Under the blood moon

Continued

I awoke as my bedroom door opened. It was Mum coming into my bedroom again. I think she does it out of habit as she would always wake me up for school before she left for work, but I didn’t have school to go to and was in no mood. I was up late last night because of my nap yesterday, so I was tired.

“Go away.” I groaned and rolled over.

A bright light flooded the room. I groaned and used the blanket to shield myself from the light. However, the blanket ripped off me and the light returned. Blinded, I squinted and noticed the blurry figure that was my mum holding my blankets.

“Get up! You have schoolwork to do.” She said, angrily.

My eyes were still adjusting to the light when I saw my mum leave my bedroom, taking my blankets with her.

I heard the front door slam shut as she left. I screamed with clenched fists. Getting up, I turned off the light and, without thinking, put my fist through the wall. My heart pounded in my chest as I fell to the floor. So much for being a better daughter, I thought as the tears flowed. I sat on the ground until the crying stopped, and I finally calmed down.

I eventually stood up to find a hole in the wall where I had punched it. Examining the hole as puzzlement came over me. How was I strong enough to do such damage? I must have been pretty angry. Wiping the tears from my face, I noticed that my hand was bleeding a little. I went to the bathroom and washed my hands. Staring into the mirror, I studied the girl looking back at me. I barely recognised her. Who was she? Who was I? I didn’t know anymore. My reflection suddenly morphed into something I didn’t recognise, but changed back just as quickly. Looking away, I turned on the shower and made it as hot as I could stand to wash away the strange feeling that had just occurred. The hot water washed over me as my thoughts disappeared.

As the water turned cold, I finally got out. Wrapping myself in a towel, I noticed that my hand, which was bleeding, had not a single cut on it. Thinking maybe I didn’t punch the wall, I ran to my bedroom. However, there was still very much a hole in the wall. Looking back at my hand, I figured I must not have hurt it as badly as I thought, but looking at the wall and the damage I caused, how is my hand not broken? There was no way to rationalise this - it made little sense. Shoving my thoughts aside, I got dressed, quickly dried my hair, and distracted myself with schoolwork, starting with the mountain of worksheets that I printed yesterday.

I finished the chemistry worksheets and had moved on to maths when I took a break and turned on my laptop. Knowing Mum said not to, I signed into my social media account anyway and looked through it. How would she know I checked it, anyway? As I read through posts, a notification popped up. I clicked on it, and as I looked at the image, my blood boiled. Tiffany tagged me in her post. It was a picture of my face on a naked body with a man in a tuxedo. There were two speech bubbles, one over the woman’s head, that said - “Do you want me?” And one over the man’s head that said - “Ew, no thanks.”

People from school were commenting and laughing at me. My hands clenched so tightly that my nails dug into my hands, but I didn’t care. I was so angry I was shaking in my seat. The air became hard to breathe as my heart pounded so loudly I could hear it. My vision blurred as I began screaming. I screamed and screamed until my scream turned into a growl. I instantly stopped. That didn’t sound right. I looked down and saw fury legs that definitely were not mine. Confused, I looked over at the closet mirror and hyperventilated. The reflection was not mine - it couldn’t be. There are no such things. Moving my head, the creature in the mirror moved as well. My heart raced as I squeezed my eyes shut. I could not look at the creature any longer. Not happening, this was not happening - it made no sense. My mind ran wild as it tried to rationalise what I just saw. It was insane, no; I am going insane. No, maybe I’m still sleeping, and everything that happened this morning was a dream. I will open my eyes, and everything will be how it should be. I will be in bed, and this was all just a terrible nightmare. Slowly, I opened my eyes, but still saw furry legs beneath me. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My heart was pounding so loud you could have heard it from outside.

My eyes welled with tears as I listened to my heart race so fast that it could burst out of my chest. I closed my eyes, but the tears kept coming. None of this is real - it couldn’t be. I sat, not moving, as I waited for my heartbeat to return to normal.

The tears finally stopped, but I was too afraid to open my eyes. I didn’t want to see those furry legs again, but the need to look got the better of me. Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes and saw my normal, human, freshly shaved legs. I breathed a sigh of relief, but that was short-lived when I realised I was naked. My heart began racing again as I looked around the room and noticed the mess I caused.

Clothing sat around the room in pieces, along with broken pieces of wood from the desk and chair. The laptop sat in the room’s corner with the image still visible on the screen. Needing to get out of here. I quickly got dressed and went into my parent’s room. I found my car key, grabbed the garage clicker for the kitchen, and got into my car. The engine roared to life as I left the garage and sped off down the street. In my panic, I drove straight out of Piatra-Neamt, to where I could drive a little faster.

I had been driving for about two hours, and my back was aching. Spotting a car park off to the left, I pulled in. I didn’t know where I was, but I got out of the car to stretch my back. I noticed a hiking trail and, not wanting to go home and face reality, I stalked to the trail and headed into the mountains.