Dog Boy

20

I was jostled awake.

"Matt, wake up."

It was pitch black, barely a light to be seen. In a moment, someone - my mom had turned up the dimmer switch. I glanced out the window with bleary eyes. It was still very dark out. My watch revealed that it was just past one in the morning.

"Mom... Dad?" I groaned. "What..."

"Get dressed," my dad said, "it's time to go."

I ran my hand through my hair. I looked over to Jackie's side of the room to see her slowly getting up. Her mom was here too.

"Like... now?" I asked.

"Yes," my mom said as she packed up my things into some bags, "now."

"... why?"

My dad handed me some folded clothes. "Some people I know higher up in the company have informed me that the whole place is going under. The government is going to send people here in the morning and anyone still here is going to be quarantined."

I looked down at the clothes, then got out of bed and went into the bathroom. Where I'd been wearing loose fitting, casual clothes the past few days, this was a normal t-shirt and jeans. I put them on, glad to be wearing something that made me feel a bit less crappy.

When I put them on, I discovered something - like I had unfortunately expected, there was a hole in the back of the pants. This time however, they hadn't been hastily cut out, but craning my neck to look behind me, I saw that the hole was actually nicely sewn. I pushed aside this strange new change to my clothing, and pulled my tail through. It kind of felt nice actually, snugly fitting around the base of my tail.

I wagged my tail slightly, and panted. I glanced to the mirror. My muzzle had grown. It was maybe... two inches long. I pulled my tongue back in, and... my tongue... felt... comfortable.

I hadn't known it until that moment, but my tongue, being longer than normal, had always felt just a bit... off. Cramped. Now however... it felt right. For the first time, it felt right. I shuddered, and walked outside.

In my effort to push thoughts of that away, something else came to my attention. My fever was gone. It had ebbed and flowed over this past week, but had always been there. Now it was nonexistent.

Jackie had changed behind the divider. She was wearing a nice looking mint green blouse, with little fringes on the sleeves. It was in strong contrast to what she normally wore, with even her own jeans being a brighter blue than the subdued colors I'd always seen her in.

"You look pretty."

Her ears flinched as she glanced to me.

"Uh... thanks," she said. "I... I guess I'll see you again after... after all this stupid quarantine stuff is over."

"Yeah," I smiled.

I gave her a hug, and she hugged back without restraint.

"Thanks," she whispered. "... just... thanks."

"You're welcome."

As we hugged, I gave her a little scratch behind one of her ears. She giggled, and scratched one of mine. It felt really good - not just the way it tugged at my new canine instincts, causing me to wag my tail - but just that... that knowledge that she liked me. A girl actually liked me.

"C'mon," my dad said, "we need to get moving. Do you want that?"

He pointed to the Switch, where it sat in front of the TV.

"The Switch? That's not mine."

"The company is going under Matt, do you want it?"

"Dad... I dunno..."

"Look," he said, "this company has left you to struggle with this for the rest of your life, offering no help whatsoever. They should be giving us millions. No one is going to bat an eye."

I glanced back to it, and gingerly unplugged it, finding the case that it went in, and put the dock and controllers in one of the bags my mom had brought. My mom handed me another of the bags, and I tucked the switch case under my arm.

We all walked out of the room, barely a sound in the building. It felt eerie. All the the past nights here, I'd always been able to open up my hearing a bit, and hear some people working. Now though... the building seemed to be vacant.

My footpads pressed against the cold tile floor as we went down the hallway. A part of me questioned if the heating in the building was running. We came to the top of the stairs, and to my surprise, my dad directed us in a different direction.

"Um... Dad?"

"Just follow me, I need to grab something and I want you both close."

I waved bye to Jackie. I felt so many emotions stirring in her, in the fleeting glimpse I saw of her eyes. Mom and I followed Dad to the bank of elevators, and he pressed the call button. I felt a strong urge to ask Dad more about the situation - but I got the impression from his very off-brand demeanor that this was not the situation. Illegal stuff was going on right now - more illegal than just me stealing a Switch.