The Many Faces of Tully

I find a lake. I haven’t been swimming in a long time. I don’t have a bathing suit, but I don’t care. My body is skinny, so I don’t mind swimming in my bra and underwear. I seem to be crashing some form of party though. There are a lot of teenagers here, between seventeen and eighteen I would guess.

A lot of them are wearing T-shirts with a panther on them. I see a banner and it says graduating class of 2012. They’re seniors, throwing a graduation party. There are no adults and I see quite a few kegs, and a lot of red cups. This isn’t good.

I try to keep my distance. Drunk teens are the last thing I want to deal with. Especially looking as pretty as I do right now. It doesn’t take long for a group of them to seek me out. I’m hoping they’re just going to ask me to leave.

“Hey you!” a guy yells at me from the shore. I sigh and swim in. As soon as I can touch the bottom again, I walk in. I see the girls there giving me ‘the look’. They look disgusted but envious. I hate it.

“Hey beautiful,” another guy says when I’m right in front of them. “We’ve never seen you around here before.” He stares me up and down.

I place my hands on my hips. “I’m just visiting,” I say. I see one girl glaring at a guy. He must be her boyfriend, and he’s staring at me like he’s never seen a woman before.

“That’s a shame. Do you want to join us?” He gestures to the party.

“No thank you,” I say. Some of the girls look relieved.

“Well if you change your mind, you know where to find us,” he says to me. He flings his arm around the shoulders of a girl and they all walk off.

I’m about to put my clothes back on, but I hear screaming. I spin to the sound and I see someone thrashing in the water.

“Help!” she screams, and then sinks beneath the water again. No one seems to be doing anything. Some are actually laughing. What’s wrong with them? Then I realize I’m not doing anything either. I don’t think, I act.

I sprint into the water and dive into it as soon as I’m deep enough. She still hasn’t surfaced. I don’t see bubbles. When I reach where I last saw her, I dive straight downwards. I find her quickly and I wrap my arms underneath her armpits and around her chest and swim upwards.

I burst to the surface and start swimming towards the shore. I’m about halfway when someone comes out and helps me. We get her to shore quickly and lay her down. I start coughing water out of my lungs.

“She’s not breathing!” someone shouts. No one does anything again.

Oh for Pete’s sake! Doesn’t anyone know how to save a life here? I think to myself. I push two people away and drop to my knees in front of her. I start giving her CPR. I was taught this in one of my health classes so many years ago.

It takes a few times but she coughs out water finally and starts gasping for air. I fall back onto my butt to give her some air and to catch my breath. I realize my heart is pounding. I’m not safe here. I need to get out of here.

I stand up and I see that my purse has made its way towards me. My clothes are somehow packed inside of it. Sometimes my powers are really cool. I get dressed quickly.

“Hey, wait. Where are you going?” A guy is walking towards me.

“Don’t come near me,” I warn him. I hold up my hand so he would get the point, but then he miraculously flies five feet backwards. Sometimes my powers are really destructive.

They’re all staring at me. This is really bad. My heart rate is picking up some more. I need to go. I can’t kill all of these kids. I start backing up slowly. The way they’re staring at me is scaring me.

“What are you?” someone asks. I shake my head and keep walking backwards. Someone touches my arm and I feel my power pulse and he goes flying backwards too.

“Someone grab her!” a girl shouts. I turn and sprint through the forest. I feel them closing in on me. I fling my arm behind me and watch them all fly backwards. I start weaving through the trees. I can hear two pairs of feet behind me.

I don’t know how far I make it before I trip over a root and sprawl across the ground. I spin around and two big guys are there. My heart is beating too fast. This isn’t going to end well. They each grab one of my arms and pull me up onto my feet. I look at one of the guys, and he is wearing a large class ring on his middle finger. It has a green stone in it and it says 'Class of 2012' around it. I look at the other guy and he’s wearing one of the shirts with a panther on it.

I feel myself starting to change when I think 'panther'. Black fur starts sprouting out everywhere from my body, and I feel myself getting bigger. A tail sprouts out and my ears move to the top of my head. I stretch out my paws and I feel my claws extend outwards. I open my eyes and my vision is sharper, clearer. My prey is staring at me with wide eyes. One of them screams.

I lunge at him first. The noise hurts my overly sharp hearing. My claws dig into his body and my teeth sink into his neck. His screams end with a gurgling sound. I look at him, and nudge him with my paw. He doesn’t move.

I look at the other guy. He’s speechless apparently, and he turns to run. He only takes two steps before I sink my teeth into him too. I nudge him afterwards also. He’s dead. My tail twitches irritably. My skin is bothering me. I start licking myself. It’s not enough. I start scratching myself, everywhere. Large tufts of fur come off of me as I keep scratching.

I scratch until my fur is gone. It disappears in midair when I scratch it off. I’ve shrunk in the time it took me to do that and my tail is gone. I look at my arms and I’m human again. I shiver. I look at the two guys bleeding on the floor and shiver again. I walk up to one of them, and I take his class ring. It fits on my thumb, so I put it on my left hand. The other guy doesn’t really have anything for me to take. I’ll get a tattoo again.

I run. I don’t know how I know, but I know that everyone is looking for me. I know that Calchas saw what was going to happen so he sent everyone out to find me. They don’t know what I look like though. They won’t find me.

I can’t use my car though. They know what I drive. That means I have to stay in town. I can stay long enough for them to give up the search. They won’t expect me to stay. I walk into town.