When I awoke on that particularly normal summer morning, I found myself changed in my bed into a monstrous beast. Lying on my back, arms crossed as was habit, I quickly noticed they were no longer arms.  My fingers stretched out with a good foot and a half space where a half inch used to be.  Between them was a exaggerated membrane that sloped between the points of my digits.  They would certainly not be called ‘hands’ anymore, I realized, for ‘wings’ was a far more apt description. Lifting my great head would have proved to be a great effort with its new size if not for the fact that my neck was suddenly three times its normal thickness. Hairy, too. Looking down the length of my grey-brown body of freshly sprouted fur I saw that my torso was long and my legs pitifully short in comparison.  At the end of these short legs were a pair of clawed feet—not altogether animal, nor human, but rather some grotesque cross between the two. It was also hard not to notice that my mouth felt cavernous. With my long tongue I felt several series of sharp teeth punctuated by a set of large fangs on both the top and bottom of my mouth.

                I stumbled out of my bed and scrambled to a mirror in the bathroom. It wasn’t me looking back in the reflection. At least not the me that I knew. What I saw instead was a horrifically over-sized bat, with the eyes and nose of a man, hairy but human. My ears extended from their normal sides up nearly a foot, shrinking into a sharp point at the top. I was some sort of bat beast.

                 Screaming at this realization brought a new horror. I found I could not yell, only screech. The sound of my screech bounced around the room and returned to me and I instantly new the layout of the room. It seemed I could now see with sound. Echolocation, I remembered from my studies. If I weren’t altogether terrified of my new body, this might have been exciting.

                As I was examining myself more closely in the mirror, there came a knock at the door. I ignored it, assuming it was a delivery or solicitor, but then there came a second knock.

                ‘I know you’re home,’ an unfamiliar voice said. Looking out the blinds I saw woman in a yellow sundress, holding a tray of fresh fruit. Pineapples, apples, and mangoes.  She gave me a pleasant smile and a wave of her fingers when she caught me looking at her from the silt in the window blinds. Recoiling, the blinds snapped shut and I realized I couldn’t ignore her. From the context, I believed her to be one of my new neighbors come to welcome me, for I had indeed moved in just a few days earlier. She called through the door, ‘I’m here to welcome you. No need to be shy.’

                I grab a towel and wrapped it around my large ears as if I had a wet head of hair from a shower. Wrapping another towel around my wings and I went to the door.

                ‘I’m not feeling well,’ I said desperately through the door. ‘It might be best to wait for—’

                ‘How fortunate that I brought you fruit! Vitamin C will help you feel better,’ she said.  ‘I just want to meet my new neighbor. It’ll only take a moment.’

                Sighing, I unlocked the door and cracked it open.

                ‘A private man, huh?’ the woman giggled when her attempt at entering was met with the resistance of my great big body against the door. ‘Mysterious. I hear you’re very handsome, too. You’re certainly a tall one,’ and while normally true as well, I now seemed a good foot taller than normal.

                I feigned a cough. ‘It’s best if you stay out there with the fresh air. I would feel awful if I got you sick.’

                ‘Nonsense,’ she said and her eagerness must have lent her great strength for she pushed at the door and forced me back. Fumbling for the towel that I nearly dropped, I stiffened, worried she’d notice at any moment that I was a beast. I thought she’d run away and return with torches and an angry mob. She entered, oblivious, and after putting the fruit tray on the counter, immediately went about opening all the windows. One after another she spread the curtains and raised the blinds and light filled the once dim room.

There was a sweet scent in the air.

                A great hunger suddenly consumed me—an animalistic hunger that took control.  I felt I needed to eat and nothing else mattered. Despite my efforts to be civil, I found myself stalking my neighbor as she chatted about anything and everything, all of which I tuned out. I was right up on her when she screamed. Recoiling from the noise, I regained some composure, embarrassed and scared all at once.

                It seemed she screamed in joy, not terror, to my great relief. She’d come across a picture of me with friends. ‘You were so cute back then,’ she said, unaware that the picture was from only a few weeks prior. ‘You’ve really bulked up, huh?’

                ‘Ye-yes,’ I stammered.

                After a moment of the woman observing my living room, a hoard of other neighbors came through the door. I pulled my towel tighter. They said in unison, ‘Are you all right? We heard a scream.’

                ‘Quite all right.’

                ‘So you’re the new neighbor?’ one of the newly arrived women said. I nodded. ‘The strong silent type.’

                I can’t recall how we all ended up on my couches, sitting around the coffee table with tea and scones, but we did.  There was gossip and laughs, and thankfully no screams. The sweet scent was still in the air and I was hungry…. for my guests, I thought in horror. I sniffed and it seemed the smell came from the first neighbor to greet me and I found myself looming over her, salivating. With a squeal she grabbed my suddenly exposed bat wing. ‘These nails,’ she said, pulling a file from her purse, ‘Poor state.’

                As she filed my nails, two of my other guests, in what I can only imagine was a bid for my attention, massaged my head and feet. It felt so nice, I hardly noticed when the towel fell off revealing my pointy ears. They didn’t respond in terror to my large bat ears or my clawed feet. They didn’t seem concerned at all with my monstrous appearance. In fact, the fourth guest retrieved the fruit tray and held a mango out for me to eat. Sniffing it, I realized that the sweet smell in the air was not my guest, after all, but rather the gifted fruit. I bit into the mango and ate several more on top of a pineapple before my hunger was satisfied. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the pampering for a moment, thinking this new body might not be all bad if I could still have friends. Maybe I could even fly. I felt strong, but weakening. I thought perhaps this was just me relaxing with the massages as was given.

                Opening my eyes, I looked down my body and saw that my chest was once more smooth, my arms once more arms, not wings.

                Confused, I said to my guests, ‘Have you not noticed anything strange?’

                ‘No,’ they said in unison from the ceiling from which they now hung. Looking up I saw a group of bat beasts looking down at me questioningly. Their sharp fangs protruded from their large mouths and they scratched their heads with the claws at the tips of their wings.  ‘Like what?’

                To keep myself from screaming, I looked away. I picked up my tea cup with a shaking hand and took a sip before saying, ‘Nothing. Never mind.’

                ‘I think you’ll like it here,’ said the one who I assume was my first guest given the location the bat beast hung above the couch. I could not recognize them in their transformed states.  ‘There’s a bit of a flavor to the water, but we live in a quiet, normal neighborhood.’

                ‘Say,’ one of the bats said. ‘I’m getting pretty hungry.’

                I felt myself sinking into my seat as they all agreed one by one. Each of my guests began to lean towards me, dropping down to tower above me, licking their toothy mouths. In their still human eyes I saw great hunger. As they surrounded me, I hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much as I squeezed my eyes shut and felt a pressure at my stomach and heard the sloppy sound of soft flesh giving way to juicy insides…

                They ate the remaining mangoes not me, but I’ll tell you for a moment there I was worried.