“Please tell me I can leave this bed,” I begged Salien as she stood over me.

Last night I could move, but any physical exertion was painful. Nora threatened to strap me to my bed so I wouldn’t get up. It was the only time I’d seen her yesterday. And I’d only seen her three times the two days before. She wasn’t even delivering food to me. Melody was the one doing it. She was always walking past my door, never through it. Zenny’s been spending more time here. Her visits have helped with the emptiness I feel while I’ve been trapped in my bed.

“The sun isn’t up yet. How can you have so much energy this early?” Salien asked curtly. I forgot, Salien’s not a morning person. “Besides, if you didn’t have a history of ignoring my recommendations, I suspect Nora might have been more forgiving.”

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to sit here for three days listening to nothing but romantic stories from Zenny?” I gave the woman my most innocent look.

Zenny walked into the room. “What will it take for you to like my favorite stories?”

I facepalmed. Of course you heard that.

Zenny sounded heartbroken. “What’s wrong with them? Isn’t it wonderful that the girl gets the man of her dreams and he loves her back, then they live happily ever after?”

“Sure, they would be wonderful if they weren't so boring!” I groaned. How many times do I have to tell her? “Can we please stop talking about this? You can’t convince me that your romantic novels are fun. You can like them all you want, but as for me, I want to do something, anything.” I’d been itching to at least walk around all night while I couldn’t sleep.

Salien continued to concentrate on checking all the muscles in my legs. I felt a small tingle of warmth from her fingertips. She was holding my left leg, the last limb she needed to inspect, meticulously going over every inch. There were moments when she would pull apart my fur, attempting to look at my skin. Good luck with that. There’s just more fur. I’d know because I’ve tried.

I looked at Zenny’s hands and saw her holding another book, one of the thickest I’d seen yet. It was bound in leather and had no labeling on the cover or spine, though it looked like it’d seen better days.

I haven’t seen that book before. Please tell me it isn’t another collection of romance stories.

“Zenny, you could have stayed in bed,” I said to the girl, who barely kept her eyes open. “You know that, right?”

“I’m trying to help myself understand what you’re going through by being awake whenever you are,” Zenny said, only to stifle a yawn afterwards.

“You don’t need to do that,” Salien and I responded at the same time. I flopped backwards onto my bed.

Salien finished up her inspection, then stood up straight. Before I could jump out of the bed, she placed her hand on my forehead. I looked up at it, unable to understand the gesture.

“You know that I’m more than strong enough to move your hand, right?” I asked with a slight rumble in my voice. She hasn’t touched my ears, so she can have a warning first.

“Go ahead and try.” Salien’s voice was annoyingly optimistic.

Doctor’s orders. I grabbed her wrist and attempted to pull it away from my head. Pain shot through my arm; it felt like my muscles were about to pull apart again. I growled at Salien to hide the pain. She frowned slightly. I then used just the muscles in my fingers and squeezed hard. I felt some pain in my forearm, but it was manageable. However, Salien’s face contorted with pain.

“Ow, ow, ow.” She pulled her hand away from my head. I released it and sat up as she clutched her wrist.

Zenny dropped the book, and it landed on the ground with a hefty thud. After rushing to Salien’s side, Zenny gave me a sad look. “Why did you do that?” She sounded more hurt than Salien.

“Because she told me to,” I answered flatly. As I sat up, I felt some stiffness, but I didn’t have any trouble moving.

“She said to move her hand, not break her arm,” Zenny accused me.

“Relax, nothing’s broken.” I reined in my anger. “She didn’t say how I had to move her hand.”

Salien released her wrist and put a hand on Zenny’s shoulder. “She’s right. See, nothing’s broken.” She held up her arm for Zenny to examine.

Zenny took it carefully and felt around the area I’d grabbed.

“You’re antsy and want to start moving around now, don’t you?” She had a forced smile on her face.

“But?” I can tell when you’re about to give me bad news. Your lips curl more just before you talk.

“On a scale of one to ten, how painful was it to move my arm on the first attempt?” Her face was now serious.

She knows? “Four,” I lied. I don’t care about the pain anymore. I need to move, or I will go insane in this bed.

Salien looked at me with disapproval.

Zenny blurted out, “She lied. It hurt her more than that.”

How did she know? I looked at her and growled.

“You’re going to stay in that bed for another day.” Salien said that in the same manner that someone would sentence a prisoner to their execution.

My heart broke when she gave me her verdict. Slowly, my sadness turned to rage. I’ll show her that I can move around just fine. Growling, I grabbed the edge of the bed. My ears were flat and pulled back as I prepared to dash for the door. Before I could get up from the bed, Zenny tackled me. I grabbed Zenny’s shoulders and froze.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Don’t do it,” Zenny begged into my chest as she clutched me with everything she could muster. “Please don’t do it.”

“Why?” That was all I could get out as I stared at her face.

Her voice broke as she released her tears. “Because I don’t want you to hurt yourself, you big dummy.” Alright, that nickname has gotten old. “Why don’t you listen to Mom and take care of yourself? All she’s trying to do is make you feel better. She’s just trying to help.”

I guess I was about to do something stupid again, wasn’t I? “I don’t know.” I flung my head back and stared at the ceiling. “Nobody seems to understand. I can’t sit still. Do you think I run around so much and do anything to spend my energy because I enjoy it?”

“But you’re always smiling. Aren’t you having fun?” Salien asked with obvious skepticism.

“Okay, it is fun, but I originally started doing it because if I don’t spend the energy welling up inside me, I’m afraid of what I’ll do.” I was getting anxious. “I’m getting really strong, and I’m afraid that if I lose control, someone will get hurt.”

“But I’ve seen you. You don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t believe you’ll hurt anyone.” Zenny slowed her crying.

“That’s the thing. It feels like there’s another part of me that loves to hurt things. I don’t want to let it out.” It sounds like I have a split personality.

“Have you ever felt like that?” Salien asked in her most serious tone.

I tilted my head towards her since Zenny was still holding me down to the bed and it would be too painful to move her. I expressed my confusion with an audible hum.

“Have you ever felt like a passenger in your own body? Have you heard another voice in your head, and you don’t know where it came from?”

I lowered my head back down and thought about it. “No, I haven’t. Why?”

“Since you had such a close run-in with a demon, it isn’t impossible. But there may be some residual effects. Nora killed it, so as far as I understand, it can’t do anything to you. Also based on your answers, it sounds like you’re fine,” Salien said with a smile. “That means that you’ve never truly lost control of yourself.”

“Does that mean I’m this energetic because I want to be?” I asked with desperation in my voice.

“No, I imagine it has to do with the fact that you’re a beastkin.” Nora walked into the room. Fantastic. Another person to cross-examine me. “We just need to ask another beastkin when they come for the tournament.” Her voice was terrifyingly optimistic.

“It hasn’t been that bad these last three days, but I can feel the need to do something returning. And it’s returning in full force. But what is this about a tournament?” I perked up at the possibility of meeting my first other beastkin.

“You can worry about that tomorrow,” Salien said sternly. “Are you going to keep her in that bed, dear?” she asked her daughter.

“I am,” Zenny said as proudly as she could.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to it.” I could hear Salien walking away. “She needs one more day of strict bed rest. Is it alright if Zenny stays to enforce that?”

“Of course,” Nora said sweetly. “Now would you like breakfast?” I could hear them walking down the hall together.

“Please,” Salien said. “But seeing her this mobile after only three days is unheard of. A week was optimistic for my original prognosis. That girl is full of surprises.”

“And headaches,” Nora added.

Go ahead, gossip about me. I’m kinda glad that I’m healing as fast as I am. My sanity would be gone if I had to wait a whole week.

“Do you want to get off of me now?” I asked as I tapped Zenny’s head.

She turned to look at me with the most innocent, pleading eyes. “Do you promise to behave?”

“Do I have to?” My voice didn’t hide my displeasure.

“Yes!” Zenny’s grip tightened with her response.

“Fine,” I huffed. Zenny smiled as she released me. She sat up next to me on the bed. I gingerly sat up and played the good girl and didn’t leave the bed. “How did you know I was lying?”

“A woman’s intuition.” Her grin was as wide as her face would allow.

“You are as much a woman as me.” I pointed to her budding bosom. “We’re both just starting to grow.” She looked at my chest and deflated slightly.

“That’s not fair. You’re two years younger than me, and we started at the same time.” She had a playful pout on her face. “That, and you’ll finish before me too.”

How does she know? Did Mom tell her? Anyway, something else is bothering me. “Zenny, why are you here?”

“Do I need a reason to see my best friend?” Zenny looked at me with concern. She’s been friendly with all the kids that were here when I first arrived and the new ones since then too.

“Why am I your best friend?” I don’t understand our relationship. “How are we even friends? There are so many others you could spend your time with. So why me?”

“I don’t understand. Why are you asking these questions?” Zenny looked hurt. “We spend all kinds of time together.”

“Mostly when I hurt myself.” I glared at her. “You have all kinds of friends now. You make friends with anyone you meet. What’s so special about me? Besides the obvious physical differences.”

Zenny dropped her head in sadness. “When my mother died, you were the only one who let me cry on your shoulder. You helped me through it. You didn’t say anything. You were always there for me when I needed you.”

“I could tell you’d heard enough platitudes, and I’m genuinely sorry you had to go through that.” I shrugged my shoulders. “But I can tell you two things. One is that you know who your parents were. Two, you are in a vastly better condition now than when you were living with your parents. Seriously, I had never seen you smile before you started living with Salien.”

“I guess you’re right,” Zenny said after she gave it some thought. “What I don’t understand is what brought this conversation on.”

“I just don’t know how we can be friends when we’re so different. We don’t share any interests, and the only thing I can do is mess everything up.” I still need to apologize to Marigold and Zane.

“I see how lonely you are.”

Say what again?

Noticing that she’d caught my attention and that her words demanded an explanation, Zenny continued. “You don’t have anyone else to call a friend. Your siblings don’t really treat you all that well. They aren’t mean to you because they fear you more than anything.” I was about to protest, but before any words came out, she held up her hand to stop me. “Eleanah and Martin both regarded you as a little sister. One they needed to protect out of some sense of obligation.”

I hung my head in defeat, and my mind turned dark. She’s right. I don’t have any friends. I glared at her and scowled. “So are you telling me you’re only my friend out of pity?” I raised my voice and injected a slight rumble into it. The horror on Zenny’s face did nothing to soothe my rage. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Tears rolled down her face. “No, that isn’t it.” Her voice was breaking. “Why—” She tried to continue, but I interrupted her.

“Leave me alone.” I swiped a clawed hand at her, but pulled it back before it reached her. No! I won’t hurt her. It isn’t safe for her to be around me. “I don’t want to see you again.” This is for your own good. I turned away from her and curled up into a fetal position.

Zenny stumbled off the bed and ran out of my room, bawling.

My rage never abated. I looked for the closest thing I could take it out on. Another pillow suffered the wrath of my claws. There was a slight pain in my arms, but I didn’t care. I continued until nothing was recognizable. As the shreds of fabric lay spread haphazardly around my bed, I finally came to my senses. What have I done? I cried just like Zenny had when she left my room. I did something stupid because I didn’t think!