(Man to Cow)
“Sentenced to life, as a productive member of society.” The judge’s words were still clear in his ears, even here in the Facility. It had no other name save that, and was always spoken of in hushed whispers.
Kyle Holt sighed, rolling his shoulders. It didn’t scare him in the slightest. When one had the chance to speak to God, and learn that murder was the answer, little things like capital punishment only felt like an inevitable conclusion.
“That’s him, right? That’s the one who killed Daddy?” The little girl from the trial teared up. She stood behind a glass pane, looking at him with dubious eyes. Her mother stood behind her, but the woman seemed too distraught to come up with a coherent thought.
Kyle didn’t feel like a monster. He was, but he didn’t feel like one. People never seemed to understand that sometimes death had to come early. He smiled to the girl, and nodded.
The guard beside him shifted, clearly aggravated. The cattle prod in her hands sparked, and he could tell that she wanted to use it on him. But the doctor had said he couldn’t speak, not that he couldn’t emote.
He lazily turned his eyes towards the guard, his smile only widening. “You get one.” He said, convulsing as she touched the rod to his chest. Sparks filled his vision, and his every muscle screamed with pain like they’d all been strained at the same time.
Then the prod left his skin, and he looked down to the singed area with a grimace. He sent the guard a sardonic grimace, and she rolled her eyes. He lifted his finger to his lips with a twinkle in his eyes, turning towards the doctor as she cleared her throat.
“Kyle Holt, everyone. I’m sure you know who he is, so I’ll spare you the introduction. Instead, I’ll show you all what he can become.” The doctor smiled. “He’s been prescribed to farm work, and… Oh, you have permission to talk now, Kyle.”
“Wow, really? So if I’d just held my tongue a second longer…” Groaned the man.
“You’ll get used to it.” The guard chuckled.
“I don’t like your tone… Then again, what am I going to do about it? Murder you?” Kyle laughed outright, looking to the guard only to blink in surprise as she popped a device into her mouth. It looked like a sort of air filter, and she winked to him in response.
“Clever. The world’s going to miss that wit.” The doctor said, tapping something on her tablet. A faint hissing filled the room, and Kyle’s eyes widened.
“Gas? You kidding? This was supposed to be a life sentence!” He laughed, clapping his thighs. “Joke’s on you, I welcome death!”
He closed his eyes, sucking in a deep lungful of the mist. He could taste it in the back of his throat, a bitter and leafy flavor that reminded him of some sort of vegetable. It stuck with him, clinging to his lungs and making him take a wracking cough.
A pressure built, like every sucking inhalation he took left his chest puffed, his breath never fully leaving him. The man clawed at his prison jumpsuit, tugging on the clothes and feeling them tighten around him. Except they couldn’t be tightening… Instead, he had to be swelling.
“Really, you welcome death? Is that a fact?” The doctor seemed amused, leaning close to the glass wall that divided her from the guilty.
“Screw YOOOO!” His voice lowered into a deep bellow, and the man slumped at the wall. He was losing his grip on his clothes, in part because the fabric was getting too tight around his form and in part because his fingers weren’t working properly at the moment.
Instead of being able to grip at his clothes, his digits were stubbornly resisting every attempt to move them. A glance down to them told him why: his fingers were darkening and merging into what could only be called hooves.
“NOOO WAYOOOO!” The man groaned, gasping and thumping his hooves against the wall behind himself.
“You see, this is why we need a guard in the room. We need to make sure our little subject doesn’t hurt himself.” The doctor chuckled, patting the girl’s shoulder. “There’s nothing to be scared of at all here, and you’ll see why soon.”
“Mnnngh… MUHHHOOO!” Kyle couldn’t believe what was happening to himself, but he knew that somehow, some way, he was turning into a cow. His tongue felt thicker in his mouth, and it swelled to press against his teeth.
He could feel those changing too, each pearly white thickening and growing clumsy and blocky. Drool spilled down his cheeks, which bulged from how stuffed his changing mouth was. A loud groan slipped from his lips, but the sound was muffled by his own tongue.
“He looks so silly!” The girl exclaimed, her years drying on her cheeks. Her mother was starting to smile as well. She pointed towards Kyle’s belly, leaning close to her daughter.
“Not just that… I don’t think he’s a ‘he’ anymore.”
Kyle looked to where she was pointing, and his eyes met with an udder. Or at least, it was something that looked like an udder, stuck within his prison jumpsuit. The orange fabric stretched with the swelling of his form, and he let out a mix between a moo and a yelp.
“Quite right! We wouldn’t want to risk people getting injured by a bull, would we?” The doctor chuckled at their prisoner’s expense.
The man pawed at his udder, feeling his hooves squish into its heft. The pressure seemed to be more than his taut clothing could take, as it split bot along his udder, and along the space between his shoulder blades.
He rolled his shoulders and furthered the tear in his shirt, feeling it split from behind his neck to the small of his back. Freed from his clothing, his body swelled and swayed with every rippling motion. The man fell onto his hooves with a groan, the rest of his clothes bursting from his frame…
From her frame. It was hard to think of, but the only swaying object on Kyle’s lower half was her udder. White and black fur swept across her features before they could see her blushing, but Kyle had a feeling that they knew fully well she was.
“MOOO!” She lowed, grunting to the strange sensation swelling from her backside. It was a tail with a tufted black tip, swishing behind her fat cow butt. Kyle looked through the glass with distress, just in time to see it gloss over.
A mirror layer split the changing cow from the humans on the other side, letting her see just how far from human she’d fallen. She looked like a cow with a man’s face, albeit one with an absurdly long tongue and thick, goofy teeth. That didn’t last long, as her lips thickened and her nose broadened on her face.
“Wow, she looks so dumb! It’s like she’s a real cow!” The little girl laughed from the other side of the window.
“Indeed! Soon there’s not going to be anything left of the man, and all we’ll have is a good, plump heifer.”
The doctor said something else, but Kyle was having trouble hearing her. Or, rather, she was having a hard time understanding her. Her ears actually worked better than ever, now that they were widening and flicking at every nearby song.
“MOOO?” She lowed, groaning in distress. Her head felt foggy, and her brain didn’t quite feel right. She let out another low groan, feeling her form swelling into something… Right? She wasn’t sure, wasn’t entirely sure of anything anymore.
A sound came from a nearby room, and she anxiously shifted her posture, hooves stomping on tattered shreds that were once clothing. The human in the room prodded her fat rear, and a shock jolted through the cow’s body.
The sound grew in volume, and the cow realized that she was being laughed at. Her embarrassment lasted for a second longer, until she forgot what laughter meant. Her eyes glazed as they slid to the sides of her head, and she worked her muzzle idly, chewing on nothing in particular.
She felt a little silly for doing so, and instead settled on pressing her thick lips to the clothing below her, pulling it into her mouth and working it between her thick teeth. It didn’t really taste like anything, but it was better than not eating.
She had no recollection that she had ever been human, that she had ever been anything more than a cow. Though, to be fair, she also lacked the intellect to know there was anything more than a cow. This life was a simple one, and it would be even better when she was inevitably shipped off towards her farm. Ironically, that was the one though that hadn’t slipped her mind, and she looked forward to her life on the pasture.