It wasn’t ink that stained my bottom midnight black… It was fur… Dark, black, fur… It was the same for the moon, it was fur… It wasn’t fur this morning.

“Heheh… Fur… He he…” I mumbled as I slide down the wall in the shower.

“Go away…” I moaned miserably. Had I finally gone insane? First the voice, then hallucinations? What was next?

“You’re not real…” I claimed as I rubbed my temples.

“It isn’t real… If it isn’t real, it can’t do anything, and if it can’t do anything, I can ignore it.”

Don’t listen to any voices in your head, they lie all the time… My butt was still normal, yes, normal… I just couldn’t see it. I finished the shower, purposely ignoring the fuzzy sensations coming from down below.

A quick teeth brushing, anyone-looking check, and scurry-across-the-hall later, I found myself back in my room and did my best to barricade myself inside. I found the most unrevealing clothes I could find that could still be classified as ‘normal’. A large hoodie, and slightly too large jeans later, I was sitting on my bed, laptop already playing a video.

“Hey we’re ready to go!” Sarah called through my door. I woke from a daze of thighs, moons, and fur. Nothing could distract me from down below.

“Crap… One moment!” I called back. I untangled myself from my set-up and rushed the hall. Sarah had went into her room, doing who knew what. I could hear her friends chatting in the dining room as I pulled my everyday shoes and jacket on.

“Ready?” I heard Sarah ask her friends from the dining room. A chorus of yes’s answered. I poked my head into the living room where experience told me Mom was.

“Did Sarah tell you I was babysitting her for the haunted house?” I asked. Sarah probably didn’t use the term ‘babysitting.’

“Yep, have fun.” Mom said as she waved.

“Not likely.” I grumbled as I pulled my head out of the room, my fuzzy dilemma coming back to me. I turned and saw Sarah’s group of four head towards the door. “Ready?” I asked as I came closer.

“Yep.” Sarah replied. We all went out the door, me pulling the car keys off the rack before I shut the door behind me.

The drive was long and loud… Loud because Sarah and her friends liked to yell over each other. But we got to the haunted barn/house without event. It was some abandoned barn out in the middle of nowhere… And looked like it needed to be condemned. My passengers bailed as soon as I parked. They were jabbering about… Something… So I just locked the car and followed behind them.

We must’ve gotten there early because the line wasn’t too long. They had a kind of tent gazebo set up covering a outside door into a basement. We got ushered down below and stopped nearby a table where a lady was sitting by a bright lamp and what looked like a cash box.

“Please don’t grab or hit any of our workers please…” she said to the group ahead as they followed the line. Sarah and co. moved up behind them. “5 dollars admission.” the lady said. Everyone reached to their wallets. I sighed as I pulled out my own 5 bucks. “Please don’t grab or hit any of our workers please.” the lady said as gave us all tickets. We shuffled forward.

The next room was lit only by a dim red campfire surrounded by jack-o-lanterns. We just entered to see the group ahead leave. I also noted a not-so-hidden figure in the darkest part of the room.

“Hello!” cried the figure in a woman’s voice as she stepped into the light. She was dressed in a Witch’s costume. Sarah and company must’ve not noticed her as they jumped a little when she stepped forward. “Welcome to Old Murrie's Haunted Barn!” she cackled.

“I heard this year was going to be scarier than normal but I didn’t know they’d start right off the bat!” one of my charges whispered loudly. I chuckled a little at that.

“I’ll take your tickets and we’ll get you going!” the witch said. We gave her the tickets and she ushered us into a dark hallway.

“Oh my god I can’t see anything!”

“Where are you guys?”

“What’s this?”

“AAAgh! Some thing just grabbed my hand!”

“It’s me it’s me!”

All I did was chuckle. Sure it was dark, but it wasn’t THAT dark… I could still make out the outlines of my sister and her friends with relative ease. Eventually they regrouped and continued forward. I just followed behind.

I was kind of disappointed by the experience. It wasn’t dark enough and the hidden people were too easy to spot. Sarah and her friends must’ve been entertained because they legitimately screamed several times. It was worth five bucks hearing my sister scream after someone revved a fake chainsaw in her face. I wasn’t remotely frightened until I happened to turn around to see a glowing skull mask behind me.

“Hey.” I said nonchalantly.

“Hey Lucas! Keep up!” Sarah cried.

“Lucas?” the masked guy asked. “Cool! I didn’t know they made glowing contacts... Where’d you get them?”

“What?”

“Lucas!” my sister squeaked.

“Crap gotta go…” I said, unintentionally mimicking my sisters squeak. Were my eyes glowing? Distinctly I became aware of something tickling my leg. As soon as I scratched it I felt something move along my leg under the pants. I could feel the blood drain from my face. I debated sticking a hand down my pants to feel, but I’m interrupted by Sarah grabbing my hand.

“This you Lucas?” she asked. I decided to squint my eyes to hide any “glowing” eyes that I may or may not have.

“Yep, I’m coming…” I say, turning my head away to further hide any sort of glow.

I made it out of the barn without any further scares about my mysterious condition. I hurried the group into the car and practically squealed the tires getting onto the road.

“Geez Lucas!” Sarah yelled “You suck at driving!” I smoothed out my driving but felt no need to slow down.

When we got home I got out of the car as fast as I could. I was already in my room with the door shut by the time the group opened the front door. I practically ripped off my pants and felt something fall to the floor.

I didn’t want to look. I really didn’t.

But I did.

A long, light blue bundle of hair swished the air between my legs as I stared at it.

“No no no no no…” I moaned. I followed the bundle with my hand to find it connected solidly to my tailbone. I sat down behind my bed to hide from the door as I looked at the long hairs.

“You don’t know anything… You’re a figment of my imagination…” I whispered.

“Not at all then.” I stated. A figment of my imagination admitting it’s fake? Yes please.

“Alright… I accept your proposal.” I stated.

“No, because I’m right. You’re not real. This, tail isn’t real. And I’m not growing black fur all over my backend.”

I could hear the mischievousness dripping from the voice. I could feel my pupils go wide as I checked my thighs. The voice was right, I wasn’t growing BLACK fur anymore. The black hair suddenly stopped in what looked like a paint splattering pattern. But now instead of black fur, dark blue fur had begun to grow. And it was down to my knees and halfway up my back, and it was beginning to reach around my pelvis to get to my crotch.

“Nononononononono…” I whimpered.

“Lucas is my real name… It isn’t even a nickname.”

“Luna? Oh very clever…” I chuckled. “It’s not even that different.” I noticed the voice didn’t garble the name this time.

“You’d know that… Stupid figment of my imagination.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 4 The Egress Estimated time remaining: 18 Hours, 8 Minutes