Arlington stood up, hunched over; his breathing came in gasps. Nim wanted to say something; anything, but she couldn’t find the words.

It was as if he was splitting open, and both looked and sounded painful. His skin seemed to rip as he expanded and his body took on a canine appearance. His arms grew longer so that they were equal in length to his legs, which also grew longer, and his head elongated, a snout forming and teeth beginning to protrude from his mouth. His ears pointed and he grew claws the color of ivory. A tail grew from his backside, but instead of fur on the end, it had a single spike. Over his entire body went a coat of silver fur.

Everything was still for a moment, both Nim and the creature that had taken Arlington’s place frozen. Then, the beast flexed and stretched, moving its claws a little. She allowed herself to exhale.

Big mistake.

The beast’s ears twitched and it turned towards her, grey eyes fixing on her with a hunger and fury she had not thought possible. It growled and lunged at her, aiming for her throat, but she ran to the other side of the room before it reached her, sending it crashing into the wall. This served to make it angrier and it lunged again, this time catching her back with its long claws before she could escape.

Nim cried out and fell to the floor, backing against the wall. She thought of screaming for help, but then remembered that the staff was off today and Dr. Haringer was at a business meeting.

She was screwed.

“Arlington,” she whispered involuntarily, blood streaming from her back. The beast’s ears twitched as if it almost understood her. Except now, she remembered that it wasn’t just a beast. Somewhere inside of that thing, the boy that she had made friends with lurked; she just knew it.

That was when she decided to do something that would either get her throat ripped out or help her bring Arlington back for the second time since she’d known him.

Slowly, Nim stood up, making eye contact the entire time. Just as slowly, she opened the door. Then, she ran for it.

It sprang after her, snarling, but it hit the door that she had closed behind her and so gave her time to reach the piano downstairs. She stood next to the black baby grand and the beast paused, staring at her. Cautiously, she sat down and placed her hands on the keys.

In the blink of an eye, the beast lunged and its jaws closed on her hand, but not enough to take it completely off. She mastered the pain for a moment and kept a straight face, staring at it. She waited for it to release her hand before starting to play. Slowly, it began swaying with the music, calming and closing its eyes, eventually lying down beside her.

“Maybe music really does soothe the savage beast,” she mused to herself.

Not five minutes had gone by before the beast began changing back into Arlington. She almost cried with relief, but she decided to stay quiet and let him sleep, going upstairs to shower and bandage herself as best she could.

It was a good thing the doctor had an extensive first aid kit in his house, because she was able to properly clean the deep gashes and bind them; both on her back and her hand. The wounds on her back were five gashes from the top of her left shoulder to the bottom right corner of her back and were hard to bind, but she managed. Her hand was almost completely ruined; if it healed correctly, she would probably have some movement in it, but it would be stiff movement and she wouldn’t be able to play piano for as long as she used to.

“Maybe it’s God telling me to get a new hobby,” she thought aloud, chuckling a little. She was amazed at her own calm, unfazed reaction at what had just happened, but, for some reason, all she could feel was relief that Arlington had turned back and that he hadn’t injured himself. He was only a kid, after all.

She sat on her bed, staring out the window, until she heard the sounds of Arlington’s footsteps; except this time, they were hurried.

“Nim, you would believe the crazy dream I had!” he shouted in the hall as he ran to her room. “I dreamed that I—” He stopped dead in his tracks and stared.

Nim had only been dressed in jeans and a tank top, as a heavier shirt tugged in her new wounds. Therefore, they were very visible.

Arlington gasped and ran to her, kneeling by the bed and crying. “I am so sorry,” he sobbed. “I can’t believe it actually happened! How could I hurt you? You’ve been nothing but nice to me…You helped me so much. I…How could I?” he repeated again, at a loss for words. He took her hand and held it in his own, staring at the damage he had done with a look of horror on his face.

“I’ll be fine,” she reassured him. “Besides, it wasn’t your fault; you were taken over by whatever it was you became. I think it was that Curse of the Hound thing that Colin was telling me about, actually,” she realized.

“Will it happen again?” he asked quietly, head hanging.

“Maybe,” she answered. “We’ll have to go find him and ask him about it.” She remembered the last, unfriendly words she had said to Colin and chewed her bottom lip.

“Then, you need to get out of here,” he said.

“What?” she demanded, shocked. “Why do you say that?”

“Are you kidding me? What if I kill you?”

“It didn’t happen this time,” she pointed out.

“Yeah; exactly,” he snapped. “This time. That’s what makes it all the more probable that the next time will be the one where I do kill you.”

“That’s not exactly true,” she argued. “I think it means I’ll know what to do next time, now that I’ve had some experience.”

“What if you don’t have time to do anything?”

She didn’t have an answer for that. “Look, Arlington; Colin tried to get me to leave, but I wouldn’t. I’ll see you through this, man. What kind of an only friend would I be if I didn’t?” She slung an arm around his shoulder and he smiled slowly.

“A pretty crappy one,” he replied.

She laughed. “Exactly; but I have an extensive reputation as a pretty bomb-diggity friend.”

“Please don’t say ‘bomb-diggity’ again,” he said, laughing.

“What’s wrong with my word?” she demanded.

“It’s just a little…dated.”

“Oh, excuse me, Mister I’ve-Been-Holed-Up-In-My-Own-Little-World-For-Years-But-Still-Somehow-Know-Everything.”

And so the conversation went until Dr. Haringer returned, wondering why Nim’s door was broken and why there was blood on his piano...to which they replied with a shrug.