Sarah drummed her fingers on the table irritably, her brow furrowed. How in the hell did this restaurant stay in business? Besides the good food, that is. The customers were noisy, the decorations were lousy, and worst of all it had been a good five minutes since her server had come to her.

“Honestly, how long does it have to be for me to get someone’s attention?” She huffed, waving with aggravation at one of the waitresses.

Surprisingly, the girl came over with an obedient smile.

“Can I help you, madame?” The woman nodded and gave a half-dip. She was a pretty twentysomething, blonde and in the prime of her life.

“Yes, what’s the daily special?” Sarah sighed, her patience quickly waning.

“I believe that’s frog’s legs.” The waitress tapped on her lower lip idly. “Hold on, let me check for you real quick.

Before Sarah could respond, the woman had dipped off to the kitchen.

Sarah mentally shrieked with rage, but by some supernatural effort of discipline, she kept her cool. Though every minute that passed threatened to undermine her current level head more and more…

It had been another seven minutes before another server walked up, this time a cute brunette. “Are you being served?”

“Yes.” Sarah growled. “Barely.”

“Oh!” The woman exclaimed with a small frown, her eyes widening in surprise. “Well, how can I help you?”

“You can help me by telling me the name of the blonde that works here so I can report her to your manager. I asked her what the daily special was, and she--”

The brunette snapped her fingers. “That has to be frog legs!” Then her face fell slightly. “I think. Hold on, let me check.”

Sarah’s eye ticked dangerously, and she gripped the woman’s arm as she began to turn. “No, that really won’t be necessary.”

“Miss?” The brunette’s eyes widened marginally. “Could you please let me go?”

Sarah continued as though she didn’t hear the employee. “I don’t need to you to check and see if there’s frog legs on the menu, because I don’t need a menu to see some.”

With that, Sarah sent a quick pulse of magic into the woman’s body.

The brunette frowned. “I beg your pardon?” Then she shuddered, waves of change beginning to run across her form. She looked down to her trapped arm, screaming as she saw that it was turning a drab and toady green.

Her scream soon drew into a long and loud croak, and the server’s eyes literally began to bulge from her head as the transformation worked its way across her entire body. Her skin turned mottled and slimy; her fingers and toes became long and webbed, and worse of all her tongue slowly lengthened until it was a long and disgusting amphibian’s appendage.

The brunette server croaked again, this time in misery. As she did, her hair fell out at the roots, landing about her in small clumps. She looked up to Sarah, realizing that the woman was a good deal bigger than she’d been moments ago.

“That’s right, you dumb animal.” Sarah hissed with a sadistic smile. “I don’t need to go to the kitchen to have frog’s legs, because I can see a pair right here.”

She let the girl’s arm go, and the waitress croaked, dwindling down faster and faster until she was just a writhing frog in the bundle of her clothes. She croaked and croaked again and again, her body writhing within the vast tent of her clothing until the changes had finally stopped.

Sarah was just looking down at the girl’s clothing in derision when the blonde returned.

“I’m sorry for the wait. Yes, the special today is frog’s legs, and…” She trailed off, seeing an empty bundle of clothes next to Sarah.

The blonde squeaked in horror as a frog crawled out from the clothes, looking back to Sarah with wide eyes. “I’ll take care of this right now, you don’t need to worry about that. Janey!”

A Mexican cleaner jogged up, her eyes wide as she looked at the frog.

“Take care of this gross toad!” The blonde ordered, pointing.

Sarah tutted, leaning back in her seat. “Actually, you’re the toad here, miss… Allie.” She read the server’s nametag with derision.

“What do you?”

That was all the blonde got to say before a transformative spell began to twist and mold her own form. She screeched in distress, becoming brown and bumpy. She slapped onto her hands and knees as her hips and shoulders reconfigured, and a long and slimy tongue dripped from her mouth onto the ground.

Allie let out a miserable croak, looking back up to Sarah to find the woman smiling with callous amusement, no doubt enjoying this show.

Allie tried to run, but froze in her tracks as Sarah hit her with a paralysis charm. Then she smiled to herself, beginning to think of a better fate for the dumb toad-to-be.

Allie whimpered and groaned, her body convulsing as it shrank down within her uniform. Perhaps the worst part about this transformation was that her head had completely transformed before it slipped within the collar of her shirt, letting the entire restaurant see her shame.

In seconds, she was a hopping toad, trying valiantly to escape. She made it from her skirt before Sarah paralyzed her again. Then Sarah walked from her booth down to look at the toad in its beady little eyes.

“We used to play a little game with toads in my neighborhood. We’d hit them with inflation charms, and watch them pop. You can do much the same with any common air tank, but magic makes it all the more fun.”

As Sarah spoke, Allie’s body began to expand, ballooning out. Yet this wasn’t like her transformation; this really hurt! She croaked pitifully as her skin drew taut, stretched to its limits by the expanding air inside of her.

“I never really wondered what it must have felt like, until now. That can’t be very pleasant for you, can it?” Sarah gave the toad an almost serpentine smile.

The toad only croaked again, a pitiful plea for mercy.

“I wonder what would happen if I do this.” Sarah reached up to the table, grabbing her fork. Before the toad could respond, Sarah stabbed it in its belly, laughing as it literally exploded.

Janey screamed, turning to run. Until now, she’d been rooted to the spot in fear. But now, seeing the possibilty of death, her fight or flight instinct kicked in. Obviously the latter had won.

“Stop.” Sarah said coolly.

The woman froze in her tracks, like she was in a movie that had been put on pause.

“Turn around and walk over here.” Sarah spun her finger idly, and the woman jerkily walked towards her like a puppet on a string.

“That woman told you to clean up this mess, didn’t she? I say you get to it.”

Janey opened her mouth to ask how, but only silence came out. The woman fell twitched and jerked, looking for all the world like she was held immobile as a puppet. But her still-screaming eyes indicated that mentally, she was anything but.

“That’s right. You’re going to…” Sarah trailed off, looking down at the smeared toad. “Well, I’m not that much of a savage.” She sighed, clicking her fingers. The mess disappeared, and Sarah nodded to herself.

Then Sarah looked to the crawling frog.

On the one hand, the woman didn’t really deserve death. On the other hand, Sarah doubted that she’d last very long as a frog, which sort of settled it.

“So I’d say you should do as intended, and clean up little miss froggie here.”

The frog let out a loud distressed croak, beginning to hop away.

Janey followed her, still walking like some demented human puppet. As she walked, she twitched; then fell to her knees. Her arms didn’t catch her, and her stomach his the floor a moment later.

By now, people in the restaurant were beginning to realize what was going on, yelping and screaming at the transforming cleaner. The woman’s arms and legs were shrinking away to nothingness, even as her body began to lengthen longer and longer.

Janey’s tongue flitted from her mouth in a distinctly serpentine fashion, and people began to get an idea as to the chase’s inevitable conclusion. Sure enough, Janey began to slither with her new longer body, her skin turning dark and scaly.

The woman’s hair pulled back into her head, and she let out a loud hiss. Her teeth drew out to long and curved fangs, and Janey hissed once more, feeling her new and powerful muscles. She slithered faster and faster, pouncing upon the transformed frog with a mighty leap.

The frog had enough time for one last croak before the snake’s fangs sank deep into its body. Toxic venom flooded into its system, and it twitched feebly as it died.

Sarah clapped aloud, standing on her table. “Ladies and gentlemen! It is my displeasure to inform you that I don’t leave witnesses.”

As she spoke, every other person present began to feel exceedingly uncomfortable in their clothing; as though it didn’t fit right on them. Then one woman noticed that her husband was getting scaly, and let out a loud hissing shriek as she grew mandibles.

“As I’m sure you’ve noticed, all of the women here are becoming scorpions. Very poisonous; very deadly. There are more men here, so you’re kind of the underdogs. You’ll be iguanas, whose tough skin might be enough to save you. Might.”

She watched as pandemonium broke out, changing people surging for the doors in a blind panic. They found all of the exits to be magically barred, and had no choice but to continue to change.

Hands became pincers, tongues became forked, and bodies sprouted new legs. Sarah watched the growing cacophony of change with self-satisfaction, a large smile on her face.

“Yeah, that’s right. You’re trapped here, trapped to fight and survive. There’s two sides now: scorpions and iguanas. Whoever wins gets to be turned back.” Sarah beamed with this latest announcement, arms spread wide.

For one second, the room was still. Then two things happened. One hungry gentleman took a bite out of a scorpion next to him. And across the room, an ambitious business woman began to drive her stinger into her date repeatedly, filling him with as much venom as possible.

The restaurant broke out into violence, animals scurrying from their clothes to participate in the massive brawl. Through it all, Sarah watched; knowing full well that none of the creatures would ever change back to human. But she did like to spice up the pot…

Sarah watched as a scorpion deftly stabbed out an iguana’s eye, only to get half of her legs bitten off. She still fought, whipping her tail forward again and again, poisoning three iguanas before they managed to swarm around her.

Another scorpion fared much better, defending the corpse of her girlfriend with gusto. The iguanas around her began to realize the futility of going at her one-on-one, and prepared to charge--only to find themselves surrounded by arachnids.

One iguana had claimed its third kill, tearing off a scorpion’s head with a victorious grin. Then he was eaten by Janey; still a snake. Unfortunately for the poor serpent, a trigger-happy scorpion only saw her as a reptile. Before she could respond, her eye was lanced, and venom coursed its way through her brain.

Sarah watched all of this with interest, grinning sadistically. “Honestly. Do I always need to kill to get some good service?”