PATH OF CHANGE

By Seth Campbell

Part Two


I heard the door open. My new ears perked upwards almost immediately. I forgot to bolt the door to my flat. And because I have a roommate, I probably should've bolted it even more. I prayed to Raida that it was Adrian.

"Cecil?" I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing it was Adrian's voice. "You in here?" He asked as he entered my lab, carrying a basket of groceries. "I went and bought this week's food. So next week, it's your turn-" Adrian stopped in his tracks when he saw me.

We just stared at each other. I couldn't move since I felt incredibly awkward and he couldn't move because he was staring at what looked like a demon. I wrestled against the awkward and broke the silence.

"Hey Adrian," I casually waved my hand. "It's me, Cecil. Whad'ya think?" Adrian just stood there. The fact that it was still me seemed to make him even more confused.

"Wh... Wh-What is this? I don't even..." Adrian's mind seemed to have been broken. After some facial contortions, he was able to form words again. "Let me get this straight; you're Cecil."

I replied, "Yes."

"And you look like a demon," he continued. "What happened?"

"I turned myself into one."

"Oh," he took a deep breath. "Why would you do this?!"

He seemed more weirded out than angry or hateful, so I felt a bit optimistic. "Let me start from the beginning," I sat down and began to explain to him how I had grown to resent my humanity as a child and how I made my decision during the presentation. The whole time, he seemed to understand.

"So you decided to turn yourself into a demon;" he was still trying to take all of this in.

"Yes," I hoped he would be accepting. "To be honest, I feel more alive in this new form than I did before."

Adrian looked down in contemplation and took a deep breath. "Well," he began. "I've seen weirder things." He gets back up. "Besides," I get back up too." I've done some pretty weird crap so I can't judge." His words made me optimistic. "If this is what you want; and since you've gone this far it probably means it is."

"This <i>is</i> what I want." My voice didn't falter the slightest. "This is what I <i>am</i>."

Adrian picked the basket back up. "I'm gonna put this stuff away." He started heading back for the flat. "Next week, it's your turn." He went inside.

"Okay," I chimed. I looked back at the mirror. A furry purple demon looked back at me. I ruffled my claws through my still brown hair.

"Hey Cecil!" Adrian popped his head out through the door. "How do you plan on going out in public?"

"I'm just gonna act like I did before," I didn't really understand why he asked the question. "Why are you asking?"

"I don't think you're gonna be the most popular guy." Of course I wasn't the most popular even guy when I was human.

"So?" I didn't really care what people thought.

"This should be interesting," Adrian muttered to himself and shrugged as he went back inside again. I walked back up to the mirror and inspected my still green eyes.


I looked at and tested my new form for the rest of the day until the sun was down. The sensation of being covered in fur, having claws, and a tail was fascinating. The fur made it so that I could feel the slightest touch or breeze against my skin. The claws felt like my fingertips were solid. (probably because they were) And the tail was the most fascinating; it felt like having a fifth limb that I could feel and control. I couldn't grip anything with it, but I still loved it.

"Cecil!" Adrian called out. "Dinner!" I pulled myself from the mirror and went into the flat.

Excluding the lab, (which was a converted barn) it was a small three room setup: A kitchen/living room, a communal sleeping room, and a bathroom. It was the best me and Adrian could afford pooling our money together. Adrian was setting a platter of grilled shreds of beef on the small table in the middle of the room. We each sat down in our chairs, grabbed our skewers, and tucked in.

"So," Adrian chimed in between mouthfuls. "Whad'ya gonna do now that you've finished school?"

I briefly paused mid bite to think about it. "I'm not entirely sure." I twirled the skewer around in my claws. At the other end, it's a spoon. "I think I'll continue studying and open an enchantment service.

"You gonna turn people into demons?" Adrian was dripping with sarcasm.

"Only if they pay well," I quipped back. Me and Adrian joked a lot. We were friends since we were kids. When we went off from our home in the Seventh City to go to the Academy, we decided to bunk together.

We continued eating when we heard a knock at the door. Adrian immediately turned to me. "Do you wanna go while I get the door?"

"No," I understood why he would ask me that. "I didn't go through this just so I could shut away from the world." I got up. "I'll get it." I headed for the front door with Adrian frozen in shock.

I opened the door to find Clement, a friend of Adrian. "Hey Clement," he just glared at me. "You here to see Adrian?" Clement continued staring at me while I turned back towards Adrian. "Yo Adrian! It's Clement!" Adrian just stood there. I turned back towards a still shocked Clement. "He'll be here in a minute."

Clement tried to form words. "W... Wh... Whoa!" Clement's face exploded with glee. "Cecil! How did you... What did you... <u>Awesome</u>!"

I was taken completely back by his enthusiasm. "You like?"

"Like?" He was still geeking out. "I love it! It's weird. It's dark. I love it."

"Dark?" Adrian had reached words. "He's purple. When is purple ever dark?"

"He's a demon," Clement was still euphoric. "That's awesome!" Clement was also part of the Counter-Culture community. He hated the status quo, so someone turning themselves into the traditional symbol for rebellion was a dream come true. Throw in the fact that the Flag of the Revolution was a purple demon against a beige banner, and you get both the reason that I picked this form (my grandfather was credited with designing it) and why Clement was so happy.


We pulled up a third chair and Clement joined us for dinner and the philosophical ramblings of a drunk guy and a furry purple demon. Again, I explained how I had come to do this; and he loved every word of it.

"I gotta tell the guys about this." He was still high and wasn't coming down. "They will freak out."

"Knock yourself out," I encouraged him. I started wondering why Adrian thought I wouldn't be "the most popular guy"; it seemed like I might have started something. I got up. "I'm gonna go and get some fresh air." I headed for the door.

"Knock yourself out." Clement chimed as I exited the flat out onto the street.

The street was pretty quaint. People were heading down the cobblestone road guided by gas lights. Out flat was at the end of a row of similar brick buildings with a wooden barn tacked on at the end. I leaned against the lamp post next to the front door, took a deep breath of the night air, and just mellowed out.

I just reclined against that post for probably not even a whole minute before I heard a high pitched scream. I looked up to see a woman being cradled in her significant other's arms. I stood up and extended my hand towards the couple.

"Hi," I smiled to the man's confusion and the woman's fright. "Lovely night." The man pulled his girlfriend away from me in a defensive reflex.

"Stay away from us, you monster!" My eyebrows and ears perked up in unison at the man's reaction.

"Monster?" It took a second to realize why he'd be afraid. "Oh... Don't worry, I'm human; well, used to be." They seemed to be both more confused and even more frightened.

"You... used to be... human...?" The man's confusion was starting to overstay its welcome.

"Yes." I explained for the third time that day. "I used to be human but I changed my form to this." The man's face changed from utter confusion to complete disgust faster than I could've processed.

"You, you, you," he was trying to get the words out. "<u>You're an <i>abomination</i>!</u>" He shouted out and pointed at me like a child who caught his brother with his hand in the cookie jar.

My ears perked back as he continued shouting various insults at me to the point that Adrian, Clement, and the entire street was coming out of their homes to see what was going on.