The Shapeshifter Chronicles: Beginnings [UNDERGOING EDITS]

Chapter 2

After the episode in the meeting room, Kaylie headed to bed. Her feet were shaky, but she managed to stand up anyway. She was afraid of what she would find at her room, but she needn't have. She walked in the door, and there were the other girls. One of them looked at her curiously.

"Where were you?" asked the child, a seven year old named Molly. The other girls all stopped talking, and they looked at Kaylie. Kaylie felt a blush rising.

"I was in the meeting" she said, confused.

"Why'd you stay late?" asked Molly. Kaylie looked confused.

"You guys left without me!" she said. "After the lights went out."

"No, you and Reku stayed behind when the rest of us went to bed!" said Molly, and the others girls watched curiously. Kaylie began to feel sick. "B-but the lights went dark, and th-that th-th-thing came out and then the candles lit themselves and you were gone!" she said.

Molly's nose wrinkled. "No. 'Nelope finished the meeting and you and Reku just sat there in the room when the rest of us went to bed" she said matter-of-factly.

Kaylie turned away without another word, to get dressed. She crouched down behind her bed at the back of the room by the window, and pulled off her tunic. She heard the other girls whispering behind her back as she pulled her thin nightgown. When she got into bed, and Matron called lights out, and candles were extinguished, still the girls whispered, still Kaylie wondered what had happened to her. And why nobody else saw. And whether she was losing her mind.

--

When Kaylie awoke the next morning, her room was empty. The sun was high in the sky, and Kaylie wondered why she hadn't been rudely awakened for training. Then she remembered. The refugees were coming! Then, Kaylie remembered after the meeting. She stood up quickly, and changed into her tunic. Then she ran to the dining hall, determined not to miss lunch too. There, she found Reku within minutes. She made her way past children carrying lunch. She sat next to him on the wooden bench, and found him looking at her worriedly.

"You slept a long time" Reku said. Kaylie nodded.

"Do you remember the meeting last night?" she asked, getting right to the point. Reku nodded carefully, watching her face.

"Do you remember the candles going out, and the hooded thing, and - and -" Kaylie started to cry. Reku wrapped her in his arms. But soon, Kaylie recovered. She fixed Reku with a determined glare. "Well, do you?" she asked. She saw Reku's eyes flash, for one moment showing some emotion that she couldn't place. He hesitate before saying "No. That didn't happen." Kaylie knew something was wrong. "What are you hiding?" she asked him coolly. Reku avoided her glare as he said "Nothing."

"Yeah! Sure!" screamed Kaylie. She stood up and stormed off, trying not to look back. As soon as she returned to her room, she started to sob into her thin pillow. Reku not telling her this was a betrayal. Of the worst kind. The kind where she was reluctant to trust her best friend. So kaylie stayed in the room until dinner, when she was too hungry to resist food. Then, accompanied by ten refugees, she returned to her room to sleep. Again, she stayed up, along with the homesick refugees, tossing and turning over Reku and the meeting and the war. Nothing could be the same now.