FSE

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Three in the afternoon. I yawned, staring up at the clock on the dresser across the room. I had nodded off to sleep several times since the nightmare.

It was not so much that I wasn't reacting to the terrible dream. You'd normally expect to stay awake for awhile after something that intense... it's just... I had just felt... unusually tired. I'd needed more sleep. Too much to be afraid.

'Your body is coping with my presence. You may begin to feel the urge to sleep at unusual hours of the day. Foxes are not truly daytime animals--you will find yourself most active in the early mornings, and at twilight, because of this.' He later explained.

I did not ask him about the dream... but he seemed unusually quiet--lenient and not snarky. So perhaps he too, had experienced it. I didn't really care, at that point, to be honest.

It was chilly, as I got out of bed. I felt... feverish. So I decided I'd get under some hot water for awhile. When I reached for my doorknob, something felt odd. I couldn't put a thumb on it.

It didn't hit me until after I'd gotten into the bathroom again, and begun stripping my clothes to get a shower, what was amiss. My nails had returned. There weren't any scars, or scabs, or even a sign that I'd had claws before my rest.

"Oh, so you've finally noticed. Do you like what I did for your body, in your sleep?"

"Wait, what?" I shook my head, looked again, and saw inch-long black claws.

"Haha, do you get it now? Even had YOU fooled for a second."

Then I understood why I'd been confused before. The tactile element of touching the knob had still been different from all the past times I'd done it. My nails had looked like they always should have, but it felt wrong--like they were longer and thicker, and scraped the surface of the door before the rest of my fingers could wrap around the handle. Because they were. Because they had.

"Wait. So you made them look like human nails. But I'm still changed? How?"

"Illusion. One of my powers. Do you like it? I can even slow your mind registering the tactile difference, with a bit of concentration. Keep an even keel, and we can fool anyone into seeing you as just a regular old human being."

"I AM a regular 'old' human being!" I protested, wriggling out of my jeans. The waistband caught on something palpable. Something that shouldn't have been there.

"Hehehe... You can say it fervently, but I don't really think so."

I felt down my back. Please be normal skin. Please be flat, and not what I think it is.

I screamed. For at least the third time that day.

* * *

I hadn't started smelling like wet fur yet, so that was at least one thing. I was able to calm myself a bit under the hot, steady stream of the shower.

I squirted some body lotion onto a washcloth, and began massaging the sudsy rag over my shoulders.

I sat on the bathtub's shelf, and felt the cool tile on my little nub. It was at least two inches long, and I could wiggle it between my buttcheeks.

"This can't keep going on. I've got to get an exorcist for you. Get you into the body of someone other than me, while I still have a body that's recognizable as mine."

"I would not suggest it."

"Of course you wouldn't, you want me to turn into your perfect body. To be a stinking fox."

"That is not the reason I would not suggest it. By exposing your nature, you risk endangering both of us--not just me."

"How do you figure that?" I growled, squeezing my vestigial tail with the coarse soapy fibers of the rag, and washing it.

"There are three kinds of people who will hear your call--first, your parents, who will less than logically assume you're simply under duress, and need professional counseling. Which is probably not far off, considering your introverted character."

"Gee, thanks for knowing me so well." It was a half-hearted complaint--he was probably right about my parents--they'd think I'd completely lost it, if I told them I was possessed. "But what if I do the research on my own, and hire an exorcist?"

"Your endeavors will draw the other two kinds of people, should you attempt that."

"Those being?" I grumbled.

"Charletons who will try to turn your case into something they think they can make money or a name for themselves, out of. Or an actual exorcist."

"And the latter is bad? For someone other than you, I mean?"

"The latter could well get you killed. If there actually IS anyone you can--rather serendepitously--get ahold of, who actually KNOWS about how posession even works, chances are it's going to be someone who'd just as soon kill the body to keep you from becoming a menace. It's much easier to deal with a spirit who is NOT holding a human's soul as hostage."

"So I'm your hostage now, is that it?" I poked.

"That is the closest comparison I can make to how an outsider would see it. Personally, I value your presence. Do you know what it's like to be invisible and out of touch with the world around you? Not that you're exactly a brilliant conversationalist, but your company is preferable to going back to that pet store."

"I'm touched." I whispered, stepping out of the downpour to squeeze cold shampoo into my hair. "Why were you in a pet store, anyway?" I asked.

"I enjoy the company of other animals. As well as it being a place many humans frequent. And it was a good place to feed, once I had found a host... as you discovered."

"Thanks again for that. Are we ever going to get some normal food together, or are all our dinner dates just going to be over a box of mice?"

"Ha ha ha. Cute. Maybe I'll make it a rabbit we chase, next time. I think your body wants the exercise--you humans these days are all so sedentary."

My leg literally lifted on its own. I swear it was trying to bend to scratch my side, or maybe even an ear.

"Stop that!"

"Stop what? Oh, your body. I thought that was your job. Haha..."

"Stinking fox! I'm going to get you exorcised!"

He let out the most raucous laugh.

"Hahaha! We'll see about that! So, what's your name, my youthful, supple body?"

"It's Terry." I growled.

"Very well, Terrence. I think I will call you 'Shin'--for belief. Because you believe you will be rid of me--but I believe you will enjoy becoming a fox. We will see whose beliefs are better founded."

"You ask for my name, and then decide you're not going to use it? What kind of dumb request is that?"

"Oh, it's a very meaningful request, Shin. Names have meaning, you understand--including names that people give you, as well as names you call yourself. Terry, for instance... means you are treated as a child--a pet. But Terrence means you are a ruler of people--which is fitting, because I desire to rule over many, many people. It's a good name, but not the one I have given you."

"And why the hell should I care what you call me? My name is Shin!"

I backpedaled a step in shock, and literally palmed my face.

"I mean, it's Terry!"

"Haha... you'll get used to it, Shin. In time, you won't even care about what people call you--you'll have your name. My precious Shin."

I almost slipped in the tub. "Stop calling me that!"

"Shin, Shin, Shin." He said bemused, in his stuffy, intellectual voice.

God, fine. Whatever! What the hell's your name then?

"Ooh. You're asking for my name! That's ambitious!"

"Well? How about 'stinking fox'?"

"Well. It's not the name I was born with, for I have no such thing--few wild animals do, you understand. You may call me "Shichi"--which means 'seven'. It's hardly the name I have chosen for myself, you see, but it describes my beautiful tails quite accurately, for I've seven of those."

"Give me a break. You want me to call you Seven?"

"Shichi. Call me that. Say it. Shee-chee."

"Okay, okay. Fine. Shichi."

So that was how the rest of the afternoon went--with me getting pruny in the shower, and the spirit making his introductions. Our conversations devolved into jabbing and poking fun at each other, until I finally got out.

I did not even see his body, anymore. I only heard his voice, so close to me... and felt the changes he had made to my own form, palpable and sensitive. I hid the tail he'd begun to give me in my pants, and slipped out into the hall, and back for my room, where I nodded off into a quiet, dreamless sleep.

"My beautiful Shin."