and heartaches, my efforts to maintain that false hope and this old house had long since fallen to the wayside. I closed the automatic garage door and then got out to help the three girls out of the truck. 

One by one I helped them out the back of the truck, holding each one's soft, hairless paw pad as they hopped out. I opened the door to the house to let them in and then followed in behind. 

The house had a fairly simple layout. When we first walked in from the garage, the laundry room was to the right and a coat closet on the left. A window looked out into the backyard and there was plenty of counter space with the usual appliances and the kitchen table against the left hand wall. The dining room was straight ahead when you walked into the kitchen. There was a dining room table in the center of the room, rarely used except for the assorted junk I dumped on there every now and then. Once in the dining room, a doorway on the left led into the den. A long wall separated the kitchen from the den, which was in the front of the house. The outside front wall of the den had a large picture window covered with an equally large curtain, and the front door was on the far right. The room wasn't huge, but it was spacious enough to fit my sofa, recliner, TV, and a few end tables where the lamps stood. 

Stepping into the den from the dining room, there was a hallway located on the right. Down the hall, the first door on the right was the bathroom. A door farther down on the left lead to the spare bedroom, which I generally used for to store any other junk that I didn't have anywhere else to put and was too lazy to clear out. The room had a large window and various types of furniture scattered about the room, including the computer desk, an old computer, and plenty of bookshelves full of outdated programming books. My own bedroom door was across from a spare room I never used, which was on the right side of the hall. My bedroom had a large window, a night table on each side of the bed, and a door leading to a small bathroom. The house wasn't decorated wonderfully and it was a mess, but it was what I called home. It was comfortable and cozy, and I liked it how it was.

"Alright, you girls are going to have to hang out here in the den until I can clear some of the junk from the spare bedroom," I announced as we entered the den. Lucet ran into the room on all fours and sat in my reclining chair. The other two did the same but scurried over to and hopped up onto the couch to sit. The way they had their legs curled up under them and their arms resting in front of them as they sat on my furniture, they looked more like dogs than they did women. Really hot dogs…

"How awful to think that," I thought. I waved away that last thought as I tried to get them settled in.

"Let me get you girls some water. Uhm… do you girls use cups or bowls?"

"Bowls!" they all yapped. 

I walked in the kitchen, found some bowls, and filled them with water. As I brought the water into the room, the girls hopped out of their seats and stood on all fours. Their hindquarters up in the air and their tails waved ferociously back and forth in excitement. After putting down the bowls, I decided to leave the room and try to find them some food before I got a little bit too excited myself. 

There wasn't much in my fridge since I only ever had time to eat out or order out. There were some leftovers and some ham that I used for making sandwiches, but that wasn't really going to work. I would have to make a grocery run to pick up whatever food that they might eat. 

When I came back into the den to ask them what they like to eat, they were playfully wrestling with each other on the floor. Lucet kept jumping on Valide, and then Volentia jumped on Lucet, and so forth. I couldn't but help to think how I'd love to be in the middle of their fun, but I was somehow to restrain myself. It had been years since I had been in a solid relationship, and here sat three women that apparently felt comfortable enough with me to be rolling around my floor naked. 

"Are you girls getting hungry? What type of food do you eat?"

"Doesn't matter. We'll eat anything," Lucet paused for a moment to say before resuming her wrestling match.

"Don't worry, we won't know it's not bacon," Volentia, the Dalmation, managed to say with the other two on top of her before all three burst into laughter. I thought I recognized that phrase as a slogan for some dog food company or something, so I assumed that was the joke. 

"So you eat, uhm, dog food?"

Valide looked up. "Yeah, we usually eat any sort of dog food. What do you have?"

"Nothing; I need pick up something from the store, which is why I was asking." They all stopped and looked at me. "Don't worry, if I wanted to turn you in or anything like that, I could have done that already. Nobody ever comes to my house, so you shouldn't have to worry about anybody looking in. I'll be back soon, just stay put."

Seemingly undaunted by my departure, the three of them resumed their playing. I went into the garage, opened the garage door, and sat in my truck. Before starting the engine, I looked back in my mirror half expecting to see someone else's face looking back at me like before. Instead it was my own face staring back at me. I took a moment to examine myself in the mirror; I was really a mess. I fixed my mussed hair, wiped the sweat off my brow, and straightened up my shirt and was ready to go. 

Looking behind me to back up, I felt pretty confident that nobody had followed me to my house. Still,I worried about leaving the girls home alone and hoped they'd be safe while I was gone. I was only going to be out for about an hour at the most, and then I could come back and figure out what to do next. I couldn't keep them at the house for long, could I? If nobody had noticed taking them out of the office building, surely nobody was going to notice them living in my house. Other than a few friends that popped in once in awhile, nobody ever bothered me at home, and I could find ways to meet up with my friends at places so they didn't have to stop here first. 

Maybe things could work out; I'd have to wait and see.
 

Chapter 9: A Quick Trip

J-Mart was a short drive away, and I liked it because I could do all my shopping in one trip. They would have everything that I would need and then I could get right back to the house.

I pulled my truck up to the front of the store and parked, putting on my four-way flashers. I wasn't going to be long and didn't want to waste time trying to find a spot. The automatic doors barely opened in time as I almost ran through them.

I stopped as I entered the store to try and decide what I needed. Textiles were on the left and groceries were on the right. I got a cart and immediately looked for the "Pets" section. There were so many different brand names of both dried and canned food, I just grabbed anything that had a bright color or said something about building strong bones.

As I was heading towards the registers, I realized I was going to have to get some sort of clothing for them to wear; otherwise they would be running around naked the whole day. But what were they supposed to wear? They might look silly in regular clothing, but something was better than nothing, I figured. 

When I wheeled cart over to the women's clothing section, I immediately knew I was in trouble. There were bras, bras, and more bras of every shape, color, and size. The only thing I knew is they have very big, well, they had fairly sizeable chests. I grabbed three bras that looked to be about the right size and moved on to the panty section.

There were panties everywhere; I could not understand why girls needed this many undergarments. When I went into a store for my underwear, I could never remember it being this complicated. I picked up some silk panties and got out of the women's section. That was enough shopping for one day.

The shopping cart came to an abrupt stop as I pulled into the checkout. I could tell the cashier was giving me a strange look, but I didn't know why. I looked into the cart and realized all I was buying was dog food and women's undergarments. Perhaps that was the reason. I ignored her stare as I put them up on the conveyer belt and smiled while she started ringing up each item. 

I glanced at my watch and noticed it was almost five o'clock. Traffic was going to start getting bad. I knew because normally I'd be coming home from work right now, but having a half-a-day felt nice, too. It also felt strange because normally I didn't have someone to go home to. It wasn't a feeling I could ever really remember having, but I didn't think it was a bad one at all.

Once the woman at the register finally finished ringing up everything, I paid her and rushed out of the store.

Chapter 10: Getting Cozy 

I turned into my driveway and pulled into the garage. I jumped out of my truck, got the bags out of the back, and wasted no time making my way into the house. The whole time I was out, I couldn't help but thinking that something had happened to them while I was gone. I rushed into the den, half-expecting them to be gone when I came in. 

Staring at me with wide eyes as I ran in, they were all relaxing on the couch. They hadn't gone anywhere, but were apparently tired of wrestling each other. I took a deep sigh of relief as I proceeded to the center of the room. 

"I didn't know exactly what to get you girls to eat so I got a little bit of everything. I also picked up some clothing for you girls to put on so you don't have to walk around naked all night," I said as I put down the bag of clothing.

"But we're dogs and have fur all over our bodies. Why do we need clothing?" Volentia asked in a confused voice.

"Yes, but, you look enough like humans where seems a little bit inappropriate for you not to wear anything at all."

"Why," Valide said in a provocative voice, "do we make you nervous?" She turned on her back and spread her legs to reveal her fur-covered private area.

I blushed and looked away before I saw anything else. "If you are going to do things like that, then yes." I walked out of the den, leaving the clothing bag and bringing the bag of food with me into the kitchen.

"Oh come on, Tom, I'm just fooling with you," I could hear Valide say from the den. The other two were giggling and all three began to crack up. 

I knew they could tell I felt uncomfortable around them, and they were playing with that. I was trying very hard to be respectful and not make any moves on them, and all they were doing was making a mockery of me. Maybe I was being a bit too uptight, but things were moving way too fast. I had only met these three a few hours ago, and I was still trying to get over their appearance. How was I supposed to act?

I dumped the bag of food on the counter and then found some more bowls to put the food in. I didn't know what their appetites would be, so I had to guess how much they would eat. If they wanted more food, I could give them more later. I heard a tearing sound in the other room that sounded like they were playing with the paper bag that the clothing was in. The noise stopped after a few minutes and then all three made their way into the kitchen to see what was for dinner, still very much unclothed. 

"What were you girls doing in there?"

"Just playing," Volentia said, "what's for dinner? I'm starvin'!"

"Sounded like more than playing." All three looked at each other and smiled. I didn't like that type of look. But before I could think twice about it, they immediately focused their attention on the food again. All of them had their mouths open and their almost ludicrously sized tongues hanging out. It was clear this conversation was done until I gave them their food.

"Here you girls go," I said as I started putting their food on the kitchen table. They all walked over on their hind legs and leaned over with their paws on the table and dug their faces in their bowls. I'm glad I hadn't bothered taking out the silverware. I put a couple of clean hand rags on the table so they could clean up their faces when they were done. 

While they were chomping down, I decided to try and find something for me to eat. I smelled the ham and realized it was spoiled, so that was a no-go. I looked into a couple containers of leftovers and realized they also had a less-than-pleasant odor, so I decided that I wasn't hungry anyway. The girls had already finished their meals and I assumed they had gone back into the den. 

When I walked into the den, I immediately noticed the remains of the clothing scattered about the center of the room. They were all looking at me with innocent puppy-dog looks, ironically enough, which I wasn't buying. Apparently this clothing thing wasn't going to work out right now.

"You know, if you didn't want to wear clothing that much, you could have just not worn them. You didn't have to destroy everything and make a mess all over my floor. I think I've been more than patient with you three, but I am not going to tolerate stuff like this going on."

"We're sorry," Lucet said in a soft voice that had become all but too familiar from that morning, "We got carried away. Please don't kick us out… Whimper."

I could feel my heart pounding and realized my voice was probably a little louder than I thought it was was, so I tried to calm down.

"I'm not going to kick you girls out, but I wish you all would be a bit more considerate, especially since you are in my house and I am trying to help you girls out." I stooped down and picked up the remains of the clothing and the bag. Once I was done I walked into the kitchen to throw them away.

This day was getting to be too much to handle. I was under so much stress with work and now today dealing with this situation. I felt like I was bound to snap at anything, and I didn't want it to be them. I needed to sit down and rest for a while. As I walked back into the den to sit down, I realized that there wasn't any room to sit. 

"Looking for a place to sit?" Volentia asked.

"No, I can just sit on the floor, I'll be okay."

"We can move over," Valide said using an uncharacteristically kind voice I had not heard before, "come sit with us here." Valide and Volentia shifted their bodies over. Lucet was already sitting on the recliner diagonal to the couch, so there was enough room between Valide and Volentia to sit down if I wanted to.

"Alright," I said as I dropped my body down in the couch. It was a little tight, but it just felt good to be sitting down, so I didn't mind. I had to admit that their warm, soft bodies up against mine actually made sitting in my couch a little bit more comfortable.

"Tom," Lucet said from my recliner, "I'm going to the bathroom."

"Do you know how to use the toilet?" 

"I'll be fine," she said as she hopped out of the chair and scurried out of the room. Wow, they were toilet-trained, that was a plus. I hadn't even thought about that earlier. 

I sat back and closed my eyes, glad that I finally had a moment to relax. It was awfully quiet, though. I opened my eyes and noticed Valide and Volentia both staring at me. I didn't know them well enough to be comfortable with their silence, so I decided to make conversation.

"So, Lucet tells me you are a part of some sort of secret experiment. Is that really true?"

Valide smirked, but did not turn her head away from mine. "Our appearance doesn't give that away enough already?"

"Well, there aren't many women I know that look like dogs, or many dogs I know that look like women, if that's what you mean. But that doesn't convince me that there are secret experiments. You could have been born like this."

"We definitely weren't born like this," Volentia, who was on my left, said. She grinned at me as if I had made a joke.

"Okay, but then how do these experiments work?"

"The experiments are simple. They stick you with a needle and you begin to change." Volentia thought for a minute and continued. "Your body starts to shake and you can feel whatever was inside the syringe spread throughout your body. You watch your body begin to grow fur and your hands and feet start to change shape. Then there's pain as your insides feel like they twist and your face begins to stretch…"

"And if you survive the change," Valide interrupted, "then you end up looking like this." 

"But why would you go into an experiment like that knowing that would happen? Did you know what they were going to do to you?"

"We had a basic idea of what was going to happen," Volentia responded, "but it didn't really matter. We were desperate for a change, and we were willing to do anything to help us forget about our miserable existence. Whether you live or die in the experiment doesn't seem to matter. The chance of becoming something greater is a good enough reason to risk it all, especially when you consider your life worth nothing anyway." These were pretty strong words coming from the one who was usually the quietest of the three.

"They give you a chance to forget about your past and they do that by giving you a new identity and a new body," Valide said in an unusually serene tone.

I thought about what they said for a moment before continuing. I knew that I felt down sometimes, but the idea of having a new identity and a new body seemed like an extreme that I could never go to. These girls must have really believed in these experiments, if they weren't forced into them. 

I had a hard time understanding why three once obviously beautiful women would have chosen to transform into these canine forms they were in now. Why were they only half dogs, why didn't they go all the way? I would have to ask that later, I was more curious about their peculiar names.

"Do you remember anything about who you were? Were you always named Valide and Volentia? Those aren't very common names."

"They train us to forget our past, and frankly, that is something that we didn't mind doing. We don't remember our old names, but we like the names they gave us."

"Do your names have any sort of meaning to them? Lucet told me her name means 'to shine above the rest'". 

"They try to give us names that match our personality. My name, Valide, means strong, while Volentia's name means kindness."

I was trying very hard to listen to them, but a paw slowly sliding up the inside of my leg was significantly diverting my attention. I looked over at Volentia and she cocked her head sideways and smiled. In an innocent voice, she said, "What's the matter Tom?"

As the rough pad of her paw slid further and further up, my head felt like it was spinning. I knew damn well what she was doing, and I didn't know if I liked it. I felt completely nervous. The problem was my conscience was completely split: on one side I just wanted to give in and let them have their way with me; the other side of me just felt that that I was doing something wrong. A little voice inside my head kept telling that this just wasn't right, that this wasn't what I really wanted. But what did I really want?

Almost without thinking I jumped out of the couch to get away, but I clumsily tripped trying to get off and landed hard on my back on the floor. Before I could even try to get up, Valide hopped off the couch and laughed as she sat down on my pelvis. I could feel her warm body pressed firmly against mine as I struggled to get up.

"Come on Tom, stop playing hard to get. I can tell you like us, so why are you holding back? Just let your animal instincts run wild and have fun!"

I continued to try to get Valide off me and get up, but Volentia came up from behind and clasped my arms behind my back. After struggling for a few minutes, I realized they were much stronger than they appeared. 

Sitting there completely subdued, I knew that they had the upper hand (or paw, in this situation). Valide ripped open my buttoned shirt and began rubbing her paws on my bare chest. Volentia giggled as if me being helpless was funny. After a minute she stopped and looked right into my eyes. Her wet nose was pressed up against mine and her whiskers were tickling my face. "Now let me show you a little trick I still remember from my past…"

Chapter 11: Breaking Point 

I closed my eyes and tried to prepare myself for whatever would happen next. I could feel her paws slide down my chest. Her warm breath gently blew onto my chest has her paws went lower down onto my stomach. When she reached my belt, I could feel her start to loosen it… and then she stopped.

I didn't dare open my eyes. I waited for her to make her next move as I took in a deep breath. Volentia's grip had tightened, and I began to notice a low growl that seemed to be coming from the back of the room near the kitchen. Soon the growl became more audible before it turned into a loud series of shrill barks when it got closer. 

My hairs were standing on end when all of a sudden I felt my body getting pushed to the side. I opened my eyes as Volentia loosened her grip Valide rolled off of me and onto the floor. Valide quickly regained her balance and repositioned herself so that she was crouched down on all fours with her tail sticking straight up. An angry snarl quickly appeared on her face as she glared at something behind me.

I turned to see Lucet standing behind me with a similar snarl on her face and realized she was the one that had been barking this whole time. A deep growl was now coming from her throat and her fur was standing up in a way I had never seen it before, her face twisted in anger.

My body was stiff in fear, but my blood rushed as I witnessed Lucet lunge towards Valide. Volentia watched with wide eyes as Lucet jumped right onto Valide and the two began rolling around like they had been earlier, although this time much less playfully. 

Volentia rushed over to help separate the two, but they were inseparable. All three were barking loudly as they struggled with one another, and the barking easily droned out my groans as I tried to get up. My back hurt from falling and my arms hurt from them being pulled behind me like they were, but I could tell that nothing was broken. 

I stumbled to my feet and began looking for the fastest way to get out. I had to get out of here before they came after me, as I wouldn't stand much of a chance against their fangs and claws. 

"How dare you think you can have him all to yourself," I heard one say to Lucet before I had a chance to move. "We've always shared everything, and now you try having him all to yourself. It's bad enough you made us leave in the first place, now you won't let us have any fun…"

"I didn't make either of you leave… that was your choice. I simply gave you the option. The point was to be free…"

"Free from what? We didn't join this program to be free; we joined it to get away from our lives. Now what, we're supposed to go back to the way things were? The way we look now?"

"I don't know…"

"Lucet, you turned your back on us… we've been friends since we joined this experiment. We've done everything together. Then one evening you decide to leave us. Doesn't our friendship mean anything to you?"

"I thought I could help you two…"

"Well you've sure helped us a lot. We're locked in this house like we were our cages with this stiff that is supposed to take care of us…"

"ALRIGHT…" I interjected in a voice much louder that I expected it would be, "I've had ENOUGH! Get off of each other right now and get out of my damn house." The three stopped trying to bite each other and focused their attention on me at last. "You girls have been nothing but trouble since you threw yourselves into my life this morning, but that doesn't mean I have to bend down on hands and knees for you and just deal with your behavior. I've listened to your stories, and I think you are all full of crap. You girls just want to use me and abuse my house. You don't care about how I feel or what I've had to do and sacrifice for you. Now that's it, I've had enough. You've finally pushed me to my limit."

The girls remained motionless as I stood there fuming. I could feel my face was hot and my ears were ringing from either me shouting or them barking before, I couldn't tell for sure. For the first time that day, they were the ones looking at me in fear. 

Realizing I had been shouting, I tried calming myself down a bit and proceeding at a more moderate volume.

"You have to figure out what you are going to do now that you've escaped from them, whether you wanted to or not. But I will no longer be a part of this charade. I've gotten you this far, but now it is time for you decide where to go from here. You aren't staying at my house anymore."

I looked at them and clenched my teeth. I couldn't believe the words that were coming out of my mouth. I was telling them to leave. Was that really what I wanted? Was there really any other choice? I knew I had to be strong, though. I knew they didn't belong here, and I would be lying to myself if I thought that I could keep them here any longer.

" It's been a long day and I've got work tomorrow. I'm going to bed, and I don't expect to see you girls here in the morning when I wake up."

I turned my back on them and headed towards my bedroom.

"But…" one girl tried.

"No, please, don't make this any harder," I responded without looking back, "Just leave. Decide where you are going from here and then just leave."

I walked to my bedroom and opened the door. I glanced back and saw that they had gotten off of each other and were looking back at me confused and with tears welling up in their eyes. 

"Goodnight and goodbye," I said as I shut the door behind me. I could feel tears begin welling up in my own eyes, but I tried to ignore them. I knew I was going to cry, but I didn't want them to have to know that. 

Chapter 12: The Reconciliation 

Things had happened so quickly, I had stop and think about everything that had just happened. I could feel the warm, salty tears start forming in my eyes, but deep down I knew I had made the right choice. As much as it hurt my heart, I knew they couldn't stay here. It couldn't work. It wasn't a good idea to be in a situation where every day I would have to worry about taking advantage of them or them taking advantage of me. On top of that, I'd have to worry about them fighting. If they didn't hurt me or hurt themselves, it would only be a matter of time until a neighbor would complain about the noise and then I'd really be in trouble. I could see myself trying to explain to the officer how I didn't have dogs in my house; I had three women that looked like dogs. Oh yeah, that would fly.

I stood there panting for air while I leaned against the door. I tried to forget about my day and about them as I walked towards and landed face first in my bed. I took off my shoes with my feet and heard them thump as they dropped to the floor. I curled into my bed and put the sheets over my head. I didn't even think about getting changed, I just wanted to go to sleep. Just wake up tomorrow and pretend like none of this had ever happened. 

That wasn't really working, though. It was only 7pm and I had already been sitting in my bed for at least an hour just thinking about what had happened that day. The longer I lay there, the more I thought about Lucet. I remembered when I first found Lucet under my desk and how she had that look of pure fear on her face. She looked so scared, so lost, and so innocent. Who would have ever made her look like this? Why would they make her into this half-human, half-canine beast? She said she was so free, yet it was impossible for her to ever truly be free again. She would be judged no matter where she went; she could never fit in. Where the hell was she going to go? 

I wanted to take care of her, and I wanted to love her, but I knew I couldn't. She would have to figure out where to go next. I had helped her get this far, which is much further than I though I would ever go. Maybe I could have taken care of her alone, but Valide and Volentia added too much to the mix. There was no way that I could have all three of them in this house, but I knew they had to stay together if they had any real chance at surviving out there.

They all must have been very interesting people before the experiments. It surprised me that none of them seemed upset with the way that they looked. They actually appeared to be more confident in themselves, and so much more… well, so much more free. Yes, they were free, I realized. Despite their appearances, they didn't worry about what people thought of them and they didn't worry about their careers or anyone but themselves. How could that be? I could never imagine feeling that way, or remember ever having felt that way before. I began to understand why they joined the experiments, risking death for a chance at life. 

I kept thinking about what one of them had said to me earlier that day. Just let your animal instincts run wild and have fun. What a novel idea, but not something I could ever do. I was too wrapped up in the human world around me. I was too conscious of the people around me and was too concerned with how they viewed me. I was a "stiff" because I just didn't have those instincts to rely on. All I had was my own reality, and even that was beginning to fall apart after today. My sense of the world had flipped upside down today. Now I struggled there sitting in my bed trying to make the world make sense in my head again.

A scratching sound interrupted my thoughts, making me stop to listen for a minute. I could hear someone whining from behind the door. The scratching I heard was apparently one of them scraping her claws against the outside of the door to get in. "No," I thought, "they are not going to do this to me. They are not going to make me bend. I have to remain steadfast on my decision. They have to leave and that is final." 

I tried stuffing my head in my pillows, but I could still hear the scratching sound as it persisted. I lifted my head from under my pillow for a minute to shout, "Go away!"

There was silence, then a whine, and then the scratching again. I stuffed my head under the pillow. I didn't hear the noise anymore, so I figured whoever it was had stopped or I had succeeded in muffling my ears. Then I heard the door handle begin to jingle. I had been so upset when I came in, I must have forgotten to lock the door. I didn't think they could open the door with their paws anyway, but that idea was put to rest as I heard the door handle click and the door creak open. 

The lamp on the nightstand next to my bed was still on, and its dim glow was enough light for me to be able to tell that Lucet was the one standing there on her hind legs in my doorway. She took a careful step in, and then pushed the door closed behind her. She stood there motionless for a few minutes with her tail in between her legs before making her way towards my bed. I put my head into back my pillows and mumbled, "Please go away and leave me alone."

I felt her carefully sit down on the end of my bed. She sat there still without saying a word, and after a few minutes I peeked out from my pillows to see what she was doing. Lucet was sitting up with her legs over the side, which looked somewhat awkward with her canine stamina. The dim light cast a long shadow behind her onto the wall, and it really emphasized the features of her body. 

I couldn't help noticing how truly stunning she looked. It was the first time I really got to just look at her and not try to divert my eyes from seeing too much of her already bare body. I had really grown accustomed to her physical appearance and had to admit I actually really liked it. What surprised me most, though, was how comfortable I felt with her sitting there staring at me. Never had I ever felt this comfortable with anyone just sitting there silently staring at me before, not even my ex-wife.

After about ten minutes of silence, I finally decided to say something. I managed to mumble a, "What do you want?"

After a minute, she slowly responded, "Valide and Volentia sent me in to talk to you because they know that you don't like them. They think they are the reason why you hate us, and they apologize."

I took the pillow away from my face and looked at her. "Lucet, I don't hate any of you. And it's not that I don't like them, I just can't have them stay here. You girls need to move on."

"We're all sorry about what happened. We got carried away…"

"That's always going the problem, you three will always get carried away. And you'll always be sorry. But you girls can't stay here. With you acting like this, eventually you are going to get us all in trouble. I can't put up with that. I agreed to help you get out, I never said you could stay here."

Lucet looked at me and then faced the ground; she knew I was right. "I know, but maybe you could give us another chance. You have to realize, we've been removed from society for years. Yeah, we're free now, but there are not many places we can go with the way we look now. We're free, but we still are reliant on someone to help and to protect us. We, and especially I, didn't ever want to take advantage of you or your help."

I noticed her holding her arm, a dried trickle of blood having made its way from underneath her paw.

"Are you okay there? You're bleeding."

"I'm okay, just a little cut." She tried to turn so I couldn't see it.

"We need to clean that up," I said as I sat up. I got out of the bed and walked past Lucet as I walked over to the bathroom. I came back with a wet towel. "Lift your paw."

She hesitated, but then obeyed. The cut wasn't too bad, but you could see it through her dog hair and looked painful. I gently started wiping the dried blood away to try and clean the wound.

"You know, we've been friends for a long time and we've never fought like that. They thought I was trying to hog you to myself. They were jealous that I was the first to meet you and thought you considered me your favorite. They thought by coming onto you, you would like them more."

"That's ridiculous. Why would they think something like that?" I walked back into the bathroom to retrieve a dry towel and dispose of the used one. I put it on her arm and lifted her paw onto it. "Here, keep pressure on it for a couple minutes and you should be okay."

"Thank you." 

I proceeded to get back into my warm spot in the bed. I noticed her watching me as I pulled the sheets back up to my shoulders.

"You know, any other man would have taken advantage of that situation…"

"Well, I guess I'm not like any other man. All I know is I didn't feel right. I just didn't feel comfortable. I guess I've had so much heartache over the years, that I've just locked myself out from having those type of emotions anymore."

"That's terrible."

"Yeah, well, there's not much I can do about that."

"Do you feel comfortable around me?"

I diverted the question. "There's no question that I find you women very attractive. At first I didn't know what to think about your appearances, but I've really grown accustomed to them."

"You really find us attractive?"

"Uhm, yes."

"You think I'm attractive?"

I hesitated. "Yes."

"Aww, that's sweet. Nobody has ever said that to me before. Thank you."

"Really? That surprises me." I paused and realized what I had to say next. "There's no reason for thanks, though. I still think you should go."

Lucet pinched her lips together in a frown. "Do you really want us to leave that much?"

"Of course not, but I just don't feel right with you all staying here. We can't try and fool ourselves and think this is going to work out."

"Well, we will not go against what you think. You've really been gracious in helping us get out of there and bringing us here. But hopefully you will not force us to leave tonight. We're exhausted. Valide and Volentia are already sleeping on the couch and I'm getting tired myself, so we'll still be here in the morning. If you still want us to leave when you wake up, then we will."

I thought about what she said. I was serious, but I wasn't cruel. "Alright, that's fair. I don't want to just push you three out onto the street. I'm still upset about what happened, and I just don't see this sort of arrangement being able to last long. Tomorrow we'll figure out where you can go next." With that I reached up and turned off the light. 

"Is it alright if I sleep on your bed? I'll stay on the end of the bed here and I don't need any blanket."

"Sure, that's alright."

She curled up at the end of the bed and I moved my feet to the side to give her more room. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I began to be able to make out the dark outline of her body. Her head was up and I could see she was watching me. 

"What do you want," I asked.

"Nothing. Just thinking about what you said."

"About what?"

"About me being attractive," she said softly.

"Oh." 

She crawled up the bed alongside of me and licked my face. "I think you're attractive, too," she said. She crawled back down to the end of the bed and curled up again. I saw her put her head down and closed her eyes, a grin clearly visible even in the dark.

I smiled too and closed my eyes. The lick was an innocent lick, maybe with a hint of something else behind it, but she was willing to give me the room I needed. I didn't really know how I felt about someone thinking I was attractive. I had a hard time perceiving myself that way, especially with my lack of a very positive self-image. But the way she said it made me feel better, and made me feel closer to her more than ever. It wasn't like she was trying to win me back so they could stay; she really meant what she said.

Even with my eyes closed, I could still picture her in the dark. I thought about reaching down to pet her. I thought about how all my worries, my problems, and my world would melt away in her fur. It made me almost wish I had coat of fur myself. What a silly thought to have. I was beginning to start thinking like them.

I turned over in my bed. I wasn't so sure what tomorrow would bring, but I would figure that out in the morning. Now it was time to get some well-deserved sleep.


Chapter 13: Rude Awakening 

I could feel myself starting to slip into a blissful unconscious when all of a sudden Lucet jumped up, making the bed jolt as she shot up. I groggily rubbed my eyes and reached to turn on the light to see what was going on. She stood there on all fours on the bed with her tail sticking straight up like she was ready to fight. Her ears were pointed straight up listening to something and there was a look of serious concern on her face. She was looking at the window in the back of the bedroom as if she had heard something outside.

"What is it Lucet, what's the matter?" She didn't answer. Instead, she kept her attention focused on the window. Barking began to start in the other room, and I rushed towards the door to see what was the matter. 

I opened my door to peek into the den to see Valide and Volentia were both poised like Lucet, staring at the windows in there. "Shhh, be quiet. What's going on in here?" Their barks turned into growls, but they did not divert their attention from the windows. Lucet walked in behind me and stood alongside her friends.

"What's the matter, is someone out…" I never got to finish my question. Witnessing the windows shatter into millions of pieces as men smashed through each of them was enough to cut me off mid-sentence. They were dressed in black head and body gear, which made them look like they were part of some sort of special operations task force. Each was wearing full-bodied armor with night vision goggles and they were holding semi-automatic rifles in their arms. I heard other windows around the house shatter and then more men rushed into the room from all directions.

We could do little more than stand there in shock as they surrounded us with their guns aimed directly at our heads. Lucet, Valide, and Volentia could offer little resistance as three men approached them and zapped each from behind with some sort of electric stun gun. 

I tried to help the girls as they fell to ground, but was forced to stop when one man put the barrel of his gun up to my forehead and shouted, "PUT YOUR HANDS UP NOW, DAMMIT!" Not in the position to argue, I did what the man said. Another man from behind took my wrists and put handcuffs on me. 

The men immediately began dragging them out of the room and out the front door. One of the men holding a stun gun walked towards me and put his face in front of mine. He took off his night-vision goggles and looked into my eyes. His eyes looked familiar, but I couldn't tell from where with his facemask on.

"Well, Tom, I was able to cover for you for today's meeting, but it looks like you might be in a little bit over your head on this one," the man said as I felt a sharp stinging sensation in my side.

I could feel my body growing weak and the room growing dark as I began to lose consciousness. I recognized who the man now, but it didn't make any sense why he would be here. "Dan?"

Everything went black.

****************************************************

My whole body was cold and sore as I came to. I opened my eyes and sat there in a daze until I could remember what had happened and figure out where I was. The first thing I noticed that I was in a sizeable metal cage in a dim room I didn't recognize. For some reason I was completely naked from head toe. I tried to get up, but found it more difficult than I thought as I quickly realized that my hands were still cuffed behind me. 

Once I managed to sit up, I began to examine my surroundings more closely. The cage itself was reasonably sized: not tall enough to stand in, but there was enough room to maneuver in. There was a bowl of water in one corner and the bottom of the cage was covered in newspaper. Looking around, it became obvious I was not alone. There were more cages in the room, each of them occupied. One cage sat next to mine and three more were across the room. In the cage along side of me there was a naked woman lying with her face turned away from me. Lucet, Valide, and Volentia were in one of each of the cages across the room. 

To the left of my cage there was a sink, an empty table, and a large olive drab fridge up against the white cinderblock wall. On the opposite wall of the room there was a desk full of papers and an office chair, then a large table next to it that was covered with a various glass tubes, rods, flasks, needles, and a number of other scientific-looking items. On the other side of the desk, on the left-most wall, there was a blue metal door with no handle, but it had a number pad next to it. To the right of the door was a coat rack with several white lab coats hanging up. The floor was gray cement, adding to the already very cold and dull atmosphere of the room. 

Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement in one of the cages across from me. Volentia, the Dalmation girl, was beginning to stir. 

"Hey! Hey Volentia, are you alright over there?"

She appeared groggy as she lifted her head and rubbed her eyes before looking over at me. "I'm fine, just tired," she groaned got up and stretched her body.

"Where are we?"

She paused and glanced around the room. "We're back."

"Back where?"

"Back where we started. This is where we've lived, where we escaped from earlier. It looks like they've brought us back to where we started."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "So this is one of those secret spaces inside the office building?"

"I guess so," she said in an irritated voice as she was busy trying to stick her paw through her cage to wake up Valide, who was in the cage aside of her.

Unlike any of the other rooms in the building, this one was long and narrow. We must have actually been in between the rows of office rooms, a space like that could possibly go unnoticed. It's not like anyone ever sits down and measures all of the dimensions of the rooms, everyone is always busy with work to think about that sort of thing.

"Valide, wake up, we're back." Volentia said to Valide. Volentia had apparently been successful in sticking her skinny arm through and was gently rocking Valide's body from side to side. 

While she was busy doing that, I looked over to the woman in the cage next to me. "Who is she?"

"How am I supposed to know? She looks like she's a new test subject." Volentia was only half paying attention to me as her friend began to move. "Valide, we're back." 

Valide lifted her head and looked around. "Well looks like we're home again. And it looks like you, Tom, are going to be joining us." She sent a cruel smile over my way as she got up and began stretching.

A chill ran down my back. She meant that soon I was going to be like them. I was now a test subject trapped in a cage. Valide laughed as she saw me start to panic and frantically look for a way to get out of the cage. 

"That will not do you any good, Tom. There's no way out of these things. And if there is, Lucet is the only one that has ever successfully done it." 

She was right, the cage seemed fool proof. There was a lock on the front of the door, but I had no idea how to pick locks. Not like that would even help with my hands behind my back. I lifted up the newspapers off the floor with my feet, but underneath there were the same thin metal cage bars that already surrounded me on all other sides. My chest began to tremble as I realized I was trapped.

"Calm down, Tom," Valide said, "it's not so bad being a dog. Besides, it'll be fun having you as a part of the group."
 

Chapter 14: The Man with the Plan

After hearing Valide tell me that I was going to be a dog, my mouth hung wide open in disbelief. Not too long ago, I had been getting ready to start another day of work. Now I had been locked in a cage waiting to lose my humanity. This was unreal.

I didn't have too long to dwell on that thought before the door on the other side of the room made a loud clicking sound as it unlocked and then slowly opened. Dan came in and turned towards the coat rack as the door shut behind him. After putting on one of the white, oversized lab coats, he made his way down to our cages. 

"Well, it looks like everyone is awake and has gotten used to their new surroundings. Those stun guns were only supposed to last long enough to subdue you, but now we can get started. You girls almost held up today's experiment, but since we have two new patients, I guess we can forgive today's little excursion. We have, of course, taken precautions so that doesn't happen again."

"You bastard," I shouted, "what the hell is going on here?!?"

He walked up to my cage and kneeled down to look me in the face with big smirk on his. "Well, Tom, you might know me as Dan, but around here I'm known as Novo. It means to make anew, refresh, revive, change, alter, or invent. You will be able to fully appreciate the meaning of my name very shortly. That reminds me; we're going to need names for you and your friend there."

"I don't want one of your stupid names, I want to get out of here."

"Well, I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice. You not only now know about these experiments, you willingly helped my three main experiments escape. And thanks to you, that woman next to you almost blew my cover."

"Your cover?"

"Well, I think by now you already have an idea of what I do here. I didn't just start this job today, though. I've been scientist for quite a long time now, working with an organization that shares the same vision I do."

"What the hell type of messed up vision is that? Turning everybody into animals?"

My interruption didn't seem to bother him. Instead his cold grin grew wider. "My organization buys small companies so that we put our labs inside. It really makes no difference what type of company they are, as long as they can be bribed to keep quiet about our operations. As to not raise suspicion with their work force, we work as employees at the companies we own during the day and then conduct our experiments at night. Quite ingenious, don't you think?"

"I still don't understand the point of these experiments. Why would you be doing something like this?"

"It's really not that difficult to understand. For centuries mankind has been curious about nature and has tried to manipulate the surroundings. Humans slowly learned how to crossbreed plants and animals, but it wasn't until this 20th Century that DNA was discovered and genetic science was really able to pick up speed. Each strand of DNA contains the building blocks of life, the secrets of our genetic make-up and what makes us what we are. Understanding how to change DNA and change our genetic make-up is the source of ultimate power. No longer will humans be trapped in the body they were born with; they can become whatever they want!"

"You're a madman!" 

Dan's grin faded. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking again. "Well, such is the reaction of most people. Over the past few decades, scientists have made significant strides in the testing of DNA manipulation in mice, rats, and other small rodents. But we've never been able to make the next step, to test on human beings, and see what we could really do. Some human rights activists start sticking their nose into things and then some politician makes our experiments illegal. But science must move on, whether the government supports it or not. Yes, some people have died in our experiments over the past few years, but that is the price of science. We have learned from our mistakes and that has been critical in helping us to be successful. These three girls represent a new revolution in science, one that will be sure to shock the world when it is finally released upon the masses."

"What do you mean released upon the masses?"

He ignored my question and instead seemed to reflect on what he said for a minute. He then got up and started walking across the room before continuing. "Well, we still have many more experiments until we get to that point. So let us focus on completing today's. I'm actually glad to have you here, Tom. I haven't had a male test patient in this lab for a few years now. They don't seem to ever last long, so we've been focusing on women. So we'll try something new on you that we've been working on. I feel really confident in this one." 

"This is absurd. You are seriously and completely insane! There's no way you are going to get away with this." He and I both knew that he very well could get away with it, but I didn't want to believe it. Out of desperation, I began bouncing my body off the sides of the cage to see if something would loosen so I could get out.

"I would suggest you stop doing that, Tom. All you are doing is harming your body. If you bruise yourself, that will only make your transformation more painful. But I'll let you decide that, it makes no difference to me." he said as he opened up the door on the peculiar looking fridge. He pulled out a tray of test tubes, each filled with transparent chemicals. He carried them over to the table next to his desk, and cleared a spot so he could set down the tray. 

My efforts to escape from the cage were in vain, so I tried calming down so I could watch what he was doing.

"Let's see, I had Lucet, Valide, and Volentia's solutions already ready for today, but I'm going to have to prepare new ones for you and your new friend next to you there, Tom. So let's start with them first and get them started so then I can prepare yours," he said as he pulled out three tubes filled with a blue clear liquid and put the tubes in a centrifuge. Dan sat there as the machine hummed, and casually took the test tubes out when it was finished.

I could see Dan stick a syringe in each test tube and fill it them up one by one with the strange liquid. Once completed, he walked over to Volentia's cage and opened the door. Instead of trying to escape, she closed her eyes and stiffened her body as he reached in the cage. She flinched when he pricked her with the needle, but remained motionless as he emptied the syringe. Volentia wasn't handcuffed like me, and could have tried to resist, but had not for some reason.

Dan closed volentia's door and then proceeded over to Valide's cage. Valide reaction was very much the same as Volentia's. She kept her eyes open as he pricked her arm with the needle, but also didn't make any attempt to try and stop him. 

Finally he made his way to Lucet's cage and opened the door. She was still unconscious, but awoke some as he put the needle into her arm. "Noooo," she said in a feeble voice, as she remained motionless.

After closing her door and double-checking the locks, Dan turned and made his way back to his desk. "I'll be ready for you in a minute, Tom, don't worry," he said as he pulled out another two test tubes with a clear liquid inside.

I looked over at Lucet as she began to get up. I called over to her, "Lucet, are you okay? What did he give you girls?" I was not sure if she could hear me because she didn't say anything. A tear ran down her furry cheek as she stood there looking into space. Valide and Volentia were sitting in their cages, their bodies shaking. 

"This is the next part of our transformation… in a few minutes we will be complete…" Lucet finally responded, still not looking at me. It was apparent in her awkward sounding voice that she was having difficulty trying to speak. 

I sat there in horror as I began to notice each of their bodies beginning to change. 

Lucet closed her eyes as her body quivered. Her breaths became heavy and more rapid as her neck slowly elongated and her head extended upwards. Her breasts slowly sunk into her heaving chest as her ribs grew and widened… her back started cracking and popping as it began changing shape to better accommodate her stance. Lucet's face became contorted as her nose was pushed out further and further on her growing snout… her forehead began to flatten out as her skull began to shrink. Lucet opened her eyes only as the changes appeared to start dying down, and let out one final pathetic whimper as the last signs of humanity seemed to fade from her eyes.

Valide and Volentia's transformations had been much the same with their necks, backs, and chests changing shape until they too became dogs.

Chapter 15: The Girl 

"Damn…" was all I could say. I sat there dumbfounded on what I had just seen. I didn't want to accept the fact that there was now a smooth fox terrier, a dachshund, and a Dalmatian where just a few minutes ago my friends had been. All of their physical human features were now gone, and there was no telling how much of my friends still existed in their new bodies. 

I was alone to fend for myself in a world that no longer made sense. I could feel myself begin to panic, and I shot a look over to Dan to see what he was doing. He was putting back the tray of test tubes fridge to retrieve another one. 

Two needles still sat on his desk. Obviously one was for me and the other was for the girl next to me. In all the commotion, I had almost forgotten about her. She might be the last chance I had to get out of here. I turned around and tried sticking my hand through my cage, but my hand was wider than Volentia's paw and I struggled get it through. Finally, my hand squeezed through and bumped into her warm, soft skin. 

"Wake up, come on, wake up. We've got to get out of here," I whispered softly so that Dan would not hear me from across the room. Trying to do this while I was struggling with my hands tied behind me was no simple task. I looked behind me to see if my futile efforts were working, and saw the girl begin to stir as she slowly began to regain consciousness. "Come on, you have to get up! We have to figure out how to get out now!" 

I pulled my hand back out when she rolled onto her stomach and drowsily pushed her body up from the ground. Her long dirty-blonde hair covered her face as she got up. She was so beautiful; her body was curved and her rosy skin made her look especially stunning. I found myself helplessly staring at her. My eyes traveled along her petite feet, up her long, slender legs, up and over her firm rounded butt, down her smooth back and up to her narrow shoulders. My eyes could find no sign of imperfection; her body was absolutely flawless. My heart ached from the inside out.

When she removed the hair from her face, my jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

"Sarah?!?" I shouted loud enough to make Dan glance over for a second, but he just smiled and then looked back at his work.

"What's going on here? Where am I?" She looked over at me. "Tom? Tom, oh my god, you're naked. Oh my god, I'm naked!" She said as she quickly covered herself. I realized she was staring at my friend that had come out to see her, and I quickly put my legs up to try and cover myself, as well. "What the heck is going on here? Where are we? Why are we in dog cages?"

I couldn't think of what to say. My eyes were wide open and my mind had gone blank. My mind was too busy trying to figure out why Sarah was there. I wanted to ask her what in the heck was she doing there, but I could not find a way to get the words out of my mouth. Instead I stared at her dumbfounded. 

Sarah apparently took my stares as if I was looking at her perversely. "Stop looking at me, you sicko. Would you please tell me what is going on here?" Her voice was trembling and it was obvious that she was scared. I had never seen her like that before, and had it not been for her sitting there in front of me, I wouldn't have believed that she could fall apart like that. And if I would not have seen her with her clothes off, I would have never had believed there was a woman under there. Trying to put my thoughts aside and focus on the issue at hand, I tried to speak.

"There's no time to explain, we have to get out of here," I finally managed, "My wrists are handcuffed so I can't try the lock on my door, but maybe you'll have some luck."

She looked over at the door and scurried over to try and make an attempt to open it. After a few seconds she cursed as she broke a nail. "There's no use, I have no idea how to open it and nothing but my nails are giving."

"Our only hope is to try to attack him when he opens your cage."

"Him?" She looked behind me and spotted Dan. "Oh no, Dan was the one that found me!"

"What do you mean; how did he find you?"

"When you left the office today, you left before I could remind you about the meeting. I was going to get up and yell at you to remember because it didn't seem that you heard me. Before I got up, though, Dan got up and peeked out towards the direction you had left. I figured he was going to call down the hall to you, but he didn't. Instead he ran out the door in the other direction. It looked suspicious, so I decided to see what he was up to. I followed him down the hall until he turned the corner. When I walked around the corner, he was gone. The closest door was a big blue door with the label 'Janitor' on it. The door was open a crack, so I decided to look in. When I opened the door and turned on the light of the small room, all I saw was mops and a bunch of cleaning supplies stacked up on a small shelf up against the back wall."

She paused as Dan moved something on his desk. He was shuffling through some papers, but hadn't filled the needles yet. 

She continued, "I was ready to leave the room when all of a sudden I noticed the shelf coming towards me. Dan was as surprised as I was when our eyes met when he walked out from the hidden doorway behind the shelf. I wasted no time to get out of there and ran down the hall as fast as I could. I ducked into the first room I could find before Dan had the chance to follow me. I hid behind a desk and pulled out my cell phone to call for help. I tried you first, but I only got your voice message…"

"Oops," I thought. I knew I had turned it off specifically so she couldn't call me… 

"… but then I tried calling security. I told them where I was and waited for them to come and get me. Dan came in with security right behind him. The next thing I remember is waking up here." 

Before I had a chance to respond, I could see Dan finish filling the second syringe and start approaching us.

"Okay, Sarah," I whispered, "I will explain to you what I know later. But right now we have to get out of here. When he opens one of our cages, that person has to try to subdue or distract him. The other one of us will have to try and grab his keys."

"Alright…" she said faintly. I wasn't sure she was completely convinced by my last-minute plan, but it was better than nothing.

Dan, or Novo, as he liked to be called, crouched down in front of Sarah's cage and put one of the needles down aside of him while he crouched down to unlock Sarah's cage. "Well, looks like we have a little conversation going on here. I'm glad to see you are awake, but I would advise not trying to do whatever he might have told you to do. I'm going to be injecting you with a solution, here, and don't want to be forced to hurt you if you try to struggle. I hope that's clear, because I really don't want to have to do that."

Sarah pushed her body away and leaned up against the back of the cage. "Get away from me, you creep, you're not injecting me with anything."

This was going to be my chance. While he would be busy struggling with Sarah, I could try to stick my foot through the front of the cage and pick up the second needle. Then I could stick him with his own needle if he tried coming after me. This might just work. It had to work.

Dan unlocked the front of her cage and slowly leaned in. Sarah's eyes opened wide in fear she completely froze. Her hands clenched the sides of the cage as he stuck the needle into her arm, but she did nothing to resist him as he slowly injected her with the mysterious solution.

Before I could fit my foot through the front of the cage, Dan backed out of Sarah's cage and closed the front. Noticing my attempt to reach the needle, he immediately picked it up and said, "Nice try, but that's not going to work today. If you try anything like that when I give you your shot, you will regret it. I do have a dart gun I can use if I have to, but I'd rather not have to resort to that."

As he reached to unlock the door to my cage, he paused when he looked at the syringe. "Oh, wait a minute," he said to himself, "this is the wrong one. I forgot that there's a different solution I have to use for males." He laughed to himself. "I'm so used to doing women, I had nearly forgotten. I will go get yours out... hmm. That is, of course, unless you want to be a woman," he said with another big grin of his.

I shot him a very dirty look. 

"Ah well. Figured I'd ask! You are going to have to give me another couple minutes, then," he groaned as he got up. "I'll be back for you in a second; in the mean time you can sit back, relax, and watch Sarah change for awhile. She has a stronger dosage then the other girls had, so I'm interested to see if her body will be able to take the whole change. Your change will be the same as the girls, though, because I don't even know if this is going to work right for your gender." Dan said as he walked across the room, put both needles on his desk, and then walked towards the fridge.

Sarah was sitting up against the back of the cage, her hands still clenching the sides. She remained still, a terrified expression stuck on her face. I watched in horror as her body began to shiver. I had seen that before. 

"Are you okay, Sarah?"

Without looking at me, she asked, "What does he mean by watch me change for awhile, Tom?" Her feeble voice was drenched in fear. 

"All I know is Dan is a part of some sort of secret organization where they test on human beings to try and change their genetic structure. You see those dogs across from us?" Sarah might have looked, I couldn't tell for sure. "They were once humans. I saw him change them before you woke up."

"My God," she said. She was staring down at her body as a tuft of white fur began to appear on her chest and slowly grew down in between her breasts and onto her stomach. We both watched as a tail poked up between her legs and began to grow long white and black fur. She kicked out her legs from underneath her and writhed in pain as the bones in her once slender legs changed shape. Her feet grew longer and her legs shrank. Soon her ankle had changed into a hock joint and her toenails became sharp claws. Her hands, although still clenching the bars on the side, were also beginning to transform into fur-covered paws with soft pads where her palm once was. 

She shot me a pathetic look before wincing in pain as her nose began to twitch and darken. Her jaw began to stretch out into a muzzle as nose black. Her lengthening lips were also turning black, and she opened her mouth to reveal a developing set of sharp dogteeth and a long pink tongue. White and black fur gently covered her face, starting from her snout, around her eyes, and then onto her ears that had begun to lengthen. Her blonde hair began to disappear and fall out as the black fur filled in and replaced it. Before long, her arms, legs, breasts, and the rest of her body were all covered in long fur, and her bushy tail now almost extended all the way down to her feet. 

The fur was longer than the other three girls; she too had a very distinct livery, this time of a Border Collie. White fur covered her legs and underside, with a ring of white fur that went around her neck in front of her shoulder blades and separated the black fur of her back from the black fur on her head that covered her ears and went around her eyes. Other than her black nose and lips, the rest of her mouth and snout were white and extended down her jaw onto her chest and up her nose coming to a point in between her eyes. Her once flawless body was not mostly deformed and hidden under her thick fur. 

Her change was apparently not over, though. She finally released her grip of the sides of the cage and rolled forward to stand on all fours. Her fur-covered chest began to heave as it began to enlarge and her back began to stretch like it had for the other three not long before. Sarah let out a loud howl as she lifted her head up on her lengthening neck. The pain been too unbearable and she fainted. She had been able to slip mercifully into unconsciousness. Her body made a soft thud as she fell onto her side, her transformation completing itself underneath her fur. 

So caught up in Sarah's transformation, I almost didn't notice a slight little prick in my arm. I turned my head to see a needle, the contents of the syringe quickly emptying into my arm. Before I could react, Dan had already pulled the empty needle out of my arm and walked away. 

 
Chapter 16: Room for One More

The fight was over and I had lost. Dan had injected me with his solution, and now I could only sit there in a cage waiting for my humanity to disappear forever. I sat there for a few seconds as I tried to take in everything that just happened. It was a little hard to swallow everything at once after seeing what happened to the other four and knowing that was going to happen to me next. 

"See, that shot wasn't so bad, now was it?" Dan was sitting in his chair at his desk facing towards me. It was the first time that I could recall not seeing him smiling. "Don't worry, your friends will be okay, and so will you. Your transformation might hurt a bit, but once the change is complete you'll be fine."

"You sonova…"

"Yeah, I know Tom. I know what you think of me right now. I know you think I'm some sort of horrible beast that does these terrible experiments on people. But I really do care about my test subjects, and it's been heartbreaking to lose some along the way so that we could reach the point we are at now, and to eventually reach our ultimate goal."

"You killed those people, and now you are forcing your will on people that want nothing to do with your sick experiments."

"I deserve that. But it's all for the greater cause, the bigger picture. The world is changing around us, you are merely one of the first to change with it."

"You truly are a nut."

"Oh stop being so cynical. You ever think you might actually enjoy your new body? Sometimes people resist change because they are afraid of it."

"Nobody should be forced into making that change."

"People don't always have a choice," Dan retorted. He was clearly tired of trying to argue with me. "I have to get things cleaned up here and ready for tomorrow. We did a number of important experiments tonight, and tomorrow should prove to be very interesting as we study how successful your transformations were." With that Dan got up and began cleaning the syringes and test tubes. 

My head felt light and I began losing a sense of my surroundings. I would swear that I could feel the solution circulating through my bloodstream, though every vessel, to every part of my body. My body began to tremble as my body became numb all over.

I wondered what my new life would be like. I knew I had done everything I could to resist being transformed, but I always sensed that in the back of my mind I would not be disappointed if I failed. Deep down inside I knew I really wanted to change somehow. I wanted to get away from the world, my problems, my inhibitions, my fears, and my life. But I had never thought my life was going to change like this, where there would be no way to go back out. I had flirted with the idea of transforming when I met the girls, but I never would have actually done it myself. Even if I had, I would want to be absolutely certain that I had tried exhausted every other option first. I didn't have much of a choice now. I was becoming a new species altogether, and all I could do was try to look forward to it. 

"You've got to let your animal instincts run wild," I remember one of the girls saying. That's what I had to focus on doing. I should have probably done it long before, but I was stuck. I was going to be different as a dog, I was going to let my emotions pour out and live the rest of my life to its fullest. I didn't have to worry about the world around me, because I was in a new world altogether. And with four lovely ladies, this might not be so bad after all. Not bad at all…

So this was it. I had to sit back and take the change as it came. I almost wished I hadn't resisted like I did so that he would have taken my cuffs off. I wanted to watch my hands become paws in front of my eyes and be able to pet my fur as it began to grow, but I guess I would just have to wait until my transformation was complete. 

I thought I saw tiny white hairs start to sprout from my chest, and I could feel a stubby little tail begin to form at the end of my spinal cord. Suddenly, all I felt was pain… everywhere. My whole body felt like it was on fire. My brain was screaming and I could barely keep a straight thought in my head. I didn't know what was going on, and couldn't help but think that maybe something was going wrong. I closed my eyes and felt myself falling into darkness, never hitting the ground.

**************************************************************************************

My head is pounding as I finally come to. It feels like someone has taken a sledgehammer to the back of my head. I open my eyes, but my vision is blurred. There is a bright light overhead and somebody standing over me. I need a minute to focus my vision to be able to tell who it is, and quickly recognize the figure as being Novo.

"You okay Tom?" I look around to see where the girls are, but immediately realize that I am no longer in the secret room. There are no cages, no refrigerator, no test tubes or flasks. Instead there are desks and chairs and a coffee maker. Somehow, I am back in my office. My chair is on its side and I am lying down on the ground next to it.

"Geez Tom, it looks like you had a pretty hard fall. Let me help you up." I panic when he put his hand out towards me. I quickly roll away from him and jump up. "Get away from me, you bastard!"

"Hey, Tom, that's uncalled for. I come in here and find you on the floor and try to help you, and you call me a bastard?"

I scramble towards my desk and look underneath. I guess I am expecting Lucet to be under there, but instead I see nothing but my outlet staring back at me. Nothing makes sense; I know there is no way that I had dreamed everything up. I know what happened, I know it was real; I just don't understand why I am back here in my office.

Dan glances over at the coffee and then at me. "You okay Tom? You seem like you've had too much caffeine this morning, and I find you sprawled out on the floor with your chair down."

"I'm… I'm sorry Nov… Dan." I am confused, very confused. But me yelling at him right now didn't make a whole lot of sense either. I had to find out what was going on here.

"That's alright, as long as you're okay. It looks like you took a pretty hard lick there; that must have been a sight to see. Why do interesting things always happen when I'm not around? You okay though? Hey, you dropped your pen here, let me pick it up for you…"

I watch him as he leans down, and then take it from him as he hands it to me. "Thanks."

"You ready for the 2 o'clock meeting today?"

"The Heidison project?"

"Yeah, you got it. Remember we present to them today."

Dan notices I'm just looking at him with a blank stare.

"You are definitely acting way too strange today, and it's only about eight in the morning! You usually don't get like this until at least three."

This doesn't make any sense. It is morning again. It appears to be the same morning I started with, but I have no way to be sure. I couldn't remember what day or what the date was, so that wasn't much help. Everything seems to point to me just having fallen and dreamed everything up, and that's just what I will have to believe for the moment. "I'm alright Dan, I just have to get myself started this morning. I guess I took a pretty hard lick when I fell," I say trying to hide my suspicious look.

"Alright, man, but you better settle down real quick. Our new supervisor is coming in right behind me, and you know she's not going to care what type of mood you're in."

"What new supervisor?"

Dan is about to answer, but he stops as an unfamiliar looking woman walks into the room. Her pale skin and freckles seem to clash against her long red hair. Her mysterious blue eyes freeze my blood as she looks into my eyes.

"Hello there, you must be Tom. We talked on the phone yesterday; my name is Vanessa. I'm going to be your new supervisor here."

"Uhm, I don't remember talking with you." I shoot a look over at Dan. "What happened to Sarah?"

"Remember she left because she had another job offer at a larger company? Yesterday was her last day, you know that."

"Uhm…"

Vanessa gives Tom a confused look before looking back at me. "Well, it's been nice meeting you and hope we can work well together. I hope that we can be a great team!"

"Yeah…"

"Thanks Vanessa, we'll see you at today's 2 o'clock meeting," Dan says.

"I'll be there," she says as she walks out the door, "See you two later."

Tom looks at me for a second and then pats me on the shoulder. "I have some work to do, Tom, you should do the same." Tom walks over to his desk and takes a sip of his coffee as he sits down to his computer. 

I stand there a moment dazed before I go over to my desk and pick up my chair up off the floor to sit in it. My computer screen has a blue error message on it, which means I am going to have to restart my computer.

While waiting for my computer to restart, I open up my daily planner. I scroll through the day's tasks: report due by 10:30am, meeting with Greg at 11am until 12pm, and 2pm meeting with the consultants about the Heidison project. Great, a fully loaded day and I am somehow supposed to concentrate. The women, the experiments, the transformations, and even Sarah must have been just part of some really strange fantasy. I've heard that sometimes people have dreams and they seem real because the brain turns off the part that can distinguish between reality and a dream, so I must have just hit my head hard enough to do that. I am just going to have to believe that. 

As my computer brings up the login prompt, I can't help but think how sad I am. I had discovered a number of things about myself and was really actually beginning to enjoy the idea of being so free of cares and responsibilities. Perhaps I just need a vacation or a hobby or something. Something to try and spice up my life; something that would make me feel the way I did in my dream. 

This is not going to be an easy day to try and get any work done. Maybe I can take a half-day today and have Tom cover for me. I just need to lie down awhile and relax so I can try to focus on doing work again. 

Staring at my screen, I try to bring myself back into reality, but I am distracted by a large itch in my lower back. I try dismissing it, but then I feel something begin to start wriggling underneath my butt. I get out of my chair and look at my seat to find nothing is there, but I can still feel something in my pants. 

Dan looks over at me like I'm crazy before looking back at his work, with all-but-too-familiar grin on his face. 

I reach towards my back where I reach for the itch and feel a peculiar bump. It seems like more than a bump, though. I reach my hand in the back of my pants and confirm that it is not a bump, as most bumps don't allow you to put your hand around them. After a moment, I realize I've just grabbed a hold of my own tail.

I have a tail…

 
Chapter 17: The Discovery

 Letting go of my new discovery, I run across the room and pick Dan out of his chair by his collar. With a firm grip on his shirt, I put his face in front of mine and look at him straight in the eye. "What is going on here? Tell me now."

"Calm down, Tom, what do you mean?" he asks in an innocent voice.

"Don't play any games with me, you know what I'm talking about." I tighten my grip and almost begin choking him.

"Alright Tom, alright, just please let go of me." I loosen my grip but do not let go. "The experiment didn't go as well as I had hoped. I need to do some more testing before we can handle a male's genetic structure. You are, or at least were, my friend, and I didn't want that type of testing to be on you. So I've put your life to how it was before yesterday and tried to make it seem like nothing ever happened. But thanks to a little souvenir left over from the failed experiment, I knew it would be a matter of time before you caught on."

"So what are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that I'm giving you a choice, Tom. You can either pretend like none of this ever happened and go back to your normal life, or you can try to reveal our secret experiments and we will lock you up again. We've got you on constant surveillance, so we would know if you tried anything."

"You really are a bastard."

"Hey, you were the one that put yourself in this situation by helping out those three girls. Now I'm giving you the option to walk away. You might not like what my group does, but you don't have to be a part of it any more."

I stand there and stare vacantly into his eyes. His expression is mixed, and I can't tell if he is afraid of me or if he is laughing inside. I think he knows how really torn I am about the decision he was forcing me to make. I think he knows how I feel about my career and my life, so he knows what he's making me do. Choose to go back to the way the things were, or voluntarily submit myself as a test subject. But did I want to live a life as another species? Was that really the answer? I mentally cursed Dan for giving me another option out, the option to have my old life back. Now the only real question is what I was going to do next.

I let go of Dan and half-threw him back into his chair. I glare at him for a second before I turn my back on him and head for the door.

"Where are you going, Tom?"

"I'm going for a walk."

"What are you going to do?"

"I guess I'll figure that out," I say as I leave.

"Alright Tom," I hear him say from the room, "Just don't make us come and get you."

I ignore him as I begin walking slowly down the long white hallway trying to decide my own fate. 
 

Chapter 18: The Decision

Looking behind me, I don't see Dan, or Novo, or whatever he calls himself, following me. As I get closer to the end of the hallway, I hasten my pace. I take the turn and look for the doorway. 

It isn't hard to find the big blue door that says "Janitor" on it, like the one Sarah had described. The door is locked, but that is the least likely thing to deter me at this point. With one swift kick, this security measure is quickly bypassed.

I fly into the dark room and turn on the light as I go straight back towards a wooden shelf that sits in front of the back wall. Trying to pull the shelf down doesn't work, as it is apparently attached to the wall. I knock everything off the shelves until I find what I'm looking for… a card reader.

"Well, it's not too often you find a card reader in a Janitor's closet. Glad I got this," I orate to myself out loud as I reach into my pocket. I pull out my bounty from my encounter with Novo and let it dangle from my hands for a second while I smiled. "Guess Novo didn't notice me borrow his card when I picked him by his collar, that dog." 

I check behind me to make sure nobody was there, and then proceed to swipe the card through the card reader. The card reader beeps and the door hisses as it unlocks. Wasting no time, I pull the door open and rush into the familiar room. I run straight back to the cages, but something was different. The cages are empty. 

"You aren't going to find them in here, Tom," I hear behind me, "They've been moved to a new facility, one that will be harder to get in and out of." I don't have to look behind me to know who is standing in the doorway. 

"But since you seem to persist in meddling in things, I have a proposition for you. On my desk to my left sits two envelopes. The first one includes paperwork that will allow you to work with our research team and help us with our experiments. You can look after your friends and help take care of our new subjects, as well. There is also a million dollars worth of secured bonds, which will help you in the right direction of improving your life as you see fit. You will be able to start a new life, while helping the ones you love."

I turn around and face him with a dirty look he's probably familiar with at this point. "So what's in the second envelope?"

Novo smiles. "I'm sure you can guess that one. In the second envelope is a syringe with a new solution we are going to be using for male transformations. You take that syringe and you can join your friends in your new canine form. If it works, you will get to enjoy the remainder of your life as a dog, free from the daily grind and responsibilities of work and life."

My expression remains unchanged as I move my stare from Novo to the envelopes. I walk up to the envelopes and notice the writing on them. The one on the left says "Dr. Tom Beeble" and the other says "Provolvere". 

"Either way, it doesn't matter to me. I never wanted you to get involved in this, Tom, but I think we both can agree there is no way you are going to be able to walk away from this now. So I will not make you walk away, but I will make you choose what you want to do now."

My expression becomes completely neutral as I stare at the envelopes sitting in front of me. "You are right, Dan. I can't go back to my old life now. I'm in too deep. I will accept your offer, because I know I will not be happy doing anything else." I lift up my hand and reach for the envelope on the left.

"Remember Tom, there is no way going back. Once you choose one, you can never go back to the other. It's up to you, but be sure you are aware of that."

I stop my hand and thought about what he said. I will never be able to go back. This moment will decide the rest of my life, and if I don't make the choice that felt right in my heart, I will always regret it.

I pull my hand out of the left envelope and put it down. I pick up the envelope on the right.
"Good choice, I'm glad to have you on board as a voluntary test subject! I will make sure you are treated right, Tom, I will never forget our friendship we've had. Oh, and that's right, your new name is Provolvere, so I better get used to calling you that. It roughly means, "to abate", which represents how you hated yourself and your life because of what you had become and where it was going. It will serve as a reminder to you as you try to start your new life, to literally reverse the meaning of your name. I think the name is fitting, and hopefully you will like it." He looks at me for a reaction, but isn't finding one. "Alright now, give me the envelope and I will administer the solution to you."

"No!" I shout.

After a pause, he asks, "What do you mean?"

"I mean no, you will not administer it. This is my choice and my envelope, and I will give it to myself."

"Are you sure? I have much more training in this and can guarantee I will make it much less painful."

"I will do it."

Novo shrugs his shoulders. "Suite yourself."

I open up the envelope and see the syringe sitting on the bottom, the contents of which were about to change my life forever. With Novo looking on, I lift the syringe out and fold up my sleeve.

Then I lunge forward and push Novo off his feet. As soon as he lands, I jump on top of him and pierce the front of his shirt with the needle. Novo struggles to try and stop me, but I have his arms pinned down under my legs. "How about this for a decision," I say as I push down on the top of the syringe and empty the solution into his worthless body. 

"No, damn it. Get off of me! Now you've made me mad!"

"You deserve this, Novo. You deserve a taste of your own medicine!"

"Maybe so, but not today." He shouts.

Before I can figure out what he meant, I feel a pain in my side. "What the h…" I see Novo toss an empty syringe to the side and a familiar feeling of something foreign running through my veins.

"Now get off of me, you fool!" With surprising strength, Novo tosses me to the side. He gets up on his feet and stands over me as he begins unbuttoning his shirt. 

I tried to get up, but my body was too weak; I could barely sit up. "What's going on, what did you give me?"

Novo ignores for a minute while he opens his shirt. Underneath is black, padded vest that was wet on the side I had stabbed him. "Whew, I was concerned you might have punctured through some part of my Kevlar vest. You never can be to safe around here, especially when you in my profession. You never know when the feds might discover our operation and try picking us off. I don't think it was intended to prevent things like this, but I'm not going to complain."

"But…"

"I really wish you wouldn't have done that, Provolvere. I'm going to have to go wash this off now." Novo looks at me, and sighs. "I can't say I blame you for trying. That was a good move, you made. I should have seen that coming. Luckily I had packed a spare in case something did go awry."

I watch Novo head for the door. "Don't worry, I'll be back in a few minutes to check up on you after I get this cleaned off." Behind him the door slams and locks in place. Novo leaves me there alone.

Alone.

My body is beginning to shake and I helplessly look around the room for something… for anything. I see the second envelope still sitting up on the desk, and desperately try to reach towards it. I lean up against the desk and try to lift my arm, but it feels much heavier than normal. I feel the top of the desk for the envelope and finally manage to pull it down. It falls on the floor and the papers inside slide out halfway. I don't have to pull them out the rest of the way; I can already see they are blank.

It was a set-up. There was no choice: I now knew he had the extra syringe in case he I chose the first envelope. "Well, at least I had tried," I think out loud. 

My whole body aches; I swear it feels like a truck has hit me. My nose itches a bit, so I slowly lift my hand up to rub it. I immediately notice two problems with this. My hands change shape and claws replace my fingernails. When I feel my nose, I notice it is wet and that it has been pushed away from my face down my lengthening snout. I feel the side of my face while it stretches and my jaw moves along with it, as well. I slowly unbutton my shirt to reveal my chest covered with white hair. My legs feel like they are going to break themselves in half, and I struggle with my belt as I try to remove my pants to relieve some of the pressure. I am aghast at what I see when I finally manage to get my pants off over my newly transformed legs. There is no way that these legs belong to me; there is no way. 

Fur begins growing everywhere, but not all of it is white. I notice brown and black hair is growing on my back from around my sides and on my tail, as if I was a beagle or something. My hands are now paws, and I gently pet the fur on my stomach. It feels strange on my pads, but I can tell it is smooth and silky, and almost helps me forget the extreme pain that I am experiencing. Wondering what happened to my hair, I reach up towards my head and find my hair replaced with the same fur that covers the rest of my body. My ears are replaced with huge sagging ears that cover the side of my head. I move my paw down my forehead and down my snout before letting it drop to the ground. 

My senses are screaming like crazy; they are flooded with new tastes, touches, sights, sounds, and scents. My nose is discovering every smell in the room and my ears are finding noises well into the hallway. Suddenly, I can't breathe at all.

"Uh oh…" I don't know if my chest is growing or if my lungs just stopped working; I couldn't tell. Maybe this was normal… or maybe something was wrong. I frantically gasp for breath as I try calling for help. No sound came out of my mouth, and I couldn't get any air in. 

The lights began to fade and the room became dark as I slowly slumped over on my side.


****************************************************

"How is everyone doing today? Would you guys like to come out and play for awhile?" Novo asks the girls, to which he receives a unison of excited barks. 

Novo walks up to the first cage and unlocks it "Alright, I suppose you girls can play for awhile. You've been good. Just don't get too wild." After letting Lucet, Valide, Volentia, and Decorus out, Novo walks towards the open doorway at the other end of the room.

"Provolvere, could you come in here? I need you to watch the girls for a while. We're supposed to be getting a new patient today, so make sure they don't make a mess around here."

"Arf," I responded in recognition from the other room. I walked in as he was walking out.

"Thanks, my beagle friend! I'll be back shortly. Make sure they go back in their cages if they start getting out of control."

"Arf."

I walked over to Lucet and playfully batted her on the nose. She jumped up and licked mine. I was still in my halfway form, as I refer to it as. I am neither in the human world nor the animal world, so I am stuck in between two species. I was somewhat jealous of them, but not completely; I was just glad to be alive. 

Novo's experiment on me was almost a success. The transformation was a success, but the drug was new and unstable. Novo isn't sure why I had stopped breathing, but had luckily come back into the room shortly after I passed out. He was able to do CPR and bring me back. For an evil man, he is an awfully good person at heart. 

It isn't so bad being half dog. It's actually a lot like being human, except it's a little harder to stand and I'm covered with fur. It's different than I could have imagined, though. I love watching over the girls, and they love having me around. We were closer than ever before, and I really loved being with each one of them. Even Decorus, which was Sarah before she became the Border Collie. Decorus simply means beautiful or becoming, which I thought was fitting for her new self. 

Novo is wrong about my name, though. I never hated my life or what I was becoming. I hated the fact that I was trapped and never able to explore my feelings and myself. I hated the part of me that held me back from being free, but never hated myself. He was right about one thing. My name, Provolvere, would serve as a reminder of my past struggles and encourage me to erase the meaning of my name as I explored this new way of life. One day I would erase it's meaning, and hopefully all my pain.

I watched Lucet as she played with the other dogs. Ever since the first time I met her, I knew I could never let her go. She had introduced me to a new way of life and a new world altogether. Helping her felt right from the beginning, and I don't plan on letting her go now. 

This is just the beginning, though. Soon I will have many more friends to take care of. Novo had revealed some of his organization's future plans to me, and all I can tell you is that things will be different very soon. By then I will probably be a full dog, so I will not have to worry about that. I'm merely one of the first, but I will certainly not be the last. In the end, it turns out I wouldn't have had a choice anyway. 

The world is changing. The question is, are you? 


THE END… FOR NOW