Snap... I haven't updated in forever...
Chapter 6

Estelle sighed. It was near midnight now, and all the guests had gone. True, she was exhausted, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t get to sleep. It’s not like this was the first time; for the past few days she’d had trouble going to sleep. But tonight… It felt different. It felt like something was calling her, like something was stirring deep within her. ‘Was the cake bad?’ she thought, rolling over onto her back ‘No, that can’t be it. Grandma’s such a wonderful cook. But what can it be?’

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she nearly screamed when she heard a creak outside her door. Her door squeaked open and she faked sleep. She heard soft footsteps come over to her bed and felt her grandmother’s cool hands on her forehead.

“Oh my dear Estelle,” her grandmother whispered. “I can only hope that you haven’t inherited any abilities. If you have and your mother found out… It would just break my heart to never see you again.”

Estelle waited until her grandmother had gone before she opened her eyes and stared at the door. What had her grandmother been talking about?

The next morning Estelle walked quietly down the halls with her group of chattering friends around her. She hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before, and was now walking around her school like a sleep-deprived zombie. She sighed and ducked out from the middle of her group, not that they noticed. They were too busy gossiping and wouldn’t have noticed an elephant in front of them. Estelle wove her way through the many students walking to class and entered the bathroom, thankfully finding it empty. She walked over to the sink and splashed some cold water on her face. ‘Come on, only a few more hours to go,’ she thought. ‘I have to wake up!’

Suddenly she heard a crash and people were screaming. She ran out of the bathroom and stared at the sight in front of the sight in front of her. The crash had resulted from one of the hallway walls being torn down, and standing in the middle of the dust and rubble was a huge cat-like creature. Nearly seventeen feet tall, and almost twice as long, the creature easily towered over everybody. Its yellow eyes glowed menacingly and it licked it lips hungrily. Suddenly, it roared, sending several students to the ground. The students scrambled to stand up and run while the creature looked on in amusement.

After a few seconds, it apparently got bored and got ready to pounce. ‘I have to do something!’ Estelle thought. But before she could move, Ian appeared and just glared at it. The creature looked at him and it seemed that they were having a staring contest. For what seemed like hours, they just stood there, glaring at one another. Suddenly, the creature growled and raised one of its giant paws, claws clearly seen.

Estelle couldn’t move. Her mind screamed at her to run, but into contact with Ian, the creature recoiled, suddenly drawing itself back. Estelle stood there, not quite understanding what had happened. But when she looked at Ian, she understood why the cat had withdrawn.

Ian’s eyes had become a blood red color, and the smirk he had on was malicious. He took a step forward, laughing as the creature stumbled backwards. Estelle shuddered when she heard his laugh. It was a cold, cruel kind of laugh. Nothing like the usual Ian.

Estelle watched on helplessly while Ian spoke to the creature. Somehow, Estelle sensed that it wasn’t Ian at all that was speaking. His voice had a harsh quality and an inhuman tone to it. He was also speaking in strange language, one that didn’t seem to be made of words, but made up of growls and snarls. Even though she didn’t know what he was saying, Estelle was still filled with a sense of dread.

The creature though, seemed to understand everything he was saying. Once proud and bold, the creature now meekly huddled, trying to make itself as small as possible. Its eyes, once filled with bloodlust and hunger, was now filled with fear.

Estelle stood paralyzed while Ian conversed with the cowering creature. Finally, the creature ran off, leaving only its footprints behind. It seemed like years had passed before Ian took any notice of her. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes before he turned to look at her. Estelle was petrified. The grin he had was nothing like his normal one; this one looked fake, bitter, hateful.

“So you must be Estelle,” he said. “So very nice to meet you. I’m so sorry we can’t talk long, but unfortunately if I stay in this body any longer he won’t live to see tomorrow, and that would be so unfortunate.”

With that, Ian’s eyes changed back to their normal color and he fell down. Estelle ran over to him and started to shake him gently.

“Ian?” she said. “Ian? Are you okay?”

After several minutes, it became apparent that he wasn’t going to wake up any time soon. Estelle sighed and sat down next to him. ‘What is going on?’ she thought. ‘Why did that creature come here? And what happened to Ian? What was that… that thing that possessed him?’

Estelle looked up quickly when she heard footsteps approaching. Coming towards them was her grandmother.

“Grandma?” Estelle said, standing up. “What’s going on?”

“Shush, dear. I’ll explain everything later. For now, we have to get Ian to a safe place and you need to get some sleep.”