A Cherry Blossom - The Necklace

Chapter 3

It was a wonder that I didn't black out as I was falling. I fell so far, when I landed on the ground, I was glad it was a cushioned patch of grass. I landed with a loud thump, which knocked the breath right out of me. I gasped for breath, and felt the air come back into my lungs with relief. I didn't notice the floating Stalkid until the bright lights came on above my head. I quickly turned myself over to lift my head up.

The Stalkid just sat there, floating in the air and crossing his arms and legs. I slowly pushed myself up into a sitting position, finally feeling the darkness that Zelda was sensing. I gulped in fear as the yellow eyes glowed right into mine.

The Stalkid giggled a high pitch laugh. "What was wrong with that horse of yours? I couldn't even control it. That thing was of no use to anyone as far as I could tell."

His words angered me, and I stood up all the way this time. "What did you do to her?"

"I did you a favor," he leaned forward. "I got rid of it."

I did a slight gasp in fear. "What?"

"Skull Kid," the purple fairy that I saw before flew up from behind him. All I could see was his little wings flapping around the light that illuminated his body. "Did we really have to do that again? And to this pretty girl too..."

"Shut it!" The purple fairy cringed in fear, and flew behind him again out of my view. Skull Kid focused his attention back onto me. "Hmm..." He adjusted his stance in the air. "You are really pretty, aren't you? I bet you have a lot of friends, too."

I didn't take that as a compliment. A rush of fear came over me as I feared of what was going to happen next. "What...do you want with me?"

"I want you to feel the pain that I feel! To not have anyone to call a friend again!" His words confused me, but before I could ask what he meant, he started to shake his mask back and forth, making a clacking sound repeatedly. My whole body suddenly started to burn.

The pain was excruciating. I closed my eyes and screamed in what was the worst pain I've ever felt. I couldn't move anything, and for some reason, I started to feel like I was growing. I opened my eyes again, and looked at my arm. It grew twice its size, and had giant, thick hairs growing off of it. Each of my fingers grew and curled into a sharp point. Finally, a hard, brown shell covered the arm and hand, looking very familiar, but also nothing I've ever seen before.

Next were my legs, which lengthened three times as long. My shoes and toes disappeared, and the legs sharpened into a point like my fingers, but they were much larger and longer. The shell covered them, and I realized that I had two different hinges that kept my legs moving. That wasn't all either; two more of the legs appeared from my waist and grew alongside the original ones. I now had four legs, two on each side of me.

My changed hands then went to my face, which burned like hell in the process that was going on. I felt my eyes enlarge, and even though I tried to close them, I couldn't. It was like my eyelids themselves disappeared from my face. I felt my mouth become small, and round up into a hole. That's when I felt two long pinchers come out my cheeks. I realized then, after I saw my antennae on top of my head with my new eyes, what I've become.

I was a giant insect monster.

I looked at my hands one last time in disbelief, and cried out to Skull Kid, who was laughing hysterically in victory. "What have you done to me?!"

I gasped, hearing what my voice had become as well. It was lower, and scratchy from the form I was in. I was now scared at how people would look at me. They would scream and run away in fear. I covered my face with my hard hands, and crouched down with the long legs I had. "Why?" I asked, still hating the voice I had. "Why did you do this?"