Aamaya's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Night came fast. Aamaya bolted the cabin door and dragged a chair against it. Her sister Alana, the deputy who checked on her each week, drew her sidearm and stood at the window. The black cat crouched on the table, ears flat, tail still. "You said six," Alana said. She kept her voice level, but her eyes moved across the dark grass outside. "Six," Aamaya said. "They're close now. I can feel them." Something landed on the roof. Claws scraped the wooden shingles. Then a face pressed against the window glass, a small black creature with bat wings and glowing green eyes. It grinned and showed its fangs. Aamaya screamed and stumbled back. The glass shattered inward. The creature squeezed through, followed by two more. Alana fired twice. One dropped. The others scattered across the room, fast and low, snapping at their legs. Aamaya's fear turned hot and strange. Her hands burned. She looked down and saw her nails stretch into black claws. Her gums ached as fangs pushed through. The change she had always fought now came on its own, pulled up by her terror. "Aamaya." Alana grabbed a creature off her shoulder and threw it against the wall. She looked at her sister's claws, at the fangs, at the obsidian eye burning red. She did not flinch. "Good. Use them. I've got your back." That steadied her. Alana wasn't afraid. Aamaya swung. Her claws caught a creature mid-air and tore through it. Black blood sprayed the floorboards. Another lunged and she caught it by the throat, squeezing until it went limp. The cat leapt onto the last one's back, raking its eyes. It shrieked and thrashed. Alana pinned it with her boot and fired. The room went quiet. Aamaya stood over the bodies, breathing hard. Her claws dripped. Her heart pounded. She had counted six. She counted the dead now. Five. "One got away," she said. Her voice came out low and rough, not fully her own. Alana holstered her weapon and gripped her sister's shoulder. "You did it. You made it happen this time." Aamaya looked at her hands. The claws did not retract. She flexed them, waiting for the change to fade, and it stayed. The fear was gone, but the claws remained. She reached for her old fear on purpose and found nothing. Somehow she had crossed a line and could not step back. "Alana," she whispered. "I can't turn it off." Her sister's face tightened. Outside, far across the wet grass, a single set of green eyes watched them from the tree line. It did not come closer. It turned and slipped into the dark, back toward the grove. Aamaya watched it go with her red eye. Whatever she was becoming, one of those things had seen her do it. And now it knew what she was too.