Mary J. Smith's Diary, Introduction to Blue Magic.
Kayla Brown
2014
The Diary of Mary J. Smith, the one and only female shape shifter. Introduction to Blue Magic.
October 5th, 1990
Have you ever became something different than what you are? I'm not talking about a change in personality. Oh, no. I'm talking about the fact that you can change your soft, velvet skin into something rough and slimy like an amphibian. Isn't that amazing? You might not find it as amazing as I do, honestly. And who is this “you” I'm supposed to be addressing? My mother told me that from this day forth, I would have to write in this diary. She said it was to make sure that I could stay sane. She said that there is some dangerous things out there that want what I have. Sometimes I don't understand her, honestly. What could be out there that can attack me? It's the 21st century. My mother might have fought against rogue pirates in her day, but my biggest problem would be the day when entrepreneurs are able to figure out a way to patten and make money off of me. Well, I guess that's why the Freak Show Circus exists.
You might need a big explanation. I am one of the many different shape shifters that exist. We are usually identified by our necklaces. The necklace is something of power. It protects us. Some people even acquire their powers from it. Others obtain it at birth. My mother obtained her powers at birth. They disappeared, however, when I was born. I do have an older brother, and he did sap her changing abilities, but not as much as I had. Her powers just went poof, like the Freak Show Circus when the cops discover them. At first my mother assumed that I took her powers. Usually when that happens, the child shows signs right away, usually by either growing fangs, claws, or a tail. Sometimes wings.
That didn't happen with me. Just like my brother, my powers revealed themselves when the necklace was in close distance to us. While many of us, the shape shifters, use the necklaces as some sort of vessel for our powers, they sometimes contain power already. It's why sometimes we are hunted down. There are those who know the truth behind the necklace, and are even able to spot it miles away. It's kinda hard not to, sometimes.
You see, the necklace is unique in its own sense. To start with, there is a blue orb in the center of it. Wrapped around that is a feathered reptile with long claws and and even longer tail. Around that is a golden casing that zigzags around like a spider web that had spun gold just for the shape shifters. The symbol has been around for years, the reptile. It was once believed to be a dragon. However, it was found to be false and turned out to be just an ancient reptile. The story behind it stays the same through the years. The reptile was one of our friends. It blessed us with the ability to change and become what we can do by breathing a heavy blue mist on those who had saved it from being killed to extinction. Whether or not it is true is unsure. There are actual fossils of the reptile. It was a creature that existed long before the human race appeared. Other shape shifters are starting to believe that maybe we are descendents of what that reptile was, that maybe we were able to create some sort of way to be able to fight every environment we were thrown in and survive.
I'm not really sure how true any of it is. All I know is that with shape shifter parents, if you don't show your powers at birth, they will hand you a necklace at the age of sixteen. It used to be twelve up until twenty years ago. Something had happened, though. It wasn't with my family. It was more like a wide spread thing. Children didn't know how to hide the necklaces well. They flaunted them around and ended up getting themselves killed. We lost over two hundred shape shifters in those twenty years. It was a small number in the end, but we also lost that many necklaces. All but about seven have been recovered. I heard some nasty men have the rest of them. I know I won't ever come across them. I'm safer than what most people are, even those who are in the Freak Show Circus.
My mother handed the necklace to me the morning of my sixteenth birthday. It glowed very bright. Brighter than what she has ever seen, at least. I was told to never wear any shirts that hang lower than my neckline. I could also have the necklace in my pocket, for my mother knows how hard it is to ever find any proper shirts for someone of my age. We had a good laugh, I ended up putting the necklace in my pocket, and trotted off like as if nothing was wrong. I knew the whole time my parents were staring at my back, frowning.
I can tell you one thing, changing is awesome, but it is so difficult. Have you ever crammed for a test the night before and found out that you studied the wrong chapter for the test? That panic, the twisted angst in your stomach will begin to form. You can't figure out any of the problems. The feeling gets worse. Finally, you take a deep breath and know that the answers are simple and you can answer them. The relief is overwhelming. It is amazing. Sometimes this relief doesn't come until after the test. When it is useless. That's how transforming is. It's so hard to figure out how to do it but in the end it is all inside of you. And sometimes you transform at times when you don't need to or when it is not the greatest time in the world to. Today I actually started to change into a wolf during my fifth period class. I had been trying to when I woke up. I guess when I took an actual test it helped me out. However, getting fangs in the middle of class was not fun. People looked at me funny when I started to growl.
My mother was right, though. I should try something simple, closer to my height. As we speak my cat is pressing his body against my leg, finding ways to keep me distracted from finding any animal that can possibly be close to the height of a five foot three teenage girl. Maybe I should go more towards cats instead of dogs. I could pull of a lioness, right? My hair is golden like most tigers. It should work out. It's only been one day.
I need to talk to some of the other shape shifters here at the Freak Show Circus.
Oh, that's one thing I forgot to tell you. Shape shifters have to be constantly moving. We are always in danger. Before we were just gypsies. However, that has become harder as modern life has taken over. We can no longer hide in the woods for years because now we have GPS signaling phones. So instead of just hiding away from everyone, we hide right front and center. My mother used to be the main attraction of the show. She was able to make herself have spotted snake skin all over her body and snake eyes and fangs. Now it is my brother with his wagging tail and his humorous persona of being a dog. I can't wait to join the other Freaks. My mother says that I'm too young, though. We are all like a big family. Our oddness makes us money. It helps us travel. It keeps us safe.
There's some big commotion outside. I think we are packing up and leaving.
October 20th, 1990
I'm so sorry I haven't written in this for a while. The night that I wrote my first entry, on my birthday, my parents were killed. The camp was over run by what could be described as land pirates. Some of us were able to flee. More than half of us, however, didn't make it out alive. They were after the necklaces. I just know it. While everything is starting to settle, I've learned that my parents put together a will. My brother is now my caretaker, my guardian. He shouldn't be. This should have never happened. I should still have my parents to take care of me. This isn't fair. It's not. AH!
A huge ink splatter covers half a paragraph of words, the rest is too illegible to be read.
Oh god, I'm so sorry about that. I transformed halfway through writing that. I tried to control it, keep it at bay, but it seems as if my remorse and aching sadness released the beast within. But as the next paragraph should have said, I am in the care of my brother, whether I like it or not. My brother wants to go into the real world, leave our Freak Show Circus life behind. He thinks that it is a good idea. He wants to go to the city, where we will be su
rrounded by people not because they are looking at us, but because they are there. It's freaky. It's weird. My brother has always been the odd ball of the family, but I can't imagine my life without the wildness, without the wilderness. I don't think that I could sleep at night without the owls hooting and the night life alive around me. Sirens and horns are unfamiliar. People are dangerous. I can't just go out there with him.
November 5th, 1990
I couldn't take it. The city life. It wasn't for me. I ran away. My brother still doesn't know. I left while I was in school. I've always been a trouble maker for them. The amount of times that they have had to call my brother for a brawl that I have had with another girl has been countless. They always start it, though. They mock my wild and tangled hair, muddy clothes, and worn shoes all the time. If they knew what it was like to run beside the wolves, to be apart of their pack, then maybe they wouldn't make fun of me. Until then, I would just beat them up. I've been expelled from three schools already and it hasn't even been a full month. It has barely been a week!
This life isn't for me. I left a note for my brother. He has been working so hard. I haven't been able to sit down and actually talk to him about the situation. If I had been able to, maybe there would have been a chance of some sort of way that we could make a deal. Instead I am stuck between a rock and a hard place and find myself choosing the situation that is beneficial for me, but harmful for my brother. We are all that we have. There is nothing else that we can do about the situation that we are in, though. At least, not what he can do.
My brother has settled in a life that isn't all that glamorous. He is a firefighter. He descends from planes to try and stop brush fires from happening. He would do a lot more help if he would just embrace what he was. He could transform into a sand dwelling beast, create sand and put out the fires easily. Instead he uses this gun that creates foam. There is a strange thing going on with that force, I can tell you that.
My brother has embraced the life of a regular human. I, however, can not and will not embrace the life of a human. I am a shape shifter. I will live the life of a shape shifter. I can't just allow myself to become something that I am not. The world isn't ready for me. I must find a way to live my life.
Kyle, if you ever read this, I'm so sorry. I hope you won't hold this over my head for years to come if I end up crawling back.
January 7th, 1991
I met a shape shifter recently. Another one. A male one. He was very nice to me. We are together in some sort of relationship. While everything doesn't seem so strange between us, we seem to stick together like glue. He has blonde hair that is so pale I think sometimes he has silver hair. His eyes are gray and so dreamy. My girl hormones seem to be going crazy. I need to spend more and more time away from to make sure nothing crazy will happen. I don't know anything about sex and the last thing I want to do is find out the hard way, especially if I end up pregnant. God forbid, I don't think I could ever teach a child the life of a shape shifter. That would just be insane.
While living in the wild, I don't stray too far from my brother. I stay close enough and sometimes even go into the city disguised as something. Usually it ends up being a rat. They are disgusting creatures that can travel anywhere. I have been able to keep tracks on my brother. His best friend is very nice. A police officer that gives a good name to the cop reputation. While most are trained with guns, he uses a tazer and arrests the person for proper interrogation and what not. He's really cute, too. He seems to like his dark brown hair long enough to put it in a short ponytail. I know that it is a little strange, but I think that it is really attractive. It's just a little tuft. Sometimes hair escapes and frames his perfectly sculpted face.
My brother has someone else in his life. A girlfriend. She is so shallow. My brother has been able to bring in the big bucks lately. Which is funny because he was living in a tiny apartment before and was barely able to make over twenty grand. Now it makes close to eighty grand a year because of this huge promotion that he got. I'm happy for him. I'm just not happy that he is falling for that fake bimbo's tricks. His friend definitely isn't. The two of them aren't getting along because of it. The girlfriend is winning and it is beginning to suck. I don't like her. Maybe I'll change into a ferret one day and just “accidentally” fall into her hair. Maybe it will teach her to not be a two timing, gold digging whore and to actually become a little respectful. She doesn't deserve my brother.
I definitely need to become a ferret. Or a rat. Hehe. . .
January 9th, 1991
I might have made the woman have a hellish day today. She decided to take my brother's credit card and bought herself a ton of luxury items, all over the price of two hundred dollars, including this one coat that looked like she had rats hanging around her shoulders. Yuck. So, if she wanted to wear a rat coat, she might as well have a rat follow her.
I followed her all the way to my brother's little house. Or what was his little house. Ever since his big promotion, he has gotten a new home in the process. Well, it's not that big. Before he only owned up to an acre of land and four small rooms. Now he has over nine or ten different rooms, all seeming to have a quaint country kind of look to it all, with a second story and everything.
Anyway, back to the bitch. She went into the old house (the new owner had yet to move in) and went tapping around the floorboards. I wasn't sure at first what she was looking for until she came to a loose board. The crazy lady ripped it up and pulled out the book.
I didn't even know that my brother had the book on shape shifting. I wasn't sure why she was interested in it anyway. The book didn't interest her for long. She ended up throwing across the room in frustration. That's when I took the opportunity to sneak out as a giant, disgusting rat. She shrieked at the tops of her lungs, her clown make up making the whole situation far more hilarious. As she scrambled away, I took the opportunity to change back into my human form and grab the book.
Later I will return it. For now, I want to skim through it.
February 14th, 1991
Yes, it's been over a month since I last wrote, but you won't ever believe what I have discovered. My new friend and I have been mulling over the whole book. It's written completely in Latin. It was originally wrote as a first copy in 1253. What? I had never been so shocked in my life. Now I know why the classes at the Freak Show Circus were so focused around ancient languages and medieval habits. The book focuses on the life of a shape shifter. And the necklace is mentioned. Multiple times.
To start with, the necklace is believed to hold a life force. This life force is stored inside of the necklace. When that necklace is passed on, the power and life within it will increase. Thus, the next person to be handed this gift will have stronger powers, more control over what they do and what they turn into. The next most interesting thing is that the necklaces are also life. Once the person is handed the necklace, their life is connected to the necklace. Once it ends up off for more than three hours, the person will die. And the force that is in the necklace will never replenish or become stronger. It will just disappear.
Holy shit. I knew that the necklaces were important, but so important that we couldn't take them off? I have to look at the records of every shape shifter that has ever died. In their records it should say whether or not a necklace was found in detail. They should be somewhere. Maybe they are scattered all across the planet. I should start locally. I need to know. I need to know what they ended up dying of and whether or not they had the necklace. This thing controls us while giving us what we are. Maybe it is not the fact that the necklaces help bring out the power that we have. Maybe the necklaces are our powers.
I also found out that there is this group of rogue gypsies that have been attacking our people for years. They started out as pirates, when we were traveling by sea (by becoming salt water creatures) and then the majority of the shape shifters started to stick to land. Apparently one day there was one that ended up getting drunk off the power that was radiating from a neck
lace. It's how it all started. They are lustful for what the necklace can offer.
Last interesting fact is that the necklaces only work on those who have the ability to change. Sometimes they aren't family. It becomes a strange, almost mutation in the DNA of a person to start to change. It is almost like instinct. It starts at birth and then becomes more prominent after the years go by. I guess there goes my theory that the necklace creates the power. But, at the same time, maybe it does do something.
Where did this all come from?
If I wasn't avoiding my brother, I would have approached him by now. I have so many questions that are being left unanswered. Not only that, but I am alone again. My friend, the one other shape shifter, has disappeared. I think that he might have just up and left, for all of his camping gear is gone. I never thought that being alone would ever be so. . . lonely. Having a companion before made everything so much easier. Now I'm not sure how easily I can be my human self. There are so many wild animals around me. I could easily befriend a bear. I am welcomed into a pack of wolves. A bobcat has taken interest in me, but he is about two hundred miles away, so I'm not sure how he was ever able to find me.