Dave made his way to the restroom, as if he needed to go, but stopped short of entering.
He could see the EMTs talking with the nurse as the girl on the gurney was examined.
Dave had a feeling his chance to find a way to stay with the girl was fading fast.
“Okay, so what do I do to get you to turn me into a stuffed animal?” he asked quietly, not wanting to draw attention to himself in case the voice actually turned out to be real instead of a hallucination.
*Don’t worry.
Just think of what shape you want to take and you’ll know when it occurs.* Dave wanted to express his doubt on what he was doing, but for some reason, he felt a strange exhilaration at what might happen as he closed his eyes, thinking about birds.
Creatures that were able to fly away from any problem they might encounter.
Something he wished he could sometimes do.
At first it didn’t seem like anything special was happening.
If he was in the middle of a crowd, he might feel stupid just standing there with his eyes closed, but suddenly he started to feel a tingle.
He wasn’t sure what the tingle was about, just that he felt it all over his body.
Dave wanted to open his eyes as the tingle increased in its intensity, but it felt like he couldn’t.
Either that or he’d somehow lost his ability to see.
He felt a panic start to rise up in him, threatening to suffocate him.
Then suddenly as soon as it started, the tingling was gone and Dave felt as normal as he had been before the tingling.
Dave opened his eyes, ready to complain to the voice in his head when he suddenly noticed everything around him had changed.
Everything was taller and bigger than they had been a moment ago, making him feel a sinking sensation in his stomach as he slowly turned his head to look at himself.
While he could see the body of a bird, it really looked like the body of a plush toy rather than what it felt like to him.
He wasn’t sure if this was merely part of the hallucination that included the voice, but he was at least willing to take that chance to try and stay with the girl so he could make a sales pitch to her when she woke up about becoming a magical girl.
If he was hallucinating all this, then he figured it’d merely help his chances at getting admitted to the psychiatric ward.
Dave tried moving towards the gurney but had trouble moving.
Partly because he wasn’t used to the dimensions his body now had but also because the body seemed to move differently than it did when it was human.
However, he found that he could float by imagining he was floating, which allowed him to move more efficiently, and letting him reach the gurney just before it started to move again.
Dave wasn’t sure if he was actually breathing right then, but he felt like he took a breath of relief as he made it without anyone noticing the plush toy moving of its own accord.
Dave waited until the gurney was left alone before he even thought of poking his head out to see if he could find out if the girl had woken up.
He doubted it, mostly because the people moving the gurney hadn’t mentioned it, but he could at least hope.
However, as he was about to move out, the door opened again, this time someone who looked more like a doctor coming through the door, making Dave rethink his plan.
After all, the doctor would probably be able to give an assessment of the girl to the nurse who accompanied him, making Dave’s initial plan one obsolete.
Or at least he hoped it would be.
Dave couldn’t see what the doctor was doing, but was annoyed when the doctor didn’t say anything at first.
How was he going to find out what the girl’s condition was if the doctor wouldn’t say anything?
“How is she, doctor?” the nurse asked, almost hesitantly.
“She’ll probably survive, but I can’t say if she’ll wake up or not.
That was a pretty bad blow to her head, and I can’t say if there were any bone chips that lodged in her brain as a result.
Only time will tell if she’ll wake up or not and if there’ll be any other damage we can’t detect,” the doctor said, turning away from the girl.
The nurse didn’t say anything after that, just merely followed the doctor out.
Dave felt conflicted now.
He’d hoped the girl would wake up soon so he could make his sales pitch, but if she wasn’t going to wake up soon, how long would he be able to just sit around and wait like this?
He was confident he’d eventually get hungry and he couldn’t say if he’d be able to explain how he got this far into the hospital if he turned back into a human, or if he’d be able to even afford the cafeteria food, or even if he’d be able to make his way back here in the first place.
“Any suggestions on what to do?” Dave asked the voice, not seeing any other options.
He was willing to trust the voice a little, since it had clearly told him the truth about being able to turn him into a plush toy.
*Well, you could turn her into a magical girl while she’s like this.
Aside from her magical powers, she’d be able to recover more quickly from serious injuries like this.
Then you could make your pitch and if she doesn’t agree, well she just doesn’t have to transform then.* Dave felt speechless.
He wasn’t sure if that was ethical, as it took her ability away to consent to the process before it happened.
Although, he supposed it would help the girl out anyway, making it beneficial to her.
Besides, the voice did say that she didn’t have to transform if she didn’t want to.
It was just that Dave had a feeling that if he went through with this, that the girl might feel rather tempted to transform anyway, just because she could, even if she really wasn’t interested in being a magical girl.
As knowing that she could would likely make her want to at least see what it was like.
However, even as Dave left the underside of the gurney, he knew what he was going to do, even if it was unethical and made him a horrible human… or should he think of himself as a plush toy now?
Dave shook his head to get rid of that thought.
He needed to focus on the task at hand.
Turning this girl into a magical girl.