I walked into the costume store, looking around. It was almost Halloween, and I wanted a really good costume, one that nobody would ever recognize me in. I was tired of always going to my friends' Halloween parties only to be greeted by "Oh, hey Steve." This year I was going to knock them dead.

     Most of the costumes in the store were your average Halloween costumes. Witches, pirates, clowns, all the usual stuff. They had masks, and makeup, and all kinds of other things. A young girl, who looked to be in her early twenties, walked out of the back room.
     "May I help you?" she asked politely. I nodded, walking over to the counter.
     "I'd like to get a really, really good costume."
     "All right, sir," she said as she pulled up a large book from under the counter, placing it in front of me. "What sort of costume were you looking for?"
     "Anything that nobody will ever recognize me in," I said, grinning. She smiled.
     "I see. Were you looking for any special kind of costume?" she asked as she began to flip through the book.
     "Not that I can think of."
     "Any special price range?" I thought about it, then decided to go all out.
     "No. No limit on price." She nodded, and opened to a tab towards the back of the book, the third to last one.
     "These are some of our more expensive costumes. Take a look through them."

     I paged through the pictures of costumes. They were extremely well made -- I could barely even tell there was a person in the costume in most of them. They had all sorts of aliens, and animals, and monsters, and other assorted creatures. They even had a whole section for characters from TV shows and movies and video games. I looked through all the costumes, even noticing they had a few pokémon. I paused momentarily -- I really liked pokémon, which was kind of embarrassing since I was also in my early twenties. They had cute little Charmander costumes, with a flaming tail and everything, and even a neat looking Golem costume that practically looked like real rock.
     "You like pokémon?" the girl asked. She startled me; I had forgotten she was there. I blushed a little, quickly turning the page.
     "Er, maybe a bit. The costumes were kind of neat, but..." The girl smiled broadly.
     "Then I think I have the perfect costume for you." She turned to the very last tab in the book, flipping a few pages. There was a picture of a Dragonair there. And not even a drawn one. It was, what seemed to me, a picture of a real Dragonair. "That's someone in one of our latest models of costume." It didn't take long for me to make my decision.
     "I'll take it. I want that one. The Dragonair." The girl nodded.
     "All right, but we'll have to fit you for it. Would you follow me into the back, please?" I nodded, and she walked into the room in the back as I followed her.

     Upon entering the door, she closed it behind us. We were in a small room, with two built into one wall, the door we came in through behind us, and a curtain leading further back.
     "Take off your shirt, please," she asked. I blinked, but she sensed my nervousness. "I should tell you this now. You'll eventually have to end up naked. But we need to get accurate measurements of your body. This is a very, very special costume, you know." I nodded. If this was what I had to do to get a costume that good, I'd do it. I pulled off my shirt.
     "Okay. Er... shouldn't you be out in the front, taking care of other customers?" She looked at me and smiled as she got a tape measure and a clipboard out of one of the cabinets.
     "Actually, the store closed about five minutes ago. The doors automatically lock. So we have plenty of time to work, which is just as well, since this may take a little while." I nodded. "Oh, and could you please take off your shoes, socks, and pants, too?" I did so, setting them on the floor next to my shirt. I was now standing in my underwear, and she hung the clipboard on a small nail in the blank wall. "If you have any questions," she said, "feel free to go ahead and ask. You might not get a chance later," she giggled. "Now could you please stand straight up with your arms down at your sides?" I stood as she asked, and she began to take measurements with the tape measure, up, down, and even around me.
     "I do have a question. How exactly will I move around in that costume, anyway? It looked just like a Dragonair, but there were no arms or legs or anything." The girl jotted down some numbers on the clipboard.
     "Oh, you'll see all that when the time comes." She looked over the clipboard, and nodded. "Okay, we're done with the measuring. Now, I just need you to put one thing on for me." She opened the other cabinet, taking out a black object. She unfolded it, and it looked like a rubber hood. "This is to protect and hide your hair. After all, Dragonairs don't have hair, now do they?" she asked me with a smile. She pulled it down over my head -- the hood only had eye, nose, and mouth holes -- and zipped it up the back, then laced it up tightly. "Is that comfortable?"
     "It's a little tight," I said.
     "That's normal. Now follow me. And you can leave your clothes here."

     Still in my just my underwear and the hood, I followed her through the curtain to another small room. Again, there was only the curtain we came through, and another curtain straight ahead. The only thing in here, however, was a strange looking machine. It was a disc on the ground, and a large pole next to it hooked up to some gears and pulleys.
     "All right, we're almost done. Just take off your underwear, stand on the disc, with your back towards the pole, your legs together, and your arms straight at your sides, and I'll take care of the rest." I slipped my underwear off, tossing them aside, and stood on the disc as she asked, and I heard her open another cabinet. I looked back to see her put a large roll of what looked like plastic wrap on the pole.
     "Now wait a second..." I started, but she interrupted me.
     "You want the costume, don't you? You're just a tad too wide, but that's okay, we can fix that very easily." I was beginning to have second thoughts now.
     "I don't think I want this costume anymore," I said. The girl, however, quickly pulled some of the wrap off the roll, wrapping it around my legs, then hit a button on the top of the pole. Before I could make a move, the disc I was on began to spin, and the plastic wrap began to tightly wrap me up, moving up slowly to completely encase me. Within seconds I was wrapped from the neck down. I struggled as hard as I could, but I only managed to fall over onto my side. I couldn't move a muscle. I wanted out of this crazy place.
     "There. Now you're ready for the final part," she said. I struggled and squirmed against the wrap, making no progress.
     "Let me out of this!" I screamed. She frowned.
     "You said you wanted the costume. So you're going to get it. And I suggest you stop screaming."
     "No! Help! Somebody, help me!" I shouted. The girl went back into the first room, coming back with a roll of duct tape, quickly wrapping it around my mouth and head. I tried to scream, but all I could manage was a muffled grunt.

     The girl dragged me through the final curtain, laying me face down on the floor pointed away from her. I tried to see what else was in the room, but I couldn't lift my head up or turn it enough to see anything other than the floor. She came back with what looked like a can of paint, painting a clear liquid all over my back and the back of my head, then turning me over and completely coating my entire body, face included. I tried to open my eyes to see, but some of the liquid got in my eyes. I was surprised to find it didn't burn, however. She set the can down, and went over, picking up the Dragonair costume. It looked like it was made out of a very thin rubber-like material, blue all over with white on the belly. She pulled the head, which was attached at a very small strip on the back of the neck, open, and began to slide my feet into the costume, pulling it up higher and higher. I felt it get tighter and tighter as she pulled it up, until it was all the way up to my neck. She reached in her pocket, taking out a pocketknife and carefully cut the duct tape away from my mouth.
     "What are you doing? What is all this?!" I cried.
     "I'm helping you into your costume, of course," she said, still smiling. With that, she pulled the Dragonair head up and over my head, pulling it down tightly. She smoothed it out, then pressed it against my face for a few seconds. She then lifted me up, and I could see a mirror on the wall. The costume looked, for the most part, like a Dragonair -- it had a small horn on the forehead, large black eyes (which I could see out of, but you could not see in), and the snout bulged out. I noticed, though, that the crystal balls on its neck and tail and the winged ears were missing. "We're almost done. Just a little bit longer. But first we need to let this coat dry." She set me down again, and picked up the paint can, painting another coat over my entire body, giving it a glossy shine, and sealing the seam around my neck that the costume's head made, making it look like a perfect one-piece suit. "You just get used to it. I'll be back in about ten minutes when it's dry." And with that, she walked out.

     As soon as she left, I began to struggle madly, finding that the Dragonair costume only made my wrapping tighter. I could barely even feel my arms or legs anymore, and continued to struggle, but all I managed to do was writhe around the floor a bit. I sighed and relaxed to catch my breath and think about my situation. As I lay on the floor, I felt my entire body begin to tingle. It didn't hurt, but it felt very weird. I decided to try to see if there was any give to the plastic wrap or costume, and began to try to flex my fingers to see if I could perhaps poke a hole in it to work with. As hard as I tried, though, I couldn't move my fingers. I couldn't even feel my fingers. I tried to wiggle my toes, but they felt the same way. All I could do was move my body, wriggling around on the floor. However, I felt more control over easily bending my body. It was almost as if my body was taking on the form of the Dragonair. After a minute of struggling, I finally managed to lift my head and a portion of my long body up, looking in the mirror at myself. I could feel that where I was bent to sit up like this should have been somewhere in my lower chest, but it didn't hurt at all. I found that I could even fold my body back upon itself, something I knew I certainly wasn't supposed to be able to do. As I continued to find new ways to move my body, I was eventually able to see my entire self in the mirror. I could see my entire body was much thinner and snake-like than before I was put into the costume, yet I knew it wasn't just the tight wrapping and the tight costume that did it. As I lay there on the floor, I could feel the tight, compressed feeling slowly wearing off, as if I were supposed to be that thin and long. I was about six feet tall before this all started, but this costume had to be at least ten, maybe even eleven or twelve feet long... and I could feel the floor underneath me all along my body, even against the very tip of my tail.

     The girl came back in, carrying a small bag. She set it down on the ground next to me, then looked at me and laughed.
     "I see you're getting used to the costume already! But don't worry, you won't be in it for much longer."
     "You're helping me out?" I asked.
     "Of course not, silly! It would be so much work to get you out, and then have to put you back in again. That is your new body from now on. As soon as I add these last few things, that is," she added. I simply sat there, stunned and speechless. But as I realized I was beginning to forget how to work my fingers and toes, and start to instinctively know how to bend and twist my body, it wasn't too far-fetched of an idea. The girl picked up the bucket of liquid again, painting some of the liquid on my head and around my neck. She ran her hand up and down along the underside of my neck and then around my neck, feeling that it was completely smooth and seamless. I felt her hand on my neck, feeling it through the costume as though it were my own skin. She sat on my back, and picked up the bag, pulling out a shiny blue crystal ball. She brushed a little of the liquid on it, a little bit more on the underside of my neck, and held it against my neck where she just brushed the liquid. After a few seconds, she let go, and got two more blue crystal balls out. These, however, were cut into perfect halves, with a groove cut through the diameter of the flat part of each half. She brushed some more of the liquid onto my tail, then onto the flat surfaces of the crystal balls, clamping them down onto my tails. The groove, which turned into holes through the crystal balls, fit perfectly onto my tail. She finally took two wing-like feathery things, pressing them against the sides of my head, where my ears were -- or would have been, if I were still human. She stood up, and brushed one more coat of the liquid over my entire body and the crystal balls, but not the winged ears. My body, which was still tingling from earlier, finally stopped tingling, and I knew it was complete. I was a Dragonair.

     I somehow instinctively knew how to move, and slithered forward to the mirror. I looked at myself, raising my tail up to feel the horn on my head, my winged ears, and the crystal ball under my neck. I could feel my tail, and I could feel each of them as my tail touched them. I looked at how the dim light of the room reflected off the crystal balls on my tail and under my neck, and also how it reflected off of my shiny, sleek body, which almost looked wet, but wasn't. I didn't even believe I was real. The girl came over, running her hand down my back.
     "How does it feel to be a Dragonair?" she asked. My eyes began to water, though. I was overcome with emotion. I wanted to be a Dragonair, it was so unlike anything I'd ever felt before. And yet, I didn't want to be transformed into this. I wanted to be human again. I wanted my old body back.
     Most of all, I wanted to make her pay for doing this to me.

     I quickly wrapped my powerful tail around her body, and her eyes opened wide. She struggled to get free, but I was too strong for her. She looked at me, her eyes filled with fear.
     "W-w-what are you doing?" she stammered.
     "Thanking you," I hissed back. Before she could say another word, I opened my mouth wide, engulfing her feet. She continued to struggle, screaming, but I wrapped some more of my long, thick body around her head, muffling her cries. I used the end of my tail, which wasn't wrapped around her yet, to completely undress her, using skillful muscle motions which almost happened instinctively to quickly pull her clothes away from her, dropping them on the floor next to me. I slowly compressed her body with my tail, moving my mouth farther and farther up her body, taking her legs into my mouth all the way up to her waist. She began kicking, but it felt like nothing more than a light massage to me. I continued moving up her body, until I was at her neck.
     "Please, please don't do this!" she cried as I unwrapped my tail from her head. "Funny, I asked you the same thing, I thought," as I moved up, completely engulfing her. I closed my mouth, pushing my squirming, fighting meal down my throat a bit. I looked at myself in the mirror again -- I looked rather nice, with the large, squirming mass pushing against my smooth body, making a very clear imprint of a female body inside of me. I laid down and closed my eyes, now tired after my meal. Perhaps being a Dragonair wouldn't be such a bad thing after all...