June 1999

The clock ticked incessantly on the wall above where I sat
I shuddered, were those butterflies I felt in my stomach?
The waiting room smelled like alcohol and bleach and the air was stale and felt filtered.
I took a deep breath and thought

"why am I making a big deal about this it is only a doctors visit"
I realized that I was probably more nervous about being away at camp for an entire week.
It didn't help that the camp was in Rhode Island and was a three hours trip away from home, if anything went wrong there could be severe problems
I looked at the form for the physical the camp had sent all of the boxes and letters flowed together
the room spun slightly
"RELAX DAMN IT" I told myself and laughed nervously, why was I making such a fuss over this
The door to the offices opened and one of the nurse practitioners called my name. I stood up from where I was seated and followed her downs long hallway to an examination room. I sat on one of the chairs by the door and waited. The clock in the room was broken so there was no way to tell how long I sat. A lot of time seemingly to passed and I found myself passing time by looking at the charts and posters on the walls. One in particular caught my eye, it was a close up shots of an inner ear.
The infected one looked particularly gruesome. The door oped and my doctor,
Dr. Avani stepped in. She was a older lady of Indian descent. Her dark hair and mocha colored completion gleamed under the florescent lighting.
I had always though that she was pretty, she could have easily been a model or actress instead of a doctor.
"Hello Michael long time no see" she said.
Her accent was so think you probably could have cut it with a knife
I smiled, said hi and handed her the form explaining to her what it was.
"A camp physical? Not a problem" she beamed
******
She checked my height and weight, I had gained exactly a pound since my last visit
I sat down on the paper lined doctor's bed, she shined a pen light in my eyes, and looked in my ears I felt the familiar warmth from the light in the otoscope.
"you find any brains up there?" I asked trying to break the uneasy silence that had enveloper the room
she laughed
"nope"
She checked my blood pressure
she frowned as she released the pressure gague
"are you ok? Your blood pressure is a tad bit high"
"i guess I am just a tad bit nervous"
"Can't say I blame, you she said, lot of people are. Don't worry I don't bite, I need you to take off your shirt for me"
I pulled of my shirt The cold metal of her stethoscope pressed into my chest.
And then my back
"take deep breaths"
I felt my breath waver slightly as I inhaled several times
Dr. Avani removed the stethoscope and hung it around her neck, it stayed there like some kind of limp, dead animal.
"so how long are you going to be going away for"
"a week" I sad
"can't blame you for being slightly nervous, make sure to have fun. "
"i will" I said
I lay down
Dr. Avani started examining my abdomen,
she pressed down just above my waistline, suddenly my entire body exploded in pain

I gritted my teeth and tried hard not to scream,
it was a real challenge.

I gasped and let out a low moan.
"Does that hurt?" she said touching the spot again

"yes,like someone stabbing me from the inside! What is it appendicitis?"
"No, no your appendix is over here, " she said pressing an area a bit higher on the right side of my stomach she removed her hands
"very strange, you have a stomachache?" Dr. Avani asked
"A tad bit I thought it was just nerves," I gasped
"Wishful thinking " she muttered grabbing her stethoscope again she pressed it on the area that hurt.
"this isn't good"
"what I whispered "
"silence, your innards shouldn't this quiet! There is always some kind of noise, usually digestion or the echo of your heartbeat."
She removed the stethoscope, and felt the area again. My whole body, every nerve ending screamed in pain. It was a prickly sensation much like pins and needles. She touched my stomach again and her hand came away with a sizable chunk of my flesh stuck to it
Then and only then did I scream, I think we both did. The pain was unbearable, the exposed muscle tissue seeped blood and other clear goop onto the paper lined bed.
"Whats happening? To me? "I asked something about my voice was different I couldn't quite place it, was my voice deeper? Not too unusual I was almost a teenager adolescence brought about all sorts of changes. Whatever was happening was FAR from usual. I watched the Doctor peel away the skin that had stuck to her hand.
"I am not sure," Dr. Avani panted," but we are going to get to the bottom of this; can you stand?"
I think so I said slid off the bed in the process I lost several more hunks of skin from my chest, and arms. The exposed areas burned and weeped a small puddle of fluids onto the floor.
"Sorry about the mess I rasped"
She said that it wasn't a problem and helped me walk into another examination room,
one I had never been into before. There was an enormous machine that covered the far wall. It was a shallow cylindrical drum shaped niche in the wall. Around the drum embedded in a circular track were larger thinner spoke like cylinders.
"What is THAT" I asked gawking at the monstrous contraption.
"It is a new form of MRI that gives 3D holographic images a prototype we were lucky to procure.
If this doesn't give us a better idea of what is happening then nothing will." She pressed some buttons on a control panel and the outside ring of scanners began to rotate clockwise
The central drum looked like the spinning portion of a clothes dryer you might find at a laundry-mat, only much larger. There was a large circular glass door on the front the opened it, the inside of the drum was padded, there was some sort of harness inside she helped me climb inside, she strapped me inside .
"this drum rotates, do not panic the entire process only takes about ten minutes."
"I only have one question," I gasped "Delicates or Permanent Press,"
She grinned,
"at least you haven't lost your sense of humor, imagine its a carnival ride"

She closed the door and pressed more buttons on a control panel.
The drum began to rotate slowly. I was surprised that the blood didn't rush to my head, I was surprised the experience was soothing, and somewhat therapeutic. The pain subsided and I almost fell asleep at one point it.
There where five minutes left until my scan was over
"half way there" I told myself "i was beginning to get really dizzy and lightheaded
Then suddenly the pain returned in all of it's blinding glory.
I screamed in agony as several bones broke and refused in ways they were never meant to.
my peeled off in hunks blood ran down the glass door
"Can't Dr. Avani hear me screaming? " Then it hit me the scanner was aggravating my condition and SHE KNEW!
More pain as my spine curved naturally. I watched in horror as a bony tail ripped through my boxers
"The fug' is happening to me " I said. The sound of my voice terrified me it was way too deep. It felt like my skull was being crushed in a vice. I let out a scream that was neither human nor animal but a horrifying combination of the two. The bones in my hands and arms split like twigs and fused together in once more Suddenly skin and orange fur erupted from my ooze covered body the scanner stopped. With a buz
"What no spin cycle" I thought the harness and door opened automatically and I tumbled from the machine to the floor. I was aware of the fact that I was no longer a human I looked down at my new form I had paws, that narrowed it down a bit. I looked around the room nervously
I had shrunk quite a bit. There was a mirror by the door I ran to it nearly tripping over my own paws in the process. Running on four legs was no easy task. I yelped in mixed horror and amusement the reflexion of a fox cub stared back at me.
I let out I high pitched bark and backed away,
"what to do what to do, my mother is going to come to pick me up soon!" I found myself running in circles anxiously like a scared puppy. Then the absurdity struck me, I WAS a scared puppy.
I sat down and whimpered.
******
Sometime later doctor Avani reappeared and gushed at me
"Aren't you cute she said," she threw a what appeared to be a dog treat in my general direction, it landed at my paws. I realized that I was starved and devoured it.
I noticed that she had strapped a collar and leash around my neck
"my kid's will love you" she said
I immediately stopped eating the treat
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!" I snapped
or at least I tried to I was startled by the series of shrill shriek like barks and clicks that came from my maw.
"oh right I am no longer human, " I thought desperately
"feisty one aren't you " She said, it was then that I noticed the doggie crate in the corner of the room.
As much as I liked Dr. Avani there was no way in hell I was going to be her pet.
She went to pick me up I acted on new-found instincts I chomped on one of her hands hard my razor sharp tore through flesh and bone. She shrieked, blood splatter on my fur and the tiled floor. She ran from the room leaving a blood trail and slammed the door I was half sickened and half amused by the fact that I liked the way her blood tasted, I lapped it of the floor. Then I returned and ate her fingers. Reality struck me like a sack of bricks
"What have I done?" the room was ominously silent.
"I'm a complete monster now aren't I? " I thought I wined and burried my haed beneath my paws and cried like the scared cub I was. I had eaten her fingers, never mind that she was going to keep me as a pet. She could have been a good provider, sure my parents would miss me, but how many people could say that they lived as a human AND a fox.
She might have even been able to find a way to turn me back again.
I had to go and burn my bridges again.
There was no way out of the room.
There were no windows and the only door was locked from the outside.
There were voices outside suddenly the door flew open and a uniformed man entered the room.
The next thing I knew a tight plastic loop shot out of nowhere and tightened around my neck, I couldn't breathe, I choked and gagged as I was hoisted off the ground by several sets, I was muzzled and and loaded into a cage in the back of a van. There was a sign on the cage. I tried to read it and realized that I was having some trouble, the fact that I could remember how to read at ALL amazed me. The tag read
B-D D-GG-E my mind slowly filled in the gaps. It read "BAD DOGGIE," they slammed the door shut on me. I never struggled I laid down in the cage and began to cry again.
"Shut up you little rat" Dr Avani spat brandishing waving her un-bandaged hand at me. She was in tears, she thanked the animal control officer threw a bag over my cage, I was surrounded by darkness.
.The engine roared to life and the van began to move
"what was going to happen to me now" a part of me hoped that they were going to release me somewhere. I cried myself to sleep. My heart ached I dreamed of home wanted to go home and when I did I was going to give my mother and brother a bear hug.
*****
Suddenly light,
I quickly snapped awake and examined my new surroundings
around my cage was sitting on a metal table there was a weird cabinet with a glass front there was a metal plate on it that read e-th-n-z-t--n ch-mb-r. My mind filled in the blanks, suddenly I understood and let out a shriek of terror the cabinet was a euthanization chamber! A pair of thickly gloved hands pulled me from the crate someone opened the door and I was tossed inside to die. The glass door slammed shut with a bang and I pawed at the glass. There was a low hissing noise and the air grew thick, it wasn't an unpleasant smell at all, I curled up in the bottom of the case and waited for death to come
suddenly I heard my mothers voice call from the living room I snapped awake

"Time to get up you don't want to miss your doctor's appointment."