MAYA (Watty Awards 2011)

“Close your eyes.” Ally’s soothing voice floated down to Maya’s ear, her breath tickling it slightly. Maya was stretched flat against the ground, her shoes off and top layer of her clothes beside her, only clad in her tank top and underwear.

Ally rubbed each knob of Maya’s spine with her bony fingers, like an old master working across the piano keys. It felt soothing and wonderful, being alone in the night. It had been like that since Maya could remember -- Ally and she, allied against the forces of the night.

The full moon out tonight looked especially menacing in Maya’s eyes -- a big, leering face, mocking her every step she took. Every breath, every beat of her quick heart, alerted the Moon of her presence, and it reached out to her, grabbing her in its clutches and stealing her away into night as his slave. That’s how she felt sometimes -- enslaved to the moon, forced to do its bidding.

Ally’s fingers paused for a moment -- the symphony she had been composing stopped. “You’re fidgeting,  Maya,” she said in her strict, deep voice. “It’ll only hurt more when the time comes.”

“Okay, Sis,” Maya said, relaxing her muscles again. She had called Ally Sister her whole life, even though Ally was quite the opposite. No one would expect her to be the sister of a twenty year old girl with such a beautiful, fair complexion, with she being thirteen herself and as plain and dark as can be. It had been only by fate that they had met up one day, not by relation to one another.

She didn’t know why she called Ally Sister -- was it the kinship she felt between them, stronger than even a family bond? Or was it simply that she had never had a sister, and that she so desperately wanted one. The questions endlessly swirled in her mind, badgering her for answers.

Ally finally finished loosening Maya’s back -- Maya now felt like she was made of jelly, all her limbs wobbling uselessly at her sides, her back bending this way and that.

“Ready?” Ally asked, tensing.

Maya nodded, not trusting her voice. She knew it would catch in her throat, and even the high whisper that her voice usually was wouldn’t come out. The thought of the excruciating pain to come made her stomach sick and talking a tedious task not to be worried over.

They both lay on the ground, removing all their clothes. They didn’t mind being naked -- it was their nature, after all. Maya hadn’t been born fully clothed, so why go into her other life with clothes?

She shut her eyes tight, focusing on the blackness around her. There was now a nagging tug in her heart, and she let it take over her body. The tug held all that was promised in her other life -- impossible speed, a sleek new body, new scents and sights, fighting, bloodlust, the feel of fresh kill beneath her, in her mouth. The taste of it.

A longing pierced her now, and she knew she was ready. She let it ravage her body,like a hungry wildfire licking up the trees anywhere near it, consuming everything in its path. Merciless, yet natural.

A tingling sensation spread through her, right down to her toes, and fur began to push out of her skin. This wasn’t an especially uncomfortable experience -- pleasant, actually. Like a butterfly standing next to a mighty tiger, it was nothing compared to what was next to it. 

Then the tiger stepped forward, it’s roar the sound of breaking and popping bones, all cracking, then settling, only to crack again. Over and over, an endless cycle of pain. Maya screamed and thrashed around, but her body had gone strangely numb to the outside world, locked in its own torture. She could not feel the soft, springy grass beneath her.

Next to her, Ally gave a garbled growl. Maya opened her eyes just enough to see that Ally was farther into the transformation, already looking less and less human and more like the creature she was becoming. When Maya’s gaze became tinged with red, she closed her eyes again.