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This is an entry for Inked_wings contest.
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As the credits of the movie that was definitely not worth Tricia's seven dollars ended, she dragged her feet after Louise, who was skipping in excitement.
"Oh my god Tricia! That movie is simply amazing! It's the bomb dot com of all movies! That part where they kissed- ah!" Louise squealed with both hands covering her face, bouncing towards the exit and to the frigid night air.
And then she stopped in mid-bounce.
Tricia turned to throw their two empty popcorn boxes in the almost overflowing rubbish bin, and when she faced Louise, she was very much confused. She walked to the wall nearest to the two glass exit doors and leaned against it, folding her arms, her eyebrows slightly raised.
Louise was clutching onto the empty stand where free umbrellas were given away so tightly, so so tightly that her knuckles turned white, matching her pale face and complementing her cream jacket. Her lips slightly parted, she loooked towards Tricia, and released her grip on the stand to clutch Tricia's arm.
"Tri-Tricia, can we go home by the other exit?"
"The other one? You mean the one that connects to that dark alley?"
"Yes Tricia! Can we go home by that way instead of the main exit? Please? Pretty please?"
Louise clasped her hands together, looking up at Tricia, fluttering her eyebrows underneath her glasses. Tricia grimaced and looked away, holding a hand out to hold back Louise's face that was surreptitiously inching nearer and nearer to her own.
"Louise."
"Pretty pretty please?"
"I hate my life."
"Pretty pretty pretty please with a pretty cherry on top?"
"Why."
"Tricia!" Louise dragged her name out, and pulled at Tricia's arm like an annoying baby trying to convince the nanny to give it more food.
"Fine!" Tricia relented, and she stormed towards the other exit that was further and spookier with an ecstatic Louise by her side.
***
The alley was dark and quiet, with the slight musky smell of rotten vegetables for some reason. Cardboard boxes were stacked haphazardly on the sides of the alley, dangerously close to falling and revealing the items kept inside.
The duo traipsed along their way, with Tricia trying to wiggle her way towards answers as to why Louise did not want to use the main exit, and Louise skillfully guiding them towards another conversation starter.
A "piang!" rang out in the silence. It was not as loud and as near as what the two thought, but it accentuated the stillness, the quietness, the danger that they were in.
And it was a great danger.
Tricia's hand searched for her pepper spray in her slingbag and tightened her fingers around it, while Louise's head whipped behind. Her gaze hardened, such an expression uncommon on her usually cheerful and jolly face. With her shoulders hunched, she gestured Tricia to quicken up her steps, not noticing that Tricia had already started speeding past her.
Tricia stopped, and as she turned around, her fingers, like a missile locked on to its target, wrapped around Louise's slender wrist, and she pulled the two of them into a run.
The slight slanted rays of light from the exit of the alley morphed into a dash of hope, and the two ran towards it with all their might, Tricia's steps even and strong, Louise's unsteady like the pitter patter music of rain and fading.
Until Louise stopped.
"It's gone Tricia, it's gone." Her words came in short, quick bursts, Louise gulping down air like she had just ran a hundred miles, her hands on her thighs as she leaned forward slightly. Tricia quickly surveyed their surroundings, and finding Louise's words to be true, wiped the back of her hand across her brow. She nodded her head some times, and pointed towards the approaching exit, saying, "Well, let's go home."
And Louise agreed.
Well, she did. But after she took a few steps, she seemed to remember something, and she stopped.
Tricia sighed. "What is it now Louise?"
Although the two were the same age, and have been renting and living in an apartment together after they graduated from college a year ago, Tricia found many circumstances where she felt like a mom to Louise. This was one such moment.
Louise held out a hand, and started rummaging in her bag. She plucked a maroon umbrella out and started opening it when Tricia stopped her.
"Hold on, what are you doing?"
"Opening my umbrella?"
"Why?" Tricia asked, as if opening an umbrella at night was the most preposterous thing she had ever heard.
"I'm going to shield myself from...the moon?"
Tricia's eyebrows flew up. "Louise...are you ok? You've been kind of...weird this night."
"Tricia, sunburn may be painful, but moonburn is far far worse." Louise said, deadpan.
Laughter was bubbling up in Tricia, but she sure was not laughing when she saw what happened next.
Louise looked back and had this oh shit look on her face, and she flew backwards, into the moon's light. Her umbrella dropped, her shoulders heaving as she panted.
Feathers sprouted from her skin, turning her copper skin to light blue feathers. Wings appeared at her back, confirming that her friend was indeed transforming into a bird right in front of her eyes.
Tricia's grip on the strap of her slingbag tightened, and she took two mini steps back. Concern for her friend was holding her back from running away, but the sheer impossibleness of the situation was sure making her have a headache.
A crack from behind made Tricia whip her head back, and a large bird with glowing orange feathers stood in front of her, its gaze penetrating and hypnotising.
Against her will, Tricia slowly but surely started taking steps towards the majestic bird, and when she was right in front of it, she stopped and looked up at it. The whole time, Louise was screaming at Tricia to run and forget what she saw and just get the hell out of there.
But Tricia didn't hear her. She couldn't. The bird was making sure of that. Whatever it was.
The bird's head went down slightly, its wings raised, and then the tip of a wing touched Tricia's head. It retracted its wing suddenly, and in a flash it was up in the sky, flapping its gigantic wings, sending Tricia flying backwards towards the moon's light.
Where a bird with blue feathers that was slightly bigger than an eagle and a lot smaller than The Bird With Glowing Orange Feathers stood.
Tricia felt a pricking sensation over her skin. Wait, no, that was a huge understatement. She felt like she was submerged in boiling hot water, the feeling of accidentally pouring piping hot soup on her arm happening all over her body. In amazement and horror, she watched as yellow feathers were appearing on her arms and legs, and then the pulling of her back muscles. And when she turned her head to look backwards, she saw a pair of wings.
During this whole process, she was struggling to stand upright and itching for some ice water, because she felt like she was burning. She felt like shit. She just wanted to go home and watch some movies with her friend. Who was now a bird.
Oh wait, she was a bird too.
Tricia fell down, her legs sticking up into the air at an awkward angle, and she was so grateful for arms, which in the process had vanished. She was tossing and turning around, her feathers making sure she wasn't getting hurt from contact with the stone floor that was littered with small rocks, trying to stand back up on her two bird feet, and failing miserably.
Louise came over, hopping a bit, and she leaned down and nudged Tricia up with her beak. She sighed.
"What the hell just happened?" Tricia shrieked in an unknown bird language that she suddenly knew and understood. She looked down. "Is this a nightmare? What-" Tricia started slapping herself, which wasn't working out since she didn't have any arms and she was slapping her face and beak with her wings.
"Tricia, I-" Voice wavering, Louise said, "I'm so sorry for bringing you into this mess."
"Am I really a bird? What? What? What?" Tricia felt tears well up in her eyes, and a solitary tear drop travelled down the curve of her throat. "What is happening?"
"Tricia, that bird there is what we... half-birds call the Illimise. Yeah, we are half-birds." She said, cautiously looking at Tricia's bird face for any signs of breaking down. "The Illimise transforms any potential human into a half-bird for some reason that I don't know. Half-birds are bigger and stronger and have larger wing spans than-" Louise stopped at the sight of Tricia cupping her face in her wings.
"Half-birds will also turn back into the human form in the absence of the moon."
Tricia looked up at these words, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, at least there's that."
"Half-birds will also only turn into the bird form in the presence of both the moon and the Illimise...so, yeah. In a place with a lot of people, it is generally safe to walk in the moon because the Illimise will not be near there."
Tricia thought how weird the phrase 'walking in the moon' would be for her before all this, but how much sense it made now. She wanted to hug Louise, but she still had not gotten the hang of walking with bird legs and fell flat on her beak. Or bill. She didn't even know now.
Using her wings, she flew a few inches up, but could not successfully get back on her two feet. After Louise helped her back on her feet, she looked right into Louise's beady eyes, she said, "What you said before was right."
"Huh?"
"Sunburn may be painful, but moonburn is far worse."