Against the Horizon - 03 - The Day After
Chapter 3 - The day after
"You're right. Thomas jinxed us." Helena's voice through the phone sounded angry. Almost."Uh... what?", Alex had been woken up by the telephone ringing, and his mind was still foggy because of the lingering sleep. He hadn't even checked out his body to find out whether he had changed again or not. With a sideways glance he looked at the bed next to his: Joss was snoring soundly, wrestled into the bed sheets. Alex realized he had probably been sleeping like a log when his roommate had returned from his party, especially considering that drunk Joss was as graceful and quiet as a limping elephant."Remember what he said yesterday about how we were going to be next? Well...""You mean you're changing, too?" Alex exclaimed, suddenly wide awake. Joss, unperturbed, just snorted once and went on sleeping. "No, I'm not... but Marnie is. She has locked herself in the bathroom twenty minutes ago and I still haven't managed to convince her to come out." Helena sighed. "Do you think this is really going to happen to everyone, Alex?"Well, no point in sugaring the pill. "Yes. I'm afraid... This is what's going to happen, Helena. I'm sorry.""Don't be. It's not your fault." She sounded strangely relieved, like a weight on her chest had just been lifted. "But I... I mean, what is the rest of the world going to think?"For a moment, Alex felt like he was gazing into the deepest abyss. "It's something way too bigger than us, Helena. But whatever happens, we will be together." The words sounded cheesy and hollow to his own ears, but it was the best thing that came to his mind."Thank you, Alex," Helena seemed like she had appreciated them, though. "Well... what about you? Are the changes still going on?""I guess," he replied, meekly. "Still haven't checked out yet."The moment Helena said goodbye and hung up, Alex's cellphone ringed again. The thick, black letters on the glowing screen spelled THOMAS. "Hey, Starcross," he sounded nervous, a little excited even."Heya. You know Helena is on your tracks, right?""What?""Marnie started changing this morning, and she said you had been the one jinxing her.""Why the hell you guys keep blaming me for telling the truth? Oh, and by the way, can I come to your room? I've got something to show you.""Um... sure," Alex looked at his sleeping roommate. "Joss is still in the dream world, but whenever he gets smashed at a party it takes a whole marching band to wake him up"."I'll be there in ten minutes. Make yourself presentable, okay?"After the phone call was over, Alex darted towards the bathroom to check himself in the mirror: as he had suspected, his feet had completed their transition into four-fingered semi-paws, a little shorter and stockier than his former human feet; Alex wiggled his fingers a couple of times, and marvelled at how much more sensitive the leathery black pads on his soles were: it seemed like he could feel every single strand of the bathroom carpet. The red fur had finally reclaimed his face, his lips were now black, and his nose was triangular and damp like that of a dog, but he still wasn't sporting an actual muzzle. And just above the ass crack, almost unnoticeable amidst the fur, there was the smallest bump, nothing more than a large zit; Alex, however, knew very well what that meant. Soon I'm gonna have a tail! The prospect filled him with happiness, and for a second he wondered why. It was just like... "Like I really want the changes to be complete," he realized. Well, it's not like there was any point hiding that: after all, his body had never felt better, and... And then there's what happened yesterday, after you went visiting Knight with Helena and Thomas, his brain suggested, and Alex felt the skin under the fur on his face becoming red and hot for the embarrassment, his ears now pressed against his hair. "W-well," he mumbled to himself. "I-it's not like I d-did something wrong, right? I mean, m-masturbating while thinking to the guy I like is, um... only natural, isn't it?"You know that's not the reason why you're feeling guilty, his brain replied in a calm yet merciless tone. It's because it was way better than when you were a human being. And now you're afraid that you're succumbing to the change and losing your humanity."I..." Alex tried to respond, but he couldn't find any word. "Y-yeah... I mean, does this..."His train of thoughts, however, suddenly came to a halt when he heard three quick, nervous knocks at the room door. "Starcross? It's me, Thomas.""Just a second!" Alex grabbed the nearest pair of shorts he could find - he had slept with only a new pair of boxers on, the fur keeping him warm enough - and put them on. He considered wearing a shirt, too, but decided against it. "Okay, come in!"There was a strange glint of excitement behind Thomas' glasses. "Ew, Starcross, gross! I can totally see your nipples!" he exclaimed after closing the door behind him. "Nah, just kidding, I don't mind, you actually look cool. I see your transformation had advanced quite a lot since yesterday... How do you feel?"Alex scratched the back of his head. Now that he had gotten claws, he was way more careful in doing that. "Fine, I guess?" He certainly wasn't going to tell anyone - and especially not Thomas - about yesterday, but he saw nothing wrong in being honest. "No, scratch that, I feel more than fine, I feel great. Physically, I mean. Psychologically I'm still a mess, but I guess I'm taking it way better that I could have ever imagined." Well, if I don't take into consideration those thoughts I was having in the bathroom just a couple of minutes ago, of course, he added drearily; although - he had to admit - being there with one of his best friends was already making him feel a little better."Glad to hear that," Thomas replied. "I see you still haven't got a tail, huh?"Alex glanced at his own backside. "Yeah, there's just a tiny swelling for now."Thomas' grin widened. "Wanna see one?""Sure... Wait, what?!"A furry, black-and-white snake was slowly creeping from the back of his friend's trousers, ending in a dark tuft of hair. It was slender and really, really long: it was certainly longer than Thomas was tall, and his lanky frame was easily more than six feet. "Keeping it stuffed in my pants was a torture... Oh, God, that came out wrong." The nerd then grinned at Alex. "So? What do you think?"Alex's eyes were wide open, and his lips formed a stupefied O. "It's... it's awesome!" he exclaimed. He was so happy that one of his best friends had finally started changing, too. Had he already had a tail, he would've wagged it in joy."Apparently, I'll be a ring-tailed lemur," Thomas explained. "Googled it before coming here," he smirked. "You should've seen Derek, he's never been so envious of something!" He suddenly looked concerned by the fact that Alex was grinning at him, his pointy teeth glistening. "Why are you smiling now, Starcross? Those fangs are creeping me out.""Uh, sorry. It's just that, I mean... Seeing you so happy and excited about turning into a... whatever you may call what we're turning into." Alex paused and took some time to reorganise his ideas. It wasn't easy, trying to explain the thought that has been tormenting him. "Do you think we are changing mentally, too? Like this transformation is somehow brainwashing us?"Thomas scratched his chin with a finger. "Um, interesting question. I've already established that we are finding the changes happening to us to be way more natural and acceptable than we should. On the other hand, your behaviour in the past three days hasn't deviated from the standard a bit; you're still the good old Starcross we all know and barely tolerate.""U-um, yeah..." Alex mumbled. After the (s)exploit of the day before, he wasn't so sure about that.Thomas was completely oblivious of his friend's doubts, though. "So, that's my theory on the matter," he went on. "The acceptance is just a way to facilitate the changes. Notice that the system is far from perfect: you were scared by your change but have no problem accepting mine, for example. I guess those bugs in the system are a price to pay, though, because who or whatever is changing us is working on suppressing something way more important." "The physical pain, right?" Alex asked. Thomas nodded, his black and white tail swishing through the air behind him. "Precisely. If there's something we cannot deny is that the whole morphing process must be incredibly taxing for our organism. The pain associated with the changes should be excruciating... Except it's not.""Yeah, but I like it better this way," Alex agreed. The worst things he had felt while changing were copious itching and the occasional numbness."Okay, what we should do now is..." Thomas continued, without realizing that his new tail was brushing against the face of the still sleeping Joss."ATCHOO!" The sneeze caught the Alex and Thomas by complete surprise: the ears of the fox-boy perked up immediately, while the lemur tail of Thomas tensed and puffed up, looking like a giant pipe cleaner. "Wha..." Joss - woken up by his own sneeze - half-exclaimed, half-moaned, before starting to stretch himself noisily. He squinted his reddened eyes a couple of times, clearly bothered by the morning light. "Gah, my head is... blowing up..." Only then he seemed to notice Alex and Thomas. "Dude! You're, like, super cool!" he exclaimed, pointing at his roommate. "You totally look like a fox now!"Alex shrugged. "Still waiting for my tail to sprout. He has beaten me on the spot," and he nodded towards Thomas, whose ringed new appendage was still waving happily like a long, sinuous snake.Joss seemed even more impressed. "Whoa..." he muttered, sounding uncannily like Keanu Reeves. "That tail freaking rocks! Can't wait 'til I get one, too!" Alex stared at him, dumbfounded. "You mean you really want to change?""Why not? You both look awesome, and there's no one else in the world that looks like that." He nodded, looking really confident. "I bet it feels great, having that fur and stuff. Say, can I touch you? No homo, of course.""Uh... be my guest?" Really, just because I'm gay and you're a good-looking guy, it doesn't mean I want to have sex with you or something..., Alex thought. And why the hell do I feel the reason to justify myself now?Joss readily started petting the fox-boy's back, marvelling loudly at how soft the red fur was. Thomas, in the meantime, was smirking. "And here we can see the heightened acceptance at work," he said in a voiceover-like tone. "In a simple mind like his, there is no conflict whatsoever between what is perceived and what is accepted as 'reality'.""Um... thanks, dude!" Joss replied, still busy burying his hands in the thick white fur of Alex's chest. His wide face suddenly lit up, an idea literally sparking into life behind his dull blue eyes. "Oh, yeah, almost forgot... Something weird happened yesterday at the party!""Really? Like what?" Alex asked. He was enjoying the petting session, to be honest.Joss scratched his head with his free hand, his brow furrowed. "You see, there was this chick... don't remember her name. Nice tits, tho. But yeah, apart from that, a total nutso. At last week's party she kept telling everyone she had seen that creepy suited dude without a face that lives on the Internet, you know the one.""And why should we care about a crazy girl claiming she has seen Slenderman?" Thomas paraphrased, the end of his tail twitching. "'cause yesterday she was swearing up and down she had seen a giant snake outside the patio. And that the snake had arms and tried to tell her something.""Mh... that's interesting," the nerd replied. There was something different in his hands, and after a few seconds Alex realized that his nails had noticeably darkened since his arrival. "Until now we've only seen mammal/human hybrids, but an anthropomorphic cold-blooded reptile is even more complicated from a physiological standpoint." A moment of silence. "Also, do you know that a snake's penis is forked?""Thomas, you're talking too much about cocks these days, and this is coming from a gay guy," Alex merrily replied."Oh, come on, Starcross, let's not revel in those outdated stereotypes! And by the way, this is all in the name of science: before coming here this morning I started recording a vlog, detailing my experience with the changes. I'm doing something no one has ever done before!" His eyes sparkled in excitement. "Maybe they'll even give me a Nobel prize!""Yeah, keep on dreaming, Thomas," Alex smirked. He then noticed that Joss had stopped scratching his belly and was now staring blankly at the wall. "Um... Joss? Are you alright?"The frat boy pulled himself together. "Uh? Oh, sorry, bro, but I was thinking...""I guess sometimes it can happen," Thomas mused.Joss, however, ignored him and went on. "I mean, I read my Facebook and Twitter yesterday and no one was still talking about what's going on here. But when they find out... what's gonna happen?"
"Hello?" Alex answered at the cell phone. Now that his changes were almost complete, he couldn't possibly leave his room, and that had left him with a lot of time to kill. He usually didn't answer to unknown callers, but it wasn't like he had better things to do."Alex?" the voice of Liam St.George was unmistakable. He sounded more natural and less hoarse than the previous day. "Oh, St.G... I mean, Kn... I mean, Liam."He could hear the wrestling team captain snicker at the other end of the line. "Don't worry, pal, you can call me Knight if you want to. Everybody does it anyway, and I have to admit I kinda like it, even if it sounds cheesy... But whatever, that's not the reason why I called you.""And that would be?" Alex asked. He was strangely nervous, talking at the phone with one of the most famous citizens of the campus."Well, I asked your friend Helena for your number 'cause, y'know... we're facing the same situation and I though that maybe you would've needed t talk to someone who could understand. Back each other up, y'know." He laughed a bit, but it was a bitter laughter. "I know I surely do." Alex felt something warm and soft hatching inside his chest. Hadn't he already had a crush on Iceman, and hadn't known that Knight was both straight and engaged, he would've fallen for him right on the spot. "I... I don't know what to say," he replied, stuttering a bit. "I'm not sure if I can be of some help, b-but...""You've already helped me more than you can imagine, pal," was Liam's earnest reply. "Hadn't you come to my room, showing me I wasn't the only one... I don't know what I could've done, really... don't even want to think about it." Liam fell silent for a moment. "So... are you still changing?" he asked, his voice a little less tense."Oh. Yeah. The only things I still lack are a muzzle and a tail, but I'm pretty much done. You?""That's funny... Since I got those very two things last night. The tail is a pain in the ass, literally. It's freaking huge and I keep knocking things down. Nearly made Terry fall, too. Oh, by the way, she told me to thank you, and to call her should you need anything. I'll text you her number later.""Oh... o-okay." From what he had seen yesterday, Teresa seemed a kind and affectionate girl; what was more, she and Knight looked totally in love with each other. Must be nice, having someone caring about you so deeply, no matter what..."Um... can I ask you one last question, pal?" Liam's voice sounded nervous once again, all of a sudden. "What... what do you think it's gonna happen to the campus?"Alex sighed. I wish I had the answer to that question... Especially because today everybody keeps asking me that. "I don't know, Knight. I really don't know."
"Okay, who said the word 'party'?" Derek shouted the moment he barged into Alex's room, a red wine bottle in each hand."Nobody said anything," Alex replied in a bored tone, lying on his bed belly down. He has desperately tried to sprout his tail for the past twenty minutes, without that much of a success. "What brings you here, Derek?""It was Helena's idea, obviously," Thomas interjected in a grumpy tone. He had materialized behind his roommate, a big plastic bag full of liquor bottles in his hands. "Derek, move. This thing is killing my elbows, you know.""Oh. Sorry." The two finally stepped inside, with Thomas freeing his long tail from the restrictive prison of his trousers. "Here, much better.""Stop shoving in our faces that you have a tail, Tom," Derek groaned while setting the wine bottles on Alex's desk."If you really want one of your own, just make some serious effort and concentrate, Derek.""I don't think that's how it works..."Alex raised a hand-paw. "Yeah, I can confirm it's pretty much useless. Believe me, I tried".Joss suddenly stepped outside the bathroom door wrapped in his bathrobe, a hopeful look on his broad face. "Has anyone here said 'party'?"Thomas alternatively shifted his eyes from Alex to Derek. "I know slow people do exist, but God, this takes the cake.""Wait, is there a cake, too?" Joss asked in response, before excusing himself to redress after the shower."Okay, scratch that, this is beyond slow... this is, I don't know, in reverse or something," Thomas mused. He sighed, and then asked at no one in particular "So... Where are Helena and Marnie, huh?""Don't ask me, I didn't even know they were supposed to come here until ten seconds ago," Alex answered curtly.Derek finally seemed to realize who the fox-boy sitting on the bed was. "Wow, Alex... you're really cool!" he exclaimed. He sounded as jovial as usual, but Alex believed he had seen something very different in his eyes for a moment. "I see you still haven't got a tail, though.""Yeah," Alex replied. The bump on his backside hadn't grown during the day, but it was itchy."We decided to have a party here because Tom said you couldn't possibly leave the room with your current, um... appearance. And I guess he was right." Derek looked at him with critical eye, scratching his stubbly chin. "But really, you should sprout that tail soon. Tom is waving his in my face since I woke up this morning... He even made a stupid video about it.""Hey, it's not stupid, it's scientific! And it's a vlog, not a video.""Whatever.""I thought Marnie had started changing too," Alex interrupted them. "Is it... safe for her to come here?"Thomas looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow. "You mean you haven't talked to Helena today?""Not after you barged in here this morning to brag about your tail, no.""I wasn't bragging... oh, whatever. Marnie's change can be hidden quite well, according to Helena."A couple of minutes later, the girls knocked at the door; Helena looked worried and kept glancing around nervously, while Marnie, well... she was wearing a black balaclava and a hoodie."Oh, come on!" Thomas exclaimed, looking at Helena. "'Hidden quite well' my tail! This is like pointing a giant glowing arrow at yourself and screaming: 'HEY GUYS, GUESS WHAT, I'M TOTALLY HIDING SOMETHING!' at the top of your lungs!"A moment of silence. "This was my idea," Marnie said in a matter-of-fact voice."Oh." Alex could see Thomas' tail deflating and wrapping against one of his legs. "'kay, then.""Hey!" Helena intervened. "You mean you thought it was stupid only because you believed it was my idea?""No, I still think it's retarded, but I don't know Marnie well enough to make fun of her.""Thank you," Marnie replied, and she sounded dead serious. The hooded girl looked around, and Alex noticed that under the balaclava her previously blue irises were now golden and bigger, and that even her pupils were somewhat different. "Guess you guys want to know how I look now," she said, her tone still perfectly calm and composed like that of a voice actress. Then, without any further warning, she discarded the balaclava with a quick gesture. Even Helena, who had already seen her transformation, couldn't help but stare at Marnie with her mouth agape. "Marnie, you are awesome!" she muttered with sparkling eyes, a hand over the bottom part of her face. And she really was.Marnie, as a human, had been a very beautiful girl, and even after the change, her face was gorgeous: her deep golden eyes sported vertical slit pupils and were encircled by a thin ring of black fur, as if their almond shape had been underlined with some bistre. Her nose, on the top of her new short muzzle, was pink and petite; from its sides two dark lines of fur went all the way up to her forehead. Even Marnie's cheeks, covered in bronze and white fur, were similarly marked with dark dots and splotches, like simple yet enticing tribal tattoos. A pair of small, triangular ears were nestled in the girl's hair, which were probably her most striking feature: no longer platinum blonde, they were now the same shade of mature wheat, with black circles here and there that looked like they had been painted directly over the locks. "You look like an Egyptian goddess," Alex said, smiling at her.Marnie smiled back, showing the pointy fangs lines under her lips; she pointed at her ears. "Want to return the favor?""Sure!" Alex climbed on his bed, sitting with his legs crossed; Marnie took a seat on the edge of the mattress, and the fox-boy started scratching her behind her ears, being extra careful because he didn't want to hurt her new friend with his claws.The three other persons in the room stared at them with curiosity, and - in Derek's case - something else... jealousy, maybe? "She looks... fine. Even more than fine, to be honest," Thomas said to Helena. "I thought that this morning she didn't even want to come out of the bathroom."Helena shrugged. "Apparently she was so intent at staring at her new face that didn't hear me knocking at shouting. For at least twenty minutes," she added, in a really-not-that upset tone of voice; if anything, she sounded relieved."So... you don't mind the change, Marnie?" Derek asked. "You were a really b-beautiful girl, and... I m-mean, you still are beautiful, but... You're different now, right?" For the first time since Alex had known him, the Hispanic boy seemed to be at a loss of words.Marnie just shook her head, prompting Alex to raise his hand-pawns in order not to cut her inadvertently. "Please, Alex, don't stop," the girl said. "I want to learn how to purr as fast as possible." The fox-boy looked at her quizzically, but did as she said. "Anyway, the point is," Marnie added, this time looking straight at Derek. "Even if I did mind the change, there's nothing I can do about it. I..." And then she was cut short by Joss opening the bathroom door and marching into the room. "Hey guys!" he exclaimed in a loud, boisterous voice. "Oh, hi, Marlon!""Marnie.""Marlon is not even a girl's name, you Neanderthal," Thomas hissed through his gritted teeth, but Joss didn't even hear him."Looking cool! That fur of yours is fantastic!""Thanks.""So... you're a leopard or something?"Thomas stepped forward, pushing the bridge of his glasses against his nose. "Actually, I'm pretty sure she's turning into an ocelot: the shape of those spots is unmistakable. Hey, wanna know a trivia about ocelots?"Please, not something about penises again..., Alex prayed inside his head.Luckily, this time it was something G-rated. "Salvador Dali used to keep an ocelot as a pet.""Oh, I know that guy!" Joss exclaimed, snapping his meaty fingers.Thomas stared at him with wide-open eyes. "You do?!""Yeah. I mean, he's one of Batman's villains, right?""...o-one of... B-B-Batman's..."Alex, Helena, Derek and Marnie looked at Thomas, who was just standing there in silence with a vacant look in his eyes and a trembling mouth, his tail twitching as it was suffering from an epileptic seizure. "I think you broke my roommate, Joss," Derek mused.