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March 21
I'm only keeping
this journal because the doctor tells me it will be the best medicine for the
shit Julia and I are about to endure. The doctor is not a regular medical
doctor, but Lady Amberline Tremaine, the great wizardess who helped broker the
treaty that brought peace between magic users and us norms all those years ago.
She's, like, in her mid-300s or something.
Anyway, I'm an editor for a
textbook publisher. I know, titillating work, right?! It helps keep the bills
paid. Julia is an account review manager for a national property company. Those
are fancy words for saying that she had the kind of personality required to
take unpaid property away from the folks who have stopped paying for it.
At least, that's what she is now
and that's what she was when I met her. Gorgeous and with a bigger and
better-maintained bank account than mine, she was simply an amazing woman, and
for some reason, she took a liking to me, who was so undeserving of her. If any
woman was ever out of a man's league, that was Julia to me. She was the perfect
woman as far as I was concerned. She still is, even now.
But according to Doctor Tremaine,
that's all going to change within the next month. By this time next month,
Julia will no longer even be human.
She'll be a dog. Still beautiful,
yes. But not the human woman I got engaged to. Instead, she'll be a pure-bred
Golden Labrador.
I mean, how
the fuck am I, well, either of us, supposed to even wrap our heads around this?
One magical curse, and suddenly the love of my life is doomed to become a dog
for the rest of whatever life that entails?
It's bullshit. Total bullshit. And we are going to fight it together.
March 22
We met with
Doctor Tremaine today. We have to look at the silver lining in all of this, she
told us. Yes, the curse is turning the woman I love into a dog, but she is
still alive, with so many curses routinely going for a quick kill. As long as
she's alive, that means there's an opportunity to reverse it. Sure, there are
hoops we'll have to jump through that I don't even begin to understand, but the
Cliff's Notes version is this: It can be done.
So we're supposed to think about that instead of how over the next few weeks, Julia's beautiful form will shift into that of a quadruped and she'll get furry and lose the ability to speak. That's not even all over it, according to Tremaine. There will be lots of other smaller changes that I won't even notice much but she will.
According to the doctor, the curse will not just adapt her human body to a dog's shape. She will literally become a dog. That means neurologically, biologically, physiologically, and genetically. Her DNA will be canine. Nothing homo sapien about her genetic make-up anymore.
From what the doctor says, that
will mean changes in things like how well she sees and what colors she can
distinguish. It means her world will become less understood by her eyes and far
more information will be taken in and processed through her nose. It means she
will eventually no longer have the same language-processing parts of her human
brain because they will be replaced with the language-processing parts of a
dog's brain. Long story short on all that is that she'll still remember
everything from her human life, but she won't understand human language
anymore, or nothing beyond the limited vocabulary of commands dogs are bright
enough to comprehend. But even so, that's just me barking orders at her, not
any kind of actual conversation.
Even after just a few days after
learning about the curse on the 18th, we're already seeing signs of those
changes to come. Julia is already noticing scents I can't begin to pick up on,
things from several houses down even.
After the meeting, Julia asked if
we could go out for dinner, and how could I say no? I think she wants to make
the most of the time we have left together, well, together in our current
roles. As I understand it, we'll still have plenty of life to enjoy together,
just with a greatly changed relationship.
That is, according to Tremaine,
if I want to keep her after the transformation. She told me not to feel bad if
I had second thoughts. It was a difficult decision, and often having the victim
of a curse in your life can hamper your ability to move on and create a new
life beyond the curse. It isn't common for the surviving member of a curse in a
relationship to find the reminder too heavy to live with and he or she ends up
doing what they must to have the care of the cursed victim passed on to someone
else, someone without the emotional connection to burden them.
While Julia was in another room
getting bloodwork and magical residue tests done, Tremaine told me stories
about others who had gone through similar cases. There was an extreme case in
the early 1950s where a husband had been transformed into a chair, and though
his wife kept him for years, she never could bring herself to sit in him. Of
course, as an inanimate object, he had no brain to hold memories or
personality, so whatever awareness he had was long gone. She eventually had to
make a clean break and sold him off at a yard sale. There was another about a
woman whose sister had been cursed to become a fox after stealing chickens from
a neighbor. In that case, the surviving sister tried everything to domesticate
the fox-sister, but the instincts were too strong to overcome, and she ended up
donating her to a zoo where she would be cared for without getting shot by a
neighbor for disturbing a local farm.
Julia's situation was more ideal, but that only took her needs into account, not mine.
Anyway, at dinner, Julia ordered medium steak, another change from the regular burnt well-done she typically ordered, and I stored the detail to record here in the journal. After dinner, she seemed to have endless energy and insisted we go dancing. Again, how could I tell her no? I will give her all the happy memories of us together I can.
March 25
Unfortunately, I
had no choice but to attend a meeting in Los Angeles with my boss, which cost
me two days away from Julia. She was super understanding about it and told me
not to worry about it. She wasn't going anywhere.
When I got home from the airport, she met me at the door in yoga pants, a tank top, and her trainers, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail."C'mon," she told me after kissing me deeply. "We're going for a run together."
So we did. She ran me ragged. We normally stopped after two miles, but we went a full five miles this time. I couldn't believe how much energy she seemed to have.
"I wish I didn't have to have a curse to get this much energy," she said.
I joked back at her. "Maybe I need to as well," I said.
But she suddenly grew serious. "No, never say that. Ever, okay? Okay?" She kissed me again, and I told her I had only been kidding.
"I'm sorry," she
apologized and then asked if I wanted to jog back home or call an Uber to pick
us up. I begged out of another five miles and told her to call the Uber.
During the ride, I asked her to
forgive me again for having to leave town, and she told me again not to worry
about it. Then she asked me the question I hadn't yet known I never wanted to
hear.
"Listen, Dave? Can you do me
a favor? Can you call me Jules from now on? I want to get used to the sound of
it in my ears."
I told her I'd call her anything
she wanted me to, but I was curious why she wanted to change her name.
"It's for... later."
She left a long pause between the last two words. "I want it to be my dog
name, so I want to start hearing it from you so I'll recognize it even after my
brain, you know, forgets people words."
I couldn't help it. I started to
cry. I was supposed to be making her last month as a person better, and
instead, she was taking care of me.
As she held me and rocked me in
the back of the Uber, I couldn't help but notice how much longer and thicker
the hair on her forearms had become.
We watched cop shows together on
the couch and I encouraged her to fall asleep with my head in her lap. I gently
stroked her hair while she snored softly, but I stopped and woke her up to go
to bed when she whimpered like a dog.
I wasn't ready for that. I'm not
ready for that. How the fuck does someone be ready for that?
March 26
Julia, well,
Jules now, as I'm trying to get used to that name, started walking with a
slight arch now, like an older person beginning their inevitable curve toward
the floor. Not just that. So much else is happening, happening way too fast.
She sniffs me in the mornings
now. It's a new thing that started yesterday but I didn't really think anything
about it until this morning made me realize it was going to become a habit for
her. She kisses me afterward and tells me how manly I smell, and how we need to
make the most of that for our time together. She even joked about me taking
advantage of her while she's acting like "a bitch in heat" -- her
words, not mine. I pushed her away, and I think it hurt her feelings a lot more
than I would have figured.
Because of that, I guess, she
went on her run solo this morning and didn't return for almost five hours. I
asked her where she had gone, but all she told me was "Around."
I figured things were better
after her run because when she went up for a shower, she asked me to join her,
"if you still find me attractive" -- again, her words. So, rather
than risking a repeat performance, I joined her and it led to perhaps the best
sex we've had in years. Her new energy level almost wore me out.
After a second shower to clean each other off of each other, she asked me to join her for a ride into town. I agreed, no questions asked.
She threw me for a loop when she took us to a chain pet store.
"Jules?" I asked her, but she shrugged me off.
"I need this to help me wrap my brain around it."
"Okay," I said.
"But if it gets to be too much, let me know, and I'm taking you straight
home."
She led me all over the store, her eyes locked closed, her arm holding mine, guiding us both by her talented new nose. She told me what was on each aisle, and didn't get a single one wrong. She finally stopped and opened her eyes when she said she smelled leather. Again she was correct.
It was the collar aisle.
I wish I could say that concluded
our visit and we left the store. Sadly, Jules had other ideas.
First, she looked through and
actually fucking tried on several of the collars, giving me a smile with each
one and asking how it looked on her. How the hell was I supposed to answer
that? I nodded a lot and told her I didn't think it was funny. She said it
wasn't supposed to be, and that if "this shit" was happening to her,
then she wanted to be part of making decisions that would affect her when it
happened. That meant she wasn't to pick out her own collar and leash. In the
end, we got a narrow leather strip in both brown and pink, and two leashes
also. The first was a retractable to give her plenty of room for movement, and
the second was a shorter one designed for when she would need to be kept close.
She even picked out a bone-shaped metal nametag that she embossed with
"Jules" on the front and on the back had my name and address to show
who she would belong to.
"I'm sorry if this is weird
for you," she said. "But it's weird for me too, and I want to be
involved. It's my life, after all."
I didn't like it. I didn't have to. But I couldn't disagree. She was right. She was dealing with it head-on. I'm the only one wanting to hide from it and just put a line in the sand between "my fiance was a woman" and "my fiance is a dog." I always have been better able to cope with changes and stresses when I can compartmentalize them, the cleaner the break the better.
But it got worse.
She picked out three small bags
of dry dog food to take home. She wanted to have them handy to see when they
started to appeal to her and which one she would like best. I even made a
stupid joke about how we should pick up some bags of treats too, but instead of
laughing it off, she agreed, and we ended up with some kind of bacon-flavored
strip, a beef-flavored stick, and some chicken-flavored things that were also
supposed to keep her teeth clean.
When we got home, her energy was through the roof again and
she insisted on another shower together, followed by the wild animal sex we had
experienced during the early afternoon. She fell asleep quickly afterward,
curled up and facing me. I got up and went to the kitchen to drink myself into
a sleepy stupor to get the day out of my mind.
March 27
Jules walked
around the house all day in her pink collar and clinking nametag. She told me
it would make even more noise when the other tag with her rabies shot dates and
vet information was on the collar too. She might even get a heart-shaped one
just so it makes even more noise when she walks. Well, she corrected herself,
when she trots.
I stopped listening and told her
I needed to run into town for some things. She asked to come, but I told her no
and "you stay here."
Then she got angry and told me, "Oh no, you don't get to command me to stay just yet, David." She stormed out and slammed the door, and I heard her drive off, but I needed my space too.
I went to the bar.
March 31
To be honest, I've been so pissed at Jules lately and how far she's taking everything from the dog collar to the kibble -- and the new shit too -- that I just didn't feel like keeping this goddamn journal any longer. I'm only starting it up again because Doctor Tremaine told me I had to as part of the transition services we're paying her for. If I stop writing, she stops leading Julia's care for the easiest and smooth transition possible.
There. I wrote it in today.
If future me reading this thinks I need to say more, okay. I'll add this:
⦁ Jules' hair is getting longer and thicker
⦁ She says I had a scent even when I clean
now
⦁ The sniffing and kissing thing is still
going on
⦁ Even when she and I are both mad, the sex
is amazing
⦁ I noticed her nose and mouth starting to
grow out in a sort of snout-ish thing
⦁ The curve in her back is getting worse,
but it's not just her back, it's also the way her legs connect to her pelvis
⦁ She prefers the chicken-flavored teeth-cleaning treats and the seafood medley kibble that makes its own gravy when I add water
There, is that enough for you?
April 1
April Fools! It's all been a big joke! Well, that's what I wish I could say. The only fools are me and Jules, apparently. Fate's whipping boys.
April 2
Lady Amberline
says she might have some good leads on the originator of the curse. It couldn't
happen at a better time. Things are getting back for Jules. She no longer walks
upright on two legs at all anymore. Her slump has made her drop to the floor to
use her hands and the balls of her feet to get around.
Of course, she still has all the
energy in the world and she still wants to go for runs, but now I have to take
her out of town to the state parks and let her run in her new semi-canine style
on the more deserted trails so she isn't seen. Not that I'd imagine it would
bother her.
She also wears the damn collar
24/7 now. And yes, she did buy a heart pendent to add to it before she lost the
ability to drive. After the run, she enjoys one of the chicken treats and asks
me if she's being a good girl by keeping up her exercise. Or if we're at home,
she'll ask me the same question for any number of other reasons. Is she being a
good girl because she's still keeping the house clean even if it hurts to do it
on all fours? Is she being a good girl for not forgetting about her fiance's needs
instead of focusing on her own? And she won't let up until I remind her that
yes, she's being a good girl.
I don't see how she can't think that's embarrassing. But she goes on about her business, like being called a "good girl" is the most natural thing in the fucking world.
But about the leads thing, the good news in all of this depressing stuff.
The curse was a distance one, so
that means it either came from someone far away, at least two states or at
least a thousand miles or the person who inflicted the curse lived far away and
was hired by someone local Jules pissed off with her job. Since her former boss
is aware of what is going on with her, he is working with Lady Amberline and
providing the names and contact information of all the accounts she foreclosed
on. It's still got a long way to go, and she did her job well so that list is
long, but it's progress and maybe that means that even if she spends some time
as a dog, it won't be forever, and she can come back from it and we can be
together again.
One other silver lining is how
much she wants to cuddle now. After dinner, she wants me to sit down on the
couch so she can snuggle with her head in my lap. She always falls asleep so
easily like that, and I try not to pet her when she's being sweet and cuddling.
The last thing I want to do is treat her like a family pet before she actually
turns into one.
I told her that this morning when
she was pressing the "good girl" question about how much she's
learning about her future self with the food "training." Instead of
thanking me for treating her like the person she still was, she slumped her
shoulders and looked away sadly. Then she told me I was wrong. She was already
a family pet and had been becoming just that a little at a time since the curse
kicked in. The only thing up for debate was the matter of degree. Only the
ratio of human fiance to canine pet changes from day to day. But none of that
altered the fact that she was as much a pet, "my pet" she told me to
really press the point, now as she would be then.
"Fine," I said as calmly as I could. "What do you want from me then, because I don't know when to treat you like what?"
"Just love me," she told me as she looked up at me with a wide smile. "And maybe actually start petting me a little. It does feel good." Fuck. Just, I mean. Fuck.
April 3
I spent the morning with Jules and took her out to the trails for another run, but I couldn't keep up and had to go back to the car to wait for her. She returned, panting and sweaty and grinning like she was living her best life. That's when it hit me. Maybe I was the only one treating her fate like a curse. She sure as hell wasn't. Maybe whatever was turning her into a Golden Lab was also giving her a side benefit of the peaceful, less stressful existence of being a dog. I kept imagining her being worried about it, but she kept almost embracing it.
It's something I'll have to ask Tremaine about.
Luckily, that works out. Lady
Amberline has arranged for Jules to stay at her place out in the mountains for
a few days while she and her coven work with her to see if they can get a
better read on who originated the curse. Apparently, they're going to use Jules
as something called the "focal point" to try to "channel"
the "directional flow." I know what all those words mean, but I could
tell you what they mean together like that. Just a few months ago, I would have
called it typical witchy bullshit, but now, well, I guess I've learned to
accept there are so many things I don't understand.
Lady Amberline's place is
twenty-five acres of wooded, private land accessible only by a private road.
Because of that, Jules is excited about being able to live more freely away
from the eyes of folks who wouldn't understand and would want to treat her as a
curiosity rather than a living being with feelings while she goes through her
changes. She particularly mentioned how much she's looking forward to running
around the grounds and not having to be locked inside the house all the time.
Hearing that made me feel like shit, as if I'm not really trying to take care of her at all but trying to keep her hidden to take care of my feelings and embarrassment instead. Hell, maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I just don't know what she needs. Maybe the problem is that I still think she's trying to resist her changes and she is instead truly embracing them and making the most of it.
Maybe I'm the problem.
Maybe that's what Tremaine was talking about a few days ago when she mentioned all those cases where the relationships fell apart because of the chasm the curse created between the victim and the surviving partner.
April 4
I wasn't able to talk with Jules today for more than a few minutes, but Tremaine sent me almost a half-hour of video clips of her racing around the yard and sleeping in her room to show me she was doing well.
April 6
I took advantage
of the opportunity, with Jules still at Lady Amberline's mansion, to get in
some work travel I haven't been able to. After all, I'm going to still need my
job, maybe more than ever, once her transformation is complete.
She's still sending me video clips, and Jules is clearly having fun on all fours. There was footage of her eating together as well. Because she can no longer stand upright, the servants have prepared a child's table for her where she can reach her plate and glass from her new position as a quadruped. Of course, she drinks from a straw now, another new tool to help her function as much like a human woman as possible with her current limitations.
April 10
I got back into
town yesterday and I have to admit that while I was away, it was convenient to
focus on my job and not have to think or worry about Jules. I thought of her a
lot, of course, but I couldn't dwell on her like I had been, and that was
apparently some time I needed to get a break from the stress of it all.
Still, since I was feeling both
psychologically and emotionally refreshed from the break, I was more than ready
to see her again, and I quickly accepted Lady Amberline's invitation to visit
to drop by the mansion.
When the door opened, I was practically knocked over by Jules, who bounded at me and then against my chest with her forelegs. I squatted beside her and she slathered my face with wet kisses. Her tongue was so damn long now. Her face still looked human, but her nose and jawline definitely extended into a noticeable snout, at least an inch and a half. She pressed against me and pushed me over into the floor, then began her kissing and licking frenzy all over again.
She only stopped when she heard Tremaine call out sharply from the foyer. "Jules!
Stop it. Mind your manners."
She stopped immediately and backed away, then sat on her rear haunches.
"Did you just command her to
sit and stay?" I asked, but Tremaine only grinned. "It's never too
early to start her training, and best to start before she loses her ability to
understand English. The sooner she learns to associate you my voice and yours
with the voice of authority the better."
Bear in mind that I'm not
capturing all our words verbatim, but I'm getting the general idea so I have a
record of it. I felt like it was the kind of conversation I would like to have
a written record of here in my journal.
I sat up and moved beside Jules,
gently petting her between her ears. I heard a low, throaty sound escape her
mouth.
I asked to see her and I stood up and backed away a few steps to take in the full view. Tramaine made a spinning motion with her index finger, and Jules obeyed, making two circles to let me examine her from all angles. Her pelvic joints had shifted so that her legs, the rear legs, connected from the sides now to allow her maximum comfort and efficiency when walking or running. Her front legs were in the process of the same shift even though her hands remained human. They were most definitely becoming more like paws, but for the time being, they were only shorter and she still had knuckles and thumbs. Her palms though were black and thick, more pads than palms.
"You look like a human woman with the shape of a dog now," I said.
"I know. It's wild, right? Weird. But it feels great. It's so easy to relax, and I don't have anything else to do other than just run around and have fun. And it doesn't hurt at all anymore when I walk."
"That's good."
I must have made some kind of face because whether I did it intentionally or not, she saw something that made her look sad all of the sudden.
"What's wrong?" I asked her when I noticed the look.
"I'm ugly now, aren't I? I bet I look too freaky and you don't love me anymore."
She was wearing modified biking shorts and a sports bra that kept her modesty protected but defined her more canine silhouette without any disguising it. Her skin had gotten much hairier in the places left exposed by the outfit. Not thick like a dog yet, but definitely beginning to be what someone might call furry.
"Of course I love you," I told her. "You're adorable."
"I know you too would
probably like some time alone, and I've got business to take care of, so I'll
leave you to get reacquainted," Tremaine said and took her leave.
I walked through the house to the huge back patio, and Jules trotted along beside me at a perfect "heel." I took a seat on a wicker sofa and she jumped up to sit beside me, me on my ass and her on her haunches.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"For what?"
"For all this. For being
able to enjoy this while you can't. I don't know. Stuff like that."
We sat quietly, and eventually,
she put her hands and head in my lap while I scratched her back and sides.
After about ten minutes of that, she looked up at me and asked me for a favor.
I told her sure and asked what
she wanted, expecting something like a belly rub or something more dog-like to
enhance her enjoyment of the experience.
Instead, she
floored me with her request.
"I want to make love to you,
you know, while I'm still human, you know, down there."
I told her I'd think about it, and that was apparently the wrong answer, so she leaped down from the sofa and trotted off inside the house.
I went off to find Lady Amberline to talk about what Jules had asked.
I told her I had misgivings about
having sex with Jules in her current form. She was adamant that I needed to get
over it and do everything I could to make Jules' transition smoother. She also
reminded me that with the exception of her quadruped form, the rest of her body
was still human, and that meant a human pussy. No matter what my brain tried to
tell me, I would be having sex, or
making love as she put it, with my fiance, with a human girl.
So, in the end, I did. To be honest, it had been several days and I was already horny, and once I reminded myself of her biological humanity, the idea of doing authentically "doggy-style" got me even more excited.
The most difficult part was the foreplay. With Jules' new, elongated snout, kissing
was almost
impossible, though she did figure out quickly that, along with her extended
tongue, made a blow job much more amazing for me. And when the time came, I
squatted behind her and thoroughly appreciated the fact that she felt just the
same inside as she always had. With my eyes closed, I couldn't tell any
difference, except for the deeper throatiness of her moaning, almost coming out
as a sort of growl.
I fell asleep beside her and awoke during the early evening to find her curled up at my stomach and chest, still naked, her downy fur tickling my skin. I was hard again, so I went back again, waking her with the motion and pressure.
April 13
For several days,
Jules was in a constant state of arousal, as Tremaine had warned me she might
be, something about her future heat cycle trying to set, and a room was fixed
up for the two of us to share until the horniness passed.
Lady Amberline had also given us
exercises to go through together to continue to build our relationship as it
would eventually change from finance and fiancee to pet and master. During
those exercises, I was to avoid conversing with Jules and to only speak in
simple commands. For two reasons, I was told. The first was to reinforce basic
commands so that she would not have to relearn them when her ability to
comprehend human language eventually faded completely. She would still know
them by tone and sound even though she wouldn't understand their meanings as a
fellow human being might. The second reason was to associate my voice as the
voice of authority in our relationship. She needed to learn to respond to my
voice the same way she had done so to Tremaine's voice when I arrived at the
mansion.
The commands were basic for the
most part: sit, stay, heel, that kind of thing, but with Jules being so
aroused, Tremaine had added a new one -- present. Trusting the doctor's
knowledge of magical curses better than my intuition, I did as she recommended,
and each time I told Jules to "present" I spread her legs behind her
and pushed her face toward the ground, the ideal position to be taken sexually.
Each time she performed it immediately and without my assistance I rewarded her
with either another round of sex or, if I hadn't recovered yet, a good, strong
finger fucking.
All the while, her body was still
changing. First I noticed the joints in the forelegs and rear legs shift to
take on a more canine slenderness. Her feet shrank to paws along with her
hands, and her thumbs and big toes all but melted away. She spoke less and
less, and when she did she struggled to pronounce the words correctly.
Just before our evening exercise,
she didn't manage to get out the words, "I want my leash now."
So, because I loved her, I knelt beside her, fastened the retractable leash to her collar, and took her outside for a walk around the grounds filled with sitting, staying, heeling, and presenting.
It would be the last night we ever made love.
April 14
When I woke up I
was in bed alone. All the other mornings, Jules would be with me and I'd have
to gently wake her up so she could nuzzle me and "kiss" me good
morning with that long, sloppy tongue. But this morning, she wasn't there.
Climbing out of bed, I nearly
fell over her. Instead of sleeping with me on the bed, she had chosen to sleep
on the floor on a rug. So much had changed overnight.
Her hands and feet were completely gone now. She only had paws and claws. Her body hair had more than doubled. Her snout had grown another inch longer, and her teeth were no longer human. Her lips were gone. Her ears too, had finally changed. They no longer grew out of the side of her head but from the top. Her basic facial features were still more human than canine, but they were most assuredly more canine than they had been before. Not only that, her tail was a good six inches long and moving on its own as she slept.
I let her sleep and went to get the doctor.
The first part of her Tremaine
checked was inside her mouth. She checked with a flashlight and some kind of
magical aura thing to gauge the curse's completeness. "It's just a matter
of days now," she told me.
The second part she checked was
Jules' anus and crotch. She shook her head and told me that she was now
physically a dog down there, not a human hybrid, and unless I wanted to have
sex with a dog, it was time to stop encouraging any romantic activity between
Jules and me.
Jules looked up at me and tried to speak, and her eyes were very wet and black and sad, but the only sounds that escaped were a series of short whines.
"Jules," Tremaine asked. "Can you understand me? I want you to nod or shake your head to let me know, please." Jules nodded her head.
"Okay," she said. "Just wanted to make sure."
Then she walked out and returned
with the leash and told me it would be best to go ahead and continue with the
morning exercises to not mess up Jules' routine.
Our conversation was one-sided, and in between commands, I asked her yes or no questions and waited for her head motions to let me know her responses. At one point she saw something dart across the yard and she jerked the leash out of my hand to run off to check it out. I yelled, "Jules!" sharply, and she stopped immediately and sat her ass down. I walked to her, took hold of her leash again, sat down beside her, and cried while she looked at me with the same big, wet, sad eyes I'd seen when Tremaine told her no more sexual activity. She licked me twice and I held her head and scruffy neck close.
That evening, Lady Amberline had me bring Jules in on the leash to the coven room, and fasten her to an eyebolt in the middle of a fancy, ornate circle. She told me I could sit and watch, but I had to be quiet so as not to disturb the spell to find the origin of the curse.
They chanted for hours, and
eventually, when they stopped, Tremaine shook her head and gave me a weak
smile. "We'll keep trying, but whoever did this knows what they're doing
and knows how to hide it."
Then I took Jules out for another round of exercises, and when we got back to the house, Tremaine was waiting in the foyer with a dog carrier and the other leash.
I was not prepared for what she told me.
"There's nothing more I can
do right now. It's probably best if you carry her home again."
She promised to keep "the beacon up," which I guess was somehow related to the spell to find the origin of the curse and then helped me get Jules into the travel carrier. She did not want to go inside, and the only way to get her in was for me to use "that" tone with her that she had been learning to respond to immediately.
April 15
I really don't feel much like writing
today, so I'll just leave a few notes about the changes.
⦁ Jules' hair is getting really shaggy
now, even to the point of covering her human features. She looks more and more
like a Golden Lab every day.
⦁ She can't form words anymore either.
Every attempt to speak ends up either in a whine or a sort of low growl.
⦁ Jules can still understand me and can
respond to yes or no questions.
⦁ Sleeps more than she stays awake now.
⦁ We continue to do her exercises.
⦁ Jules refused to wear clothes, so I let
her run around naked like any other dog.
That's all I feel I can write for today. I was feeling so much better earlier in the week, but now it all feels so hopeless again.
April 16
Jules woke me up with a bark this morning. Her first god-damn bark. Shit.
April 17
Jules would
hardly stop barking today. It was like she had discovered a new toy and that
toy was her voice. The trouble is I was trying to work from home, and all that
barking was really getting annoying. I know I should be more understanding, but
damn. If it weren't for the nodding and shaking her head, I would honestly
believe she was all dog now. But she can still understand me just fine and
respond to questions.
I did get her to shut up finally, but I had to use "that" tone and even then threaten to lock her in the carrier until I was finished with work.
Is this what the rest of our life is going to be like?
The only thing that salvaged the
day for me was when I got a call from Lady Amberline asking me to meet her for
dinner so she could go over something she learned from her search spell. I
asked her what to do with Jules, and she said that Jules should be fine still,
but if I thought she was too far gone, I could put her in the garage in the
carrier in the dark and her instincts would kick in quickly and she's go right
off to sleep most likely.
I asked Jules which she would
prefer, and in the end, I let her remain in the house with the TV on. She
didn't seem to like the idea of me going to dinner with Lady Amberline, but I
explained that it was all about her, so she stopped whining and gave me a
"kiss" and then let me go without any more complaints.
The doctor said the meal was her
treat, and I didn't fight her on it since the place was outside of my budget.
Then she told me the reason for getting together.
"I want to come to an arrangement with you, Dave Alvers. A deal, if you prefer that word."
"A what?!" I asked her.
"A deal."
Again, like on other days, I'm sure I'm not getting all this conversation correct, but this is the main idea of it anyway, and I figured it might be helpful one day.
"What kind of deal?" I asked.
"Well," she said and she reached across the table for my hand. "I would like to study your fiance for the long term."
"That's fine. I don't mind bringing her over."
She smiled. "Sweet, but on a more permanent basis than that."
I almost fell out of my seat. "I don't understand." "I have two proposals. Either one is acceptable to me." "Okay," I said sheepishly.
"The first would be the simplest. If you are open to it, I would like to purchase
Jules from you and have her become my dog instead."
I waited for the laugh or any indication that she was making a joke. It never came.
"But I figure you're not ready for that yet -- or maybe even never. So I have a sort of compromise offer instead."
"I can't sell you my girlfriend."
"Well, Dave, I can assure you she's not really your girlfriend any longer. And what little of her human mind is still hanging on inside her body will lose its focus soon too. I'll give her another week before her language comprehension and sense of self-awareness are gone. Another few days and she'll react more from instinct than thought or will. The being you knew as Julia Newton will be gone and the dog you know as Jules will be the only truth of her existence."
"But when you find the person who cursed her..." I said.
"If I find the person who
cursed her," she said, then she added. "But before that happens there
are so many things I can learn about how these curses work and the effects they
have on the victim who is cursed."
I didn't answer her then. I
already knew I was defeated on out of my league. Magic was a world I just
couldn't function in. "So, as I was saying, my alternate offer." I
looked up at her. She smiled.
"You seem to have an opening for a girlfriend, a fiance even, and I've rather taken a liking to you."
"Are you hitting on me while my fiance is at home on all fours?"
"I am indeed hitting on you while your dog is at home alone."
"I propose that both you and Jules move into the mansion with me. I can make sure you remain a very happy man and my conversations with Jules before she lost herself have convinced me that you and I would be extremely compatible. And of course, there's nowhere else she could be where she would receive better care." I told her I'd need time to think about it.
She gave me two days.
Any longer and there were spells and potions that could make my mind up for me but she'd rather not do that. Besides, if I wanted to remain with Jules, why not do so as the boyfriend and future husband or a beautiful and rich woman like Lady Amberline Tremaine, the most famous witch in the world?
April 18
I talked it over
with Jules today. She didn't like the idea of Lady Amberline taking her place
as my fiancé, but she did like the idea of being cared for at the mansion by
her. She was missing me, I could tell, and she pushed her snout into my crotch
several times, only to have me remind her that, "No, Jules. We can't do
that anymore. I'm a person. You're a dog. Hell, there are laws against
it."
She whimpered and pushed again,
and had to threaten to lock her in the carrier again to get her to stop. I told
her I was sorry, but we couldn't have that kind of relationship anymore.
I remembered for a moment just
how beautiful Lady Amberline was and realized I would have been jealous too if
I had been Jules. Still, there wasn't a damn thing I was willing to do to make
her feel better, not in that way.
She trotted off in a huff and
spent more of the day in my office resting. I let her. If she needed to sulk,
who was I to stop her?
While she sulked I called Tremaine and told her that Jules and I would be moving in with her at some point.
April 20
Amberline called
me this morning and told me she finally got a sort of spiritual hit on tracing
the curse. It turns out that maybe Jules wasn't the target after all. Maybe I
was. So the punishment was to make me watch the woman I love turn into a dog.
It wasn't to punish her. If anything, she had demonstrated how natural and even
exciting the transformation had been for her. She had embraced it at almost
every step, happily becoming a dog while I was the one being eaten up with
guilt and emotions watching her change in front of my eyes and helpless to do a
damn thing about it.
She recommended that I not
mention that to Jules, and I told her that I wasn't sure how long Jules could
even understand such an idea anyway and that I didn't that floating around in
her little head with all the other memories.
I asked if that would help us discover who created the curse, and she said that it might, because if I had been the target, then if the coven used me as the conduit instead of wasting time with Jules as they had, it might trigger still, but it was better not to get my hopes up since the person had clearly done an amazing job of hiding the trail.
April 21
Today is the
1-month anniversary of the day we learned about the curse. It's also the day
Amberline predicted would be the final parts of the transformation and signal
Jules' complete transition from human woman to Golden Lab dog bitch.
I am already seeing evidence of
that. It isn't uncommon now for Jules to look at me when I talk to her as if
she is trying to understand what I'm saying, only to give up and lie down on
the floor. And more often than not, if I press her to respond with a yes-nod or
a no-shake, she simply stares at me as if the words no longer mean anything to
her. She clearly knows they should, and Amberline tells me that will never
fully go away, but she just can make sense out of the gobbledygook her ears
hear whenever I try to speak to her.
The exceptions, of course, are
her commands. She recognizes those quickly and responds each time. She looks so
excited that she understands me that I can't resist giving her commands as
often as I can. She still recognizes my voice, and when I return home after
heading to the store, so all but trips over her feet trying to get to me at the
door when he hears me call for her. It's cute. I'm embarrassed for her at how
demeaning it is, but she couldn't care less. She loves me and wants to see me.
It's as if I've been gone for days when it may have only been a few minutes to
a half-hour.
She scarves down both the dry and
wet dog food now, and she still prefers the expensive stuff you learned to
enjoy during her food training. There's enough of her mind left apparently to
help her remember not to poop or pee in the house and to go outside when I take
her for a walk. Doing her business outside no longer embarrasses her, nor does
she indicate that she feels any shame from it, and much less than I do having
to bag up her turds when she is finished.
I was letting her sleep in the
bed with me, but Amberline recommends a clear shift to making her sleep on her
new dog bed instead. Besides, that's where Amberline and I will sleep once I
move into the mansion in two weeks. We've been out to dinner each night since
the 17th, and I think she was right. We are a good couple, and we work well
together.
I'm not sure how well Jules will
take it once we move in and start sleeping together, particularly since Jules
herself won't be allowed to join us on the bed -- even if just for sleeping,
but Amberline assures me that shouldn't be an issue. I'm not sure what her plan
is, but I trust her.
Tomorrow is what I'm calling Day
1 of Jules' new life, and we're going to start that off by taking her to the
vet for her vaccines and her chip. Yes, we. We figure that if she's going to
our dog, then we should do things together with her, and she should get used to
seeing us together, romantically even.
The first time we kissed goodnight at my door, Jules growled. But now, just a few days later, she just looks sad and looks away.
But I know she'll be okay. It's good for her, Amberline says.
This will be the last journal
entry. It was just to help during the transition, and now that the
transformation is complete, there's just no point in it anymore.
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