Faith smacked the snooze button on top of her alarm clock like it was being punished for being bad. The noise always made her heart jump and left her shaking first thing in the morning, but the only thing that could wake her up was a harsh noise, so she dealt with it. She’d been feeling under the weather for almost a week now, missing more days from work than either she or her boss liked and not having seen her boyfriend in the longest time since they first started dating. Faith groaned and rolled over amongst the excessive amount of blankets she kept on her bed, her long, chestnut-brown hair falling across her face and tickling her nose. There was a soft pain in her lower back as she was turning. Reaching down to rub the sore spot she felt a large lump coming out of her back where her tailbone was.

            Faith bolted upright and craned her neck behind her to see what was there. At the end of her spine there was a two-inch stub of skin and bone. She shrieked and fell off of her bed, tumbling, still twisted amongst her blankets. In a panic she clawed her way out of her beddings and crawled over to the full-length mirror she kept in her room beside her dresser. She stood up and turned her hips, trying to figure out what it was. It felt like the stub of a Dobermans’ tail. Every second that passed by, Faith began to panic more and more. What could have possibly happened in a single night? It obviously wasn’t a tumor or some kind of dislodged bone.

            After calling out sick from work again – to which she received a threat of being fired if her absence continued – Faith spent the rest of the day sitting around her apartment trying to decide what to do. The only option she could come up with was to go see a doctor. Had something like this ever happened before? She didn’t want to show this to a doctor and end up on the six o’clock news or, even worse, end up being poked and prodded by a bunch of curious scientists. She just wanted it gone. In the end, she decided not to rush into anything. She felt fine, and she figured – or at least hoped – that it wasn’t anything fatal. Later that evening her boyfriend, Don, called her.

            “I’m still sick,” Faith told him. She was feeling much better compared to the days before, but now there was something else wrong.

            “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Don said. “It’s been almost a week now, what do you have?”

            “I don’t know. The flu I guess.”

            “You guess? Have you been to the doctor, gotten any antibiotics? I mean, I’ve never known you to be sick this long.” Don’s tone wasn’t helping her anxiety. She knew he was concerned, but he was sounding impatient.

            “No, I don’t think I need anything, just rest and fluids, y’know?” Faith wanted to get off the phone, but didn’t want to upset him.

            “Well then how about I come over to cheer you up?” he asked.

            “No, I don’t want you catching it,” she said, her panic coming too much through her voice.

            “What the hell? I don’t care,” he told her. “Look, I’m coming over now.”

            Faith didn’t know what to do. Don was impulsive and impatient; if she told him not to come again he’d get angry, and would probably do it anyway. “Fine,” she said, trying to avoid a fight that she didn’t need, “but if you get sick it’s on you.”

            Faith hung up the phone and started coming up with a plan to keep her new little secret a secret. Don showed up at her apartment within a half hour and walked in without knocking. He’d brought her a little plastic cup of soup from the local store and found her curled up on her bed, her blankets wrapped around her waist.

            Don smiled and put the soup on her nightstand. “There,” he said after intentionally kissing her only on the cheek, “I’m sure I’ve already avoided some possible germs.” Faith smiled; until he moved in closer, anyway. Don wrapped his arms around her back and she began to stiffen. “I’ve missed you so much, hon, you really shouldn’t get sick like this.”

            Faith didn’t even hear him. His hands were slipping down her back, getting closer and closer to where –

            “Stop!”

            Don pulled back from her and looked upset. “What’s the matter?” he asked.

            “Nothing, I just… like I said, I don’t want you getting sick.”

            “I don’t care, I could use a break from work myself,” he said with a laugh and moved in again. This time, Faith didn’t care if it led to a fight; she pushed him away. Now, Don was angry.

            “What is wrong with you?”

            “Nothing!” she said.

            “That’s it,” Don said to her, “You’ve barely called me since you got ‘sick’, you were adamant about me not coming here today, and now you won’t even let me touch you.” Faith opened her mouth, she wanted to say something, tell him she was sorry, but what could she do in this situation? She couldn’t let him find out about – it. “I’m leaving.” That was all he said, and he was gone.

            Over the next week, Faith didn’t even call out of work anymore. A message on her answering machine told her she had been fired, and she didn’t care. Every day she woke up the “tail” was longer. Some nights she couldn’t even go to sleep, thinking somehow sleeping made it grow. It wasn’t any use, though. It just kept going. Any time she left her apartment she had to wear her longest coat, and even then she only liked to go out late at night. It started to twitch every now and then, being slightly over two feet long.

            Faith was beginning to worry about money. She had a lot saved up from her job, she always saved as much from her paychecks as she could, but it wouldn’t last forever. She also began thinking about going to a doctor now. After doing some research on the web, she found out that it isn’t uncommon for people to be born with tails – but they’re usually just excess skin, and the people are born with them, they don’t grow them in their late-twenties over night.

            It was a Saturday night and Faith was in need of some comfort food. She was in need of comfort food more and more often. She snuck out of her apartment, avoiding everyone she passed that looked the slightest bit as though they might like to talk to her, and bee-lined to the nearest 24/7 quick-shop. She took the less populated route that always passed the shadier apartment buildings of her city because she knew no one would care about her presence. No kindly strangers lived around there that would stop you for a quick chat.

            As Faith power-walked down the trash-littered side-walk, feeling uncomfortable at the sight of a homeless man sleeping amongst his few possessions, she was snatched from the darkness of the nearby alleyway.

            “Gimme everything you got,” the mugger told her. “Now.” He was pointing a gun at her, a real gun, and looked positively like the sort of person who would have no problem using it to get what he wanted. Faith had never been in a situation like this before and without hesitation started searching for her wallet. Finding it in one of the coat’s pockets she held it out, shaking, to the man with the gun.

            He snatched it from her and examined the contents. When he was satisfied and had put it away, he began sizing Faith up, still holding the gun out. “Get against the wall,” he told her.

            “W-what?” she stammered.

            “You heard me!” He waved the gun to remind her of it. “Get against the wall.”

            Faith couldn’t believe this was happening. She could deal with the loss of the wallet, but this – this couldn’t really be happening. “I said move, now! Move or I’ll make you!” Should she call for help? Who would hear her though? The bum on the sidewalk, that’s who. He’d probably tell her to keep it down.

            The man came at her. Faith put up her arms in instinct and froze, but looked back when she heard him scream. When everything else told her to freeze, her tail had whipped out of her coat and grabbed the gun from the man. It curled around the gun like a little hand and held it out in the air. The mugger ran off into the alley screaming back at her, “You fucking freak! Stay the hell away from me!”

            Faith dropped the gun and ran off herself. She ran home.

            Faith stood in front of the full-length mirror she kept in her room, turning her hips to look down at the tail. She smiled softly and said, “Thanks.”