Lizzie didn't run down the hill so much as she rolled down, landing on the curb next to Main Street. She tried to push herself into a standing position, but couldn't get any traction with her feet. She couldn't lean forward enough to reach her shoes and so had to shake her feet around until the sneakers came loose. She clapped a hand over her mouth in time to prevent a scream. "No," she wailed.
Instead of feet she now had hooves. Pig legs to go with her pig snout. Before much longer she imagined herself scurrying around on all fours, able only to oink and wheeze like an animal. This isn't real, she told herself for the hundredth time since falling off the pyramid. It's a nightmare. She must have hit her head on the gym floor and right now she was lying in a hospital bed with Mom, the other cheerleaders, and even bratty Wendell sitting at her side, waiting for her to wake up. She tried to imagine herself emerging from a long tunnel of darkness, into the light of the hospital room.
Nothing happened. "Have you given up already, little piggy," Samantha said. She descended the hill slowly, as though floating along the surface of the street. The cleaver gleamed in her hand, the blade poised to strike. "I think I'll start with some bacon, then a nice ham steak, and finally sausage."
"I'm not a-" An oink escaped her lips. "Pig."
"Not yet, but soon." With this, a hole tore open in Lizzie's pants. A curly tail corkscrewed out from the opening.
"Stop this! I'll give you anything. Change me back."
"I want you to suffer. I want you to die," Samantha hissed. Lizzie tried again to get up, this time her hooves biting into the ground so she managed to push herself upright. She waddled along Main Street, shouting for help, but no one answered. She didn't see a single person on Main Street or in the store windows. Where is everyone?
She pounded one door after another, hoping someone would emerge to help, but no one did. "Help-" Another oink interrupted her. "Help me!"
In the reflection of the display window for Designs By Suzie, she gasped. She reached up to finger the floppy ears on the top of her head-a pig's ears. She didn't have much time to find help before the transformation was complete. Her stomach pushed outward another inch, the remains of her T-shirt and jeans replaced by a turquoise maternity dress.
There has to be someone who can help me, she thought. But how could anyone undo this and make her human again? She needed a miracle. She looked down Main Street to the white steeple of the church rising over everything else. The church seemed like a long shot, but at this point she didn't see any better alternatives. She couldn't stand here and wait to turn into a sow and then have Samantha kill her. She started down the road, hoping she made it in time.