“And that responsibility will fall to you, of course.”

The husky didn’t even hear what it was; he had heard those words so many times before. The thought of shaving off a section of his fur and tattooing it across his chest briefly crossed his mind, there for all to see. Everyone already pretended like it was already there, might as well commit to the act. He already did everything else for everyone else. What’s one more to add to the list?

“Did you hear me, Frank?” The snow leopard at the front of the meeting room asked. A tinge of annoyance spread across her face and within those beautiful green eyes of hers. Frank’s boss was intimidating. To most people, to him, she was gorgeous. Just under six feet tall, a body men would kill for and women to die for hidden behind a pinstriped pantsuit; a purple hydrangea brooch on her lapel, the only bit of color to the entire outfit. He tried to quickly collect himself, coughing and then sitting up more fully than previously in his leather recliner. “Y-yes Miss! I’ll be sure that it's done.”

Very important phrasing there, Miss. Not Mrs. The leopardess had not married, and though a few years his senior, that barely made a difference at all to Frank. He knew he definitely had a crush on her, had even considered asking her out, but before he could, it was always the same. ‘Hey Mutt, need you to do this.’ ‘Weirdo, get these done by the end of the week.’ ‘New guy’ in the office wouldn’t bring this on. No. People did this to Frank, because he looked different and was too timid to defend himself. In a company filled with nothing but purebreds, different is bad.

Frank was atypical when it came to Huskies. Sure, heterochromia was common, but not his. In one eye shined the bright, ocean blue you would expect from one of his kind, but in the other laid the problem. His other eye was a crystalline pink; magenta, he would call it, but it was brighter than that, and he just thought it seemed less… Feminine to call it such. This made people question whether or not he was a full breed husky. It didn’t matter how many times he told them it was just a rare medical condition he was born with. People believe what they want to.

He sighed and barely paid attention to the presentation as it continued, his eyes drifting around the room to his coworkers in various states of attention and boredom, which he, too, was feeling. He risked a few glances at his boss and quickly looked away whenever he thought she was looking back. She couldn’t feel the same way he did about her, about him. Nobody could with his condition, at least he told himself.

The time seemed to just be dragging; second by second, year by year, month by month. Whatever it was, he could barely stand it anymore. His eyes stung from his late nights at home and at the office, slammed to the nines with both his own work and his ‘friends’ around the office trying to ‘help him advance’. Sure. He got none of the credit for the work that earned them bonuses and praise; vacations and personal dinners with the boss.

He slowly craned his head to look at the clock mounted up above the wood framed whiteboard on the wall; the leopardess drawing out various graphs as she talked about stock prices or something. He watched the second hand slowly tick over onto the twelve just in time. The clock seemed to catch the glinting light of the sun through the large glass paned windows just in time for it to strike 11:11AM. He blinked and thought for a second, thinking back to his childhood for something that was teased at the edge of his brain. A few moments later, he finally got it, mentally snapping his fingers since he couldn’t physically.

An old legend he heard when he was just a pup stated if you made a wish when the clock struck 11:11, you might just make it come true. He rolled his eyes, (also internally) at the very notion, but found himself curious. Again, the second hand slowly spun around the edge of the clock, tick by tick, the sound almost getting louder as he contemplated, and it moved closer to the 12 to tick over. He felt this almost nervousness in his stomach before he risked closing his eyes for a moment, hoping the boss wouldn’t see him.

‘Please, make all of this stress go away…’

The final tick seemed to ring out into the room, loud enough for him to feel a short sense of pain in his ears and to open his eyes. No one else seemed to react to it. The clock looked like it was glowing, but he quickly rubbed his eyes and the illusion faded, leaving just the normal office furniture to show 12:30 AM.

“Alright, that’s enough. You all have your assignments. Back to work.” The leopardess called out, not looking at her employees as she capped her whiteboard marker and set it on the small wooden shelf. Only then did she turn around, when everyone else was walking out and towards the door, looking right at him. Frank wondered again if she would ever see him as more than just her employee. “Frank. Make sure you’re ready to lead that presentation tomorrow.”

Frank was still in his seat, having not moved from the leather chair. His ears still lightly ringing from the sound earlier and his mind in a daze as to what just happened; only partially brought back to reality when his name was spoken, causing him to blink several times and then dart up, standing straight as a rail in front of his chair. “Yes, Ma'am… If you don’t mind, I’m going to head home so I can… get an early jump on that.”

The leopardess just nodded, using a single paw in a ‘go ahead’ motion as she turned back towards her white board, looking over her own notes and the assignments given to the various employees. Thankfully, his own name was there, and he could see written beside it was ‘Lead for pitch meeting.’ That meant he was going to be in charge of securing a new client. He knew from ‘helping’ with a few of them in the past that this was the Boss’s way of testing to see if someone was ready for promotion.

With a renewed sense of vigor, Frank quickly headed back to his desk and grabbed his things, stopping when he saw a pile of documents on his desk; a sticky note with the words ‘tomorrow brief’ on it written in crude penmanship told him this was from their research department. He quickly scooped them up in one paw and his laptop bag in the other, tucking the files into the side pocket as he made his way outside and climbed into the car, his mind wandering for the short walk until he pulled the door shut.

The drive home felt shorter than it actually was. Frank's thoughts about what happened and what was to happen all mixed and matched in his head, leaving him scattered, excited and exhausted all at the same time. He nearly dropped his keys when he tried to unlock the door, but caught them at the last second. Letting out one more sigh, he finally made his way inside his modest apartment and closed the door behind him, leaning against it and closing his eyes to just collect his thoughts.

A few moments passed and after feeling a touch better, he tossed his bag onto the couch and dug out the file; tucking it under one arm, he walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of ice water. The coldness tingled the pads of his paw as he walked into his bedroom and flicked on the light, setting down the water on his nightstand while he tossed the file onto the bed. Once his paws were free, he unceremoniously stripped out of his work clothes, tossing them here and there on the floor, since he’d wear something else tomorrow, anyway.

Now in just his underwear, he climbed underneath his blankets and propped himself up against the headboard, file in one paw while he picked up and sipped his water with the other. The ringing from earlier had his head feeling like it was trying to implode, then explode, one after the other, but he had to study up for tomorrow. The ice water helped somewhat, the chill down his spine taking focus away from his head as he read the documents. His eyes already felt heavy, his paw just barely able to make it to the edge of the nightstand before his arm went limp and the glass landed on the floor, still half full; the water seeping into carpet as Frank sank into a deep sleep.

‘Time to get up.’ Frank groaned out like the dead he slept similar to, his head feeling fuzzy but in a good way; the way it feels after you’ve slept much longer than planned and actually needed to. His vision was blurred as he looked up at his ceiling, the fan thereon slowly spinning, denying him something solid to focus on. With another groan, he reached down and went to push his paw into the mattress, but quickly recoiled when he felt something cold and wet against it.

With a sudden new sense of panic and energy, he gripped the blanket overtop of him and ripped it off, tossing it to the side to fall and bunch up against the wall on the floor with a muffled thud. Scooting backwards quickly to pin himself against the headboard, he looked down to where he felt the cold and a sense of heat rose inside of him. There was now a clear imprint of his paw in what seemed to be a giant patch of yellow spread out across his formerly white sheets. Large enough that it looked like someone just dumped a whole pitcher of lemonade across his bed.

He quickly darted out of bed, landing on one paw and the dampness of the bed making him slip off when he went to place the other down. Landing with a thud on his back, staring down his chest and crotch. It surprised him when once more he felt the damp coldness, but this time not on his hand. It was coming from underneath him. He tentatively rolled onto his side, feeling the now damp carpet slightly sticking to him until he fully pulled away from it. 

Propping himself up on his hands, his ears twitched at a slight squishing sound coming from them. Carefully, he lifted them up, feeling that same sticking sensation from his back. Looking down, he could see that he made another imprint, only this time on the floor. He lifted them up and turned them around, pads up facing him. The white underside now also tinged yellow. Carefully, he raised one of them up to his nose, almost scared of the appendage as it got closer. A single sniff was all it took to confirm his worst assumptions. The fur was wreaking of ammonia and smelling like a truck-stop bathroom.

Frank quickly pulled his own paw from his face, afraid of it as if it were a stranger and not actually attached to him. His face scrunching up with a wince at the smell and his canine nose burning from the powerful sensation. He pushed his paws against the floor and used the momentum to help himself stand up, his foot once more slipping a little before he planted it firmly once upright. He pushed himself back up against the wall and looked down at the floor; where he had just been, was a yellow tinged outline of his back, rear, and paws.

He sighed and went to grab his head when he quickly remembered the reason he wouldn’t want to do that, shooting them back down to his hips where they brushed against his thighs. The slight cold and wet sensation from before coming back. His ears perked in curious fashion before he slowly craned his head down, looking at his own crotch. His formerly blue boxers were now several shades darker than he remembered them being, and not the same hue all over either. The white patches of his thighs were now looking like his sheets, tinged with yellow patches.

His face suddenly felt warmer, a long since lost feeling of embarrassment creeping up his spine; a memory of his father looking down at him lovingly and understanding flashed before his eyes before he physically shook away the image. Frank whimpered under his breath before he grabbed his throat and made himself stop, shaking his head quickly like he had just climbed out of the shower. Shower. Yes, that sounded like a very good idea. The open air of the room blew on his fur, sending a distinct chill down the husky’s back as he carefully leant away from the wall.

“Jesus I need to find a new job…” He calmly reasoned with himself, trying to rationalize what he had just woken up to as he carefully stepped over his own outline in the carpet, making a mental note to have it professionally cleaned once he got his big promotion. He quickly pulled open the drawer of his dresser and grabbed another pair of boxers before rounding the squared wall and ducking into his attached bathroom. ‘Doesn’t a bath sound so much nicer?’ Yeah, yeah it does, but he doesn’t have ti- Time! He quickly peeked his head out and looked at the clock on his nightstand, the bright red display showing 9:06AM. “Shit!”

Frank turned around so fast he almost slipped on the fake wood flooring of his bathroom; practically ripping the shower curtain off his rod when he pulled it open all in the same motion. Just as quickly, he turned the knobs on and the water sprayed out the attached showerhead, hissing like an angry snake. Frank could definitely empathize with it as he begrudgingly reached a paw down and, with a single extended claw, pulled out the waistband of his boxers, and then dragged them down his legs to the floor.

He held them out in front of his face, a look of disgust complete with lolled out tongue as he tossed them into the corner of the bathroom where an empty box acted as his laundry basket for towels and such. His crotch, now bare, was also susceptible to the chilly breeze that had plagued him earlier. Quickly, he shut the bathroom door and turned on the light and the ceiling heater light. Happy for the brief extra warmth, he sighed and closed his eyes, slowly shaking his head before he climbed into the shower and pulled the curtain closed.

The hot water felt amazing, drenching his fur in a much more pleasant way than it had been moments ago. He felt like a cliche when he placed his paw onto the tiled wall and leant under the showerhead, letting it literally wash the worries down his back and into the drain below; feeling it drip down from the tip of his tail with sounds that could have been minor explosions. “Gah, my head…” Frank, now with clean paws, could use one to hold on to his head. A slight throbbing that pulsed against his palm confirmed he wasn’t just imagining things.

Before he realized how long he had been standing there, the warm water suddenly turned cold and Frank yelped in response, quickly yanking the shower curtain open and almost jumping out of the tub. Wanting to fight the cold further, he grabbed a towel off its rack and wrapped it around himself. He stood there and shivered in the open air for a moment, eyes closed once more before he had to sit down on the toilet and sigh. ‘That’s not for you.’ Frank quickly sat up and opened his eyes, looking around the room as he thought he heard a voice, but nobody was there. “I really am losing it..”

The husky hurried himself through drying off, even considering shaking off instead for a moment before he realized he regretted the clean up from that last time. His fur, now pure white and black as it should be. Fluffed up from the towel, Frank quickly used his paws to smooth his fur down since he didn’t have time to properly brush it and his mirror was fogged over, anyway. He gave extra time to dry off his crotch, though, not wanting to relive the sensation from this morning ever again. ‘You’ll get used to it.’

He dropped the towel when he heard the voice again, darting his head around, looking, searching, not finding anything but the vague and fogged over reflection of himself in the mirror. He growled and swiped at the mirror, brushing the condensation off it. His reflection didn’t disappear as he wanted, though. Instead, making half of it clearer, that bright pink eye of his staring back at him. Frank exclaimed in annoyance and stormed out of the bathroom, grabbing his boxers off the sink in one quick motion.

As he came around the half-wall, he had to stop, his boxers squeezed tighter in his paw for a moment. The imprint that he left on the floor seemed to have partially dried, but was still clearly visible, reminding him of those chalk outlines of dead people you would see in old cop movies, though sadly he was very much still alive to relive his embarrassment. He growled once more under his breath and turned away from it, walking across the room to his wardrobe on the other side and yanking both doors open to reveal his work clothes inside. ‘Not very appropriate.’

Frank bopped the side of his own head a few times to make the voice go away as he pulled out one of his suits slung over a coat hanger, reaching for a tie on a set of hooks built into the doors before he hesitated. Hanging there was a pink tie, the same color as his eye. A joke gift from his wondrous coworkers to ‘thank’ him for all of his help with saving their asses. He could have sworn that he threw it away, though, not able to stand the sight of it but having to put on a fake smile in the office and act grateful.

He told himself he must have only thought about doing that and didn’t actually have the brass to go through with it, shaking his head before he grabbed a normal black tie instead and shut the wardrobe. Normally he would toss the suit onto bed to get ready, but it was clearly not in a state for such to be possible, not unless he wanted to apply to be a bathroom attendant.

He pulled the jacket off the hangar and set it on top of the wardrobe, then grabbed the shirt that it was covering and slipped his arm into the sleeve, pulled it on, then slipped in the other. Grabbing the edges, he pulled them towards his chest and then went to... To... What was he doing again? There were these strange round things on his shirt, but only on one side? The concept seemed completely alien to him. The other side of the shirt had holes in it, and he wondered if the shirt was just broken. ‘Round thing goes into a round hole.’

Frank blinked and looked at himself in the wardrobe’s mirrors, seeing him weirdly grasping at the front of his shirt and looking unknowingly dumbstruck. “I must be getting sick or something... I’ll ask for some time off as part of my promotion.” Working quickly, he buttoned his shirt and smoothed it out, then did up the cuffs and folded over the collar evenly before grabbing his pants, quickly tugging them on. Again, he hesitated with the button, but only for a moment before he finished securing it and doing the zipper. He liked the noise it made.

Now almost dressed he grabbed the tie and swung it around his back, then tucked it up under his collar, the long piece of cloth draped over his shoulders like a priest’s vestments and just dangling there, one end in each paw as the husky stood there and once more looked into the mirror. Wait, what... Was this thing, and why is it around his neck? Surely it would choke him if it went around his neck. He didn’t like the idea of that…’You’re just playing dress up.’ That sounded like fun to the husky, so he looked away from the mirror and his head throbbed.

Frank winced and closed his pink eye, covering it with his paw, then groaned and opened it again. That brief moment was enough for him to look down at the cloth in his hand, then quickly tie a quick Windsor knot and tug on it to adjust it and make it look proper. He grabbed his jacket off the top of the wardrobe and pulled it on, once more folding over the collar as he plopped down on the ottoman at the foot of the bed, thankful for something to finally not squish out when he sat on it. ‘Not for long.’

Frank reached under the bed, pleasantly surprised to see that despite how soaked through the mattress was, it didn’t seem to have seeped through the bottom. He would still probably throw it away out of shame alone, though. Still, he grabbed his dress shoes and yanked them out around the ottoman to sit in front of his feet, the husky catching himself just starting into the mirror once more before he glanced down.

What are those strange long things attached to his shoes? There seem to be two of them, or one really long one for each. He really couldn’t tell. He tentatively reached out a toe and nudged the long thing and saw it didn’t move, wondering if snakes had somehow taken over his shoes. Carefully, slowly, he reached down and picked up one of them, pulling it towards his foot and watching the things drag across the carpet. They sure slithered like snakes. He wasn’t sure if he should, but Frank slipped his foot into the shoe. Once more, he wasn’t sure what to do next as he lifted his foot and watched the long things dangle in the air. ‘Tie them... Like a pretty bow.’

The husky watched himself in the mirror again. Now a dumb, stupid grin had spread across his face. He was really good at tying bows, so he knew just what to do as another throb rang through his head and again he winced and the pain dulled back down to its constant, but tolerable, ache in the back of his mind. The grin faded, and he shook his head, regretting it as the throbs came back from the motion until his brain felt like it settled into place.

Frank sat up for a moment, thinking it was just the blood rushing to his head and allowing himself a moment to catch his breath when he remembered his water from last night. He swiveled on the ottoman and looked towards his nightstand for the glass but did not see it, instead he once more saw his alarm clock. The somehow even brighter display now showed 9:50AM. “Oh Sh-!” Frank cut himself off, something telling him he didn’t have time to even finish the thought as he reached down and quickly pulled on his shoes and tied them.

He darted up from the ottoman and started rushing towards the front door, stopping for only a microsecond to grab his bag off the couch (save the file that was also yellow tinged and on his bedroom floor) and his keys from a hook right by the exit. He yanked the door shut, causing a loud bang to ring out in the empty hallway. Not far away, he could hear a baby suddenly start crying and a faint, but audible “Come on!” ring out from a probably unhappy parent. ‘I can empathize.’

Frank cursed under his breath, then quickly locked his door. The keys jingled as he scrambled to tuck them into his pocket while rushing for the stairs at the same time. His quick steps echoing down the long walls as he made his way down the three flights of stairs to the ‘parking lot’, which was really just a barely painted off area designated for cars; his car fit right in with the ‘used but still standing’ theme of the area.

Thankfully, the neighbors seem to have left him enough space to get out, unlike almost every other morning that he went for work. Then again, he was running very late at this point and they were probably already gone. He shook his head a few times. “Focus, Frank!” he told himself as he quickly made his way over to his car, once more digging out his keys and unlocking his door. The jingling made his ears perk before he pulled the door open and tossed his laptop bag into the backseat, climbed in and pulled the door shut all at the same time. The moment the door closed, his head throbbed once more, and he caught his reflection in the rearview mirror.

The pain made Frank fumble his keys as he wanted to clutch his head, but he stopped when the jingling caught his attention once more. Slowly his paw lifted the small key ring up in front of his face, the light reflecting off the metal and into the mirror; the sunspot blocking his blue eye before he looked back down at the ring. Tentatively, he shook it once, heard the sound, and then heard himself giggle. A second time followed, then a third, and a fourth before he started quickly shaking the keys. Frank was having such fun, he lost control and accidentally dropped the keys onto the floor. He felt a whimper rising in the back of his throat as he leant down to pick them up, but stopped.

His eyes were now level with his dash, and he saw these strange symbols and shapes scribbled all over. Arrows marked some of them, but not others. There were buttons and knobs and this big lever was right beside him and it too had the strange symbols and lines all over it. Frank splayed back his ears and sat back in his seat, the whole interior of the car seeming to move with him as the dash suddenly darted backwards, along with the entire front of the car, stretching far beyond his reach to where he could only make out the faint glow of some symbols in the distance. The only thing that did not move was the rearview mirror. Instead, it seemed to only grow larger.

The husky swallowed and reached out a paw, swiping at the air to see what he could reach, but it was no use. The more he swiped, the further yet it seemed things stretched away from him, the faint glowing now barely visible. Frank suckled and sunk his shoulders, looking down and feeling the need to whimper once more when a glinting of light caught the edge of his eye. He looked down to the floor, and saw the keys just laying there, sprawled out and leant partially on their ring.

Frank found his tail slowly wagging through the hole in the back of his seat as he reached down for the keys, finding they, unlike the dash, did not abandon him. He actually got hold of them and slowly lifted them back up to his face, the sunlight seeming to envelop them fully before fading away. 

Gone were the metal keys he had played with before, and in his paw now were a rainbow colored set of plastic baby keys, sized for someone with paws as big as his own. They no longer jingled, but sort of just clacked together when the husky shook them. But that didn’t seem to bother Frank.

He shook them gleefully; the sunlight returned and pierced through each of the keys. Sending their colors sparkling through the interior of the car and surrounding Frank in their visual, wonderful chaos, like a laser light show put on for him and him alone. ‘Playtime’s over, little one.’

Frank felt his head throb, and he dropped the keys into his lap, both of his eyes closing as he brought both paws up and held onto his head pulsed and pounded rhythmic pain as the pads on his palms. Slowly, carefully, he opened his eyes, the colors gone, the dash returned, the symbols recognizable. The husky carefully reached between his legs and grabbed his keys, which indeed once more his keys, metal and all. A much duller jingle sounded when he moved them.

Frank quickly reached into the backseat and grabbed his laptop bag, then almost shoulder tackled the door open as he scrambled to climb out of the car and onto the cracked and dirty asphalt. He slammed the door shut and back stepped several times away from his car. Looking in through the glass at the normal interior, the normal everything that he was sure it was not mere moments ago.

‘Come to me.’

Frank only knew that he had to get away from whatever had just happened to him. Away from the car, from the stain that haunted him upstairs. From the colors… He squeezed tightly the handle of his laptop bag, looking down at the keys in the palm of his other hand. The light reflected off them once more, but in a dull way, he couldn’t quite understand why it caused him to feel sad. He quickly shoved them into his pants pocket, then looked at the car, then at the end of the parking lot where a billboard was advertising for the bus station not far from here.

“I’m taking the damn bus.”

End of Pt 1