Green-Eyed

To say Chelsea felt unsettled would be a severe understatement. The morning had begun like any other, quiet and lonely… but peaceful. Now, however, she found herself shifting in a barely comfortable seat, surrounded on all sides by freaks and oddities. Her pulse rose with the swell of her anxiety, yet fatigue was beginning to creep in. There had been no word from Doctor Arzt since he’d shut them out. ‘2-3 hours’ was now slowly dragging into five and everyone was fast growing antsy. Save for the detective, no one else had elected to go home.

John and his cosplaying girlfriend had volunteered to bring everybody lunch, though Chelsea had elected not to eat. They might have looked like harmless sandwiches, but she was by no means ready to trust any meal served up by the slimy creature behind the cafeteria counter - despite being able to “see right through” the creature, as it were.

She’d tried to occupy her mind with trifles on Reddit with Sam, but not even r/aww could heal her ailing mind. One eye always flickered back to the monstrosities that filtered through the waiting room. Creatures far too small or far too thin. Creatures with bestial features or leathery green skin. Some had knife-like ears which even Chelsea could recognise as elven, but others like the lumbering bipedal elephant creatures were far too surreal for her to fully wrap her head around.

‘God, I’m more hysterical than Sam right now,’ Chelsea almost laughed as she glanced sideways at her raven-haired friend. Her friend wasn’t taking things in stride per se, but she was certainly more composed, possibly because she’d had more time to digest everything. Then again, Sam had always been convinced there was more to the world than meets the eye; it was both humbling and horrifying to learn that she’d been right.

The others seemed to be handling things much better, unsurprisingly. The Brighton girl, for her part, was the most composed of the bunch. Given that she didn’t really know Emelia or her friends and hadn’t even been at the party the previous night, that made sense. Chelsea suspected she was only investing her time into the affair because John was involved.

John and his fair-haired pet on the other hand occupied their time with each other. The blonde had decided a hospital waiting room was an appropriate time to obnoxiously demand the doting of her boyfriend, firmly planting her ass in his lap and nuzzling into his cheek. Had that been the end of it, Chelsea could have perhaps **** herself to ignore it, but her attention was wrenched back to the irksome sight as the girl suddenly sprouted a fluffy bush of golden hair from her lower back. The sight was sickening to Chelsea, and made all the more so as the structure of the bimbo’s ears shifted to a lupine form.

Chelsea could only watch with wide-eyes as John lazily ran his hands through the fur of the girl’s tail, or affectionately scratched her lupine ears while she eagerly whined into his neck. How could he be attracted to her? She wasn’t human! She was an animal, or some unnatural mix of both.

“What are you? Some kind of werewolf?” Chelsea broke the silence, staring intently at Red.

“A warg,” Red corrected. “Lycanthropy is a powerful curse that behaves similarly to that of a disease, the afflicted have no control over their shifting, whereas wargs are a species innately and willingly able to shift between human and wolf form,” she explained, extending a slender arm out towards Chelsea, who looked on with curiosity and awe as the hand began to shift into a lupine paw.

“So if you bit me, I wouldn’t need to worry about growing fur from my ass?” Sam checked, making a light hearted joke that fell flat on the stale air.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say fur is anything to be worried about,” Red replied, the trace of a smug smile playing on her lips. “It’s quite lovely actually,” she declared, showing off the luscious gleam to her golden hair with a flick of her tail. “And I don’t bite… except when I’m between the sheets.” Red’s words proved once again she had no tact.

Chelsea crossed her arms and tried to relax herself, but found her thoughts too tumultuous to truly be calm. “And… how long have you been with John?” she pressed on with their teeth grating conversation.

“About a month or so,” Red shrugged.

‘Of course,’ Chelsea thought, right around the point John had started to change. She was just another girl that didn’t know the real John, before all the charm and confidence. And then came the unbidden thought that it was this girl who had likely stolen his virginity and a new wave of petty jealousy washed over Chelsea. “You seem awfully close…” she continued stiffly.

“‘Awfully’?” Red responded playfully. Her wide smile hid an underbelly of spiteful glee, Chelsea was sure.

“I meant nothing by it,” Chelsea’s response came quickly and without much truth to it.

“I’m sure,” John’s pet agreed with a self-satisfied smile.

Chelsea bit the inside of her cheek in frustration and breathed deeply through her nose.

“Red, leave her alone,” John sighed, ceasing his petting to take the blonde’s hand and squeeze it.

At the same time Chelsea felt a sharp pain in her waist. “What are you doing?” Sam asked, withdrawing her elbow. “You’re being a bitch.”

“I’m-?” Chelsea held her tongue. Sam rarely felt the need to call her out on her behaviour. She was probably right. ‘God, what am I doing?’ She groaned, putting her face in her hands. This was all too much.

“...Are you sure you don’t want something to eat?” John voiced with concern, causing Chelsea to raise her head again.

“No… I’m fine,” she lied. Last thing she wanted to do was look weak and pathetic in front of John.

‘It’s too late for that,’ her anxiety replied sardonically.

“You don’t look it,” the boy continued. “Here, eat this…” Chelsea blinked as a green apple appeared from thin air in the palm of John’s hand. He smiled warmly as he extended it out to her. “Take it. I promise you it’s good.”

Chelsea hesitated a moment before taking the apple from his hand. Her body let out an involuntary shiver as her fingers brushed over his, but the moment passed in a lamentable instant. She brought the apple to her lips and took a small bite. A sweet warmth filled Chelsea’s mouth as the crisp flesh of the fruit rolled on her tongue. Her body shivered yet again, the cause different yet the outcome equally pleasurable. No sooner had she swallowed than she’d taken another, substantially larger, bite.

“It’s good,” she mumbled in between bites.

“See?” John grinned. God, it was an infectious smile. Chelsea was feeling better already. The apple seemed to radiate a warm and homey feeling inside her that set her anxious and weary mind at ease.

“...This can’t be a normal apple,” she observed, blinking in surprise as she found herself left a core and a full belly.

“Extraordinary, aren’t they?” John’s pet replied proudly. “My family uses a touch of magic to enhance the flavour; a little goes a long way when you know what to use and how to apply it.”

“Your family grew these?” Chelsea repeated her statement as a question. It might be petty, but her brief love for the apple swiftly petered out now that she knew who grew it.

“Yeah, Red’s family owns and operates hundreds of apple orchards,” John explained. “They even invented the granny smith apple.”

‘Oh, sure, ruin an entire kind of apple for me too, why don’t you?’ Chelsea thought sourly. ‘Of course, her family has to be rich too…’ It seemed that the list of advantages she had over this girl was growing smaller. “But don’t you think it’s sketchy using magic like that? It’s kinda like artificial food. It’s almost cheating,” Chelsea said aloud, now eager to dismiss the credibility of the apple. Sure it had tasted good, but that was just magic tricking her senses.

“According to whom?” the girl raised a brow. “There’s no cheating taste.”

“If you say so,” Chelsea shrugged unconvinced, causing John’s pet to let out an annoyed sigh.

“Alright, what’s your problem?” she demanded.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Chelsea replied indignantly.

“Am I really so strange to you?” the blonde wolf pressed.

“Obviously!” Chelsea was taken aback by the stupidity of the question. “You’re not even human!” If the girl was offended by her words, she did a good job at hiding it.

Again, Chelsea felt a sharp pain in her waist. “Chill out,” Sam hissed at her before smiling at John and his pet. “We’re, uh… gonna go to the bathroom,” she declared, tugging on Chelsea’s hand.

But before Chelsea could move, Red had posed another question to her. “Are you afraid of me?”

“Of course not!” Chelsea bristled. That wasn’t totally true. This girl was an anomaly, as close to beast as she was to man. She might hide fangs behind a pretty accent and bright smile, but Chelsea was sure they were there.

“Would you like to sit in his lap?” the wolfish girl suddenly spoke up again. This girl needed to stop talking.

“What?” Chelsea visibly stiffened, the sudden switch in question catching her off-guard.. “N-no… I-”

“I really don’t mind,” Red continued with a grin, springing from John’s lap and presenting it with open arms.

“-Of course not!” Chelsea shot back heatedly.

“...And I’m sure my darling doesn’t either.”

“Red-” John began, but his words were far too late.

“Fuck off, what is wrong with you?!” Chelsea jolted upright, fists clenching hard enough that the whites of her knuckles showed. There was a light thud as the apple core hit the floor. Chelsea could feel dozens of eyes on her now, but she was too angry to care. “He’s your boyfriend! Yet you don’t bat an eyelash at the thought of his involvement with other women. Do you really have so little respect for yourself? Letting him flirt freely and fuck whoever he wants because you’re apparently not enough for him?”

Finally the self-satisfied grin lining the face of John’s pet faltered. “Excuse me?” Anger boiled behind the blonde’s blue eyes. “And what would a spiteful bitch like you know about our relationship? My darling is a damn good fuck and I’m neither ashamed to admit it nor share it. An hour ago I might’ve shared it with you, too,” the blonde admitted. “But I will not grant your petty jealousy the chance to spoil our relationship. You’re a prude, a racist, and arrogant enough to project your own insecurities onto me. And with the kind of nonsense you’ve been spouting, I would be surprised to see you last two days in the Abyss,” the blonde breathed in deeply before her face relaxed, once again, into that coy smile. ”For your own sake and to spare my eyes the sight of you, go home.”

Chelsea was about ready to leap at the girl; she had no clue what she was talking about. But a violent tug pulled her off balance and away from the group. Chelsea tried to break away, but was surprised by Sam’s vice-like grip on her wrist. Sam glared back at her.