When I was child, I lived in a neighbourhood with lots of kids playing out and about on the streets and local playgrounds. I must have been seven or eight when I realised one of those kids, a girl called Anne from my class at school, shapeshifts into a dog.
We were all ok with it, more or less. Anne was mostly friendly when she in dog shape- many of us had dogs and bikes and baby brothers and sisters hanging around and she mingled in and none of the grown ups knew.
Then she sort of by accident killed Emily’s baby brother, but we knew that snitches got stiches, and we shouldn’t tell on Anne, because she couldn’t help it and we had to be kind to everyone and understand that it was ok for people to be different, and Emily’s brother was kinda annoying anyway.
It was still a bit scary how bloody and ripped up the baby was, the police came and talked to us and the grown ups looked so serious and they were all looking for a dog but nobody seemed to remember what the dog looked like or there was no dog which looked like the dog which we thought might have accidentally attacked Emily’s baby brother.
Anyway after a while it seemed like the grown ups forgot about it. Emily and Anne were still best friends- all us kids knew Anne had killed Emily’s brother because Emily had been so upset and jealous when she first had a baby brother and then later she was so annoyed that her mom kept making her push his pram and take him out and “keep an eye on him”. Anne was basically just doing Emily a favour. And their mom, I suppose.
A couple of years passed, we were all a bit older, Anne would still shapeshift into a dog when we were all hanging out together outside and run around with us. Emily and Anne were still best friends, but Emily had told me she was getting a bit tired of being Anne’s best friend and taking care of her clothes whenever she shapeshifted. Anne was getting bigger too, she was now a big jumpy dog, much bigger than when she had killed Emily’s brother, with glistening big sharp teeth. Emily wanted to be my best friend and stop worrying about what Anne was thinking or doing or where her clothes were and if she needed to change.
Anne was nice when she was human. I liked playing with her when she was human, but I rather wanted to play with Emily, just the two of us. Anne would shapeshift into a big dog and bark loudly and show her teeth and we couldn’t talk properly.
Emily and I were leaning against the swings, talking, and Anne was jumping about, her fur all wavy. I kind of made a gesture at her to go away and she leapt right up at me. All I could see was big dog teeth and tongue, right in my face, I saw a flashback to Emily’s baby brother, all bloody and ripped lying beneath a turned over pram, I felt a hot stabbing pain in my belly and screamed.
Anne fell back, panting, her tongue lolling. I looked down. She had scratched my belly, four fire engine red scratches.
The other kids gathered around. Brandon knelt by Anne, petting her and burying his face in her gold-brown fur. Then he looked up. “She didn’t know what she was doing!” he cried.
Anne wiggled away from his embrace, and bound up to Ali, giving him a little nip.
“Ow, stop it Anne!” yelled Ali, rubbing his leg. The nip left a little mark, but Brandon swooped down and hugged Anne again “Awww, she just wants attention, don’t you lovey” he said in a baby voice, rubbing Anne’s fur on her neck and her back. “It actually hurts, Brandon!” cried Ali. “She shouldn’t be biting and clawing us!”
“It’s not a proper bite, Ali, just a little love nip! It’s not even bleeding! She woves you, don’t you, you little snuggly-wuggles!” And Brandon buried his face in her silky honey-blond fur, the exact same shade of her hair when she was in human form, but which Brandon would never ever have dared to touch. He played so freely and comfortably play with Anne when she was a dog, or more correctly, bitch.
I walked over to them. “Ali’s right you know. Why is she hurting us any way? Look what she did to me!” I lifted the hem of my orange t-shirt, and showed them the flaming scratches on the soft smooth skin of my tummy. Anne growled softly.
“Aw she didn’t mean to! She’s just playing with you, aren’t you fluffykins! She just wanted you to pet her!” Brandon gave Anne some nose kisses. “Ugh that’s gross Brandon” cried out one of the kids. “She was just jealous of you talking to Emily!” snickered another.
Anne pulled away from Brandon’s kisses and hugs, gave a yellow glare from her dog eyes at the snickering kids, and bounded over to Emily, rising on her hind legs and bringing her front paws up. She was big enough now that when she reared, she was taller than Emily, and could put her paws easily on Emily’s shoulders. That was the signal that she wanted to shift back into human shape, and Emily gathered her clothes, lying in a pile in the corner of the playground, and began walking away from the playground, into the little wooded area for privacy, Anne leaping and barking playfully by her side.
We looked at each other in silence. Then Ali said it. “They’re gonna find out you know. She’s becoming bigger, and more dangerous. We should tell someone.”
“No!” Brandon stood up and squared off to Ali. “Don’t you dare! They’ll take her away! She’s a lovely creature, just needs lots of attention and care! I had a dog, I know how to take care of her!”
“Brandon- you’re crazy! She’s not an actual dog or a pet– she’s a human-dog beast!”
Brandon’s face flushed red- he turned away from us and ran off in the direction Emily and Anne had gone a minute ago. “Brandon- where are you going? Come back, leave them be!” We began following them.
He must have stumbled on them much sooner than he had thought- they hadn’t gone far off. When we reached them, we were in time to see Anne still fully naked, sitting on the ground about to pull on her panties, her budding chest barely hidden by long thick fall of golden-brown hair. Emily was standing by her, holding the rest of her clothes. They both yelped when the saw him intruding and he reeled back- “I’m sorry! I didn’t me-“
He never got to finish his sentence. Anne flickered back into a dog almost instantly and leapt for his throat. Emily and I screamed, louder. Brandon was dead before he hit the ground.
We stared mutely at each other. Then Anne became human, and started crying.
We moved away from that neighbourhood soon after. I never saw or heard of that group of kids, ever again.