A Strange Day In July

I was walking home from school one day to find a cat on my porch. It was black, and I looked into its eyes. One of the eyes was electric blue and the other was dark green. I walked into my house and looked back, the cat staring straight at me, following my every move. I walked in and shut the door to my room.
As I was getting ready to go to bed I opened my closet door and saw the same blue and green eyes haunting me in the darkness. I quickly closed the closet door and ran over to the window to close the shades. I could feel the multi-colored eyes watching me. I could feel it sink into my spine and it wouldn’t leave me alone.
I was extremely tired by the end of the day. I was also scared out of my mind even though I knew there was no reason to be. I knew the cat wasn’t in the house and I knew it wouldn’t do anything bad to me. It wouldn’t come back to eat me. It was just a strange stray cat, so I drifted off to sleep.
I had a strange dream; the multi-colored eyes were staring at me. They wouldn’t go away. They just kept peering at me. I felt like I knew those eyes. They felt familiar and it just kept coming back. I felt like something bad was going to happen but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
I woke up with a jolt.
“So, you awaken.” The boy sighed and then continued, “Hello, Melissa.”
I blinked a few times, trying to adjust my vision because what I was seeing could not be true. “K-Kyle… is that you?” I looked around the room and was clearly not in my house.
“It’s been a while hasn’t it?” He laughed.
“Why am I here?” I glared at him.
“Because the same thing is happening to you.” He was sitting on a black lounge chair reading today’s newspaper with his back facing me
I had no clue what he was talking about. “Where am I?” I knew he couldn’t see me, but I glared at him.
“In my underground home.”
“Underground?”
“Eh, it took a few years but it’s really spiffy now.” He turned his head to look at me. “You can’t fight it forever, Melissa.”
“Fight what?” I asked. I still don’t know what he’s talking about.
“Do you remember the first day we met?”
“Yes, like it was yesterday, why?” I remembered that day like it was yesterday.
“What happened that day Melie?” He called me by the nickname that he had made up for me.
And then… I remembered everything.1

I saw a boy throwing rocks into the water, each one going farther.
I didn’t want to bother him. I was scared that he might get mad if I did. Quietly, I climbed on a rock behind him, trying to see what he was up to. I could tell he was already angry at something because he threw them really hard.
He threw with all his might but the third one just came skipping back.
I gasped.
“I could tell you were there before you climbed onto the rock.” He turned his head toward me. Just to peek out of the corner of his eye.
“What was that?” I couldn’t believe what just happened. Maybe this was a dream. How could a rock come skipping backwards and end up in his palm?
“This is my rock.”
“Is it magical?” I touched it and it glowed with a yellow light when I put my finger on it.
“I guess so.” He smirked. “It lit up so I think you’re magical too.”
“Well I think I can talk to animals.” I played with my feet.
“That’s cool.”
“It’s weird.”
“Yes, it is. But, why are you here?”
“It’s pretty here, so I thought it might be a good day to go since the sun is up and Mom and Dad are at work.” I shrugged. “Why are you here?”
“My Mom and Dad don’t care where I am.”
“Is that why you’re so mad?”
“Yeah,” he threw the stone as hard as he could but it just came skipping back, again. “I just want good parents.” He wiped his eyes.
“I bet they do care. I know mine do. They have to… right?”
“Right.” He smiled threw his tears.
“Hey! You go to my school!” I just remembered!
“Yeah.”
“You’re Kyle.”
“And you’re Melissa. You’re on my bus so you must live near me.”
“Yep. But my house is private property so you can’t see it.”
“Mine too.”
That’s when the black cat came through the bushes and started stroking my leg and staring up at me adoringly.2

That was the strange day in July. I was five when I met Kyle, and that means I am now sixteen. Kyle was seven and he is now eighteen. I’m still in school and he just graduated. He got his own house I assume. I haven’t seen him in three years. He disappeared for some unknown reason. His family is rich just like mine and that’s where all his money comes from.
I gasped. “The cat…” My words trailed off as I whispered them.
“The cat is back as well as the stone. That is why I disappeared,” He stood up and walked over to the couch I was now lying on. He grabbed a dining chair and faced it toward me and continued, “So the stone couldn’t find me. Like I was saying before, you can’t fight it forever, Melie.”
“It will take over me if I don’t and when it does I won’t be able to control it.” I looked into his light brown eyes. “I don’t want it, Kyle.”
“It’ll keep returning, Melissa.”
“I don’t care. I’ll kill it.”
“You’re going to kill a huge part of you?”
“I’ll shut it down, cut it off from my mind,” I shrugged. “Anything to keep it hidden.”
“I feel as if you’re telling me you can do more than just speak to animals.”
Staring into the darkness and seeing the multi-colored eyes said, “I can become one.”
“Shape shift?”
“No. My mind just automatically becomes the animal I think about becoming. I get the same instincts and reflexes,” I sighed, “I wanted to forget about it but that cat just doesn’t quit.”
“We can control it. I met some people with the same magic that is controlled. They promised to teach us.”3


Two years later…4

Kyle and I live in his underground home. We learned how to control our magic, the strangers who Kyle knew taught us just like he said they would. I graduated last month and I’m planning to go to college with Kyle.
I’m still curious of what Kyle’s stone can truly do, but I will probably never find out.5