[Addie]

The natural silence was filled with the chirping of birds flying overhead and the whisper of leaves in the tree that loomed over the bench Katherine and I sat on as we both doodled on a piece of paper. The wind occasionally upturned one of the corners as it caught a flat side, forcing me to run my hand over it to flatten it. Still it didn't hinder my drawings, or Katherine's.

Only yesterday was Grace's death, but it felt like much longer. A darkness still lingered in the back of my mind, threatening to slash claws across this remarkably decent day, but I held it back the best I could.

Though every few minutes, tears would sometimes threaten to rise and choke me.

I shook away my sadness once again as a loud BANG reverberated through the air. A gunshot. It didn't concern me. A few feet away, another one of my friends, Tucker, held a pistol aimed at a target about fifteen meters away. His dark hair was concealed by a red beanie, with the tip of the front visible from behind.

Gosh, that was... louder than usual...

I shook my head. Nope. Not concerned about anything weird. Just try to have fun. Nothing strange at all going on here.

That same, cold feeling from yesterday still settled in my mind. Nonexistent eyes stuck to me from all around. I turned my attention away from the sensation, focusing back on the drawing.

Katherine and I were page fighting. Again.

There was a line in the middle of the paper dividing it in two, one half my drawings and the other half Katherine's. In the center of each half was a sketch - her's obviously more thoroughly shaded than mine - of each of us in some kind of idle pose/offensive/defensive position holding a pencil. Around each was random blob drawings and words that really had no context whatsoever but made it more entertaining. Things like "I use the power of color" and "eats popcorn as chaos ensues."

BANG!

The gunshot sounded again, the bullet piercing a hole into the target about twenty meters away. This time I flinched away with a yelp of surprise, rubbing my ears as they now rang.

"Addie? Are you okay?" Katherine asked me. I barely heard her. I registered her words after a moment and replied,

"I-I'm fine, that was just kind of loud." I put my pencil back to the paper, tapping it a bit to think of something to doodle onto the page.

BANG!

"AHH-" A cry erupted from my throat, my face twisted into an expression of distress.

"Addie!" Katherine put a hand on my shoulder. My voice was loud enough that Tucker stopped shooting, turning around with brown eyes filled with confusion.

"You okay?" He said. I flinched back a bit more at the loudness of his voice, gritting my teeth and willing for my ears to stop flatlining like a heart monitor.

"I'm okay, I'm okay." I chuckled nervously, shaking my head a little. "Damn, did that gunshot get louder to anyone else?"

Both Katherine and Tucker looked confused. Katherine spoke up. "Um... no?"

Out came another chuckle of nervousness. "Oh. Just me then, hah hah."

Tucker glanced at the target, raising the gun and pulling the trigger once more with a BANG!

NOPE, NOPE-

I cried out in pain again, the sound cutting like a knife into my skull.

"Tucker!" Katherine exclaimed to him angrily.

Tucker shrugged. "Just checking."

I rubbed my head, groaning a bit. My thoughts were a bit foggy and faint, my own voice echoing around like it's whispering through thick mud. As the ringing faded and the fog began to clear, I could at least hear my thoughts better. The thoughts swearing at how loud the shot had been. The thoughts telling me to make it stop, force it to stop, execute-

I snapped to attention, alarmed at this sudden, unwanted train of thoughts. The voices were entirely involuntary. I questioned whether they were even mine, or just implemented in my brain.

"You're being soft. Take that zaitorn device and smash that kid's skull in, pramn it, make it zaitorn stop!"

I didn't even understand half of the voice's words, they were pure gibberish. No, those weren't my thoughts. I looked around, quite wary of this, thinking that someone was trying to be funny somehow.

"Uh, Addie? What are you doing?" Katherine stared at me with a suspicious, bewildered expression. I jumped at her voice, staring at her with quick breaths as my lungs expanded and contracted at a fast pace. The voices still lingered, everything they said completely against any moral compass I had. And they just kept repeating themselves, over and over and over and over.

"Kill them."

I shook my head in confusion.

"Kill them all."

No, what?!

"Kill them all now while there's no one around!"

Bile burned the back of my throat, my vision spinning as I became suddenly quite nauseous.

"Kill them, KILL THEM!"

"I-I need some space!" I burst without warning. I threw myself from the bench, carrying myself swiftly away from Tucker and Katherine without explaining why.

I ran for a moment, finding my little house (which was thankfully near) and shutting myself inside. Stumbling like a drunk, I lurched over to the trash can I kept in the corner of the small kitchen that took up the space inside the door and vomited into it. Black sludge poured from my mouth, burning the back of my throat and splattering at the bottom of the trash bag. I tried to take a breath, but the liquid filled my mouth again, and out it came a second time. The cycle continued for a moment before I finally found my lungs filling with air, no more of the black substance leaving me.

My chest heaved as I stared blankly into the trash can, feeling sick to my stomach. Some of the liquid dripped down my chin. I attempted to wipe it away with my sleeve, but suddenly froze as my hand came into view. The same sludge covered my hand and crawled up my forearms, my fingers tipped with sharp claws like tiny blades. It shook with a weak tremor, which was obviously the aftermath of vomiting into the trash without warning.

I just stared at it. Three hundred different emotions flooded my senses at once - confusion, terror, horror, panic, all of the above. And still I just stared at it.

What the HELL IS HAPPENING.

My gaze remained firm on the black-covered arm, my head barely clearer than it was ten seconds before.

It took me a while to finally resolve,

I need to tell someone about this.

I immediately started for the door, prepared to leave and run back to Tucker and Katherine. However my feet suddenly froze themselves to the floor, a numb sensation spreading over my body as I found myself suddenly incapable of moving.

W-what? What is happening, what the hell is going on?!

That voice came back, answering my question. It bounced from the corners of the room, wrapping my mind in conversation as it spoke.

"You're not telling anyone anything, yhenj."

My breathing quickened again, my heart thudded in my chest. I tried to put my hand over it to try and calm it, but stopped cold as something met my hand. Slowly my gaze dropped downwards, finding the place where my chest opened into a hideous, sharp-toothed mouth, an ominous red light being emitted from the "throat." As my head drifted downwards, black sludge like the stuff on my arms dripped like heavy tears from my eyes.

My hands and legs shook. What was happening? Is this a dream? It has to be a dream, right? T-this can't happen! It's impossible, right?

"You're pramn wrong, yhenj. Now either zaitorn stay here or keep your mouth shut about this, got that?"

I didn't say anything at first, my eyes wide and my words caught in my throat. I couldn't speak, I had no control to move.

Voice seemed to take that as a solid answer. "Good."

And just as suddenly as it'd happened, it had gone. The mouth in my chest disappeared, and the black on my arms seemed to fade back into my skin.

I didn't move for a second. My breathing remained unsteady and fast, staring at my now normal-looking hands in shock that struggled to register to me.

"No, nononononono, what the hell is happening...?"

Inhale.

"Alright, it's... it's gonna be fine. Deep breath, Addie, deep breath."

Exhale.

"You can handle this, right? Yeah, there's just a crazy little voice in your head and now you can turn halfway into some black sludge Venom monster or something. Totally normal!"

Inhale, exhale.

"Oh, what the frick, nothing is normal about this! I need to tell someone!"

Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.

"No, no I can't! Then it'll come back again! It does not sound like someone I should cross."

Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale-

"What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?!"

A small meow pulled me from my panic. I glanced over my shoulder, realizing I'd started pacing. Arachne and Ragdoll both stared up at me, the curious felines looking at me with uncertainty. Arachne's vision specifically seemed to be focused on my head.

I glared at the cat, trying to keep my overwhelmed mind from lashing out at the poor thing. "What are you looking at?"

Obviously Arachne didn't have an answer for me, seeing that she was a cat. But her gaze never left the top of my head.

"What are you-" I started to repeat myself, my hand drifting to the top of my head. However I stopped as I, surprisingly, hit something. A furry, thin veil of flesh that stuck up in a triangular shape. My heart dropped. What now?

Quickly I ran across the room to the bathroom, looking to the mirror. What I found were two canid, mahogany ears that stuck up from my messy brown hair. As my face melted into shock, they instinctively angled themselves downwards.

"T-this is freaking weird," I stammered, bringing my hand up to touch the pointed anomalies on my head. One flicked, and my hand shied away. And for the first time, I noticed that my balance seemed... different. Knowing generally what animals with ears such as mine use for balance, I looked down behind me and - yup. A fluffy tail of the same maroon as my ears extended from the base of my spine and reached the bottoms of my calves. Almost as if it were happy I'd noticed it, it wagged a bit.

"Oh. Uh..." I looked back in the mirror. I really didn't know what to think at this point. My words caught in my throat as I stared at the reflection that I wanted to doubt was me.

I'll be completely honest here - the ears and tail were kind of cool. But I mean, it's not normal at all and it's alarming that it's happening along with voices in my head and a lot of black sludge.

Okay, then, okay, lots of weird things happening right now. I should probably tell someone, because this is slightly concerning.

But I don't know what this... voice in my head can do.

I sighed, leaning my body weight into my hands on the counter. I stared at my reflection, my ears pointed downwards as I looked at myself. Was it even myself at this point?

Fine, I finally resolved. I'm not gonna tell anyone about this. It's... probably for the best, right?

Yeah. Just gotta figure out how to hide these and I'll go back and act like nothing happened.

Yeah.

-

[Katherine]

I stared after Addie in confusion as she bolted away. I remembered the look on her face just seconds before - like she was about to vomit or something. From a gunshot sound.

I pressed my lips tightly together, sighing. I'd have to talk to her when she got back. Something is very wrong.

Very wrong.

I wanted to say that maybe it had nothing to do with how Grace died. Maybe she's just grieving still, and bottling it up is hard for her. Maybe.

But maybe isn't enough. Maybe is a possibility. Meaning there's other possible outcomes. Including what I really don't want to believe and, technically, have no reason to believe. Besides, of course, Addie's weird behavior.

Something is going on here. And I'm going to get to the bottom of it.

For Grace's sake. For everyone's.

"That was a bit weird."

I turned to Tucker, who was also looking after Addie with puzzlement.

"Yeah, I agree. Any idea what's going on?"

Tucker shrugged. "No idea. You think she has hidden trauma she's never told us about relating to guns?"

I rolled my eyes. "Tucker, she's been around when you've shot before, and she was just fine, this is new."

He grinned jokingly. "Hey, you never know."

"Oh, shut up." I glared at him teasingly. He laughed, and turned back to the target.

You never know. I guess you don't, really. But I will know. I have to.

-

2212 words

WHOO FINALLY GOT SOME MOTIVATION!