Self Reflection

Skylar stared up at the white popcorn ceiling. There once was a day her entire bedroom was covered with popcorn walls. Until she tripped over her bed and hit her head, she smeared blood all over her wall that day. Her mother was so upset, she scraped all the popcorn wall off her walls. Her dad wasn't very happy about it, but he helped her mother tear her walls apart. Later that year, they painted her bedroom hot pink for her birthday.

She sat up, looking around the room. She had no clue where she was and her head hurt ten times worse than it did when she hit it on her bedroom wall. She tried to think about what had happened, but couldn't remember. She looked around the room again. She was in a white room, completely white, a closet across the room was slightly open, revealing a few men's shirts and shoes. The sheets in between her fingers were white and a navy blue comforter laid on her legs. The head board of the bed was made of a very dark colored wood that she couldn't depict the kind.

A door, closer than the closet, led to what looked like a kitchen. Standing in the doorway was Matt, his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing a tight V-neck t-shirt which stuck to his figure. His hair, which she had mistakened to be short, was slightly shaggy and hung in his eyes in some places. He stared at her with his cat eyes, not just staring, but studying her.

"Where am I?" Skylar's voice sounded groggy. She grabbed the base of her throat with a hand. Matt left the doorway, then came back with a large glass of water. He handed her the water and sat in a chair that was next to the bed, made out of the same dark wood as the bed she was on.

"My apartment."

She gulped down the water and licked her dry lips. "So, this is what it's like to be kidnapped." She said more to herself than to Matt. "I never really thought that it would happen to me. Or that my kidnapper would be so young."

Matt, grunted, took the empty glass out of her hands and retreated to the kitchen. Skylar stood up to follow him, her head spun and throbbed when she got to her feet, the only thing she could see was black. She grabbed the back of the chair, until she could see again, then followed after him. Skylar sat on one of the counters stools as he turned around to place the refilled glass in front of her. A clear drop of the liquid slid down the side of the glass. She grabbed the cup and slowly drank the water, allowing the liquid to flow in her mouth, soothing the burning dryness.

"I didn't kidnap you."

Skylar choked on the water and put the cup down coughing until she could breath again, "What?" she wheezed.

"I didn't kidnap you." he repeated.

"Really?" she stood up and was suddenly in his face. "I was on the side of the road trying to see if you were ok, and now, I'm in some guy's apartment. The thing is, I don't know who you are. Sounds a lot like kidnapping to me."

"Yes you do."

"I know your name, do I want to be here? Do I feel comfortable here? No! This is kidnapping."

"You hit me with a car!" he fired back at her. He advanced on her making her back up, but he kept coming. "I'm walking across the street and some idiot driving at 80 miles an hour hits me." Skylar's back was pressed against the wall now, she had imagined something like this happening with Ryan, an angry fight turning into passionate love in an instant. "Don't you think I deserve to at least talk to you?"

The heat between their bodies sparked, "Why'd you bring me here?" She whispered. Skylar could feel his warm breath on her cheeks, her heart pounded hard and fast in her chest.

"All the answers to your questions will soon be answered." He whispered back. Then he turned and walked away from her. Skylar gripped the wall and breathed, or tried to. She felt as if she were suffocating. She drew in a deep gasping breath when a pain in the tips of her fingers erupted.

She slid to the floor, looking at her hands and found elongated nails, sharp, and covered in dry wall and blood. "What's happening to me?"

Suddenly Matt was in front of her, his hands on hers, "You're Changing." He murmured.

"Changing?"

A puff of soft fuzz rubbed against Skylar's arm. She gasped and looked down, seeing the familiar pumpkin spice face. She scooped the dog up in her arms, cradling her close to her body. The dog whimpered in her arms, so she loosened her grip.

"Ginger! I thought I lost you, I thought that panther hurt..."

Skylar's eyes flew open and focused on Matt, his eyes burned bright yellowish green. Then he was no longer Matt, he was the panther, the only resemblance was their eyes.

"That's impossible." She whispered. Reaching towards the panther, her hand touched his face, feeling skin not fur. She blinked and it was Matt, with the eyes of a panther.

"Like you, I was bitten, by another shapeshifter."

"What? A panther bit me, not you."

He responded with a look that made her shiver. He looked like an eighteen year old boy, but his eyes looked like the eyes of a wild cat. Skylar knew she was wrong.

"So, what does that mean for me? Are you going to kill me?"

"If I wanted you dead, I would've let the Infection take over."

"Infection?"

"You were weak," he began, "I needed to feed the Infection or you would've died."

"What's the Infection?"

"The Infection is like a disease given to you from a shifter. If you're bitten the Infection will kill you, unless you complete the transition with the antidote. Which is what I gave you." Matt gave her a crooked half smile.

"What's the antidote?"

He looked her in the eye, "The blood of a shifter."

Skylar gagged, Ginger ran into the living room and jumped onto the couch, "You made me drink blood? Again gym will?"

"You were unconscious, possibly in a coma, what was I supposed to do? Try to wake you with a kiss? Sorry, Snow White, this isn't a fairy tale."

"That's like assault or rape! Injecting me with your fluids, you could have some disease!"

"I can assure you I don't." He said gripping her shoulders, "You're going to shift tonight and I'm going to help you."

"So what, I'm a werewolf now?"

Matt threw his head back and laughed, "You were bitten by a panther and you believe you are a Child of the Moon, wow you really are blonde."

If Skylar were in a cartoon she'd have smoke billowing out of her ears, she hated blonde jokes. "Then what am I?"

He looked at her, "We are Children of Nature," he said, "shapeshifters."

~~~

"So what am I supposed to do?" Skylar asked. They were in the middle of the woods, possibly the ones behind her house. Matt was scrapping away the dead leaves on the ground with his hands.

"You," he said, clapping dirt off his hands, "need to take your clothes off."

She gave him a skeptical look.

"You know, you take off your shoes, then unbutton your jeans. You know, strip."

"Why do I need to?" She asked, pulling her jacket tighter around her body.

Matt sighed, "When you shift, your clothes don't magically disappear and then reappear, they get ripped to shreds, unless you shift into a small animal like a bird or a guinea pig. So, unless you want to walk around naked after you Change back, I'd recommend you take it off."

She stared at him, studying him, his throat, wondering if he was telling the truth or if he just wanted to see a show. He looked dead serious. "Fine," she said, "but don't look."

He growled, but eventually covered his eyes with his hands and turned around.

Skylar kicked off her shoes and slid off her jeans. She peeled off her packet and blouse, exposing her bare skin. Her hair laid in thick, blonde curls around her shoulders. Even in the warm night air, goosebumps raised on the skin of her arms. She paused as her hands went to the clasp of her bra. "Will you be able to see me?"

"Um, we'll I have night vision." He said, she could hear the grin in his voice, "All the kicks of being a cat."

She dropped her hands to her sides, leaving on her undergarments. "Okay, you can turn around."

Matt turned around, grinning, then frowned, "Damn, I was looking forward to seeing you naked."

Skylar threw her shoes at him, which he caught and placed on the ground.

"Now, now, no need to be temperamental, blue eyes."

She stopped short and narrowed her eyes, "My eyes are green."

"You may have seen dark emerald eyes that could've been lost in a field of shadowy grass. " he smiled at her, "But, you will eventually see not green, but dark blue crystals that sparkle in the sunlight."

Skylar was lost in his words, nobody ever talked like that, only in the movies. She opened and closed her mouth several times, attempting to find words, but didn't know what to say. Eventually she said, "I've never seen them that way. Nobody has."

Matt gave her a crooked half smile, "The eyes can be deceiving."

He turned away. As he did, the moment died, as if he had turned a light off and left Skylar in the dark. She felt cold inside and her heart hurt.

"Get on your hands and knees." He said gesturing to the ground beneath him. She did as he said, listening to his words, "In minutes, the Change will begin." He took his over coat off and threw it on her clothes. "Your body will take the shape of the animal that best fits your size and endurance." He grabbed her forearms with his hands, practically laying on top of her shoulders. "It's going to hurt. The first shift always hurts. You can't fight it, you just have to let it happen."

"What if I don't?" She asked. Skylar couldn't see his face, but she felt his body tense on hers.

"The not he pain gets worse, the more you resist the more pain you endure. Eventually, it will feel like you are being tortured and you will die because your body won't be capable of accepting that much pain.

Skylar shivered, she had watched movies with her dad and ... She had seen people being tortured in the movies, the actors never felt the true pain of it, but acted like it hurt so much. She never wanted to endure that kind of pain, never really thought about it either.

"Ten seconds." He said, gripping her more tightly as if securing her. She saw the time on his watch, 10:59, the time she had taken Ginger out the night before. Twenty-four hours ago, she was normal, if she had taken her dog out ten minutes earlier she probably wouldn't be here right now. "Five."

Skylar counted down in her head, 'Four, three, two, one.' An ear splintering screech escaped her lips, as the pain ripped through her body.