Metamorphosis
That must have been something that she had passed earlier. She never quite seen it, but a shifting of the shadows moving that fast must have been something other than her imagination. It was so big and yet so silent. Maybe it was just her imagination running wild on her. Who could blame her for such paranoid thoughts anyway?
Holly never slowed her quick walk and rarely looked behind her because every time that she did, a feeling of dread came over her. She wondered how the village was. Had they been attacked? Would she return to an empty town?
"Who's there?" came a familiar voice. A voice that belonged to a woman. A voice that she had grown accustomed to. Holly knelt down low and slowly made her way forward until the trees just stopped and an opening set in front of her.
"Hello?" called the voice again.
Holly squinted her eyes to see a shadowed form of a woman standing on the other side of the clearing. The woman took a step forward and stopped.
"Holly?" She called. Suddenly Holly had to shelter a light in her eyes with her hands. It was a small flame set to candle that the woman had just lit, but to her eyes, it might as well be the sun itself.
"It is you," cried the voice. Holly's vision focused and she could see Eliza standing on the other side of the clearing with Katey lying on her side next to her in the nude.
"Eliza?" Holly asked as quietly as she could but it sounded to her as if she had screamed it. She tried to speak quieter but it only came out as a whisper so she cleared her throat and stood up straight.
"Holly," Eliza said happily. "Thank you! Come here. We need your help."
Holly started to take a step forward but stopped herself. Krystal said that Eliza was acting strange and now that her eyes were focused there were some things quite different about the woman.
She wore a long black dress for one. It could be the candlelight and shadows messing with her eyes, but it seemed as though her pupils were so faint that she almost appeared to have any at all.
"Please," she called again as she leaned down over Katey and placed her hand on the woman. "Katey needs you."
Holly took a step back and began planning her escape. Her heart began pounding in her chest as Eliza stood up straight to regard her.
"Running will not help you," Eliza said coldly.
"What have you done to Katey?!" Holly shouted louder than she had anticipated.
"Katey is fine," Eliza purred and gestured to the woman on the ground. Katey stood up next to Eliza and smiled at Holly.
"I'm fine Holly," Katey said in a monotone voice. "You should come with us. It's much better that way."
"I'm sorry," Holly said quickly before turning toward the night and dashing into the darkness.
What happened to Eliza? What had she done to Katey? What was she going to do to her?
******************************************
The strange creatures scream echoed through the night. Joe's heart nearly leaped out of his chest the first time he heard it. The volume of the beast's scream alone was enough to wake the entire world it seemed.
He busted out of the front door of the house that he and Krystal were staying in with Krystal right behind him. As he swung the front door open he looked at the back of the house and seen the back door had been busted in. Splintered wood lay scattered across the hallway and even made it to the living room.
He ran into the bedroom to find it empty except for the creature who was lying on the floor next to the bed to the back.
"What happened," he asked as he approached the creature.
It was trying to say something but only clicks and hisses came out. It was like Coralyn had told him. Some things it could not say. Some things were forbidden.
"Coralyn?" He asked, hoping the creature could at least gesture an answer.
The thing only shook its head and pointed somewhere beyond the window.
"Help her," he said in a pained voice. "Must help her."
Krystal ran into the room at that time looking as scared as he felt.
What had come in and taken Coralyn that could send this creature in the state it was in? What would cause more terror than the thing that lay in front of them? What could this thing possibly be afraid of?
"Can you stand?" He asked as he extended a hand down to help it up, but the creature only shook its head.
"You go," it said to him. "She stays." It gestured to Krystal, which caused a gasp and dirty look from her.
"Like hell, I'm staying," she snapped. "I was wanting to go out earlier anyway. Why would I stay behind now that someone else has been taken?"
"Not safe," the thing said in a low voice. It made a series of clicks and hisses as it tried to search for words that it could say before sighing and looking back to Krystal again in defeat.
"Maybe he knows something that we don't," Joe finally said as he turned to look at Krystal, who was staring back at him in disbelief.
"You better not be suggesting what I think you are," she said with crossed arms and downward eyebrows.
"If it wanted to hurt us then it would have by now," he argued. "It has been attacked. That much is obvious. If it says that you shouldn't go then maybe there's just a damned good reason for that."
Krystal kept her arms crossed but looked at him in deep thought. Finally, after a long moment of thought, she nodded.
"Fine," she huffed. "I'll stay here, but make sure you bring everyone you can back."
Joe nodded in return and took one more look at the creature on the floor. It had itself propped up on its elbow as it watched the two of them. The creature held what looked like a sympathetic smile on its face.
"Good leader," it said which caused Joe to stop a bit longer and eye the thing curiously. He shrugged any thoughts away and ran out of the house and toward the direction that the monster had pointed.
The cold night air swept over him as he ran as fast as he could safely do so considering the darkness and the constant zigzagging around trees in his journey.
He would find Coralyn and he would save her. Somehow he would save them all. He had to. It was all up to him now.
***********************************************
Eliza weaved through the forest with ease as she followed the glowing trails of the fleeing Holly. The tiny redhead wouldn't get far. Every step Holly made, Eliza could make three to match. She was closing ground on the woman entirely too fast in all actuality. She didn't even know what she was going to do exactly when she caught up with her.
What's happening to me?
Her thoughts wrang through her head so loudly she could almost hear them. She was changing physically and wasn't sure how to feel about it. She could feel herself becoming stronger. She could feel herself becoming faster. Her vision was improving at a rapid pace and she was able to sense things that she never thought possible.
Here she was gliding through the night forest as if it was a second nature and knew everything that was around her without having to look or listen.
None of that bothered her though. All of that was positive things and therefore nothing to worry about. No, she celebrated those changes, but the changes that concerned her were the changes to her body.
Her skin was growing redder by the hour. It held a darkened red color more similar to a brick than her old skin color. The strange lumps on her head were growing larger and driving a constant stinging pain through her skin and she felt similar stinging pain on her back in two spots just above her shoulder blades. She happened to catch a glimpse of her face in the reflection of a small pond earlier and noticed that her pupils were all but gone, leaving only whiteness to remain. She ran her tongue over one of her canine teeth as the sharpness of it almost sliced her tongue. And even her tongue seemed to be growing longer.
She was turning into a demon and there was nothing that she could do about it.
The proposal to Kyle was made for two reasons. The first reason was that she wasn't sure how much longer she could have fought his pull on her. She wasn't sure how much longer she had until she was going to turn into a mindless sex slave like Katey so she did what she thought she could do. The second was the fact that she was lonely. She sought companionship and Kyle had been the best companion that she had had in a long time. He made her feel safe and that went a long way in a world such as this one.
The thing that worried her the most was the way she found out how to convince him to do what he did. She had no idea how any of the demon stuff worked at the time. There was no way of her knowing to ask for marriage. There was no way of her knowing about them sharing the link with each other.
It was Riggan. The demon queen herself had slipped into her thoughts and told exactly what to say and what to demand if she wished to remain an individual. The demon queen herself had offered her a gift for cooperation. And it was that same demon that whispered little bits of information to her from time to time.
What was Riggan's final goal with her? What could she possibly have for the queen?
"You might as well stop running," Eliza projected her voice toward the frightened woman as she ran as hard as she could. "How long can you possibly run?"
How did she do that? Eliza didn't even know that was possible before then. Another gift? How many gifts would she get? She could throw her voice wherever she desired and suddenly she knew exactly how to do such a thing. It was as if she had the power her entire life. No training, no learning, no practice. She could just do it.
