I hit the ground so hard I collapse onto my knees, scrapping them against the concrete I landed on. I'm out of breath, on my hands and knees. Why am I on a sidewalk? I look up and find myself no longer in my apartment. I am out in the dark night. Under the streetlights, many people are looking over at me, then continuing to walk. I blink multiple times, trying to focus from the fall. Did that guy have a tail? No, my vision is just blurry and trying to go back to normal. I shake my head and look again.
A tall woman that is walking in the opposite direction definitely has horns on her head. They're large and pointy. I obviously hit my head and now the shadows are playing tricks on me.
I look up at the sky that shines with more stars than I have ever seen before. I am dreaming... Right?
Even in the dark I can tell there's a town around me. A clock tower so bright and big is all the way on the other side. Based on the open signs and some of the items in the windows, it looks like there are some small shops all around. Where the hell am I? I don't think I have been here before. Even if I had, how did I get here?
Whatever brought me here brought the annoying necklace, and it's box with me. It's flipped upside down. All the papers have fallen out of the folder and have scattered in front of me. I quickly start to collect everything.
"Here let me help you." A young girl with peach hair runs up to me and helps collect the papers that spilled out of the folder. The street light above shines on us like a spotlight for everyone to see.
"Thanks." I mumble.
"The transport can be a little difficult, you're going to have to be careful next-" She looks up at me for the first time and her eyes wide, she cuts her sentence short. "Oh, my god... Are you human?"
I stare at her. How hard did I hit my head? There is no way I heard her correctly.
Then we both hear people yelling down the road, "Everyone inside immediately!"
The random girl and I both look in the direction. Three large men with flashlights are running in our direction.
A panic face appears on her face and she quickly collects everything faster. "Take my jacket, put up the hood!" She quickly takes off her pink hoodie and drapes it over my shoulders.
"What's going on?" I say, confused. Is she some sort of criminal running from these men?
"We have to go! Come with me." She replies, handing me the box with everything back inside. The girl quickly grabs my wrist and guides me to the side of an enormous building. "Come with me, keep your head down." She says, opening a side door and letting me inside. We step into a hallway full of doors. Is this a college dorm? People come in and out of the rooms, at least some look like people. I wait for the girl who is peeking out of the side door.
"I don't think they saw you." She shuts the door and leads to me some steps off of the hallway. The more people I see, the lower my head gets. I don't know why I need to have my head down, but I am just listening.
We go up at least two flights before entering another hallway. We take a left turn, and she leads me to what I would assume to be her room. She pushes me inside and locks at the door behind her.
With her back turned, I see the clear wings extending out of her back. I gulp and try to stay content, but my body is shaking uncontrollably. This has to be some sort of dream. Fairies are not real.
The girl turns around, facing me again, and sees my panic. "Please don't scream! Here, take some water." She reaches into her mini fridge and pulls out a water bottle. She keeps her distance but leans over to hand it to me. I drop the box on the ground and take it from her.
I take small sips to help my body relax a bit. I screw the cap back on and look at the girl. Her cheek-bones are a lot more noticeable than what would be normal, and she has pointy, large ears sticking out of the side of her head. "Where... where am I?" I ask cautiously.
The girl walks past me and rummages through her drawers. "Willow Forest. I don't know how you got here, but you are definitely not supposed to be. This is a town for the mythical creatures and monsters. Not humans."
Willow Forest, like the name of the college in the letter I got. Yet that isn't the part I am mostly thinking about. Mythical creatures and monsters... that's not possible. This girl looks like a fairy you'd see in a children's book or a Disney movie, not real life. This isn't real. I need to wake up.
"What are you looking for?" I question to keep the conversation going. If I let silence fill this room, I think my lungs will forget how to breathe for me. I've never had a panic attack, but this is how I imagine one to be.
Fairy girl starts to throw a few books on to the bed next to her. The bed is covered in a neon pink blanket and fuzzy pillows. There is another bed, on the opposite side of the room. The entire space is dull and empty, not just the bed.
"I need to get you back before those men find you here!" She stands up and investigates her books.
An alarm blares from the hallway and only causes more panic between Fairy girl and I. She cusses under her breath and peaks through the blinds of the back window. I can hear the fast footsteps of people outside. Sometimes a shadow passes under the door.
"What's going on?" The calmness in my voice is fake.
"A lockdown. They're looking for you." She replies and turns the blinds more to ensure no one can see inside.
"Who?"
She glares at me. "Would you stop asking so many questions!" Her attention goes right back to the book in her lap. "I just need to send you home to your perfect little human life."
All at once everything decides to come forward like a tidal wave. The realization, the terror, it was all delayed before, but now it is really hitting me. I'm not home. In fact, I am nowhere near home. I could quite possibly be on an entirely new planet, yet I do not know how. My head becomes heavier and I lose my footing.
"Oh, no you don't!" The fairy catches me just in time as I collapse to the floor. I don't fully black out, but my vision goes in and out with darkness.
From this angle, I notice the large fake butterflies hanging from the ceiling. You would think it would look childish, but somehow she made it work. Hopefully, I am waking up now from this very odd dream.
Now, laying in the fairy girl's lap, she places her fingers on my sweaty forehead. I don't question it; I don't stop her.
The room fades and memories play like I am watching the movie of my life. I see my parents, happy and smiling down at me. I see my mother again hanging up one of the many dresses I designed on the living room wall...
Then it all fades to black and white. Grief overtaken it all.
It's my mother's gravestone. The sky is gloomy, grieving her death as much as my father and I were. I look up at my father's broken face and ask, "Will we be okay?"
He, of course, wipes his teary eyes and pats my head. "Of course we will, kiddo. Your mother will always be with us." Only one of us would end up okay in the end. Mother was supposed to be with us, but it never felt like it.
I push it all away, tucked in the back of my mind in the farther corner. I snap myself awake and find I am still in the lap of the fairy girl. "What did you do?" I snap at her, sitting up.
Her face has softened from her original focused and startled face. "What ended up happening to your father?"
"How do you know that?" I push, even though I think I know the answer.
"In order to send you back, I'd have to erase your memory from ever being here. I must have gone too far back, I'm sorry." She must have seen the same memories I had. Memories I wish to never remember.
Looking back at her, she has this curious, regretful face. I sigh, "If you must know, my father remarried. He started to love her kids more than me. We no longer talk." It's been awhile since I have spoken about this. If I am honest, I don't think about it much when you have no one around to tell it to.
If mother was supposed to be with us after death, why would she let her husband do that to their own daughter? After her death, all I wanted was for him to find love again and for us to be happy. In the end, he is the only one who found happiness.
She bites her bottom lip and watches me carefully. She almost seems like she is going to cry. "Ugh!" She throws her hands up. "Why does everyone always have to have a sappy story!" Surprisingly, her comment almost makes me laugh.
I spot more shadows passing under the door, and I am just now noticing the alarm has stopped. In a nearby room someone starts to bang on a door.
Fairy girl knows something that I do not. She quickly stands from the floor and walks over to her nightstand. She has a lot of jewelry over there. Necklaces and bracelets hang on their own stand, while rings sit perfectly aligned at the bottom. Her eyes scan each one before her ears perk up and she grabs one of her necklace, "This one will have to do." She walks back to me with a black crystal necklace hanging between her fingers. She eyeballs the door, then grabs my chin and pushes my head to the left and then the right. What is she doing? Then she pushes my hair back and then pulls it forward again. She taps her index finger to her lip, thinking, analyzing me. "Okay! I need to do this quickly." She says nothing more. Instead, she grips the necklace in her palm and reaches for her bed.
Of course Fairy girl needs a wand. With a few quick waves over her closed fist, a white light grows in between her fingers. I lean forward, eager to see what may happen next, as if I was watching a really wonderful movie. She opens her eyes and brings her hand to her mouth. With a large blow of air, black sparkling dust flies from out of her hands. "There, it's complete. Put it on, quickly!"
Just as she says it, someone approaches the door, knocking just like they had before. She and I both look at the door and then the door.
"Uh.... one second! I'm changing!" She comes up with on the spot and motions for me to put the necklace on.
I stare at the necklace. A black and silver liquid swirls inside the crystal. I unclasp the clip and slowly wrap the chain around my neck before clipping it back together. Once the crystal touches my skin, I flinch as a spark shocks my chest. There is a tug on the top of my head towards the right, and then the left, as if someone is pulling my hair. The tingling feeling comes back and travels down my arms slowly and stops at my fingertips. A tap hits my lower back as if someone flicked me. The tingles continue filling my entire head, making me feel nauseous. It only lasts a couple seconds and then it all stops. I blink a couple times, closing my eyes longer than a normal blink.
"Hello, sir." She is at the door, and I never remember seeing her pass by me. I turn around quickly so the person at the door can't see my face.
The once plain side of the room is now decorated. What once was an empty mattress has been replaced by a black and green striped blanket. The wall is covered in vines to cover up the boring place it once was.
"Ma'am we are doing a check in all dorms. I am going to need you and your roommates' student IDs." His voice is so loud. Why is he screaming when we are right in front of him?
I go to plug my ears, but I only find my hair. I touch all around the sides of my head, but I can't find them. This is ridiculous. Until I reach the top of my head and find something tall, pointy and soft sticking out. I feel my fingers tracing them, and the slight tickle it causes.
Someone clears their throat near me, and I flinch at it. "Roomie," Fairy girl eyeballs me cautiously, "The nice man here just needs to see our ID's." Her eyes are begging me to play along.
I laugh awkwardly and slowly lower my hands. "Right, sorry." I pat my pockets, searching for something I know I do not have.
My fairy friend hands a small card over to the man who is now in our room. "Don't mind my new roommate..." She looks over her shoulder for assistance.
"Reighlynn. Reighlynn Fritz."
"Yes, don't mind Reighlynn here. She just moved in last week. Very excited girl who sometimes goes into her own world." She is so loud. Why is she loud?
The man laughs like he understands what she is talking about. "Do not worry about it..." He checks her card, "Melody." Then he looks up at me, "Do you have your student ID?"
Fairy girl (who I now know is Melody) secretly waves her wand behind her back. The man doesn't even notice. "You left it on the nightstand, remember?" Melody speaks.
When I turn around, there is a small card laying on the nightstand that sits under the window. There is a picture of myself with cat ears and my information underneath it. My name is spelled wrong. I hand him the card with shaky hands. Melody winks at me.
"You both are all clear." Then he walks out to move onto the next room.
Melody closes the door behind him and lets out a large sigh. "We are going to need to work on your act."
I hold up the ID card. "How did you do this? Why do I have cat ears?"
Melody waves her wand around proudly. "Come look." She guides me to the full body mirror leaned against the wall. When I look in the mirror, I notice nothing at first. My clothes are the same, my body shape is the same, until I actually look at my face. Specifically, my hair. Poking out from the top of my head on either side are very large, curved cat ears, exactly like the photo. My eyes go wide and I feel like I may just faint. That explains a lot I guess.
I back away from the mirror and when I turn to look at Melody, items from the shelf behind me crash to the ground. I whip around to see what I hit and only to knock more things down. I try to look over my shoulders to see how I am hitting everything. Melody quickly grabs my shoulders, "Calm down." She points back at the mirror. From the side I can now see the long, furred tail hanging from my backside.
As she leads me to the bed, I hear the floor creak underneath our feet. That's when I notice how much I can truly hear.
I hear steps, loud steps, like someone is going up or down some stairs. I hear music, playing from a radio, and the simple noise of people's conversations.
"I... I don't understand. Is this really real?" I touch the ears on top of my head.
Melody rolls her eyes at me. "Sorta. It's just some magic. If you take the necklace off, you'll just go back to normal. For now, though, you are a werecat." She looks around before handing me back the ID card. "There searching for a human. If I send you back now, they'll trace my magic back here. This is who you are now, at least for the night, okay?"
I look down at the picture. It is weird seeing myself the way I look in the picture. I laugh at the spelling of my name. "You spelled my name wrong. It's R-E-I-G-H-L-Y-N-N." As I speak, the letters of my name begin to rearrange and change until it is the right spelling.
"There Reighlynn, better?" Melody sarcastically says once it is fixed.
"Most people call me Rei." I smile and run my hands down my pants, wiping off my sweaty palms. My ears ring and I twitch. "Sorry... My ears are ringing." I complain.
"Your body is adjusting. You can probably hear better than most people in this building now." She joins by my side and grabs my hand, "It's not permanent. I'll fix all of this soon."
Do I really want to go back?