Prequel to Unusual Shifters
I stared into my mirror, horror filling my mind.
What? The? Heck?
I moved closer to the glass, peering at the image I saw there.
It couldn’t be! Why was the universe so mean to me?
I have to shift back. Now! Before anyone sees me.
Before my twin brother sees me.
I turned away from the mirror and searched my brain. How did one shift back to human after their first shift? Did someone help them? Or was this something we should know instinctively?
There was no way I was getting someone to help me! I would have to figure this out on my own.
I remembered what I looked like before this fiasco happened. I built my image in my mind. And then I asked my brain to change me back.
Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
Well, shoot me now.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs to my attic.
I scrambled off my dresser, moving down the chipped and peeling particle board of the ancient piece of furniture. Then I dashed across the floor, hiding under my bed amongst the dust bunnies.
I peered around the area next to me, twitching. I guess I should clean under here more often.
Sitting there quivering, I hoped against hope it wasn’t…
“Where, oh where, are you, dear sister?” Toren sang out from the other side of the door. “Mother wants you to come down and set the table for dinner. And Rory is looking for his keys. He says you need to find them for him.”
His voice contained the tiniest bit of a growl.
How far was he from his first shift? Or had he gone through it already? Given we were twins, it had to be soon, since I was in mine.
Huh. I suspected he hadn’t shifted yet, but would soon. If he had, that growl was signaling he would be a large predator of some sort. Like the rest of my family. Which meant he would certainly attempt to terrify me.
Predators. All of them except me.
No way I was going to reply to him. Not only because I physically couldn’t in this form. I just hated talking to him. So all I could do was wait. And hope he didn’t come barging into my room.
My door creaked, as it typically did when someone opened it.
Ugh! Of course, I couldn’t be that lucky that he would respect my space!
I peered up from behind a particularly large dust bunny.
He poked his head in and glanced around, a look of disgust on his face.
“Why you like this dirty, smelly attic is beyond me. You could stay in the room Mom and Dad gave you, but no. You hid up here. What is so special about this place?” he muttered to himself.
Then he stepped inside.
Everything in me stiffened, screaming at him to get out. But there was nothing I could do. Not if I didn’t want him to discover my biggest secret.
He walked over to my dresser, opening my drawers and ruffling through my clothing.
Including my underwear.
I grimace. I would have to wash them all now. God only knew where those hands had been, given he jumped anything that even looked female. We were only sixteen, and he had already banged most of the girls in our school. He didn’t care how old they were, either. If they were female, he would try to seduce them.
I didn’t know what they saw in him. He was horribly mean and majorly disloyal to every single one of them.
He sauntered over to my bed, kicking at anything that was on my floor.
I scurried towards the foot of it, moving out of the items that rolled underneath it towards me. What a butt turd!
He sat down and bounced several times on my mattress before picking up my pillow and sniffing it.
Ewwww! What was he thinking?
“Huh. If I ever get my hands on you, sister dear, I think it’s time for me to do some actual damage. Perhaps break an arm or a leg? Or maybe I should just choke you until you almost die.” He mumbled to himself, dropping my pillow on my bed before standing up once again.
He continued poking around. I wasn’t sure what he was searching for, but whatever it was he didn’t find it. Lucky for me, he didn’t find any of my treasures, as I had hidden those carefully inside the actual frame of the house. That was one place he wouldn’t think to look. He really wasn’t the brightest bulb—just the meanest.
Finally, he walked over to the door, stopping to look around the room once more. He breathed in and out several times, probably trying to scent me, before he shut the door with a thump.
I waited, listening. Because this wasn’t over quite yet.
It was only after another five minutes had passed before I heard his footsteps descending to the second floor. And then on to the first.
“Mom!” he shouted.
And then I couldn’t hear anything more.
I guess I could find out how angry my mother would be that I wasn’t doing my chores, but I was afraid if I went down there in this form, I would shift back involuntarily. And then I would have to explain what I was.
Not a discussion I wanted to have with my family. Ever.
No, it was time to leave home. I needed to get out of this place before one of them killed me. Literally. Either for what my shifted form was or because they just didn’t like me.
Tonight. I would leave tonight. Midnight wasn’t that many hours away.
I settled in to plan my escape. And to figure out how to shift, since this was something I had to do on my own.
I figured out the shifting thing finally while I waited.
In fact, I practiced going back and forth several times, making sure I had complete control. It thrilled me to learn my clothes made the change with me. This was something that never happened to the others in this house.
Nope, when they shifted back to human after having shifted to their predator form, they would come back naked as the day they were born. I didn’t like it, but I got used to it.
Not being naked when I became human, though, gave me so many more options.
In addition, my siblings always seemed tired after doing one or two shifts and would have to take a nap before shifting again. For me, it just seemed natural.
I realized both aspects were unusual. So…Lucky me?
Picking up my phone, I researched what I was from what I remembered seeing in the mirror. As well as what I could do when in that form. I would need this information once I was out of the house and on my own.
And look at that—I was common and considered disgusting by most of the population.
The universe hated me.
Being a Madden wouldn’t get me any special privileges out in the world. Particularly since I had to leave this town. Yes, people in other towns and cities knew who my family was, but they would still hurt me before they helped me. So I would be all alone.
But that wouldn’t be any different from now.
Even in school, the other kids would gang up on me, beating me up. The principal wouldn’t help. My parents would just say I needed to learn how to protect myself. And the authorities—the police—were filled with my aunts and uncles, who believed as my parents did.
Nope. I had to go far away if I wanted to have a chance of surviving.
I gathered up the clothes I was taking with me, stuffing them into a backpack. Uncertain if I could really take a pack with me when I shifted, I wore two sets of pants, two shirts, and a jacket before flinging the bag over my shoulder.
Stuffing my pockets with the money I had saved up over the years, I was almost ready to go. The money wouldn’t go far—it was only a couple of hundred of dollars—but it would help for the first few days until I got settled.
My next stop, if I could get away with it, was the kitchen for some food.
Shifting, I discovered my backpack came with me somehow. Or at least, it wasn’t left on my bedroom floor. I would find out for sure when I shifted back.
I left the room, crawling under the door and then scrambling down the stairs.
The house creaked as the wind blew, being that it was an older one. It always did when a storm was coming.
But there weren’t any sounds on the second floor except the light snorts and snores of those sleeping.
Hoping my luck would stay, I then descended to the first floor, going directly to the kitchen.
Everything was dark down here. Whew! No one was awake.
Shifting back, I found my backpack had shifted with me.
I grinned. That was great luck. I didn’t know any of the other shifters could do that. So, there were some advantages of what I was. A point to me.
Wait, that was now three points to me. Against the millions against. I grimaced.
No time to dawdle. I went through the kitchen, grabbing whatever food would travel well—granola bars, cheese crackers, apples. Snatching up a couple of bottles of water, I stuffed everything into my pack.
It was heavy and a little bulky, but I knew it would get pretty light way too fast.
“Is someone up? Which one of you is down here now?” My father called out from his study.
Darn it! I hadn’t checked that room! I was now out of time.
Throwing my backpack on, I shifted. Sensing I was out of time, I scrambled across the floor, hiding behind the trashcan.
My father came in and turned on the lights, looking around. He frowned, staring at something I couldn’t see from where I was.
Had I left something out that shouldn’t have been? I couldn’t think of anything, but he was a wolf shifter and perhaps he could see things I couldn’t.
After a few minutes, he turned off the light and took three steps away before halting.
Right. I knew about this game. My brother had just played it earlier. No way I was going to expose myself and leave too soon.
I would wait here longer, guaranteeing he had left the vicinity.
Lightning flashed outside, filling the room with light. Thunder boomed soon after. The storm was coming in fast. If I stayed her much longer, I would have to leave in the middle of the downpour. Definitely not ideal.
After ten minutes had passed, I decided it was time to go. He couldn’t see me, could he? I was pretty small and my tan carapace against a beige floor would be hard to spot.
I crept towards the back door, almost reaching it when the light snapped back on again.
My father, with his excellent eyesight, saw my movements as I scurried for the back door. Confound it! I had forgotten about movements!
“A cockroach! Aster, we have roaches!”
Time to get out of town.
I slipped under the door and scrambled off the porch, hiding in the shadows of the building.
“Where?” Mom screeched as she rushed into the kitchen.
Oh, look. She was still up as well. Just my luck.
“I just saw one leaving via the door. We will have to get the exterminators out here tomorrow to spray down the house.”
“Disgusting bugs. The kids must not be cleaning correctly.” I imagined Mom shuddering at the thought of having cockroaches in her house.
If I could have, I would have rolled my eyes.
Jokes on you, dear parents. Obviously, you don’t know one of your kids ended up a cockroach shifter. How could the mighty Maddens have such a disgusting child? Good thing I’m not staying.
I really needed to get as far from here as possible.
Making my way across our yard, the rain came down as a deluge. Great, now I will get soaked as well. I headed out into the surrounding woods.
I would survive this and figure things out on my own. I didn’t need those people anymore.
I was a roach on the road to redemption.
I chuckled, even though it wasn’t really very funny.
God help me now.
This story is also up on Ream for free. https://reamstories.com/kjcarr
KJ