Austin walked in the house, backpack over his shoulder and a neutral expression on his face. But it quickly turned to confusion when he noticed the people crowded around a suspicious place in his home.
"What are you all doing here?" he asked, slipping his backpack off his shoulder and onto the ground, nestled in against the wall.
Shawn snaked his head around and raised his eyebrows at Isabella. "Seriously? You didn't know your brother would be here?"
"I'm sorry, I forgot!" she defended, throwing her hands out in front of herself, palms facing him, fingers spread apart.
Sakura rolled her eyes at her. "Well done, Bella. Top-notch."
Isabella shrugged her shoulders in, as if trying to make herself smaller; less noticeable.
"What are you guys doing here?" Austin repeated.
"Nothing," I responded.
Austin crossed his arms. "I can always tell when you're lying, Vera. Same with you, sis."
We all exchanged worried glances.
"Why are you guys acting so shady? What's going on in here?"
"We were just looking for something," Autumn offered up.
"All of you?" Austin asked suspiciously.
"Yeah," Autumn answered half-heartedly, knowing it was no use. He could see right through everything we were saying.
I sighed. "Look, It's kind of a long story, which we can fill you in with the rest later, but--"
"Vera, what are you doing?" Isabella hissed.
I turned around and made eye contact with her. "We're caught. There's nothing we can say, besides the truth."
"But--" Isabella started to protest again, but Sakura stopped her.
"Vera's right." Sakura gave me an approving nod.
I bit my lip, suddenly nervous. But I pushed through it, and resumed my sentence. "But the main point is: Shawn, Autumn, and I are all Supernatural, and we think we all are, and our parents know and have been lying to us for years. Maybe even the whole town is. But we're looking for clues, searching all of our houses for answers." I took a beat, letting myself catch a breath and for my words to sink in.
"So are you with us, or against us?" Sakura asked, the moment over.
"I think I may know where to look," Austin offered.
Puzzled looks echoed through our group, edging on suspicion.
"Are you saying you already knew about this and have been searching by yourself?" Isabella asked as she crossed her arms.
"I'm not saying I knew about this," Austin gestured at me as he speaks, as I'm the one who told him. "But I've been waking up in some pretty freaky places lately. I once woke up in the garage on top of dad's car, in our backyard, even on the roof. Hell, once even in Vera's backyard. But I woke up in our basement once, right near this file cabinet. I'd never seen it before, so I tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. I thought that was suspicious."
Just as his last words left Austin's lips, Isabella sprung to action and hurried down the hall and over to their basement access. She swung the door open and pounded down the stairs. I scrambled to follow her, everyone else close on our heels.
I jogged down her basement stairs and across her basement, in search for her. I found her in the raised portion of her basement, a platform with wooden stairs along the side, about four feet high in the air. Instead of taking the stairs, I spun around, my back facing Isabella, and used both of my hands to push myself up onto the platform.
Walking over to Isabella, I peered over her shoulder as she struggled to open the filing cabinet. She pulled against the handle with every fiber of strength she possessed, but it still wouldn't budge.
"Let me try," I insisted.
Isabella complied, scooting over to the right, making room for me.
I sat down in front of it, and called on my animal strength. Shawn said that he's been getting stronger ever since his transformations started: maybe I was too. Using all my strength, I yanked against the handle, but it wouldn't budge.
"Move over," Shawn commanded from behind me. Everyone else had caught up to us, crowding around the platform.
I stood up and gave Shawn room. Taking Isabella's hand, I pulled her over to the edge of the raised area, out of the way.
While Shawn struggled with the lock, Austin came our way, his confused look still hovering behind his eyes.
"Not saying this stuff isn't cool," Austin started, his gaze locked on each of us, "But I need to know more."
Isabella was silent, so I answered for her. "We will. Later."
Austin gave me a sharp, penetrating look.
"We will. I mean it," I promised.
He nodded, satisfied.
"Well," Shawn said, standing up, "I can't get it open. I guess brute strength isn't the answer."
Isabella deflated a little, her eyes lowering and her arms sagging.
I wrapped an arm around her and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "We'll keep looking. We're not giving up yet."
She nodded mutely.
"Now that that's over," Austin started, "Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?"
We told him everything. Every detail. Everything we thought and have learned so far. About our families. Our whole lives. We went back upstairs and sat him down on the couch.
Shawn, Autumn and I started first, telling him about us and what we can do. I was glad when he didn't seem disgusted by us. Instead, he seemed… fascinated by it all. The thought brought a small smile to my face.
It felt like a little dance, with Autumn, Shawn and I leading, Austin trying to learn how, and Sakura as our instructor, adding in little parts that we forgot along the way. In a way, it was amusing. Funny to me, at least.
And when we were all done, Austin said, "Cool. When do I get to join the club?"
"What?" Isabella asked him.
"I wanna help," he stated simply.
"Well right now, we're going through each of our houses to check for clues, like Vera said before," Shawn said, gesturing at me, "And we only have Sakura's house left."
"Which we were going to check the next time my step-siblings are out," Sakura added in. "So it may be a while to get my house clear."
I nodded. She had the biggest family out of all of us, a total of five.
Then I asked Austin the biggest question yet. "Will you keep this all a secret?"
Thankfully, he answered with no hesitation. "Of course."
I smiled.
We left Isabella's house after that. I felt a little guilty, like I was leaving Isabella alone to deal with a problem. But I wasn't, but that didn't stop it from nagging at my heart.
As the four of us left her house in the dark, parting ways down the sidewalk, Shawn caught me, his fingers brushing my upper arm, close to my shoulder. "Hey, would you mind if we talked?"
"Sure," I answered.
He let go of my arm as we walked down the sidewalk back towards my house.
"So," he started, shrugging his hands in his front pockets. "Do you think this actually gonna work?"
"You mean searching all of our houses?" I questioned, breathing out a held breath as I did so.
He nodded.
"No, not really."
He sighed. "I think that too, but I didn't want to bring it up incase no one else felt the same way."
I nodded. "I know the feeling."
"It's just this whole thing is stressing me out, and I'm worried I'm-"
"Going to start shifting uncontrollably again?" I finished.
"Yeah," he nodded, seeming a bit surprised I'd guessed what was bothering him.
"I haven't had that happen yet, besides in my sleep" I supplied.
"Maybe we're more different than we thought. As different types of shapeshifters, that is."
"Probably. Remember when you brought up your increased senses, and strength and stuff?" I asked.
Shawn nodded.
"Well, I don't think I have that. Not like you do."
"What do you have then?" he asked, seeming genuinely curious about it.
"I'm acting kind of jumpy lately. In class, someone dropped a pen, and the noise made me jump and knock half my books off the desk."
Shawn smiled. "Maybe it's because you're more of a prey animal, and I'm more of predator?" he asked.
I shook my head. "No, I looked it up. Owls are only hunted by a few types of land species. They are actually really vicious creatures."
"Hmmm," Shawn murmured. "Maybe it's because you're a flyer. Maybe you're sensing the vibrations in the air."
"Maybe," I admitted. "I don't know."
As an afterthought, I added, "And I think maybe my hearing is getting stronger too. I heard my father coming down the hall when he was still at the beginning of it by the stairs. And I had my headphones in."
"Maybe it is. That'd be a cool sense to have, then no one could ever sneak up on you again."
"In theory," I mentioned. Then I let a laugh escape my lips.
"What's so funny?"
"It's just that this is the kind of problem a normal person would never have. The fact that we're only in high school, only seventeen years old."
"That's the thing, Vera. We're not normal. And if we're right, we never have been."
I let his words sink in. He was right. I had thought about this before, but I realized; I still thought of myself as a regular person, with one part of my life that was crazy. But then I saw, all of it was.
We talked the whole way to my house, jumping from crazy topic to normal one, then back the crazy, the conversation never really having a pause.
But once we reached my driveway, It did. We said goodbye as I walked up my driveway and Shawn continued to walk down the road and towards his house.
I looked back as I walked up, my hand on my neck, and I saw that Shawn did the same thing. I quickly looked away when we made eye contact and continued up to my house. It was around six o'clock now, late for me to be getting back. I had texted my father, telling him I'd be late, that I'd be over at Isabella's, but I still thought he would get mad for being out past sunset. But what could I say? The sun set at like five o'clock. That was a little more than unfair if you asked me.
Luckily, when I entered my house, my father wasn't waiting for me. He was sitting at the table, eating dinner. In my head, I would ask him about lying to me, and about my Supernatural abilities, my curiosity taking hold. But in real life I couldn't work up the nerve.
So I sat down and added some food to a plate, sitting a couple seats down from him. We ate are in relative silence, my father sporadically asking me questions about my day.
I answered all his questions, hurriedly finishing my meal as I did. He didn't press me on most of his questions as he normally did, which was a nice change. I thought about asking him about it, but decided to let it slide.
After dinner, I retired upstairs, using homework as an excuse to escape the uncomfortable atmosphere of my house. My father seemed to be studying me a lot lately, as if checking to see if I was still me. I thought this might be about shapeshifting, as this is the age I would normally start, but I wasn't positive.
Maybe my brain was making up any excuse, jumping to the extreme, trying to catch my father in a lie. But I didn't want to say something that he doesn't already know and spill everything. So it was tense, me jumping slightly at every fast movement, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe I was. I honestly didn't know what I wanted anymore. But I needed to figure that out, sooner than later. Then the question turned to how. If my own mind couldn't figure it out, then where was I left to turn?
Asking Isabella might help, the logical side of my brain piped up.
Yes. I'd decided. Next time we all talked, I'd ask her about it. She would know what I was feeling. Going through. We all did, or at least we weren't sure what to think when it came to our families.
With that, I felt I'd earned a good night sleep. But earning it and receiving were two very different things. My dreams hadn't left me alone in a long time, always tormenting me at night. I used to always know what I'd dream about: an owl, being chased or flying through the woods, or sleeping, or eating, or feeding young, or doing something. I used to think that my subconscious just had a favorite animal, or something stupid like that.
My mind drifted through my dreams from the past few nights as I brushed my teeth, readying myself for bed. They would sometimes be twisted versions of what had happened earlier that day or week, or something completely out of the blue, like being chased through a stone maze.
Then my mind branched out even more. Were my dreams different in some way because of what I was? Were they all going to come true, in some way? Or were they normal, and my imagination was just on overdrive?
I wasn't sure, but I did know I wasn't going to figure it out tonight. So only after I'd brushed my teeth, changed into my pajamas, and laid out my clothes for school tomorrow, did I settle in for the night, hopefully letting my brain take a break for the night.
Time seemed to slow down as I fell from the sky, my wings uselessly flapping at my sides. Plummeting down from the heavens, a shrill scream cut through the air, escaping from my throat. My wings, both injured, flared hot with pain, enveloping me in it.
The ground came rushing up to meet me. I closed my eyes as my body made contact with the hard ground. Shuddered rippled through my body as I hit, bones cracking and popping. Tears pricked my eyes, the pain now ten times worse than before.
Focusing as best I could through the pain, I started to shift back. Shifting back was always less painful than shifting into my owl form. It was going back to normal, not changing into my abnormal figure.
My body began to grow, expanding to the size of a teenage girl. My feathers shrank back under my skin, replaced by my skin, smoothing over. My face rearranged itself, eyes shrinking, beak reshaping into a nose, my hair exploding back onto my head, the planes of my face rearranging, my full lips reappearing. My talons lengthened, shifting into legs, claws turning into my feet. My wings shrank and became my arms again, my hands reforming at the ends.
Then it was finally complete. I laid there in the grass, shivering and naked. But now I was healed. If you injured yourself in your animal form, shifting back to human cured you of that pain. And when you shifted into an animal again, that version of yourself was unharmed. A neat trick, If I'm being honest.
Hugging my arms over my chest, I jogged through the woods, back-tracking towards and attempting to find my clothes. Luckily, they hadn't moved far from where I shifted into my barn owl. I slipped my undergarments on, then pulled my shirt on over my head, yanked on my jeans, and pulled my pullover jacket on over my head, the thick material helping to block out the wind.
I found my shoes a couple feet away, slightly hidden from view by the underbrush surrounding them. I quickly slipped my feet into my sneakers, and ran for my house, this time at full speed. I still felt cold, chilled to the bone from my fall from the sky and from my mad run through the forest without my clothes on.
I didn't stop when I saw the top of my house through the trees, running around the side of my house and through my garage, the edges of my vision blurred from my inhuman pace. Skidding to a stop in my garage, I glanced back behind me, wondering at my speed. I hadn't noticed it in the trees, not having a large open area to run in, but once I'd cleared the forest, my speed had picked up to something… not quite human. Not that I was anymore, but I wasn't aware I could do that.
I thought about maybe trying it again, but thought better of it later, incase my father heard anything just now or would wake up later and find my bed empty. Pushing those thoughts away, I entered my house and quietly slipped upstairs, careful not to wake my father.
I felt pulled out of my dream, as if someone had reached down into my mind and thrown a cold bucket of water on it, jarring me awake. For a few moments after my eyes flew open, I wasn't sure why I was awake. Then it hit me.
My whole body ached in one sudden wave, oh so similar to the cramps I got while on my period. Only much worse. I bit back a whimper, nearly biting my tongue as I did so. I pulled my covers off and painfully dragged myself to the door. I wrapped one fiery hot hand around the knob, feeling as though my skin was on fire. As silently as I could muster, I walked down the hallway, down the stairs, and out the door grabbing my jacket as I went out the back.
I headed straight for the trees, now finally letting out my held back cries. I jogged through the pain rippling through my body, even though it almost killed me. I tripped over my own feet, falling to the ground, barely bracing myself with my hands, rolling to the side as to not land on my face.
"Oww," I muttered under my breath, the words making me feel slightly better.
I pushed myself up again and headed deeper into the woods, until I was satisfied that no one would find me here. I found a small collection of trees that kept the wind out. I hunkered down there as I transformed.
As quickly as I could, with pain waving over me every few moments, I shed my clothes, down to my underwear, leaving them in a pile to the side. I didn't sleep in a bra or socks, so I had nothing keeping me decent up top, and my feet were freezing. But my pain quickly distracted me from that, to which I was slightly grateful.
It became a bit like a routine when I shifted. It started with painful waves through me, like muscle spasms. Then my face sharted to rearrange itself into its' new form. My face planes would shift and change, eyes coloring to black and white. Then came the worst part: the feathers. They would pierce through my skin like sharp little daggers embedded under my skin, just waiting to poke their way out.
Which is what they did now.
It started along my arms and legs. They punctured through my skin, sharp and painful. I fell to the ground in pain, a low, moaning groan escaping my lips. Then it gained pitch, leaping up to a sharp cry, ringing out through the trees. Then the pain spread through the rest of my body, and my head.
I crumpled to my stomach, dirt forgotten, only hoping to end my suffering. I curled up into a tight ball, yelling out in pain. Hot tears scraped down my face, feeling like hot tendrils of steam. I let them fall.
I felt my hair shrink into my skull, replaced my feathers, no longer trailing down my back and hot on my neck. The feathers continued to come through, one after another, before laying out on top of my skin, overlapping one another until they were perfect.
Then the rest of my body followed suit, shrinking into an owl form. My legs shrank first, curling into small golden talons. Then my arms widened their width, hands disappearing under a curtain of feathers.Then my torso shrank and readjusted for my new size.
The pain had disappeared. Vanished. I sat up and blinked my large owl eyes. I stood on my small legs, and spread my wings out to their full wingspan. The white and tan feathers shone brightly in the moonlight, each intricate and beautiful. Even though I went through hell to become this, I had to admit, it felt cool to be this way. To fly. And it hurt less this time. Not the feather part. If I could skip that, they pain would rate at about a five. Add the feathers back it, it scaled up to a nine.
But overall, I thought I was getting better at it. Or maybe I was just getting used to it. One of those.
***
The tardy bell rang for homeroom just as I ran through the doorway. I sat in my seat and the teacher didn't mark me tardy. I breathed a sigh or relief and waved at Shawn, my only friend in homeroom.
He waved back just before our sharp-eyed teacher turned around, facing the class. We all looked straight ahead as she did, not wanting detention from her, which she happily passed out daily. She went over a few things the principal wanted her to tell us, then let us read or finish up assignments until the bell rang. Anything but talking.
But that was the one thing I desperately wanted to do. I wanted to talk to Shawn about my late-night shift. He'd just recently had one, and was looking at a few ways as to not do that as often as I was, or possibly reverse it.
So that's where my mind was all day. Every time the teacher stopped talking in any of my classes, my mind retreated deep into my head, thinking about what I wanted to, and forgetting where I was and what I was supposed to be doing. I got by, but in Honors French III, when I was supposed to be working with a partner on a worksheet, my mind kept drifting away, and they had to ask me- repeatedly- if I was still listening. I would mumble an apology and say I wasn't in my head that day, and we'd continue our work.
By my lunch period, I couldn't stand not telling somebody. So as I entered the courtyard, I saw Shawn sitting alone at a table farthest to the right, eating and reading a book at the same time. I headed towards him, stepping out into the sunlight. It was staying warmer around here, in the jeans and t-shirt range of weather, maybe a light jacket when it was windy. This was my favorite time of year, and I was glad it was staying that way for a little while longer.
Shawn didn't see me approach his table. Or hear me. So I walked as silently as I could and plopped down onto the bench next to him.
He jumped up, startled out of his book. Simultaneously sliding his bookmark in place and talking to me, he asked, "Vera? What are you doing? Trying to scare me?"
"No, that was just a plus." Then my face turned serious. "I actually needed to talk to you. It's important."
He slid his book in ot his backpack. "Do we need to talk somewhere else?"
"No, here's fine."
He settled back down and slid his gaze back on me. "Spill."
"Okay, so last night, I had another owl dream, and woke up in the middle of it and-"
"And was shifting in real life?" he asked.
I nodded.
He slid his forearms onto the lunch table, leaning in towards me. "That happened to me too. When I told you all about that shift I had. It took me awhile to remember, but I did before sunset last night, as I was walking home."
"Is it just a coincidence? Or does it mean something? Because this isn't the first time that's happened to me. But I have had plenty of dreams as an owl, and I wasn't shifting after any of those."
Shawn shrugged. "We can't be sure. And it isn't that pressing. It may be strange, but it isn't at the top of our priority list."
I nodded again. "You're right. Maybe my mind is just overactive at night."
He shrugged a single shoulder. "Could be."
Another thing sprung to my mind. "Also, I couldn't really stop my transformation once it began. Is it possible to do that, or just let it happen?"
"Well, when I first started shifting, I tried resisting it and it didn't work. It still hurt. A lot, as you know."
I nodded after he said that, wincing slightly.
"Why do you ask?"
"I mean, it would be nice to learn control over this. It's not that I minded when it happened at night- okay, that's a lie. I do mind because I'd like to get some sleep, but I mostly want to learn how if I'm ever in a public place and can't control it. Or reverse it."
"Maybe that comes later."
I snapped my fingers. "Maybe these late-night shifts we have are kind of like growing pains, like it's trying to help us get used to our new form!"
Shawn's face lit up slightly. "Maybe. That makes sense. Or as much sense as it can, as we're talking about shapeshifting, for God's sake."
I laughed, the tense tightness in my shoulders relaxing.
We talked for a little bit more, eating our lunch as we did so, jumping from topic to topic, straying away from the stranger topics and branching over to the more normal ones.
Then the shrill bell rang its voice, releasing all of us to our next class.
School sped by after that, a substantial weight lifted off my chest. Well, most of it. I still wanted to talk to Isabella, and see what she had to say about my paranoia.
So after school, I texted her on my walk home, asking her if I could come over and talk. When I was halfway to my house, I got my answer: Sure, we can talk. Is everything ok?
Yeah, I texted back. Just something that's been bothering me.
Then thou have no haste! Hurry up and get ur butt over here!
I smiled at her response, Imagining the face she'd make at me as she used her "old-timey Shakespeare" accent, as she called it. I picked up my pace and jogged the rest of the way, turning into her neighborhood and down her street, scanning for her familiar house.