BECOMING

5

5

Isla

After

     BAO LOOKED AT THE SMALL WOMAN STANDING BEHIND HIM, as if noticing her for the first time. "Oh. I almost forgot." Bao chuckled lightly, "Isla, this is Dorothea." Isla looked at her. She was wearing a black dress and a white apron. Her gray hair was tied in the back of her head.

     "Miss." She smiled at Isla. A few of her teeth were missing.

     "She helps here with all the house chores." Bao continued. "You know, cleaning, cooking, and whatnot. She'll be serving us dinner tonight." Isla smiled back at Dorothea, nodding her head. "Dorothea, this is Isla. She's our new..." Bao hesitated. "Guest."

     "A pleasure to meet you." Isla said.

     "Well, now." Bao turned around. "Shall we eat?" He asked over her shoulder, and without waiting for an answer, started walking out of the kitchen. Isla followed him.

     They entered a big, elegant dinning room. The kind you only see in movies. It had a big, mahogany table, with more than twenty seats around it. On the far end of the room there was a big fireplace, and hanging from the high ceiling, a big, crystal chandelier.

     Isla felt like she was dreaming.

     The table was set for two. Bao helped her in one of the seats, and then slipped gracefully into the other one. There were too many plates, and cutlery. Isla took her cloth napkin and placed it on her lap, secretly thanking her mother for teaching her all of the etiquette rules.

     Dorothea rushed into the room holding two plates of hot soup, which she placed in front of them. Isla waited for Bao to begin before she started eating her own soup.

     They were eating in a somewhat uncomfortable silence, Isla not knowing what to say. She was never good at small talk.

     Halfway through his soup, Bao placed his spoon down, and looked at Isla. Oh, no. She knew what was coming, but she wasn't ready.

     "So, Isla." Bao said, his strong voice more intimidating than before. His black eyes burning through her soul. "Are you going to tell me how you ended up in my garden, completely naked?"

     Isla shook her head, panic settling in. What was she going to tell him? She looked at Bao, and she got the feeling that he already knew the answer. The real answer. Isla didn't trust him.

     "Has it something to do with you being a werewolf?" His voice was slow, carefully dropping a bomb between them.

     He knew. Oh God, he knew. "W-what?" Isla stuttered.

     "Come on, don't look so surprised. You know what you are." Bao seemed a little amused by the whole situation. "Don't try to deny it."

     A werewolf. He had said a werewolf. 

A beast. 

A monster. 

She was a monster. 

     Her heartbeat quickened. She shook her head, feeling how her life fell apart. "Don't say that." She whispered.

     Bao's amusement was suddenly gone. "You didn't know?"

     "That I was a monster? No, I certainly didn't know."

     "Don't say that." He frowned. "I'm a werewolf, and I'm not a monster. Your mom and your dad are probably werewolves, too, and I'm pretty sure they're not monsters either."

     She couldn't believe it. Her breath hitched. Her mother was a werewolf? Her father was a werewolf? Bao was a werewolf? Werewolves actually did exist?

     "Of course they exist." She thought, sarcastically. She remembered once again how it felt when she changed into a wolf earlier. A shiver ran down her spine. "Why do you think you became a wolf earlier?"

     "It's true. I'm a werewolf, just like yourself." Bao spoke, without noticing how badly his words were affecting Isla. He was strangely calm, and she found herself wishing she could be as calmed as him. "And I bet you can hear a voice in your head. Well, she's your wolf."

     Her wolf. She wasn't crazy, after all. She didn't hear strange voices in her head, like all the crazy people in movies did. No, she just heard her wolf. Like if that made things any better.

     "Is he saying the truth?" Isla asked to the voice. She knew the answer, but she needed to hear it from the voice."Am I a werewolf?"

     "Yes." The voice answered.

     "And you're my wolf?" Isla quivered, her breath getting caught up in her throat. 

     "Yes." She noticed how the voice -her wolf- was speaking softly, as if afraid of scaring Isla even more.

     "How can this be possible?" Isla asked. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

     "You weren't ready before."

     "Oh, so now I am?" Isla was suddenly angry. She thought she was loosing her mind. Everything around her started spinning. She tried to look at Bao, but everything was blurry. She started seeing black dots, black dots everywhere. Thick tears rolled down her face. "How could you not tell me before? I'm a werewolf, and he's a werewolf, and my mom's a werewolf, and who knows who else is a werewolf."

     Bao, seeing in what state Isla was in, stood up and rushed towards her. "Isla, are you okay?" He grabbed her face in his hands. "Isla? Isla?" She couldn't understand what he was saying. Her heartbeat was really fast.

     Everything was spinning even faster than before. The word werewolf ran through her head over, and over again. "I know." Her wolf said. "I'm sorry. I really am."

     "You're sorry? You're sorry? Everything I thought I knew is completely shattered and you're sorry?"

     Werewolf, werewolf, werewolf. "Werewolves are real." Isla whispered, her eyes rolling back.

     Everything went still for a moment. Then everything went black.

     "Yes." The voice said in a very gentle voice. "But we'll deal with everything tomorrow."

Werewolf.

Werewolf.

Werewolf.

    She couldn't take it anymore. 

     With a loud thump, Isla fell unconscious to the floor.