I kept running until I found my bike and went straight home. I couldn't stop thinking about what I just witnessed. A wolf turned into a human right in front of me! And they say magic doesn't exist.

When I came home, I tried to think of an excuse for why I spent the whole day in a forest. I did, but I still hoped mum wouldn't ask me (it sounded pretty damn stupid).

I locked up my bike in a shed. When I came to the door, I took a deep breath and opened up.

"I'm home mama!"

"Welcome back, darling. Could you help me with the dinner?" she shouted from the kitchen.

"Yeah!"

I came to the kitchen and saw her making pancakes.

"Mum, you're an effin' queen! This is exactly what I need!" I said while walking up to her.

"You're welcome, darling. You can use the second stove."

While flipping over pancakes, I was shaking a bit. I prayed for mum not to ask me what took me so long or notice me shaking. Well, guess what? She looked at me and asked:

"You okay darling? You're shaking a lot."

"I-I'm fine, I just remembered about one of my bullies from the old school, don't know why..."

She gave me a smile.

"You don't have to think about that anymore. You're in a different school now, you have good friends."

"Yeah, you're right..."

"Come on, cheer up. We're on vacation, we're at the countryside, we're having pancakes for dinner, you can take more photos of nature... can it get even better?"

Her tone changed from relaxed to playful.

"Maybe... you'll finally find a cute girl!"

I giggled.

"Maybe, I dunno..."

We both laughed. While finishing cooking, we started singing our favorite song.

When we finished eating, mum asked:

"Can I see the photos you took?"

"Um, nah sorry. I wanna go to sleep if that's okay."

"It's fine, go ahead. Night night!"

"Night."

I put on my pyjamas and started to think about what happened before. I knew for sure I was gonna go to the forest tomorrow and talk to her again. I sat down on my bed and tried to think about something else. I remembered what I mentioned to mum earlier. Yeah, I've been bullied in the past, even to the point when I was scared to go to school.

I've always had this boy-like image. Short hair, t-shirts, baggy pants, caps and beanies, deeper voice than other girls, and nobody liked it. Girls wouldn't play with me, later on, they would kick me out of the bathroom, telling me to go to the boys' room, where I belong. Boys wouldn't be that mean, but they would still call me a weirdo.

My mum knew about everything, so she asked me many times if I wanna transfer schools, and I said no many times, hoping it would get better. But it never did.

One time in fifth grade, three girls from my class cornered me after school in the bathroom (I'd usually go there after school when no-one was around) and told me to either change or tomorrow would be my last day alive. That was the last straw. I didn't come to school the next day. I told mum what happened, so she let me stay home and she went to school to tell the headmaster about it. After that, those three wouldn't even look me in the eye. And after a week, we moved out to a different town and I transferred to another school. I made a lot of friends really quickly, but there was this particular one.

Her name was Natasha. She was a quiet one, but we had the most in common. We were together almost every day and did basically everything together. After some time, I started to realize that I couldn't go on without her around me. A few times, I couth myself thinking about kissing her. And that made me nervous around her. She, of course, noticed that and asked me to meet her after school on the last day of seventh grade.

We met up at the river by the town. She was looking at the river in deep thought.

"Nat, is something wrong?" I asked. She turned around and looked me right in the eye.

"I should be the one asking that. You've been avoiding me the past month. What happened, Beth? Have I done anything wrong?"

I took a deep breath.

"Nah...nah, you didn't. It's just that...I started to notice some weird things about me. I...I feel like-"

"Beth, do you like me?"

I swallowed.

"I...do..." I murmured

She gave me a surprised look. I kept looking away the whole time. After a moment, she came up to me and hugged me. I couldn't hold the tears in anymore.

"Come on, Beth, don't cry. There's nothing to be ashamed of."

She always knew what was on my mind, even now. She took a step back and looked me deep in the eye with an expression I've never seen on her face, full of shame and guilt.

"I'm sorry, but...I'm...not..."

Tears started to come down her face.

"I'm so sorry, Beth... I'm so so sorry."

I was devastated, but I tried to hide it.

"At least we can stay friends, right?"

She giggled and wiped the of her face.

"Yeah...yeah, we can."

We both smiled and hugged again.

After that, we barely talked. Our friendship faded away, and so my feelings did. I still want to be friends with her, but I don't know what to tell her. I miss her, a lot.

Back to the present. I shook my head and walked to the mirror. There I was, my short, puffy black hair with an undercut, my large, dark brown, almost black eyes, pale skin, a small figure, and a soft face full of sorrow. I took off my glasses and put them on the table. I lied down on my bed and closed my eyes.

I started to see some weird images. I saw Ánná, surrounded by people who were yelling at her, calling her a demon, a monster, a witch... she was walking towards a pillar surrounded by wood with her hands tied up behind her back. Once she was there, they tied her to the pillar and set the wood on fire.

I opened my eyes and sat up, breathing heavily. So, did the tale lie? Is this what happened to her? But if they wanted to burn her, how come she's still alive? Is she resistant to fire or something? Did she escape? But how? Or...did it even happen?

I lied down and tried to sleep, but that vision was haunting me almost all night long. I fell asleep around four in the morning.