Chapter Eight: Transformation
Suddenly uncontrolled-
Something is taking hold!
Suddenly, agony!
Filling me, killing me!
Suddenly out of breath!
What is this?
Is this death?
Suddenly, look at me!
Can it be?
Who is this creature
That I see?
Transformation, Wildhorn's Jekyll and Hyde Musical
xxXxx
Haru was walking down a long hallway; devoid of color or warmth. She looked around a little nervously, again feeling eyes upon her. She rubbed her bare arms to combat the cold, wondering how she had gotten forced into a plain white summer dress. She hated dresses.
A door to her right opened, sending light and warmth into the dark hallway. Haru eagerly ran into the room, but then stopped in the doorway.
There was a grand piano waiting for her, the bench pulled back slightly. A single candelabra burned on top of the darkly polished wood, but no one was in the room.
Haru gasped with surprise as the door shut behind her, and locked to ensure her continued presence. She stood straight with a calm face; trying desperately to ignore her fear.
"Come…" a deep, soft voice beckoned to her from nowhere, and a breeze seemed to push her closer to the piano. "Play for me."
Haru blinked in surprise and tried to explain that she was no musician, but her voice was still gone.
"No," the voice insisted, the breeze turning slightly fierce as it forced her to come closer and sit at the bench. "Use music to speak to me. Break my heart."
'Break his heart?' Haru shook her head in confusion, but timidly placed her fingers on the black and white keys. She experimentally pressed on one key; producing a deep, almost forbidding sound.
"No, that doesn't sound like you at all," the voice said impatiently. "Try again."
Sighing, Haru reached to the far right, and tapped on a high, soft note.
He was right. She liked the higher sound better. She tried again, drumming her fingers over the keys in a random pattern. The resulting melody was just as sporadic, but had a lighthearted air that cheered her soul.
The voice sighed happily. "That is much closer. Play more for me?" The request sounded almost kittenish.
Suddenly, Haru stopped short, and looked around her. How would he know what she sounded like? Who on earth was she playing for, anyway?
She tried again to use her voice, but then a sharp pain shot through her head.
The pain was sharp enough to make Haru snap out of her strange dream, and roll out of the window seat in agony.
The pain in her skull flooded outward, swallowing her body as it shot downward between one second and the next. Haru opened her mouth to scream, but all that came out was a weak wheezing.
Then, just as suddenly as the pain had come, it was replaced with a wild ecstasy, unlike anything Haru had ever felt before. Every cell in her body became charged with the exotic feeling, even as Haru felt a strange detachment from herself.
Without her bidding, her body rose to her feet in one sinuous movement, and one hand ran itself through her incredibly short hair.
"At last!" her voice purred in a tone she never used. A seductive giggle followed the words, even as her body turned again to the window seat. Her scarred hand reached out to open the window.
'What am I doing?' Haru thought in a panic as the window swung open. Her legs gracefully stepped onto the seat, and then eased her body out of the window.
She was on the ground floor, so it didn't take much to climb out, and then run around a corner of the manor. The cold, dew-drenched grass had no effect on her feet, a fact that Haru was grateful for, since the sun hadn't risen yet.
Without warning, she stopped, and began climbing the side of the manor like a spider, and nearly as quick. This wasn't an impossible feat, since the building was made from slightly uneven stone blocks, but Haru inwardly shuddered from the experience.
'This is another dream, right? There's no way I'd actually do this.' Yes, that was the answer; it was just a dream! After all, she couldn't feel the wind rustling against her flannel pajamas, nor could she feel the coldness of the stones.
A naughty smile took over her face as she paused briefly next to one of the highest windows on that side of the building. Then, against all laws of physics, she threw herself through the window, and into the room within.
Haru's eyes refused to focus where she wanted them as she rolled to her feet, in the midst of broken glass. All she could see was three men, dressed in black. One of them was in the middle of tying a gag around Tanya's mouth while another man held a gun against her head.
Even as the men turned to look at her in shock, Haru was already moving toward them, her face twisting into a most wicked smile.
One man made the mistake of intercepting her. Without batting an eyelash, she grabbed his arm and threw him over one shoulder, never stopping her pace. The man yelled sharply, but then became unconscious as his head sharply collided with the floor.
The one who had been holding the gun to Tanya pointed his weapon at Haru, who nonchalantly broke his wrist while grabbing the gun. That was just before she suddenly lowered herself to the floor to sweep the legs out from underneath the man holding Tanya.
The result was rather noisy. The one with the broken wrist screamed in pain, even as the third man yelled as he unexpectedly fell backwards. Haru swept a terrified Tanya into her left arm as she rose to her feet, pointing the gun at the two conscious men.
"Weren't you ever told not to pick on little girls?" Haru whispered in that sultry tone; walking backwards, closer to the window. The shattered glass cracked further under her feet, but she paid it no mind.
The man that had been holding Tanya struggled to rise; his eyes wild with fear. "W-Who… what are you?"
Her lips twisted into a smile. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she purred smugly.
The man quickly pulled out another gun, but Haru shot first, in his right shoulder. He screamed, dropping the gun as the other man continued to blubber from his broken wrist.
By now there were voices in the hallway, and a large fight was clearly breaking out. Apparently, the three men had not been alone.
Without another thought, Haru dropped the gun so that she could wrap Tanya in a surprisingly gentle embrace. Then she threw herself out the window, even as Toto yelled from the hallway.
The gag fell away in the wind as Tanya screamed, but Haru was in complete control. She flipped twice through the air before landing squarely on her feet, kneeling a bit to help her legs absorb the shock. She kissed Tanya's forehead once, and started running for the woods.
This was something Haru was familiar with. But she missed feeling the wind rush by as her feet disobediently ran towards the trees. If it weren't for the lack of feeling, it would have been the most realistic dream she'd have ever had.
'Wait! I promised I wouldn't go near the woods again!'
Her body ignored her again, but continued to run between the trees. Once deciding that they were a safe distance from the manor, Haru jumped first onto a large rock, and then into a conveniently thick branch a good ten feet from the ground.
Her body shifted itself into a comfortable position, with her back against the tree's trunk. Her lips twisted into a gentle smile for the terrified little girl in her arms, and pressed a soft kiss against her brow once more.
Then pure exhaustion overtook her. Haru gasped as the adrenaline left her system, leaving her as weak as a kitten. Her head slammed against the trunk, and she frantically used one hand to steady herself and the child in her arms.
"Ow…" Haru whimpered in a weak voice, so unlike the tone she had used a few minutes before. A massive headache pounded against her skull as the rest of her body started listing their complaints.
Her brain pounded from one of the worst headaches she'd ever had. Her lungs were on fire from all the running and climbing she had just done, and her sore limbs had stray cuts from the broken glass. Her feet were complaining the worst of all; the dew clinging to them was icy cold, and they were sore from climbing the manor. The only relief from the chill was her own blood, since she must have cut herself on the shattered glass when fighting the men. There was more than one shard in her feet, she was certain of it. The cold, early morning wind feasted on her skin, making goose bumps rise as she fought back a shiver.
"Ow," Haru panted again, although the word didn't convey everything she felt. She took another steadying breath before hesitantly looking at Tanya.
There was fear there; she would have been shocked if there hadn't been. But there was also surprise, and something else that she couldn't quite interpret.
Haru felt her face with one hand, but no; the mask was on. 'I must have forgotten to take it off last night.' She sighed, and tried speaking for real. "Hello, Tanya," she almost whispered; her voice strangely hoarse. Why had she sounded fine in her ecstatic state, but not in her normal one?
Tanya stiffened as Haru said her name, but did not say anything.
"Are your feet cold?" Haru asked in resignation, a slight trace of Japanese visible in her accent.
Tanya looked away. "Yes," she squeaked fearfully.
Haru sighed, and gently guided the girl's tiny feet just underneath the hem of her plaid pajama shirt to press them against her stomach to keep them warm. Then she froze. "My pajamas?" she asked in horror. "W-Whatever that was, happened in my pj's?"
She couldn't believe it. Wait, she shouldn't be shocked; she had been sleeping when… whatever it was took over.
How embarrassing!
Haru banged her aching head against the trunk in frustration. 'What a way to make a first impression!' She glanced at Tanya again, and sighed. "Just out of curiosity, why were those men tying you up?"
The little girl was looking at her almost curiously now. "I don't know. They just said to be quiet or they'd kill me."
Haru chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Probably ransom, then. Now I wish I had beaten them up more," she growled.
Tanya actually giggled, but then shivered from the cold.
Haru increased her hold on the girl, ignoring the cuts on her arms. "Look, Tanya; I have absolutely no idea what happened just now. I know I scare you, and I'm sorry. If it's any comfort, your father will probably have my head when he finds out I took you into the woods."
Tanya nodded, burying her face into Haru's pajama shirt. "He and Uncle Humbert hate the woods. Um, Harry?"
"Haru," she corrected absently. "But yes?"
"How did you do the thing with your hair?"
Haru looked down at the girl. "What do you mean?"
Tanya looked up at her in confusion. "When you were in my room and running out here, your hair was white. But when you started gasping, it went dark again."
Haru stared at the girl. "Are you sure?"
She nodded. "It was just like a cartoon I saw with Mommy. You didn't even need to wash your hair to make it change."
"Nani?" Haru demanded, unable to believe it.
"My nanny's still on vacation," Tanya replied in confusion.
"No, not that," Haru apologized, laughing a little nervously. "Nani means 'what' in Japanese. I just mean… what on earth's happening to me?"
The question sounded very weak, even with her voice. She sighed again, and tried to keep the tears at bay.
The last thing the little girl needed was to see that she was scared, too.
"Listen, Tanya; I'm still new here. It's possible that those men have backup looking for us, but we can't stay out here for very long. If you hear someone you trust, can you make enough noise for them to find us? My voice is still pretty weak."
Tanya shivered again, but nodded. She cuddled deep into Haru's embrace, and smiled shyly. "Haru?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for saving me."
Despite everything that had just happened, the little girl's sweet sincerity brought a tired smile to Haru's face.
"Anytime. Now we need to be quiet in case the wrong people are looking for us, okay?"
Tanya nodded again, and shivered from the cold.
Haru looked up from the girl in her arms, seeing a faint pink in the sky between the trees. 'That close to dawn? Hmm. I wonder how long it will be until we're found.'
Time passed. Haru couldn't tell how much without a watch, but the sky steadily grew lighter.
She occupied herself by rubbing her hands over Tanya's back and ears to keep her warm, unable to do anything about herself without throwing both of them out of the tree. Her feet began to lose feeling in them, but all Haru did was grit her teeth and make sure that the little girl clinging to her would remain warm.
After what felt like eternity, voices began to echo from the direction of the manor; screaming something neither girl could understand. Tanya yawned sleepily, lifting her head from Haru's chest.
"It's starting," Haru informed her in a weak whisper. "Try to listen for a voice you know."
"Okay," Tanya said while wiggling deeper into Haru's embrace. She looked out into the forest worriedly, listening as hard as she could.
Haru was starting to lose feeling in her legs, and the parts of her arms that weren't covering Tanya were beginning to turn numb. How long would it be before she became an icicle?
Suddenly, a voice came; much closer than the others had been.
"Tanya! Can you hear me?" The owner of the voice was closing in fast, if the rapidly increasing footsteps were any indication.
Tanya gasped with delight. "We're over here, Uncle Humbert!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "We're in a tree!"
Haru's stomach clenched in dread. "Uncle Humbert?" she asked in a sick tone.
"Uh huh, he's the best," Tanya replied confidently. "Over here, Uncle Humbert!"
