"So what do you want to do?" I whispered.
"We could try and sneak out," Autumn suggested.
We looked over to where Sakura was hiding, and she gave us a thumbs up to Autumn's idea.
"How?" I mouthed to Sakura.
Sakura gestured at me and flapped her arms like wings. I groaned internally. I've never wanted to shift before. It just happened, whether I wanted it or not.
"What is she saying?" Autumn asked me in a whisper.
"She wants me to shift into my owl form, and escape that way."
"What about us? You can't carry us, so how do we do this?"
"Maybe I could cause a distraction as an owl while you two sneak out the back door," I thought aloud.
"Good idea."
We relayed my idea to Sakura and she gave us another thumbs up.
Now came the hard part. The actual shift into an owl. I'd never planned to transform before, it had only happened by accident.
I turned to Sakura and Autumn. "When I'm done shifting, I'll distract your parents while you two escape."
They nodded and I returned to trying to shift.
And, I did know that I had to be naked when I transform, so I sent Autumn over to where Sakura was hiding, and I quickly undressed to my undergarments. I crouched low to the ground and imagined the shift. I thought of my arms turning to large, feathery wings, of my legs shifting to sharp claws, my face shifting from human to owl, feathers sprouting all over my body.
Then it sank in, and the pain started throbbing through me. It started at my core, and spread out like hot, burning hands gripping at my insides. It hurt less than before, but it still felt like a burning fire eating me up, stabbing at my nerves. I bit my lip and closed my eyes, not letting my screams escape my throat.
I felt the feathers come up from under my skin, piercing through like daggers. While my body shifted from human to owl, I fainted from the pain. When I awoke, I was an owl, beautiful, with white and tan feathers that spread out when I raised my wings.
"Vera?" Autumn questioned, her voice bringing me back to the present.
I turned towards her voice. I saw her crouched next to Sakura, shock and amazement etched on her face.
I sat up and make a low screeching noise in the back of my throat.
Sakura noised a faint laugh. "That is both freaky and awesome."
I screeched again, nodding my head up and down. I flapped my wings and rose up off the ground. I perched on top of the chair I shifted behind.
Autumn dashed back to where I shifted and gathered up my clothes for me. I held the bundle out to me. I beat my wings again and grabbed the bundle in my sharp claws.
"We're ready." Sakura told me. I nodded and flew out of the room.
The others were slowly following me. I flew much faster than them and I slowed and hovered, waiting for them to catch up.
When I saw them catch up out of the corner of my eye, I started flying again. I turned the corner and soared into the kitchen where both of Autumn's parents sat at the table, drinking cups of coffee.
I focused deep in my throat and made a loud, harsh, screech.
Both of her parents jumped and turned towards me. Autumn's mother shrieked. Her father stood up and grabbed the closest thing to him, which was a dish towel. He tried to fling it at me, but I screeched again, louder this time, and he backed away.
I kept on screeching, slowly moving closer. Then, using my acute hearing, I heard the side door creak open and closed.
I sighed in my head, and I backed off. I turned around and flew out of the room, heading for the open window in the library. I soared over the room, my large wings catching the air and flying straight to the window. I flapped my wings once and felt the sides of the windows brush against the edge of my wings.
The scene around me changed and I flew higher and higher into the sky and circled back to Sakura's house. I landed on the roof when I got there and perched up there, waiting to spot Autumn and Sakura coming back.
A few minutes later, I saw them coming down the street. I flew off the roof and landed in Sakura's back yard. I dropped my clothes in a pile on the dock and felt my talons touch down on the damp wood.
Then I focused of shifting back. I imagined my human self, how I looked, how I moved, talked, thought, acted, and I felt the pain spread through my body again, coursing through my veins, pumping through my heart, filling me with a burning fire.
I saw myself get bigger, wings shrinking, talons growing, feathers returning under my skin. My skin rippled once more, and I returned to normal.
Then I felt the cold around me cause goosebumps on my arms, the damp dock under me soaking my legs.
I slipped my undergarments on and then pulled on my black jeans, then my long-sleeved lavender shirt. Then I slipped my jacket on over my shirt, the leather bunching at my elbows, the brown quarter sleeves complimenting well with the lavender color of my shirt.
I stood up and felt the wet wood under my feet. I held my socks in my hands, since I didn't want to get them wet. Autumn still had my boots, so I walked along the wet dock and then transferred to wet grass, making my way up to Sakura's house. The sky was still dray, but it was darker now, so I assumed it was around sunset by now.
The wet grass blades stuck to my feet, getting the bottom rim of my jeans occasionally getting splattered by my footsteps. I went up to the back deck doors and knocked on the clouded glass.
Sakura appeared from down the hall, and unlocked the door for me. She held the door open and I stepped into her warm house.
I wiped my feet on her carpet and tugged my socks on. "So did your plan work out?"
Sakura nodded. "Autumn and I got away without a scratch. No one saw us either, which made things easier, since it looks pretty shady, us sneaking out of the house while people screamed."
"Sorry."
You did what you had to do for Autumn, which was pretty brave."
"Thanks."
That was pretty impressive," Sakura added.
"You think?"
"Yeah!"
"Thanks." I looked around. "So where's Autumn?"
"Upstairs." She walked past me and gestured her hand, beckoning me up to follow her. I complied, hearing my footsteps pounding on the carpeted stairs.
Sakura's house always felt warm and inviting, her parents offering cookies or milk to you as soon as you walk through the door. It was a harsh contrast to Autumn's house. Everything was either glass or wood, expensive or an antique, her house a mansion, with either her mother or father working while we hung out, sometimes interrupting with complaints about the noise.
My house was kind of in between. My father was friendly to my friends, but he usually had to work all the time, and my house usually felt big, empty, and alone. I didn't have any siblings, or pets, so it was just me and my father.
Autumn and I usually liked to hang out at either Sakura's or Isabella's house, because they weren't as alone, or as museum-like.
I was jarred out of my thoughts when I heard the sound of Sakura opening up her bedroom door. She swung it open and stepped inside, letting me follow her in.
Her room was big, around the same size as mine, except her closet wasn't a walk-in one like mine, but a wide and shallow one taking up the rest of the wall her bathroom door was on.
Her bed was in between two medium-sized windows on her far wall, two bedside tables below the windows, her bedspread a graphic picture of a bright orange sunset over tall pine trees, a lake below reflecting the sunset. Sakura had taken that picture, then Autumn and I had sent it to a place in town that put it on a plain bedspread. That was for her sixteenth birthday, this past April, and she loved it.
And in the corner of the room, on the left side of her bedroom door, was a butterfly chair with a pale green throw blanket in a heap in the middle of the chair. There was a tall, silver lamp with five adjustable light fixtures attached behind the chair.
Then, on the same wall as the butterfly chair and to the left of it, was a white dresser, with five wide drawers, about three inches below my height, with silver knobs, two per dresser drawer. And to the right of that, there was a light wood acoustic guitar sitting in a black guitar stand. The white fan above was whirling at a slow pace, the five blades slicing through the air, four light bulbs glowing.
Then I noticed Autumn sitting on Sakura's bed, the sunset bedspread crumpling under her weight.
"You guys okay?" I asked.
Autumn nodded. "I just don't want to talk to them right now."
I knew what she meant. Her parents. They'd been lying to her Autumn's entire life. And I can tell she still didn't know how to deal with it yet.
I crossed the room and sat down next to her, towards the foot of the bed. Sakura joined us, sitting on her blue pillow. She pulled her pillow out from under her legs, laying it across her lap.
There were two pillows balanced on the edge of the bed, supporting me as I sat.
Sakura gave Autumn a side hug, wrapping one arm around Autumn's back, the other grabbing her right hand.
They brought me into their hug and I copied Sakura's hug, but I rested my other hand on top of Sakura's.
We sat like that for a few minutes, and then out of nowhere, a pillow is slammed into Autumn's head, which sent us both collapsing onto the bed, her on top of me. I looked up to see Sakura brandishing her pillow.
I huffed a breath. One that said, "You better watch out, 'cause I'm coming." I grabbed one of the pillows behind me and went after Sakura. I hit her on top of her head and duckled as she aimed for my stomach.
And now Autumn was moving too. She held the other pillow and attacked Sakura from behind, quiet on her feet.
We made eye contact, and I gave her a subtle nod. I kept Sakura busy, and Autumn hit her hard on her back.
She made an "Ooo" noise as she fell onto the bed. Then we both jumped her. After we'd hit her about fifteen times, she yelped, "Okay! I give!"
We eased off her and held our pillows to our sides. I smiled, feeling younger and giddier.
Then Sakura lunged up and pulled us down to the bed with her. I shrieked, but smiling despite myself. I was sure Autumn matched my expression, and I felt the bedspread rush up to meet me.
Using the moves I learned in my fencing classes, I bounced off the bed in a tuck-and-roll and flopped on the other side of the bed, landing on the soft carpet.
And before I knew what was happening, Sakura landed on my shoulders and sat on me, hitting my head with a pillow. A high-pitched shriek built up in the back of my throat and ripped free.
I yanked on Sakura's long braid, and she yelped, releasing her grip on her pillow, it falling into my lap. Scooping it up, I reached back with both of my hands and whacked her straight in the face.
She fell back onto the bed. I finally let the pillow drop and joined them on the bed, giggling, my hair undone from it's ponytail, my hair askew. And I think Sakura and I were able to distract Autumn for a little while longer about her parents. Even though it was my fault she knew in the first place.
I didn't know what to do with that. So I let a smile return to my face and joined in the conversation, which mostly consisted of, "I won!" "No you didn't!" "I hit the hardest!" "I made both of you fall!" "I fell on purpose and rolled away from you!" "Yeah, right. Totally on purpose."
That last comment was Sakura, and I flipped her braid over her face, covering her eyes.
She laughed, flipping it back.
Then a beep sounded from my wrist. I looked at it and it read 7:00. I looked back up and cleared my throat. "I should head home. It's already seven o'clock. My dad will be unnecessarily worried." I sighed.
"Sorry, Vera," Sakura said sympathetically.
I sighed. "It's fine. I mean, it's not, but I'm used to it." I paused. "But I should get going."
Sakura walked me out, whispering to me as soon as we were far enough away from her bedroom.
"So what do we do about this?"
"I'll talk to Shawn tomorrow-"
"No, I mean all of this. Why do you even exist? How do people like you and Autumn and Shawn exist?"
I shrugged. "It's this town. I think it's been this way for a long while. Maybe not everyone is Supernatural, but it's no coincidence we all ended up living in the same small town for generations."
"Who else could be one of you?" Sakura asked.
"Well, considering most of the people we know about are in our class, I'd say our school grade, at least. And their parents too."
"Really? Everyone we know?"
"Yeah. Maybe even you."
"But what would I be? And how would I not know it?"
I gave her a look.
"Sorry, but… this is too much."
"You're right. Just because Autumn and Shawn and I are all the same age and all Supernatural, doesn't mean you are too."
"Thank you."
"It just means you have a high probability."
She play-punched my arm, scowling.
I laughed.
We were now at the back door.
I turned to her. "See you at school tomorrow?"
"See you at school."
I let myself out of Sakura's house and walked along the bayou to her house. Everything was wet and dripping rain drops, the air cool, filling her lungs with moisture. The ground was soft and muddy under my boots, but I continued on and saw my house peeking out through the trees.
I climbed the porch steps, my feet pounding. Opening the door, I let moonlight to shine in, giving me a shadow, stalking back into my house like a panther. The kitchen light was on and I heard the T.V. on, playing the soundtrack of a basketball game.
Coming through the hallway and entering the kitchen, I saw that a bowl of salad had been covered with ceramic to keep it fresh, and a box of pizza sat on the counter, still warm.
From the den, my father called, "I saved you some food."
I thanked him, then collected a mass of three slices of pizza and a heaping bowl of salad, them joined my dad on the couch, watching the game intently.
Starving from the shift from today and the emotional turmoil I witnessed from Autumn's Supernatural family drama, I had worked up quite and appetite. When my dad commented on it, I just smiled and joked that I was growing an extra stomach.
When I was full, I threw away my paper plate, rinsed out my cup and bowl, then wished my dad goodnight, contenting him to finish the other half of the game.
Climbing up the stairs, I crept back to my room, attempting to keep my footsteps quiet and light on the floor. I scurried into my room, shut the door, and undressed for the night. Slipping my clothes off, I pulled a pair of sleeping shorts and a t-shirt. I fell onto my bed, tired from the physical and mental hardships I had that day. I soon fell asleep, the soft pitter patter of raindrops lulling me to sleep.