I had just arrived in the town of Millersburg. It seemed like any other town except for it was almost too perfect. The streets were spotless and the people were so polite. Crime was pretty much non-existent. It was like one of those idyllic small towns you only see in movies.
But what drew me to the town was was rumors that people in Millersburg would randomly vanish for a year at a time, sometimes longer. The missing people would always reappear but no one seemed to know what happened to them.
As an up and coming journalist…I smelled a scoop. This could be the big break I needed to get the network job I wanted. I decided to go undercover and move to town.
Being a college athlete, I posed as a personal trainer in the local gym to know people. I met lots of people and everyone was friendly and welcoming. Especially Sheriff Conners, he seemed to take a real special interest in me, it was flattering but I was straight.
After four months, I had absolutely nothing. I started thinking about moving back home and trying to find another story.
Around that time, I got some weird municipal citizens tax notice from the Millersburg Department of Revenue. The tax notice that made no sense, who had ever heard of a citizens tax before. Since it was a pretty hefty amount and since I was there on an fake name and moving out anyway, I figured there would be no harm in just ignoring it.
A few weeks later, as I was driving to my job at the gym to give my notice, sirens flashed up behind me. One of sheriff’s deputies pulled me over and asked me to step out of the car. After verifying my ID, he told me that I didn’t pay my taxes…and he was arresting me for it.
I got put into the back of the deputies car and taken to the station. Instead of a cell, I was lead into the Office of Sheriff Conner, but the strange thing was he was just wearing his shirt and underwear.
“Bryce, you have failed to pay your taxes, pursuant to Millersburg municipal code section 3.425 you are guilty of a misdemeanor.”
He then went on to explain the punishment for any offense in Millersburg was transformation.
“Transformation? What do you mean?” I asked. “Why don’t I show you!”
He motioned to the two deputies on either side of me. They grabbed me and proceeded to cut me out of all my clothes. Before I could even process what happened I was there standing stark naked, but before I could utter a single word of protest, the Sheriff pointed a weird gun at me.
There was a flash, some strange wave of pressure hit me, and I suddenly felt weird…like my body was weaker. My mouth started to feel dry and the sheriff got up walking to me and my skin started to tingle. The weird thing was he seemed to get taller as he got closer to me. He grinned as I realized he wasn’t growing I was shrinking. My mind was racing and screaming…something wasn’t right.
Sheriff Conner smiled and explained that I would be serving my term of transformation for the next year as his sock. His uniform and the uniforms of most of the police officers and firemen were made of people who committed various crimes but since crime was so low even misdemeanors were now grounds for transformation.
I was in shock as he reached down and lifted my limp body up. I tried to yell for help as he started to pull me over his foot. I could taste and smell the musk and dirt on his foot. This has to be a bad dream…but I wasn’t waking up.
The sheriff finished pulling me on and then, I watched in horror as he brought more people in. A local student guilty of cheating on an exam was turned into his pants, and the local track coach was transformed into a boot for a speeding ticket.
He grabbed his new pants and boots then headed out on patrol. He told me he was going to enjoy teaching a noisy journalist a lesson and show me how they dealt with criminals in Millersburg.
He knew who I really was…and now I was stuck on the foot for the next year! “Mmm you are comfortable, I might add a year or two to your sentence.”
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