Unable to Cry

     The Gnorbu just nodded and smiled as the royal Acara blew past, leaving another yell of “Sorry!” to the Gnorbu in her wake. The starry Gnorbu smiled a quick, wicked smile. A diabolical, cold smile that meant she knew much more than the two pets who had dashed past...

     The faerie Aisha was called Mayleeana, or Maylee for short. Her sister, the determined royal Acara, was called Raeliana, Raeli for short. They were one grade apart in neoschool, Maylee being younger. They both got very good grades in school, too.

     Despite the fact they were both painted very rare colors, neither of them were stuck up or snooty at all. Just the opposite, and they were quite popular in neoschool because of it. They had perfect lives.

     Mayleeana had a huge smile on her face as she gently squeezed past pets in the crowded, squished hallway. “Maylee!” the royal Acara, who was still following her sister, called out in annoyance. “Maylee, wait!”

     But she was falling behind. Maylee giggled, and raced through the last pets blocking the door. They called out goodbyes, everyone in the school knowing where she was going today.

     Finally, Mayleeana, or Maylee for short, was outside. Laughing and overflowing with joy, she took flight into the blue sky, twirling up to the clouds and then letting herself glide down.

     But her flight of happiness was interrupted by a panting, determined face who appeared at the door. Marching out onto the green grass, Raeliana scanned the sky, her royal Acara eyes resting on the laughing, twirling, faerie Aisha that was her little sister.

     “Maylee, come ON!” she said, half amused, half annoyed.

     Maylee soared down, landing neatly beside Raeli, who glared down at her. Then the royal Acara’s face softened. She knew how excited Maylee must be, with this coming up. “Okay, let’s go. We don’t want to be late!”

     Maylee flew above her sister on their way to the Rainbow Pool. Their owner, Kaylene, had finally saved up for enough to buy a better paint brush for Maylee, who was growing tired of her current look. Kaylene hadn’t said what the brush was, just that it was totally unique.

     Maylee secretly hoped it was a royal paint brush, or a baby. She’d just love that.

     But no more time to think; they were there. Kaylene was supposed to meet them at the Rainbow Pool right after school. The two pets were right on time.

     Maylee rushed up to the brown gate that led to her different life.

     “Where’s ya owner?” the gruff Skeith guard asked Maylee and Raeli. Maylee searched the Rainbow Pool crowd, her eyes scanning the happy pets.

     “Oh! There she is!” Maylee’s heart leaped. Her owner was waving to them, holding something behind her back. Pets were leaping and flying and laughing all around her, but she had only eyes for Maylee. Her pet, who was about to be changed in ways she couldn’t even begin to imagine. She was oblivious to her owner’s betrayal.

     The Skeith opened the creaky wooden gate, and Maylee practically flew inside, her sister following more slowly, pausing to thank the guard before trotting after her very, very, veeerrrry excited sister.

     Maylee skidded to a stop in front of her owner, green grass tickling her paws. She looked up at Kaylene with a huge smile on her face. Kaylene beamed down at her pet. “Well?” she asked, signaling to the colorful pool with a few pets joyfully basking inside. “You getting in?”

     Maylee nodded furiously; then, knowing this would be the last time she would use her wings, she soared up to the sky and dove from the clouds to the water below.

     Maylee didn’t see the brush that Kaylene was hiding. Her owner waited until her pet was under water, ready for the transformation.

     So Kaylene pulled to brush from behind her back and ran it over the spot where her faerie pet was. A faerie pet who was not destined to be faerie any longer and never again.

     Raeli gasped when she realized the color of the paint brush that lay, sweeping across the pool, in Kaylene’s hands. She froze for a moment, stunned that her owner would be so cruel. “No!” she whispered, a look of terrible, horrible, sickening fear on her face. “No! No, no, no! Kaylene, no, stop!” Raeli sobbed to her owner. She let tears pour down her face. She didn’t care who was watching. She knew now that her owner must be a monster to do this to her young Aisha. To do this to anyone, to make them go through this torture as a life, was just horribly wrong. Raeli sobbed for her sister, who would be forced to live like this. She vowed, as tears streamed down her face, to help her little sister. If there was anything she could do, that is....

      Kaylene just kept on gliding the brush over her pet, oblivious to (or ignoring) Raeli’s sobs. Maylee was still oblivious to the color of what she was to become. Or... was it more than just a simple color?

     Then, Maylee rose from the water, fully transformed. She coughed a couple times, noting how raspy her cough was. Then she opened her eyes, to see...

     Raeli sobbing, Kaylene beaming, and onlookers screaming and running. A fire Kougra ran, fear igniting his color as he ran, yowling. A newly painted faerie Yurble struggled to fly up above with her new wings, terrified of Maylee. Terrified of what she had become.

     Maylee had a horrible, sick thought, and suddenly knew. She knew what her owner had done to her. She knew she was not changed in just color. She was changed for life. For the young Aisha already felt hungry. Hungry for something she never liked before, something that grossed her out. She looked down and knew what she would see. She looked to her paws, and...

     Gray, dirty paws, and a tattered shirt, holes near the ends. Her Aisha collar, which is her most prized possession, was worn, dirty, and tattered, the A charm’s paint peeling off. Spider webs hung on her ears, spider-less... for now. Her Aisha eyes seemed glued open and the whites were yellow, and the poor, young Aisha barely had any pupils. Her vision was the same... but she looking through new eyes. Eyes she didn’t like.

     She wanted to cry, but didn’t think her new body was capable of doing just that.

     She was unable to cry.

     Unable to shed even a tear. Maylee forced herself to blink. It hurt. It hurt to blink!

     Maylee looked up at her owner and older sister, one who was beaming and looked like she won the million jackpot on scratchcards, the other sobbing her heart out for her innocent, younger sister. And Maylee shuddered, knowing very clearly what she was now. She was hungry... for brains. She had become a nightmare.

     She had become a zombie.

The End