Chapter 11: The beast inside

Garfield brushed Raven's hair out of her face. They were laying in a grass field not too far away from the house.

The house was old stone, with brown roof, the house was styled victorian, three floors. There was a lot of forest around the house, but the house itself was placed inside a clearing, tall grass fields were surrounding the grounds.

"Do you think we're safe here?" Garfield asked.

"For now, Leo has an invisibility spell around the clearing, if not anyone get's too close we should be safe." Raven said with closed eyes.

"Okay." He crossed his legs in front of her. "So what now?"

Raven looked at him with a smile. "I want to find your animal." Garfield sent her a look. "I'm not going to use Ulric's methods."

"Thanks…" Garfield sighed. "Even if those treats were good, I don't think I should eat many more. I have been having a mad stomach all day." He grabbed his belly with a sad look.

"Anyway… Let's start, I need to find out what happened in your youth. If I don't know what locked your animal up, I can't help release it."

"What do you need to do?"

"I will travel into your mind, I need to take Rose with me. She'll be able to help me control your aura. I talked with her earlier, she was a little afraid, but I promised to keep her safe. She agreed, we got her parents agreement. But we need yours."

"Fine."

"That easy?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I want to help and if bringing my animal out does that. Do it."

Raven nodded. "I'll find Rose, go inside." The two went on their way.

an hour later the entire household was inside one of the guest rooms. Garfield was told to lie down on the bed since he'd fall into a coma state when the girls entered.

"Raven, please keep her safe." Alice begged.

"I will." She turned to the brave little girl. "You ready?"

Rose nodded and took her hand over Garfield's head. "Relax." She said. Garfield closed his eyes and fell into a sleep.

Raven placed her hand on Rose's shoulder, closing her eyes. The two girls vanished into Garfield's mind.

"I hope they come back safe." Marie said sad.

"They will." Aaron promised.

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The two girls fell into a grass field with a loud thump. Raven got up fast and looked around, Rose wasn't far away from her, the little girl rubbed her head before looking around.

"Are you okay?" Raven asked.

"Yes, I've never been mind traveling before." She said.

The two girls stood up and looked around. They were in a huge grass field with forest far in the ends.

"Where are we?" Rose asked.

"This must be a place he knows, somewhere that calms him. Come on." Rose took Raven's hand as they walked towards the sun of the field.

The two walked for a while before ending up in a hallway that they walked into out of nowhere.

The hallway was long with wooden walls and a red carpet floor. From what they could tell the hallway had five doors. Four on opposite walls and one at the far end.

"Come on." Raven muttered and took a few steps in.

They walked up to the first door, they noticed that the doors were labeled. Dreams, Memories, Thoughts, Knowledge and emotions.

"Let's stay away from emotions, I feel like that's a bad idea." Raven muttered as she glared at the door.

"Yes, let's go where we need to go." Rose pointed to the door labeled Memories.

"Even though I'm curious about his dreams." Raven smirked, before Rose groaned and dragged Raven into the memory door.

The girls walked into a pitch black room.

Raven looked around. "I knew he didn't have anything in his head." She muttered, making Rose laugh.

A light came over not long away from them. It shone down on a thick brown book.

"What's that?" Rose asked.

"His memories." Raven opened the book, her eyes turned white for a second before changing back. "They're willing to show us."

A bright flash erupted from the book as the pages turned rapidly on their own, the åages stopped and Raven and Rose were teleported into the page.

The two landed in yet another field.

"Where are we now?" Rose asked.

Raven looked around for a second. "We're in Jump, the school I think." They stood in front of Jump city school.

"Look!" Rose yelled and pointed to a little boy with blond hair. He was sitting on a bench and reading what seemed to be a science book. The little boy had glasses that he pushed up every so often.

"That's Garfield." Raven smiled.

"He was cute as a child." Rose said.

"Hey! He's mine." Raven yelled, trying to hide her laughter.

The two girls walked up to the boy.

"Hi." Rose said, Garfield didn't move. Like he didn't notice them.

"We're not here Rose, we just need to watch." The two stepped back and watched the scene that was about to form.

Three older kids walked up to Garfield.

"Hey kid!" The biggest yelled. Garfield looked up, his pupils shrunk.

The two others grabbed Garfield's books. One threw it at the ground and stomped on it, the other picked one up and ripped it. Garfield just sat there sad, the two girls saw tears form in his eyes.

"Hey nerd! Watch out!" The big boy yelled as he pushed Garfield off the bench. He fell to the ground hard. Sitting up he rubbed his bleeding chin.

Raven had to hold Rose back as she tightened her fist and started to stomp towards them. "Rose you can't do anything." Raven said.

"I want to help!" The girl screamed.

"I know, I want to too." Raven said sad, tears had formed in her eyes before they narrowed.

Garfield was sitting on the ground still, but as Raven looked into his eyes she saw his animal wanting to be free. He clutched his head and cried.

"What's the matter nerd!?" The bully yelled.

"Stop it." Garfield yelled.

"Or what? You're going to tell mommy?" The bully teased.

Garfield turned to the ground. Raven looked closer. Garfield's fingernails started to grow longer, his teeth grew sharper, his hair grew slowly, at this point Garfield's pupils was gone, leaving only the primal, angry animal inside him.

"Garfield!" The girls turned and saw a woman run up to Garfield. The bullies had run off by now.

"Mommy!" Garfield hugged her tight and cried.

"Baby it's okay, shh…" She hugged him. The animalistic features vanished.

"I almost transformed." He said low.

"But you didn't." His mother said.

"It was my fault." He cried.

"No."

"I could have hurt them."

"But you didn't."

The two girls were thrown out of the memory and into reality. They fell down on the ground next to the bed.

"Raven!" Aaron yelled and ran up to the girls, Leo joined him and helped Rose up. "What did you find?" He asked.

"I know what's holding him back." Raven turned to Garfield, she placed her hands on the side of his face. Her hands glowed white before Garfield's eyes opened. "Welcome back." She smiled.

"Raven?"

"I'm here Garfield." She said, she knew he dreamt what happened. "And I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault." Garfield hugged her.

"I wish we could have stopped them." Rose said as she sat down next to Raven.

"Did you find it?"

"Yes, we need to do this alone, come on." The two walked outside into the field.

The family and Aaron stood on the porch and watched.

"Garfield." Raven took his hand. "You blamed yourself for almost transforming in front of bullies, you said you could have hurt them, you blamed yourself, you blamed your animal. And for him to be free, you need to accept him."

Raven's words bore into him.

"How?"

"You resist the animal, wanting nothing to do with him, but he's there. He want to help you, but you have to work together."

"I don't know if I can?"

"Why?"

"It's so long ago, and I almost hurt them."

"Almost, you didn't."

"Only because mom came in time."

"You were a child."

Garfield looked at the ground. "I'll try."

"You don't have to do it now, take the time you need, but tell me. When you forgive yourself, your animal will want to come out." Garfield looked at her. "Don't worry, the animal is you, it loves the same things as you do and can't harm them."

"Okay."

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Garfield laid in bed, thinking. Raven was curled up against his chest. He felt her stir and quickly wrapped his arms around her.

He hushed into her ear whispering. "It's okay, I'm here, and nothing is going to harm you." Without him noticing, his eyes shifted colour, they turned pure green and glowed.

He didn't noticed until he saw the faint glow in Raven's hair. His eyes narrowed and he lifted his neck, looking into a small mirror across the room he saw his eyes glow.

As gentle as possible he lifted Raven off his chest.

He got out of bed and looked into the little mirror, he lifted it into his hand. The glow was still there and it was swirling.

He felt a growl for in his chest, letting it out he dropped the mirror. It fell to the floor and shattered.

Garfield fell to his knees and gripped his head in pain. Pain was running in his body like wildfire. He almost screamed, when he felt a warm comforting hand on his shoulder.

He turned with teary eyes. Raven stood next to him, she knelt down next to him.

Wrapping her arms around him she whispered. "It's okay, let him come." The words were comforting, even in all the pain that roared in his ears.

He relaxed and closed her eyes. He felt the animal grow, had he forgiven himself? He couldn't recall it.

"It's okay Garfield." He heard Raven's voice again.

He turned to look at her, only to find her body much smaller. His now huge claws were gently wrapped around her. He saw that her face was buried in green fur.

"It's okay, relax. Let him be." She whispered and looked into his eyes. "I know you're scared, just let him give you control again." Garfield closed his eyes, letting out loud breaths, he felt himself gain control.

"That's good, now, try to change back." He tried, he felt his body shrink, this time he didn't feel any pain.

"There you are." Raven lifted some of his blond hair out of the way, she kissed him gently and smiled.

"I did it?" He asked.

Raven nodded. "And I couldn't be more proud." Raven helped Garfield back to the bed. "We'll clean that up in the morning, you need to rest now."

"What was the animal?" Garfield asked.

"It's ancient, it never really got a name. We know them as Beasts. They were everything from dangerous to sweethearts." Raven smiled.

"What am I?"

"Something in between, I could tell he was harmless, at least to me. But there was an angry and powerful protectiveness in him. He would hurt to protect. But don't let that stop you, we can train a little tomorrow." Raven closed her arms around Garfield's chest again.

"I love you, Raven." Garfield whispered and kissed her forehead.

"I love you more…" Raven muttered.

"I can't argue, can I?" He asked with a smile.

"No… Sleep now." She gently lifted her head and carefully used her fingers to close his eyes. He laughed and felt her fall against his chest.

To be honest he was a little scared for tomorrow. What if he couldn't control it? What if he hurt anyone? He kept his eyes closed as he tried to think of anything else.

He thought about Raven, how she felt against him. He smiled and let sleep take over.

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Okay, I think next chapter is going to have action… Maybe… If I can do that… Anyway, until next time!