World Walkers: Rachel’s Story
There was a minute, maybe more, probably more, when Rachel had no idea what was going on. Slowly she stretched out her arm. Instead of it ending in a paw and being covered in fur it ended in a hand with five fingers and was covered in skin. She stared at it, not wanting to touch it just in case it disappeared. That had happened before. Finally she let herself reach out with the other arm. It looked the same as the other one. The hand, her hand, felt so different to a paw. Hands had much more movement and she bent her fingers to get a feel for what it was like to have them.
When she touched her other arm it didn’t disappear. She’d half expected it to because she couldn’t help thinking she was dreaming again. Dreaming of being human. The dreams had faded away as she spent more time in her other form, but she still had them and they were always vividly real. She couldn’t quite work out whether she was just having a longer dream that normal or if she was really human. Swallowing she looked down at herself.
It was seeing the water that made her realise that she was in a bath. The water was warm and she was wet. She was also naked. That really wouldn’t have been that much of a problem if someone hadn’t been staring down at her. Someone who was also naked because it was their bath. Rachel looked at him, unable to take her eyes off him because she hadn’t seen a naked male before and it was an interesting sight.
“You were my cat,” he said, sounding confused.
“Sorry,” she replied hopefully, not quite sure what there was to say to that sort of statement.
“How come you turned into a human?”
She shrugged. That was a conversation she did not want to get into with a total stranger, especially a total stranger who was naked. To be honest it was a conversation she didn’t want to get into with anyone, whether she knew them or not.
“Do you have a towel I could use?” she asked, listening to her voice closely as she tried to get used to having one again. It had been a very long time since she’d had human vocal cords. “I’m wet.”
He nodded, turning to the towel rail. She looked at the other view for a moment before getting out of the bath. Water dripped down her body and she realised that she was taller than she had been before she was turned into a cat. Trying not to seem fascinated by the changes to her body she took the towel from the man and wrapped it around her. He picked a dressing gown that she hadn’t noticed before off the chair and put that on.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.” He looked at her curiously. “It’s really not a normal occurance for a cat to turn into a human, so is there any explanation you can give me?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Do you know how long you’ve been a cat?”
Again she shook her head. “Time isn’t a concept that cats care about. I noticed day and night but there were no years or months.”
“What are you going to do now that you’re a human?”
“I don’t know.” She sighed. “I wasn’t expecting to become human.”
“Understandable. How about I find you something to wear, get you something to eat and then you can think about what you want to do?”
“That’s really nice of you, but I can’t accept.”
“Look… what’s your name?”
“Rachel.”
“Look, Rachel, you’ve got nothing and I can’t morally send you out into the world naked and hungry.” He smiled at her. “And I kind of feel responsible for you because you’re my cat.”
Rachel couldn’t bring herself to smile back. “What’s your name?”
“Niall.”
“Thank you, Niall.”
“Come with me then.”
Clutching the towel to her body, worried that it might fall down because she had no idea if there was anyone else in the house, she followed Niall into another room. She sat on the bed while he searched his drawers, feeling uncomfortable. The memories from her cat life had mostly faded away but she could still faintly remember sleeping on his bed at some point. There were cat hairs on the bed that backed up that memory and she stared at them. Thoughtfully she picked up one of them, slowly running her fingers down it.
“Are you ok?” Niall asked and when she looked up at him she could see the concern in his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“I’m going to go to the kitchen. Get dressed and come down when you’re ready. Take as much time as you need, Rachel.”
Nodding, she watched him walk out of the room. She was torn. Part of her wanted to follow him because she didn’t want to be alone. She was terrified of being alone. At the same time she wanted to be alone so she could get used to being a human again. Maybe she didn’t know how long she’d been a cat but she knew without any doubt that it had been a very long time. There were some blurry memories of her life before being a cat, but she couldn’t really tell anything from them. The only real memories she had were of when she’d been changed.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought of how much she must have missed. Blinking, she tried to push all the emotions away so she could think. She needed to think. Maybe she could work out how she had ended up in Niall’s house. A mirror caught her eye and she wiped a tear away as she stood up. Looking at her new body filled her with dread but she needed to if she was going to have any idea of how long she’d been a cat. Breathing deeply she dropped the towel and looked at herself.
Originally posted at dreamwidth.org as kajones_writing.
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.