The three friends dragged their charge into the mall. Inside, crowds of people in various stages of becoming identical young blondes went about their shopping. Many of the women looked almost finished while some of the men still had a ways to go. Still, at their rate of change, Jon guessed that all would be indistinguishable from each other by the day's end.
Suddenly, his courage faltered, and he felt a fresh surge of fear grip him. This would be his last chance to get out, to preserve what portion of himself that he could really call himself. If he ran now, he might be able to get out of the stone's range and hope that his changes stopped. From a safe distance away, he could call Sarah's phone and try to convince her to fix things.
He knew that this second-guessing of his plan was unreasonable, simply a result of stress, but somehow he found it impossible to control the feeling of panic. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he tried to make a break for it.
However, he did not count on Rob and Leonard pulling him back. "Oh, no you don't, Jon!" Rob sneered. "You agreed to this. We went out of our way to help you, so you owe us."
Jon struggled for all he was worth. To his dismay, he found his body to be much more dainty than before, giving his transforming friends the advantage of strength as well as numbers.
"Let go of me!" He yelled, his voice sounding shrill in his ears. Hearing his distress, other people looked over, but after a quick evaluation of his clothes, they only smirked and ignored him. Trying to sound more calm, he said, "I'll go with you, okay? Just let go."
"No dice, loser," Karyn replied. "We're not taking any more chances. You'll thank us for this later."
All too soon, Jon found himself being herded into a salon. After Karyn described the situation to the beautician, the woman appraised her customer with a critical eye. "Geez, girl, what've you done to yourself?" She commented as she ran a hand through a tangle in Jon's silky locks. "Talk about a major overhaul. I'll see what I can do."
Jon felt mortified at being called "girl," but he knew better than to correct her.
In no time, he was secured in a chair by way of Karyn sitting on top of him. Meanwhile, expert hands manipulated his hair into a style matching everyone else's.
"Well, at least your hair is well-kept. It saves me the hassle of trimming it. I don't know why anyone would let such nice hair become such a disaster."
Jon refrained from answering. It would be useless to explain that his hair had only grown that way over the last few hours. The growth seemed to have finished, leaving him with a healthy mane of blonde hair hanging down past his shrinking waist to his swelling rear. Even now, he could feel more changes sweeping through his body, bringing him ever closer to Sarah-hood. A towel draped over his torso blocked his view, but he could guess the extent of his changes by studying the girl holding him down.
Karyn now bore very little resemblance to her old self. Had he not witnessed her transformation himself, Jon would have easily mistaken her for the cheerleader. Meanwhile, Jon carefully avoided looking into the mirror. He could feel his facial features slowly remolding. No doubt he would be ready for makeup in a short while.
Rob and Leonard had left to gather new clothes for Jon. It bothered him to think that soon he would be wearing girl clothes, or to be more specific, Sarah's clothes.
More disturbing, however, was the nauseated feeling down in his guts. With each passing minute, the sensation grew worse. Were the others experiencing the same thing? They had certainly shown no sign of it, although that could probably be blamed on their mental rewrite. Wincing at another painful twist in his abdomen, Jon almost envied them.
Before he knew it, the beautician pronounced her job done. Shooing Karyn off his lap, she turned Jon towards the mirror. "There. All fixed up. Whaddya think?"
Having lost the will to run, Jon studied himself. After a small gasp, he felt his heart sink. Yes, that was Sarah's hair, alright. Her face, too. At this rate, even if he escaped, his changes would be done before he got out of range.
He had no choice but to accept his fate for now. Turning to the beautician, he managed to form his softer lips into a weak smile, though his vision was somewhat obscured by tears. In a high voice no longer his own, he answered, "I-it's great. Thanks."
Karyn patted him on the back. "There, y'see? Much better!"
At this point, Rob returned with an armful of shopping bags. His changes had progressed to the point that Jon barely recognized him. Nobody would ever think that this new person was a guy a few hours ago. "Got the clothes right here! Leonard's getting the shoes."
"Great!" Karyn said. "And I'll let Jon use my makeup."
Taking a deep breath, Jon closed his eyes as his friends descended on him with their items.
