I guess in a way I could look at it as an early Christmas present. If it wasn’t for the overwhelming craving for raw meat, not being able to control my actions, and incredibly painful transformation. Oh, and there is the whole having to fight to the death against her older sisters and their lovers. Apparently, they want to sacrifice her to some demon fuck to fulfill an old family tradition. Yeah…there are really only negatives thinking about it now. But the things we do for love and all that…
It all started when I met this girl, Eri. She worked part-time at the library of the university I attended. I would go there on occasion to study and generally just to relax. I’ll be the first to say I’m not great at making friends, just talking to people, in general, is a hassle for me if I’m honest. Especially when it comes to talking with women, I’ll tell ya I was the champion of missed relationship opportunities.
With Eri, it was different, she was the one who initially approached me. It was just small chats here and there since we saw each other pretty regularly, I’d also help her study when I found out she was struggling with a few courses that I did pretty well in. Eventually, I asked her out. She rejected me, she said she wasn’t looking to have a relationship. It wasn’t something she wanted, and I was alright with that.
For about a year after, we would regularly do things together. It got to the point where we were essentially dating, though without the label. I remember bringing this up with Eri at one point. We’d then have this strange conversation where she told me she wanted to have a relationship, just that she didn’t want to ruin my life. I laughed at the time, thinking about how she could possibly do that. Eri didn’t laugh about it…
Then we jump to a couple weeks ago when I learned just what she meant. We were out that night with some friends at a local bar to celebrate a birthday, her birthday. It was the day she turned twenty-one. After most everyone had left to head home, I found Eri sulking near the windows, just staring into her reflection. I could tell she was miles away mentally. I took a seat across from her. She had been upbeat for most of the night, so seeing her depressed like this was concerning.
“What’s got you so down?” I asked, taking a glance outside at the snow-covered city streets.
“My sister is going to kill me…” She answered.
“Why? Do something to piss her off?”
Eri let out a laugh and shook her head. “No…it’s just my family being themselves.”
“Anything I can do to help? Kind of a drag to see you down like this on your own birthday.” I said.
She tilted her head towards me. “Can you come with me somewhere? I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
We ended up driving out of the city, taking numerous side roads and turns. I was unsure of where we were even at, but I trusted Eri. Eri parked the car when we arrived at this parking lot high up on a hill overlooking the city. We were miles and miles away, the city only some bright lights in the distance. There was no one else out there, just us.
“So, something you wanted to talk about?” I asked. I hadn’t noticed it on the drive over, but Eri was in tears. She looked over at me, her lips quivering.
“I…I’m sorry.” Eri muttered, before quickly pressing her lips to mine. She crawled over the seat on top of me and began undressing.
“Wait! Why are you doing this?” I asked, pulling my face away from her.
“I need this…” Was all she said and continued kissing me. I accepted it. It was something I had wanted for a long time, and I went along with it.
After it was over, the two of us were lying together in the back of her car. She hadn’t stopped crying, and now she was even more of a wreck. I couldn’t help but feel awful like I had taken advantage of her. This wasn’t the situation I wanted…
“It’s going to hurt.” Eri sobbed.
“What is?” I asked.
“The transformation.”
After she said that, I felt a surge of nausea rush over me. Not wanting to vomit in her car, I quickly opened up the back door and spewed out onto the ground. I thought I would only vomit a bit, but it kept coming and coming. I fell out of the car into the mess, and this agonizing pain wracked my entire body as my skin felt like it had been lit on fire.
I screamed in pain as I crawled across the ground. There was something very wrong that was happening to me. I looked back at Eri and noticed she was holding up her hand. It had this dim purple glow emanating from her palm.
“What…what are you-” I couldn’t finish my sentence before vomiting even more. What was coming up now was not food or alcohol anymore. It was blood. My stomach felt as if it was being ripped to pieces. I tried to beg Eri for help between the bouts of vomiting and debilitating pain. But she only watched me.
“It will be over soon. You’re going to be ok.” I heard her say, her voice sounding muffled.
I legitimately thought that I was going to die, that this was it. I continued to beg and plead Eri to do something to help. She was chanting at that point, some words that I couldn’t discern, each syllable striking me with yet more pain. The bones in my arms, my legs, were being broken and reshaped. Even my skull I could feel was becoming malformed. My teeth were pushed out of my gums as other longer sharper teeth took their place. I watched as my skin peeled open, and beneath the blood and tissue, I saw black fur. The last thing I remember before everything going black was Eri continuing to apologize.
I woke up in the middle of some field miles away from where we were. I was completely naked and lying down beside the massacred corpses of what I think were three cows. They were all stacked in a pile, their bodies ripped to pieces. Organs and limbs were strewn about the place, blood pooled about a good foot in the divot of the ground I was lying in. Needless to say, waking up covered in blood and guts, not to mention naked, sent me into an immediate panic. I crawled through the snow away from the dead cattle and scrambled to my feet.
“Hey…” I recognized the voice as Eri’s, turning around I saw her holding a towel and a bag. “I brought your clothes. You’re gonna need a shower but wiping off what ya can’s going to have to work ’til then. We should also get out of here before the rancher notices this mess…”
After cleaning myself off as best I could, I followed her back to her car, and the moment we were inside, I asked.
“What the hell happened?”
“You transformed…” She said, not even looking over at me.
“Transformed?”
“I wasn’t lying to you when I said my sister was going to kill me. My family is cursed by a demon, every generation, when the final daughter that the current matriarch has turns twenty-one, she is forced to fight her older sisters. Only the strongest daughter has the right to continue the family lineage, so if the youngest dies, then the now youngest daughter takes her place, and the cycle continues until there is only one daughter left. Those that die serve as a sacrifice to the demon who cursed our family.”
“The fuck are you talking about?! Is this some joke? What the hell does that have to do with me!?” I yelled.
“I’m not lying to you! I know it’s confusing-”
“Confusing!? I woke up covered in gore with no idea how the hell I got there! I am a little more than just confused!” I cut off Eri, I was just boiling with anger inside.
“Just let me explain, please! I don’t care if you don’t believe me, but you can at least let me explain it to you.” Eri said, I could see she was the brink of breaking down.
“Fine! Explain it to me then.” I scoffed.
“We’re witches, Kevin. I am, my sisters are, our mother is. As was my grandmother and her mother and so on and so on. That was the trade-off for the curse. However, our power is limited if we are alone. So, to enhance our abilities, we take on familiars. But you can only turn a person you love…really love into a familiar. And the catch is that they have to love you back. If that happens then, after you have sex with them, they will be turned into a familiar.”
“So what you’re saying is I’m your familiar?” I asked, Eri nodded.
“What happened to me…just please tell me.” After I said that, I noticed Eri’s eyes drop down to her lap.
“When a person turns into a familiar, it’s unknown what they will turn into. But it’s always a monster, we have no idea what that monster will be ‘til it happens.” Her fingers gripped tight into her jeans.
“Eri…what did I turn into?”
Eri took out her phone and brought up a video she had taken some time after I had…transformed and handed it to me.
“I figured if you didn’t see it for yourself, you wouldn’t believe it.”
The video started with her walking through the field I woke up in. I could hear her ragged breathing behind the camera. Clearly she was terrified. The only light she had to guide her way was a small flashlight.
“Kevin!” Eri called out. There was no response until about a minute later when this low-pitched howl reverberated through the speakers. It was close-by judging by how loud it was. Then there was this god-awful screaming coming from something in the field, sounding as though it was getting tortured.
The severed leg of one of the cows came into view, and Eri’s breathing intensified. “No…It wasn’t supposed to be like this…” She said. Pointing the camera up, Eri stopped in front of a pair of glowing red eyes peering at her from the darkness. Whatever was in front of her was snarling, ready to attack.
“Kevin…it’s me. I’m not gonna hurt you…” Eri’s voice was filled with fear. Whatever was in the shadows lunged forward, and I could only get a short glimpse of it. It was covered with black fur and had the head of a wolf. It was huge, much bigger than any wolf should have been and standing on two feet. This creature tackled Eri to the ground, causing the phone to go bouncing across the grass.
While I couldn’t see what was happening, I could hear it. Eri was crying out in pain for the thing to stop attacking her…for me to stop attacking her. Her cries soon turned to screams and I had to stop the video. My hands were trembling, and I felt sick to my stomach. I looked over at Eri and could see she was holding on to her arm. I lifted up her sleeve and saw she had bloodied bandages wrapped around it.
“Oh god…” I said softly. I felt as though the world around me was bending and shifting. To think that I would end up hurting Eri shoved a knife of sorrow through my chest.
“Don’t worry, we heal pretty quick. I’ll be ok.”
“Can you turn me back to normal?” I asked. Eri shook her head.
“Once the process is done, there’s no reversing it.”
“What if I kill somebody?! What if I end up killing you?” I tried to keep myself under control, but I was a mess. An anxious and scared mess.
“You won’t! As long as you don’t transform, things will be ok.” Eri retorted.
“Why…why would you do this to me?”
“I don’t want to die Kevin! Why is that so hard for you to understand!? Doing this to you was my only option, I’d never have been able to fight my sisters without a familiar. Believe me, I never wanted to drag you into this. I tried to accept that I was going to die…but yesterday I…I just felt so afraid. It’s not fair! I never asked to be born into this fucking family! I’m sorry, Kevin, but I need you.”
It was clear she meant every word she had said. I was just in a daze from all of the information overload. The only thing I could understand was that Eri genuinely thought she was in danger. Seeing how upset she’d got, I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic. There was nothing I could do to change what happened to me. While I was far from accepting it, I knew there were other concerns.
“Can we just head back to the city? I don’t want to be out here any longer.” I said.
“We can head back to my apartment. You can get cleaned up there.” Eri started up the car, and we began our drive back.
“I guess I can’t really go around campus covered with some dry blood, people would be a little concerned. Hey, what did you mean when you said it wasn’t supposed to be like this…in the video?” I asked.
“We were unlucky. Usually, a familiar can still control themselves when they are transformed. For you to become something so…wild, it’s rare. But you can control it if you just keep your emotions in check. You want to avoid becoming too afraid or angry, the monster feeds on those negative emotions.”
“So…I got a werewolf tagging along in my body now, just hanging out?” I said sarcastically.
“Sort of, but I wouldn’t say it is the same as a werewolf. The full moon doesn’t matter for the transformation.”
“That’s good to know. I was just thinking of how much of a pain it would be to have to schedule around the lunar cycle. And your sisters? What’s the plan with them?”
“They get to decide when to try and kill me and how to do it. All I can do is wait for them to make their move. There’s an order to be followed, so only one of my sisters will be trying to kill me at a time. They can only wait for thirty days before making a move, any longer, and they would end up being killed.” Eri explained.
“Killed by what?” I asked. Her only response was to shrug her shoulders. “No one knows.”
“Alright, how many sisters do you have? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Nine.”
“Nine!? Holy shit…are you close with them at all? I mean, they’re going to try to kill you. I imagine there would be a little distance.” The moment I said that, I felt Eri’s phone vibrate in my hand. I noticed that a text had come through. I probably shouldn’t have read the text, not wanting to invade her privacy and all, but I couldn’t stop myself when I looked down at the screen.
“^^ Hey E! Just letting you know I got those movie tickets reserved for this weekend.” The text read, I looked at the sender and saw the name, Miranda.
“She is…” I said, holding up Eri’s phone to her and pointing at the name.
“One of my sisters.” Eri said, taking the phone from me.
“You’re going to the movies with her? She’s going to try to kill you, and you’re going to the movies together!”
“Miranda is the third oldest daughter her turn won’t be for a while, so she has no reason to kill me. It really isn’t all that weird. I mean, we had a family get together for thanksgiving. And I just went bowling with Jennifer, my fourth oldest sister last weekend. I mean…I still love them and all. It’s just that things have to be this way. There’s nothing any of us can do about it. It’s just a fucked-up fate, doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the time we have left together.” Eri said.
The idea that they would still try to be a family even when they knew what was going to happen was insane to me. I’d have thought you’d want to disassociate yourself as much as possible. So that when the time came, you didn’t feel anything when you inevitably had to murder each other. Eri’s family didn’t see this tradition of theirs like that, though. They tried to be a family in spite of it. They would try to be decent people in spite of it. But I would soon come to find that everyone in the family shared this common view.
When we got back into the city and to Eri’s apartment complex, she parked outside, and I followed her through the building to her apartment. I had only ever been to her apartment a couple of times. She lived with a roommate, so she wanted to try not to disturb her when possible.
We got to her door, and when we went inside, I was hit with the immediate stench of marijuana. Eri shut the door and sighed, walking past me and into the common area of the apartment.
“I told you to open the windows if you’re gonna do that shit here.” Eri said as she went to open a couple windows.
“Ah shit…sorry Eri…you know I forget stuff…” I head a man’s voice and walked in to see a hippie-looking man lounging on a sofa, joint hanging lazily from his mouth as he watched television. “Oh hey bro…” He said to me, not turning his head to look at me.
“You’re back, you get my text?” A young woman dressed in some black clothing and sporting some pretty dark makeup walked in from the hall. When she saw me there was a look of surprise on her face. “Oh, you must be Kevin! E told me all about you.”
The woman examined me closer, I think she was taking in all of the dried blood that still covered a good part of my face and hands. An inquisitive expression formed on her face as she looked back at Eri. “You uh…did…” Eri nodded in response.
“Heh…well it’s nice to meet you Kevin, I’m Miranda. Eri’s sister. That lazy ass on the couch is my boyfriend, Victor.”
“You live together, huh? Sorry, I just…you’re planning on killing her, right?” I asked.
“She already told you all that…at some point I’ll have to try, I guess. It’s not like I want to or anything.” Miranda leaned against the wall and frowned. I didn’t know how to respond. All of this was just so insane to me.
Eri led me to the bathroom so I could wash up, it was nice to finally get all of the blood off. Pretty tricky with how stuck on it had become, felt like I had to nearly scrub my skin off. Even after that shower, I still didn’t feel fully clean, but I’d feel bad running up their water bill.
When I hopped out of the shower, I noticed the mirror hanging above the sink. I wiped away the fog and took a look at myself. I had always had a scar on my shoulder ever since I was eight years old. It was from this huge stray dog that attacked me and a couple friends. It had bitten into my shoulder and punctured a decent few holes into it. I remember how afraid I was at that moment since then, I’ve never been comfortable around dogs, especially big ones. The scar from that attack was completely gone now like it never happened.
At that point the reality of the situation cam crashing down on me. I could have murdered Eri well before her sisters even got the chance. I could have woken up surrounding by the bodies of the family living at that ranch, instead of a few cows. Knowing what I know now, it was a miracle that wasn’t the case. I had thought it was strange that the rancher never heard his cattle being slaughtered. Turns out he did, but Eri “convinced” him not to investigate and let her handle it.
I got dressed and went back out to the living room and found that only Miranda was here. She was lounging on the sofa, reading through some medical textbook.
“If you’re curious, Eri went to work. She wanted to take you with her, but she was already running really late.”
“Looks like I’m walking back then…” I sighed.
“I can give you a ride over if you want.” Miranda offered. I could tell by her expression she saw my apprehension about taking her up on that. “You don’t trust me I take it.”
“I’m still coming to terms with the fact that the girl I loved turned me into a werewolf…and is a witch. I don’t know where to begin with the whole family blood prophecy shit. I mean it sounds like the plot to a B-movie. Let’s just say I’m not in a trusting mood today.” I replied.
“A werewolf…wow, that’s pretty fucked.” Miranda said with a laugh.
“So I’ve been told. Guess I won the lottery on transformations. Your boyfriend is he a…what were they called again?”
“Familiar. And yeah, he’s mine.”
“What monster did he turn out to be?”
“I shouldn’t tell you…but I feel kinda inclined to since you told me about yourself. I’ll give yea a hint.” Miranda held her index fingers behind her head like horns and made nodded her head back and forth to emanate a bull. Looking at this goofy display, I had a hard time believing this girl was a witch, let alone someone capable of killing anyone.
“Right, I get it, you can stop now.” I said, trying to hold back my laughter. “Know what, I think I’ll take you up on that ride.”
As we were driving to the campus, Miranda kept bombarding me with tidbits of information about Eri. She just seemed like a relatively normal doting older sister who was excited to meet her little sister’s boyfriend. She asked a lot of personal questions, more than I was really comfortable with answering. The more we talked, the more harmless she seemed to be.
“I have to ask…do you really think you could kill Eri? It seems like you really love her.” I asked, as we pulled into the campus parking lot. Miranda went silent, and her face dropped.
“I don’t know…probably not. I mean I wouldn’t want to kill any of my family, just the thought of it’s horrible. If I could, I would want to find another way.” She responded.
“Is this really how it has to be?”
Miranda nodded her head. “We’ve looked for another solution in the past, but nothing’s worked.” I noticed that a look of concern flashed across Miranda’s face as she looked out the windshield. I followed her eyes and saw she was looking at this short girl who was standing with this athletic-looking guy. They were digging around in the trunk of a car.
Without saying anything, Miranda got out of the car and began walking towards them. Confused, I got out and followed her.
“Lia? What are you doing here?” Miranda asked. The short girl, Lia, turned around and glared over at Miranda. The fact that Miranda knew her name was the first thing that threw up a red flag in mind.
“You already know why. Who’s this? A boy toy of yours?” Lia said eyeing me up and down. I looked over at the athletic dude and could see him sizing me up. It was almost like he was staring at me like a predator stalking his prey. There was something just not right with the guy. Queue the second red flag.
“He’s a friend…th-th-this is a bit soon don’t yea think?” Miranda stuttered.
“Soon? I’d say it is as best a time as any.” Lia replied.
“But…in the daytime? Here? What about all of the people?” Miranda’s voice was filled with anxiety.
“Who gives a shit about these piss ants? Ask me, I’m doing the world a favor by getting rid of a few. You’re too soft, Miranda, probably gonna make it easy on me when I get to you.” Lia smirked and aimed took aim at Miranda with a finger gun.
“Pow!” She exclaimed, pretending to shoot Miranda. “It’d be so easy, wouldn’t it?" She then took a black suitcase out of the trunk then slammed it closed.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and wish my little sister a happy birthday. Come along, Gregory.” And that would be the third red flag, as I watched both Lia and Gregory walk into the campus. It didn’t take me long to put two and two together and realize that Lia was here to kill Eri. After they were out of sight, Miranda grabbed onto my hand.
“You have to get to her quick, I can get you to her fast, but you need to trust me.”
“What do you expect me to do? Fight them!? I can’t do that!” I yelled. Lia’s eyes were empty and soulless, she wasn’t someone who would even think twice about hurting someone. I wasn’t some hero. I couldn’t just fight some psychopathic witch.
“Just warn Eri they are coming and get her away from here.” Miranda said.
“Can’t you help her?!” I asked. Miranda shook her head.
“We can’t interfere directly, the best thing I can do is get you close to Eri. Please, Kevin, you’re the only one who can help her! I don’t want to lose her...” Miranda begged me. I cursed myself for getting involved at all with this messed up family, but I couldn’t bring myself to just abandon Eri. Even after all of the shit that had happened, I still loved her.
“Alright…what do you need me to do?” When I said that, I could see relief come over Miranda.
“Close your eyes and clear your mind.” Miranda said. I followed her instructions as she gripped my hand tighter and placed her other hand against my cheek.
“Now I want you to picture a place you think she would be at. The closest you think you can get to her.” I imagined the second floor of the library, there was this area that had a bunch of tables and a few bookshelves that was where Eri ended up spending most of her time, as they were where the most checked out books were kept. I’d regularly find her there, placing the books back in their places.
“Ok I got it. Good luck Kevin. Please, keep her safe.”
In an instant, I felt this overwhelming sensation of vertigo and then found myself standing in the library. The accuracy of the teleport was a bit off as I found myself standing on a table, but it worked. Part of me was astonished by the fact that I had literally teleported. But, when I remembered the bloodthirsty short girl and her creepy fucking boyfriend coming to kill, I pushed the thought away real quick.
“Fuck me! Where the hell did you come from!” I heard a student yell who was sitting at the table I was standing on. “That was some fucking Houdini shit he just pulled! Damn!”
There was quite the commotion going on now, but I tuned it all out as I looked around for Eri. I found her coming out from behind one of the bookshelves, probably drawn out by all the talking. I hopped off the table and ran over to her and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“We gotta go! Now!” I yelled.
“Why what’s happening?”
“It’s your sister, she’s coming for you!”
Suddenly all of the lights shut off, and the library was plunged into darkness.
--
Credits
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