Faults

Chapter 28: Klaus

My brother places a picture of a wolf in front of me. "Do you think you can shift into this?"

I shrug. Aster and Trey have been pushing me to develop my ability for the past five days, giving me pictures of different animals. So far, I can shift into rodents and smaller animals like cats, but morphing into larger beings has been a lot more difficult.

"Come on, try it," Trey says.

I shut my eyes and focus on the mental image I have of a wolf. Slowly, I feel my bones and skin begin to contort and shift into that of a wolf's. My teeth sharpen and my nose and mouth morph into a snout. When I open my eyes back up, I look around my back to see if I have a tail. "Did it work? I can't tell."

Trey and Aster are grinning. "It worked," Trey says. "Except... You don't have a tail."

"What?" I ask, confused.

"Maybe you should focus harder on that next time," Aster laughs.

I close my eyes again and concentrate on shifting back into my normal human form. This time, it's slightly quicker than it has been in the past few days, but it's still pretty slow. "Can we take a break for a while?" I ask, frowning.

"Yeah, sure," Aster says.

"I'm going to Marshall's house. Tell Mother and Father about it if they come home before I do," I say as I walk to the door.

My brother nods and I slip outside. When I get to Marshall's house, his father answers the door and tells me Marshall is at the lake. Looks like there's going to be more walking for me.

I set out in the direction of the lake and upon reaching it, I see my best friend sitting at the edge of the water practically motionless. As I near him, I can see that he's hugging his knees to his chest. "Marshall?"

My voice startles him. "Oh, Klaus. It's just you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, sitting down next to him.

"Oh, nothing. I've just... Been hearing voices ever since I started messing with my ability and raising the dead," he replies, shuddering. "And I... Actually, never mind."

"What?"

"I said never mind," Marshall blurts out, his voice becoming angry and almost strained.

I rub my arms, a sudden chill washing over me. "Sorry. Anyway, I guess, uh—hearing voices is slightly disconcerting."

"A little, yeah. I'm not sure who's talking to me, but it sounds like whispers in the back of my mind," Marshall explains.

"Creepy."

He shrugs. "I'm beginning to get used to it. Have you found out what your ability is? I feel like we haven't talked in a while."

He's right. We haven't spoken since that day at the graveyard. It's been two weeks, which is a long time considering we're best friends. I nod in response to his question. "I can, um, shapeshift or something. I've been able to shift into smaller animals and I'm working on more complex ones."

"Really?" he asks curiously.

Focusing on a squirrel climbing up a tree, I push myself to shift into a squirrel. My limbs shrink and contort, my body morphs into a squirrel's. When I open my eyes, the ground is so much closer to me than it was before. Marshall picks me up by my scruff and gawks at me. "Cool, isn't it?" I say.

"Yeah, it's a lot better than hearing dead people talk to you all the time. The only person it's helping is..." he hesitates for a second. "I suppose it helps me in some way."

He puts me down and I take a minute or so to transition back into a human. "Yeah, you can see your mother again, right?" I ask him.

"Erm, yeah."

I notice that Marshall is acting stranger than normal. He's overall a weird–in a good way–person, and I know he's been out of it for a while because of his mother, but this is different. It's like he's here physically but his mind is miles away. His eyes don't seem to focus on anything, they're just glassy beads, barely looking at everything around us. I'm not sure if I should ask Marshall about it or not. I'm afraid that if I do, he'll get very defensive about it and then not say anything at all.

He's been very touchy about everything lately. He's going through some things, so I understand, but I wish he would open up every once in a while. I only want to help him.

I soak up the silence that's consuming us now. We just sit here, no words exchanged for a good fifteen minutes.

Eventually, Marshall speaks again, changing the previous subject of magic to talking about our classes. I'm thankful for the topic change, but I'm still curious about his distant nature. The question of 'What's wrong?' is caught up in the back of my throat, for the fear of pretty much scaring my best friend is weighing me down.