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It was the unheard words that broke Shelly, and all the plans canceled and rescheduled. Not any one event by itself, but the cumulative mountain of every single little thing, which all came crashing down one night when the clock struck 3:30 PM; an hour after Finn promised to come by her room to look over some marine fossils. She was sure he hadn’t meant any harm. But as the minutes slipped by, it only added more and more to the burning ache in her heart every time she glanced at the box of fossils. Normally that should cheer her up, but she had to pull herself away from it all to stop the overwhelming urge to cry.
It wasn’t the fault of the fossils that she felt like it. It was the fault of the echoes in her head; of things she’d planned to do with others, of things she’d wanted to show ears that never heard and eyes that never saw. It was the same echoes that had nearly broke her once when she found a piece of old cave art she thought Brusha would like, only to remember the last argument that was why she didn’t talk to Brusha much anymore these days.
They bounced against her bones, those echoes. Rattling, seeking to be released. A thousand tales she’d never get to tell anyone, by no apparent fault of hers. But no one ever threw her attention when she needed it, and she was too kind to burden the others with things they clearly didn’t want.
Shelly found herself cramming into the corner of an old storage closet, arms wrapped around her knees tight as a Tyrannosaur’s vice-like bite. She shifted back and forth, trying to find a comfortable angle to curl up against the wall, but there was none to be found against the cold, hard surface. No comfort to be had for the forgotten.
No one ever remembered. Not even after all she remembered about them. She always kept track of when the others needed her, was always there for them when they asked. Goodness knows how many nights she spent by someone else’s side, assuring them everything would be okay. But she only had one person she could maybe, just maybe, consider a friend like that. And Tisha had been so busy chasing after mysterious messes that Shelly hadn’t seen her much at all anymore.
…She didn’t forget too, did she…?
Somehow, Shelly felt too big for the space in that closet, even though she’d been here enough times before to know she fit perfectly. It was like the walls were closing in around her, worsening the suffocating grief clawing at her chest. No matter how she twisted, she still felt the walls digging into her ribs. It was a stupid idea to think they might break under such miniscule pressure, but the thought was still in her head. A fossil, though hard as rock, was still easy to fracture.
Another shuffle as her spine uncomfortably leaned against the surface… Why were her bones so fragile tonight…? Wait.
Her eyes snapped open in the dark closet. Not dark; dim red. Like someone had replaced the hallway lights outside with red bulbs, and left them on. Of course there was no way someone could’ve done so without her noticing, or even so suddenly. The lights had been normal when she’d closed her eyes. And they’d been off. So how could she see surprisingly clearly?
Her bones ached as she attempted to twist herself out from the corner she’d hidden in. She’d managed to get herself well squished in there apparently. It took some effort to manage to crawl out. With a few huffs of effort, she managed to get herself sprawled onto the floor on her stomach. Her feet pushed against the wall she’d been sitting against, as she twisted to look back at her torso to find out why she was so sore.
Bones.
Her torso was…
Shelly writhed up onto her feet, breath catching painfully in her throat as she rose, and rose- much taller than she ought to be. She could see the higher shelves of the closet now. She was, so horribly, not supposed to be able to do that.
She needed to look down, but her head refused to turn. She’d caught a glimpse of it. She knew the truth, but she just…
She took a choking breath and glanced down quickly. Her entire torso down was replaced with ichor-coated bone. No wonder she’d felt the pain in her ribs, she’d been unknowingly pressing them directly against the walls of the closet.
An electrifying surge of discomfort shot through her nerves, like the strike of a meteor, making her involuntarily stomp her feet to be rid of it. The terrible claws stepped in something wet on the floor, at the same time as liquid sprayed onto the side of her face from some point to the side of her head.
“Agh-!” She wiped at the liquid, her hand coming away from the splotch black with ichor. A few splats alerted her to several drops landing on the floor beside her. Oh dear.
Oh dear.
Oh, Tisha was going to hate this. Ichor all on the floor, possibly staining the fabric. She knew how much Tisha hated to get ichor stained out of clothes. She’d already been so frustrated with all the odd ichor stains appearing around Gardenview lately. She was going to hate her for this, and then Shelly would be all alone again and- a-and…!
Her unnatural tail slammed into a shelf, sweeping the contents onto the floor, only worsening the panic coursing through her. She might question her priorities if she were a bit more coherent, however future her would have to forgive; she was kind of a Twisted at the moment. Her concerns were more so about her imminent loss of all her friends and further plummet into obscurity. If only Shannon were here…
If only…
Shelly was unsteady on her black raptor legs, toppling sideways into the other wall of the closet with a loud thud. A growl escaped her at the painful jolt to her shoulder. Such a terrible and feral growl, that startled her into silence from the countless times she’d heard it echo from the depths.
Black tears stained the floor beneath her eyes as she laid there, curled into a ball. Her hands grasped the end of the new tail, hugging it for support as if it wasn’t also causing a good deal of her distress. Her breaths were rough and heaving as the compact room finally settled into quiet once more. The red dark pressed against her, weighing down her skin, scale, and bone. Fear tinged at her chest; venomous as a Sinornithosaurus. Each second stretched to an era as she laid there.
Each second added another layer of dread like sediment to her heart. Any moment someone would come to investigate the noise and find her; a Twisted. Would she lash out in primal instinct? They would surely cast her to the depths. That was if anyone even thought to come look for her at all. With the track record…
The weight carried her into the dark, breathing slowly evening out.
The fear quieted.
For now.
.
…
“...Shelly?”
“...Are you in there….?”
…
“...Oh goodness… Are you alright-??”