A gambler finds out what happens when you owe too much. Commission for  tuxedoedpenguin
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“23 black!” The croupier shouts as the ball rattles into the small cubby in the wheel. Jason looks at the wheel with a clear look of devastation on his face as he just lost another two thousand dollars. He sighs as he gets up from the table and heads for the cashier, hoping to get another loan.

“Y-yes, I’d like to apply for an additional loan.”, Jason says as he sheepishly looks up at the cashier. The seasoned cashier can see the look in his eyes, and knows just from his demeanor what sort of situation he’s in. The cashier, without saying anything, pulls out a form and then asks for an account number. After entering it in the system, the cashier’s eyes go wide and his back straightens. Jason fears rejection and he mentally prepares himself, but then the cashier puts away the form he had out before and passes him a different form across the counter. Jason examines the form; it appears to be the same but he notices a few extra disclosures at the bottom. The form is soon filled out, and Jason looks over the extra disclosures, before simply signing away without so much as skimming them, as desperate as he is. He figures if he can just get one more loan, he can play some lower-risk games and at least get enough money to get back home without being completely bankrupt. Jason passes the form, and soon he’s handed another stack of chips, ready to be used. He couldn’t look more ecstatic, almost as if he’d won something.

Jason happily takes the chips with a warm “thank you” to the cashier, and heads for a blackjack table, hoping he does better. With his last five-thousand-dollar loan in hand, he hopes beyond hope that he can pull out enough money to get home at least. He can deal with bankruptcy or whatever comes next later, he just doesn’t want to be stranded in Atlantic City of all places. Jason starts off with betting conservatively, and his internal panic grows with each loss. Bust. Bust. Bust. It’s almost as if the world is against him as he keeps busting or losing to the house. He puts down his last thousand dollars of the loan and takes a deep breath. He’s dealt a 5 and an 8. Okay, he can work with this, he tells himself. He hits and gets another 5. He’s at 18. Down to his last thousand. He asks for a hit…and gets a king. Bust. He slides his chips forward, then puts his head down on the table, much to the chagrin of the croupier.

Jason gets up after the pit boss comes over and “politely” convinces him to get up from the table. He sulks back to the cashier and tries to apply for another loan. The cashier looks up his information and his body stiffens. Much like the last one, but it seems more serious. The cashier looks at Jason, then at his computer as if he can’t believe what he’s reading on his screen. “S-Sir…I’m afraid I can’t loan you any more money-“

“That’s fine, I’ll just—”

“Sir, you don’t understand. You need to meet with the manager. Please go back to the offices, he’ll be waiting for you. Just go through the slot machines back towards the bathrooms, and it’s the door to the right of the women’s bathroom. Knock on the door, and he’ll let you in.”

“Uh…what? I don’t—”

“Please, he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“Uh…alright then.” Jason thanks the cashier and then heads back for the manager’s office. A few knocks on the door and a few moments later, and he’s inside the manager’s office with a very stern-looking manager, a pit boss and a few burly security guards that look like someone just ran over their dogs. Jason looks around nervously as the manager reads some papers, then he sets them down and looks Jason directly in his eyes, piercing his soul.

“You understand why you’re here?”

“Not exactly…the cashier just told me to come here.”

“Did you read the disclosures on your last loan agreement?”

“Yea--…no…”

“I thought not…nobody does. Well, here’s the deal. You owe the casino one hundred thousand dollars. With your last loan, you were enrolled in a special agreement. If you aren’t able to pay us back, then you have to work it off. Simple as that.” He gives a knowing smile, as if he’s hiding something.

“Work it off? How? I live in Washington, how am I gonna work off that much when I live so far away? How long is this gonna take? How—”

Jason is cut off by the manager holding up a hand. His smile broadens and he looks to the security manager in the corner and nods. He keys up his radio and asks for a “labor kit”, whatever that is. “Don’t worry about all that. Arrangements will be made. You only have to worry about working off your debt.” There’s a knock at the door, and someone hands a duffel bag through the door, and it is delivered to the security manager. The manager looks at the security manager and nods again, then to Jason. “There’s just some…preparations we need before you begin work.”

“Preparations? What kind of—”

Jason is cut off again as the security manager throws a cloth bag over Jason’s head, and the other guards restrain his hands behind his back with zip-cuffs. Jason struggles against the guards but he’s struck with a baton and is forced into compliance.

“What the fuck?!?”

“Jason, please don’t make this harder than it has to be.” The manager sighs, and the security team carries Jason off, he has no idea where he’s going, only that he’s being carried through a number of doors and hallways. He eventually is set on a cold, metal table and the cloth bag is removed from his head. Jason blinks a few times to clear up the blinding light of the fluorescent bulbs above him, and when his vision comes back to normal, he finds himself in what appears to be a large exam room, and in the corner is some sort of harness apparatus that’s bolted to the walls and the floor.

Jason looks around and mutters to himself, “What sort of place is this? What the fuck are they gonna do?”. He looks around, looking for anything he can use to escape but his train of thought is derailed by a faint beeping noise, then the door opening. A man dressed in a doctor’s coat, and another team of security guards walk in and the doctor, or whatever he is, walks over to a sink and begins washing up.

“Did they explain?” The doctor coldly asks as he washes up and starts putting on gloves.

“…kinda. They said I’d be working off my debt, and that arrangements would be made, and that there would be some ‘preparations’.”

The doctor tuts and sighs, “I wish they would be more upfront to people in your situation, it would make things so much easier.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well…I suppose I’m not at liberty to discuss exactly, as the boss has declared that it must be a surprise. However, I can tell you that it has to do with horse racing. Do you like horse racing, Mr. Williamson?”

“I was never really into it…why?”

“Well…let’s just say you’re going to get much more familiar with it while you work off your debt.” The doctor explains cryptically as he reaches into a drawer and prepares a syringe. Jason tries to watch, but he can’t see what the doctor is doing. He shifts around anxiously.

“Can…can these cuffs be taken off?”

“Oh, right, yes, they’ll need to be off anyways. Guards?” One of the security guards silently walks over, takes out a pocketknife, and cuts off the zip-cuffs. Jason rubs his wrists and looks at the red indentations that the zip-cuffs left behind. Soon, the syringe is ready, and the doctor turns around with it in hand.

Jason is immediately drawn to this syringe, and he looks incredibly uneasy. Many thoughts run through his head, is it drugs? Some sort of vaccine? Is it just medicine or something to make him more compliant? Is that even a thing? What the hell is going on? The doctor doesn’t seem fazed at all as he approaches Jason.

“All I ask is that you don’t resist. What’s about to happen is going to happen no matter what. Fighting is going to make it worse.” With that, he quickly jabs Jason in the arm with the syringe and pushes in the plunger. Jason starts flailing around in a blind panic. He doesn’t even notice the rough tingling sensation coursing through his body, or the fuzzy, chestnut-brown hairs growing in in patches all over his body and spreading. Jason feels like he’s likely just been drugged and is fighting for his life. One of the guards takes out a taser and readies it, while the other two try to hold him down. Jason swings his arm and as he does, he catches a streak of brown flash across his face on his arm, and he immediately freezes. Jason pulls his arm back as the guards back down, the one still holding the taser up before eventually putting it away.

Jason looks at his arm just in time to see coarse, dark brown fur growing in and spreading all over his body. He rubs his arm, it feels fuzzy, like a shorthair cat. As he feels his fur, he then notices something’s off with his fingers. The gaps between the fingers seem to be…missing in some spots. He tries to spread his fingers apart on both hands but finds it impossible. The skin on his fingers darken, and he brings his hands together to feel them. Is this real? Am I dreaming? Did I die on the table, and this is, like, hell or something? Jason thinks to himself as he realizes his fingers feel much harder than they normally do. At this point, his arms are completely covered with fur apart from his fingers, which continue to darken and get tougher. Before long, his fingers have completely merged together into a dark grey, almost black clump and the nubs on the ends of his wrists round out into a U-shape. He looks them over. They look like…hooves? He looks at the hooves at the end of his hand and then to the fur, his eyes following his arms to the shoulder. His shoulders…which are flattening and moving inward, forcing his arms to dangle in front of him.

The reality of the situation hits him like a ton of bricks. “What the fuck did you inject me with?!?” Jason shouts at the doctor as one of the guards readies his taser again. He slowly starts putting the pieces together as his shoes fall to the floor with a dull clatter. Jason looks down to investigate and finds his feet and legs have undergone much of the same treatment, finding his toes merging together and chestnut fur spreading up his legs like a wildfire. He starts feeling large amounts of discomfort, but oddly no pain, as his hips flatten out and merge inward, making it difficult to sit up. He swings one of his arms up at the doctor, and a hoof strikes him in the chin, leaving a large bruise and the doctor stumbles backwards into a counter with a thud and a rattle. The guards swarm him and grab him from different sides, dragging him off the table and to the large harness in the corner.

Jason struggles, but his back pops and cricks and he finds himself in a very uncomfortable position, and he is no longer able to stand on two legs. His arms seem to have thinned out, leaving his sleeves feel loose, but his hips have bulked up, along with the rest of his body, making the rest of his clothes feel much tighter. Jason fights as much as he can, but as he does, he can feel seams popping in his clothes and small tears appear. The guards wrestle with him, trying to force his legs into the harness, and soon enough there’s a loud ripping noise as his shirt and pants tear in several places, falling to the floor in shreds.

Jason’s breathing rapidly increases, and he quickly wears himself out, soon submitting to the guards as they strap him in. His body grows more and more, pushing the few remaining tatters of his clothing to the floor. Jason tries to speak but finds it difficult to form words as his jaw grows longer, pushing forward and growing thicker. His teeth all flatten, and his tongue grows longer as his jaw does. The brown fur spreads up his neck and soon takes over his face as his ears stretch out, becoming much longer and sliding up the top of his head. Jason feels utterly defeated as he feels the tugging from all sides as his body grows and muzzle forms. His nose seems to flatten and spread out, leaving behind just a couple of flat nostrils at the end of his large face.

Jason looks behind him to see a rope of a tail growing out, tipped with a tuft of lighter brown hair, the same color as the hair growing in on his neck, which is quickly shaved off by the doctor. Jason lets out a whinny, not knowing what else to do. The doctor approaches his face and looks him in the eyes. “Here’s the deal, now that this is over…you’re going to repay your debt as a racehorse. You’re going to get out there and win some races for the manager. His assistant will give you explicit instructions prior to each race. You will follow them. Before you know it, you’ll be human again and on a plane back to Washington, debt free.”

Jason blinks a few times, understanding exactly what’s going on now, but no longer resisting. The guards release the harness and grab some tack and start putting it on. Jason shifts around at first, but eventually gets comfortable in it. He is then led to a large garage door, and as it slides open, the doctor looks to Jason as he cleans up. “Oh, and one more thing. If you don’t repay your debt within a year, you’ll never be human again, capice?” Jason simply nods as best he can as a horse, and with that he’s led out to a stable and put away, getting ready for his first race.