A text message interruption

My thoughts were broken by the sound of my phone vibrating, the screen lighting up the dark room. Walking over and holding it, I could see there was at least ten messages built up over the last few days, the last one arriving from Jimmy right now.

Scrolling through, I could see they started with good natured jokes about my date with Lisa, before changing to an invitation to the party that had taken place at my own house. Eventually they just turned to concern; a few days with no messages really was troubling from a college student.

I replied letting Jimmy know I was okay, and sorry I couldn’t get through to him, letting him know that I was taking a break from online for a few days there but I was back now.

Before I could follow it up with more texts though, I felt my phone vibrate as he called me.

“Dude, where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for days!”

“Ahh yeah, well, about that…”

I laughed nervously. I couldn’t exactly tell him I’d been impersonating my crush and having sex with strangers as a girl.

“I was just on a social media break!”

“And a break from messages and calls too, huh?”

I could feel his skepticism from the other end of the line.

“Yeah well, you know. It’s good for mental health.”

“Dude… seriously. Are you sure you just didn’t flunk out on your date? Like, I heard from Frank you were down about it, but when I went to try and wake you up and drown your sorrows you weren’t in your room. Like, man, I get that you’d be down but seriously, it’s scary just disappearing like that”

Jimmy was right… disappearing for days like that, especially after what seemed like a failed date with a crush, would be worrying for any friends. Should I tell him the truth? He was my best friend after all, if anyone would understand, it would be him.

I thought about how good it would be to have someone to actually confide in, get some of this craziness off my chest. A problem shared was a problem halved, right? We could work together to come up with solutions for this… maybe there was some kind of cure for being a skinwalker? Maybe I could go back to normal?

But then again… a horrible vision came to me of Jimmy reacting to the truth with unbridled disgust. Even the closest friend might be terrified at something like this. It wouldn’t be a stretch for anyone to turn on a monster when filled with fear, tell everyone, band together to get rid of it. If being a skinwalker was a lifetime condition with no cure… was there even any point to trying to stay human? And how would I feel if I really tried to turn over a good leaf, but those instincts drove me to skinning someone who trusted me?