CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
The next few weeks were fairly uneventful and seemed to go by quickly. Sammy was a joy to be around and he and Gabriel were developing a close bond. He had even been introduced to the rest of the family, after they had suspected something pretty major was going on. Gabriel knew that it was wrong to keep it from them.
Meredith's husband John and their son Cormac as well as Wyatt's wife, Sonya, were told of his existence prior to them coming over to our house. They were told that a discovery had been made that proved, contrary to popular belief, that Sammy Morton was innocent. That he had nothing to do with Neleh's murder or Serena's 'suicide'. They weren't told, however, about the shocking curse that had been placed upon him until the small group arrived at the house.
Because they were aware of the strange creatures that already inhabited our world, they weren't as shocked as I thought they would be. Cormac, however, nearly fell off his chair when Sammy walked in with his huge wings on full view. After a few minutes, though, he declared it to be 'cool' and wanted to know if he could see him fly. Again, the ice was broken and Sammy no longer needed to be hidden from the rest of the family. Who he did need to be hidden from, however, were two men who had been a big part of the family for many years... Ben and Oliver.
Although it was discussed at length, we all felt the same. With their parents killed by wild animals, they needed to be shielded from the truth. So during those few weeks, I had to prevent Oliver from coming to the house. I knew eventually he would become suspicious but until then, I would go on as normal.
Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned.
It was an evening in early March. Gabriel had gone out to celebrate an old friend's birthday and Sammy and I were enjoying an evening in alone. We had eaten pizza and were watching an old film on the television. Ever since Sammy had moved in, we had just clicked. After all, we did have a lot in common. We had both spent many lonely years forced to live without so many things. Although I'd had a few creature comforts, there had been none for Sammy.
We had gone without things like TV and pizza so whenever we had the chance, we would savour every moment.
That night we were being silly and giggling away when there was a knock on the door. Sammy became nervous.
“Hide,” I whispered, giving him a few moments to slip away somewhere in the house.
“Who is it?” I yelled through the door, and as I slowly opened it, there was a beaming Oliver.
“Happy Valentine's Day,” he said with a beaming smile.
“But it's not Valentine's Day,” I answered hoping that Sammy had managed to hide himself well.
He grinned again and produced from behind his back a single rose. Handing it to me, he said, “I know, but as we haven't been able to do much together lately, and we couldn't celebrate Valentine's Day, I thought I'd surprise you tonight. I know Gabriel is at a birthday party so I figured you'd be alone.”
He bent down and kissed me softly on the lips. My concern for Sammy, however, meant that I didn't respond the way I should have.
He pulled back and looked at me strangely, “Is everything all right, Lilly?” he asked.
I nodded but I knew I had never been a very good liar.
“What is it?” he asked.
I smiled, trying to think of something to say when we both heard a noise from indoors.
It dawned on Oliver that I was not alone. He knew I was hiding something and I had no explanation. I was mortified.
“Oh God, Lilly. Are you seeing someone else?”
“No, of course not,” I whispered in response, though not convincingly enough for him. If only I could just tell him the truth.
Suspicion got the better of him and he pushed open the front door and walked in, “So who is he, Lilly? Is it someone I know? Someone from school?”
I repeated over and over again that there was nobody else but he just didn't believe me. He walked into the living room and when he saw two plates and two glasses, he knew, for sure, that I certainly wasn't on my own.
“Oliver, please don't do this. Of course I'm not seeing anybody else. You're the only one,” I sobbed.
“Then why all the secrecy, Lilly? Why have you been avoiding me for the past month or so?”
Again I was speechless, there was nothing I could say.
When I heard the front door slam, I knew that Sammy had made a run for it.
Oliver followed and I was terrified that he would see him. I tried to grab him but I wasn't quick enough.
I followed hot on his heels and knew that he had seen the man leaving the house.
“Who are you?” shouted Oliver.
I watched in horror as Sammy turned slowly and the realisation hit Oliver smack in the face.
“But you're... you're a murderer. You're Sammy Morton. Oh my God, what the...? Wings?,” he said. Something clicked within Oliver then and I could see that he was going to try to catch him.
“No, just let him go Oliver,” I yelled as loud as I could, running faster than I'd ever ran before, chasing after them. The two men that meant the world to me. It was then that something extraordinary happened to me.
As I ran, I could feel a dramatic change within me. A fierce pain shot through my entire body, stopping me dead in my tracks. I screamed out in agony and at the same time noticed that Oliver had stopped abruptly and turned to see why I had yelped so loudly. For a moment, Oliver became the least of my problems as I felt my body trying to shut itself down. It was trying to black out. I fought the feeling to lose consciousness and remained awake throughout the process in which my body began to radically change beyond all recognition.
I had been wondering when this would happen but had not prepared myself for the fact that it might happen during the most inopportune time. Why, oh why did it have to happen while Oliver was there?
The ferocity of the pain continued to attack my every pore and I felt as though I wanted to die, and although it felt like this change took a long time, I knew deep down that it had almost been instantaneous.
I knew then that I was no longer the innocent young fourteen-year-old girl that had been chasing after Sammy and Oliver in the forest. And as I looked down, I saw the full extent of my new self. I saw that in place of my long pale arms and legs were four limbs of a completely different nature. Long, lean, incredibly strong and covered in soft black fur, I knew that my change into a feline was complete. Judging from my size, I realised that I wasn't your average house cat but a much larger animal. To my horror, it dawned on me that I had become one of the most fierce feline creatures in the region. I had morphed into a black mountain lion and I will never forget the look of absolute terror on Oliver's face at the sight of me. It would haunt me forever.
I had no idea what to do. For some reason I had not questioned Rose enough about the physical changes that happen during a transformation and we had certainly never discussed what I should do when it did occur.
After witnessing Sammy fly off into the distance, Oliver had then seen me become something terrifying, especially in his eyes. I watched as the utter shock of it all caused him to collapse right in front of my eyes.
Terrified that the shock had killed him, I rushed to his side and put my head above his mouth. I could feel his breath and his heartbeat was strong yet incredibly fast – I could hear and almost feel the rhythmic beating without even touching him. I dared not touch him in case he suddenly awoke. That would be an even greater shock, I was sure of it.
I came to the conclusion that he had most likely fainted. He needed to be taken back to the house but, being on four legs I knew I couldn't do it myself. I had no choice but to call out to Sammy and hope that he was merely hiding and had not flown too far away.
Forgetting that I couldn't call out his name, I tried to make some kind of noise to get his attention. It was difficult but I managed a deep howl. He returned almost immediately, landing just a few metres away from us. I could just see his face and I knew that he was not afraid of what I had beco
me. He had witnessed his own girlfriend change into a cat, albeit briefly, and so the sight of me changing wasn't something that caused too much concern.
As if reading my mind, he approached quickly, bending down to pick up the still unconscious Oliver. He walked as fast as he could back to the house, while at the same time I rushed off into the distance, heading towards the one person I knew would be able to help me in these strange circumstances. I ran as fast as my hind legs would propel me, trying to keep myself hidden, until I reached Rose's house.
I let out another howl as soon as I arrived, causing all of the other cats in the vicinity to howl back. Rose appeared quickly in the doorway, a look of concern across her face.
I approached her, not knowing how to tell her what had happened but she knew something wasn't right. As she peered down at me fearlessly, I bowed my head and looked to the ground, trying hard to think of a way to let her know that it was me. But I needn't have worried, for she knew immediately who I was.
“So it has happened, Lilly,” she said softly and I nodded, “I knew you would become a special beast. A black mountain lion, eh? Excellent,” she chuckled.
Rose then stepped right up to me and bent down so our faces were parallel to each other. She looked deep into my eyes and sensed the urgency.
I watched as she made the immediate decision to change too, “for speed,” she had whispered while still in human form. I nodded and then watched as the old lady morphed into a creature of grace, beauty and speed – all in a matter of seconds, completely silently except for the ripping of her clothes. It appeared that her change had happened painlessly.
It was only when she had become a smaller cat than me that we could communicate effectively. Although we were unable to physically speak to each other, we were able to read each other's minds. I explained to her exactly what had happened and I listened intently as she responded, telling me that we needed to get to Oliver immediately.
She sprang into action, leaping quickly and effortlessly down through the tall trees in the direction of my home. I followed as quickly as I could, noticing that we were using a different route to that which I had become accustomed. An easier route for beasts that could move the way we could, fitting through gaps within the trees that I would have struggled with in my human form.
I had little time to dwell on the change that had happened to me but I did notice a few things. My senses were like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Not only could I smell things I would never have even noticed, my eyesight and hearing were second to none too. But I couldn't think about that. I needed to think about Oliver. What had I done? We would never be the same again. He would hate me and wouldn't even want to lay his eyes on me, probably for the rest of his life.
I knew there was nothing I could do to change his feelings for me. I just hoped that he would be able to keep our secret. That was even more important than anything else now.
As I followed behind Rose, my mind strayed again and I couldn't help but notice how gracefully she moved. Graceful in human form, graceful in feline form – she was a true beauty.
Minutes later as we arrived at home, I wondered how I would change back. I had no idea how I had changed in the first place so I didn't know what to do. I watched as Rose didn't even give it a second thought. Well practised in the art, I watched as the cat grew larger, the fur giving way to pale skin and the whiskers disappearing from her face, her claws becoming long slender fingers. I was about to discover an unfortunate side effect of the change though, as she stood up proudly, I saw that she was completely naked.
She looked down at me and smiled, “It's something you'll have to get used to, I'm afraid,” she said.
“I've had many years to come to terms with it,” and then she opened the front door and tiptoed in quietly. I skulked in behind her, watching her as she opened a cupboard that I hadn't even noticed before and pulled out a pair of black trousers, a grey sweater and a pair of black pumps, which she hastily dressed herself with.
“I'll explain later,” she whispered.
Sammy appeared then, recognising Rose's dulcet tones.
“He's still out cold,” he whispered, “I didn't want to try and wake him in case he freaked out again. I think he's okay though.”
Rose nodded and told us to stay out of the room. She didn't want him to wake up and see us before he saw anyone else. She asked Sammy to call Gabriel immediately.
After he had done so, he came over to me and gently put his hand on the back of my neck, “Don't worry, Lilly. I'm sure everything will be all right.”
I let out a sigh and sat down on the cold stone floor, wishing I could morph back into human form. I wanted to speak to Sammy so badly but I couldn't. There was no way he could understand me so I just curled up on the floor, waiting. Waiting for something to happen.
We heard Rose's voice from Gabriel's bedroom, where Sammy had lay Oliver down until he came to. Although we couldn't hear what she was saying, we could tell that she was reasoning with him. Occasionally, his voice could be heard too – but he never shouted. There was no anger there, which was at least something to soothe my worrying head.
It wasn't much later when I heard the sounds of an engine roaring up the driveway. Gabriel was home. I leapt up, not sure what to do with myself but before I could do anything, Gabriel was at the door, opening it.
As he rushed in, he gasped at the sight of me with Sammy.
Speechless for a second, he suddenly gushed, “Lilly?”
I nodded and rushed to his side, brushing my head against his legs gently. I was afraid he might be angry but he looked so proud and he smiled at me warmly for a moment until Sammy filled him in on the evening's events.
“Oliver?” he said, “Where is he?”
“Rose is with him now. They're in your room.”
He patted me on the head and told us both to just stay in the living room out of the way until he had spoken to him.
I was desperate to see Oliver for myself. I was desperate to speak to him and plead forgiveness for keeping this from him. But the sight of me wouldn't help my case.
I watched as the door shut slowly behind Gabriel and waited patiently, not able to do anything but pace up and down the living room floor.
“Come and sit down, Lilly. There's nothing you can do,” said Sammy kindly.
I shook my head and sighed heavily, wishing that there was something I could do.
Then the phone rang. Knowing that he shouldn't answer it in case it was someone other than a family member, he picked it up without saying a word and listened carefully. It was Jo, however. Relieved to hear a friendly voice, he recounted what had happened and she told him she would be right over.
Luckily she only lived a stone's throw away so she arrived within a few minutes.
With a gentle knock on the door, Sammy gingerly peered through the window to make sure it was her. When he saw that it was, he opened the door and she stepped in, becoming speechless at the sight of me in all my feline glory.
“Wow, Lilly. This is amazing. You're a... you're a mountain lion. A black one!” she exclaimed, stating the obvious. “Do you mind if I stroke your head?” she asked tentatively.
I shook my head and she moved closer to me and I felt her hand softly touch the top of my head and move slowly down my back. It was a soothing motion, helping me to feel a bit calmer after everything that had happened.
Suddenly the bedroom door opened and Rose appeared, shutting it behind her.
“It's good of you to come, Jo. I think Lilly needs as much support as she can get right now. I'm afraid Oliver's not taking this very well.”
I sighed loudly once again, wishing I could rewind time and save Oliver and myself all this heartache. Although he was probably feeling something far more than heartache – shock, outright disgust, perhaps?
As the three spoke amongst themselves for a few moments, I tried to will myself to change back, closing my eyes hard and thinking, 'change, change, change'. But nothing happene
d and so I had no choice but to wait until it occurred naturally.
“Well, I have said everything that I can say and done everything that I can do. Gabriel is the best person to reason with Oliver at this stage, so I think you and I should go back to my house, Lilly. Jo, can you stay for a while? Gabriel might need you.”
Jo agreed and asked whether she should call anyone else.
“I'll leave that up to Gabriel. He will let you know. Just wait for him, okay?”
Again she nodded, “I'll make us some tea, Sammy. You two go. Don't worry. I'm sure everything will be all right.”
Rose beckoned me to follow her as she opened the front door and so we walked in silence for a few minutes before she turned to look at me and smiled.
“A mountain lion, eh?” she said with pride. “Your mother would have been so proud of you, Lilly. Of course we knew that you wouldn't just be any old cat... or raven,” she added.
It was then that I thought about ravens. I had become a cat, not a bird. Gabriel must have been a little disappointed that I had inherited my mother's genes and not my father's. Especially considering there was no other family member, at that stage, that was able to become the bird of our ancestors.
I thought how great it would have been to be able to fly, but as I looked around at my surroundings and smelled the wonderful things I could smell and heard the extraordinary things I could hear, I didn't feel any disappointment. Although I still wondered how I was going to return to my old self and I dreaded the pain that I had felt earlier that evening, I was still amazed at my whole transformation.
It hadn't happened how I had hoped it would. I had imagined myself something like Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter who could change in the blink of an eye, without an ounce of pain. That is how I'd wanted it to happen and in the company of a select few. Certainly not in the company of Oliver. But that is exactly what had happened and I couldn't take it back. My relationship with him was ruined. And there was nothing I could do about it.
Rose had become quiet once again, deep in thought, I imagined as we trampled through the undergrowth beneath the tall trees and headed in the direction of her home. Although I wasn't looking where I was going, I knew we were close because I could hear all of her cats. I could smell them too but more than anything I could almost feel the sound of their hearts, beating gently, keeping them alive.
Of course I could 'feel' Rose's heartbeat even louder than anything, and it was beating a little quicker than when we had left my house. I looked at her and it amazed me that this seventy-plus (she still hadn't told me her actual age) year-old woman was capable of such a massive transformation. She was still incredibly fit and agile. She was a force to be reckoned with and I was intensely proud that I could call her family.
We arrived at the front door and as she pushed it open, Scully was the first to rush out. The hair on her back raised high as she saw me and she arched her back. I noticed that her eyes had become as black as coal again as she stared deep into my eyes. I just stood still, waiting for some kind of recognition. It didn't take long. Within seconds, she relaxed completely and approached me, purring happily.
Rose smiled too and patted her on the back, “I knew she would recognise you. She just needed a moment,” she said.
As I entered the house, I had similar experiences with the rest of the animals and soon it was as normal, the cats curling up in various nooks and crannies wherever they could.
Rose walked into the kitchen and sat down, taking off her black pumps and replacing them with a pair of warm slippers.
“Right,” she said, “we need to get you back to Lilly, the girl. As much as I love this new look.”
I sat beside her and waited for her to tell me what to do.
“And don't worry, I've got clothes for you to wear here,” she laughed. “You'll find that it becomes very useful to keep clothes at the homes of all our family members,” she laughed.
“Now, the key is to relax. It's really quite simple but it will take some getting used to.”
I tried to do as she said but nothing happened and so I sat and focused on relaxing and being calm. Nothing. I was still a mountain lion.
“Okay, let's try something different. Lie down completely,” I did as she said and curled up on the soft rug besides the kitchen counter top.
“Now close your eyes. Slow your breathing down and relax. Feel as though your muscles are falling away from your bones. That's it. Breathe in slowly. Breathe out slowly. In. Out. In. Out.”
Sure enough, as I completely relaxed my body, I felt something happen within me. There was no pain like before. It was incredibly uncomfortable but strangely pain free. And finally, moments later, I felt my whole body become human again. I opened my eyes to find Rose had gone. I stood up and turned round, conscious of my nakedness. At first I had felt very warm but soon grew cold.
Rose appeared from another room carrying a pair of pink pyjamas and some thick purple woolly socks. “I told Gabriel you would stay here tonight. I think it's for the best,” she said as she handed me the warm clothes. I slipped them on, quickly warming up before I thanked her.
Once dressed, she hugged me long and hard, “It's a tough life sometimes, Lilly. We can never know what's going to happen. But you mustn't worry yourself over Oliver. What's done is done. He will survive.”
For the first time since early that evening, I broke down in tears. They flowed for a long time afterwards. No matter how hard I tried to choke them back, my cheeks would become soaked once again. Rose was perfect company. She knew exactly what to say and when not to say anything and I was particularly grateful for her wisdom that night.
When my eyes and cheeks finally became drier, Rose heated up some milk on the stove while I heaped a few teaspoons of cocoa into a couple of mugs. Hours later, we were still talking about love, life, Serena, Neleh, Walter, Lori, Sammy, Oliver, December and everything else that mattered to us both. We bonded more that night than we had ever done before. Rose had become something of a surrogate mother to me.