Sail

Lya

I looked up at the sky peaking through the branches. Stars twinkled, and what little light from the half moon that made it through the foliage cast a soft glow on the forest floor. This little home I’ve found was an interesting place. We were surrounded by prairies and farmland for hundreds of miles, but the Buffalo Ridge along the Big Sioux River had rolling hills, forest, and a sense of mystery. It was a little taste of home, even if it was just a few miles worth. Just a couple miles east or west and you’d be back to the neverending open spaces until you hit a mountain range. You’d have to follow the river north or south to stick with this little haven.

A tear trickled out of the corner of one eye as I begged and bartered in my head with whatever higher power was out there for just a little more time. This latest implosion of my life snuck up on me just a little too fast, and I wasn’t ready for how quickly I needed to get out.

Unsurprisingly, nothing answered. Even though I knew nothing would come of my silent pleading, the stillness of my surroundings felt a little mocking. I leaned my head against the tree I was sitting at the base of and breathed out, trying to compose myself before heading back to the house.

“This wasn’t how things were supposed to go,” I whispered to the nothing that was listening.

None of my life was how things were supposed to go. I shouldn’t be surprised that things had stayed the course in that respect. Maybe someday, I’d get used to my residence in left field. Today was not that day.

I stood up and started to make my way through the little strip of forest. The best thing about the house I had found just a year ago was that it backed right up to the rolling hills of the Buffalo Ridge. It was a selling point, actually. I’d be sad to say goodbye to my little sanctuary. Hopefully the next place would have a sanctuary.

Just as I was exiting the treeline, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. More than just squirrel or rabbit eyes - you get used to those. I whipped my head around, and landed on golden brown eyes following me. They were far enough away and hidden in the shadows that I couldn’t make out the body, but it was probably just a coyote. Interesting that this one had come up so close to me, although not unusual at all that they were in the area.

I smiled to myself. Maybe something was out there listening, even if it was just this coyote.

I scuttled the rest of the way down the hill, through the alley, and up the driveway. Before I entered the house, I ran through which floorboards were creaky, which steps I would need to skip, and whether or not I had left the door ajar. The door would be the big one - if I had left it open, I’d be good. If it was closed, the shriek of the hinges would wake Ted up, and I just didn’t want to deal with him. Not now.

This sneaking out for a bit of solace was new. The deterioration of this relationship was new, at least to him. He wouldn’t miss me in the bed - he had moved to the guest bedroom a couple nights previously.

How do you tell someone they were just your golden ticket to a new life? But, I just couldn’t keep going like this anymore. He was about to find out. Time to pick up, move on, and start over. 24 wasn’t too old to start a new life by any means. No strings attached to anyone next time, though. Just me, a lone wolf. Maybe I would get a dog.

I gambled on the door being open. If he woke up, I could just argue I was getting a midnight snack.

Luck was on my side, and the door was cracked. I slipped in, silently thanking the hinges for not failing any more and staying quiet. I closed the door behind me and surveyed the room. Something was off. Things were more barren than when I left. Ted’s laundry basket of clothes was gone, the lamp was off his bedside table, the picture of his family no longer hanging on the wall. I breathed out, unable to decide whether or not it was a good thing he was clearing out or not. On the one hand, it would make getting out easier - on the other, he knew I had been gone. The last thing I needed was for him to report me as a missing person.

I sat down on what used to be his side of the bed and opened the nightstand drawer. I furrowed my brow when I saw his knife was gone. Dagger, really. It had been given to him by his dad when we got engaged, with the proposed purpose of self defense. Who uses a nine inch dagger for home protection anymore? In middle of nowhere Minnesota, wildlife would be a bigger concern than home intrusion, and a gun would have been more logical.

His dad had made a big deal of bragging about the silver blade. An heirloom, passed down from father to son for generations. It was that gift that made me decide it was time to get out. Ted’s dad at least suspected too much, which meant it was only a matter of time until Ted himself knew.

I had never liked that knife being around, especially in the room I slept in. But now, it was even more disconcerting that it was gone.

Time to run.

I had had a bag packed for two weeks now, tucked away in the spare tire storage of my car. Clothes and cash. You don’t need much else to start over, right? It’d be easiest to just act like I was heading into work in the morning and keep on driving to as far away from here as I could get. Further west this time. Mountains were calling me.

The loose ends, though - my job, and a few quasi-friends. If only I had planned this better. I should have put in my notice at the vet clinic the second he got that dagger. And friends, if they were real friends, would ask questions no matter what if I just vanished. Too bad they didn’t know I wasn’t someone they could consider a real friend.

I laid down, trying to think. How difficult could it be to fake a death?

The door creaked, and my eyes snapped open. I could make out Ted’s frame in the doorway, clutching onto something in his left hand.

I glared at him, certain my deep amber eyes were near glowing in the dark, but didn’t move as he strode over to the bed, standing over me.

“L-Lya?” he stuttered. “Is this what you really want?”

I didn’t respond.

“Can we- do we have to sleep in separate rooms?”

I sighed. “We talked about this…” My voice trailed off as he raised his hand, revealing just as I expected - that damn blade. The silver soaked up the moonlight shining in through the window.

“Are we over?” His voice cracked, and I truly did feel bad. He didn’t really deserve this, but he couldn’t know.

Eyes wide as I stared at the dagger, I lied through my teeth, “N-no, honey, of course we can fix this.” Any sane person says whatever their attacker wants to hear, right?

His eyes grew hard. It began to feel like the wall I had worked so hard to build up in my head was starting to crumble. I shook with fear. Maybe if he took me out of this world, that would be for the best.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Ted…” I started, but wasn’t able to make more out. The dagger was poised, and his mind was made up. That wall in my head came tumbling down.

'STOP HIDING FROM ME!' that voice I had spent so much of my life running from shrieked at me.

And then it happened.

A scream tore from my throat as bones cracked and rearranged, fabric tore. It wasn’t me on the bed anymore, it was that… thing, and it was Ted’s turn to look very afraid.

I peaked out from behind this monster’s eyes, just along for the show, watching a movie from the main character’s point of view. There was nothing I could do at this point. It had control.

A growl rumbled in its throat, and I slunk back as far as I could, refusing to know what happened next.

Just a quick moment later, I was brought back forward as bones started to shift and fur receded, leaving me kneeling naked in a growing puddle of blood beside Ted’s body on the ground. His body was absolutely macerated, and I knew that thing inside me had done it.

“I knew it,” Ted gurgled with one final breath.

I fell back and sobbed. He didn’t deserve this. He could have moved on with his life, and I would have been just a blip on his radar in the long run.

'Why?' I shrieked at that thing in my head - that other part of me I had tried to kill off.

'Hunter.' One word replies. That’s all I get from it anymore. There was a time when it first surfaced that it was a friend, but not anymore. It had ruined my life, and any hope I had for a life in the future.

'What are you?' I asked, desperately hoping for a real answer this time. I never got one, but maybe committing murder would finally be enough for it to show me some mercy.

'A part of you.'

'What am I, then?'

'You know.'

I did know, I just refused to admit it. My eyes were stuck on one bloody paw print on the floor. There was no escaping this now. Hard to build a new life when you are wanted for murder - or would be when people finally came looking for him, and I turned up missing, leaving me the logical suspect.

I picked up the dagger by its handle and held it against my skin. 'Go AWAY,' I yelled at the thing as I dug the silver in, slashing up my arm. Twice more for good measure. It stung and burned more than any knife wound should, but it was the only way I knew how. There was a yelp. I expected the thing to go back and hide behind its wall, like it did every other time I banished it this way, but it surged forward instead, shutting me out.