Fantasy Vs Reality | The Withering

6: Transition

The Wanderer is getting nearer... we are closer than ever to getting her back.

~~

Hava froze in place. The giant of a cat stood over her, watching her with curiosity. He looked exhausted and tired.

"C-Coal!?" she whispered, nearly falling backwards into the closet.

The cat caught her and the moment he touched her, her vision snapped. One moment she could see her room, the next she found herself staring into another, alien from her own. Hava squirmed to escape his grasp, stumbling further into her closet.

"Y-you're not real!" she hissed, trying to close the doors to her closet. She was quickly proven wrong when he grabbed the doors, preventing her from closing them.

"Hava..." he whispered, "You need to come with me, quickly." Pain was in his eyes, he looked worried and sick.

Hava shook her head, "I know some weird things have been going on but you need to get out of here! Can't I just live a normal life away from all..." her voice trailed off and she just confusedly gestured to Coal, "...this?"

"I don't need to get out of here, Hava," Coal said gently, "Time has come to a stand still... you don't belong here anymore."

"Of course I belong here! This is my home!" Hava yelled, trying to run passed him. She hit something invisible and fell to the floor, "What in the name of-!?"

Coal sighed from behind her, and she whipped around, facing him. His face was full of pity, "If you belong here then why are you seeing me? Why are you seeing all these things? Skips in time... skips in-" Coal's voice cut short and then started up again, as if he were in the middle of another sentence, "-believe me okay? You won't remember anything of this world..." He added something at the end but Hava didn't catch it.

Hava started to cry, memories were beginning to come back. Very faint, but they were there. She had met Coal before, not too long ago... but she pushed the thoughts away, "W-what about my family?"

Coal shook his head, "I don't know why but..." Coal's ears flipped back as if he heard something, "I'm sorry Hava, we are out of time, we need to get out of here now."

Just like before, just like the first time it happened, Coal grabbed her arm and pulled. But instead of feeling ripped apart like before, she felt all of herself go. Hava felt the last bits of herself pull through some small, invisible hole. She was leaving the world she knew behind her. She didn't understand why everything was happening the way it was... but she knew she would never see her family... ever again.

*     *     *

Hava recognized this now, it was just like before, except she felt her old self beginning to disappear completely. Panic-stricken as she felt the last bits of humanity becoming replaced with that of feline consistencies. She reached out for anything, anyone, to grab onto for support. She had to remember, she had to keep those memories. She didn't want to forget her family!

Her thoughts began to grow fuzzy as her ears moved up to the top of her head and grew larger, taller... her legs grew as well. Her spine extended and curled. Her waist thinned and her torso grew taller, her head grew larger and her face lengthened.

The last memories of her home... of earth... left her. 

She now felt like all she knew was darkness. She got used to the sensation of floating in nothing easily, since it was the only feeling she knew. She smiled... what was a smile? Happiness? A sign of some chemical reaction in the brain? 

Out of nowhere, she spotted a curious thing in the darkness. Something glittery. Could she move towards it? What was she? She used what she figured was her force to move towards the glittery, shiny thing. As it came closer, she realized there were two of them, symmetrical to each other. Her mind told her they were called eyes.

Yellow eyes... 

She recognized those eyes... what was familiarity?

As she got ever closer to where her eyes almost touched the yellow ones, she realized her own eyes were yellow...

What was color?

She reached out and felt something soft. Again, her mind told her it was called fur. It was dark grey. 

Coal...

She remembered the people on the ship. She remembered the spaceship... she remembered-

-She remembered nothing.

What was her name? She couldn't remember... who was she? What did she used to be? Who did she used to be?

Her existence began to shift. She felt air suddenly swirling around her. She had a strange sensation all over... she had a body now. It too, had fur. She felt what her mind called gravity press down upon her, but she did not break, for her bones formed to hold her up.

She felt her surroundings come to being around her, and she could sense her own eyelids over her eyes. Her ears shifted and turned in different directions, trying to pick up sound. She could now feel them too. She could hear voices and the distant sound of beeping... she had woken up to something like this before... but not like this. Something was wrong, it wasn't like waking up to go to school-

-Wasn't like waking up at all.

She felt oblong, awkward, and stiff. She couldn't move, her body felt too heavy. The gravity... was pushing very hard on her. Her long muzzle hung open and she tried to talk, but nothing but a groan escaped, just like before-

-before nothing.

Then she heard voices and her ears flicked, "She's coming to!"

"Did it actually work?"

"Go check on Coal! Make sure he's okay!"

"Yes doctor!"

Her eyelids suddenly flitted open and blinding light stung her eyes. Her head moved side to side as she felt the gravity slowly lifting from her body. Then she glanced down.

She was in a strange, transparent tube. Her body was brown with dark brown legs and arms. She could see her snout poking out into her vision. She must be an animal... but why did it feel so wrong?

One word blurted from her mouth as she realized she could speak, "Coal!" She bumped her head on the top of the tube, and it seemed to fully awaken her. She lifted her arm up and hit the top of the tube, frustration seeping into her body. "Coal!" she cried out again, she knew of no one else. He was all she knew to get help from.

"Calm down please!" came the troubled voice of a middle-aged red panda who was leaning over the tube she was in, "we are trying to help you!"

"Coal!" she screamed, "Coal!"

She didn't hear the red panda call out again, but soon the tube was opened up and she felt a tiny poke in her arm. She struggled, but soon felt herself receding back to the familiar darkness where she had first come...

At least she would feel safe there... but what was this strange place? This strange world? Who was this Coal that she had never seen before? Was it the red panda?

No.

Grey fur, yellow eyes... Coal...

Coal! Where are you!

Coal! I need you!

Coal! I'm scared...

Coal! I don't want to lose you...

Coal... I'm frightened of this darkness around me... where are you?

Please... rescue me from this cold, dark, place.