Young Writers Society

With a simple tick of a clock, the world changed one night. From what had been the normal lives of all people that walked the earth (both human and non-human kind), emerged a new way of living, through signs.

Suddenly, every being flashed into what they perceived their zodiac birth sign - as per example, what someone believed Aries as a Ram would look like. Once they get the hang of it, they can soon flash back and forth between their original form and their new one.

The everlasting problem is that this causes chaos across the globe as people wonder how this could have happened. One possibility is this unnamed scientist that published eerie experiments on humans and on animals with no reference to how they were able to do this.

Thus, everyone has two choices (or more.) Do they try to simply live their new life as a humanoid, or do they try to take down this mysterious, potentially despicable, and obviously dangerous person?

I'm going to say that this takes place in a seemingly random town? Like, mid-west US for climate purposes? I'm not quite sure on that yet, but if anyone has any ideas, send them here please.





If you're curious about the possible transformations, I guess you can check out the list below! (If you want to come up with another interpration, by all means! This is just my picks of what kind of animals the characters could transform into. If you're interested in having powers/another type, by all means! ^^)

Donnie's day started and ended with snakes, but they were significantly different types. The former was a cute enough garter snake, green-tinted black color that resided in his backyard. He woke up to see a shed skin lying across the small concrete patio.

That was his sole moment of peace, as time seemed to still all around him, and he could feel himself somehow shrinking in size, his limbs melting into a single shape. Within a few seconds of feeling too warm first, but then too cold. Donnie tried to blink but found that his eyes barely twitched in their sockets.

He took a moment to realize what he had somehow morphed into, as some sort of snake, which on the inside he was screaming, and couldn't help but wonder what he would look like to an outsider. Donnie opened his mouth to scream, letting out a little sound, and hoped to something that he wouldn't be stuck in this form.

By some chance, the process reversed, and he found himself back with all of his limbs intact within a few seconds. Holy heck, he thought, what was that? He stepped back into the house and felt around for his phone. Thankfully his clothes had reappeared along with his human skin.

The only notification he had was an all-caps text from Ray, the fellow bartender at his place. He could only imagine what happened to the poor kid. He swiped open the screen and hit the call button once it flashed. Donnie doubted this was going to be a fun conversation.

Ray's hands shook even while he answered the call from his boss. He was ready to get in contact with anyone and tell them that he could possibly turn into a crab or had to be in a dream. A crazily large crab that he had looked at from a mirror, in comparison to the normal ones he'd find in streams when he went on runs.

Here, though, nothing made sense, and he hoped that Donnie could help explain what the strange near-burning sensation came from. Ray had no idea what happened between point A of him being normal to point B of him being a literal, real-life crab. He could at least take comfort in the fact that he managed to switch back to his original form.

"Uh, h-hey, boss." He muttered into his phone. "I'm guessing something musta happened to you too in the last five minutes?" Ray couldn't handle being alone in recently being one with animals.

His boss chuckled, a hint of hysteria in the light noise. "Yea, you could say that, kid. I'm mind-blown by whatever happened just now. Have you heard anything?"

Ray kept the call open while scrolling through a news site. "I honestly think that there hasn't been enough time to process being a whole freaking 'nother species."

"Yeah, no kidding." He chewed on his lip, not knowing what to do. His shift wasn't until later in the day, so Ray supposed he could just freak out for a few hours and not ever want to see another crab again. Or, do something a lot more productive.

"Anyway," Donnie said, "I kind of don't want to be alone right now, in case I turn into a goshdarn snake again-" Ray shuddered at the thought of morphing back into the crab - "so, I was wondering if you were free this morning to hang out and not cry?"

Ray chortled, wiping at his eyes that started to water. "I can get behind that. Being alone doesn't sound fun."

His boss paused. "Say meet up at the bar in twenty minutes?"

"Sure." Maybe by then he could get in contact with his friends and freak out about their new animal forms with someone else. And also why he turned into a crab out of everything.

He had thought being born would be the most chaotic, awful moment of his life, but his life decided to prove him wrong by turning him into a deer. It was bad enough being turned into a creature on four legs instead of two - at least that form had hands and feet instead of hooves. But, too make things even worse, he could barely move around like this. How was he supposed to get around furniture and through doorways when his legs kept threatening to give out from underneath him-

There was something moving.

He froze and slowly turned to look at the source of the noise.

There was a wolf standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, watching him with their tail between their legs. Their ears were flat against their head, and everything about their posture made them seemed terrified.

But Levi was a deer right now, this was Earth, and his stupid powers stupidly weren't working right now.

He bolted-

-right in the wall across from him as he changed back to normal, falling back to the floor with a thud to a groan. A second later, he found the familiar face of his younger sister looking down at him. And if he wasn't already putting the pieces together, the look on her face gave it all away.

"That was you?" he asked, rubbing his forehead as he shot back up.

"That wasn't you?" she replied. He stared at her. "Not you turning into a deer - me turning into a wolf."

"Since when did I have anything to do with wolves?"

"Since when did I do something other than, you know?" she asked, gesturing wildly.

She did have a point - she was supposed to only have limited powers, thanks to the contract that they had made. Letting out another groan as he forced his sore muscles back on his feet, he looked over at Juniper. "It might be Ri," he said, wincing.

"I don't think Ri would do something like this," Juniper said, a bit too quickly.

He crossed his arms. "Uh huh."

"She's too nice for this, and she's not even-" Juniper halted. "I know what you're thinking."

"And?"

"It's-It's not true," she replied, cheeks growing red. That was all the confirmation that Levi needed - then again, she wasn't exactly subtle with her crush. "Besides, even if it was, we should be focusing on other things, like our mysterious transformations."

"I'm betting on Ri," he asserted.

"Good for you," she replied, already grabbing her bag from the next room over. "Are we going out?"

"Of course," he said. "We have to get a better picture of what's going, and I'm not going to try hopping between worlds again to bug Ri. What could go wrong?"

The two left the house.

Once the phone call ended, Donnie packed a small bag with some fresh fruit, a couple of books, and a jacket in case the bar got cold later. Despite feeling like the boss when he had to watch over his fellow employees, the real woman in charge gotta control the thermostat.

He hummed a low note as he climbed into his gray truck. His work was only a handful of minutes away from his house, so transportation never really became an issue over the years, which certainly made life a little easier. Course, turning into a snake didn't make things easier at all.

Donnie certainly felt grateful towards Ray in letting him hang out with someone and not be alone to yell and point at random objects. Without him, he would have been stuck watching the news and mildly stalking his estranged family on social media.

On his way over to the bar, he spotted two teenage-ish figures strolling on the sidewalk. That was the sole source of life and normally he had seen all day. Donnie could only hope that the kids could rely on each other in a closer relationship than that of the chum-buddy-employee situation he had with Ray.

He pulled into the empty parking lot, swinging his keys around a finger. Donnie unlocked the bar, flipped the "closed" sign to "maybe open," then finally clicked on the lights. He checked his phone, looking through any possible updates on the whole transformation thing.

At least no animals seemed to randomly turn into humans - he shuddered to think of any poor souls having to deal with that on top of freaking out people.

The bell overhead dinged. Donnie slowly glanced at the front door to see a sheepish Ray. He stepped out from behind the bar to clasp his employee's shoulder.

"I'm sure happy you're here." He mumbled, trying not to sound too desperate for human interaction.

Ray laughed, a grin already prominent on his face. "I'm glad to be here."

The roads were mostly empty - the only sign of people that Juniper found was a gray truck driving along the road. She watched as it pulled into a parking lot farther down the street, studying the man as he exited his car and headed towards the bar they had gone to on their first night with their relatives. She wasn't used to this kind of thing yet, even though she had been through a lot since she first found out the truth about her brother, but she was trying to do what she had learned so far.

Levi, though her brother had his moments, definitely wasn't the best teacher. He was barely even paying attention to the truck, instead scanning the streets for who knows what. Lorcan, on the other hand, would have looked right at the truck if he was there, and she honestly trusted Lorcan's judgement in a situation like this more than her brother's.

Lorcan was used to split-second decisions. Levi was rusty by comparison.

"We should go to the bar," Juniper suggested.

"You're too young," Levi absentmindedly replied.

"You're too young," she reminded him, before reaching out to grab onto his arm and pull him to a stop. Now he turned back to her, shaking his arm free the moment he realized that she had grabbed onto him. "If there's other people going through what we just did, we could hear about it at the bar - someone has to talk about it."

"There's not many people there," Levi pointed out. He paused. "...It is a good idea, though - a little eavesdropping never hurt."

"Exactly," she agreed.

It wasn't long before they were standing out in front of the bar's entrance, looking at the sign that hung on the door.

"Maybe open?" Levi read.

"The midwest is weird," Juniper decided, trying to figure out if they could go inside or not. She could see two people talking within, but she didn't want to jump to assumptions and make things awkward.

"Earth is weird," Levi corrected.

"So," Ray said, sitting in one of the booths right by the door, "what are we gonna anyway?" He peered out of a window, blinking at the sight of two kiddos that seemed to be glancing curiously at the bar.

Donnie grumbled something under his breath as he started to experiment with drinks like he would before the place opened. The time was half-past twelve, leaving Ray hungry and overwhelmed that midday has barely happened even with all of the magic earlier.

"Are you expecting teens this morning?" A shuffling and grunt drew him to look at his perplexed boss. "I'll take that as a no." Donnie shook his head.

Ray chuckled. "We might as well go see if they're here for anything, as long as it's not the alcohol." He saw his boss shrug in answer. Why shouldn't he add to the woeful party of two?

He swung the door open, causing both of the strangers to jump, their green eyes bright against the pale-colored bar. Ray scratched at his head, feeling a little awkward taking in in his probably disheveled state.

"Uh, hey, I was wondering if you wanted to come inside?" He blushed at his words, waving his hands instantly in protest, much to the apparent amusement spreading across the teens' expressions. "N-not like I meant for you to drink or something!"

Ray paused, sighing. "Sorry. I'm usually not this awkward." He held open the door. "Come inside if you want."

"Thanks," Juniper said, slipping inside. Levi muttered a word of gratitude himself as he entered the bar. There wasn't anything different from the last time he had been there, but he had been too busy checking his phone for texts from Charlotte to pay much attention to it the first time.

Just as Levi was trying to come up with a suitable excuse for why they wanted to be there, his stomach gave it to him - it growled very loudly.

Juniper glanced over at him.

"I didn't eat breakfast," he said.

She crossed her arms. "You need to eat breakfast in the morning."

"I'm not going to die from not eating breakfast," he argued. It could have come off as joking, but he used a completely serious tone.

Donnie narrowed his eyes at the teenagers, first the girl, then the other kid. Not eating wasn’t allowed in his household growing up, so of course this dude was gonna eat something if he stepped foot into the bar.

“Ok, I’ve got food here you can choose from.” He pulled out a quesadilla, some rice and vegetables, and pointed at the hamburger buns. “Whatever you want I can nuke anything in the microwave or you know.”

“Also, we have soda, cause you don’t look older than a sophomore in high school.”

That got a laugh out of Ray who shook his head and muttered something about “you don’t let me drink and I’m 23.”

Donnie turned expectantly back to the kiddos, waiting for their answer.

Levi stiffened at the comment about his age - how had she never noticed him doing that before she found out about everything? - but didn't say anything in response to the gentle accusation. "A burger and a coke sounds good," he said, the epitome of a stereotypical American teenager.

"I'd like that, too," Juniper agreed. She gave the man a smile. "Thank you for the food."

And thank you, Levi's stomach, for an excuse.

Ray stepped into the bar, grabbing out a couple of sodas, while Donnie busied himself with frying up the burgers. The apparent siblings peered around the bar, probably a little mystified by all the various items tossed about.

Part of him wanted to ask what they turned into - the other part of him figuring that he'd feel a little weird if they managed cooler things than a darn crab.

"So, kiddos," he said instead, "can I ask what you're doing here? Besides, of course, our delicious burgers." He motioned to the readied food. "Just want to make sure you're not up to anything too crazy for a mid-afternoon day."