"Hi Kayla." Ashley hugged her. "I've missed you. I thought about you all the time. Really missed you."
"Come in. Ronald's making dinner." Kayla quickly retreated towards the kitchen. "Mom finally redecorated, see? Much better. Doesn't look like we're living in the eighties anymore."
Ashley paused in the foyer.
All of the furnishings inside of Doris's house had changed, but its layout was the same as Ashley remembered. It felt like she had stepped back in time. She touched the old banister, the wood worn smooth from all the times she ran her hand along it while sprinting downstairs, hurrying to get to the school bus.
Ashley smelled cooking. A hearty aroma of spiced beef and bubbling cheese. She stepped away from the stairwell and followed Kayla into the kitchen.
Ronald had just pulled a lasagna out of the oven. He was tall and muscular with mocha skin and a military-style, fade haircut. Ashley stopped in her tracks when she saw him. He was good-looking, which she hadn't expected. His figure, deeply chiseled. Her mother had scored a good catch for a woman with two kids.
Ashley felt a strong pang of attraction to her new stepfather and looked away, trying hard not to show it.
"This is Ashley." Kayla skipped up next to Ronald, huddling into him for security. She peered down at the lasagna. "Looks yummy. Dad's a really good cook."
Dad?
Ronald stared at Ashley, wrinkling his face. He removed a hot-pot mitten from his hand and casually tossed it onto the countertop.
"You're Doris's son?" His voice sounded melodic with a very slight southern twang.
"I'm her daughter. Ashley. Please don't call me her son. Or Adam."
Ronald reached into the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice, taking a shallow sip.
"To be up front with you, I'm a pretty conservative guy. A Christian. I don't approve of your kind of lifestyle, but Doris has made it clear that you're going to do what you want, and you're hers, so that's that. Though I still hope you come to know and accept Jesus Christ. No one deserves eternal damnation. No matter what their sins may be."
"Okay. Please don't call me Adam, though."
"I also want to lay out a few ground rules for the house. Make sure there are no arguments." Ronald went quiet as Doris walked into the kitchen. He reached for Ashley's bag. "Don't carry that, baby, you're going to hurt yourself."
"You all need to stop worrying." Doris laughed. "I'm pregnant, not crippled. But fine. Here. Kayla, take your sister's bag up to your room."
Kayla snatched the schoolbag from Doris and stomped her way upstairs.
Ronald watched her leave and then eyed his fiancé. "I was just going over some rules."
"Jesus, Ron. . ." Doris eased him away from the lasagna and used a knife to portion it. "She just got home. Give her time to settle in."
"Don't cuss," Ronald sniffed. "And the safety of our family, and that baby, comes before its feelings."
"It?" Doris looked over at Ronald, staring daggers.
Ashley died a little inside.
Ronald put out his hands apologetically and gently touched Doris's belly, rubbing it softly, caressing her baby bump. "I want to make sure nothing happens. Just worried. This is all. . .alien to me. My dad never would have stood for this. I need time to adjust."
Ashley watched her mom warm back up to Ronald. Doris unconsciously smiled at his touch and almost cooed. Ashley frowned. She could feel a drakhata latching onto her back. Its stinger twitched as it burrowed its tail into her spine.
"What are your rules?"
Ronald turned to Ashley with a stern expression. "First off, ten o'clock is lights out for you and Kayla. Don't be sneaking out, and if you do go out, be back by nine. No exceptions. No girls in the house. . .or boys, if that's your thing." He seemed to shudder thinking about it. "Can you drive?"
"No. My seizures. Until they stop, they won't give me a license."
"Good. Probably for the best. Although it'll make it hard for you to get a job. Otherwise, they'll be no TV past nine, even if your homework's done. No chatting on the computer, or texting at dinner, and no locked doors in the house."
"Why?" Ashley crinkled her nose.
"You shouldn't be hiding anything from me or your mother. If you need privacy, just shut the door. I run a tight ship. I'm a marine. A structured life works wonders on the soul, and I think it'll be good for you. Help you pull yourself together."
"Okay. . ."
Doris put herself between Ronald and Ashley, shooting her a reassuring smile. "Why don't you go up to your room, change, and get Kayla to come down for dinner?"
"Sure, mom." Ashley shuffled away.
Kayla had taken over Ashley's side of the room during her long absence, clogging the walls with glossy posters of boy bands. Her mélange of stuffed animals and dirty clothes blanketed the carpet. When Ashley walked in, it felt like she'd never lived there. Like she didn't belong.
"Sorry," Kayla mumbled, looking up at Ashley as she entered. "I should have cleaned up. If dad saw this, he'd ground me. I'll get rid of the mess after dinner."
"It doesn't matter. You're getting along with Ronald? Calling him dad? He seems really strict. I thought you'd hate that."
"He is strict," Kayla pouted. "But I can charm him. I'm his princess." She pointed at the closet. "Mom got some clothes for you and hung them up. Please don't wear any of my stuff - unless you ask first. I'm starving. I'm gonna get dinner."
Kayla left, her footsteps echoing throughout the old house as she made her way downstairs.
Ashley sat down on her bed and undressed. She then went over to the closet, and scanned her new wardrobe, which Kayla or her mother had pushed to the side.
Doris had conservative taste in dress, and either thought Ashley would share it, or that anything remotely form-fitting would be inappropriate on a teenage boy. Everything she bought looked matronly. Loose fitting and plain.
Ashley rifled through the rack until she found something acceptable. A blue cotton dress. She pulled it over herself. The sleeves clung to her shoulders, and her ribcage pressed out against the fabric. She turned to the mirror and glared at her reflection.
I'm a drag queen.
Deflated, she shook her head, trying to kill the negative emotions before they took root. She un-bagged a pair of panties and pulled them on under the dress, to try to feel moderately feminine.
Afterwards, she scanned Kayla's side of the closet.
Everything Kayla owned looked cute. Super girly. Youthful. Colorful. Low cut tops, boy shorts, a sea of tiny shoes. Her sister was perfectly shaped and could wear anything she wanted.
Ashley scrunched her face. Before she left the room, she glanced back at the mirror. The drakhata's reflection haunted her. The grey, manta ray-like parasite had fused with her spine. An itch on her brain stem. Its rear stinger pulsated like a beating heart, drinking deep of her envy.
"Go away!"
Even though Ashley had seen many such creatures cling to her from time to time, the image still revolted her. She knew she couldn't remove it physically, so she tried to clear her head while making her way downstairs.
***
"That looks good on you." Doris smiled at Ashley as she plated everyone's food.
"It's not fitted right," Kayla yawned. She shoved a wad of lasagna into her mouth and looked out the window, into the forest past the backyard.
"Why don't you wear baggier things?" Ronald grumbled. "A hoodie. Sweat pants. So it's not so easy to tell."
Ashley took her seat. She waited for her mother to pass her her plate.
"It's my shape. I'll go shopping later and get something that looks right."
"Ashley's in your grade now," Doris beamed to Kayla. "I'm sure she's nervous about going back to school. Can you be a good sister and show her around? Introduce her to your friends?"
Kayla winced.
"It's okay." Ashley watched a brood of red spider-like insects swarm on top of her lasagna, nibbling on the noodles. She ignored them and took a
small bite anyway, swallowing them whole. "I can meet people on my own."
"I'll do it," Kayla sniffed. "I'm not going to pretend I don't know who you are. You won't fit in though. Most of the boys are awful, like dad says, and there's no one else like. . .like you."
"You certainly won't fit in if you're dressed like that," Ronald added.
"Please, Ron." Doris put her hand on top of his. "I know you're having trouble dealing with this, but please drop it."
"Sorry, baby." He kissed her cheek.
Ashley stewed in her seat, watching her mother grow flush from the kiss. She picked at her plate for ten minutes, eating less than a mouthful, and then excused herself. She took a long, hot shower - the longest in four years - before going to bed.
Ashley fell asleep very quickly. The Youth Center had always been noisy, even after lights-out, and the unbroken quiet of home was an overpowering sedative.
She shifted within a few minutes. She knew it before waking up. Her whole body tingled like it was on fire and then became mind numbingly cold.
It felt like being born. Painfully squeezed out into a frightening new world.
Ashley opened her eyes. She was naked. She looked down at her body and saw that she was a girl. A real girl. She often was when she shifted. She was lying spread eagle on her back in a large swath of mud. Cold rain poured down on her exposed skin and the grey sky above rumbled with thunder.
A thick forest surrounded her. The billowing rain obscured everything more than a few feet away, making the trees look like shadows. She slipped while trying to stand up, and then blindly fumbled her way through the downpour, stepping waist deep into an overflowing creek.
"Ow!"
A jagged stone stabbed into the sole of her foot. She sloshed her way out of the icy water and huddled into a ball on the thick grass next to the bank, squeezing her eyes shut.
Let me shift back. Please! It's so cold here. Too cold. Let me shift! Now!
It was of no use. Qualkhoikhom was absent. Ashley felt no trace of him. She wiped the rain from her face, and felt her way toward the trees, ducking under the canopy of a nearby oak.
The tree blocked out the rain. Ashley pressed herself against its trunk. Bark spiders scurried by, clinging to the branches, overhead. Ashley rocked back and forth, praying to shift out of this place, and back home to bed. She was so, so tired. She noticed a talisman hanging on one of the higher branches. It looked like an X made of two twigs, decorated with black feathers, and the jawbone of a fox or a bobcat.
The man with the skeleton hand. . .
"Are you here?" Ashley called out, into the downpour. "Can you help me?"
The man with the skeleton hand had shadowed Ashley since she was ten years old. Sometimes he appeared wherever she happened to shift. Another shifter, perhaps - Ashley didn't know. There were others that looked like him; savage men clothed in wolf skins and black, plate armor. They, unlike him, always attacked her on sight.
One of those savages had tried to rape Ashley in an evergreen forest similar to the one she was in now. He followed her as she wandered aimlessly, stalking her from the underbrush. When she leaned against a tree to rest, he pounced, tearing her pajamas with bear claws that were lashed to his wrists. They slashed through the cotton like razor blades, making bleeding scratches across both of her breasts.
The man had then leaned down into Ashley's face. He bit her lips, forcibly holding her head down with his, as he groped her.
Ashley screamed. Before the savage could penetrate her, the man with the skeleton hand took shape from the forest. He grabbed the savage and threw him off of Ashley, effortlessly, sending the man crashing into a nearby tree with enough force to shatter its trunk.
The man with the skeleton hand was a giant, standing nearly seven feet tall. His head was covered by a silver helmet which mimicked a wolf's head, with open jaws and saber-toothed fangs. Between the jaws was a mask; a human's face carved in silver.
Ashley recognized the mask as her own face, with her high cheek bones, her crooked nose, and her awkwardly masculine bone structure.
The man with the skeleton hand had attempted to help her up to her feet, but she shifted back home before he could touch her.
The talisman on the tree above Ashley now mimicked a design that was stenciled into the man with the skeleton hand's armor. She had seen the symbol many times before. Two three-pointed axes in the shape of an X. One point on each axe had been pounded down into a hammer.
She grabbed the talisman and instantly shifted back, waking up in bed.
"Mmm. . .."
Ashley heard Kayla stir, but didn't move, quivering under her covers.
"Are you okay?" Kayla croaked. She reached for her bedside clock. "It's three in the morning. Did you have a seizure?"
"I'm fine." Ashley was still clutching the talisman. It felt warm and squishy now. It began to writhe in her grasp, and shocked, she let go of it.
A small, white shape bolted out from under her blanket. It charged towards the door and began to claw at the wood, madly hissing.
Kayla screamed. "DAD! DAD! HELP!"
Ashley trembled, staring at the shape.
It was a cat.
Mist.
Both girls felt paralyzed. They barely moved, balling up on top of their beds like the little cat was the boogeyman. After a few moments, loud footsteps thumped down the hall, and Ronald flung the door open.
The cat swiped at his naked toes and then took off down the stairwell.
Ronald tumbled backwards from the sudden attack. He landed on his butt and clutched his feet. They'd been bloodied. "What - what in the hell was that?!?"
Ashley breathed slowly, in and out, calming herself. Qualkhoikhom had passed. She could feel it. Everything would be okay. For a little while longer.
"It was Mist," she whispered. "Our cat."
"Ma-Mist ran away," Kayla stammered, now wide awake and terrified. "He's gone! He's dead! How could he have gotten in here? That wasn't him! That wasn't him! Don't say that! How did that cat get in your bed? Did you bring it up here? Why would you do that? What is wrong with you!"
3.
-Skilon-
(Lust)
It was October. The air was brisk. Ashley hadn't worn a jacket because she thought she'd be too hot in one. She was wearing white and pink sweat pants and a matching zip-up hoodie. It was the type of clothing Ronald had suggested, and, she had to admit, it made her look passable.
Ashley walked a few steps behind Kayla on the way to the bus stop. The two of them hadn't spoken since Mist appeared and vanished during the night. Ronald had searched the house for hours and didn't find the cat. He gave up, slightly disturbed, but mostly exhausted.
He didn't ask Ashley to explain herself the next morning.
Mist disappeared from Doris's house four years ago. Although he was the family cat, he was Kayla's pet in particular. She adored him. When he went missing, she was despondent and locked herself in her room for two days, crying.
Ashley avoided Mist whenever he was in the house. She was always off in her own world, and had little time to focus on him. Her indifference attracted him to her like a moth to a flame.
One night, Mist cuddled up next to Ashley in bed as she slept. Soon, she shifted, taking the cat with her into a dreamy desert full of flowering cacti and large, golden birds that looked liked lizards. Mist took off, chasing one of the lizard-birds across the red sand dunes that rippled out to every horizon. Ashley shifted back before she could catch up to him, leaving him lost in some unnamed dream world.
Mist and Ian were the only two beings that Ashley had ever taken with her during a shift, although Ian hadn't actually shifted. He and Ashley had been best friends. During a play session, when they were twelve, they found a dead mouse in a crawlspace next to Ian's bedroom. They huddled over it out of curiosity. Soon, Ashley saw a khlathu take shape next to them, attracted by the decay. Unlike anytime before or since, Ian saw the khlathu too. It reacted violently and attacked, evi
scerating the boy with rasping mandibles.
When Ian's parents came home, they found the crawlspace splattered with their son's remains. Ashley was huddled into a ball in the middle of the gore. Crying. Screaming.
"Ash?" Kayla's voice cut into her thoughts.
A grey sedan had pulled up to the curb a block short of the bus stop. Three teenage boys were inside, horsing around with each another, kicking the seat backs. A loud bass beat made the car shake.
The Book of the Nine Ides Page 2