I get up to leave the room and realize I have no idea where I am, or where I’m going. I turn around and look directly at Chenoa, I need a little girl help here. “Where’s the bathroom?”
“It’s the first door on the right, hon.” She points to a hallway. I walk down and see pictures of Hugh as a child. There’s one of him holding a fish on his fishing pole. Even then he had that dazzling smile of his. There’s genetics for ya. I walk into the neutral colored bathroom and close the door. I need to think. Do I really believe all of this? Can I? I splash some cold water on my face and look into the mirror for clarity. That’s when I see them, my eyes are the same yellow-gold as Hugh’s. The same eye color of his parents, of every cryptid I’ve met thus far. And as I examine them further, it hits me, I have my father’s eyes.
The feeling of hurt comes crashing down on me in waves. I turn on the sink faucet so water as loud as possible to drown out my sobs. None of this seems fair. I didn’t do anything to deserve any of this! Suddenly I am bitter and angry at someone I never thought I would be, my dad. He got me into this mess and now I have to get myself out. I take a deep breath and wipe my face on a towel. I turn the water off and escape from the bathroom, hoping no one heard my mental breakdown.
I walk out of the bathroom deciding to stay and learn what I can when I hear Chenoa on the phone. “Meg, she’s fine, she’s with us. I know you’re worried. I wish Hugh had told you too. Trust me when I say he’s in trouble.”
She pauses, obviously listening to my mom, who is probably freaking out at this point. How could she not? Her only daughter crossed state lines with a boy she hardly knows.
“Meg, she wants to know about James. You know how close he and Alo were. She can learn from him, from us. Please let her stay for a few days. I promise she’ll come home in one piece.” This tactic would actually work with Mom. She really believes I need closure about my dad’s disappearance. Maybe she’ll think staying here will help me. I listen as Chenoa sighs, “Thank you Meg, I promise we’ll do what we can for her.” The phone clicks as she hangs up and I breathe a sigh of relief. Let’s hope with a few days she’ll cool off and things won’t be so ugly when I get home.
I walk out of the hallway to see the entire family sitting at the kitchen table. They all stare at me as I enter.
Chenoa smiles, “You’ll be staying with us for a few days. Hopefully we can teach you more about yourself. About who you really are.”
I say with a strong confidence, “I hope you can because right now I have no idea who I really am.”
It’s late and Chenoa shows me to my room when I realize I have no pajamas to wear. “Chenoa?” I say poking my head out of their guest room. She comes around the corner; their house being one story is coming in handy. You can hear everything everyone else is doing in their respective spaces.
“What can I do for ya?” She’s so earnest, so sweet, she really does mean well. I feel kinda bad about how rude I was earlier, not to mention passing out on her porch.
“Umm, this is kind of embarrassing but I need something to sleep in.” I gesture to my outfit, as if to further prove why it’s not sleepwear, not to mention that I wore it to bed last night and it’s starting to smell.
She looks almost startled. “Did my son tell you anything before coming here? I mean really.” She marches down the hall in a huff and bangs on Hugh’s door. “Hugh Raven, did you really not even bring this girl clothes?”
He opens the door wearing long striped pajama pants and no shirt. His upper body is just as sculpted as I imagined. Hugh’s tanned skin practically glows and he has just a bit of chest hair right between his clearly defined pecs. God why does he have to look that good? I mean that is just not normal. “I did, I told her everything was in the bag I packed.”
His mom shoots a look over his shoulder and points around him. “You mean that black bag? The one in your room that she has no access to?” She shakes her head. It’s nice to have a girl on my side. He grabs the bag quickly and gives it to his mom. “Sorry Mom.”
She looks at him hard; I can tell she’s using their connection to give him a message. “Sorry Shay.” He adds quickly.
“That’s better,” she says aloud this time.
“It’s ok. Thanks.” I take the bag from Chenoa and she walks away. Hugh stands in his doorway looking me over. I open the bag and pull out a nightie, the one Liv bought me as a joke for my birthday last year. It’s baby blue with thin straps and a practically see through bottom with matching ruffled underwear. My cheeks turn bright pink as I raise my eyes to meet his.
“Where did you get this?” Anger is suddenly overtaking the embarrassment. “Were you in my room? Did you really believe you were going to get this lucky this quickly?” I shake the nightie in his face.
He looks down, “Well you were sleeping, and I didn’t want to disturb you.”
I start rummaging through the rest of the bag at the speed of light, “Underwear! You went in my underwear drawer too?” I had hid the nightie underneath my jeans, so he had to go through multiple drawers to find all these items.
“Well I packed everything you would need for a couple days here.”
“But when? I mean, you were in my room while I was sleeping?”
“Well, how do you think you got home after everything that happened at Wendy’s house?”
Suddenly I understand, “You got me home? You made sure I was ok. You knew I would go to see Jeremy. You planned everything.” I feel like I’ve been duped. It’s not fair for him to play with my life like this. I’m over it. He looks at the ground and doesn’t respond.
“Whatever, I’m going to bed. Don’t wake me up tomorrow; I’ll get up when I feel like it. And P.S. I kind of hate your guts right now.”
I turn around and slam the door. I throw the bag down like it has scabies and fall onto the twin bed. The cold pillow feels good against the warm skin of my cheek. I close my eyes and just try to clear my mind.
Chapter 20
When I wake up the next morning I realize where I am and what it is I’m doing here. I stand and look into the mirror on top of the dresser next to the bed. The bed looks mostly untouched, I didn’t even pull back the blanket to sleep, just laid there on the comforter. What I see is not unexpected, mascara stuck running down my face, my eyes are puffy and swollen from hours of crying. My eyes that are now gold. Just like Hugh’s and the rest of his family’s. Just like Emina. Just like my father. And that is because I am a cryptid. It’s time to accept it. To accept it and move on. I need to learn as much as I can. I mean if I’m going to defeat this Malsumis then I better get my shit together.
I look at the bag I dropped on the floor last night. Well let’s see what else Hugh decided I should bring. Lucky for me he’s not the best dresser and there’s a hoodie and a pair of yoga pants in there. I grab them and change. I keep make up remover pads in my purse so I clean up my face and apply a fresh coat of paint. It even makes my eyes look slightly better after all the crying I did last night. I rub the locket around my neck between by thumb and pointer finger. Jeremy, give me some strength.
When I open the door there’s a surprise at my feet. Breakfast of bacon and eggs is set on one of those things you see in Bed and Breakfasts, a tray on legs for your bed. I love breakfast, because sitting next to the food is my favorite thing, a steaming cup of coffee. I take the tray and walk back over the bed and get under the covers. A few more minutes to myself couldn’t hurt.
As I’m finishing my delicious breakfast, I notice a small cat enter my room. “Hi there pretty kitty. Come on over and let me pet you.” It walks towards the window with its sleek black coat shining in the morning sun.
It has its back toward me and I hear the voice before I notice the change. “I’d rather not.”
The small cat in front of me is now morphing into a beautiful young woman. Her legs develop first and as her hair lengthens her arms appear. The last thing she does is turn her head to look at me. Standing in front of me is Emina, the y
oung woman who despises me, just for being me. She’s wearing a light brown dress that makes her yellow eyes stand out with leggings and boots, my kind of outfit when I’m not totally screwed up like today.
I’m astounded at her transformation. “You can talk? I mean when you’re a cat?”
“Sure can, why wouldn’t I be able to? I’m a shifter, not your regular housecat variety.”
She sits down on the side of my bed looking at my shocked face and grabs my last piece of bacon. “So I heard you and lover boy had a fight.”
“Uhh yeah, I guess. But what’s it to you?” Just yesterday this girl practically called me a curse word and today she’s sitting in my room. What the hell is going on here?
She chews on her bacon thoughtfully, it’s a little gross. She looks at me, “Listen, I think you being here is weird, but lucky for you, Chenoa is practically my mom. And whatever she says goes. So today you’re going to get some girl time and I promise not to kick your ass.”
Super, this ought to be awesome.
“And what does this girl time entail?” I ask hoping no guns or chewing tobacco is involved because I have a feeling that is what she does for a good time.
She winks at me while finishing her bacon. “Well halfy, I’m going to teach you how to shift.”
Chapter 21
I don’t even know if I can trust this girl, but just then Chenoa walks in.
“I see you’ve gotten comfortable Emina.” There’s a smile on her face but I can tell she demands Emina’s attention.
“Yeah, I mean we were just talking about shifting.” I’m nervous about it. Is this even something I want to try doing?
Chenoa nods, “Perfect. Emina is an excellent shifter, she’ll be a great teacher. Won’t you dear?”
Emina nods slightly while her eyes are on the floor. I’m wondering how much trouble she got in for her comment yesterday.
Chenoa turns her attention back to me. “I hope that you and Hugh can rekindle your friendship, but for today he’s gone with his father into town. Won’t be back until later tonight I’m afraid.” She gives me a coy smile. Well played Chenoa.
“Thanks for telling me.” I really appreciate what a great mom she is; she’s giving me a break that I desperately need.
“I just wanted you to be uninterrupted in your training. And you both should get started. I’ll take this.” She walks over and takes the bed tray. I grab the coffee mug so I can savor the last few sips.
“Thanks for breakfast Chenoa, it was great.”
She nods as she walks out the door, “Well I’ll leave you girls to it.”
Emina looks me over, I’m still under the covers. “Well let’s do this then.”
She gets up and makes her way to the door. She stops with her hand on the knob. “I don’t really hate you ya know. I mean you’re a halfy and that’s weird, but whatever. If Hugh and Chenoa like you, I’m in. I mean I kinda have to be.”
It feels awkward but I must admit I appreciate her honesty. I get out of the bed slowly, “Is what I’m wearing OK?”
She nods, “Yeah but you’re gonna want some sneaks, we’ll be moving a lot. And you won’t be so used to the type of land we’ll be walking on. You’re not in Virginia anymore.”
We leave the house and walk for maybe fifteen minutes. Emina lights a thin home rolled cigarette as we walk. I hate the way it smells, but I’m not going to say anything. She takes long puffs, probably so she won’t have to talk to me on our walk which is fine by me.
It’s a warm day, much warmer than it is in Virginia right now I bet. The dirt crunches under my feet, they must not have had the rain here that we’ve been having back home. As we walk I get to see more of their village. It’s a trailer park really. Most of the trailers are in bad shape, some even falling down or abandoned. There’s only one other building in town. It hasn’t any lettering on the front so I ask Emina what it is.
“Community Building,” she says, “we use it for everything really, school, hospital, we used it for town meetings a lot when I was younger. My parents talk about meeting with the elders there or the heads of other tribes. I don’t remember any of that. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone from other tribes in years.” She shakes her head as if disappointed with the progress of her people. I almost feel sorry for her.
After we pass the Community Building and a couple more trailers, I realize I have no idea what we’re really going to be doing. Finally she stops walking. “This is the end of our property,” she says while pointing her finger to an imaginary line. “Don’t cross this line and shift, we need to stay on our land. It keeps us safe from them. You won’t be safe to shift out there until you’ve mastered the skills required. If you’re out there you need to know how to shift quickly and that won’t be for a while.”
“No problem.” There’s no way I want any part of them, I’ll stay wherever she tells me to.
She turns around and walks about twenty feet back the way we came. “Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be. You just tell me what to do Yoda.”
She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. “It feels a little like I would expect flying to.”
“What, you mean you can’t fly?” I laugh at my own joke, but she doesn’t get it, she just scowls at me. “Sorry, I joke when I’m nervous.”
She looks at me, “Whatever. Now focus.”
“There’s a light wind blowing through your hair. Your skin feels like your hair is all over your body. Concentrate on what it would feel like to be small. To be agile. Cats can move like we can’t, so stretch your limbs, roll your neck. Relax and focus on being an animal. Focus on the instincts of a cat. What do you feel?”
She opens her eyes and looks at me, her yellow eyes are practically glowing. I can tell she’s trying to stop the change from happening to her. She keeps wiggling her fingers and stretching her neck, almost like she’s trying to release energy caged inside her body.
How do I tell her I feel nothing? No rush of electricity like when I summoned Wendy’s dad, no animal movements or instincts.
“Emina,” I say shyly, she is not going to like this, “I don’t feel anything like that.”
She growls and suddenly I’m looking down at a black house cat. “Sorry Emina, I really did try I promise.”
She sits down, her black fur glistening in the sunlight. “Well, try again. You’re going to keep trying until you get it.” She starts into her speech again and I try, really I do, but no dice.
We go on like this for hours with no more luck than before. Finally I decide I need to throw in the towel. I’m exhausted and my brain hurts from all this focusing, it’s like there’s pins coming at it from all sides.
I take deep cleansing breaths and say, “Emina, didn’t Hugh say some cryptids couldn’t shift? I see ghosts. Doesn’t that mean I’m not a shifter?”
“Alo told me you’re the strongest cryptid he’s ever met. He thought you’d be able to do both, but whatever, he could be wrong.” She licks the top of her right paw almost as if she’s bored with our conversation. I can’t believe a cat is actually speaking to me. Her small feline body begins to walk back toward the village.
I follow her swaying cat-self and begin to wonder. “Emina, are you married?”
“Yep, what’s it to ya?” She looks up at me over her shiny black shoulder.
“Do you mind if we have this conversation with you being, ya know, human?” Talking to a cat is really freaking me out.
“Have it your way, but you started this.” She shifts back into a person with ease. She’s so quick. I wish I had her talent.
“By the way, I’m not human, not completely anyway. And neither are you, and the minute you accept that, the better off you’ll be.” She continues to walk with her back to me, but at least she’s on two legs again.
She’s right, I know she is, and it’s important to hear it from someone besides Hugh. When she says it I almost believe her, but I brush it off and return to my original question. “Hugh sai
d he was your betrothed and that you got married when he left.”
She snorts, “He probably said I was pregnant too, right? He thinks we’re nothing but a bunch of hicks out here. It’s why he left. And to find you. Yes, I am happily married to a man who takes care of me. And in case you’re wondering, no I am not pregnant.”
That’s a relief, I’m not sure the world is ready for little Eminas to be running around. I latch onto something she said, “What do you mean about Hugh coming to find me? Oh well yeah I mean because I’m my dad’s daughter. You know since his parents were so close with my dad and…”
She does an about face and I stop short, almost walking right into her. She would have loved that I bet.
“Are you really that stupid?”
Reveal (Cryptid Tales) Page 9
