• Chapter 1

    I jolted awake, gasping. I turned and looked at my alarm clock. My alarm wasn’t even supposed to go off for another hour. I rolled over and drifted back to sleep. I had a strange dream…

    ‘BEEP BEEP BEEP’ My alarm clock went off. I reached over and smacked it to the floor. 7:00pm. PM!! WTF??! “Mom I think my clock is wrong!!” Silence. “Mom?” I ran downstairs, only to find nobody home. “Crap…” Walking over to the TV I flipped on the news. ‘Woman found unconscious in woods’ was the main story. The TV reporter babbled on about how a hunter had found her laying in the woods in Danville. “Wait… Danville?!” They showed a picture of the woman being carried out on a stretcher, still unconscious. She had sandy brown, silky hair, and a tattoo of a rose on her neck. “OH s**t!” The woman was...my mom.

    I slowly walked up to my room. I started tearing up as I walked. "Why was she in the woods.." Then it clicked. "My drea--" THUNK! I tripped on my doorstop. I went to push myself up and I felt them. Deep scratches on my floor, claw marks!

    I walked into the back of the room to get a better look at the floor. Upon closer examination, there was a trail of claw marks all the way to my bed. “What the hell happened…” I closed my eyes and tried to remember what had happened. ‘Last night…I was walking home from the movies and I saw those eyes in the alleyway…then..--’ “AGK!” A shooting pain rushed through my head like a dagger. The world seemed to flip and I passed out.

    ‘Ring, ring, ringggg’ The phone? What had just happened? I had woken up on the floor. I pushed myself up and stumbled over to the phone. “Hello?” “Is this Razsha? Razsha McCullok?” “Yes it is.” “Your mother has been admitted to Danville Memorial Hospital. She was unconscious but is stable and is being kept for observation. She requested you come visit her.” “Ok, I will be there shortly, bye”. She hung up the phone and plopped down on her bed. “Ok, what about my dream? Could that have really happened??”

    ~Dream flashback~ * Razsha was walking home after being bit by the animal in the alley. Feeling light headed, she ran to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet. She wiped her mouth and went to throw the tissue in the toilet and noticed there was blood on it. She had thrown up blood. Suddenly a horrible pain gripped her body and she fell to the floor curled up in a ball. She ran outside as fast as she could, for some reason she felt she had to run, instinct was telling her. Her mom followed her “What’s wrong!? Razsha? Razsha!” She ran to the woods, her mom still in pursuit. She tripped on a stump and rolled. Her mother ran to her side and shook her. Visions of a serene forest filled Razsha’s head, a cool shimmering silver stream filled with fish; wild flowers turned pale blue in the moonlight; a pool of water encircled by tall trees with many low branches, and the full moon. As soon as the moon came into her mind her body seized up in agony and her muscles began spazming. Her fingers folded into paws, her spine stretched into a tail, her nose stretched into a small muzzle and she sprouted small round ears. Next she felt her legs shorten and her heel stretch out from her toes, which shifted into paws as well. A tingly sensation covered her skin as she sprouted fur. The pain stopped. She stood up on 4 legs and faced her mom. Alice (Razsha’s mother) looked at her, gasped and fainted. Razsha walked over to the pool of water, she was parched. She gazed into the surface of the water and saw not her..but a leopard with glowing emerald eyes.*

    She decided she would ask her mother when she got to the hospital. She walked into the bathroom to get ready. She washed her face and blotted it dry with a towel. No time for a shower, when she passed out she remained unconscious for 35 min. As she looked in the mirror she gasped.

    “What the…”