Traffic slowed to a crawl and I leaned my head against the steering wheel. I couldn’t believe how slow it was going. I had gotten off work about an hour ago and I barely got a mile down the road when traffic came to a standstill.

Something black and furry caught my eye on the shoulder. It was a cat. I smiled. It reminded me of my childhood cat. The poor thing looked like it wanted to cross the road but was too afraid of all the cars.

I heard an engine roar behind me so I turned to see what it was. The person at my rear screeched his wheels and took off down the shoulder of the freeway. He was no doubt trying to get ahead of everyone else.

It was the same shoulder that the cat had been on.

Worried as hell I checked and the cat was still there but crumpled into a little ball. I opened my car door and rushed over to the poor thing.

“You okay?” I asked it.

No response.

Its little chest heaved up and down. It was alive but didn’t seem awake.

I looked down the shoulder and a rush of anger came over me. That asshole was still driving along the side.

A small “rrreeaow,” came from the cat.

“Poor little guy.”

It let me pick it up without fussing.

Around that time cars finally started moving so I rushed to my car and put the cat in my passenger side seat. When I pulled my hands away I checked them and they had a bit of blood on them.

I quickly checked the cat and one of its little legs was broken.

Shi—

A honk from behind me pulled me out of my thoughts.

I tossed the car into gear and slowly pulled forward. With my free hand, I grabbed a wet wipe from the glove compartment. I opened it with my teeth and cleaned my hands and the steering wheel.

The traffic really started moving and I was home before I knew it. I pulled into my apartment complexes parking lot and finally had time to check on the cat again.

I wrapped its little leg with another wet wipe and took it up to my apartment.

My apartment was a mess as usual.

The counter was as good as any so I placed the cat on there and looked through my cupboards.
My boy scout training kicked into full gear and I assembled a tiny splint for the cat’s leg. Luckily it was the cat's front leg and not the back. The back legs seemed much more complicated than the front.

The cat was quiet and watched me work on it. It was even quiet when I set the bone into place and wrapped it up.

It slowly blinked at me a few times which seemed a bit weird.

My phone went off. Someone was calling. It was a blocked number so I ignored it.

I cleaned up and hand-fed the cat pieces of my microwave chicken dinner.

It seemed content and even purred when I pet it.

My old cat Juniper looked just like this one. The only thing it was missing was a tuft of white hair on its chest.

When I walked away to sit on the couch it meowed really loud at me.

“You want to sit over here with me?”

Another loud meow.

“Okay. Have it your way.”

I quickly ran to the bathroom, grabbed one of my black towels, and placed it on the couch. It didn’t complain when I moved it. I was so scared of hurting it.

“Wanna watch something?” I sat down next to it.

“Rrroow,” it said.

“How about some Mandalorian? New episode tonight.”

“Oouuu.”

I loaded up the app on the phone and cast the show to my TV. I found myself nodding off in the middle of the show so I lay down and closed my eyes.

***
A loud knock pulled me from my sleep. I checked my phone. It was six-thirty am. As I got up the pounding continued.

“I’m comin, I’m comin.” I said.

A quick glance and I saw the cat was right where I left it. It was staring at me.

Before I could open up the door it burst off its hinges, flew past me, and stuck itself into the wall behind me. My heart stopped.

When I turned back to the doorway three women were there. They were all dressed as if they were getting back from a night on the town.

A force pushed me away from them and pinned me to the wall next to the door. I couldn’t move.
One of the women had her hands up and pointed toward me.

“Who is he?” One of them said.

“Where is Kile at morta—” Another one said just as the saw the cat.

“Reeeow.” the cat said.

“Kile!” the woman screeched and rushed over to it.

The third woman caught a glimpse of Kile the cat’s arm and turned to me. “What did you do to our cat!”

My mouth wouldn’t move so I moaned instead.

“Lacy let him talk.”

The woman who was pointing at me changed her stance to be something less dramatic and the tension loosened around me.

“H-hello.” I said, testing my voice.

The woman next to the cat had her ear next to it’s mouth and nodded several times.

“What did you do to our cat?” the third woman said again.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” I asked.

“I’m the person who is going to make your life a living hell unless you tell me what the fuck you did to our cat.”

“I didn’t do anything. Some assho—”

“Hailey, Kile said that this mortal rescued him.”

Lacy the woman pointing at me must have been caught off guard because she lost focus on me and whatever she was doing to me stopped.

“Like I was saying some asshole hit the ca—” Before I could finish Hailey was suddenly in front of me and she pressed her fingers to my forehead.

I relived the moment where Kile the cat was hit by the person in the car behind me. It flashed through my brain several times. Each time I could feel the anger I felt toward the person who had hit the cat.

“This one has a sense of justice in him.” Hailey said as she stepped away from me.

My heart was beating rapidly. I suddenly knew what hell might be like. Fucks sake. I thought.

“Dona?”

The woman by the cat got up and the three women surrounded me.

“I was just trying to hel—”

“Shhhhh.” Hailey cut me off.

Lacy pointed at me again and my muscles tensed. “What should we do with him?”

“Erase his memories of us?” Hailey’s hand neared my head and I couldn’t move. Her finger glowed a pale blue.

Shit, shit!

“We could make him one of us?” Dona added.

“Hmmm.” Hailey said.

The cat Kile jumped and landed on Dona’s shoulder. His leg was fixed.

Hailey looked at Lacy and said, “Can you even do something like that?”

“I could if I wanted.”

Hailey eyebrows raised. She doubted her.

Anger flashed across Lacy’s face and she pointed at me. My hip bone snapped.

I internally screamed.

“Lacy, patience,” said Dona. “Make it so he can’t feel it?” She said while looking at Hailey.

Hailey put her glowing fingers to my head and my body warmed up as the pain receded.

Lacy pointed at me, her face less fierce this time. I felt the other hip snap. I looked down and saw my hips widen.

Like a conductor, Lacy swished her hand through the air making subtle movements and several other bones snapped and then pulled together.

After each snap, a warmth spread through my body. It felt… good. I was beginning to get addicted to the feeling.

My feet were no longer touching the ground. It was as if I had shrunk several inches in height. I was average height, around five-nine.

Lacy’s hand lowered to my lower regions.

An intense suction radiated in my private region, a pain like no other overcame me. I blacked out before I knew what had happened.

***
I awoke still stuck to the wall. The pain I felt was slowly receding. I was sweating.

“All done down there,” Lacy said.

She swished her hand toward my chest and my shirt pushed itself outward as two breasts formed.

Lacy then gestured at my head. Hair raced down my face and down past my shoulders.
The three women stepped back and I slouched down to the ground too numb and too exhausted to say anything.

“Welcome to the coven, Sister,” they said.