• Erik Johnson, an eighteen year old high school dropout and thug, was meandering down a country road outside his hometown. He was tall and muscular with short brown hair and dark, cold eyes. He was the kind of person that got what he wanted through hostility. Everyone in his hometown- with a population of about three-hundred people- feared and or avoided him. Erik’s favorite past time was making the lives of people- especially those with physical disabilities- completely miserable.

    At the moment Erik was bored and wasn’t in the mood to harass anyone, so he had decided to take a walk outside of town. He had been walking for half and hour and night had already fallen. He stopped under a light pole to figure out what he wanted to do now. After two of three minutes past, a small black cat appeared out of the bushes and slowly padded past him. Acting on a whim, Erik swiftly kicked the cat as hard as he could across the road. The cat made a noise that was a mixture of fright, pain, and displeasure.

    Erik laughed hysterically at the cat, whose golden eyes glared at him with rage. His laughter was cut off by a sharp whistle coming from a little further down the road. Both he and the cats head snapped in the direction the whistle had come. There, stood a woman dressed in black pants and a black jacket. She was short and frail looking with long raven hair and amber eyes flecked with gold.

    The cat darted forward, climbed her like a tree, and situated itself in her hood with its head and front paws on her right shoulder. She looked at the cat as if it were telling her something important. The woman’s expression gradually turned angry. After a moment her gaze drifted to Erik. Her eyes were ablaze with fury. Finally, she spoke.

    “Did you kick my cat?” She interrogated fiercely.

    “Yeah, so what if I did?” Erik retorted.

    “Why? You had no right to do such a cruel thing.” Her voice was disgusted.

    Erik snorted. “I’m Erik Johnson, and I can do what I want!”

    “Tch. I’m Aeva Rubere’ and I say you can’t!” Erik glared at Aeva. She was the first person to ever question or stand up to him. She glared into his eyes and he glared into hers. After a moment, Erick stiffened and broke eye contact. He had gotten the sudden feeling that she was staring into his soul.

    It was silent for a moment until Aeva spoke. “Hmm, I see… you’re a power hungry fool who uses fear and violence to get what you want. You have a truly weak soul.” Her voice was very matter-of-fact. This enraged Erik.

    “Weak?!” He shouted at her “I could take you right here and now!”

    “We’ll see.” Aeva said darkly as she glanced at the cat perched on her shoulder. The cat tensed for a moment, then bolted towards Erik and ran past him, biting his ankle as it went. Erik yelped in pain and spun around. His leg swung full force towards the smaller mammal which dodged the kick fluidly and darted down the road and into bushes. Erik stood in confusion for a minute, staring after the cat. Then he began to laugh.

    “It looks like your precious cat is a bloody coward!” He laughed and waited for a response. Instead, he heard a noise that made him stiffen in sheer terror. It was a sound he had only heard on TV and he had heard it enough to recognize it. It was the low snarl of a big cat. He turned slowly. Not wanting to make any sudden movements and dreading that he was right. There, black as a starless night sky, stood a large black panther. Aeva was nowhere in sight. The panther’s muscles tensed as the panther crouched, releasing another snarl. Without warning, the creature pounced, claws outstretched and jaws wide, teeth glittering in the moonlight. Erik screamed and fainted.

    When Erik came to, he was greeted by the blinding sterile whiteness of a hospital room and the steady beating of a monitor. He gazed around drowsily and tried to raise his hands to his head. His arms remained immobile and oddly, he couldn’t feel them, he couldn’t feel his legs either. He lifted his head in attempts to see them and was horrified by what he saw. He could see his body, but his arms and legs were gone. He screams of horror reverberated throughout the entire hospital.

    Meanwhile, Aeva and her cat were at the edge of a forest that was on the outskirts of town. Shea heard Erik’s scream via her heightened hearing. She had been waiting for his reaction to his sudden bodily changes for the last two days. Her expression was blank and uncaring as she turned and said to seemingly no one in particular, “May this serve as your life punishment for all the people you’ve wronged in your life. Hopefully in due time you’ll change the way you treat people.” With that she ran into the trees, her cat running beside her. After a few yards, Aeva leaned forward as if she were going to run on all fours. As she did, her body contorted and changed until all human features were stripped away and replaced by the slick black features of a panther.