Shifter's Cure

Shift
Miranda Brown
The alarm clock screamed, BEEP BEEP BEEP. The loud noise scared Zena so badly that she changed into an opossum, and fell over dead. Her 19 year old brother walked into her room and laughed.
“Playing dead, huh? Well, that’s one way to get out of school.”
The opossum’s grey fur changed to skin, the pinks nose turned into a human one, and the tail dissolved away. Zena sat there with dark rings under her eyes.
“Do you think the teachers will believe it?” Zena asked with a small hint of a smile. Zane laughed again then left her room. Zena stumbled out of bed and glanced in the mirror. She stared at the girl in front of her, examining this horrid form. She stared at her tangled, white, floor length hair and her rainbow eyes that seemed to change colors. Even though she was very short for a 13 year old, she was still a head turner. She couldn’t figure out if the shocked look on people’s faces was because they liked the way she looked, or were freaked out by it. But she really didn’t care what anyone thought about her, especially humans. Zena got ready for school then quickly left.
“No more ditching class!” Zane called after her.
“No promises!” she yelled back. She hated how Zane was so protective of her, even though he was all she had since her parents died…Zena shook her head. She didn’t want to think about that right now.
School was the usual torture. Lorrie, her “best friend,” followed her around like a lost puppy, talking about God knows what. She wasn’t allowed to leave the cafeteria, even though the smell of human food made her sick, and she frightened the entire school. It wasn’t her fault, Mr. Stevens was talking about snakes in science today, and before she knew it, Zena was slithering on the floor. Nobody saw her transformation, but they did see the snake she had become, and naturally everyone was up on their desks screaming, even the teacher. She slithered out the door and into the hallway, causing even worse pandemonium. She normally doesn’t like scaring people, but she quite enjoyed wrapping around Lorrie’s legs and baring her fangs. When Zena noticed someone coming at her with a shovel, she slithered out of the school as fast as she could.
That night she sat on her bed crying. She hated how she couldn’t control herself sometimes. Even simple emotions caused her to change; unfortunately, there was no animal for sadness. Zane could sense her tears; he always could pick up emotions, a result of being animals so much. Zena hugged Zane tightly, and she buried her face in his scraggly black hair. As he always did when she was sad, he told her her favorite story. A story of a long line of people who could “shift.” When two shifters married they had two children, the first one was a boy. The second was a lovely girl. They were everything a parent could ask for, until their daughter, was infected with a disease that caused complications when she shifted or “changed.” Things like emotions affected what and when she shifted, and she could only shift for thirty minutes at a time. Her parents had searched the entire world for a cure, enduring things that shouldn’t be said. They finally found a cure, but every shifter was after it, so they hid it for them to retrieve later. Their life was ended when the parents were attacked by a gang who also wanted the cure. The son and daughter were left to look for a cure themselves. The brother and sister loved each other very much, and he never left her side.
Even though Zena knew it was her own story, but the way Zane told it made it sound valiant and almost like a fairy tale. It comforted her and made her smile.
***
Zena stood in front of the old café. She took a deep breath, and the smell of coffee filled her lungs and nearly made her gag. Humans were so disgusting. How could they drink this stuff? Her mother loved coffee. She had always said, “If you ever need to hide something, you should hide it in a coffee shop.”
Zena believed it, and no one else would think of hiding anything in a coffee shop. Her mother had always mentioned Jumping Beans Cafe. She said it was the best coffee shop ever, although she never drank the coffee. Here Zena was standing in front of Jumping Beans Café. She had to tell Zane. They thought they would never find it! She was so excited that she shifted (out of her control) into a hyper-active yorkie. Just like any puppy, she gave a shower of love to the first person she saw. Little did she know, this person was none other than Lorrie. Lorrie shrieked and grabbed Zena. She squeezed her so much that Zena thought her lungs would be crushed.
A few minutes later Zena found herself in Lorrie’s room. It looked like someone had thrown a pink bomb into Lorrie’s room. Pink bed, pillows, wall, celling, door, carpet, and accessories. Lorrie clipped a pink bow into Zena’s white fur.
“Awww!” she cried, “I’m going to make you a sweater!”
Zena glanced at the clock, in five minutes she would turn human again. She jumped up onto the window seal and jumped out. She ran across the freshly mowed grass and out the fence. The dog flopped on the side of the road, panting. Thirty seconds later, Zena was lying on the side of the road, breathing heavily. A cheetah ran up to her, then transformed into her brother.
“I saw the whole thing,” he said, laughing. Zena just glared up at him.
“Cure,” she between large breaths, “I know where the cure is.”
***
“It was adorable!” Lorrie said through sobs at school the next day. “It just fell out of the window. I haven’t looked out of that window yet, I’m afraid to see my sweet Fluffy dead.”
Zena hid a laugh, “So you named it Fluffy?”
“Of course!” Lorrie said as if this were common knowledge. “I loved her. I really did”
Zena rolled her eyes. Again, another reason that humans were crazy. How could they learn to love in only 25 minutes? It didn’t matter. Soon she would have a cure and never again would she have to be in her human form again.
As soon as school was over, she shifted into a raven. She closed her eyes and focused, she could feel herself shrinking, her nose growing pointed and hard, her arms becoming light, bird instincts flooding into her mind, and feathers protruding all over her body. It didn’t hurt, it just felt magical. The odd thing is she could shift in only a few seconds, but it always seemed longer. Most shifters could shift in the blink of an eye, but the disease effected Zena in that area too. She launched into the sky, flapping her wings as fast as she could. Why aren’t I going faster? She thought to herself. It was then that she realized she was a blue jay, not a raven. Before she let anger control her, she swooped down and landed in front of Jumping Beans Café. She shifted back to a human then casually walked into the café, trying hard not to breathe in the horrid smell. Her stupid human eyes took a while to adjust to the dim lighting. She looked around the café, dark walls the color of mocha, mahogany tables, cream colored chairs and ceilings. People were scattered everywhere, sipping their coffee and staring with blank expressions at newspapers and magazines. How could you hide anything in here? She pressed her ear up to the wall and knocked against it. She hoped she would hear a difference if there was something inside the wall.
“What are you doing?” a young boy around thirteen.
“Umm,” she stuttered. The look on his face changed. He took her hand.
“I’ve been waiting for you my whole life,” he said. “Go out with me.”
“Are you crazy?” she said confused. With a broken heart, the boy sank to his knees. She looked at the sobbing boy on the floor. What was wrong with him? She noticed the loose board in the wood floor and suddenly she knew it. It was under floor boards. She fell on her hands and knees and began prying up the floor boards. She pulled one up, revealing a little flask containing green liquid. Before she could take it, she was grabbed from behind and taken outside of the café. She tried to run back inside, but she was stopped. Desperation flooded over her. She was so close. She stared at all the filthy humans with disgust then ran off.
When she got home, she told Zane every detail. He showed sympathy when she told him about turning into a blue jay instead of a raven and laughed when she told him about the boy who had “loved” her, but when she mentioned that she had found the cure a look of seriousness washed over his face.
“This Sunday, when the café is closed, we will get it. No matter what,” Zane promised
***
It was late Sunday night, and Zena stood in front of Jumping Beans Café. Wrapped tightly in her coat, Zena welcomed the cold wind on her face. Zane stood next to her, holding his crowbar. He looked brave, like one of those humans who fought and killed others in wars. She looked at Zane, she would remember this moment forever, her last night in this awful town. As soon as Zane got the cure, they would flee somewhere else, to a different country maybe. Zane smiled, and then walked up to the cafe, using the crowbar to smash the window to get in. Zena stood outside in the chilling air to keep watch. As she was standing there, swaying from her own happiness, she noticed something in the shadows. “Who’s there?” she yelled at the darkness. A figure emerged. It didn’t take long for her to realize that it was the boy she had met at the café. “What do you want?” she snorted.
“To get rid of that guy,” he said pointing a finger at the café Zane just entered.
“Why?” she said her voice shaking.
“Because you like him and not me.”
“Zane? No, he’s my...”
“He’s your boyfriend,” the boy guessed incorrectly. “And I want to be your boyfriend.” He pulled a lighter from his pocket. Zena watched in horror as he lit it, and then threw it at the café. The old, dry wood easily caught fire, and in a matter of minutes the building was just a large orange glow. Anger boiled inside of Zena. She could feel herself shifting like never before. She was shifting into any and every vicious animal combined into one.
“Zane isn’t my boyfriend. He’s my brother,” she snarled. She lunged at the boy, clawing and biting.
When it was over, all her teeth, claws, and fur melted away. She stared at the burning building. She screamed Zane’s name, hoping he could hear her through all the fire and smoke. When there was no reply her vision became blurry, and tears spilled down her cheeks. Life was over for her. The cure was gone, but more importantly, Zane was gone too. Her heart ached as she wailed. She turned to what was a building and wished it was her trapped inside instead. She thought she saw something in the smoke, but it disappeared. She hung her head in defeat. Then a shape formed out of the smoke. From the smoke came an ash covered eagle carrying a little flask filled with green liquid.