The Perfect Murder

Fear

I used to be an owl. A bird. With night vision, specialized hearing for hunting, 270° turning head, amazingly sharp claws and wings that spread out almost 5 feet wide, hugging all the visible horizon in front of me.

You probably think I am crazy, and if you ask me, you have all the rights to believe that.

***

Today is the day my best friend Chiara has waited for the last two weeks, it is her birthday and I am thrilled it is finally here, the moment I have had to listen her talk about since the day we met, that makes approximately a month. It has been a month of suffering and getting used to the human body, it is as a matter of fact hard! You all have been humans since birth and do not know the pain of transfering to a completely different new body, that happens to be harder to master. This one month has not been easy to me, but I am slowly putting up with it.

Today will be my first time ever celebrating with so many people. Chiara said, the whole school will be here, and although she likes to exaggerate and in the end it might not be as much, I am scared. Scared of the loud music, scared of flashing lights, scared of people, but mostly of thousands of ways I could embarrass myself in front of everyone.

Nobody, not even Chiara knows about my past, because one time I tried to tell her she started laughing and I played it off as a game. After all, what else could I do? I needed a friend – somebody to turn to – who will not think of me as insane, so it stayed that way. The laugh way. I would not say I regret not telling her, everything has worked out perfectly so far.

– You coming? – Chiara's shouting voice cut into my thoughts,

– Guests are about to show up! – after a little pause she continued, I was getting ready in her bedroom on the second floor. For now, I lived with Chiara, as my family was still in the woods, hunting every night for living. Who am I kidding – owls do not live in families, the last family I had was in my nest when I was an owlet, and even that was taken away too soon.

– Hey, Nascha! – she was done waiting and I could hear her coming steps,

– What is the matter? Is something wrong? – Chiara's blonde curls appeared in the doorway.

– No... Yes, I mean, no! I am just scared of this whole... party thing – I tried to be honest with her;

– Oh, is that because of your bird personality? – she started laughing, opened the door and came inside.

– Yes, how did you guess it so easily? – it was a relief I will not have to explain my fear of people to her.

– You know, Nascha, it is rather obvious – you blame all your problems on that! – a little grin showed up on her face which was followed by a great laugh from both of us, I started feeling more confident already, wow, she is good at calming me down.

– Now come here, Rhoslyn and Richard will be here soon! – and she dragged me out of the bedroom. Rhoslyn and Richard were her cousins, said to be the friendliest human beings on earth. Chiara has told me so much about them it is almost like we have grown up together, and now my first time seeing them eye to eye was only a few minutes ahead.