Alan swung the wooden door open as he pulled himself inside, out of the howling storm outside. He had been outside playing with his friends just prior when the weather turned bad, so he rushed home. He quickly closed the door and stood there, dripping from head to toe.
“Alan!” his mother shouted. “Where were you?!” Alan shifted his gaze away from his mother.
“Uh… out playing with my friends…” he said.
“This late?! I told you to stop being out so late. It’s dangerous! I sent Isabelle out to look for you and she hasn’t even returned yet. What will you do if something’s happened to her?” his mother said.
“...I’m sorry,” he replied.
“Now, now, I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm. You know how children are, Katharos. I just hope Isabelle’s alright,” Alan’s father said from a chair.
I’m not a child! Alan thought to himself, mildly infuriated, but decided not to say it aloud. Katharos peeked through a gap in the front door, looking into the storm raging outside.
“I hope she’s alright…” she quietly said.
While Isabelle was trapped in a nightmare, someone else was worried about finishing their latest report. They had mithril blue skin and short tentacles extending out of their chin, slowly wriggling. They were watching the world below—Isabelle’s world—from high above the sky. They looked at the different continents and oceans, watching the slowly changing weather patterns, safe behind a thick sheet of invisible glass.
“Better turn in that report,” the individual next to them said.
“Yeah, yeah. I know,” they replied and walked away.
Isabelle felt her consciousness returning but she felt… restricted. She struggled to regain her freedom, pushing against whatever was holding her against her will. She felt her hand push through an opening, so she made it bigger and found herself collapsing on the floor. She laid on the floor, tired. After a few minutes she had regained enough energy to stand up. She looked around and noticed that she was still in the hallway. Light beamed in from the open hatch, illuminating the passageway, and she realized she must’ve been out all night. She stumbled to the stairs, climbing them to reach the surface and once she made it to the top she pulled herself out of the underground space. She felt the sun burning her eyes, nearly blinding her before dying down. She set her focus on the direction home and began trudging through the forest.
As she walked home she felt dizzy and disoriented, occasionally stumbling. Her senses were going haymire and bombarding her mind. She was nearly blinded by the light while overpowering smells invaded her nostrils. Her hearing was no better; the chirping birds were so loud that they almost seemed to be right next to her, streaming in her ears.
Isabelle’s persistent effort paid off and she stumbled out of the forest, catching sight of home. Her mother was outside, tending the farm, but hadn’t noticed her.
“Mom!” she yelled in a deeper than expected voice. Isabelle paused, wondering why her voice was so odd. Katharos turned her head up and looked at her daughter, then screamed and ran towards the house, grabbing one of Isabelle’s younger siblings on the way. Isabelle was confused and wondered to herself why her mother had done that, but she continued walking towards the house nonetheless. She was too tired to care.
She reached the door and applied a gentle amount of force to push it open, but it wouldn’t budge. The door was locked.
“Mom?” Isabelle asked. A few moments of silence passed. “Why’d you lock the door?”
“Isabelle?” Katharos said from the other side. “Is that you, Izzy?”
“Yeah…” Isabelle replied. Katharos cautiously opened the door just a tiny bit and scanned her daughter.
“What… what happened to you?” Katharos asked.
“Huh?” Isabelle wondered, confused, and took a look at herself. Her arms and hands were covered in dark black scales. Glinting silver claws extended from the ends of her clawed hands. She hadn’t thought about it before, but now she realized she was taller, too. Before, she had only been a little taller than her mom. But now she was much taller and dwarfed her mother.
She moved her eyes further down, to the rest of her body, and realized she wasn’t wearing any clothes. Her arms quickly moved to ensure she had some sort of covering.
“Clothes,” she said. Katharos understood and stepped away. She returned with clothes, a wooden bucket, and a rag, Isabelle had already made her way inside while most of the kids were looking away and covering their faces. Katharos hesitated for a moment before she got too close to Isabelle.
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“You’re dirty, let’s get you cleaned up,” Katharos said before turning to her other children. “And the rest of you, shoo.” The kids scampered off and Katharos got to cleaning her daughter. Once Isabelle was cleaned up, her mom helped her put on the cloth shirt and pants.
“Alright, you can come in now,” Katharos said and the rest of the kids flooded in.”
“Thanks, mom,” Isabelle said in gratitude. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened and why I look… like this. I remember walking home, collapsing, and then… nothing. I didn’t mean to be out all night.”
“All night?” Katharos said. “You’ve been gone for weeks. We thought a wild animal killed you! Your brother was eating himself up with guilt! He’s been going out every day to find you!”
“Sorry…” Isabelle murmured.
“You SHOULD be sorry,” Katharos huffed. “Well, I suppose it’s not your fault. I can’t imagine what your father’s going to say about this.”
“Izzy has a tail!” one of the younger children said.
“It’s true. You do,” Katharos said.
Isabelle was surprised. A tail? She didn’t think that was the case. However, when Isabelle cocked her head around and felt her lower back she realized that it wasn’t a joke. She had a tail connected to her lower back.
“I… I have a tail. What?” Isabelle asked nobody in particular. Her mother sighed.
“What in the world happened to you?” Katharos said. “Explain.”
“Uhm, well… I was looking for Alan. I couldn’t find him, but I stumbled on something that caught my foot. It was a hatch in the ground. I opened it and went inside; it was a huge structure underground. I explored for a bit and as I was about to leave I just… passed out. I don’t know why,” she explained.
“An underground building in the forest? I didn’t know there was something like that out there,” Katharos said.
“It looked pretty old on the outside,” Isabelle said. “The hatch was almost rusted through. If I hadn’t accidentally stumbled on it, I would’ve never found it.”
“Let’s tell your father when he gets back,” Katharos said. “For now, go to your room and get some sleep.” She turned her head and looked at the rest of her kids. “As for the rest of you, leave her alone.”
“O-okay,” Isabelle said and grabbed a loaf of bread off the dinner table, then went to her room. Katharos took a seat at the dining table and breathed a heavy sigh while sipping on some wine.
“Gods, I hope my daughter hasn’t been possessed by a demon,” she said quietly to herself.
Inside her room, Isabelle munched on the room. It tasted better than before. With each bite, she felt satisfaction as well as a mixture of information flooding her mind. She didn’t understand it, but she felt like she knew it in a deeper sense. She didn’t think about it too hard.
Later that evening, Arath, Isabelle’s father, returned home to see his wife sitting at the dining table and drinking wine. He wondered what was wrong, since she never drank alcohol unless something was wrong.
“Honey? What’s wrong?” he asked with a concerned tone.
“A lot’s wrong. Our daughter is a… a demon,” she replied, heavily emphasizing the last word. Arath was confused.
“Wait, what? Isabelle’s back? A demon? What?” Arath said. He wondered whether or not she was having a mental breakdown.
“Yes, a demon. Take a look for yourself,” Katharos said. A somber silence filled the space and Arath went down the hall, to his eldest daughter's room. He pushed on the door and it creaked open, much to his chagrin. The room was dark; the only window covered up by cloth.
Arath peered into the room and saw his daughter curled up, sleeping on her bed roll. Except what slept on the bed roll hardly bore any resemblance to his daughter. Sure, there were a few features that were similar, but it mostly looked like a monster with pitch black skin and a serpentine tail.
Is this even my daughter? he wondered.
The next morning Isabelle got out of bed and went out into the living area. Nobody else was up yet, so she was alone. She stood around for a moment, put on some shoes, then went outside for a morning walk.
The air outside felt fresh and the sun felt warm. It made her feel good.
“Ah. So nice,” she said to herself as she walked through the grass field surrounding her home. She thought the grass was getting tall on the way back, so she went over to the shed and pulled out her family’s scythe. An hour later and the long grass had been cut down from Isabelle’s swift cuts. She went back to the house and upon reaching the door, overheard her parents talking.
“-the church,” Katharos said.
“Absolutely not. We’re not taking her to a bunch of murderous zealots,” Arath replied.
“Honey, you must respect the church. What else can we do? I don’t know how to fix her,” Katharos said.
“Simple. Just keep her away from the city. If people don’t know about her, then there will be no problems. It’s not ideal, but…” Arath said.
“But we need to fix her,” Katharos said. Arath didn’t reply immediately so Isabelle used the opportunity to her advantage and pushed the door open, walking inside.
Katharos and Arath turned their heads towards her and Isabelle felt their gazes boring into her; it hurt. She could see their faces twisted with fear and surprise before they put on a facade. They were looking at her as if she was a monster. She wanted to tell them that she wasn’t, that she’s the same person as she was before, but she wasn’t sure if she believed it herself. She knew she was different, but how different? She couldn’t answer that question, as much as she wanted to.
“Isabelle,” Arath said.
“Yes?” Isabelle replied.
“It’d be best if you don’t go into town for a while,” Arath explained. “There’s no way we could explain ourselves if someone noticed what you look like.”
“Yeah, that’s fair…” Isabelle dejectedly said.
“Hopefully, it’s only for a short while,” Arath said. He walked up to his daughter, who now stood above him. He raised his hand onto his daughter’s shoulder and spoke with confidence, “we’ll get you back to normal.” Isabelle smiled
“Thanks, Dad.”