"Aathy dear? Your mother called, she asked if I could drop off some food. But I thought it would be better if you came over and-"

I stared at my aunty Seretha who stared back.

Her beautiful golden eyes stared with pure shock. "Aathiray?" She looked at Ivana who was sitting on the floor with her hands over her mouth. Her eyes then flickered to Diyo, who had both his hands around my wrists.

"Diyo?" Her voice sounded disgusted. "What are you doing here?"

"Seretha." He didn't seem happy to see her. "My master warned me about you... he is going to be very mad at me."

"What are you doing to my niece?" She asked.

"You look different."

"Answer my question!"

"I was given orders to kill her. I decided not to, but I was hungry so decided to eat her friend. Unfortunately, Aathiray here angered me. So now I shall eat her too. Seretha, my friend, you know how important my stomach is to me, yes?"

"Get out." My aunty said.

"I cannot."

"Don't make me hurt you."

He laughed. He then let go of my wrists and walked to my aunty. "How long has it been since you have transformed into an animal? Huh?"

My aunty hesitated, but smiled. "Fourteen years."

"Fourteen years. And you think you can beat me?" Diyo laughed.

I gasped when my aunty grabbed his neck. "Just because I haven't changed for fourteen years doesn't mean I forgot how too."

I stared as the lightning bolt symbol seemed to burn through her skin. Obviously, it really wasn't, it was just burning through the foundation she used to cover it. And then, golden lights started to glow.

Ivana ran towards me and hugged me. "She's changing?" She asked.

I nodded, unable to pull my eyes away from the blinding lights.

I watched as my aunty bent down and her hands and legs turned into paws. Her nose stretched into a snout and her eyes got smaller. After a few seconds, my aunty was standing on four legs. She was a panther.

'Get. Out.' My aunty repeated. 'Return home now. And tell your master that he has no reason to hurt Aathiray.'

Diyo, who was on the floor, got up. "Shall we fight?"

My aunty growled. 'I don't want to hurt you.'

"I want to hurt you!" Diyo yelled as he jumped onto my aunty.

My aunty attacked him right back. I could tell that she was trying super hard to make sure she doesn't hurt the furniture. She pounced onto Diyo, pushing him towards the living room where they would have more space to fight. She then scratched him with her claws.

He let out that strange cawing noise as he threw my aunty off of him.

My aunty landed perfectly on her feet.

Diyo smashed through the glass slide doors, which led to the backyard, and disappeared.

My aunty changed back into a person and started to fix her messy hair. "Oh dear... your father is not going to like that."

I stared at my aunty. "Are you okay?!" I asked, unable to breath. I had just seem my aunty, the sweetest women in the world, kick someone's ass.

"Yes dear... I'm sorry you two girls had to see that."

"Aunty... you are amazing!" I was about to cry as I ran into her arms.

"Yeah! You saved our butts!" Ivana said, running into her arms as well.

"Aw! Girls... You should have called me." My aunt looked at me. "Never think that you have to handle these sorts of problems alone. I live only a few minutes away, if you ever need help, just give me a call."

I sighed. "I'll try next time... but I had my hands tied behind me back. He was threatening me."

My aunt nodded. "Hopefully there isn't a next time... now, your mother gave me a phone call and asked if I could bring you dinner, but I thought it would be better if you and your brother came over to have dinner at our place. How about that?"

I smiled at her. "That would be nice." I really wanted to get out of here.

She looked at Ivana. "You can come over too, if you'd like dear."

Ivana looked at me.

"Yeah! Come!"

"Okay." She said.

My aunty quickly covered the broken glass doors with some plastic cover she found in my basement and walked out to her car. When I got into the car, my cell phone rang. It was my brother. "Hey Aathavan."

"Aathy, where are you?" My brother asked.

"I'm at home, but I'm going to aunty Seretha's place right now."

My brother paused. "Where are mom and dad?"

"They went to visit grandma and grandpa. Grandpa's sick."

"Oh... well I'm going to get home late today, so I called to tell you."

"Why?" I asked.

He hesitated. "Maya's having some family problems." He said. "I'm going to stay with her for a while."

"Oh."

"Aathy... she needs me."

"Yeah! I know! I was just a little surprised. Her family is so nice..."

"I know... but yeah, I won't be home for a while. If mom or dad asks, just tell them. Okay?"

"Yeah. Tell her I say hi."

"Sure. See you later."

"Bye Aathu." I closed my phone and sighed.

"Everything alright, dear?" My aunty asked as she turned into her street.

I nodded. "Aathu's not going to come though 'cause he's with Maya."

My aunty smiled. "That boy..."