A Touching of Twilight
by Anna Parrish
(** Author’s memorandum:
This is a paranormal story. It is full of were-creatures, elves, angels. I think it’s a wonderful story. I hope the readers will enjoy it as much as I loved writing it I’m a born-again Christian. Another Christian should be able to see the allegories in this story, though I didn’t set out to write it as such. I simply wanted to write a tale of a lady-were-wolf. Oh, and by-the-way, though I didn’t mention any country, this is an alternate Earth, 1700's, England. **)
Chapter 1
It wasn’t because of their looks that I didn’t like Clyde Holcombe, and Heath Ackart. No, they were presentable enough. Heath was husky, swarthy skinned, black haired with eyes just as ebony colored. He wasn’t as tall as Aaron, but he came close, and he weighed a great deal more. Clyde was short, turning plump. He had dark auburn hair and green eyes. His hair hung long. He always kept it tied back. Clyde was always laughing. It didn’t matter there was no reason for the sounds of mirth. He saw laughter in everything. No, it wasn’t their looks that made me mistrust them; I just did. I could never pin point the reasons; I just knew I never had confidence in them. Neither did the beast within me. I had to battle to keep it confined.
Fighting the change was never easy for me, though I had done it often enough. I was a child when it first happened. The woods near my home were off bounds to me, but of course, being a normal youngster, I went into them, and that’s where I was attacked by a loup-fantasma, a wolf-ethereal, a werewolf-phantom. My father saw me go in. Afraid, he had followed me, saw the attack, and killed the beast, but the bite was so large and I was so small, I changed for the first time that night. I knew my mother was frightened of my alteration from normal child to wild shape shifter the first time, scared of me. In her eyes, I was a savage, a manslayer. I never wanted to scare her again. That’s when I began my fight against the beast. To keep it from controlling me, I had to control it. Often, the beast within struggled violently to come out and I battled just as vehemently to keep it contained.
This time, I was losing; I could feel that. Before it happened, I had to get away from Clyde and Heath. I did not want them to see; I did not want them to know. That knowledge would prove a power over me.
Aaron always knew what I was but he kept quiet about the whole thing. We talked about his silence. Was he offended by me? No, there were two reasons, he reassured me. He knew I was ashamed because I changed. In that he was right; I was. And... he knew his friends would either leave us in apprehension, or try to use my shifting to their own benefit. He was right about that as well.
“Then why do we travel with them?”
“We need their strength, Sis. I know you’re strong, but you can still be killed, and we’re no match for a band of thieves. You have to admit that.” Reluctantly, I did. “That’s why I agreed to go with them when the shifters killed Mom and Dad.” Once more, I nodded, knowing that we had left so soon because we were afraid the shifters would come after us. Aaron had cut off our parents’ heads to keep them from turning. They did not know I was one of them, not that it would have mattered. There is no loyalty among the shifters.
My name is Sistine Quintin though everyone simply called me Sis. My little brother, Aaron, began that because he had trouble with Sistine. Though four years younger, he was always taller than I was for I was short, and blond, like me, with sparkling blue eyes while mine are more of a hazel.
We followed Heath’s lead for Aaron said at least they knew where they were going, what they wanted to do. It was better than just walking, wasn’t it? Yes, I guess so. When I changed, Aaron made sure I was alone safe from their eyes. I had one of my headaches, he told them, and I must be alone, quiet, in the dark, for awhile.
So his friends never knew and to be truthful I never wanted them to find out. They brought out the unease in me, sent the hackles of my creature on high alert.
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