Conference Piece

Sabrina turned towards Amy.  “Do you hear that?” she whispered.  

            “Hear what?” Amy mumbled, as she looked up from her book. 

“It sounds like...”  Sabrina tilted her head to one side “…footfalls,” she decided.  “It’s unsteady though, like limping from an injury.” 

“Yeah, I hear it too.  It’s coming from the front of the house.”  She got up and gently set her book down on the chair.  Approaching the window, she extended her hand and drew back the curtain a fraction of an inch.  Her eyes grew big as she shook her head in disbelief.  “He’s back.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sabrina bolted out the door, Amy right behind her.  There he was, on the edge of their property, limping towards the house.  “Daddy!” Sabrina cried.  The girls ran to him and slowed down only to make sure they didn’t cause him pain by hitting his injured leg by accident.  Sabrina was as happy as she could be.  Amy, however, was quite troubled.  She knew she should be thrilled, but something just wasn’t right.  That’s when it happened.  One moment her father was in front of her, looking at her sister with blue eyes full of love, the next a horrid demon stood looming over her, glaring at her with red eyes full of hunger and spite.  Then the demon turned back into her father.  The demon had only been there for a second, but it was enough for Amy to confirm her suspicion. 

She grabbed her sister’s arm and spun her around.  “Sabrina, don’t trust him.  It’s not dad.  We get as far away from him as possible.”

Sabrina looked at Amy as if she had just slapped her in the face.  “What do you mean, it’s not dad?”

If only she had just ran when she had said they had to get away from him.  She would have been confused, but at least she wouldn’t have had to lose hope.  Now I’m going to have to tell her the truth and she’ll be heartbroken.    Forcing the words out of her mouth, she told her why they had to run.  “Sabrina, it’s a shapeshifter.” 

The little girl blinked tears out of her eyes.  “That means dad’s…”  She couldn’t bring herself to say it.

Amy nodded.  “Dad’s dead,” she said, finishing her sister’s sentence.

Shapeshifters were horrible creatures that fed on humans and animals. Most of them just ate animals for they didn’t dare to make themselves enemies of the human race, but there were a few like this one that didn’t care who their enemies were.

  Shapeshifters are able to turn into an exact replica of any of the humans that they had eaten.  They are able to have the same voices as the person, but they do not get any of that person’s knowledge.   The only way that you can tell if it’s the real person and not a shapeshifter is to ask them a question that only they would know the answer to.

Amy couldn’t help herself, she had to ask him.  It was her only hope.  “Dad, what is my name?”

“Why, it’s Amy of course,” he responded in his deep voice.

Amy turned to her sister.  “Run.”  It was a command. 

Her dad was the one that had told her of shapeshifters.  They had then agreed that if a situation like this ever occurred, she would ask him what her name was.  It was a trick question.  Her mother had wanted to name her amethyst, but her father refused to have his daughter named after a rock. Her mother won the argument, but when Sabrina came along, she was too little to say the big word, so she called her Amy and the nickname stuck.  If that had been her dad, he would have said her name was Amethyst.  So they ran.

Inside the house was a secret passageway that lead to an underground tunnel.  The tunnel ended outside a cave next to river in the middle of the woods.  They were in the tunnel now, still running, fueled with adrenalin and fear.   After a half an hour, they emerged from the tunnel, but they hadn’t been fast enough.  The shapeshifter was waiting for them, as soon as they came out, he ran to them, this time in his true form.  Paralyzed with fear, they stood there and stared as he ran at them, and all Amy could do was watch in horror as it scooped up Sabrina and ate her whole. 

The shock of her sister dying right in front of her unfroze her.  She sprinted through the woods and searched for a supply tower.  Amy threw open the door and grabbed a sword off one of the shelves.  Her sister walked in then and called for her.  When Amy didn’t come, she started to cry.  No, it’s not her.  It’s the shapeshifter.  It is trying to trick you and if you fall for it you will die just like your sister, she thought repetitively. Mustering up all the courage and strength she could, she sprang out from behind the door and thrust the sword through the monster.