A Breeding Darkness (Complete)

(13)

After a few seconds, the man quieted down some, and the only noise she heard was his tight breathing. She thought perhaps she might be able to creep away if she could create some sort of distraction, but then he spoke and brought her to an abrupt halt.

"Is... someone..." Each word seemed pained and ripped from his throat, and he grunted in frustration. "Someone... here?"

After a brief pause, Lucy decided it would be sillier to run away than to face whoever this young man was.

"I'm here," she said, holding a hand out for him to grab onto as he located her voice. His fingers met her palm and then he grabbed her hand as if she was saving him from drowning. Which she supposed she almost was.

Lucy held her hand rigid in his grasp. "I only just found you. I think you're hurt."

The young man shifted her hand so he could hold it in both of his, cupped as if it was a precious song bird. "I am speaking." He said it with a tone of surprise.

Lucy's eyebrows dipped down. "Yes. Speaking." She pulled on her hand, trying to dislodge it from his grasp, but he held tightly. "And holding my hand. Which isn't really what gentleman do if they don't know the lady—"

"My voice. I shouldn't be able to speak." He finally dropped her hand and she heard him patting his body. His breathing hiked and she could practically hear the panic in his shaking inhales. "My body's back. I'm back." There were tears in his deep voice, and Lucy shifted in discomfort.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

His voice wobbled. "I didn't think I'd ever become myself again. I thought I was always going to be that thing."

Understanding dawned on Lucy as he said these words. 'That thing'. There was really only one possibility that made sense, though she hadn't been willing to think of such an extraordinary explanation.

"You were that bird, weren't you?" she asked.

"I was a bird?" he asked. "I didn't know what I was. Only that I was not me."

"Yes, you were a bird the size of a house. And you attacked me, just so you know, so now I'm thinking I should leave you here as payback."

The man lunged forward and she felt his hands on her arms. His hurried breath stirred the curls around her face. "Don't! Don't leave me!" he gasped. "I've been that thing for so long. I don't know how long. But for what felt like ages. But I couldn't— I couldn't be myself. I could only be it. And it wanted to eat. It wanted to hunt. I tried to stop, but that's not always..."

All his sentences were shortened and broken, cut off and forgotten. It was almost as if he was learning the ability to speak again, and Lucy found herself believing his strange story of becoming more bird than human.

"It's all right," she said, gently removing his painful grip from her arm and holding his hands in both of hers. "But you're going to have to tell me what happened. You're going to have to let me know if I have to worry anymore about the bird."

He drew in a slow breath, his hands tensing in hers. "I don't know if I'll have to go back to being it," he said. "But I think I'm beginning to remember how to be me. I don't want to change back."

"Are you sure you're going to stay this way?" Lucy asked. If there was one thing she didn't need, it was a man turning into a massive raven while she was stuck in the darkness.

He paused for a moment, before speaking. "I don't remember how I turned into the bird, but I think I'm human for now."

"You don't remember?"

"I don't remember much of anything."

"Do you know where you came from?"

"No. I only remember being me, and then the bird."

"Well, then..." Lucy exhaled. He wasn't any help at all. "Do you know your name, at least? Mine is Lucy."

His hands tensed once again in hers. "I'm not sure."

Lucy chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Maybe we can give you a temporary name, just until you can remember your old one.

"Wait," the man said, cutting her off. "Joon. I remember the name Joon."

Lucy's blood ran cold as her entire body stiffened. This was even more impossible than a man turning into a bird. It simply couldn't be. "You're absolutely certain?"

"I think so," he said, his deep voice confused but becoming more certain. "It feels like it belongs to me. Like it is mine. Joon."