Chapter 3:
The Shift.
My BEAUTIFUL DOOM'S DAY
Chapter 3: The Shift
The wolf stopped so suddenly I nearly bit my tongue. We were at the edge of the forest. The air changed – thicker, colder. I smelled blood and old straw.
Where are we?
He dropped me. I hit the ground, back screaming, and tried to crawl away.
Then he shifted.
Bones cracked like wet branches. His spine bent backward, wrong, too far. Fur slid into skin with a sound like tearing cloth. He groaned – not in pain, but in exhaustion. As if this body cost him something.
I wanted to look away. I couldn't. The wrongness of him – man and wolf and neither – rooted me in place.
When it was over, a man stood where the wolf had been. His body was pale, too hairy, like a thing that had forgotten how to be human. He was naked, shivering, and his eyes were the same tired gold.
He stared at me for a long moment. Then, flat and low:
"My mother would have hated this."
He didn't explain. He just reached down, grabbed my arm, and yanked me to my feet.
"My name is Raymond," he said.
I didn't answer. His grip was iron, and his eyes held nothing but weariness.
---
He dragged me forward. Not by my hair this time – just my arm, hard enough to bruise. The forest gave way to open ground. Then I saw them.
Rows of iron cages. Stacked on muddy earth. Inside: people. Naked. Huddled. Eyes staring out – some blank, some wild.
Humans. Like me.
I stopped breathing.
"Who let you out of your cage, human?" Raymond had asked.
Now I knew what he meant.
---
He pulled me past the cages. A guard with a wolf's snout and a man's body unlocked one of them. Raymond shoved me inside.
The door clanged shut.
I pressed myself against the bars, watching him walk away. He didn't look back.
"Wait," I whispered. "You said your mother –"
He kept walking.
The cage smelled of fear and iron. Around me, the other humans didn't speak. They just stared.
I pulled my knees to my chest.
This is how it starts.
The wolf stopped so suddenly I nearly bit my tongue. We were at the edge of the forest. The air changed – thicker, colder. I smelled blood and old straw.
Where are we?
He dropped me. I hit the ground, back screaming, and tried to crawl away.
Then he shifted.
Bones cracked like wet branches. His spine bent backward, wrong, too far. Fur slid into skin with a sound like tearing cloth. He groaned – not in pain, but in exhaustion. As if this body cost him something.
I wanted to look away. I couldn't. The wrongness of him – man and wolf and neither – rooted me in place.
When it was over, a man stood where the wolf had been. His body was pale, too hairy, like a thing that had forgotten how to be human. He was naked, shivering, and his eyes were the same tired gold.
He stared at me for a long moment. Then, flat and low:
"My mother would have hated this."
He didn't explain. He just reached down, grabbed my arm, and yanked me to my feet.
"My name is Raymond," he said.
I didn't answer. His grip was iron, and his eyes held nothing but weariness.
---
He dragged me forward. Not by my hair this time – just my arm, hard enough to bruise. The forest gave way to open ground. Then I saw them.
Rows of iron cages. Stacked on muddy earth. Inside: people. Naked. Huddled. Eyes staring out – some blank, some wild.
Humans. Like me.
I stopped breathing.
"Who let you out of your cage, human?" Raymond had asked.
Now I knew what he meant.
---
He pulled me past the cages. A guard with a wolf's snout and a man's body unlocked one of them. Raymond shoved me inside.
The door clanged shut.
I pressed myself against the bars, watching him walk away. He didn't look back.
"Wait," I whispered. "You said your mother –"
He kept walking.
The cage smelled of fear and iron. Around me, the other humans didn't speak. They just stared.
I pulled my knees to my chest.
This is how it starts.
--
End of Chapter 3
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