The doors locked, the windows secured, and every possible contingency covered for
Lucy's evening. She timed everything, and called to ensure that her husband would
arrive when he normally did.

Lucy needed to calm her nerves, and prepare her for tonight. Her latex outfit squeaked
as she gently glided to the table, soundless soles brushing over thin beige carpeting. She
grasped the shot glass and quickly quaffed the brew, the burning sensation warming her
body.

She wrapped the rubber tubing around her upper arm and tucked it under itself, her
teeth clenched over the end to hold it tight. The needle prick tightened the muscles in
her fist, while the collecting blood in her veins pulsed with her heartbeat. In a fluid
motion, she pumped the thick serum into her bloodstream with the depression of the
plunger.

Her arm filled quickly and the new liquid seared, oxygen necessary for a catalyst. Lucy
held the tourniquet as tight as her jaw would allow, holding back the change until the
timing was perfect. The burning subsided into a dull pain, and her arm numbed from
fingertips to the tourniquet.

Lucy's eyes glanced at the clock off to the side, another minute before she could release
the tubing. Her jaw grew tired, and she set down the syringe in her hand. She grasped
the rubber with her fingers and held it firm in place, her arm to the point that it wanted
to fall off. Only seconds left, she reminded herself, watching her skin shift toward a more
purple hue.

The ticks from the analog device were slower than the thumping in her ears of her raised
blood pressure. Her body ached trying to hold the clamp onto her arm, and finally it
slipped from her teeth. The blood inundated with the serum flowed toward her heart,
then to her lungs, where it would find its catalyst in the air she breathed.

Lucy relaxed her stance, though her arm and chest were coursing with tension and
flaring heat from the serum. In a few more moments it would flow through her cells and
begin changing them, forging them with the genetic instructions of their new form, and
initializing a mitosis that would create the new cells while killing off the old.

The process may kill her, she knew, and it would at least be painful, but these risks were
minimal compared to the pain her ex-love caused her.

How dare he, she thought to herself, while the intense sting of her body changing on her
filled from within her being and soul and surfacing to crawl against her skin. He was
cheating on her, probably going to leave her, and he did not want things to get messy, he
told her. They were going to discuss things tonight, over a dinner, on how they would
split things.

But dammit, her fists clenched tight when her bones ached from the changes coming, he
was not going to win this. She would show him how much he hurt her. The serum that
her friend had prepared from old magical lore, was her first choice, a way to make sure
that she could get rid of him and she would never be found.

She could feel tears in her eyes, and through her anger and the inflamed changes flowing
her thoughts turned to rage. Lucy peered at her hands, palms up and splayed, and saw
that her nails had pierced through her skin through the tension of clenching her fists.

Damn him for everything.

Headlights poured through the window and blinded Lucy for a moment, while her
reflexes caused her to crouch. Longer fingernails raked across the hard wood floor, and
her back convulsed with muscles flexing and straining to new forms. A chill rang down
her spine and her teeth grit with the tension of the car arriving in her driveway.

He was too early for her timing.


To read more, visit the store at http://tfx.mangaweb.net/