Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

T he laughter moved closer still, until it was practically even with her ear. It sent a shiver down her spine as she recoiled away from it. Who the heck was here, and where exactly was here to begin with? she wondered.

Mary felt something scratch along her arm, which deeply frightened her and jolted her into a fully seated position. "Who's there?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. She still couldn't make out much in the darkness, but as she focused on the cause of the arm scratch, she noticed it was a hand. However the hand was unlike any hand she'd ever seen before. It was gray and clawed, like some kind of animal which only served to heighten her terror.

She followed the arm up to the dense gray body that hovered next to her. What she was seeing couldn't be real. She couldn't really be seeing a gray monster. Monsters didn't exist, so she had to be hallucinating.

It was the only sane explanation. But as her eyes focused more and more the shape beside her became more grotesque. It was as if she was looking at something that did not exist in the human world, some sort of animal human. She couldn't imagine that her mind had created such a thing, but then here she was looking at it, so it must have.

The creature had enormous, pointed ears. It was short, only reaching her ear-level as she lay on this table. It had a thin figure that was entirely gray. A hooked nose protruded out from the monster's face just below baleful yellow eyes. On its head was long, wild white-gray hair that looked stiff and brittle. Its gray skin was covered in warts and bumps. And the creature had been and was still touching her.

Mary recoiled some more, pulling her clothing closer to her body, but then realized she wasn't wearing her clothes. Instead she was wearing some kind of thin, white gown. In that moment, the creature moved away from her toward something in the corner of the room.

The creature picked something up from the floor. “This will do nicely,” the raspy voice said.

Mary didn't know what was happening. The creature was holding up the dress she'd been wearing when she was shot. She watched as the creature put the dress on. It was really much too big for her. "That's mine," she murmured, her voice coming out like a whisper, as though she hadn't spoken in some time.

“Mary Cahill. Mary Cahill. Mary Cahill. I am thee and you are me. Mary Cahill. Mary Cahill. Mary Cahill. I am thee and you are me,” the creepy creature repeated again and again as it moved to Mary and held her down with such force that Mary grew extremely fearful.

Panic flooded her body as she struggled beneath the clawed grip on her body. “What is happening? What are you doing? Get off of me! Stop touching me! Where are the doctors? I want to speak with someone!” she cried. But as the words flowed from her mouth, her voice turned from her normal Brooklyn accent and soft feminine tone to the creature's raspy one. In fact it got increasingly more like the creature repeating the words and hovering over her.

In that moment Mary felt very dizzy. Her eyes closed again as she struggled to keep them open. She felt pain shooting through her entire body as though the very cells inside of her were burning. She opened her eyes and looked down at her arm just in time to see it turn into the same gray skin that the creature had. And then she looked to the creature and noticed that the voice was becoming more and more like Mary's as the white-gray hair on the creature's head turned to a rich black color just like Mary's.

“No. What is happening here? Why are you doing this to me?” Mary said.

“It is done. The transformation is complete.” the voice said. But the voice was no longer a screechy, raspy voice. Instead it sounded exactly like Mary but without the Brooklyn accent. It laughed a light laugh. "Oh this is exactly what I wanted."

Mary looked at the creature who now wore her face and was shocked. The creature was an almost exact replica of her own human form. She was so stunned she was silent. Then she looked down at her own body and saw that it was no longer one she recognized. She had turned into the gray-skinned creature as though they had changed bodies.

In that moment, the creature laughed again and dashed away toward a doorway. Laughing and giggling the entire way.

“Wait! Stop! What have you done to me? Don't leave!” Mary shouted after her.

But it was no use. I creature continued running as the voice became more distant. Mary knew she didn't have a choice. She needed to go after the creature to get her body back and find some answers.

However, Mary was still very weak and it took a lot of her energy to sit upright. She shook her head violently from side to side, forcing herself to wake up.

She slid off the table and looked around. The room remained dark and nobody answered her cries. She'd have to follow the sound of the creature's laughter since she had no idea where she was. She knew it wasn't a hospital, but where she was still remained a mystery. She took a step and faltered on her new feet. Feet that were relatively large compared to her new body. It was as if she were a new baby foal just learning to walk. She stumbled toward the doorway the creature had gone through, grabbing onto the cold wall as she passed through.

She took another step and another until she was holding onto the wall and moving down the hallway where she had watched her own body disappear. She entered a maze of hallways and followed as quickly as she could.

Her hands, which were now the hands of that creature, held onto the wall keeping her weight up and on her new feet. The sound of laughter from her own voice was getting quite distant. It was a bizarre thing to hear her own voice somewhere in the distance but not coming from her own mouth.

This has to be a nightmare, she thought. There is no other explanation. I have to be dreaming all of this. I just need to wake up.

She didn't know exactly why she was chasing the woman who now looked like her, if this simply was a nightmare but it seemed like she had no other choice even in a dream. Perhaps if she could find the woman and catch her that would be the key to waking up from the dream and coming out of surgery. With that idea in mind, she continued to follow herself down the hallway.