My cursed story

Chatting moonlight

Ever heard of the saying 'A day in hell'? yeah well try and reverse that to a night in hell and then you have you life planed out in front of you. Honestly it isn't every night that is equal to hell, only about 75% or so. The reason? well it is simply my loving family. I honestly thought that the abuse and hatred would be close to gone after the curse that my step mother got put on me, and in some ways I was right. I am free, or as free as you can get when you are cursed. Anyway, I am free to do whatever I want during the day but as the night falls and the sunsets, I have the very high possibility of going straight back to the personal hell that has been inflicted upon me for the last nine years. I never understood what I had done wrong and why stepmother had begun to hurt me, that is until I was around the age of twelve, I had made the mistake of asking her why she hated me so much and what I did wrong. The beating that came after had been hardest that I had ever received. I had at least two broken or cracked ribs and big ugly bruises that covered almost all of my petite body, honestly I thought I was going to die, but one good thing came out of it. I left the room with the truth secured in my body.

My father had forced himself upon my mother.. claiming that they were in love, but step mother wasn't stupid. Having met my birth mother before she knew that she was no more than a teenager and his cousin at that. And most importantly, she knew that she carried no romantic emotions towards my father and that he had one sidedly loved her and forced himself upon her. I could see that my step mother was hurt deeply by her husband's unfaithfulness, so she carried out that hate and hurt on me and for some time I was okay with it. It felt like it truly was my fault that her heart ached like that, on top of that she had her illness. It all seemed so unfair towards her, so I learned to bear with it and survive. But as she got me cursed last year, I accepted the truth. I was innocent..

I just hope that Step mother will be sleeping when I get home tonight or at least not have enough energy to seek me out.

You see after those boys left this afternoon, I had decided to kill some time by taking at nap and it worked as I first woke up when the bells rang at five pm. meaning that people would be returning home from work. This meant that I still had an hour or two to kill before I could return to my human form and try my luck. As I was thinking of what I could do, Bob the squirrel came hopping towards me, making me giggle or at least do the swan version of a giggle, honking. Bob stopped were he was after hearing me honk, which he has come to learn means me laughing. And with it only being the two of us in the meadow means that I was laughing at him.. Offended he stops and raises so that he stands on his back legs and crossed his arms around his chest making him look like a disappointed parent, which causes me to honk/giggle louder. With a huff, Bob laughs a little and comes closer to the end of the pond and jumps up on the little tree stump and just stares at me.

I stop giggling and glide over to where he is sitting before stopping, looking down at Bob. I truly appreciate animals ability to speak with each other no matter the race, as it hinders us staring at each other hoping blindly that the other understands we each mean.

"Hi Bob, how are you doing? Anything exciting happening?" I mindlink him, needing something to start the conversation, because no matter how welcoming and sweet Bob is. It is just weird staring at each other saying nothing when you are able to.

"Hello to you too little bird, nothing much is happening. I just thought I would see how you are doing before you go home tonight. You know I don't like that you have to return home every night to that home"

Oh that's right, Bob knows about my curse, I had only known him for a couple of hours before I felt the need to tell him. And in turn he told me of his ability of shapeshifting, but has refused to answer any of my questions about his private life which I can respect, because he never pressured me into answering his. I told him everything voluntary. Maybe it is because of the comfort he gives up, but he feels like more of a family than mine truly ever did. And although he didn't react much at first, he began cursing my family after a short while and even though I never told him the true extent of my abuse, I feeling that he already knows.

But Bob has always been looking out for me and has been helping me in what ways he was able to, which I am grateful for even if I don't know what he looks like in his human form. He has promised to help me get away from my home and he says that it will happen very soon. What he meant by that I am still in the dark, but I guess I will find out sometime soon.

Bob and I talked about everything as we waited together for the bells to ring and for the sun to go down. And as they say, the time flies in great company. Something that I can sign is true, as it seems like the sun is setting in no time at all and the final bells ring. As the sunsets I feel the familiar tingles return and I surrender myself to them, knowing I will be back in my human form soon.

I can feel the feathers retreat and myself growing, my bones rearrange and my dirty blonde hair grows back and my light pink almost pink dress finds its way back on my body. Finally the tingles stop and I am myself again, I opened my eyes that I had closed during the transformation and look down at Bob, who is sitting still and just looking up at my with his head tilted slightly and a small content smile on his little squirrel lips. I smile back and turn my body slightly so I can look down at myself in the pond. The reflection staring back at me, is myself. My true self, because of the darkness and the only light being the moonlight shining down through the trees, it is difficult to see myself completely. But my green eyes pierce back from the water, my nose, lips and head shape are all as it used to be. Transforming back always scares me slightly as I never know if one day I will transform back looking like someone that is not me. Satisfied that I am me again, I turn back to Bob and just as I was about to open my mouth he holds up a hand and looks behind him into the forest.

Confused I use my senses to try and figure out what made Bob stop me from talking. There. Footsteps, voices, males, they are coming closer. I am about to leave, when Bob grabs the end of my dress and shakes his head, confused I look down at him and at that moment it becomes too late to run away as the men come to the tree-line and I am now in their line of vision. Bob looks at me again and nods at them and then at me before taking off into the trees before they can see them.

I sigh and turn around towards the men, who has moved away from the tree-line and stepped further into the meadow. I try to get a look at them from where I am standing, but it is near impossible with the little lighting we have from the moon. I can only see their silhouettes, and I am about to turn around and walk away when a familiar voice calls out to me, making me stay routed.

"Excuse me miss, but do you happen to have seen a white swan near here?"

I turn around slowly, so I look back at them again and this time one of them has stepped closer, slightly into the moonlight streaks so I can see him better.

It's Luke, they are here again..