Chapter 13 #3
He finally looked at me. I had already started changing.
My legs stretched and thickened, strong muscles built in my thighs, arms, and core.
Wings burst from beneath my shoulder blades, trapped for a few breaths before shredding the back of my shirt.
My eyesight sharpened. Darryl watched in horror as I loomed over him.
Did you honestly think it was all a hallucination?
That we issue empty threats. My voice boomed in his head.
He stepped back and shrank in on himself, now smaller than me by at least a foot.
This next part was tricky, since the last thing I wanted was to strengthen our bond, but I needed to know what he was thinking.
I pushed inside his head, to the place where his fear had shut down rational thought.
Calm down, Darryl. Keep it together. You’ve let me down once, but I need to know something for certain.
His knees buckled, and he went down to the ground, finally understanding the depth of his error in coming to warn me.
I leaned down, keeping our eyes connected, listening closely to what his brain told me.
He stood frozen in fear on the outside while desperately trying to come up with a way out of this on the inside.
I didn’t have to listen for long. His thoughts betrayed him.
“I-I-I promise not to tell anyone, Morgan. Let me g-g-go, and you’ll never see me again.” Except that was not what he was thinking. He planned to tell me whatever I needed to hear to make his escape and, in his mind’s words, bring down the wrath of God on our house. I couldn’t let it happen.
“Okay, fine,” I said, out loud this time, to ease his fear. I might have looked like the devil’s bride, but for the next few moments, I could not act like a monster. And his fear was upsetting. “Get up. But this is your last chance, understand?”
“Yes, oh, thank you, Freya. I can’t tell you…”
As soon as he was upright, I grabbed him, just under his armpits, kicking off and flapping until I caught the wind.
He weighed me down, almost dragging us back to earth, but my increased wingspan and added muscles made it just possible to hoist both our bodies into the sky.
Darryl froze again, forgetting to fight me until I dove toward the edge of the cliff.
If I dropped him near the edge and someone found him, they would think he fell or was pushed. Damn, I should’ve thought of it sooner.
Just at that moment, Darryl began to struggle, causing my grip on him to slip. I didn’t have much time to confirm no one could see us, but I did a quick sweep of the area. When my grip loosened, his tightened on me. He wrapped his legs around my torso, like some twisted lover.
Only I was much stronger than him in my new form.
I peeled his hands off me, holding his wrists in one hand while the other wrestled with his legs.
He was persistent, and now that he knew my true intentions, he was determined to find a way to survive.
So, I tried a different tactic. Twisting his body so he had no choice but to look down, I folded my wings close to my back, angling my body into a sharp dive.
Darryl’s legs lost their death grip on my hips, and I flung him away from my body, my wings snapping loudly outward and catching the wind like a parachute.
I forced myself to watch him plummet, feeling the sharp sense of terror as he faced his death.
In a few seconds, he hit the ground with a thud.
I had been moving upward when it happened, when I killed my first person, my heart choking my throat.
I landed nearby, completely unaware of my surroundings. The only thing I was aware of was my Monster’s presence. Even as distressed as I was, filled with remorse, I couldn’t ignore his magnetism.
Corvus, come.
This time it was an order. My body obeyed immediately, wings and legs pushing me into flight, where he waited for me.
He didn’t say anything else, and I complied in silence, certain he could sense my inner turmoil.
We flew for a long time, far from home or in circles, I hardly cared.
But when we landed, the terrain was unfamiliar.
He didn’t give me much time to wonder, instructing me to change into a crow.
Once again, I obeyed without thought. It was easier to do as he told me, since we both knew I would give in eventually.
Killing Darryl had robbed me of any inner fight, but some distant part of me hoped it was not gone for good.
We didn’t fly far this time, just to the edge of another unfamiliar ridge.
The sun set in the distance, but my attention caught on the cliff facing us.
About halfway up the sheer face was a ledge, and on the ledge was a massive nest. A nest big enough to comfortably contain us both in our largest Monster forms.
My Monster was silent, and for once, I was content to be left in the dark.
My thoughts were truly loud this time, although I could only sense them from afar, as if I had retreated into a deep tunnel inside my soul.
A place where I was forced to sit with my new reality.
To take a hard look at who I really was as opposed to the false, polite, too-good facade.
To look at the line I had crossed with both feet; one I could never cross back.