Transformation

I just remember being inspired and this was on here before. The theme is "Inhuman".

“Ha ha, I will get you. Now let me drink your blood.”

“Ah, help, monster, monster!”

Five kids played cheerfully on the streets of the wealthy newly instated suburb. It was three girls and two boys, all five being about nine or ten years old. Halloween was coming in a couple of days and one of the boys was in a vampire costume, chasing the three girls while the other boy stayed back.

One specific girl was exceptionally pretty with shoulder-length dark brown hair and lively sea green eyes. Her skin was a bit tan, her body was thin and petite, and she wore simple blue jeans and a plain T-shirt. She was obviously the fastest of the three and the liveliest, but something was wrong about the heart-warming scene. For some reason, it felt as if she shouldn’t be the one being chased, but the one to chase after the others. There was nothing wrong about her appearance. It was merely a vibe that she sent out naturally like a predator, a hunter.

Watching the small girl from the doorway of one of the houses was an old woman. Having entered old age gracefully, she was beautiful and her looks denied her age. She had slightly tan color skin, knee-length flowing pure grey locks held back in a neat ponytail, pale pink lips, and charming aged sea green eyes. Her body was strong, lean, and healthy, still able to stand erect with dignity. There were barely any wrinkles on her old face and skin. By the way that she looked, people would’ve thought her to be in her early fifties instead of her true age in her mid seventies. The clothes she wore were a long plain house dress that reached to her calves with the long sleeves rolled up a few inches past her elbow and a white apron over it. Upon her lips was a gentle smile as love and happiness shone clearly in her wise old eyes.

Hours passed by and it was near sunset. All of a sudden, the boy pretending to be a vampire cried out, “Look at me! I am Hirath, and I come for your blood.”

Just then, the old woman’s heartwarming smile twisted into a hard scowl. The little girl that sent off the predatory vibe stopped and asked innocently, “Who’s that?”

Before the boy could answer, the old woman intervened and commanded the little girl, “Siaru, you are done for today. Now come inside.”

Instantly, the little girl named Siaru said goodbye to her friends and ran up the street to the old woman. When her friends tried to protest, the old woman said bluntly, “She is done for today. She can play with you tomorrow…if I see that you four have shaped up.”

The little girl didn’t even protest against the old woman’s commands. Siaru was very obedient and knew that if the old woman was upset, she’d get over it, and if the old woman thought there was something she shouldn’t hear or see, subsequently she really shouldn’t. There was no hesitation in Siaru’s desertion of her friends, she ran to the old woman and ran past her into the house.

The older woman followed the little girl inside and closed the door swiftly behind her. Inside, Siaru was waiting for the old woman in the large living room. Calmly, the old woman walked into the room and started a fire, instead of using the heaters, to last through the chilly night.

“Lady Mudan, who is Hirath?”

The old woman immediately tensed up and Siaru had sensed it. Hurriedly, she stated, “Oh, please, I’m sorry, Lady Mudan. I was merely curious. I beg your forgiveness. I won’t-.”

She was cut off by the old woman, who was referred to as the Lady Mudan of the Northern lands, letting out a tired sigh. Although it was just a sigh, Siaru could tell from it that the old woman had actually felt weary for the first time in her life, not old but weary. The Lady Mudan stared at Siaru with tired detached eyes. Siaru couldn’t take her gaze and averted her eyes as she let her head drop down in shame.

Inwardly, the Lady Mudan sighed again. As a Lady of power and a Mudan of great prestige, she was required to be shown deep amounts of respect. Towards this small little girl though, she was supposed to be seen as somewhat of an aunt or gradmother, not the kind woman who had taken her in as a baby.

It also tore the Lady Mudan to shreds, hearing the little girl question about the very woman which had caused the Lady Mudan to take in the girl in the first place. How could she answer the little girl without hurting her and herself in the process? How could she give the answer that was better left forgotten? Siaru’s question was simple. Who was Hirath? Though the question was very simple, the answer was not as simple at all. Could she bring herself to give that answer? Could she give the difficult answer to such an uncomplicated question? The answer was yes. Siaru had to know.

“Siaru, there is no need to apologize. You were curious and your curiosity is justified. You have a right to know…”

The Lady Mudan stood up and walked to the adjoining kitchen. With only a glance, the Lady Mudan had indicated for Siaru to follow. Walking into the kitchen, the Lady Mudan started to brew hot cocoa. Siaru had climbed onto one of the bar stools on the opposite side of the counter, meeting the Lady Mudan at the same eye level when she sat down. As Lady Mudan started to brew the hot cocoa, she began her answer, “Siaru?”

“Yes?”

“Before, you were asking who is Hirath. Well, the proper term isn’t “is”, it’s “was”. And Hirath was, of course, a woman, but a woman you should’ve known better than anyone.”

“Why?”

“You should’ve known her because she was my daughter …and your mother. That makes you my only granddaughter.”

Siaru stared at her in shock. Not even realizing it until afterwards, she had asked, “Was she the one who named me?”

Lady Mudan nodded solemnly and replied, “Yes. Hirath had given you the name which is the variation of a different name, which had been changed to Siaru in order to naturally accompany another name, your father’s. Arreg…thus makes the name Arreg Siaru. Do you know what that name means Siaru?”

Siaru looked away as she gulped and answered, “It means Golden Slayer of Man…Why did mom give me such a horrible-?”

“Siaru, you shouldn’t look down on your own name, no matter its meaning. There is always a reason, for everything, just as there is a good reason you were given that name and given to me.”

Siaru slowly looked back at her with a somewhat downcast gaze, waiting for the Lady Mudan to continue. Gently, the Lady Mudan smiled to reassure her and continued, “Now, before I give you the reasons behind your name and why you were given to me, it would be best, if I told you the story of your mother, exactly as I had seen and heard of it. So where do I begin?”

The Lady Mudan cocked an eyebrow at Siaru and smirked in anticipation at her, expecting the little girl to answer her question instead. Siaru had always asked a specific question about her mother from the Lady Mudan since she was five and now, she had the chance to have it answered. Seeing the Lady Mudan with the same playful expression she usually had, Siaru couldn’t help giggling and asked the question, “What kind of child was mommy?”

The Lady Mudan’s smile broadened and she started. “Well, your mom was never a child to be held down, but she was angered easily. I could never find her, whether if I wanted to or not. She was a strong girl, energetic and proud and righteous in so many ways. Everyone loved her. Although, she did have her flaws such as her quick-temper, blatant and very truthful demeanor, and her sharp instinct to always bite back. On the other hand, she had a strong sense of respect and telling the truth. No one could beat her when it came to upholding the value of the truth. I don’t know where she had gotten it, but she had it. Hirath was thoughtful and generous, and always looking out for those around her.”

“She sounds nice.”

“Yes, but after she turned twelve, after that incident, she changed.”

“What incident?”

“She was kidnapped…and then raped. Whoever did it…left her in the strangest of circumstances.”

“Strangest?”

“The one who did left her locked up in a room in the penthouse of a five story hotel and then notified the authorities of her whereabouts.”

“That was nice…”

“They raped your mother.”

“Is that how I was born?”

“No, but you are concerned. Let me tell you how your mother changed…At first, she had changed as any other person would have, but not in the way of fear. Hirath became cold and distant. She was still so very keen about respect, the truth, stating her thoughts and opinions outright, and generous, but she no longer watched out for people nor was she thoughtful towards them. If she saw that something didn’t concern her, she wouldn’t get involved. When one of her friends needed her, she turned her back on her. To Hirath, the only problems, worries, or wrongs that mattered to her were her own, no one else. Her temper was sharper than ever and developed a very very sharp tongue and even sharper punch. Hirath’s sense of pride and mental strength were gone, leaving behind only the sense of wrong and right. The abundant energy she once had would come and go so spontaneously, no one could predict her next move. Everyone thought she was very impulsive and she was, except because of that thought, most people underestimated her. They’d fall into her traps, thinking that she was only being impulsive, though in truth, she was calculating the entire time. After the incident, Hirath became impulsive, always following her instincts, and at the same time, cold and calculating. It became a hobby of hers to trap, to play with, and to manipulate people. At one point, she even started performing her hobby on me. She knew everyone like the back of her hand and could so easily manipulate them. One of the skills she had gained in doing this frightening hobby was being able to learn everything about a person’s by observing them for a mere three hours or just talking to them for an hour. I had come to fear my own daughter. Sometimes, I even thought I saw her cold brutal insanity in the depths of her eyes and wondered to myself, “Is this girl really my Hirath?” As the days by, I learned more and more why the man that had kidnapped her had returned her to me. His reason was because even though he returned her to me, Hirath had never come back to me. I had her body, I had her, but my Hirath was no longer there. She was still with him He was proving it to me…”

“Did she get better? Did she ever come back?”

Seniaru stared at the Lady Mudan, desperation and concern wrought clearly on her face. The Lady Mudan, seeing her expression, smiled weakly and replied, “Yes, she did…but it was frightening.”

“Why?”

“Mere days after she started returning to her old self, changes started happening to her.”

“You mean that whole puberty thing the-.”

“It’s nothing like that. If that was all, I wouldn’t have been so scared. No, the changes happening to her were…inhuman.”

“What?”

“The first week after Hirath started returning to her real self, she couldn’t down her food. The doctor said it was completely bizarre that her body was rejecting all foods. There were no specific foods that her body didn’t reject. Hirath told me that she felt constant pain in her mouth, her back, and her hands. Sometimes, she said she even felt pain in her forehead, eyes, and heart. By the next work, the pains had become too unbearable for her. She would cry to me, gripping onto my tightly and screaming for me to end it. Her screams were so shrill that I soon became more afraid of her than of what was happening to her. One day, when I came home, she had severely cut her wrist and was licking the wound as if it was food. When I took her to the hospital, the doctor couldn’t tell me what was wrong, so I had to live in fear of my own daughter and it hurt once I found out that my baby was scared of herself. I wasn’t doing anything by cowering in fear when she was the one undergoing the changes herself and they were frightening her even more.”

“Did her condition get better?”

“No…rather, it was the opposite. She got worse.”

“How?”

“As the weeks passed on, I noticed that the color of her eyes was changing, so I brought her back to the doctor. The doctor agreed to have a check-up every few days to see about her changes. Then the changes became worse and worse and more rapid in their development. On Hirath’s back, nubs of actual bone had grown out of her shoulder blades, her canines had started to resemble fangs, the color of her eyes were almost another color entirely, her nails grew out like claws and couldn’t be cut, and something almost like a Bindi, those little pattern jewels that Indians wear out of fashion or religion I believe. It was frightening.”

“…So what was it?”

“Well…more changes ensued as time went on. At one point, she could no longer stand daylight and every time she stepped into sunlight or something of a similar brightness, she screamed so high and loud from her pain that she seemed like a banji. She couldn’t stand food, only blood, and during the day, she practically seemed dead, drained of all energy. After a while, she preferred cold dark places, especially tight spaces for when she slept. She couldn’t stand drinking water nor taking showers, only in baths would she permit water near her.”

“Did you ever find out what was wrong with her?”

“Yes…”

“How did you find out?”

The lady Mudan stopped looking at Seniaru and stared at the counter as if caught in a trance. Letting out a sigh first, she answered, “…It happened over night. Her canines had become fangs completely, her eyes had transitioned to a full on blood red, her nails were two inches long and had grown sharper than any animal’s claws, the bindi on her forehead looked like sequence of three vertical symbols and blood was dripping from them, her hair grew three times in length, her skin was pale and her lips were blue as if she was dead, and the nubs of her backs had broke through the skin of her back and extended like two large bones in the form of a bird’s wind bones. When I tried to calm her and hold her, I felt her skin stone cold and when I listened to her pulse, I heard and felt none everywhere I checked, her neck, her chest, her wrist, everywhere.”

“W-Wait, that makes her sound like a-a-.”

“Vampire? That’s exactly what she was, what she had become…just like your father. The man who had kidnapped Hirath years before was and is your father. Not to mention that he was a vampire first off. When Hirath had fully transformed, she was scared and I tried to console her, but nothing would ease her pain. That night, your father came into our house and took her. Hirath went willingly because even though he had been the one to have done that to her, she loved him as he loved her. I made him promise that he’d keep her safe. He kept his promise and I was able to see Seniaru once a month.”

“He doesn’t sound evil at all!”

“You’re right. He wasn’t evil. The only reason he had done what he had was so that Hirath could be with him. He didn’t want to lose her.”

“So did they get married?”

“Yes and then you were born. Your mother was so happy to have you and your father was very proud…”

Suddenly, the Lady Mudan looked away and a tear escaped her eye.

Concerned, Seniaru quickly questioned, “W-What’s wrong? What happened to them?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if they’re still alive…Something had happened to your father. He was betrayed by his own kin…his brother. In order to protect you and your mother, he led his family astray, but we never saw him after that. I had immediately assumed that he had died from how his family had picked up on yours and Hirath’s trail not many months after. Desperate to keep you alive, Hirath left you at the church on the NorthernMountain. That’s where the agents for the orphanage I took you from had retrieved you. I knew it was you the moment I had heard what the priests had said.”

“What did they say?”

“The priests said that there was no one in the temple, the patrol was out, and the guards hadn’t seen anything, anyway though, a baby’s cry had rung out throughout the entire church and the boarding houses. When the first priest who had gone to check reached the doors to the alter room, he saw a cloaked figure leave stare back at him, whereas the baby that was the source of the sound was crying on the sacrificial alter. Only the first three priests and the head priest who had gone to see the source of the crying had seen the cloaked figure before it disappeared. I knew it was you because no one had ever done such a thing since…well, since Hirath had slept there years before. During Hirath’s transformation, there were nights that she had disappeared. The next day, the priests would find her on the sacrificial alter, sleeping peacefully. It meant that Hirath trusted the church and she felt it was the safest place to keep her from herself. Now that is why I knew it was you. If she had trusted the power and security of the church through her transformation, then she would trust it again for her child.”

“…Will I ever meet my mother?”

“I do not know, but what I do know…is that you must keep faith.”

The Lady Mudan smiled and Seniaru smiled back. They drank their cocoa, driving Seniaru into a frenzy of questions about her mother as a child and what her grandmother remembered of her mother’s spunk. For the first time, the Lady Mudan felt like she was really talking to her granddaughter.

 

From outside, watching through the window of the large house, two tall dark figures of a male and female gazed at the happy scene in silence. The female figure smiled, while the much taller male figure pulled her close and kissed her gently on her forehead. Taking a few more moments, the two then turned away and walked into the night.

Back in the house, the Lady Mudan had suddenly got a feeling and stared out the window. She had turned just in time to watch two dark figures walk away. The shorter figure had turned around for a moment to stare back at her before smiling and continuing its walk into the darkness. Although, just before turning and walking away, the Lady Mudan could’ve sworn she saw the figure mouth the words, “We will be back soon.”

At that moment, the Lady Mudan had realized who it was and smiled. Seniaru became curious as to why she suddenly smiled at the window and asked her why. Not having heard her and being caught in her own world, the Lady Mudan had whispered back, “Soon.”

Reviews

[TLK]

You start by drawing me into the action, then you step back to use exposition to explain what is going on. I certainly would have enjoyed it more if you'd let the specifics come out while actually watching the children play.