The New You
Manny's soccer ball crashed through a window of one of the houses, shattering the glass pane and waking up black cat taking a nap on the porch. It hissed at him before scampering off.
"Oh no..." Manny panicked, as he ran up to the house and noticed that it had seen better days.
The paint was chipped and cracked, and the grass on the front lawn was very dry and untrimmed. There were also several wind chimes pinned over the windows and on the porch, and there were some drums and some tribal patterns.
Creepy, he thought.
He checked for noises or voices from inside the house, but heard nothing. He peered in, and saw his ball, not far from the window.
He carefully climbed through the broken window to retrieve it.
When he got inside, he heard a loud, "AOUUUH!"
Manny blinked and then found himself before a large fire, with a huge cauldron over it. On the walls were shelves filled with jars, frog's legs, shrunken heads, and other bizarre ingredients. It was like he was teleported into a witch's lair! He tried to make a run for it, but found out that all the doors and windows had disappeared!
"They always run." He heard a voice whisper.
He looked around the tiny room, to try to find out where the mysterious voice came from.
"It never works." said another.
Manny blinked, and he suddenly realized that the voices came from the skulls lined up on the shelves. Then, he heard some slow and heavy footsteps heading toward the room.
Tak.......Tak....... Tak.......
A hooded figure appeared behind the cauldron. The hood was made out of burlap, and covered the figure's face. He recognized it was a woman by the scrawny hands and long nails. She sprinkled something into the bubbling green goop inside the cauldron before picking up a large black metal spoon and stirring it.
Manny looked at the figure in silence for a long time.
When he finally his voice, he asked, "Who are you? What are you?"
The hooded figure looked right at Manny. He found that he suddenly could not speak and he could not look away. While he should have seen her face behind the hood, he could only see a slanted pair of glowing red eyes.
The hooded figure turned her attention back to her bubbling cauldron.
She said, "I have finally finished this recipe after centuries. I have a potion to cleanse the world from its ills."
Manny was frozen in place, and he felt his mouth open slightly. The figure took a spoonful of whatever was in that cauldron and shoved it into his mouth.
The gunk went down his throat. He felt like he wanted to throw up. His skin itched. He rubbed his arms, and clawed at his face. He doubled over, hugging his knees, hurting everywhere. The skin on his arm fell off to reveal a scaly, reptilian skin underneath.
"We are long overdue for an evolution." the figure said calmly.
Manny moaned and screamed through his transformation. The great of his skin feel off to reveal even more green, tough, reptilian skin. He could feel himself on all fours, and breathing through his gills on his neck. There was no more Manny. He was now a lizard starving for flies. The figure patted him.
"One down," she said, turning to her cauldron. "Now only a billion more to go."
Source: K-Zone
