(Man to Cat)


Michael put a hand on his hip, nervously looking the house up and down.  It was painted black, with tinted windows and old wooden boards to complete the appearance of a haunted house.  The ad did say to show up to 134 Cheshire Street, but this building was so... old and out of place.  And he was pretty sure it had its own personal thundercloud...
Lightning boomed in the background and he jumped slightly.  Like that.  That there, not a good sign.  Still, the ad did promise good pay...  He looked down at it again.  “Looking for familiar with computer programming skills.  $40/hr.”  Poor grammar aside, the pay was tons better than any of the other local summer jobs.  He absently straightened his brown hair and walked up to the door, knocking on it twice.
He could hear the sound echo throughout the house, and he immediately regretted his actions.  This was how the first guy always died in a horror movie.  And wasn’t there some saying about real life being stranger than fiction?
As he turned to leave, the door creaked ominously, swinging open behind him.  He tensed, all of the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.
“Going somewhere?”  A hissing rasp cane from behind him, and Michael felt all of his joints lock up with fear.
He slowly, shakily turned to find a short, kindly woman standing at the door.  She cleared her throat, speaking again.  “Sorry, throat cold.  Going somewhere, dearie?”  This time, her voice was much more pleasant, a soothing, almost musical lilt to it.
Michael looked her up and down, trying to keep the disbelief from his face.  The woman was no youth, but her hair was highlighted with light strips of blue.  A few age lines marked her features, but not to the point where she’d need to use makeup.  Perhaps the most noticeable thing about her was how her red velvet dress seemed to wrap around her form as though it wanted to touch as much of her skin as possible.  Not that he minded that, it gave him a clear view of her fine body.
She cleared her throat again, and Michael realized her was staring.  “I-I’m Michael, and I’m here for the job.”  He nodded as he spoke, pulling out the application from his pocket.
She smiled, full lips parting to reveal perfect teeth.  “Oh, yes, come in!”
He hesitated, his gut instinct telling him the offer was too good to refuse.  But his head figured that he needed the money, and his other head wasn’t offering any complaints, either.  He walked into the house, marveling at how the old floorboards didn’t creak beneath his footsteps.
“My name is Melinda, and I’ve been having just a devil of a time setting my own website up.  I was hoping you could spend this summer helping me out a little.”  She led him to her study, and he noticed she was a little shorter than him.  That was a refreshing change from the usual.  Though he wasn’t short, per se, he certainly wasn’t tall, especially not compared to the people back at his school.
“It’s in here, Michael.”  Melinda brought his attention to the present as she opened the door to the room.
The young man’s eyes widened as he gazed upon what he’d be working with.  Michael had braced himself for putting up with an old Windows 98, but this was the exact opposite!  She was sitting on a state-of-the-art gaming computer and had issues coming up with a website?
Michael opened his mouth to ask her about it, but she’d caught his gaze.  “Just because I smoke campers in Battlefield doesn’t make me any better at programming.”  She offered by means of an explanation.
Michael laughed at the sheer absurdity of the situation, then went to the chair, sitting down on its plush seat.  A few minutes later, he’d had the basic outline of a site set up, and was busy working on finding her a good domain.
“My, my.  You truly know your way around the internet, don’t you?”  He jumped as Melinda spoke up for the first time since he’d gotten to work.  She set her notepad down beside him, and he glanced at it to find she’d meticulously detailed what he’d been doing.
“Um, if you’re taking notes, you might want to hold onto that, because we’re now starting on the really complicated stuff.”  Michael nodded to the legal pad, then returned his attention to the screen.
He jumped again as he felt her finger on his ears, scratching and rubbing them.  “But if I were to do that, then how would I do this?”  Her whisper seemed impossibly loud in the tiny room, and he bit back the urge to run.
$40 an hour, $40 an hour, $40 an hour...  He repeated it in his mind like a mantra, letting her continue her ministrations as she hummed happily.  “S-so...  Are you getting this so farrrr?”  He blinked, then cleared his throat.  He might be getting her cold...  “Getting this so far?”
“Mm-hm.  It’s coming along much nicer now.”  He looked up to find her smiling down at him.  Then, he felt something brush against his butt, and that time he did jump up from the chair.
“Okay, too far!”  He shook his head, waving his hands.  “Way to farrrr.”  He glared at her, backing away cautiously, then felt the same sensation against his rear.  He looked down to find a creamy-furred cat’s tail poking from over his waistband, flicking lazily from side to side.
As he looked closer, he could make out that it had brown and black splotches on it; then, as though sensing his gaze, he felt a pinch where it met his spine, and he realized he could feel it now, as though it was a part of him.  Experimentally, he tried waving it, and blinked with surprise as it completed the motion, the fur waving slightly as it whisked through the air.
“Well, I guess that cat’s out of the bag.”  Melinda rolled her eyes, pulling the chair over to her so she could sit down.  “I mean, not that it wasn’t in the contract or anything.”
“What arrre you talking about?”  Michael flinched as he rolled his ‘r’s again.  He was always terrible at that in Spanish, but now he’d be able to do Profesor Ciruelo proud.
She placed a hand over her heart, pulling out the job application.  “It says right here!  Familiar—that’s you—with computer skills wanted!”
“What?”  Michael blinked incredulously, flicking an ear with confusion.  Wait.  Humans couldn’t flick their ears.  Well, some could, but he couldn’t.  He raised a hand to the side of his head and met smooth skin.  His ear twitched again, as though it was playing some game of Marco Polo with him, and he moved his hand up to the top of his head, where the skin met of his fingers met the soft fur of his new ear.
Melinda sighed.  “Do I need to spell everything out?  I’m a witch, looking for a familiar.  You see, it’s kind of like Mega Man.  We witches get the skills and know-how of any of our familiars, and I happen to be thinking of making a blog.”
“What?”  Michael repeated himself, but louder.  Mega Man?  Witches?  Blog???  “You’re changing me into a cat so you can wrrrrite a blog?”
Melinda clapped.  “Now he’s got it!”
“Now he’s out of heeerrre!”  Michael retorted, preparing to run.
“With those paws?  I doubt it.”  The witch chuckled.
The young man made it two steps before falling onto the ground in a heap, his shoes sliding off of his feet.  He rolled around—careful of his tail—and pulled off his socks to find a pair of furry cat’s paws connected to his ankles.
He looked back up to Melinda.  “This—this is crrrazy!  I’m going to call the cops on you aaand you’ve made my hands into paws.  Grrreat.”  His fingers had managed to reach the pocket where his cell phone was, only for his fingers to shrink back into his palms, which puffed up to have pink, fluffy pads.  He tried to stand, but couldn’t get the balance right, falling to his forepaws again.
“Oh, do you need a little help?  Here, let me give you a hand.”  Melinda walked over to him, pulling his shirt off in a quick motion that left him shaking his head in surprise.  Then, she cupped her hands under his shoulders and started to lift him.
As she tugged on his underarms, Michael felt the room grow larger around him.  He realized he was shrinking, and he looked down to find his lower body slipping out from his pants.  The cat-to-be blinked in confusion as he looked at his legs.  Something about their shape seemed off.  His spine tingled as he realized he was not only shrinking, but his form was also changing shape into that of a feline.
He looked up at her and growled with irritation, feeling his torso slim out to become a cat’s slinky body.
Melinda laughed.  “So aggressive!  Let’s see what happens if we ease up on your testosterone.”
Michael’s eyes widened as he felt a tingling down his chest, several more rows of nipples dimpling their way down his chest.  And his male parts were...  Well, It was safe to say that they were no longer male parts.  The new female looked up at the witch, her face reddening.
“Oh right, I’m sorry.  No lady likes to be nude.”  Melinda looked away demurely, occasionally tilting her head to sneak a peek at her familiar.
Michael’s legs kicked as she shivered, mottled cream and brown fur poking their way through every part of her new body.  It was like she had goosebumps that warmed her body once they reached a certain length.  “S-stop it!”  She yelped slightly with surprise at the realization that her voice had become decidedly more feminine.  “Is that what I sound like neow?”  She nodded to herself.  “Yep.”
“If it helps, you won’t have to worry about your voice much longer.”  Melinda nodded, kissing Michael on her nose.
Michael’s jaw pushed out as the witch’s lips left her nose, as though they desperately wanted to continue the kiss.  Her nose turned upwards, pink overtaking tanned skin, and she twitched her cheeks as one by one, whiskers forced their way from the sides of her mouth.
“Irs it too leeate to rrrreeseown?”  Michael sighed as she lost the ability to speak.  “Rreow.”  She tried.  Yep, guess it was.
“Oh, you are just precious!”  Melinda squeaked, a few years dropping from her face, crow’s feet vanishing as though they’d never been.  “I think I’ll call you Mika now, if that’s all the same to you.”
Mika pursed her lips, then tilted her head.  “Reow?”  She pawed at her own face.
“Oh, your eyes!”  Melinda blinked, pulling the cat into a gentle embrace.  
Mika squeezed her eyes shut as they burned, like she’d got a few layers of sand in them.  She pawed at them, then opened them to find that things looked... duller.  Like most of the color had gone out of the world, but she could also see more of it.  It was an effect that was frightening and beautiful, all at the same time.
Still, it wasn’t what she asked about.  Mika pawed by her eyes again, by the sides.  “Mrrow!”  She was more insistent this time.
The witch brought a finger to her own eyes.  “Oh, me?”
Mika nodded vehemently, whiskers bobbing.
Melinda smiled.  “It’s the other side to our little ‘contract’.  Handy little extension to our lives, mostly so make up for the trade between human and animal souls.  Now, be a good girl and let me know if I code anything incorrectly.”
Mika sighed and jumped next to the keyboard, watching the screen intently.  She’d play along until she found a way to get out of this, or at least get even...