My Curse To Bear- Prologue (Patreon)

Note: This is a little concept I've been thinking about doing for awhile now. These are intended to be on the shorter side and focus more on a single scene where the transformation takes place, rather than a super long plot line. Even with that said, this is still over 1250 words! This is the plot-setter but fear not, there is a little expansion at the end!

This part will be public. Future parts will go on Patreon at the $3 level, and will eventually make their way to DeviantArt, assuming it can be posted there.

Here we go!

I really didn’t mean to do it. It was an honest mistake.

Let me back up a bit. My name is Leslie Nelson. At 21 years old, my life has been rather humdrum. I graduated high school with decent grades, but no real thoughts of going to college. Honestly, academics weren’t really my thing. After graduation, I got a job waiting tables for a little mom and pop restaurant. Happily, I quickly developed a customer base that would ask for my section and the tips were enough day to day to keep me working there, even to this day. I guess I should probably tell you a little more about my situation.

Last week, a customer came in that I hadn’t seen before. She was in her mid-40’s from what I gathered. While she had a pretty face, the rest of her was forgettable. She ordered some chicken wings with the spice level of one. At the restaurant, we offer wings ranging from a one, which has almost no spice to our hottest wings, which are titled ‘cranked to eleven.’ As I was writing it down, she changed the spice to two, then back to one. For some reason, I neglected to scratch out the first one, and hadn’t written down the two yet, then rewrote the one. The wings were delivered by someone else, as I was taking a different order when I heard a loud gasp, followed by a shriek. Turning around, I saw the woman slamming her fists on the table, visibly hurting. She looked up at me with tears in her face, her face flushed red from the heat, and retreated to the bathroom. It didn’t take long for me to figure out what happened. Feeling awful, I brought a glass of milk with me to the bathroom.

The woman was turned toward the wall, dry heaving. I apologized and offered the milk. I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. She turned to face me, her eyes bloodshot as she gripped the sink. The lady was convinced that I did it on purpose and accused me of trying to kill her. When I refuted that, she grinned as her body stiffened. The red flush of her face was becoming a permanent color while two horns grew out of her forehead. The forgettable body of the woman blossomed into a powerful hourglass figure and I was pretty sure she was now a solid six inches taller. A spaded tail swung from side to side as she stared daggers into my soul. Pissed off for changing her in public, her eyes glowed crimson and a bunch of words I couldn’t understand echoed around the bathroom so loud, I crumpled to the floor holding my ears.

When the noise stopped, I uncovered my ears and stood up. The woman was gone and the bathroom was empty. Attempting to compose myself, I splashed some water on my face and straightened out my uniform and makeup. I figured I just imagined it. Honestly, that was the only way I could rationalize it out in my mind. Leaving the bathroom, the restaurant looked the same as always. Sighing softly, I started clearing tables, starting with the table the woman was sitting at. The wings were still there, along with exact change for the meal and a note. My thoughts of it all being a dream flushed down the toilet as I read the note:

Leslie,

You’ve embarrassed and humiliated me like no human ever has before. I’ve never changed in public before and because of you, I had to walk out of the bathroom and have every person stare at me. All I wanted in life was to live peacefully in the human realm but now, I’m going to have to move away from a place I really liked. You have no idea how humiliating it is to change in public, but you will, going forward. You’ll understand what I mean soon!

The paper burst into flames after I read it, making me gasp loud enough for others to look at me. I quickly finished cleaning the table and went about my normal duties, though the words of the note, and the words in the bathroom wouldn’t stop running through my mind.

So that was almost a week ago. For the first couple days, I was constantly looking over my shoulder. She was the subject of my nightmares. Every time I heard the bell signaling a new customer, I’d tense up, unsure if it was her. It never was. The next couple days, I stopped tensing up all the time and started to feel like myself again. After work yesterday, a few friends and I went to a bar for drinks, just to unwind a bit. 

It was karaoke night and although I don’t think so, my friends say I have a pretty good voice. After a few drinks, I got on the stage and sang one of my favorite songs; Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. It’s not the most difficult song out there and it always gets people in a good mood. The song started out just fine and I could see people tapping their feet and bouncing their heads. Partway through however, I was starting to have trouble enunciating properly. It kind of sounded like I was smashed drunk, but I hadn’t drank enough to get to that point. The foot tapping and head bobbing slowed and people were now starting to stare at me with strange looks on their faces. I gutted through the song, even though it was becoming a bit of a chore just to move my mouth. Near the end of the song, I was slurring harder than I’ve ever slurred even when I was plastered drunk. The music cut off, but no one was clapping. I looked down to find the stairs off stage when I saw it: My upper lip.

I didn’t make eye contact with anyone as I covered my swollen lips with my hands and sped to the bathroom. Staring at my reflection, I looked completely normal while my hands were over my mouth. When I removed my hands, my eyes widened. I’ve never had any kind of cosmetic surgery, so I don’t know how much collagen would be needed to inflate lips to the size mine were. The bottom lip looked like it was the size of a can of soda! I poked and prodded my lips, amazed at how soft they were. When one of my friends came in to check on me, I practically spit on her when I told her I must be having an allergic reaction to something. As soon as possible, I left the bar and went straight home.

In the morning, my lips were still huge, but had gone down in size a little. At least it was enough for me to eat some cereal without milk dribbling out of the size of my mouth. By noon, my lips were back to normal again. Every part of my brain tried to blame it on a reaction to something, but deep down, I knew that wasn’t what happened. Exhaling softly, I got my uniform on, as I was working the dinner shift tonight. Exiting my apartment, I prayed that my massive lip incident was going to be the end of it. I hoped that the woman had gotten her revenge, and I could go back to a normal existence.

That prayer and hope was heard… by no one.