Beloved

Chapter Twenty-One

I sat down on the chair in front of the desk, while he sat down behind it. Opening a drawer, he pulled out an ancient-looking book. He seemed to search for a special chapter of the book. Pages with illustrations of animals flashed as he turned several pages. Once he had found what he wanted, he pushed the book over the desk.

"Read this chapter. It might seem weird, but read it." He told me. I nodded before turning my gaze down to the book.

History of the shape shifters

I looked up at Emanual with furrowed brows. What was this about? He only sent back a gaze, which told me to continue.

Many years ago, the Native American tribe - Fox Tribe - habited an area in North America. In the nearby woods, lived the spirit-God Wisakachek. The spirit-God was a shapeshifter, whose default shape was a great and powerful wolf. Wisakachek lived in harmony with the humans, who were oblivious to his ability to shift from human to animal.

One day, as Wisakachek roamed the woods in human form, he saw two young men enter the woods. They were named Keme and Matchitehew and were brothers. Wisakachek watched them as they hunted, and when they had caught a deer, Wisakachek decided to approach them. He portrayed himself as a hungry human from another tribe. He asked for a small piece of the deer to eat. The two boys didn't see any wrong with helping a hungry stranger, and gave Wisakachek a piece of the deer.

Two weeks later, Wisakachek saw the two brothers hunting again. But as the day went by, the ended up with no kill. Wisakachek approached them again, and the two brothers told him about the hunger of the tribe, and how they hadn't caught anything in two weeks. Wisakachek told them he had no meat to offer them, but gave them the power of shapeshifting as wolves. The only condition was that the gift was only for hunting, never for harming humans. The brothers gratefully accepted the gift.

Months went by, and the two brothers hunted as wolves everyday to bring back food to the tribe. That was till one of the brothers, Matchitehew got in a disagreement with another boy from the tribe. The argument turned into a fight, and Matchitehew shifted into a wolf and effortlessly killed the boy. The tribe feared the two boys, who had kept their ability a secret, and they were cast out of the tribe. Matchitehew and Keme were forced to live in the woods.

Wisakachek heard what Matchitehew had done and became furious. He cast a new spell on the boy, so he now no longer could transform whenever he pleased. Matchitehew was now forced to stay human every day and be a bloodthirsty wolf every night.

Keme, being innocent, stayed as he was and could shapeshift whenever he wanted.

The two brothers separated in the woods, following two very different paths.

I kept my eyes locked on the last words. My head was filled with questions, but the most prominent one was: Did he actually believe this?

"So," Emanual began, when he noticed my eyes lifting from the page. "Any questions?"

"What is this?" The man behind the desk looked dumbfounded by my abrupt questions, and he stayed quiet for a small moment.

"It's the story behind all of this. It's the beginning of it all." He nodded slowly after he spoke, as if he was assuring himself that his answer was good enough.

"I know this seems crazy," hell yes, it does, "but you need to believe me."

"I don't think I can," I stood up and pushed the book away from the edge of the desk. If I didn't already think Emanual was insane, this would definitely change my opinion of him. Believing this was crazy. It's a myth and a story, maybe with the purpose of showing people not to misuse what's given to you, but that's all. This didn't actually happen.

"I'll have to make you believe me, then." His voice was quieter, almost as if he was speaking to himself. He stood up, looked at me, while he clenched and unclenched his jaw. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't move for a small while.

"Make me believe? What do you mean, Emanual?" I took a small step towards him while giving him a confused look, waking him from his daze. He sighed and looked me straight in the eyes.

"Please don't make me regret this." He took my hand in his and dragged me back out of the office. The hallway was just as busy as before. People were discreetly eyeing me up and down, making me feel out of place. Well, that's basically what I was. I looked and acted different from these people. Everyone was model-like and looked like they lived in the gym. As they continued glancing at me, I started wondering; did everyone here believe that story? Did they worship this spirit-God Wisakachek? Did all of these people wish to have the gift of changing from human to animal?

We exited the enormous house and went through a small part of the woods. Numerous small paths were engraved across the forest ground, but they seemingly didn't confuse Emanual. It was less than 24 hours since I had been wandering lost around this area, which seemed almost surreal. I thought I had ended up lost because of the dark, but now I doubted it would've been different with the ability to see properly.

"Okay, I guess this will be the place." He stopped and turned around. His hands found each other and he squeezed his palms together. The act of nervousness surprised me. He had never struck me as the anxious type, but right now, as he stood and squirmed before me, he looked like a little schoolboy.

"Please don't freak out. What I'm gonna show you will probably scare you, but please don't run away from me." He stepped towards me and took my hands in his. I nodded slowly, but avoided promising anything. What was he going to do?

He dropped my hands and they dumped down on my sides. Stepping back, he exhaled deeply. His hands grabbed the bottom hem of his shirt, pulling his shirt over his torso. My expression changed from anxious to confused in the matter of seconds, when he continued throwing off his clothing.

"What are you doing?"

"You'll see." He simply answered. His boxers fortunately stayed untouched. My eyes had taken several trips across his athletic body, but I wouldn't know what to do with myself if he decided to fully undress himself.

"Don't run, okay?" He firmly said. I nodded, while my thoughts were running wild. In my mind, I was trying to think of every possible thing he could do, but nothing seemed to add up. What could he possibly show me? The man in front of me hunched his back, while taking deep breaths. My eyes were glued to him, anxious to see what he was going do.

What happened before me made my blood run cold. Everything in my being froze in that moment.

For Emanual did exactly what the spirit-God did.

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Hii beautiful people!

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