Whatever the Weather

Werewasp

Then suddenly, before she could take Skye's hand, Meliora spasmed and dropped limp to the floor again. She let out another pained groan. She tried in distress to bring herself back to her paws as she wobbled up. Her spine then audibly popped and cracked as she rapidly gained over two feet in height. The stretching of her skin burned, like hundreds of wasp stings. Her shoulders broadened and her muscles suddenly bulged with new strength, and the seams of her clothing bursted. Her once lean, feminine young body turned beastly. Thick fur stood up along her hunched back and around her chest, her sleek dark brown pelt had grown into a frizzled mane. Meliora's back curved further and the sides of her ribcage burned. She rasped in agony, as a long, needle point stinger unsheathed itself from out of her tailbone, and replaced the fluffy tail she once had. The spike neared a foot and a half in length, and her rump behind it swelled up and stuck out to form a wasp's striped thorax.

On either side of her spine shot out two enormous, translucent insect wings that fanned open. She felt two painful stings on the top of her head, underneath her scalp. Sprouting out from the source of the pain were two thick, large, black antennas. She reached for her head to feel what had happened, but her hand had transformed into a prickly tarsus, and provided no comfort to what she felt. Meliora dropped to her knees and stared at the black and yellow striped arms in front of her, they were unrecognizable. Then in horror, she saw that a second set of giant insect arms had bursted through the sides of her torso. Skylar watched on as her friend reeled in pain, hunched over on the cold dirty floor.

"H-help!" Meliora managed to gasp out, as she reached her misshapen hand desperately towards Skye. Then suddenly, she snapped.

Meliora got up from her hands and knees and drew in closer, she towered over her  5'8 friend. Her brows furrowed as she stared at Skye intensely. Her eyes appeared as bright yellow discs trapped in two inky black voids, like the burning sun in the dark atmosphere of the universe. There was no white left at all. Her pincher mouth opened wide as she let out a piercing hiss. Skye could see dozens of tiny razor sharp teeth inside.

"Stay back," Skylar urged, as she slowly backed up.

Skye had her arm outstretched in front of her to try to halt Meliora, she hoped that keeping her composure would allow her to stand her ground against the demon, but the black and yellow beast persisted. She let out another hiss, her whip-like tongue hung out of her mouth. Her wings began to flap rapidly, which created a distinct buzzing sound. Her heavy body rose from the ground and lunged forward. Skye darted away from her rabid friend, she slid underneath one of the old wooden pews. From underneath it, she glanced quickly at her dark surroundings. Skye had visited this old building a couple of times before, but in the moment her fear consumed her mind and it had become like a maze, she struggled to think straight. It felt as if the walls were closing in on her.

Meliora threw herself onto the rickety pew, which broke the old bench into hundreds of splintering pieces. Skye had barely evaded her attack; she rolled over on the floor, just out of the way. Skye racked her brain for answers. 

What exactly happened to her friend? Did she really send the demon back to hell? 

She had no time to waste as Meliora returned her predatory eyes back to Skye's delicious looking form. An evil growl escaped Meliora's throat as she hungered insatiably for her meal. Skye scooped up a handful of the splintered pew and threw it at Meliora's face to distract her. Then without wasting another moment, Skylar sprinted back towards the altar as the sparing amount of candle light called to her. The flame's glow guided her towards the dominating crucifix. It hung from the ceiling, at the center back of the old church. The candlelight illuminated the cross, whose shadow smothered the wall. Skye leaped over the granite steps to the altar. She held her breath and tried to silence her frantic steps.

Quickly, she returned to her book. It laid with its pages closed, on the ground, after falling from the air. Skye picked her book up and headed towards the back wall. Skye stuffed the book into her shirt and used her chin to hold it in place against her chest. Then she latched herself to the bronze gate that separated the holy altar from the Priest's office behind it. Skye pulled herself up the gate, with a vertical bar in each hand, she climbed. Skye fought past the nervous sweat on her palms that made it hard to grip the gate. Meliora caught sight of her again and ran to her on six legs. Skye no longer tried to stay quiet since she was already spotted.

"Yori, it's me!" Skye screamed as she tried to rationalize what happened, "That bite must have done something to you, but you gotta recognize it's me!"

Meliora's wings began to flap as her prickly feet left the ground, she barrelled full speed ahead.  She charged towards Skye, her thick arms outstretched in front of her, ready to grab. Skye clenched her teeth as she used her legs to stay latched to the gate. She used her free arms to pull the heavy book out of her shirt and lift it over her head. Meliora was just a foot away from her now, Skye had no other choice; She slammed the thick book against her friend's skull with all her might. A loud thwack, paired with Meliora's beastly form's fall from the air. Then the room shook with her thud onto the floor. She laid there for a moment, on the ground twenty feet below, Skye looked on with baited breath and a sunken heart. Then, she saw movement. Meliora shook off the debris from the fall and jumped back into the air, ready to attack Skye once more.

Skye leaped off of the gate and reached out for the crucifix above Meliora, she clung to it desperately. The old suspension lines quickly snapped and Skye fell, riding the giant crucifix like a bucking bull ride. She crashed down on top of Meliora, who broke her fall. The vibrations of hitting the ground surrounded them in a cloud of dust. Skylar rolled off of her friend and slowly she managed to lift herself back up, as she tried to steady her heart rate. Shakily, she regained her stance on the cracked floor.

"I-I'll get better at these s-spells..." Skye said, she gasped for air still.

Then with guilty eyes, she gazed upon Meliora, who laid unconscious on the ground. She was surrounded by splinters of the shattered pew, and the heavy crucifix laid on top of her. Meliora's chest still rose and fell, but apart from that, she laid motionless. The cute outfit she had been wearing earlier looked like rags, fabric shredded and stretched across her now larger body.

Skye was with her that day, the day she picked it out at the mall using her Sweet Sixteen money. It was just earlier this month, when she and Norman had first begun flirting with each other. Skye remembered how excited Yori was, she just wanted to look good for him, and she wanted to look good on the date they had planned. The date they never got to have. Skylar wiped her eyes with her sleeve as she thought about it, her dark colored makeup blended in with her black sleeve. Without another look, Skye crept over to where her book laid, and picked it up from off of the floor. The corner of it now dented. Skylar then made her way back to the altar, laid the book open, and returned to reading its contents.

"I'll find out everything I can about what attacked you. I'll find out how to help you," she said with assurance, as she turned to the page on demons, "I promise."