Her Curse...

01 ~ Thistle | Edited

     I blinked open my eyes, and the first immediate thing in my vision was brown-red hair. The second thing I realized was that I had my arm gently around something...something that was breathing. The third was that whatever was in front of me smelled like campfire smoke...but also kind of like flowers.
     But the last thing that occurred to me as my mind was still waking up was that the 'thing' I was holding...was a girl. And as soon as I did, I scrambled away quickly.
     She wasn't anyone I knew, but she'd seemed...peaceful, up until the moment I got away. Then she'd looked fearful and troubled. "H-Help me.." The girl muttered, her body beginning to tremble.
     I felt guilty doing nothing, or leaving, but I didn't know what I could do to help. Everything she was dreaming was in her head, not something I could do anything about. When she stopped breathing for about three seconds, it returned as a scream. This, I could stop, so, partially in fear of anything hearing her, I clapped a hand over her mouth.
     The girl's eyes flew open, and she stared at me with a frightened gaze. "It wasn't real. You're okay." I said softly, taking my hand from her mouth slowly. She immediately scrambled away from me. "Wh-Who are you?" Her frightened brown eyes flashing, before the fear slowly dissolved into suspicion.
     "Grey. Who are you?" I said in response. "...Hailey." The girl said carefully. "Where are we?" Hailey asked, a second before I did. "I-I don't know." I replied, looking around. "Wait....." She mumbled, staring at something over my shoulder. I followed her gaze to a small mark in a tree.
She stood up carefully, walking over and touching the wood of the tree lightly with her hand. For the first time, I noticed what she was wearing; a black and white striped shirt, a pair of jeans, and black tennis shoes. "What? You know where we are?" I asked.
     Hailey turned to me. "I live in the center of this forest. And I need to get you out of here." She said. "Why do I need to leave?" I asked in confusion. "I don't think you'd want to know." She replied softly, sounding a bit sad, before walking away into the forest. I tried chasing after her, but I stopped when I lost sight of her.
     "I don't know the way out...and if I probably wouldn't want to know why I shouldn't be here....why did she leave me?" I asked myself, beginning to panic as my overactive imagination began to take a hold of me. But Hailey returned just before I started running in a random direction to get out. She was carrying two bags. "What, you think I wouldn't show you the fastest way out? You need to be out of here asap." Hailey said, a bit of disappointment in her voice. "Why do I need to leave?" I asked again, letting out a mental sigh of relief that she didn't just abandon me (I didn't like being alone...especially after people started telling me something that got my imagination to come up with a lot of frightening things).
     She sighed in resignation. "You really want to know?" She asked, putting down both bags. I nodded. "Well, it only happens when I say a specific word. Now it does at least." She said first, clenching her hands into fists by her sides. "Die," she muttered next, her eyes flashing.
     The dark brown in the irises of her eyes were replaced by blood red. Her fingernails and canine teeth elongated into sharp claws and fangs. And a pair of wolf ears and a wolf tail, all the same color as her hair, sprouted from the top of her head and from the end of her spine.
     Before I had time to react at this split-second transformation, she was on top of me, fast as lightning. One hand on my chest, and the other around my throat, slowly gripping tighter and tighter. I gasped for air, struggling to break out of her choke hold. Hailey's claws, the ones on the hand around on my chest, were slowly piercing deeper and deeper into my skin. But that was the least of my worries. I was being choked to death.
     Then her eyes flickered back to their normal color. But only just for a second. Only just long enough for Hailey to pull her hand back in horror. But that was what I needed. I gasped for air, and threw her off me, just after her eyes had gone back to red again. And because I took her by surprise, I was able to pin her down. But instead of trying to kill her, I just pinned her. I could tell that she didn't try to kill me of her own free will; it was probably something controlling her when she said the word 'die.'
     Hailey's eyes flickered again, but this time not returning to crimson. "G-Grey?" She asked, her wolf features fading away. I got off her quickly so she was able to move again. "You're trying to protect me. You don't want me in the forest in case you kill me." I said, understanding now. "The village doesn't want more people knowing.." She said, shaking her head as if to clear it and standing up. "Wait, its a village?" I asked, surprised. "Well, town. Its the town of Morgana." Hailey replied, taking my hand and pulling me up, even though I didn't really need help standing.
     "Wait...this is Morgana Forest?" I asked. "Yes...why?" She answered. "I live in Primrose." I said. She seemed concerned. "That's...very strange." She said, walking over to the two bags she had left on the ground earlier. "Your food and water to make it back home are in there." Hailey said, tossing one to me.
     I caught it, and quickly looked through it. "Thanks." I said, zipping it shut again and walking over to where Hailey was waiting. "Don't sweat it. Now come on, we have to get you out of here." She said, leading the way. I followed her, but a bit behind.
And for a moment, just a moment, I saw her with the wolf features again, choking me, with that savage glint in her eyes. It made me shudder, but I continued on anyway, ignoring the strange feeling I had lodged in my stomach.
     But I still was aware of its presence.

Hope y'all liked this first chapter! This book is actually an idea I had back in November, but I didn't really do anything with it. Then I decided to rewrite a lot of it and publish it up here! - 12/26/19

Happy New Year! I hope that y'all enjoyed this, and will continue to enjoy it as I continue to write it. - 1/1/20

Edited! - 09.22.2020

Later! ✌🏻
~Nevira