Challenge Submission The Change

[Lore N. Fables]

Spoiler: The Quote

The air had felt alive when they had entered the room with a single light of the fire shining brightly in the centre of the room. The older man had tried to soothe the nerves of his nephew on the drive over, but it seemed to make his anxiety soar. He knew that the first time would be difficult for the young man but since his aggression had started to become more problematic the older he became, the man knew that his nephew had inherited the family's curse.

Cameron stood there, unable to move as his feet turned as heavy as cement blocks and his legs were just as useless as tree stumps standing tall with the cowardly human attached to its top. He hadn't been feeling well since breakfast and he knew that something "off" was happening to him. He was sure that Uncle Sean had finally had it with his shitty attitude, but he thought that this spectacle and poisoning was a bit much.

"Come now, child," a woman's voice cut through the air, soft yet forceful. "No one's poisoned you for being a wee shit. Your uncle cared enough to bring you to me, instead of leaving you to the wolves... So to speak."

Before Cameron had a chance to argue that he was no child, the woman turned away from the fire to fetch something on the bench, hidden in the shadows beyond the flames, muttering under her breath.

"I know you think you're no child," she continued to say, whether or not anyone was listening and turned back around with a set of silver chains wrapped in her hands, hearing the snarl she shook her head. "Now, before--"

Sean's eyes glimpsed the silver chains when the woman picked them up from her bench and immediately crouched down with a guttoral snarl in the back of his throat. He leapt forward in a blink of an eye and attempted to snatch the chains from the woman. She knew he was going to try something and as she spoke, she moved to the side, pulling the chains with her.

"Are you serious?" She scoffed and then cackled some before turning around to face the wouldbe chain swipper and shook them as she spoke. "You come to ME and ask ME for help and then just try to assault me over some chains? Do you know who I am? Really know??"

"You said nothing about chains when I came to you," Sean snarled, his chest heaving.

"You asked for my help, you didn't ask for me to print out the instruction manual," the woman snapped back. "If you must know, these chains were simply a point I was trying to make to you when you first came and asked."

"What point is that, old crone?"

"I can't cure you, you idiot! That is a curse put on you by a whole tribe of people. Whoever your ancestor's pissed off, wanted to make sure you couldn't be rid of it," she said shaking her head, throwing the chains down at Sean's feet. "That was what I was getting at with these damn chains. I can continue on to what I was saying before you tried to jump an old woman, or you can get the fuck out. The choice is yours."

Sean looked over at Cameron, the young teen's eyes were huge, but the look of fear was gone from his face. The anger had left when the chains had left the crone's hand and a strange calm washed over him and allowed his brain to take the wheel again.

"Alright," he sighed reluctantly. "If you can't cure him, please try to help him."

"Very well," she replied with a nod. "Now before we begin," pausing to give Sean a pointed look. "You have two choices before you. You can force it, or let it happen naturally. As your uncle would know, naturally will get you a criminal record and cause you more pain with the first change."

"H- how can I f-force it? And how bad would it be if I just left it alone and went to anger management?" Cameron looked calm but his voice belied how he was truly feeling. "What do I gotta do to..."

"Your uncle knows that by killing a human can trigger the change," she started slowly, knowing that the mere thought of the act would scare the lad further and probably trigger the uncle more. Pointing to the chains she continued. "You can either kill me, a willing victim, or chain yourself until it's your time to turn. The choice is yours."

Sean jumped on the old woman, knocking her down to the ground, growls ripping from the back of his throat. "What games are you playing at, old woman?! He's barely 19 years old and you're suggesting... Murder? Just how insane are you?! I knew I shouldn't have come here..."

"It's only murder if you don't wake up from it," she replied simply, as if she hadn't just been tackled to the ground and held there by a snarling man on the verge of ripping her throat out. "Do you remember the name... Elise?"

"The phoneix? It can't be..." Sean's face turned white as a sheet and he released the woman under him and stood back. "The tale is true then?"

"Sometimes what you hear is true, no matter how outlandish they may sound," she chuckled as she sit up. "It is time to renew, I think and we shall be helping each other."

Sean walked over to where Cameron stood, speaking softly and looking back at the woman claiming to be Elise, the woman thought to be a myth, sitting right before them waiting patiently. It looked that the two had made a decision as they approached her, the younger one looking more distraught than the older, now holding a dagger in his hand.

"Don't fret, young one," she cooed, finally making it to a standing position. "There are things still left to do and this is the only way it can be done."

Cameron looked at his uncle, still so unsure about it all and his confidence was starting to wave. "What if she's not really who she says she is? What if..."

"Just breathe..."

Before either of them could stop her, she walked in the blade the young man was holding. She was tired of waiting and she needed these two were's on her side. Falling to the floor with a slight smile on her face, she knew it would be a matter of time before she would return, stark naked as the day she had been born, and she could already imagine the looks on their faces when she rose from her own ashes. That was her last thought until...

"Son of a bitch that stings!" A young woman yelped, rising up from the still smouldering ashes of the older woman who just parished. "I told you not to fret, but I think we should probably think about running soon, as that just triggered his change." ​