Chapter 2: Change
"He's doing it again." whispered Marie into her cell.
"Miss, we can't come over without any proof." said a tired officer.
Marie mumbled some insults at the cop before hanging up. If they wanted proof she'd get some. She snuck up behind an overgrown hedge to take a peek in the window. There it was, sitting in her neighbor's bedroom, a marijuana plant. She scowled at the plant. Reaching for her digital camera she took pictures of the dreaded thing.
Her neighbor was one of the biggest suppliers of pot at her high school. Everyone knew it and no one was willing to do a thing. Well Marie wasn't going to stand for it. After taking a few candid shots, she snuck back to her kitchen door. She figured if the police weren't willing to help, she'd just have to do the next best thing and get him expelled from school. At least then it would cut him off from some potential customers. Sitting on the steps outside her house she watched as a classmate exchanged words with her neighbor, obviously insinuating a deal.
Marie had grown up in Anders not really realizing what her hometown was like till she moved in with her father on the ghetto side of town. When she had lived with her mom on the outskirt of Anders the most she had to worry about was when her cat got in the neighbor's garden. Of course back then it wasn't a pot garden she had to deal with. And now that she was in high school, it seemed like every one was doing drugs. To her it looked like she was the only one not doing it. And that was fine with her.
Wanting to blow off some steam, Marie took a walk. She walked pasted some buildings that could barely stand, then took a little detour passed the trailer park by the creak, and ended up at the empty lot. In the summer the lot was often filled with neighborhood boys playing baseball, but in the middle of autumn it was empty. Marie kicked a can around hazily. Taking a particularly large kick, the can flew into some trees. Although against drugs, she had no problem with littering and was going to just leave it when she heard a groan.
Not being an idiot she knew not to investigate strange noises. She turned her back to the sound ready to leave, but not even two steps later she heard the groan again. Marie hesitated. Forcing herself, she walked toward the groaning. Staying just outside of the patch of trees, she called out to the voice.
"P-please, help…" said a young voice.
Shocked at the sound of a small child in trouble, Marie ran in to help. But what she thought was a small child was actually Calumon. He huffed tiredly, gasping for air. Marie didn't know what to think. Being a kid of the nineties she knew exactly what she was looking at, a Digimon. For the life of her though she couldn't remember his name.
Leaving her confusion for later, Marie scooped up the youngling. She hid Calumon under her coat and briskly walked back home. He was then comfortably placed on a couch pillow. Calumon managed a thanks, before passing out. Marie stared at the sleeping Digimon with her mouth agape. She was a logical thinker and a cartoon character in real life was definitely not logical.
Marie tried to convince herself that this was real. That she found a Digimon in the patch of trees by the lot. It wasn't clicking though. When she held Calumon it was with gloves on, making her think that if she only touched him with a bare hand it would make all of this clear for her. Taking the palm of her hand, she rubbed Calumon's head. It felt warm, a little too warm. By the time she realized what had happened it was too late. Yanking back her right hand with a shriek she saw imprinted on it was a burned cluster of triangles, the Zero Unit.
She ran cold water over her hand to try and subdue the burning sensation. As it cooled, the burns healed themselves leaving a red and black triangles. If her new tattoo wasn't enough proof that he was real, she didn't know what could do to convince herself. Marie grabbed her head with dizziness.
Marie hadn't thought of Digimon in years. Tamers had been her favorite Saturday morning show as a kid and now here was the shows mascot laying in her living room. Not wanting to get anywhere near Calumon, she decided to research about him on the internet. She found out that he was the Digimon with the power to digivole others and not much else.
While on the Digimon website, she decided to look up on her favorite Digimon. It was a brown and pink bunny like creature that's tamer on the show was a little girl. After some searching she found Lopmon. Marie recalled that her friends all preferred Terriermon, to which she would replied that Lopmon was cuter. Even now in her teens, Marie thought it was cute. Gazing at the photo of Lopmon, Marie began to feel her Zero Unit burning again. As she walked back to the bathroom sink, something seemed wrong to her. Everything looked bigger. But it wasn't that everything was getting bigger, it was that she was getting smaller. Frantic, Marie barged into the bathroom and crawled onto the sink. Looking at her reflection she saw a Lopmon staring back at her.
