Chapter 1: Blood & Shadow
*gloing - gloing - gloing*
The sound of the bouncing ball echoed upon the evening streets as Valerie made her way home from the park. Fall was approaching, and a cool breeze tugged at the fabric of her hoodie while the six-foot-plus young woman strolled along the sidewalk. Strands of long blonde hair lifted as the wind rose and ebbed. The streetlights cast their pools on the dimming pavement and the sounds of the city mixed with the skittering of a few early leaves across the pavement.
*gloing - gloing - gloing*
Handling the ball had always come easily enough to Valerie, from the time her father first introduced her to the game as a child. While other sports had their charms, basketball was her favorite, and she'd dreamed of playing it professionally since elementary school.
The growth spurt in her early teens only emboldened that, and it made the taunts and ugly rumors of high school more bearable in the face of her goal. No matter what anyone said, their school was all-state in girls' basketball at least in part because of her. Her boyfriend Tommy didn't have a problem with her size, nor her circle of friends. But Tommy had gone off to college last fall, along with most of her friends.
*gloing - gloing - gloing*
As good as she was on the court, no school was offering her a full athletic ride. Her parents were both pretty successful, father the owner of a family sporting goods store and mother a realtor, but that changed when a drunk driver put her mother in the hospital last summer.
Left with damage to her spine and a loss of mobility, the hit to their finances was too much to support her dreams of college. After the surgeries and the hospital stay came the adjustments to their home, and her mother being unable to work brought on yet more belt-tightening.
*gloing - gloing - gloing*
While everyone else went away to new places, new people, new lives, Valerie took care of the house and watched after her mother. That loss of independence wasn't easy on her, and it made her mother bitter and unpleasant to deal with those first few months. Physical therapy was a further drain on their finances, but it did start producing results.
By the New Year, her mother was able to get around with a walker, and one year after the accident she was mostly recovered, only needing the occasional use of a cane. She was back to showing houses, but time away from work had put a pinch on them they were just now starting to loosen.
*gloing - gloing - gloing*
She'd looked into student loans and financial aid, but even then she'd have needed a part-time job or more. Not much time left to dedicate to athletics. Much as she liked to think she could be a pro, not being able to get a scholarship had shaken her confidence. She still played in pick-up games as often as she could, still dreamed of playing for a living, but she wondered if she should just do what her parents suggested. Go to community college, study business, or study for a realtor's license.
*gloing - gloing - gloing*
A car went by, headlights spearing into the growing gloom as she paused at the crosswalk, ball tucked under her arm and blue eyes checking the street in its passing. She started across, thoughts drifting to the evening ahead. Hot shower, late dinner, catching up with her parents, some TV and bedtime. On the other side, she passed under a streetlight as a gust of wind kicked up, making her squint and turn her head.
From above, she heard a brief electric hum as the light flickered, brightened, then went dark. She peered up at it. Huh, she thought. Never saw that happen. She resumed walking, entering an alleyway that cut across to the residential street she lived on.
*gloing - gloing - gloing*
The bouncing ball echoed off the buildings as she strolled along, avoiding a puddle left from rain a couple days back. Funny. Maybe it was the light being out, but the alley seemed darker than this time of day should've been. Still, the light on the other side was visible, and she hastened her pace to meet it. Not because she was scared or anything. Just time to stop being lazy and get on home.
*gloing - gloing - gl-*
The world suddenly went completely silent. No wind, no cars, no bouncing ball. It startled her into stillness, and she hooked the ball under her arm as she looked around. She tried to say 'What the Hell?' but no sound came out of her mouth. She felt the movements, but heard nothing. Fear prickled at her scalp and down her spine, and she raised her right hand to dig at her ear, see if something was somehow blocking it, starting off at a faster pace to leave the alley. Ahead, the streetlight flickered several times, brightened, and went dead, just like the one behind.
Okay, that's way too freaky, she thought to herself. This was starting to feel like something out of a horror movie, and fun as they might be to watch, she didn't fancy being in one. As a fast walk turned into a jog and a run, the mouth of the alley ahead didn't really seem to be getting closer. If anything, it seemed to be dragging away from her. A stillness in the air, not just of sound but motion, accompanied a growing feeling of...resistance. As if the air itself was somehow weighing her down. She felt her fear growing, but try as it might, it wasn't helping her get any further away.
The light at the other side dimmed visibly, like watching a time-lapse of a day/night cycle. Around her, shadows bloomed, and even more strangely, the world seemed to be taking on a negative-color quality, lights and darks reversing. Any sense of forward motion was gone.
She strained against a force that was now trying to draw her back. Full-on panic gripped her, and her heart beat furiously in her chest. As the gloom seemed to rise, wiping away even the distorted colors in her vision, darkness of a totality she'd seldom seen was enveloping her.
The feeling of the asphalt under her feet began to lessen as she was drawn upward by that inexorable force. She gave forth a silent cry and kicked her legs desperately, waved her arms, trying to hold onto something. Just a few last tip-toe scrapes were all she managed, before a sudden rush of motion stole her from the last dim image of her hometown and plunged her into complete blackness. For one brief moment, she felt a weightless hover. Then she was falling, falling, falling...
Once years ago on vacation, she'd taken a dare to dive into a lake from a small cliff side, blindfolded. It was frightening and thrilling, but she had no desire to repeat it after. This was absolutely horrifying. Her mind strained to find any sensation beyond the pulling of gravity as she tumbled into that unfathomable darkness.
As she fell, a coldness began to seep into her. A numbing, weakening feeling, as if her life was being sapped from her body. With a strangely calm clarity she thought, This is it. I'm dying. A number of feelings jockeyed for position in her mind. Fear, sadness, anger whirled in circles, each taking their turn in the spotlight.
But before any one of them could cement control, a new feeling struck her with a shock: pain. A deep, burning, sizzling-electric pain all through her. It seized her muscles like a full-body cramp, stole her breath, paralyzed her as she was aware of a feeling like being stretched and bent by unseen hands. Then that faded into the background as a series of images flashed in her mind. Not any experience she'd ever had, but they seemed as real to her as if she had been there.
Images of savagery, grabbing and tearing at flesh with large, clawed hands, seeing what must be blood squirting from the gouges. More violent sights, wounds torn open to expose bone, organs, gore covering her hands, then the view zooming in, and a taste of hot, bloody meat on her tongue. Dark shapes and monstrous shadows around, more clawed hands, and dimly, screams accompanied by what could only be many chewing mouths. It was too much for her, and she fell into oblivion with gratitude.
She sat upright, gasping, looking around, confused. What happened? Did she have some kind of accident? A stroke or some other kind of attack? She half-expected to see the alley she was in, half expected a hospital room. What she got, instead, appeared to be...a swamp?
The air was mild and humid, rich with the smells of plants and living things. In her line of sight she saw a full moon reflected upon still water, under a starry sky of the kind you didn't see in the city. The chirping of insects was in the air, and other noises. In her hands she felt damp grass, and saw what looked like cattails near the shore. What the Hell? she thought.
Looking around, she could make out the shapes of trees not far away, but beyond that, all she saw was wilderness. No other lights, no sign of habitation. With a bend and push she got her feet under her and stood, and it took her a moment to realize she felt...off. Her center of balance felt pitched forward, her arms felt like they were too long, her legs felt bowed and her back felt hunched.
Plus something was on her face, covering her nose. It reminded her of some kind of Halloween witch's nose, crooked and comically elongated. She raised her hand to brush at it and stopped. That's not my hand! was her immediate thought. While it was still human in shape, four fingers with a thumb, it seemed far too large to be her hand.
There was no way her skin was that dark, nor did she have long claws instead of fingernails. Yet when she willed them to move, they obliged. A cold dread settled into her stomach like a lump as she reached and felt at the thing on her face. Please don't let this be real. Please, please, please...
The rough texture of the digit and the rubbery tugging told her, much as she had hoped otherwise, this was in fact her nose. "This can't be real..." she said out loud, and her usually pleasant soprano had turned into a gravelly growl. She clutched at her neck, "My voice!" she said, and again was shocked. Even with her worst frog-throated cough, she'd never sounded that bad!
That dread twisted in her guts as she looked down at herself. Not only did that same dark skin cover her, her shape itself was greatly changed. For one, she saw her chest was a flat, masculine plane, clearly visible due to the fact she had no clothes on! She touched at her breast, located a pair of tiny nipples, but that was all.
Her legs bulged with a bodybuilder's lines, and when she looked, her arms were similarly defined. Her feet were not human; each sported three big toes tipped with claws much like those on her hands, and it seemed her posture balanced her upon the front and kept her heel more elevated. She forced them back down to the ground, and felt even more awkward, like she was leaning back and having to work to keep her balance.
This can't be real. It can't. But how could she rationalize what she was seeing, feeling? She didn't think her imagination was this good! I must be in a coma. I have to be. The thought this had actually happened to her was too much to bear in the moment. As she looked around, feeling her long hair shifting against her bare back, a new sensation made itself known: hunger.
It quickly rose inside her to levels beyond anything in recent memory. She clutched at her stomach and grimaced, felt the way her teeth fit together in alien ways. These were sharp teeth, for piercing and tearing, not just grinding. The thought of applying them to some meat took hold, and she found it hard to shake.
Well, I won't get anywhere standing around, she thought. If this was a dream, it was awfully damn real. It's not real. Any moment now, I'm gonna wake up, and Mom and Dad will be there, and maybe Christie, and everyone will be glad to see me and things will be normal again. As she started to walk, feeling the oddly light step to her gait and the way her shoulders swayed with a vaguely simian quality, she told herself these things.
Deciding she'd just follow the shore, her new three-toed feet squelched in the soggy ground as she looked around. Her sense of smell was amazing, she was picking up all kinds of subtleties she scarcely recalled noticing. Of course, much of it was the smell of the marshy water and land, but other things mixed in the gently stirring breeze. While she felt self-conscious at first, striding along naked came easier as she saw or heard no sign of anyone else, besides some insects and birds.
With a hesitant curiosity, she paused to feel between her legs at her groin. She didn't touch on any familiar anatomy, just a smooth expanse of flesh. She thought maybe there was a fold of skin there, but she didn't feel an urgent desire to explore it. Instead she pushed her experience aside and focused on staying in motion. She briefly considered trying to get a look at herself in the water, but that seemed too much too soon.
Dammit, where's a McDonald's when you need one? she thought with a kind of desperate humor, and a low grunting in her throat must've been what passed for a chuckle now. "I sound like a constipated moose." she said out loud, and laughed more fully, a rough, harsh noise. What else could she do? Break down and cry was an option, but she didn't want to give in to that impulse.
She lazily swung her hand at a nearby stand of reeds, and was surprised by how easily her claws cut through the stalks. Maybe there was more to that crazy dream than I thought, she mused, just before a sudden splash was heard and a low, dark shape lunged forward at her from the water!
A set of toothed jaws slammed shut on her leg, and a shooting pain sent a shock through her as she gave forth a bellow of pain and fear. She recognized the long, tailed creature as it took hold with that fearsome maw: a crocodile! With a savage yank, the reptilian predator took her off her feet and prepared to drag her into the water.
A surge of energy filled Valerie, the fear and shock pushed aside as a feeling of anger exploded in her. How dare this thing attack her? She wrenched to the side, seeking to escape its jaws, and managed to get purchase under her, rising up to an awkward crablike position.
The crocodile gave forth a growling hiss and thrashed at her again, trying to drag her into the water. In her awkward posture, she couldn't manage to keep it from doing so and found herself in up to her neck, just barely keeping her head above the surface. She twisted once more in an escape attempt, and lashed out, trying to drive it off. Her hand dug at the armored skin, and she felt a surge of grim satisfaction as it tore under her claws, drawing blood.
The water flew around them as the crocodile continued trying to drag her out into the deeper water. Valerie managed to find enough footing to keep it from making any progress, twisting her hips, making the creature roll. With a savage instinct, she thrust her clawed hand in at the creature's exposed throat and latched on, tearing violently. The scent of blood filled the air as the crocodile began bleeding from the fatal wound.
Snarling in triumph, Valerie reached down and yanked the crocodile's mouth open, drawing her wounded leg back. Funnily enough, instead of screaming at her in pain, it felt fiercely itchy more than anything. She pushed herself up to her feet, wincing at a burning stab in her calf, and turned to hobble gingerly back to shore. She looked down at where she'd been bitten, and stared at the impossible: her leg was healing right before her eyes!
Within a minute's time, the pain had completely subsided and the wounds from the bite were gone. Not a mark or a scar or anything remained. Her body trembling with a wave of fatigue following the surging adrenaline, she slumped onto the grassy shore, staring up at the moon. I'm in a swamp. I just killed a fucking crocodile with my bare hands. And I'm half-tempted to drag it back to shore and eat it like it tried to eat me!
As she sat there, catching her breath, she tried to figure out how she managed that. The only thing she could think of was her uncle Jason talking about his experience in the Gulf War. How when the world is blowing up around you and people are screaming and dying, you just fall back on instinct. All the training and drill you've been through puts you on a kind of auto-pilot, and you just focus on that and hope you survive. She felt like something similar had happened to her, but where had it come from?
Just one more unanswered question in this crazy coma-dream, she supposed, even if she was starting to suspect this wasn't a dream. There was no way she could make up something like this. Dragging herself back to her feet, she looked out to the water where the dead animal lay. Resisting that urge to go fetch it and eat, she started on her way again, this time moving up further from the shore. In case the crocodile had any cousins around also looking for a late-night snack of...whatever the Hell she was now.
Time passed as she strode along, with an easy energy beyond even what she was used to. At least whatever she was, it was in good shape. Great shape, enough to kill a crocodile by itself. She could still scarcely believe what she'd done. When the sun comes up, I need to get a better look at myself. She had a bad feeling whatever she was wouldn't be pretty, if what she saw of her nose was any indication.
Pausing to look up at the sky, she thought, Why hasn't the moon moved? Hasn't it been several hours by now? With no watch, she had no real sense of time. For that matter, where's the North Star? The Big Dipper? None of them looked familiar, either. Even the moon didn't look quite right.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but...if I'm not home, where the Hell am I? She thought then of childhood stories: Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and The Chronicles of Narnia. She'd loved that Narnia movie as a kid, but that was all just make-believe. Wasn't it? But what happened in the alley, that was like a rabbit-hole, or a twister, or a magical wardrobe. None of them turned into some big monster, though. It was still too much to dwell on. She forced herself back into motion.
Before long, she heard a new sound: running water. She quickened her pace, and soon found the source. A river, emptying into the marsh. She moved upstream a short distance, under the cover of some trees, and bent down to drink. The water was clear and cool, and she gulped several mouthfuls, glad for the temporary relief it gave to the gnawing in her stomach.
One thing was for sure. If she wasn't dreaming, she was going to need food and water. And what she remembered from Girl Scouts told her you could survive for a while without food, but without water, you were very soon dead. Plus other things need water. Things I could maybe kill for food.
She wasn't sure if she could snatch onto something with her claws and kill it easily. Even if she tore a crocodile's throat open, that didn't mean a deer was going to just stand there and let her. Guess I'll have to try my luck with a rock. Rising up, she set out again, this time following the river's course back upstream.
Unless her perception was completely skewed somehow, she could swear the moon hadn't moved an inch since she'd started following the river. Pausing by a bend, she sat down and leaned against a tree. Tired and hungry, she thought I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes.
Before she realized it, she was fast asleep. Incoherent jumbles of sense memory bubbled in her mind as she rested, until a sensation snapped her awake. A series of sharp jabbing pains, on her arms, her chest, and little pinching feelings nearby.
She sat forward, and saw bizarre four-winged creatures, like giant mosquitoes, attached to her! Suddenly a terrible wooziness overtook her as she felt weak, and she could see the bodies of the hideous creatures swelling. They were draining the blood right out of her. She felt far worse than she did the time she'd gone to a blood drive. She clawed at one of the foul creatures, but didn't manage to find purchase in her waves of dizziness.
One of the creatures, apparently sated, let go and began to fly away. The others continued to drink, leaving her feeling on the verge of passing out. She fought to keep her consciousness and swatted at another with the same feeble awkwardness. Now all of the creatures were full, and detached. As the last one started to fly off, she swung her arm at it and tore it from the air, leaving it twitching on the ground. With a growl, she stomped it and felt it squish satisfyingly underfoot.
That's it! I'm nobody's dinner! Not crocodiles, not mutant mosquito-things, nothing! Smelling the air, she caught the scent of the vile things and set out after them, determined to kill them. It didn't take long, even as trembly and weak as she felt, to find where they'd gone: a nest in a tree nearby, hollowed by rot. When she drew near, the creatures took to the air and flew away.
She gave chase, and caught up to them, swinging wildly at them, even as they scattered anew. Relentless in her pursuit, she found them again and managed to swat one down, and another as they tried to flee once more. This time the final one took refuge higher in a nearby tree. She managed to climb up the trunk with her claws to aid her, but it flew away before she could reach it. As she tried to descend, she lost her footing and fell, slamming into the ground.
Growling with frustration, she regained her footing and felt the bruises sustained already healing. She caught the creature's scent again and trailed it to another tree. She foraged around on the ground until she found a decent-sized rock, took aim and threw it. It missed, and she cast about for another.
It too missed, as did the third. Snarling with anger, she took up a fourth, and finally caught the little beast, sending it to the ground with a soft thump. She located it and once again stomped it with a sense of satisfaction. "Eat that, you...bat-squito!" she spat out, and then slumped down nearby with a sigh. She still felt terribly weak, and hadn't slept as much as she'd wanted. Try as she might, it wasn't long before she fell into slumber again.
This time, at least, she woke up just feeling a little stiff from leaning up against the tree. It was still dark as it was when she first awoke here. When's the sun come up, next week? she wondered as she drug herself to her feet, and had to lean against the tree to fight off her dizziness.
Those bat-squito things took a lot out of me, she thought. I need to eat. Now. She set out back to the riverside, and started moving along its course again, looking around for something, anything she might catch for food. Following the water, stopping now and again to rest and drink, she eventually caught an animal's scent on the breeze.
Ahead, she could see there by the riverside a deer of some kind. It had no antlers, so she guessed it was a doe, but at just that moment she didn't really care. All she could think about was fresh meat. Stooping down, she located another rock and took careful aim. It raised its head, perked its ears, watchful. Unfortunately, it failed to notice Valerie, and had no chance to react as her projectile flew through the air and hit it square in the side of the head. It tottered and fell on its side, motionless.
"YES!" cried Valerie triumphantly, and she closed the gap with her somewhat loping gait to kneel beside it. For just a moment, she felt a stab of guilt, when she saw the deer laying there, motionless, a trickle of blood from its wound marring the fur near its eye. But the smell of it, the churning clench of hunger in her gut quickly pushed that feeling aside. Looking towards the rump, she grabbed hold of its hind leg and pulled, digging her claws into its flesh.
It tore easily enough, and the thickening smell in the air just made her slaver. She raised her bloody hand and lapped at the dark life-essence, tasting the warm, salty substance. She couldn't take it anymore. Acting almost entirely on instinct, she thrust her head down, opened her mouth wider than she thought even possible, and bit deep into the furry hide.
The taste of it was, to her tongue, beyond even the finest cut of prime rib she'd ever dined on. She barely even noticed the velvety hide as she tore chunk after chunk of meat out, half-chewed it, and swallowed. Minutes seemed to fly by as she devoured much of the deer's hindquarter and tore into its buttock, the rich, fatty stores there melting in her mouth. She ate until her stomach felt swollen, only then ending her frenzy to lay upon her back and gaze up at the starry sky through the forest canopy.
She lay there in a stupor, feeling happy despite her still-weakened state. At least I won't starve now, she thought. But her reverie was cut short when she noticed the scent of some new creature. Turning her head, she spied a large, catlike animal lurking there nearby. It had powerful shoulders, a light-colored hide with spots, and a crestlike mane running back from its long snouted head.
Piercing light eyes glared at her as it stepped closer, its tail lashing the air a time or two. Before Valerie could react, it let forth with a piercing shriek and the skin on its feline face pulled back, revealing a skull bordered by connective tissue! A terror gripped her at the sight and sound, and with a cry of alarm, she bolted to her feet and took off, fleering the horrible creature!
Across the river and into the opposite woods she ran, not daring to look back for half a minute before the blinding fear subsided. When she did, she saw no sign of the creature. Cautiously moving back in the direction of the river, she spotted it there by the corpse of her kill, helping itself to some of the carcass. It looked perfectly normal again. How such a creature ever evolved a trait like that, she couldn't guess, but embarrassment at being driven off like that turned to anger.
Two can play that game! she thought as she left the cover of the trees, stared across the river, and then ran straight at the creature, lifting her arms over her head, waving them, and bellowing at it as loud as she could. The creature looked up with a start, crouching defensively and backing away from the deer. "GET OUT OF HERE! GO!" she roared at it, swiping her hands at it mock-threateningly. It decided not to fight, and turned to flee into the woods. As it vanished into the undergrowth, Valerie sat back down, feeling satisfied with her victory.
After resting for several minutes, Valerie turned her attention back to the deer carcass. She wasn't hungry now, but she was sure to be later. Not really feeling like trying to haul the whole thing, she instead decided to tear off what was left of the other hindquarter. The skull-head-cat-thing had chewed on it a little, but she figured at worst she could wash it off in the river, and it would be fine.
Rolling it over, she set to digging at the tissue with her claws, tearing at the meat, seeking the joint where she might pull it loose and carry the leg with her instead. As she worked, she heard a rustling in the nearby bushes. She sniffed the air, and could smell the cat-creature again. No, wait. Two cat-creatures.
Just as one was approaching from her front, she heard another trying to sneak around behind her. She remained still, pretending to be oblivious, until she saw it out of the corner of her eye. Rising suddenly, she rushed toward it and swatted with her hand. Lines of blood appeared on its pelt as she wounded it, but it wasn't daunted yet.
The skin of its face peeled back and it let forth that horrible wail once again. This time, though it still chilled her to the bone, she held her ground. While distracted by it, the other came up from behind and tried to sink its fangs into her, to no avail.
Valerie turned towards the one she'd already wounded and lashed out again, her aim thrown off by the lingering fear with her first strike, but the creature was too slow to dodge her second and she swatted it to the ground. It let out a groan and slumped, unconscious.
Turning towards the other one, she was struck by a flash of instinct as she bent down and tried to sink her teeth into it. It ducked aside, and gave forth the same chilling cry and display as its partner. This time, terror overtook her and she fled anew. In the wake, the creature grabbed up the leg she'd severed and dashed off into the brush.
By the time she recovered and returned, the creature was long gone. Tired of fighting, and seeing they were just trying to drive her off for an easy meal, Valerie relented. It's not worth it, I'll catch something else later. She left the remains of the deer and the strange cat-monster behind and resumed her trek upriver. Bat-squitoes, cat-things that can peel back their faces ...what next? She thought of the crazy things from the fantasy stories and films of her youth, and began to wonder if maybe they might be lurking around here, too.
As she began to tire again, she stopped by an eddy in the river, gazing down at the moon reflected in the water. May as well look and see... she told herself, but it still took her a couple of minutes before she managed to stick her head out over the water, eyes shut, then open them.
A scraggly mop of long hair, to her eye black as night, surrounded the elongated features of a more or less human-shaped face. She had a sizable pointed chin, and a nose worthy of any Halloween witch. Warts and other bumps marred her features, sharp and hard and dour-looking, with eyes a solid yellow color. Even though she'd suspected she was ugly, actually seeing it still made her heart feel like a sinking stone in her chest. She took a deep breath, and let out a raspy groaning sigh. "Not like I had a hot date lined up anyways..." she grumbled to herself.
She thought back to high school, when the popular and pretty girls would snigger behind her back about how tall she was, spread ugly homophobic rumors about her. A sudden flash of anger made her slash her hand into the water, distorting the reflection into meaningless wavers. No time for this bullshit. I need to rest. she told herself. Returning up the bank, she found a likely spot upon some moss and curled up to drift off to sleep once more.