//------------------------------//
// Part II - Chapter 4: The Change 
// Story: Return of the Mare 
// by Victoria 
//------------------------------//


Part II


Chapter 4: The Change

6 years later.
I stepped into a grocery store where I had been working. Today was my four-month anniversary of getting this job. So much for what was supposed to be a temporary thing until I found something better. The payment here wasn’t the best in town, obviously, but it was a way to get by.

Despite everything, I haven’t regretted my decision to move out of my foster family’s house to live independently. Even though my family was very nice, they were too overbearing for my taste. They didn’t approve of my decision, but they accepted it in the end. My stepmom called me once every few days to catch up on things. We enjoyed having a pleasant conversation with each other.

I had never known my real parents. I mean, I probably did before, but I had trouble remembering my life before an accident that happened six years ago. I was wandering alone in the wilderness for a few days before some people found me. That was the first thing I remember. The doctors assured me my previous memories would return eventually, but they didn’t. No relatives were found, so I was sent to an orphanage and adopted a while later.

As of now, I was legally considered an adult. Obviously, my real age was unknown, so they wrote me down as a 14-year old when they had found me, based just on my appearance. They were close enough, I suppose.

“Morning, Annie,” a young, tall guy greeted me as soon as I entered the store.

His name was Marcus. He was dressed casually, the same way as always. Some simple jeans and a blank white t-shirt. I liked his style. He wasn’t in any way like all those guys I knew before. We were working in the same shift together and had become friends in these four long months.

It was still early. Morning shifts were the worst. I wasn’t a morning person at all – I could barely hold my eyes open. Marcus was my complete opposite in that matter.

The store was still officially closed. We should get ready for the opening in half an hour. That was plenty of time for us to do the routine a few times over, but I had slept pretty badly last night. There was no point in sitting around at home, so I decided to go to work earlier than usual.

“Hi, Marcus,” I said, yawning.

He checked the time on his watch – yes, he was still using a wristwatch in this century – and asked:

“What brings you here at such an hour?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” I answered curtly.

Marcus nodded, accepting this explanation. It was the truth, after all. The same strange nightmare had been haunting me each night lately. Something about the mirror. I would often wake up in the middle of the night, screaming. I couldn’t remember it in detail for some reason and it frustrated me to no end.

He probably noticed the expression on my face, because he looked at me slightly concerned. I didn’t want to bother him with my small problems, so I just smiled unconcernedly and walked past him to the locker room to dress up in my work clothes.


***


The day had passed without any meaningful events. I was working at the cash register, watching dozens of people glimpse past me. I had to smile for each one of them, even though I wasn’t in the mood for it. To be honest, I was never in the mood to do that because I disliked big crowds.

Gladly, it was over for the day. Marcus turned the sign on the door to Closed for dinner and I let out a sigh of relief. It was about time: I was as hungry as a horse. I quickly changed into my regular clothes in the locker room, found my purse and prepared to go. I was already looking forward to taking a hot, relaxing shower in my rented apartment and then cooking something up for dinner.

“Annie, wait a sec,” Marcus stopped me by the entrance. I turned around to see him standing there with a tentative expression on his face.

“Yes?” I was slightly annoyed at him for interrupting my thoughts, but I tried to hide it from my voice. I didn’t want to be rude to my friend.

“Wanna hang out?” he blurted out.

I raised my eyebrows unwittingly. His offer just took me off-guard. We were friends at work, but he never showed any sign that he wanted to spend time with me outside of the store. There is a first time for everything, I guess.

I thought about what to answer for a few seconds. On the one hand, I was pretty tired after work and just wanted to spend time alone, surfing the internet or reading books. But on the other hand, I liked Marcus. I decided to seize this opportunity to take my relationship with him to the next level.

“Sure, why not,” I shrugged in a detached way, while waving a mental goodbye to my dreams of a hot shower.

I was a woman of habit, so I didn’t really want to change my daily routine, but Marcus had always been nice to me. There was no reason for me not to spend some more time with him if he asked me to. Besides, I wanted that too.

“What do you have in mind?” I inquired curiously.

“Well, I know some good place nearby, we can go there,” Marcus offered.

“Sounds good to me.”

With that settled, I waited with him for the next shift. He was quiet, so I just played some apps on my phone. I didn’t have to play for long. Two girls who worked the second shift today arrived shortly after I started.

They came to work together. I didn’t really know them. In fact, I couldn’t even recall their names. I was that bad at social interactions. “Hi” and “bye” were our most used words between each other. We just exchanged greetings and they took over the store for us.

Me and Marcus finally got out. It was the middle of the summer outside and the weather was pretty hot. I was dressed lightly in a blue shirt and shorts. Like Marcus, I wasn’t a fan of fancy clothing.

Our town was small. I hated living in a big city and my parents had a big house in London. The crowds on the streets, giant malls, traffic jams with angry people – it drove me nuts. That was one more reason for moving out for me.

Marcus had been walking in a silence for a while now to the point where it got a little weird. He was much more talkative at work. I was waiting for him to say something and I realized that Marcus was probably doing the same. I glanced at him – he was staring straight ahead with a serious expression on his face, looking too tense.

“So…” I broke the silence, “How far is the place?”

“Just around the corner,” the guy answered curtly.

And he was right. Just as we turned at an intersection, I saw the place he was talking about. At least, I guessed it was the place, since there was nothing else but some residential buildings around.

It wasn’t some fancy restaurant – we couldn’t afford those places. This was just a small café. Stefan’s Café was what the place was called, according to the sign on the top. I had never heard of it before, but I spent most of my time indoors, so that was nothing unusual. Just recently, I found a small bookstore just a few streets away from my home.

“We’re here,” Marcus simply announced.

It was pretty obvious that we had arrived and I had a burning desire to say something sarcastic in answer, but decided to go with a simple nod instead. I didn’t want to start the evening off on the wrong foot, even though I was annoyed by his silence. I knew he was nervous, just like me.

Marcus held open the door for me like an old-fashioned gentleman and I went inside. He walked behind me and stopped by my side. Such manners, along with his simplistic appearance, is what made him so attractive in my eyes.

Inside the café, it looked exactly as I was expecting. A big counter, a row of old tables and a girl, taking orders from clients. There were fewer than a dozen of them spread out all over the café.

We chose a lone table by the window at the corner. It felt cozy there. I took a menu to look at the list of foods available. Just as I had opened it, the waitress walked up to us to take our orders. I gave her an annoyed look.

She was too early, since I hadn’t had any time to decide yet, but Marcus apparently was a regular customer here. He ordered for the two of us and even offered to pay for the treat. I graciously accepted. After all, if someone was paying for my food, why would I reject it?

After the girl left, the silence hung over us again. I watched out of a window meditatively. It was a nice view of the street from here. There weren’t a lot of cars on the road. In a similar place in London, I would see an endless flow of cars, but here it was much different. I had counted five of them within a minute until Marcus finally deigned to say something:

“So, Anne, how was your day?”

I looked at him in mild surprise. We had been working at the store together since morning and he was asking something like that? But I quickly understood that it was probably his way to start a conversation, so I went along with it.

“It was pretty exhausting,” I said with a slight shrug and smiled warmly, “It was nice of you to invite me here.”

“Uh, thanks,” Marcus said, rubbing his neck, “I’ve been wanting to do that for a while actually…”

“Uhm,” I let out a noncommittal sound in answer, waiting for him to continue.

After that, our order had arrived, stopping him from saying anything more. The girl brought us tacos. I’ve always liked tacos and Marcus knew it. He claimed these were the best in town and I couldn’t wait to find out for myself. I watched him grab one from his plate and quickly finish it in a few big bites.

“That was good,” He nodded happily, “That’s why I love this place. Just try it.”

There was no reason not to, but I suddenly felt a strange reluctance. It was the smell that killed my enthusiasm. These just smelled different from the usual tacos I’d had before, in a bad way. I slowly took a small bite from one of the tacos and almost spit it out. It was disgusting!

“Do these tacos taste funny to you?” I asked Marcus with a frown.

“No,” he said, raising his eyebrows in surprise, “They taste as great as usual.”

“Hmm,” I put the taco back, trying hard not to frown any more.

“You don’t like it?” Marcus asked with disappointment.

I briefly considered whether I should tell the truth or make up some white lie. I chose the former. I always thought it was important to tell the truth, even if it was unpleasant.

“Sorry, but no…”

“That’s too bad,” the guy shrugged, trying to appear uncaring. But I saw a worry on his face. “You can still order something else. I’ll pay.”

“That would be nice,” I nodded, cheering him up a bit. I refused to let some bad food ruin our first date together.

With a wave of his hand, Marcus called the waitress to our table while I was studying the menu. The caesar salad sounded delicious and it wasn’t expensive. Even though Marcus offered to pay, I didn’t want to abuse my friend’s generosity.

We talked a little while waiting for the new order. Marcus had started to loosen up a bit, becoming more like his usual self. I don’t know what had gotten into him in the first place – perhaps he was just nervous because it was a date, not just our usual talk at work.

I didn’t know how many dates he’d had before, but it was my first one. I had no time for such things in London. Most of my time was spent catching up on the school program.

When my salad arrived, I dug into it with ardor. Usually I’m not a big fan of salads, but this one was amazing. Ingredients were mixed with each other just perfectly, creating a divine symphony of flavor. I simply lost myself. Glancing at Marcus, I noticed that he was looking at me funny.

“What?” I asked in concern.

“There is a fork, you know,” he pointed at the object, lying on the table unused.

I suddenly realized that I was eating the salad with just my mouth, like some kind of dog. I quickly looked around making sure no one saw me except for Markus. I forced a sheepish smile, feeling my cheeks burn red in embarrassment.

“Uhh, thanks. I’m just really hungry, I guess,” I came up with a lame excuse.

I took the fork and quickly finished my salad, ignoring how tasty it was. Marcus appeared relaxed now. Maybe he thought it was some kind of joke from me, but the truth is – it wasn’t. I don’t know why I did it. It just happened automatically, like by some weird instinct. I tried to shrug those thoughts off.

We just sat there and talked for a while after that incident. Marcus shared a few fun stories from his school days that made me genuinely laugh. I wished to return the favor, but sadly I had no funny stories to tell, not that I remember of.

“It’s getting late,” Marcus said, glancing at his watch. “Can I walk you home?”

I agreed with his offer. My home wasn’t far, but it would be pretty boring to go alone. Plus, it would be a good opportunity to show Marcus where I lived. In all those months of us working together he still hadn’t learned it.

Marcus paid for the food, as he promised, and we left the place. We spent more than an hour there and it was mostly fun, despite a few hiccups at the start. We should do that again soon.


***


We arrived at my apartment’s building pretty quickly. It was just your usual residential building a few stores high, just like dozens of others in our small town. It was in a good condition, despite being a few decades old. I was renting an apartment there on the second floor.

Spending the evening with Marcus was great and I didn’t want it to end, but it was time. We exchanged our goodbyes and I walked inside alone. I stood at the doorframe for a while, watching Marcus’ back in doubt. Perhaps I could call for him and invite him to the apartment. We could watch a movie together…I closed the door with a sigh, rejecting the idea. I didn’t want to appear needy in his eyes.

Getting up on the second floor was harder than usual. Each step up the squeaky stairs was painful. My back was hurting from too much standing at the store today. I tumbled inside of my small apartment and dropped on the couch like a sack of potatoes.

I lay there for a while, thinking about my first date ever. It wasn’t perfect, but it was far from bad. I got to know Marcus a little better, which was the whole purpose.

I planned to take a shower as soon as I got home, but I wasn’t in the mood for it right now. I was deciding between watching something on TV or just browsing the internet. In the end, I chose a book that I had bought it recently and hadn’t been able to read yet. Looks like now was the perfect time.

I reluctantly got up and went to get it. The book was lying on the high shelf. I had no idea why I put it there. I tried to reach it, but a sharp pain in my back almost made me fall. At this point, my back was starting to worry me. If that continued tomorrow, I would visit a doctor.

Grabbing a chair from the kitchen, I carefully climbed on it and finally grabbed the book. It was a fictional story that promised to be interesting, judging by the annotation. A cool shooting spaceship was drawn on its cover. I looked forward to the exciting evening.

I stepped down from the chair and sat back on the couch. I felt awfully tired for some reason. I couldn’t even open my book, in fact. My fingers just felt too clumsy. I tried to crack them, when I noticed something weird.

I gaped at my palms in growing terror. My fingers weren’t just clumsy, they were gone! My old fingers somehow fused with each other, forming a new big one. They also turned kind of yellow. What the hell!

I jumped at my feet with a yelp, almost losing my balance, and sprinted to the bathroom, blasting the door open. Turning on the cold water, I shoved my face into the cold stream. It was refreshing.

Then I slapped myself a few times, to make sure it wasn’t some kind of lucid dream. I checked my palms again – it wasn’t. But what had happened to my fingers then?

I calmed down and considered the situation. The most likely explanation was that I got sick. Though I had never heard of such a disease before; I wasn’t a doctor. There were things outside of my knowledge and this definitely was one of them. What I needed right now was a real doctor.

My phone was still in my purse that I had thrown on the couch. I rushed back into the room. Clumsily grabbing the purse with both hands, I turned it over, emptying it all over the floor.

There it is! Instead of trying to pick it up, I just lay down and pushed a button, bringing the phone to life. A wallpaper of chamomiles in a green field showed up on its screen. I quickly dialed the emergency number “999” and waited for an answer.

I didn’t need to wait long. Soon, a calm woman’s voice asked me the reason for my call. I suddenly realized that in my panic I hadn’t thought about what I was going to say.

“Eh…My fingers…” I stopped on that.

“What about them, ma’am?”

“My fingers…kind of grew…together…” that was all I could say. It sounded insane even to me after I said it out loud, but I wasn’t able to describe the situation better at the moment.

“Ma’am? Have you been taking any kind of drugs?” the voice asked in slight concern.

“Eh, no! Sorry to bother you!” I ended the call right there.

I hated explaining things on a good day, but now I was on the verge of panic. At best, they were going to think I was high and send the police over, and at worst, they would think this is some kind of joke and do nothing at all!

I dialed another number – the number of Marcus. He couldn’t have gotten far yet and he would know what to do, I hoped. He always fixed the problems at the store.

“Hello, Annie,” answered Marcus after a few dials.

“Hey,” I tried to speak calmly, but my voice was trembling a little, “I don’t feel so good…Can you get over here, please?”

“I’m on my way,” Marcus simply said and hung up.

He was banging on the door to my apartment ten minutes later. I was still lying on the floor, trying not to think about anything. The noise brought me back to the real world. I stood up, cringing from a pain in my back, and limped to let Marcus in.

“Holy shit!” he exclaimed as soon as I opened up.

He lifted me off the floor and carried me to the couch. He lowered me down gently. I let out a sigh of relief – my back was feeling much better when I wasn’t standing. Marcus looked me up and down and then asked:

“What the hell happened to you?”

“I don’t know…” I shook my head in misery, “I was reading a book, when I saw this.”

I showed my palms to him. Marcus jerked back in surprise when he saw what happened to my fingers. Why was he surprised? I thought he had seen it already at the door, judging by his reaction. Unless…

“What did you think was wrong?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Annie, you’ve turned yellow, for god’s sake!”

“What?!” It was my turn to be surprised.

“I thought that’s why you had called me,” explained Marcus.

“No…I don’t know what is happening!”

“You need to call “999”, Annie,” he said and reached for my phone on the floor.

“I already did…” I trailed off, feeling embarrassed by my outburst.

“And?” Marcus raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“I didn’t know how to explain this and then she started asking about drugs…” I said with tears on my eyes.

Marcus loudly swore out of the blue. I hadn’t heard a swear word from him for months. I cringed – I never liked swearing myself.He tried to avoid it in my company, for which I was grateful. Even my ears twitched in disgust hearing this.

The last thought caught my attention. Twitching ears? It couldn’t be, but I needed to be sure. I jumped off the couch and rushed to the bathroom once more, ignoring my back pain. Looking at the mirror, I felt my heart sinking.

Two pointed yellow ears were clearly visible through my hair. I slowly touched one with the remnant of my palm. It twitched again and I felt the movement like it was my own. Because it was my own!

I saw Marcus’ face behind me. He stood at the door frame, looking just as dumbfounded as I was feeling right now. It would be impossible to believe if I’d not been seeing it myself.

I turned my eyes back to the mirror. The shape of the ears wasn’t the only change I noticed. Marcus was right – my face had turned completely yellow. I leaned in closer to examine it and recoiled from the mirror like it was poisoned. It wasn’t my skin that had changed color. My whole face was covered in tiny, yellow fur.

I barely suppressed the desire to grab a razor and shave it off. Thinking logically, the hair was a symptom of an unknown disease that I had caught, not the cause. For all I know, shaving it off would only worsen my situation.

Marcus helped me to get back on the couch. I just sat there staring at the wall and pondered my problem. My friend was quiet too. He was watching me with a worried expression.

“I shouldn’t have brought you to that taco place…” Marcus shook his head ruefully.

It just sounded so absurd that I laughed out loud. I tried to suppress it, but I was helpless. My laughing kept going and going for well over a minute and still couldn’t stop. The poor guy probably thought I was suffering from some kind of seizure, because he grabbed my shoulders in panic and gave me a face slap.

“Hey!” I rubbed my cheek, feeling offended.

“Oh, sorry,” Marcus said, looking down in embarrassment, “I thought…Just sorry.”

“Okay,” I decided to overlook his hasty action, although my cheek stung from the slap. I kind of needed that anyway. “Do you really think that tacos could do this to me?”

I wiggled my fingerless palms before his wide-open eyes. My nail had grown thicker and it had gotten noticeably bigger overall. I wasn’t sure anymore that I could even call it a palm. It looked more like a stump. The whole arm was covered in yellow fur now.

The rate of the changes was alarming. I was looking at Marcus, hoping for him to come up with some bright idea to turn the situation around. But he just stared at my arm, perplexed.

At this point, my mind had already discarded the theory that this was a disease. I was pretty sure that if there was a malady that could change people in a matter of hours, I would have heard of it before. Even though my medical knowledge was limited at best, I knew one thing: this here was impossible.

The only possibility that my brain could come up with, after reading endless sci-fi and fantasy books, was either some kind of advanced experiment or the result of magic. Both of these were unlikely, but the situation I was in was equally unlikely.

“I’m going to call an ambulance again,” I said unsurely.

He waved his arm, rejecting my idea.

“Don’t bother,” he said calmly. “I don’t think they’re going to believe you now.”

“Well, maybe you’re right,” I nodded in disappointment. “I would take it for a joke myself. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Marcus sat on the couch beside me and put an arm over my shoulders. I appreciated the gesture. It calmed me down a little bit. I even tried to look on the bright side of my situation.

One good thing about it was that – physically – I felt completely fine. Well, relatively speaking. I wasn’t in any pain except for my back, but that was only while standing. In a sitting position, my back was feeling great.

But mentally, it was much more complicated. I didn’t know what to think and what I should do next. The most reasonable thing to do was to call for an ambulance, but no one would believe my wild claims. Although…

A thought suddenly came to my head. It was illegal, I suppose, but it was my only option, unless I went to a hospital on foot. I was barely able to walk around in my own apartment; it would be difficult for me to reach the place.

But what if we were to lie about the reason for calling? An ambulance would arrive and witness my situation with their own eyes. They would have no choice but to take me in when they saw my condition. I shared it at once with Marcus. It was a great idea!

“I don’t know about that,” Marcus wasn’t so enthusiastic.

“Why not?” I said, feeling my ears droop of their own accord. It was a creepy feeling.

“It just seems like a waste of time to me,” he explained. “I don’t think a doctor would be able to help you. This is not something you would cure with a pill.”

“What should we do then?!” I snapped at him.

Marcus just shrugged. Clearly, he didn’t have a better suggestion. But then he frowned, looking at me strangely. My ears folded again. I guess they reflected my reaction at the way he was looking at me. I felt uneasy, fearing the new changes that he was probably seeing.

“Can you repeat that again?” Marcus asked.

“Repeat what?”

“Yes, I can hear it clearly,” he said. “Your voice has apparently changed too. You sound like a completely different girl.”

“A different girl?” I repeated in confusion. I hadn’t noticed anything different in my voice.

“Yes,” he confirmed confidently. “You were sounding totally different just minutes ago. Can’t you hear it yourself?”

“Eh, no.” I really couldn’t. My voice sounded just as usual, at least to my ears. Although, maybe it had become a little smoother and higher…

But on top of all the other changes, this one wasn’t so hard to believe in. There were people that could change their voice with enough training, so at least this one was possible.

“Whatever,” I shrugged. “The voice is the least of my problems right now.”

Suddenly, some music started playing. I realized it was the ringtone on my phone. I glanced around and saw it still lying on the floor. Marcus quickly snatched the phone and passed it to me. I thanked him with a grateful nod.

I looked at the screen, nervous. It was my mum calling for our usual evening talk. She couldn’t have picked a worse time. I had no desire to talk with her right now. I considered not answering the call for a moment, but it wouldn’t help.

The thing was – my mum was a worrywart. She was always making a big problem out of any small ailment I got. If I didn’t answer the phone call, she would probably just get into her car and drive all the way from London to see what was wrong. It actually happened once when I had just rented the apartment and had missed a few of her calls.

So I answered, having forgotten all about my new voice for a moment. It was a dumb thing to do in retrospect.

“Hello, dear,” my mum’s cheerful voice spoke. “It took you a while to pick up.”

“Hello, mum,” I said, trying to sound just as cheerful as her.

“What…Who is it?” the voice tone quickly changed to concerned.

“Uhm, it’s me, Anne,” my face went pale when I remembered that my voice sounded different now. Marcus also noticed my mistake, judging by his expressive facepalm. Apparently, even my own mother couldn’t recognize me now. Technically, step-mother, but my point still stands.

“Where did you get this phone, lady?” Mum asked sternly.

“It’s me, mum!” I tried to convince her. “I just sound a little different, that’s all.”

“Do you take me for a fool, lady?” Mum became angry. “Where is my daughter?”

She was as stubborn as a mule. There was no way I could convince her otherwise now. I frantically tried to think of something to tell her that would calm her down.

“I’m Anne’s friend,” I played along with her. “She’s…in the shower right now.”

“Friend? What’s your name?”

“Hmm…Amy,” I said the first name I could think of.

“She never told me of a friend called Amy,” Mum became suspicious again. “Is there something wrong with my daughter?”

“No, no, everything’s fine!” I exclaimed in despair. It didn’t help.

“You’ve done something with my daughter! I’m calling the police,” she said and ended the call.

I looked at Marcus, shocked. My mum was really crazy when it came to my safety, but this conversation went worse than I could possibly have imagined. I wasn’t sure what to do now. If my own mother hadn’t recognized me, the police wouldn’t either. And my freaky appearance would only complicate matters.

“You shouldn’t have answered that call…” Marcus shook his head in disapproval. “I literally just told you that your voice had changed. What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t, okay? I forgot,” I punched a pillow a few times in exasperation.

“That’s fine. We just wait and explain the misunderstanding to the police.”

“Are you kidding me?” I stared at his calm face in disbelief. “They would think I’m some kind of mutant and arrest me!”

“This is not a movie, Anne,” Marcus reasoned. “They are going to take you to a hospital. Everything will be fine.”

“You don’t know my mum,” I said. “She’s overprotective! She’s going to tell the police I’m a hostage and when they find me here, looking like this…I don’t know what they would think. But it would be nothing good, believe me.”

“Well, we can go to my place and think the situation through,” offered Marcus. “But I still think it’s better to stay here and wait.”

I grabbed at his idea like a drowning person would a life ring. It was perfect! I had no desire to see the police in my condition. They would only waste valuable time. All I wanted to do was to figure out what was wrong with me. Maybe it would just go away in a few days like a bad rash and then I would explain to my mother what had really happened. Hopefully, she would believe me then.

“Help me up, Marcus,” I said determinedly. “We’re going to your place.”

“Okay,” he sighed, taking me under my arms, “But maybe you should just call your mother back?”

“Can’t you hear it?” I rolled my eyes in irritation. “My voice is different now. I won’t be able to convince her, at least not over the phone.”

“Isn’t there anything only you would know?” asked Marcus. “You’d say that to her and she’d know it’s really you.”

“She won’t believe me now,” I dismissed his idea regretfully after thinking it over for a few seconds. “My mum always assumes the worst. She’d probably think I tortured her daughter for that information or something.”

“Damn, that’s rough,” Marcus appeared impressed. “I understand now why you moved out.”

“Yeah. I love her, but…” I shrugged. “Anyway, let’s hurry.”

I knew that Marcus lived pretty far from here. It would be a tough journey, but there was no other way. My friend’s plan to just wait here and explain everything to the police was unacceptable. Maybe it would work out in the end, but it was too much of a risk.

I glanced at the window. It was already past 7 pm, but the sun was still up. People would see me, so I needed to look normal if I wanted to venture outside. There was a hoodie in my room somewhere. I’d just put it on. Of course, I would look like some junkie with a hood on, but it’s better than gallivanting on the street with my yellow face and pointy ears.

I had Marcus find the hoodie for me while I was having trouble keeping my balance by the door. It was hard to stand up straight. The back pain wasn’t the only reason now. My legs felt weird too. I glanced down briefly to see what was wrong.

My ankles had left their rightful place. They were not under my knee, as they were supposed to be, but somehow behind it. It reminded me of a hind leg of a dog or cat. An image of a mythical minotaur came to my mind. I stopped these thoughts through the force of will. There was no time for them right now.

Marcus finally returned to me with a hoodie in his arms. He helped me to put this on fast. I thought for a few seconds, trying to think if I forgot something. My phone, documents and money were safely lying in my purse. Everything seemed to be in order. It was time to go.