My characters are from my short story, Soup.
Soup is a creature who has given up his human life to live as his shifted animalistic side. Missy is the human woman he loves being around when he visits her daily.
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The sun was scorching on my back when I peered between the overgrown tangled weeds and thier flowers forming a curtain before me.
I kept low, slinking closer to the woman's back facing me. She was too occupied with digging around her crops she squatted over, her bare hands caked in dirt.
Her head was shielded by a massive sun hat. Her back was exposed around her neck as her light blue flowered dress dipped around her hunched before me. Twined tassles blew in the gentle breeze and caught my eye.
I could smell her skin crisping in the sun and the metallic sting of the cheap sunscreen she had slathered onto herself.
I crept closer, dragging my ribs against the dirt as I broke through the weeds and hovered mere meters from her.
She ripped up some knobbly carrots and added them to her basket laying beside her.
Now was the time!
I burst from the growth to charge my victim, claws tearing through the dirt as I locked my eyes onto the tassles I would use to snag and drag her from her field.
The woman suddenly whipped around before I could reach for her. She raised her arms up high and curled her fingers to mimic my claws now scrabbling across the ground in fright. Her voice roared to add to her fierce demenour.
"Oh! Soup!" she laughed at my heaving breath when I managed to grip the ground "was I that scary?"
I wasn't going to admit it, but Missy already giggled at how triumphant she was.
I thought if I distanced her as some sort of stanger, then I would be successful in my hunt. Missy was too good for me even with that flawed mindset.
"Now, now!" she giggled when I dragged my injured pride back to the group of weeds "don't be upset!"
Laying amongst them, I huffed when my body curled up in the dirt and snout poked through the weeds once more.
Missy smiled and shook her head at me to continue ripping up her crops.
For a little backyard, she really utilized her space well. She'd have to make several trips just to get her produce into the cool safety of her home.
It really was a lovely place to be. Ever since her presistance of trying to find out the truth about me, I hadn't set foot inside.
It was destined like that anyway. I knew that no matter what I did, I wouldn't enter her home unless I was allowed by my fate ruling every little motion I did.
I couldn't change it. Everything was determined for me, and it still hurt knowing what was coming.
"Soup!" Missy turned, smiling and wiggling a carrot she dropped into the basket "you can help if you like?"
No. I wanted to watch her forever. She looked so happy amongst her vegetables and the quiet fields surrounding her home. Her hands coated in dirt, her little humming breath; everything was perfect like this.
It felt so real, but I knew that everything was running its own course. It wasn't my time to join her yet.
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Missy plucked the vegetables and made her trips to carry them into her home. She teased me playfully into trying to help her me each time she returned; scratching around my ears or rubbing my snout whenever she passed.
She'd only had this last trip left. Then, I would join her to the house.
I wouldn't be able to fight it. It was fate, and I was only the puppet in my own life.
A place I had been avoiding was going to be the one that stabbed my heart and tore it out.
"How about I make you your favourite soup today?"
I couldn't fight the smirk that turned into a grin. My body lifted and left the weeds to approach hers. It moved like it was supposed to in this scripted moment.
At least this one last comfort had been granted. Still, I had to wait for Missy. She was the only thing keeping me here, and she didn't have a clue.
I sat beside her while she tangled her fingers into the staked beans. The vines twisted and pulled so gently when Missy plucked the pods and threw them past me into the basket.
I couldn't push it out of the way to delay her. I was supposed to stay here until she pulled off that last pod.
When she did and rubbed my head on her way to pick up the basket, I forced a smile and followed by her side.
I wanted to run. Running was easier than facing something this painful.
"Soup, why don't you come out of the sun for a bit?" Missy smiled, pausing on the stairs to look me over "you look like you are burning, poor thing."
Her hand ran along the length of my ear that forced a smile from me, like it should.
Missy took the lead to move down the little hall and over to her kitchen where she placed her basket of vegetables.
I hesitantly entered and felt my heart sink.
Her whole home was in boxes. The couch was buffered in towels to protect it better. Everything that made Missy's house so inviting was stripped from every wall.
It was just a shell. I was just a shell of what I used to be when I looked around helplessly in this pre-empted situation.
I hadn't won her over at all. Missy was moving out of my life and there was nothing I could do to stop her.
This was already planned for me.
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