- 'You are what?' I managed to answer.

I tried to hide my surprise and dismay behind a neutral and calm voice, but the little mocking smile I felt blossoming on my face would spoil my effect.

But where had I fallen? I really needed to get out of there as soon as possible. If these people really thought they were some sort of werewolves, they were undoubtedly troubled and I wasn't in a position to help them. I started to turn to reach the front door, when he continued.

- 'And you're one of us, well... sort of.'

This time, I could not prevent the hysterical burst of laughter that I had been holding back with great difficulty since his "pseudo-shattering revelation". No, enough was enough! It was so ridiculous that no words came out of my mouth. I won't get anything concrete out of these crazy people. I had to buy some time and get out of this madhouse. He must have perceived my panic and resolution, for he got up and, while looking at me, said to me in a voice made hoarse by rage:

- 'Overcome your shock and listen to what I have to say to you! The explanation is there, in front of you. You're not completely human and you've never been. You are a shape-shifter, like us, and the reason for your violent headaches is that you are finally meeting members of your species without being accustomed to the reactions it causes, you little imbecile.'

- 'I am not in a state of shock!' I shouted at him, in a strident and aggressive voice. 'I'm not... and you... you're not werewolves! There is no such thing! You're sick or too fond of fantasy novels, frankly I don't know! But let me go...'

- 'I never talked about werewolves,' he interrupted me in an angry tone. 'But metamorphs.'

Despite the obvious irritation in his voice, he had not moved an inch and was still standing in a stilted posture that oozed controlled aggression.

- 'Oh yes, it's much more plausible! And what would be the difference in your opinion?' I asked, always striving to reach the door.

- 'We can turn into animals. Only one kind of animal specific to each individual, when we wish it and not on a full moon as myths and legends suggest,' he explained.

I began to shake my head incredulously and continued to move back when I stumbled hard against the wall. I had miscalculated my trajectory and landed about a metre from the door that led to the salvific hallway. He then moved towards me with a menacing gait, his green eyes, very similar to Hannah's now that I was paying attention to them, staring into mine.

- 'No, wait!' I panicked.

I raised my arms in front of my face with an instinctive protective gesture.

- 'A demonstration is better than a long speech,' he said in a cold voice, stopping less than a metre from me.

He stretched his right arm out and I huddled up waiting for the blow, when he stopped his action a few centimetres from my face. I then felt tingles running all over my body and the throbbing under my skull peaked, causing me to agonize. Suddenly, I saw his hand start to morph. His skin waved, his bones seemed to shift painfully like in a bad horror movie! Except, it was real. I wasn't having a nightmare. As horrible as the scene unfolded before my eyes was, I couldn't turn away from it. After what seemed like an eternity to me, the transformation, for lack of a better term, stopped and I found myself face-to-face with a gigantic bear's paw. Then the room began to spin and everything went black.

***

I came to my senses, lying on a soft and fluffy ground, which turned out to be one of the two sofas in the living room. When I saw the elegant off-white beams on the ceiling, everything came back to me and I sat down abruptly, causing the room to shake once again.

- 'So... am I still a "delusional guru", to quote your expression?' he snapped at me, sitting nonchalantly in one of the chairs facing me. 'Or will you finally open your eyes so that we can move on?' he added, as he leaned slightly forward, his hands resting on his thighs.

I didn't answer and just stared at him, lost.

- 'I'm not going to hurt you. If that had been my intention, I would have already had the opportunity to do it a dozen times,' he continued in his now colloquial tone, both sarcastic and condescending. 'By the way, you fainted.'

Thanks for the information, as if I hadn't realized! Obviously, he was right, he would have had plenty of time to hurt me while I was out of it. Above all, why reveal all this to me if there was not some truth in what he had told me, namely that I too would be a shapeshifter? No, that was the impossible part of the story and for good reason, there was a major problem.

- 'If I was really a shapeshifter, as you seem to think, why would I never have transformed myself? Because I think I would have noticed it!'

- 'Precisely you should have, and the fact that this did not happen is unusual. Not to mention unique.'

- 'Unique! Unique in what way? If what you say is true, there are many of us. So how would I be unique?'

- 'To my knowledge, you are the only one of your kind,' he declared, his lips stretched out in a disturbing fake smile, while he laid his hands on his thighs in a waiting motion.

- 'Huh, the only what? Look, I don't understand anything. You think I'd be a shapeshifter without being one? So what am I, some kind of hybrid? Or just an unexplained failure?'

- 'Hybrids do not exist. One is born a metamorph or is not,' he said in a haughty and disgusted tone. 'We are more inclined towards a problem that occurred during pregnancy, but we have no certainty. We just hope that, given your difference, your innate ability to communicate with animals and feel their emotions, among other things, will still be at its peak despite your age.'

- 'Hannah already told me that, but I don't have that ability.'

- 'You have it. It's only weakened by your fear of using it, as if atrophied. You're going to have to learn how to make it work.'

- 'How did you find me? And how did you know exactly what that damn "gift" was? Even I didn't know about it.'

He had the good sense to seem embarrassed by my question. He looked down for a fraction of a second and when he looked up, all suspicion of embarrassment had disappeared.

- 'Since your first internment, actually,' he finally confessed to me coldly. 'We had doubts, so we watched you discreetly. A few years later, during an outing in the countryside, a shape-shifter from our community saw you using your skills on lizards by a river. We then waited for your first transformation to occur. At that point, we would have come to you to explain everything and offer to join us.'

I fell back on the couch, from where I had started to get up, my legs cut off by shock and misunderstanding.

- 'But it never happened,' I managed to say in a quavering voice.

For a moment I wondered what my life would have been like if that had happened. Would I have known something as similar as a family, instead of moving from one orphanage to another? Suddenly, I felt a raw and dark anger take over my despair and dullness.

- 'You watched me!' I shouted, almost strangling myself with indignation. 'Since I wasn't changing, I was no longer worthy of your interest? You don't seem to mind today, now that you seem to need my help! You could have taken me in at the time, since I quote you "I am one of yours". Noooo! Instead you let me live in these wretched institutions, without even lifting a finger to help me.'

I got up, my fists clenched. The tears that I could no longer contain rolled down my cheeks.

- 'You knew I wasn't crazy. Yet you let them lock me up in that horrible hospital, you let them...'

I shook my head. I couldn't, and especially I didn't want to, let these memories come to the surface too much. It would only make them too real when I was trying so hard to forget them. I tried to swallow my tears, so as not to please that bastard, and headed for the door as gracefully as I could.

- 'We weren't 100% sure of what you were, and some didn't want to take the risk of telling you everything. They were afraid that you would panic, that you would not find your place among us. There was a vote and the majority decided not to take you in. I lead this community and sometimes have to make choices for the good of all. So stop feeling sorry about the past and behaving like a child. Move on! Know that I personally regret it, I think it was a strategic mistake...'

- 'A strategic mistake?' I exploded, suddenly raising my arms in a useless move that reflected my helpless anger.

In one simple sentence, I reconsidered my assessment of his personality. This man was very dangerous and had no empathy at all. He pretended when it suited him, but deep down, he was a monster. He didn't give a damn if his words hurt me. A strategic mistake! Not, "it was a regrettable decision, I'm sorry you had to go through this all these years". No, just a fucking strategic mistake! At least that puts me back in my place. I was nothing to them, just a mistake of nature, which they needed at some point. My indignation gave me the strength to continue to face him without crumbling.

- 'Do I look less like a "mistake" now that you need me?'

- 'I misspoke...'

- 'No, don't even try to make it up, it would only be worse. I understood that I was a problem whose existence you wanted above all to forget and especially unworthy of your beautiful community. You finally deign to talk to me only because you need my help. But me, that was before I needed yours. So thank you very much, but manage on your own and forget me again!'