Once upon a story

Chapter Seventeen

My eyes opened slowly and shut quickly at the blinding white light that entered them. I began to process what had happened and shuddered at the thought. Thankful that it was only a dream. It was then I noticed the sensation running down my back as someone stroked me; I froze in place now completely aware that someone had snuck into Cem’s room in the night and begun softly stroking me.

For a second time I opened my eyes waiting patiently for them to adjust to the glare from the open window. Although what I saw wasn’t any different it seemed as if the way I was seeing had completely changed. Each speck of dust passing across the window was in clear focus, the colours of Cem’s wall seemed bolder and I noticed details in the paint work that I had never seen before. I raised my head to get a better look at the wall and the stroking stopped, weirdly enough I missed the sensation but that was dismissed as I stared at the wall with great intent.

“Faith?” A voice whispered from beside me and I swung around my head to see where it was coming from. Cem was kneeling by my bed a worried look in her eyes as I stared down at her. “How are you feeling?” she asked carefully, I made the move to shrug my shoulders which resulted in falling down onto my belly instead. The sudden movement made my head feel dizzy so I closed my eyes and turned away from Cem and her strange glare. “Come on Faith, look at me.” She said tapping me on the head, I turned back to look at her with one eye brow raised and she laughed at my expression.

I looked at Cem and her positon and felt the need to mirror her into sitting up as I was still lying entangled in bed sheets. As I went to move onto my back I noticed something odd but it didn’t register so I dismissed the thought. I noticed it again and this time my brain attempted to process what I was seeing before my own eyes. I screamed.

Well, it was more like a growl really and I felt Cem jump away from me. Slowly I pushed myself up into a standing position and attempted to walk forward but my legs quickly gave away so that I was pushed back onto the floor. Cem came rushing over and knelt by my side once more, cooing at me like one would a baby that is crying for attention. I tried once more so that each foot was positioned firmly on the ground, Cem stood next to me and I looked down at her. My face consorted into a confused expression that clearly didn’t process to Cem and when I tried to explain all that came out of my mouth were a series of whimpers. She reached out a hand to touch my snout and attempted to look me directly in the eye.

“I don’t know how much you understand right now but I feel it will be best for me to explain when you are slightly more like yourself. Look, I’m going to go move the mirror onto the floor so that your mind can process what has happened. Ok” she turns away from me and she walks with ease over to her mirror to lift it down from its positon and angle it towards me. I don’t know what I was expecting to see when I looked at my reflection but a huge grey wolf was certainly not on the top of my list.

At the sight I began to cry, lightly at first but that turned into a waterfall gushing down my furry cheeks until it landed in a puddle by my paws. I stared into the eyes of the monster in front of me before it all became too much and my legs once again gave way. The tears didn’t stop as I thought back to my family and friends at home, I hate all of the people at this house and what they did to me and I cursed how I left the path and strayed too far into the forest.

Cem lifted my head so that I looked into her eyes before scrunching up her nose and letting me drop down to the floor. Her footsteps showed she left the room and had shut the door behind her, I don’t know what would be better: for her to stay or leave but now alone I was left to my own emotions. The carpet below my head was damp with salty tears but I just let my fur take in the water and cling to my skin.

Once I felt as if no more tears would leave my body my focus went to my breathing. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered Georgie telling me that if I could just control my breathing I could control my emotions, it wouldn’t work but I tried regardless. I tried for the friend I would never be able to see again. Thinking of my friends back home distracted me from any focus and my breathing did in fact return to normal, with a new sense of purpose I racked my thoughts for any story I had read that featured a wolf but the only thing that came to mind was ‘to huff and puff and blow your house down’ which was no help what so ever.

The door opened again but two pairs of feet walked in. They were speaking quietly to each other as they made their way slowly closer, it surprised me how they felt safe. After all, I was a monster now. My throat constricted at the thought, I could be thrown into a circus for festively plump children with half melted ice-creams to stare at while their mothers attempted to pull them away without getting cover in ice-cream gloop.

“Faith?” Toff said puncturing my thoughts. I spun my head round to look up at him; clearly he had just got out of bed and was wearing confused expression. I growled in response and put my head back on the floor again. Cem moved to stand beside him and sighed at me, with a quick eye roll I turned away from the pair. How dare she sigh at me, clearly I’m not making a big fuss. I changed into a huge monster for goodness sake.

“We are just trying to help Paige, if we had known then it would all have happened differently” Cem said sitting on the floor beside me. I lifted my head to look at her, like this I could see every little detail of her face even the colours in her hair seemed to be completely different as if she had changed it without telling me. Then there was Toff standing beside her, I know I should be screaming about what has happened by right in this moment all I could concentrate on were how green his eyes were.  

“Can you change back or shall we explain it all now?” Toff says breaking the silence. Change back. Change back? I hadn’t even considered, even hoped that this stupid form wasn’t permanent. My ears perked up at his first suggestion and they both laughed at my reaction.

“Right, I’m guessing you want the first option. I remember how weird it was shifting for the first time so let’s get straight to it” Cem smiled as she stood up and locked eyes with me “It will be hard the first time but after that it gets better. I want you to picture your human body, focus on what it looks like and how it feels. Close your eyes if that helps. Now keep thinking about it and will yourself to change back, your body will know what to do even if your mind doesn’t. There should be a pull at the edge of your mind, grab onto that and let yourself change…” she continued speaking gently to me but I was too far gone. I could clearly picture myself, my brain seemed to play a slide show of anytime I saw a reflection- in the bathroom mirror, in a glass on the table, doing my makeup with Cem- and I focused on those sides of me. Like Cem described, I willed myself to change back trying to remember how different I felt in that form and the suddenly I felt it. The pull at the edge of my mind, the last step and I ran for it, holding with all my might with the hope that I could be me again.

This time the fire started around my eyes but it was nothing like before. Instead it felt like a warm, tickling sensation and once I was covered I felt myself turn back. My teeth and nails shrunk, my spin changing into an upright position and as I felt my hands and feet start to become normal I curled up into myself. I couldn’t tell you why but it seemed like the right thing to do, as if I was protecting myself as I changed, or shifted as Cem said, like I knew I could be easily harmed in this stage.

Slowly the sensation faded and I felt a blanket be thrown across my curled figure. The first thing I did was open my eyes, the room seemed more in focus than yesterday but it was nothing when compared with the other form. From that moment I moved each little part of my body, just checking it was still working and they all were. I sat up slowly pulling the blanket around myself as I did so, although not what was on the top of my mind during the change clearly the much larger animal had ripped through my clothes and left me completely naked.  

Cem and Toff were both standing in front of me. It was unexpected to see the proud looks adorning both of their faces but I accepted it with only a small reaction.

“Start at the beginning.” I say “Clearly I’m not going anywhere.”