There was a series of knocks, cutting through the soft ambience of Calypso combing her hair.

“Come in…” Calypso stared at the mirror, perched up via her crossed ankles resting against them. Just looking at what’s staring back.

Calypso looked up, seeing her dear cousin Sal approaching her. The poor, silly girl had to keep herself from flinching, getting away from her cousin to protect her.

“I’m actually surprised that you’re not tryna pack or leave at this point…” Sal began, glumly.

Calypso simply smiled. “Kinda difficult, given that I’m hours away from what I know at his point… And y’know, not really up for travel.”

Sal proceeded to suck in air sharply, exhaling in frustration as she looked up at the ceiling.

“God, I suck at this…”

Calypso sighed. She then put her comb aside, taking the mirror away from her feet, ultimately tightening her already crossed legs.

“Sally…” Calypso put her hands on her knees. “You can’t blame yourself about any of this if I can’t blame myself for being so screwed up.”

“But you’re our responsibility now,” Sal argued, balling her fists briefly. “And we’re… It’s like life suddenly decided to just, pile onto you n’ it’s so unfair—”

“Eh.”

Sal snapped her gaze toward her cousin, towards her causal if not blunt tone.

“It’s unfair for everyone. Part of me getting over this means sucking it up, stop whining about the woe-is-me. Your burdens shouldn’t be my burdens.”

Sal took a pause, studying her cousin. “…Iunno Cal, you don’t have to be so cold about this.”

Cal reached at her chin, rubbing it idly with her fingers. “Sympathy can only go so far, y’know? Like, not denying you all—family is meant to put up with each other, regardless of anything… But it isn’t everything. Sometimes? I’m wrong. I don’t need the pity, in fact, it’s coddling me and not addressing my issues.”

“You’re kinda scarin’ me, Cal,” Sal shook her head, pursing her lips before continuing. “You’re so… Calm about this.”

Calypso chuckled lowly, looking down at her bed.

“It means the medication is working, is all.”

Calypso directly looked into the eyes of her cousin, sporting a worn but warm smile. “Besides. I think I finally got it out of me. Last night was very bad for me, but I really needed that cry, so I can’t discount it… I think I’m okay, Sal. I think I’m finally okay.”

“Y’sure…?”

She took Sal in. It was so odd, seeing her so nervous, so cautious. Raking her tan fingers against her hands, rubbing them with frantic energy. Her sunny and cocksure face morphed with doubt and fear, it clearly being new to do that sort of thing. Even her old, stupid snapback hat was crooked, off-kilter.

It took a moment for Calypso to rise up from her bed, going over to hug Sal. While lacking in power and was loose, was unquestionably something driven by familial love.

“I’ve never been thinking more clearly than right now,” Calypso comforted Sal, in a caring whisper.

She felt her cousin shift on her feet, felt the sigh travel up through her nose.

“Ya’ sure?”

Calypso nodded, hummed to punctuate such.

“…Really sure?”

“Man,” Calypso breathed out in slight disbelief. “You being so careful and… Hesitant is hurting me as much as me being all glum is hurting you… But yes.”

“…Will I see you tomorrow, Cal?”

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It was just a question. It was just words, and yet Calypso was knocked back with such force, causing her to separate the hug. Her turn to study Sal.

The heaviness ever-present on Sal’s face made it hard for her to say the next line, “Just so I can try to make ya’ happy…? So I can just… Do somethin’ meaningful for ya’…? So… So that this entire darn thing ain’t for nothin’…?”

Calypso tightened her lips at the sight. Her throat tensing then relaxing as the weight transferred from the atmosphere passed, robbing her the ability to speak words. Making her already overheating brain reach dangerous temperatures.

This had to be the best lie she ever came up with. She had to draw upon the truth for it to work.

“None of this was for nothing. What you do for me—any of you, day after day, wasn’t for nothing.”

Calypso then smiled warmly, her cheeks pushed up so that her eyes did so as well. “The thing in my head is strong, but it will never be as strong as you, Sally. You’re too stubborn to let that win, anyways.”

Sal quickly pulled down her hat, to obscure her own eyes. A common tactic that she remembered, the surprise on Calypso’s part was more that Sal still did this.

With a shaken huff, Sal formed a wavering smile, “And ya’ say you don’t wanna write n’ stuff, god danggit…”

Cal chuckled softly, “Look, there’s a sizable difference—”

“—‘Between bein’ the reader n’ bein’ able to write’, yeah yeah,” Sal just as quickly turned on her heels.

Calypso finally able to look down at the scuffed up floorboards, hoping that Sal didn’t step on one of the slash marks and notice. “Sure, but y’know, with proper diction and—”

“I’m so kicking your butt tomorrow, ya’ drama queen,” Sal still had a wavering tone despite being in her teasing mode. Still standing there.

Calypso then extended her leg out, “trying” to kick her cousin from behind, giggling. “You’re the one that barged in! Now get outta here, you know my process takes 12 hours, I’ll be ready by then if you actually leave now!”

Sal proceeded the go, walking away into the hall. Calypso moved to close the door, ignoring the splinters she stepped on. What she just did pained her more.

She let the changes take their hold, after using most of her available will power from keeping it at bay.

Calypso could feel herself, her features, become twisted and sharpened. But, it wasn’t going through completely, at least not yet.

Staggering back to the bed, what she saw first was her warped fingers. Not quite claws, but nowhere near what fingers should be. Leaning over, forward, was her hovering over the broken mirror Calypso used. The broken shards reflecting the same, deranged visage in facsimiles.

And yet, it—she—had the gall to wear a forlorn expression.

She pulled back, getting away from the bed. Glancing at what was behind her back when she was sat there, a cleared out crafts box that held her gem—and a folded up note atop it. Something she had to stop herself from tearing up.

Reading it over and over, how hollow her final words rang true. About how whatever they find, she was not that—that she was their family, how she really loved them—when she was the furthest thing and had to try so hard to do so. Something innate, human—and how what she did last night forfeited her final chance.

The reason why Calypso didn’t go through with destroying it was because they needed something. Calypso only had memories and a red slither of her friend, and even then, she’s giving that up too. So, she added a revision: that she was getting away from them. Saving them for being contaminated by her.

Calypso darted to the window in a leap. Lifting her—the window slowly, climbing out of it before shutting it.

***

Calypso shivered, holding herself, crunching the dead leaves against her bare soles. Still reeling from her failed kill. Still reeling from the fact that she's trapped, in all senses of the word.

All because she can't do anything remotely right.

“D-disgusting creature… You deserve nothing. No one’s attention… n-no one’s love…”

As she berated herself, describing herself, Calypso fell onto her hands and knees.

“And yet, you never commit—you can’t accept that, can you…? Easier to whine, easier to evade! Either snap already or get out of the sight of everyone!”

A sudden surge of pain ripped throughout the body, causing her to scream. Despite being familiar, despite wanting this, it wasn’t continuous, just a burst.

Calypso lifted her head up, towards the cloudy skies—her eyes glowing amber as she grits her teeth in despair.

“There it is! There it is—right there! You know who you are—what you are! Jusssst—fucking accept it!”

Her new fangs were coming in, slurring her speech as Calypso shook her head at the tugging sensation. But it wasn’t totally voluntary, as her flesh tensed rhythmically, pulsating. Across her body, so potent at points, parts of her body was engorged with power, so much that they tore against cloth before settling.

“You’re a monster! You always had been! A monster that wanted so desperately to be human—now it’s time—a chaaaanccccaaaaaagauuuuh!”

A series of spiked bones shot across every surface of her body, head to toe as they scrunched in pain. Calypso let her head fall, as her hair was growing along with the spines forming down the back. She had to vocalize her immense agony, as the bone stopped, her hair stopped. Everything on the precipice.

“A-a chance… A chance to just… Give in, but finally be constructed—constructive with it… Stop this pitiful façade… No more acting… No more letting people down… No more fucking whining…”

She rose her head, her hair covering the half of her face.

But it was clear, Calypso’s visible eye becoming flushed with physical darkness. Only the golden pupil shining through. Her tension and pain washing away under an eerie calm.

“Let’s stop kidding ourselves anymore… And allow yourself to be the miserable, inhuman bitch you were destined to be…”

Her screams ripped through the cold air in that night, as the transformation tore her apart equally so. But just like it, her pitch—her volume eventually settled. Into what she was always meant to be.

***