Leaving the Horse

Chapter 13

Breathing heavily, I gasped for breathe as I felt only a little ball of power left in me. Once again, it felt good to have all that stored energy released, but like I had thought, it was released at a great price. I felt stunned, and not one muscle in my body would move for me, so all I could do was pant and watch Jonah's still body. I didn't know what to feel. Blood seeped from Jonah's chest, soaking through his shirt in seconds and littering the leaves around him with drops of red hot liquid. His hands and eyes were motionless and the only indication that he was alive came from the small rise of his bloody chest. The site made my stomach protest, and the first movement I could make was throwing up. Suddenly all my muscles could move, and I was shaking so hard that I couldn't do anything but crouch there, whimpering. What should I do? What could I do? My brain wouldn't work for me.

I gaped at Jonah, emotionless. Then all the events that happened from the past hour tumbled back to me. Curling my hands around some leaves, I realized I could have just murdered my friend. This is why I can't be human. I am indeed as evil as my parents. I am a monster whether I like it or not.

Then it tumbled upon me. I needed to get help. I couldn't face everyone as a person so I turned into a horse. Slowly getting to my feet, I refused to look at Jonah's broken body and instead raced out of the bushes at a run. Weaving through busy people, knocking over buckets and baskets, I searched desperately for the only one that would follow me. My gaze diverted over to Grace, moving off to some nearby house.

Shaking off the people who tried to grab me, I raced over to Grace, almost tumbling her over at my abrupt stop. She gazed at me, wide eyed.

I did the only thing I could think of to get her to understand. I turned to my side, offering her my back.

She took the message.

Biting her lip nervously she slipped onto my back asking in a whisper, "what is it Jay?"

Without warning, I sprinted back toward the woods. Grace yelped in surprise and clutched my mane as she desperately tried to hold on. I came into the woods to see Jonah's arms and hands now soaked with the red-black blood running from him. I didn't know if he was alive.

Grace gasped in shock and slid off me. She looked at me in horror before kneeling by me.

"You had better get out of here. Go back to your paddock. We'll talk later," Grace said, her voice giving no hint of emotion.

I glanced regretfully at the sight one more time to see a glow coming from Grace's hand. She was doing magic! I couldn't stay any longer. My stomach threatened to disagree again despite the fact that I couldn't throw up as a horse so I galloped off and jumped the palace fence, to only catch my foot at the top and tumble head first on the ground at the other side.

I rolled onto my side, wanting to cry. I felt bruised and weak, but that feeling was not nearly as strong as my guilt. I was a terrible person. No. I was a terrible thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was lying, shamefully and bitterly in my stall. I didn't look up at the people who passed but stared blankly at the stall floor, unable to get the sight of Jonah out of my mind. I never wanted to turn human again. When daybreak came and the sky darkened, I found out I couldn't sleep without imagining Jonah's fate. I didn't want to sleep anyway. I wanted to die.

The sound of the barn door opening didn't make me look up and the sound of footsteps stopping right outside my stall was nothing I cared about.

"What happened?" Grace's voice echoed softly through the barn. I shook my horse head, not looking away from a bundle of hay lying untouched in front of me. "Jonah was badly hurt. I can heal with my magic but even I couldn't help him much. Something powerful happened and now he is lying on his death bed. Don't you even care on how he is doing?"