Moments later I landed clumsily inside Addison’s office. Clyde lay curled up on the brown plaid armchair. He began yowling at me as soon as I materialized in front of his surprised face. I sagged with relief.

The marble jumped out of my hand and rolled under the armchair. It would have to be dealt with later. Right now I never wanted to touch the freaky thing again.

I stumbled into the kitchen, with Clyde doing figure eights around my feet. His dishes were empty. I tossed the gloves on the kitchen table. After I fed and watered him, I went upstairs to count out some money for a cab to the hospital.

I needed to use the phone in the library instead of Addison’s office since I decided to swear off Chimbrelises for all eternity if I could help it. Didn’t even want to look at the thing.

I flipped to Transportation Services in the phone directory. The top ad caught my eye.

Mr. Trey Signet Livery Services

1-1 0 2 – 1 6 1 – 1 2 2 0

Driving everywhere morning or night. Local or remote destinations.

Quickly I dialed the number. A faint voice answered above the crackling line. I practically shouted our address to make sure they heard and was told it would be a few minutes. I double checked my money and went outside.

The street was deserted. Strange, since that time of day usually had tourists and locals out and about. We lived close by several shops and a large, busy common that had daily vendors selling everything imaginable from flowers to muffins, books to jewelry, incense to leather wallets, plus you could have your palm or your cards read by at least three different psychics.

Within a few minutes a black cab pulled up. I got in. “St. Iversolde Hospital, please.”

The driver wore their hood up and didn’t turn around. We drove at a snail’s pace to the hospital using what must have been the city’s longest route there. I was a nervous wreck by the time we arrived.

When I handed over the fare, which was an exorbitant amount I had barely enough to cover, the driver pressed something fuzzy into my palm. Revulsion gripped me. I whipped my hand away.

Out of the car I stumbled, slamming the door shut. The car sped away. Why were cab rides always so weird?

I speed walked into the hospital and avoided the people at the front desk; I knew he was in the section where they cared for people with heart problems.

A stitch of pain in my tailbone made me catch my breath. I pushed by the double swinging doors. Addison’s room wasn’t far. Another stitch stabbed at me in the same place.

My tailbone was throbbing by the time I got to the hallway where his room was. I couldn’t wait to see him but was terrified about the sudden, severe pain. Another cramp had me doubled over behind a gurney outside Addison’s room.

I clutched at my lower back. My blood ran cold as something hairy brushed across my fingers. I had a dog tail, a golden yellow-furred one sticking out for the whole world to see. The tail immediately curled as absolute, utter horror came over me.

Inside Addison’s room, Dr. Lowe was saying that bed rest was critical to the recovery process, and that Addison’s condition was fair and stable as far as he was concerned. He would have to stay a few more days for observation.

My relief was short lived. Footsteps clicked around the corner. Nobody, especially Addison, could see me like this.

A linen cart stood at the end of the hallway. As I went to grab a sheet to wrap around my waist, the laundry worker appeared. I fled, knowing my untucked shirt wasn’t long enough to cover my problem.

I didn’t dare take my chances with another cab, since the first ride was obviously cursed. I raced the shortest distance home I could through bustling streets, desperate to avoid being seen. Nobody seemed to notice me except for a few dogs and I was only chased partway down a street once by a giant, drooling mutt whose owner called him back.

The sharp scent of a nearby vendor’s sausage pricked at my nose. My sides heaved. I let myself in the front door and collapsed with foot and leg cramps. I hobbled to Addison’s office and kicked off my shoes.

Dog toenails poked through my socks. I tore off the socks. Paws had replaced my feet. New horror surged through me.

I had no choice but to use the Chimbrelis again. Its chiming voice connected me to the same glasses-wearing lady as before. She was not amused and gave me the same speech about prank calls and breaking magical laws.

The Chimbrelis disconnected before I could show her my paws and tail or tell her about the cab ride and the weird fur thing. A detached feeling settled over my brain. I blacked out.

I dreamed about a giant donkey stampeding around our house until I jolted awake. The Chimbrelis was braying HEEHAW--

Rufus!

I tried to answer but all that came out of my mouth were barks and whines. Clyde walked in and stared at me. He growled. I was bigger than him, but he made up for his size with belligerence. Thank the gods his tail had been de-barbed.

“Hey Clyde, it’s just me,” I said, but it was more barking.

He swiped at my face, his claws grazing my snout. I dashed upstairs to my room on four legs. Clyde followed behind snapping at my heels. Downstairs the Chimbrelis kept heehawing in the background.

I hated to do it but I snapped at Clyde to make him stop swiping at me. He fled downstairs.

I paced around my bedroom trying to decide what to do. All the while I avoided catching a glimpse of myself in the tall mirror propped in the corner. I already knew what I looked like: small, sandy blonde with sad brown eyes, floppy ears, and a shaggy tail.

The Chimbrelis finally stopped. Then the doorbell rang. Before I knew what I was doing, I launched myself barking in a frenzy downstairs to the couch where I could see outside. Through the curtains I spied a tall dark figure lurking on the brick steps.

A stranger.

“Who are you?” I barked. “What do you want?”

The figure peeked in the window.

Mister Gentry!

He grinned and scratched his long, knobby fingers against the glass. I whined and fled back upstairs. My shaggy tail curled under as I wedged my trembling self as flat as I could under the bed.

“Coralie,” I heard Addison say from the bottom of the stairs. “I have bacon for you. Come find me.”

ADDISON! I didn’t even hear him come in! He was home, he could fix this. And he had bacon! I scrambled joyfully downstairs.

Dismay filled my heart when he wasn’t where I expected him to be.

“Over here,” he called from the kitchen.

My tongue dangled out the side of my mouth as I raced to greet him but he wasn’t in the kitchen either.

“You missed me, Coralie,” he said from the library.

He wasn’t there either.

“I’ll give this bacon to Clyde if you can’t find me,” he said. This time his voice was coming from his office.

I raced over. There was no way I was going to let Clyde have any, especially after he swiped my nose. Where was Addison?

“Behind my desk,” he said. “You’re getting warmer.”

Obviously he was hiding back there. I trotted around the desk. An otherworldly, sinister yowling rose up from behind me. I whipped around in time to see Purrberus coming out of the Chimbrelis.

Mister Gentry appeared in front of me in a puff of wispy black. “I still have a bone to pick with you, Coralie.”

There was no Addison or bacon. The gods of magic must have been cracking up. I crouched under the desk with my ears pinned back, teeth bared, and growled with all my might.

Mister Gentry’s spooky laugh rolled around Addison’s office, shaking and rattling everything. “Why are you being so rude? Surely Eddie Addison taught you better manners than that.”

“How did you get in here?” I snarled. It wasn’t a confident snarl. I was scared to death.

“We can go wherever we please, since Purrberus and I were called to this realm many years ago, long before those two twits at the necromancer’s house,” he said, settling into Addison’s brown plaid armchair right above me, “not that we need to sit around waiting for an invitation. We’ve always been here in one form or another, but you are welcome to try banishing us.”

He leaned back in the chair and put his scaly bird feet that were tipped with black, poisonous-looking toenails on Addison’s desk.

“Did you do this to me?” I barked.

I could hear the smirk in his voice. “Remember that lovely antique fur scarf you came across here? MY fur scarf, which was here because Addison was trying to sell it for me? I will describe what it looked like: it was warm golden brown, the same color as you, to be precise; quite old and soft as a cloud, or it was until you brazenly took it from Addison and used up all the magic on a silly dare. Upon which it fell apart!”

“It turned me into a dog!” I barked.

“Yes,” he said, “that is what it was designed to do.”

“I didn’t know it was going to do that,” I whined. “I was just trying to impress the guy who dared me.”

“That didn’t work out so well, did it?” he said. “You still haven’t learned to keep your hands off magical items.”

I thumped my tail. “I didn’t know it was yours. Haven’t I been punished enough? Addison didn’t even change me back for three weeks.”

“Keeping you that way for three weeks was his decision. I thought you needed to do more reflection on your more recent misdeeds,” Mister Gentry said, “such as your aiding and abetting the miscreants who stole Purrberus’s tooth.”

“I can’t believe this!” I howled.

“Neither could I when you wouldn’t give me the pendant,” he said.

The clanging of the grandfather clock striking five o’clock sent Purrberus leaping atop the desk. I was too scared to do anything except cower and whine.

Just then the Chimbrelis began a new round of heehaws. Mister Gentry leaped out of the chair, his robes fluttering behind him.

“Oooooh, may I answer it?” he said in a voice full of sarcastic wonder. “I’ve never used a Chimbrelis before.”

I was so excited that Rufus was calling back that I howled. Purrberus joined in with her demented yowling.

But what if Mister Gentry did something dangerous? With any luck he wouldn’t be able to figure out how to answer it.

“Settle down, you two. Hellooooooo?” he said.

Too late. Stupid joke book passwords meant nothing to him.

“Demon lord!” I heard Rufus’s furious voice. “What are you doing there?”

There was a huge thump next to the desk, then a curious “meow?” The grandfather clock’s mechanisms began to bwongbwongbwong as if a giant paw was batting at it.

I started barking again although nobody was taking me seriously when I did.

If Purrberus ruined the clock, Addison would be livid. It had been made by his sixth great grandfather who fought in one of the historic old wizard wars.

“Why hello, necromancer,” said Mister Gentry. “Good to see you again. Have you cleaned up your basement yet?”

“Coralie?” I heard Rufus yell. “Where’s Coralie?”

“I’m under the desk!” I barked myself hoarse but he had no idea what I was saying.

“How should I know where that twerp went off to?” Mister Gentry said. “I’m not her babysitter. Why are you calling here anyway?”

“The better question is what are you doing there?” said Rufus. “I thought I was done with you and your three headed freak.”

“I don’t have to take that kind of abuse from someone whose own undead pets fled from him at the first chance,” said the demon lord, “not to mention the little cricket-legged fellow.”

I wish I could have seen Rufus’s reaction to those remarks. I kept barking but they paid no attention.

An enormous gonging crash came from across the room. The clock. Purrberus hissed and I heard some of Addison's framed achievements shatter as they hit the floor.

“You did me a favor by taking them,” Rufus said. “What’s all that noise?”

“It’s more than what you did for me,” said Mister Gentry. “Purrberus, stop that, please.”

“You wouldn’t have found the pendant if I hadn’t captured it from Coralie. What business do you have in Addison’s office using his Chimbrelis?” Rufus said.

“My business is none of yours,” said Mister Gentry in a tone that threatened to peel the wallpaper off. “And I would have found my pendant one way or another. I’ve heard about all I can stand from you. Begone, necromancer!”

There was a high pitched sizzling whine, then an explosion like a firework, the ones that flash brightly and then BANG. I hated that noise above all others. My ears rung like crazy. I whimpered and trembled under the desk.

“Now you won’t be interfering in my affairs anymore,” he said. “Where was I? Ah yes, the bone to pick with Coralie. I’m still a bit miffed at the hostile treatment I received at the hands of your gloves, so to speak.”

“I’m sorry but that wasn’t my fault. The gloves did it. They didn’t want you touching them,” I barked.

“I gathered that.” Mister Gentry settled back into Addison’s brown plaid chair. I had a clear view of some dust bunnies under there and his scaly, clawed feet. The marble must have rolled way in, hidden by the shadows.

“They aren’t mine, they’re Addison’s. He’s the one who did the magic on them.”

“Yes, he is so very talented,” he said. “Quite a prodigy.”

“He’s had a lot of education,” I said. “He’s the smartest person I know.”

He plunked his feet on top of the desk. “What a wholesome sentiment. How did he come to have them?”

I would never get away with fibbing about what I knew, and sighed. “They belonged to another one of Addison’s ancestors. She went on expeditions as a researcher. In the Soliesin Desert region.”

“Exciting. I was not aware he came from such an accomplished family,” Mister Gentry said. “These must be her books in this glass case. Ancient Dwellers of the Soliesin by Edwina Addison Hugh, and so forth.”

“Yes, she wrote them.” Obviously.

The sound of splintering wood came from the direction of the clock’s former home.

“I have no interest in human pottery or coins,” he said, his voice filled with scorn. “What else can you tell me about your magical gloves? Purrberus, enough!”

“Just that Addison did some magic on them. He told me he made them fully magic and monster proof.”

Mister Gentry casually went through Addison’s desk drawers, sifting through his papers and such. “Eddie thinks I am a monster, tsk tsk. Did they have any magic to begin with?”

“They were just regular leather gloves,” I said.

Edwina said in her writings that she considered the gloves lucky, though they didn’t have any enchantments on them until Addison decided to custom-magic them for me.

“They started off as ordinary gloves?” he said in what I took to be an amused tone. “Tell me how he did it.”

How long was he planning on interrogating me for? “I don’t know. He doesn’t let me watch any of his magic.”

“Fair enough,” Mister Gentry chuckled. “I want them.”

My fur stood on end. “It’s impossible for me to give them to you,” I whined.

“You are misinformed,” he said. “Go get them.”

I was still too scared to move, and scared me was in danger of biting a demon lord. I probably wouldn’t live long enough to regret it. “Why do you want them if you can’t touch them without getting shocked?”

He laughed. “You assume that is still the case.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, Coralie,” he said as though talking to a complete idiot. “There is always a workaround. Addison should have taught you that.”

“That can’t be true,” I said.

“Unfortunately for you, it is,” he said. “And the longer you delay getting them for me, the longer you stay a dog. Now go fetch.”

“Please don’t make me get them,” I whined. “Why are you doing this to me?”

An avalanche of books crashed to the floor along with the bookcase.

“The longer you delay, the more time Purrberus has to destroy Addison’s lovely office,” said Mister Gentry.

“But they aren’t mine,” I said. “Addison would never forgive me.”

“Oh Coralie,” the demon lord said in a syrupy sweet voice, “I just remembered you didn’t get any bacon.”

“You don’t have any. That was a lie,” I barked.

The savory, smoky scent of bacon filled the air.

“It looks real to me,” said Mister Gentry, waving a salty, crispy strip in front of my face.

Drool hung from the corner of my mouth. My tail thumped. I went to grab it with my mouth but he snatched it away.

“Dogs who want bacon must first cooperate with demon lords who are looking for something special at E. Addison’s,” said Mister Gentry.

“Of course there’s a catch!”

“Everything is negotiable,” he chuckled. “Hasn’t he taught you that?”

I whined because I didn’t have a better answer. Distorted gongs and sad twangs came from Purrberus clawing at the clock’s metal insides. The bacon smell grew stronger.

“You already got the pendant,” I said. “Why can’t you just go away?”

“Your inhospitable attitude would break my heart if I had one. But I am willing to forgive you in light of your recent experiences.”

“Can’t I just have one piece of bacon?” I said. What was he babbling about? My stomach was growling again.

“You didn’t say the magic word. I haven’t heard you say it once.”

I sighed. “Please?”

“Please, what?” said Mister Gentry. His voice dripped with fake sweetness.

“Please, can I have a piece of bacon?” My tail wagged with hope but I’d forgotten he couldn’t see me under there.

“I don’t know, CAN you?” he laughed.

“MAY I please have a piece of bacon?” My tail wagged harder, though I badly wanted to bite him.

“You may,” he said, “but only if you get the gloves. Then, I will give you all the bacon you want, and I will turn you back into a human.”

A human! I’d almost forgotten myself in my excitement over the bacon.

More frames crashed to the floor. The demon kitten purred.

“Do you promise?” I said.

Mister Gentry’s soft, mocking laughter infuriated me. All I wanted were things to get back to normal. And the demons out of my house.

I also wanted the bacon.

Purrberus crunched through broken glass.

“The gloves, Coralie,” said Mister Gentry. “Please go get them so I don’t have to leave Purrberus unattended. You are free to blame it all on me when Addison finds out.”

Fine. He would see when they shocked him back to the Netherworld. There was not much left to lose. I launched myself out from under the desk.

My toenails clicked on the floor with urgency as I raced to the kitchen in a panic. The gloves lay innocently on the kitchen table. Addison would be furious. He’d probably disown me.

Purrberus was on a new rampage in the office with the filing cabinets, judging by the sudden giant whoosh of paperwork and metal falling over. Gods only knew where Clyde was hiding.

There was no dignity in this. But here I was, grabbing them off the table in my mouth, slobbering all over them.

My hopes were pinned on the gloves delivering a giant shock to Mister Gentry. Then I could try to escape and go for help...but where? Who would or even could? Nobody. I was on my own.

I skidded to the office’s doorway and saw the full scope of the damage Purrberus had wrought so far. Mister Gentry’s face practically split in two when he saw me standing there with the gloves in my mouth. All I smelled was bacon.

A plate of it materialized in front of my snout. I dropped the gloves and snapped up the hot, salty, fatty pieces, seemingly in one motion.

A moment later I looked up. Impossibly, he was wearing the gloves.

“How are you not getting shocked?” I barked.

“Addison isn’t the only one who knows how to corral a magical item,” he said, admiring them from every angle. “It’s not that impressive, although it did take me a few hours. How do they look on me?”

“What do you want them for?” I whined. “You don’t even need them.”

“Perhaps I’d like a souvenir to remember our time together by,” he said. “They’re very nice gloves and you don’t appreciate them.”

I started shaking. “I’m going to be in so much trouble. Addison will kick me out.”

“Why would he? He’ll enjoy having a dog around, if he decides to keep you.”

“I knew it. You never intended to change me back!” I howled. Purrberus joined in.

“Unless you’re right of course,” he said, “and he decides you’re too much trouble.”

I buried my head in my paws. “I’ll be a stray dog on the streets of Jenelle.”

“Now now Coralie, it won’t be that bad. Between tourists and everyone else, there’s plenty of decent garbage overflowing around here. I’m sure you won’t starve.”

I howled the most mournful howl I could dredge up from the pits of despair in my stomach.

“Just kidding,” he said, with his awful, sharp grin. “But there is one more thing you must do before I change you back.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” I felt like throwing up all the bacon.

“It might have something to do with the fact that I am a nightmare, and also because you have another artifact that I want. Where’s that little blue marble?”

I gasped and said I didn’t know. I couldn’t let him have that too; not that I knew what it did, other than have a weird, transporting effect, and that it had gotten unfathomably large.

“I know you know where it is,” he went on. “It’s close by.”

“Please don’t make me give it to you,” I whined. “Why do you want it?”

“The longer you argue with me, the longer you will remain a dog. It may even be too difficult to change you back if you waste any more time,” he said.

“Addison will be able to do it!”

“Why should the burden fall on him as he recovers from a heart attack? Magic will exhaust him,” he said.

I knew it was true. Deflated, I told him it had gone under the chair.

He rolled it between his fingers, examining it as though expecting it to do a trick right then and there.

The phone rang. Before I could make a sound, Mister Gentry grabbed the receiver and answered-- with my voice!

“Hello? Yes, this is Coralie. Oh, thank you for calling, Dr. Lowe. Yes, okay. Thank you, that’s great. Home in two days? Expect him at around ten in the morning? That’s great news. Oh, okay...yes, I guess he must be exhausted. What? Oh, a ride has already been arranged? Thank you...what? Yes, okay... thank you for telling me that too. And I will make sure the house is ready. Thank you again, goodbye.”

Mister Gentry hung up. “Dr. Lowe passed on a message for you: Addison understands if you can’t make it to visit before he’s released. Now, what exactly does this marble do?”

Purrberus destroyed two floor lamps and a vase in the short time it took me to admit I knew nothing other than it grew larger and that I had been told it was a kind of ice cube.

He shrugged. “Purrberus seemed to like playing with it, so we will keep it. Speaking of, we should get going. More people to haunt. I suppose I should begin the process to de-canine you. Stay there.”

My tail thumped with apprehension. Was this some kind of trick?

He rummaged through his robes, muttering to himself as he worked. From one of his robe pockets he brought out a small black dish, the same ominous black as the pendant. CORALIE it said on the side.

Other puzzling and grotesque items followed: small bundles of what looked like rotting cabbage and slimy cheese, a vial of dark red liquid, and a wet-looking, bumpy pink blob that plopped revoltingly into the dish. I was sure I saw it moving on its own.

Then he emptied a packet of sour-smelling dark powder on top of it and stirred the whole, gloppy thing together with a spoon from another pocket as though he were mixing cake batter made of the worst ingredients. Brown smoke that reeked of rotting trash billowed out of the dish.

“And now for the most important part.” He called Purrberus over and brushed a single, loose hair from her tail.

He placed the hair into the dish. The mixture bubbled and glowed as though lit from within from one of the hell realms while noises like tortured screams blasted from it.

The screams faded and the smoke cleared. The stuff sat in the dish like a rude-smelling pudding with chunks in it.

He placed it in front of me. “Eat it.”

The lingering sewage stench burned my nose. The bacon almost gushed out of my stomach. “Ew, no. What is it? It looks disgusting. There’s a Purrberus hair in there and something that looked like a tongue!”

He gave me one of his chilling smiles. “It’s the cure for your dog suit.”

“I don’t want that poison inside of me,” I barked. “Please, can’t you do it some other way?”

Mister Gentry’s smile grew colder. “No.”

“It looks awful,” I gagged.

“It looks like a chocolate dessert,” said Mister Gentry.

I wagged my tail in excitement. “Dogs aren't supposed to have chocolate!”

Mister Gentry sighed. “It isn’t chocolate. I only said it looked like it.”

“I saw what you put in it,” I said. “Some of it looked alive.”

“I should have thought twice about giving you premium bacon,” he growled.

The fur along my spine raised up in spikes. I scooted back under the desk.

“You are in no position to complain about my methods,” he went on. “You have two days to eat it. After that it will lose its magic. Enjoy it now or reap the consequences.”

“I’ll take my chances waiting for Addison,” I said, poking my head out.

He waved dismissively. “So be it. Farewell, Coralie. Try not to dilly dally. Remember... two days, starting right now. Let us be on our way, Purrberus.”

They vanished. A strange lull fell over the house. I crawled out.

To my great relief, the grandfather clock, the framed stuff, file cabinets and the rest had all been restored, the mess mysteriously cleaned as though nothing had happened, except for the Chimbrelis. That still lay a smoldering ruin.

I jumped up on the brown plaid armchair to see what Mister Gentry had done to the desk drawers. An elegantly written envelope addressed to Addison lay on the desk. He’d find it soon enough.

Nothing seemed amiss. Then again, I wouldn’t necessarily have known if he’d taken anything other than the gloves and the marble. Those were plenty.

I jumped down. The evil pudding or whatever it was supposed to be sat as if daring me to take a bite. It was alive, I was certain. It still reeked like a sewer.

My stomach rippled. There was no way I was going to eat it.

Two days. I could go that long without eating. Clyde’s food was an option if I got desperate.

All I had to do was wait for Addison. He’d have to spend some time recovering first. But l did not doubt his power for a second. He would be able to cure me somehow or would know someone who could.

I hated that this was definitely, unavoidably going to stress out his heart. It was exactly the opposite of what Dr. Lowe said to do, except Dr. Lowe didn’t count on ending up in a necromancer’s basement or getting cursed by a demon lord.

Besides, the evil pudding was probably just another dirty trick being played by Mister Gentry. Addison would probably tell me not to trust it.

I paced around the house in circles, losing track of time and abandoning any more planning. Finally I curled up on Addison’s armchair and fell asleep.

Clyde came out of hiding. I woke up to him biting my right ear hard enough to draw blood. I fled upstairs and hid under my bed again.

A sharp cracking noise came from the office. Clyde screeched and galloped across the house. Had the pudding just try to kill him, and was I next? I prayed to whoever might be listening that Mister Gentry had not returned.

I crept back downstairs to investigate. The house was empty. Whatever happened to Clyde was a mystery, but I suspected the evil pudding had something to do with it since it stank worse and was glowing like an ember. My nose wrinkled in disgust.

The next few hours I spent wandering back and forth between the office and the front room couch to stare out the window, where the streetlamp cast a circle of warm yellow light. It was now fifteen past three in the morning, according to the hallway mantel clock.

I flopped to the floor in the office and stared at the dish. What kind of sick practical joker was Mister Gentry anyway, to put my name on it in capital letters?

The pudding’s glow and the odor had died down. Curiosity got the better of me. I stuck out my tongue as far as it would go but, forgetting it was not my usual tongue, it flopped out of my mouth and managed to smear the evil pudding all over it.

In a heartbeat I was across the room trembling in the corner.

It tasted appalling, putrid as rot, like licking the bottom of a trash can. It filled my head with the most repugnant images that could ever be dreamed up. The texture was just as terrifying, alive, as if it had slithered up to meet my mouth. My tongue felt violated.

What didn’t get drooled or spat out made its way into my stomach, which nearly flipped itself inside out. This time I managed to hold it together and not get sick.

I staggered up to my room so I wouldn’t have to looked at the cursed dish, and crawled into bed. Memories of Addison slumped over the desk and his stricken face as they were putting him on the gurney haunted my mind. How long would it take for him to recover? A month? Longer?

Guilt squeezed my heart that I couldn’t go see him, in spite of what Mister Gentry claimed. That was probably a lie too.

Rage lit up in me. Those idiots at Rufus’s and their idiotic nightmare summoning spell! This was their fault. At least the demon lords had them. But of course Mister Gentry and Purrberus couldn’t resist showing up to bully me again.

Exhaustion interrupted my thoughts. I fell asleep and dreamed that I was chained up in the neighbor’s yard, which was surrounded by tall, wide hedges. Addison was calling to me out the window that dinner was ready. I barked frantically but he didn’t know I wasn’t Coralie the person anymore. His voice faded away.

It was light out when I woke up. The wall clock read ten past eleven. My parched mouth had a sooty aftertaste.

I had some of Clyde’s water in the kitchen, then ventured to the office to check on the evil dish. It looked undisturbed. I went back upstairs to bed but Clyde’s hungry howls interrupted more strange dreams a few hours later.

Using my snout, I managed to open the kitchen cupboards that had his food, very glad that we kept it on the bottom shelf close to the floor. It didn’t take long for me to tear open the bag with my teeth. Kibble poured all over the place to his gluttonous excitement. He seemed to have accepted me being a dog, at least while his face was buried in a bag of his favorite food.

My own stomach began churning. The tipped over doughnut box still sitting tantalizingly on the table was empty. Clyde had finished them off while I was gone.

It was either go hungry or suck it up and have some of his Premium Pet Foods liver flavored kibble. It was dry and nutty, and not fit for consumption by people who have recently been turned into dogs but still have human taste buds.

I quenched my thirst from Clyde’s bowl and went back to bed. We’d be drinking from the toilet soon.

The phone woke me up a little after six that evening. Hopefully it wasn’t anyone important. I wandered between the front room and the office again, thinking about Addison’s return.

The evil pudding looked the same. I got this weird feeling it was laughing at me, even though it was just sitting there.

“Eat it quickly, you are wasting time and magic!”

Mister Gentry’s voice came from behind me as I was watching the pudding, expecting it to wiggle or something. I jumped a mile and spun around. There was nobody there.

I barked to argue with him about how disgusting and unfair all of this was and waited for him to answer, but he didn’t.

Clyde and I sat at opposite ends of the front room couch as the room grew dimmer and dimmer. The street lights flickered on. People walked by our house chatting, laughing, oblivious to my dramas.

I dozed off. Something heavy falling over in the office woke me up. I rushed in but nothing was out of place. Maybe I dreamed it.

Hunger gnawed at my stomach. More liver kibble was not on my menu. I used my paws to pry open the lower cupboards. There was nothing edible that didn’t require a can opener besides a box of unseasoned breadcrumbs and a bag of rawhide chews for Clyde.

Everything else we kept in there was either a small electric kitchen appliance or a hand towel. When was the last time we’d gotten groceries?

As I was chewing open the box of breadcrumbs, something else fell over in the office, heavier this time. I heard Clyde’s footsteps scurry down the hall.

Once again there was nothing out of place. Did we have a ghost? I heard a noise coming from the black dish, as if it moved slightly. The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

Sudden anger sprang up, driving me to bark and snap at the dish. It lay there harmlessly, but I knew in my heart it was not. I just wanted it to go away.

For the next hour I crouched in front of the dish, staring, willing it to do something. Sleep came before anything else happened.

My stomach woke me up early in the morning. Clyde had already helped himself to the breadcrumbs. Chewed bits of box and crumbs were scattered through the kitchen.

A few hours later the doorbell rang. I vaulted onto the couch to spy out the window. Nobody was there. It had been raining off and on for a few hours. The street was deserted.

Around noon I went in the office to take a nap on Addison’s armchair. How else was I supposed to pass the time while waiting for him to get home? This would all be over then. Soon I dozed off.

Snickering came from the black dish, or that’s what I dreamed. A giant crash startled me. As usual, there was nothing to be seen. I dozed off again. Another deafening crash.

By then I was wide awake. The snickering came again. I know I definitely heard it that time. I almost gave myself a hernia barking at it. The pudding stayed silent. It felt like it was tormenting me. I pushed the dish with my nose out of the office to the hallway where it wouldn’t bother me anymore.

My stomach was insistent on finding food. I headed back to the kitchen. There was nothing except for some liquefying bananas on the counter. Clyde had gorged himself on the kibble.

The office door slammed so hard I thought it would shatter its glass pane. I ran out to investigate. Everything went silent as soon as I was standing near the dish in the hallway, exactly where I didn’t want to be.

You’re running out of time, Coralie, I heard a small, scratchy voice say.

My ears turned back and my tail slow wagged. “Shut up, shut up!” I barked, wishing I could throw the whole thing out the window.

Wait til Addison sees the mess in here said the voice. Wait til he sees you.

Suddenly, the dish shot down the hall to the kitchen. Before I knew what I was doing I took off after it. From there it led me on a wild chase into the front room, the library, up and down the stairs, back to the office, doing that annoying, mocking little laugh the whole time. The door slammed shut and locked with a sharp click.

Now I was really trapped. I jumped up and scratched at the door, but it was no use. I had no key and couldn’t use one with my paws anyway. The sarcastic little snicker came again. I whirled around.

Looks like you’re stuck with me, it said.

Rage erupted in me, worse than I’d ever felt. Nothing made sense. It hadn’t for days. I was fed up.

I howled profanities at the dish, at Mister Gentry, Purrberus, Roanna, Harte, my parents, and anyone or anything else I could think of to blame for getting me into this mess, or for screwing up my life in general, with the sole exception of Addison.

The person I blamed the most though was myself, for thinking I was was smart enough to trick a demon lord, and for messing around with anything magic-related in the first place.

Addison didn’t deserve this. And I wasn’t going to let an evil pudding or whatever it was have the last word.

I knew what I had to do. If I wound up dead, hopefully Addison would be able to figure out what happened.

You don’t have the guts.

I glared at the dish. Slowly, hesitantly, I choked down a tiny bite and vowed not to be sick. In a weird way, I saw myself as getting revenge against it. Instead I coughed and spit out most of it.

Pitiful. Is that the best you can do? You’ve sealed your own doom, you know.

The rage roared back. I bared my teeth and dove into the evil pudding snout first. I had to shut it up.

I took one wretched, violent bite after another, tearing it apart, dismembering the hideous, fleshy thing, and tried not to think about what I saw Mister Gentry put in it. It was like chewing through a sewer flavored lump with a charred aftertaste.

In reality there wasn’t that much in the dish but it seemed to get bigger before it got smaller. Pretending it was something else was impossible. My runaway imagination was already making it worse.

I don’t know how long it took. I lost count of the bites because each was more sickening than the last.

At the end, I flopped over, too sick to move. What I’d eaten sat in my stomach like a painful lead weight. My body felt infected.

The scratchy voice was gone, replaced by a dreadful feeling like I’d been just been tricked into poisoning myself, and that Addison would come home to find me dead.

Would he know it was me? Would I be me, or...I abandoned the thought, it was too agonizing. So much for following his imaginary advice not to trust it. What an idiot I was!

The office door swung open. I lay curled up until I was able to crawl over to Clyde’s water dish. Empty. It didn’t matter. I was probably dying anyway.

Panting, I hobbled to the bathroom. It took me ages to lift the toilet seat with my snout. Then the lid kept bonking me on the head as I tried to drink. I made it up the stairs and crawled up on my bed.

Hours later I awoke burning up and feeling like my stomach was turning inside out. Rain hammered against the dark windows. I was still a dog. My heart sank. I shouldn’t have been surprised.

If I survived and was stuck like this...well, if Yvette had learned to live with it, so could I. Lightning flashed, followed by low booms of thunder. I dozed off, somewhat comforted by the thought of being in an exclusive club for unfortunate victims of magic.

I woke up to the phone ringing off the hook. Halfway out of bed I saw that I had returned to my human body. The relief and surprise made my legs go wobbly. I missed the top step and tripped over Clyde who happened to be napping there.

The phone stopped ringing. Clyde didn’t budge. I growled. He fled. My heart skipped a few beats. I don’t know which of us was more surprised by the demonic sound I made.

It was nine thirty. I had a half hour to shower and clean the house before Addison came home and decided to go back to the hospital. The unexpected growl would have to be dealt with later.

Minutes later I was staring at my restored self in the bathroom mirror. My wet hair flopped worse than ever. Did I look as terrible as I felt? I brushed my teeth again, just another day in the life of someone who was now probably part monster.

No sooner had I swept up the rest of the kibble in the kitchen than a car horn tooted. My heart leaped. Finally, Addison! Things would go back to normal, whatever that was for us. I tried not to think about the weird animal noise that came out of my mouth earlier.

A familiar black car was parked out front. I froze as cold terror washed over me. They tooted again.

I was only braver for having Addison there, even post heart attack. Blood rushed in my head as I went outside to meet him.