Lovestruck

a living nightmare

You had dragged your bed out from under the stairs and the witch was snoring with Heen in her arms on the red couch you had placed in front of Calcifer. You were sleeping lightly, wrapped up in your blanket and Calcifer's fire was keeping all of you warm.

The front door opened and Howl stepped in. He looked worse than ever and was still in his bird-form. As he walked, he left bloody footprints and his body was shallow, almost see-through. The footprints he left were large bird feet. Calcifer peeked up from his log and looked at Howl with worried eyes. "You've gone too far this time!" he stated. "If you keep this up, you're not gonna be able to turn human again!" he continued, but Howl kept dragging his feet to the stairs and up to his room. You the stairs whine as he walked up and you woke up quickly. Even though it was the middle of the night, you were wide awake.

"Is that Howl?" you asked Calcifer. He didn't answer you. You looked at the floor and saw the bloody bird-footprints. There was a large, black feather laying by one of them and you reached out to pick it up. It crumbled into dust and then faded into nothing in your hand. You knew that Howl was home and rushed to put on some slippers. You lit a candle and got up from the bed. 

The stairs were covered in blood and black feathers. You were hesitant, but walked up the stairs worriedly. The amount of blood in the stairs made you wonder what he had done and how hurt he was. You reached his door and reached for the doorknob slowly. You were truely worried about Howl so you opened the door and walked in.

His room was changed now. Instead of beeing a room, it was not a tunnel made of dirt. Of course his junk was still sticking out of all surfaces. The tunnel was dark and you were happy you brought a source of light with you. There was a trail of feathers on the ground that you decided to follow, thinking that it would lead you to Howl. 

As you walked, you could hear heavy breathing. That had to be Howl. The tunnel lead you to two passages. One darker then the other. The breathing seemed to come from the left one, so that was the one you walked into. You soon reached the source of the breathing. There he was, crawled up into a feathery ball that rose and sunk while he breathed. 

"Howl, are you hurt? What is happening?" you asked and reached out your hand out to comfort him. "Go away." he said with a raspy voice. "No, i'm going to help you break the spell you're under!" you protested. "You, you cant even break your own spell." he answered and stood up. You could see that he was completely transformed this time because even this face shape had changed. "Howl, I love you!" you said back. "You're too late." he replied coldly and flew off into the void of darkness behind him. "Howl!" you yelled after him, but he didn't say anything back.

You fell to your knees and held your arms around yourself crying your heart out in sorrow and frustration. You noticed a strange feeling in your hands and you looked at them with your flooded eyes. To your great horror, your hands were beeing covered in red feathers and they grew bigger as your fingers were replaced with black claws. Two big, red wings burst out from your back and you screamed in pain. Your screams echoed in the tunnel as you grew fangs and your feet grew bigger before they ripped through your slippers. You tried to scream again, but no sound came out of your mouth.

 Then, complete darkness.