Changes

chapter 2

The sun never seemed to move in the sky hidden behind the trees, its light only reaching the edges of the door. She didn't know how long they had been sitting on the floor together and she didn't care. No one else knew. No one else cared.

Virgil had curled into a ball in Mary's arms and she let him release it all. She knew it was going to happen and until the curse could be lifted she was powerless to stop it.

"I didn't mean to. I don't-" he shook holding back the tears- " I don't know what happened. I didn't want to kill them."

She pet his head again, her voice soft and flowing, "I know. I know you didn't want to hurt anyone. Your chain came loose. We'll do better next time."

He looked up into her eyes the fear in them growing, "no. No, it can't happen again. Promise me!" His more graveled voice growled pleading.

She looked deep into his eyes, her determination unwavered. "How? We can try to find a better place to hide you, to lock you in, but what if you escaped again?"

He looked away from her, ashamed. He could give no answer.

"Would you want me to shoot you? You've been shot before, the bullets didn't even slow you." Her gaze softened as she tried to meet his eyes again.
She brought his face up to hers, "we have to keep trying. Someone has to know something."

He met her eyes and it was like staring into a glacier waterfall: cold, calculating and unwavering.

"I'm not killing you Virgil. I won't, not until I've tried everything on God's green earth or under the Devil's red sand," she said with fake conviction, the joke between the two causing slight smiles.

There was a palpable pause. Her strength never wavered, it was part of why he fell for her those years ago. She was going to need every part of that now.

"And if there is no cure?" His face turned dower again, his brass like voice still graveled and strained. "No chains that could hold me? What then Mary?" He asked as he searched her eyes hoping she wouldn't waver now.

She was steel, "then I'll find a way."

"But if I attack you?" He shook at the suggestion, his hand tightening on her arm. "Mary I can't wake up to that world. I can't live there. Not if I killed you."

She knew the answer he wanted, but she couldn't lie to him. "I won't let you. We'll find a way. If you can't be cured, then I'll make you tame."

"Mary," he glanced quickly at the room around them still covered in blood and gore. "How? How do you tame a monster?"

She didn't look around her, only into his eyes. She saw the terror in them and answered with honesty, "with love and discipline. I'll ask the people from the strangest places if need be. Someone has to know something."

"Promise me, Mary," a fire replaced the fear in his eyes, "that you will end me if I harm you."

"How? I don't even know what could harm you. If a gun did nothing what else could?" She asked sincere.

"If you find a way from those people, you have to promise me you'll do it. Kill me before I kill you," Virgil's voice was commanding and calm.

She knew by his tone he wouldn't be swayed. Not yet.

"Alright," Mary conceded, "if it comes down to you or me, I'll defend myself however I can. I promise."

They stared into each others eyes confirming the pact. He broke first, placing his forehead on her chest.

"I love you Mary," his trumpets were back, the trauma leaving his voice.

"I know Virgil," she said softly as she kissed his head.

"We better go now. I don't think anyone will come looking for them for a few days. But we shouldn't be here." She said as she finally looked at the carnage around her.

It was sickening, what he had done in his monsterous form. The entire Colton family had been massacred. It was as if the beast had broken in during a late night dinner and decided to eat everything within reach. No bit of food was safe, especially the meats. Limbs torn and chewed, tendons strewn about amongst the less edible organs. Bones cracked and emptied.

What blood was left was sprays and splashes on every part of the room. Long drags not quite large enough to be limbs made odd twisted designs and pools within the now drying crimson-browns. But the hair, more aptly like tufts of fibers beaten from plants. The bits of scalps still attached the only human detail. Or was it part of the dog?

She winced away from it all. The pure horror too much to attach to the image of her husband. 'It's not him,' she told herself, 'it's that thing.'

The first night he turned still felt like a nightmare. She awoke to what sounded like ramblings of a madman stuck within his own terror. A neverending loop of gibberish. She sat up and felt it, the wind through the open window. It wasn't like the usual winds of her area, it was unusually cold, like air off of ice. It seemed to echo his words back to him. Or was it the other way around? She still wasn't sure.

As his ramblings built into growled words on a deep harmony she reached to touch his shoulder. That's when the change took hold. Before she could touch him his body starting cracking, the bones moving and growing at an alarming rate. She swore he doubled, maybe even tripled, in size in the mater of seconds as she recoiled. His limbs pulling out like thin branches wrapped in vines of muscles.

Furred patches grew near his joints making his shoulders look as if he was wearing a short cloak. His face made it the easiest to handle. It looked nothing like him by the time the change was over. His eyes turned a pale yellow, like storm clouds in winter. His mouth split open with sharp fangs and teeth as his jaw elongated and his cheekbones popped out to match. A constant grimace plastered to his face. Now more snout like in shape his nostrils stretched and flared with each breath. His brow sharpened and twisted, angry brows matted in with fur on his forehead. His hair seemed thicker and more wild. His nails turned to talons, gnarled and sharp on boney fingers. His feet stretched like padded long paws, talons clacking as he walked. He became a boney, wire-muscled, mountainous monster.

She didn't know what to call him but 'monster' in that state. No words and no animals came to mind that fit what he was.

She crept silently off the bed and grabbed the shotgun leaning cornered on the wall and dresser. Thank the gods she kept it loaded.

It whipped around to her as she moved the gun. She swung it up and simultaneously cocked the hammer. As it lunged towards her she fired without hesitation. It jolted back like a child threw a stick at it, raising its arm instinctively to cover its eyes.

She fired again. This time it flinched and jumped out the window, howling off into the woods behind their home. Even with how pale its exposed bits of skin were, it blended into the darkness all too easily. The moon was unable to shine bright enough in its full state to make the monster noticable.

It was mid-morning by the time Virgil made it back to their home after that first change. There was small patches of blood on him, like he had torn small game to shreds. Where at that time she had no proof of what it could do it now glared her in the face. Everything it was capable of doing if it got free again.

Her promise to Virgil seemed like a larger goal than she first agreed to. But Mary did not give up easily, she would find a way. Her husband was going to be free from this thing, either by mind, body or soul. She would make it happen.

And how fitting those words would become.

-End Chapter-