Mana Pool

Chapter 8

Scott and Katie’s Apartment

December 22, 2012 

8:02 AM

It was real. It felt too real to be a dream. There was no reason to deny that the pain and misery inflicted on my body that night were real. The pain…

I had to see if I had eaten anything moldy from the fridge that would have contributed to the dream. Why was I thinking that? It was like my mind was spent trying to figure out what was real and what was not. The unknown sensations made all the different thoughts hard to process as I slept. All at once my brain just said, “screw it,” and accepted it. I didn’t strangely.

I was the first to wake up; I was lying down on my back. Taking in a slow breath, I caught a whiff of the Old Spice on Scott’s thick fleece blanket. It was covering my face and I enjoyed it. I moaned a little and quivered, then realized that I was also under the bed’s blankets.

Wait. That doesn’t make sense, I thought. I was on my face when I went out. Who tucked me in?

With little strength, I raised my hands to my face and opened my eyes to the darkness. I pulled down the blanket with little effort and looked up at the bedroom’s ceiling fan with clouded vision. I stopped moving and my heart sped up when I heard a gasp.

“Ms. Walsh is awake.” The woman’s voice sounded tired at first but quickly became alert and shaky, scared maybe. I didn’t like it. I shuddered and yelped feeling something… weird brush against my leg.

I pulled the blanket back over me when I remembered that I had been naked since last night, but I had reason to believe that somebody, meaning her, had handled me while I was unconscious. I could have screamed for that embarrassing ordeal, and then, remembering the transformation, that she had gotten a good look at me…

“Eh… go away,” I mumbled.

“Ms. Walsh, don’t be afraid, I’m here to help. I’m a nurse from the local hospital. The sheriff called me in to watch over you and Scott.” She spoke sincerely and low to me through the fabric. “Are you feeling any pain? Do you need any assistance?”

Before I stuck my hand out to shush her away, muffled flapping of wings came and a familiar voice spoke. “Nurse Whitman, we will be the judge of that. Fetch her some water.”

She shrieked and ran out, for both the following of orders or freaked out by talking animals, although they weren’t animals per se. The door closed.

“Katie, how are you feeling?” Arana spoke through the blanket with a level to not frighten me. I heard her land on the night stand next to me.

The thing under me moved again. As I fully woke up, I began to feel more sensations. With the foreign object under me it was hard not to squirm so pathetically.

“Katie, you need to speak. If not I’ll tell the sheriff and Mike to make you.”

I sighed and followed her words, not wanting any conflicts. I pulled down the blanket. Arana the hawk stood on the edge of the nightstand, her sharp talons digging into the wood. My eyes cleared up but saw something rather strange within Arana’s eyes. Her irises were glowing bright blue but still displayed great wisdom. How did she come here? Is that what happens when they appear in this world?

The nurse came back with a coffee cup of water. “Water,” it came out of my mouth a raspy whisper rather than normal speech. She fed me very carefully, but I caught her looking at the sides of my head. She must’ve had a long night from the look of the deep bags under her eyes, and her unkempt blond hair. I took the cup into my hands and drank the rest, already feeling better from the ice cold water.