"Hello again."
The voices surrounded a six-year-old Zelda as she sat alone on her bed, wrapped in her blanket. She closed her eyes tightly, imagining she was somewhere else. Somewhere where she wasn't alone. She held her werewolf plush close to her mouth and counted slowly to 10, something her mother had told her to do when she was scared.
Despite Zelda not seeing the man emerging from the shadows of her bedroom, she could sense he was there. Tears began to well up in her eyes and she felt them making their way down her cheeks.
"Open your eyes."
The words came out with a hissing sound. She closed her eyes tighter, moving the werewolf plush to cover her eyes as well, continuing to count to 10. She could hear the creaking of her floorboards as the man moved around her room. 1…2… creak 3…4… creak. The sound of the man was getting closer and closer to her, and she wanted to scream, to get up and run, but she couldn't move.
"I said, open… your… eyes!"
Each word was followed by a creaking in the floor. As she shifted in her bed and felt her blanket get ripped from her small body. Her eyes opened wide and the sight in front of her made her scream louder than he had. He appeared to be a man but had the head of a snake. The man let out a hissing laugh and approached Zelda, getting inches from her face.
I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock. I was breathing heavily and covered in sweat. It took a moment for my brain to realize where I was, but once I did, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I sat for a moment staring at my ceiling before rolling over to shut off the alarm clock on my nightstand. I laid there for a little longer, allowing my brain to wake up as well as my body. These dreams always took a lot out of me and were mentally exhausting.
Around 10 minutes after my alarm had gone off, I got up to follow my daily routine. Brush teeth, shower, get dressed, eat, drink coffee to wash away the lack of sleep. Every day was a repeat of the same routine.
Today was a little different though, I've decided to head into Portland in search of medications to help me sleep and maybe rid my mind of nightmares. I have tried most sleeping pills and therapies, but nothing seemed to wash away the memories that decided to come back in my sleep.
I slipped my jacket on and headed into the cold Portland air. This city was quite dreadful, homeless people and drug addicts, but that's what came with most major cities. I slipped my hands into my pockets and put my hood up to stay hidden in a world that wanted me to be the center of attention.
I made my way past many shops and through the city until I reached the downtown area. I'd been throughout Portland many times but never had my head up long enough to pay attention to the businesses around me. As I looked at the signs, I found one that may help, I'd tried the pharmaceutical methods of fixing my sleep, maybe the homeopathic ones would help me more.
When I opened the door to the shop, I was met with a jingle of a bell attached to the top of the door frame. The initial sound made me jump but I quickly looked away and began looking at the shop. It was earthy and organized. I went down the couple of aisles in the middle of the store scanning the bottles on each shelf. I did not recognize any of the names and many I couldn't even pronounce.
As I was scanning a bottle of… mugwart… a women walked up to me and gave me a light tap on the shoulder. I jumped; God I hate being so jumpy. I turned around to face her and she held both of her hands up. "I didn't mean to frighten you." Her voice was sweet and so were her features.
I gave an awkward smile, "It's okay. I'm just jumpy is all."
She lowered her hands, "Can I help you find something specific?"
I ran a hand across my forehead and furrowed my eyebrows. "I don't know… I just need something to sleep."
"Why can't you sleep?" She asked, walking over to the counter at the back of the store and grabbing a book. She began flipping through it.
"Um, I just have nightmares a lot. My brain doesn't like to shut off." I let out a light laugh and immediately felt silly for my response. The women smiled at me and skimmed through her book until she stopped on a page with an "ah,ha!"
She quickly made her way from the table and grabbed a botte off the shelf that contained a mixture of what I can only assume were different herbs and spices. She began scooping the contents into another, smaller bottle. "You will only need about a teaspoon amount to help you sleep soundly, just add it with a cup of water. It may not taste the best, but you won't be having anymore nightmares." She smiled at she spoke. Her words caused me to smile too, I would love nothing more than for this to work.
She corked the bottle and then handed it to me. The bottle slipped from my hands and hit the floor with a crash. Butterfingers. I looked up at her and saw a different person, or being, entirely. She was no longer the women with the sweet features, she was… an animal. She had orange and white fur, pointed ears, and golden eyes.
I felt my entire body tense up in fear as her features switched back into more human looking ones. I backed away from the counter, backing into the shelf directly behind me breaking a couple more bottles. Suddenly a man ran up from the back, he was large, much larger than me, and he was shouting, asking what was going on. What if he was one too, what if he was worst than she was.
My feet fell from under me as my body grew weak and I covered my eyes, I felt like a child, hiding from a monster. "Please, don't kill me." If this was a flight or fight situation, my body chose to curl up and die. Suddenly it clicked in my brain that I may just be seeing things, I may have just freaked out this poor innocent woman with my crazy mind.
A moment later I felt two hands gently grab onto mine and pull them away from my face. When I opened my eyes, the woman was crouched looking at me and I could see the man behind the counter. "We're not going to hurt you." I didn't speak, I couldn't find the words. I stared at her, tears welling up in my eyes and she asked, "do you know what I am?"
What are you?
