What's the Opposite of a Fairy Tale? | ONC 2024

2. A Grave Problem

When I woke up, it was dark and I was under what seemed like a huge pile of clothes. How long had I been asleep? More importantly, where was I? The laundromat? I didn't recall being anywhere near the dorms, but why else was I surrounded by clothes? Was it some kind of weird prank?

I tried throwing the pile off, but it was tangled around me strangely. My elbow seemed to catch, and my shoulder couldn't rotate around enough to do it. Sighing to myself, I decided my best bet was to just crawl out and go from there.

Even after I emerged, I still couldn't figure out where I was. There was a huge wooden fence that had to be at least ten stories tall. And there was a giant, greenish metal building with a slopping black roof. It looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on why. I stood up to take a step towards it. As soon as I lifted my foot, I immediately fell down, shoving my hands out to break my fall just in time.

I shook my head. I didn't feel lightheaded anymore. Actually, I felt pretty ok. I stood up again. Again, I fell back down.

What was going on? I'd never been a top athlete, that was true. But I had the coordination to at least stand up on my own.

Or at least, I did. I was about to try standing for the third time when something finally caught my eye. My right hand was just under my nose. The problem was, it didn't exactly look like my hand anymore. It looked like a cat's paw.

White fur covered my fingers. The fur on the back of my hand was a black and gray marble that extended up my arm. Slowly, I held it up in front of me, not quite able to believe it was really mine. It moved forward, following the commands I'd given it. I made a first. The paw curled downwards. I stretched my fingers out, straightening them until they were flat. The paw straitened out. I continued flexing my fingers and four tiny claws emerged.

I froze.

Ok, so this was clearly my hand. But I still wasn't ready to admit it was as bad as it was. My hand might be messed up, but surely that was all this was. Right? Right?

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. I didn't really want to know. But putting it off wouldn't actually help me. I opened my eyes and forced myself to look over at my other hand.

It was just as catlike as the first. Quickly, I turned and looked over my shoulder. Behind me stretched a long feline body, covered in a rich, black-and-gray fur. My tail twitched, and I nearly screamed.

No, no, no, no! This couldn't be happening. Clearly, I was going insane. I looked around again, trying desperately to find anything around me that made sense— anything to take my mind off what appeared to have happened to me.

I looked over again at that impossibly tall fence and the metallic building next to it. And while I was still doing my best to ignore all the cat stuff, there was one fact that kept gnawing at the back of my mind. If I really was a cat— and of course, I wasn't because that was ridiculous— but if I was, I'd be a lot shorter then I had been.

Could it be that the fence was actually normal-sized? If that were true...

I looked over at that metallic building. It didn't have any doors or windows. And on the bottom were wheels. Oh. So it was a dumpster. And so was the blue thing next to it. I was in the same place I'd been when I'd seen all those cats circling me.

I turned around slowly, struggling to coordinate four limbs. That's when I saw that huge pile of cloth I'd woken up under. It was nothing but my own clothes, now clearly far too big for me. My backpack was lying nearby. Suddenly, I had an idea. I started rummaging through my jeans pockets. After a little digging and some fairly intense struggling, I managed to pull out my phone.

I'd like to say I'd formed a plan— that I knew exactly how to fix this and all the steps I'd need to take. I'd love to tell you that I was a man of action. But I wasn't. I did nothing. All I did was stare forlornly at the phone. I don't even know why I'd gone through the all effort to get it out of my pocket in the first place. Maybe it was just the desire to keep busy, even if it was only for a few minutes. All I knew for sure was that it was mine. And I needed the sense of normalcy that it provided.

I don't know how long I sat there. But the sky was completely dark, and even the noises coming from nearby buildings had died down. And I still hadn't moved. I wasn't sure where I was even supposed to go. Then, my phone beeped.

I glanced at it, mostly out of habit. It was from Gabe.

Hey. Where are you? he asked.

I just stared at the phone for what must have been a full minute as an idea slowly wormed its way into my mind.

Total word count: 2,145