Come Selahway With Me…

Hey there TT fans! It’s another Tuesday and that means another word prompt. This week the prompt is sky and my tidbit comes from an idea I’ve been playing with for years about a teenage girl and a sudden transformation.  Hopefully using this prompt to kick-start my brain again will get me working on it for real.

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Cassie had tried to ignore the feeling for weeks, but being cooped up in the house was killing her. Truth be told she had enough to deal with. Her scales that had been hiding under her skin for so long were still tender and new, and the horns that had sprouted almost overnight took some getting used to, especially when she rolled over in her sleep. The procession of doctors her parents smuggled in were obnoxious, and the fact that neither they nor her older sister refused to look at her or talk directly to her unless forced to was hurtful. But there was one thing that she just couldn’t shake, and that was that being inside was killing her.

Not only did the wings that had burst out of her back take up a massive amount of space, but a deep, trembling need was gnawing her soul apart. No food or treat could help her ignore it, nothing she owned could distract her. Even though her situation and her family’s reaction kept her up at night, it still didn’t distract her from the urge that was so deep it surely was in her blood. Every second of every hour she found herself looking towards the covered windows, the longing so much a part of her core that it was all she could do keep herself from breaking down or clawing her way through a wall. But even though the windows had been covered with heavy curtains to prevent anyone from looking in, Cassie knew it was still out there, waiting for her, calling to her.

The sky. The vast, unlimited, stretch of blue was marred only by rooftops and clouds. She could smell it working its way into the house, could taste it waiting for her. It wasn’t calling for her; it was screaming for Cassie to get out in it. Every time she thought of the open air waiting for her her wings thrummed with anticipation and irritation the more they remained caged up and unable to fully open. The first time she’d sat through a thunderstorm after her transformation the thunder had nearly made her heart burst wide open with the joy that streaked through her at the sound. In her excitement the downy, membranous wings had burst to their full span, sending her mother’s favorite lamp to the floor to shatter. Her father’s cheek had also been cut open by the edge of a wing, proving for certain that they weren’t as soft and delicate as they looked.

All Cassie could do was pace and try to behave. “This is stupid,” she muttered and adjusted her position on the couch for the thousandth time. “I know it’s out there. People know I’m in here…or I guess they do. Who knows at this point?” Besides the TV her only companion of the moment was the family cat, and even he’d skittered off somewhere, either freaked out or bored by her – it was hard to tell which.

A weird cramp in her back made the girl start and she growled in frustration; the damn wings kept creeping up behind her. Even when she thought she was aware of their position, they moved on their own. With a low curse she draped them over the couch arm and tried to pay attention to whatever talk show was on. “When they have something about what I’m going through, then I’ll listen,” she complained to the stale air.

She hadn’t expected her life to suddenly become a prison. Hell, she hadn’t expected that popping one pimple would reveal that she was something other than human. It was suffocating, restricting, claustrophobic to try to sit in a house and be the same person she had been. It was maddening to try to walk anywhere and not send anything flying. The house wasn’t that big, though Cassie was beginning to wonder since her parents and sibling seemed to excel at finding hiding places whenever they were at home. “I don’t get it. It’s not like I’m not trying. Besides, it’s not like I’m any different!” she grumbled, then caught herself clicking the curling talons on her right hand together. Even her grin at the irony was sharp and the fangs pricked her lower lip. “Inside, inside I’m not any different,” she amended, but it was getting painfully obvious that she couldn’t go backwards. It wasn’t like Cassie could put her old skin back and pretend that it was all a joke. The only way to go was forward, but she was torn between the pull of what she was expected to be, what she should have been, and the never-ending, siren scream of the sky that was only a door away, waiting for her.

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