Demi

cover art by Ink And Quill

## Dedication

This book is dedicated to Squirrelleafstudios Cyeh01

Snugglestar And Nyferine-RaidenWandersinger for being good friends and nice people =)

## Demi

A prefix that means half, partially, or something that is slightly inferior.

I will write this once a week

## Prologue: The Missing

It was a misty night, a tall girl walked out looking for her sister “Jill!” she yelled panicked. Only a few days ago her sister had said she was going on vacation with her wife Anne. But neither of them returned on the day they said they would which was Friday, and today was Tuesday of the next week. So, the girl packed her stuff and went to where her sister was last “okay Emily you’ve got this” she said and took a deep breath and headed into the woods.

"Jill!' she yelled she walked around and sighed kicked a few rocks and still couldn't find anything "Ugh! stupid forest stupid flashlight st-" she kicked a tree when saying that and looked behind the tree to see a blood trail she looked back for a second then looked forward and followed the trail. The trail ended in a cave covered in blood and writing she looked at it and it said 'ออกไป! มันไม่ปลอดภัย!' And even though she wasn't sure what it meant she could guess it meant get out.

But was that her sister? Her sister didn't know Thai but did Anne...

She didn't know but also didn’t want to leave the cave, so she continued to walk further into the cave. “Anne! Jill!” she yelled she walked into another part of the cave it looked like a bedroom it has a bed some books a window there were other ‘rooms’ as well. She looked at one of the books it said:

Shapeshifters

A beautiful creature they are they can shapeshift into anyone they could be a human for a second but then a bird. They could also be some kind of creature but change form but still be that creature. They can often get away with things like theft and murder because they can just change their form. They often meet at ===================== to be free they meet at specific places to be specific forms. They are really hard to spot and often can hide as a regular human. Regular people can use necklaces to become whatever they want. Most Shapeshifters have some kind of guardian spirit but not all do the soysss (save our young shapeshifter spirits) group protects young shapeshifters and their spirits. Now here is the big question: how I know if I’m a shapeshifter. Well, you don’t if you're not a spirit shapeshifter it can take years.

It stopped there the rest of the page ripped Emily was now interested in what the rest might say so she started to look around for the rest of the page “found it” she said and looked at it.

But if you are a shapeshifter until you can control your powers people use the ====== necklace to make sure you don’t kill anyone.

The page ended Emily looked on the back to see all the words crossed out and the word run! This can’t be good she got up and walked into another room this one had a huge bed a fan and a closet. She got on the bed removed the blankets to see blood and she found another note it said.

Oh, I got to go now someone's in the house, and it isn’t mom or dad or sister bye.

* August 1970

It must’ve been from a diary….

I shouldn’t worry too much about the person in the house besides this was written in the 70s. She got up and looked around “nothing but trash” she muttered and walked out and went into a different room with an old tv a couch and a carpet a blood all over. She saw a camera picked it up and a video played:

“Daddy say hi” a little girl said “uhm hi I’m Olivia's dad” he said Olivia laughed “honey!” a women said who was watering plants “yes” he said “she can’t be shapeshifting on camera” she said “don’t worry this one's private” the dad said she sighed. Olivia jumped up “that was my mom say hi mom” Olivia said “hello” she said her little brother walked in “tag!” he yelled and started running and Olivia followed “that was Olivia signing off” thew dad said.

The video ended and another one turned on.

Hi, my name is Olivia currently I am in a car going to the- “Olivia now is not the time” her dad yelled. “Okay” she said back then said to the camera “never mind this is Olivia signing off”.

That video ended too then the final one turned on.

“Hi, I am Olivia's dad Olivia is not on because she is in her room why? Because her little brother Thomas died” he said through tears “he had a rare heart disease, and they couldn’t get him a new heart because he was a-” it cut out but then continued “and we all miss him especially Olivia and that's why we won’t be making videos for a while”.

It ended Emily saw a note on the camera it said:

Picture picture spin lens twice.

She looked at it confused then at the camera and did what it said she took two pictures then spined the lens twice. Nothing happened she looked around the room then heard the tv turn on…

There was no remote or anything to turn it on it looked broken like it would never turn on again but on the tv this happened.

“Jill should we really go in there” Anna asked…

They walked in…

Anna wrote on the wall with jill…

They both disappeared after…

Emily looked at it she is here! Emily walked out of the room into a kitchen when she heard this:

“Anne! Jill!”

It was herself there were cameras watching her every move she started to walk into the basement she saw a lot of weird things i wonder who lived here well whoever it was doesn’t live here now.

She thought for a second wouldn’t all the people from the videos be older now it was from the 70s….

But why would they abandon the house? it's a pretty good house for a cave. Why would they even live in a cave? it was only the 70s it wasn’t that long ago my uncle was born in 1977 he’s 45.

She saw another note.

from 1944-2000 Shapeshifters normally lived in caves so that they could hide better nut now that they have all this stuff that helps them, they just live like normal people. But it's surprising that it took that long 56 years. In the 70s they used to get attacked a lot but by 1984 everything was back to normal they had gotten better security.

Thats weird why would shapeshifters choose to live in caves instead of being free and just act like they were normal.

They only felt that everything was safe in 2000 and it is unknown why but what we do know is that any shapeshifter that left before 2000 died. *weird...* she got up and looked around for a while but paused.

She heard footsteps coming down the steps maybe it's the family she heard them get closer and closer until she could hear the breathing of the person. She hid in a closet as a little girl who didn’t really look like Olivia walked down and stood in front of the closet. Then walked away.

Emily sat there for a while until the girl came back and said quietly in the creepiest voice that Emily had ever heard “ring around the rosy's…”

Emily stared the girl continued “pocket full of posy's” she could hear a knife sharpening and her breathing got faster and louder as she realized she had nowhere to go.

“Ashes ashes we all fall…” she stopped everything went silent Emily thought she was safe until the closet doors open and a knife was stabbed through her “dead…” the girl whispered. Emily stared at her until she lost conscious.

She woke up and saw Anne and Jill they looked different though “am I dead?” she asked “no” Jill said she sounded different “no” said Anne she also sounded different “how did you find me? And help me” Emily asked “we brought you home” Anne said.

Why did you come “we just felt like it” Jill said “but now we know it's dangerous” Anne said in a ‘I told you so’ tone. “How did you escape” Emily asked “we knocked out the girl the rest was easy we ran out and got here. “Oh” she said but before long both of them disappeared Emily started crying but one person came over to her before she woke up in a hospital.

“We couldn’t see anything else that could've done it I think it's obvious that she did this to herself” someone said Emily started falling back to sleep she could hear the heartbeat monitor beeping and she fell asleep and saw Anne and Jill again. She also heard her mom cry she had a choice she could get up and fight to survive or not. She saw Jill and Anne waiting for her "wait" she said to them.

She woke up one more time to say “goodbye mom” her mom understood, and her two younger sisters played with each other. “Goodnight honey” Emilys mom said Emily lay down and her consciousness went away slowly and when she woke up again, she was with Jill and Anne in a small town.

“this is where i am now i guess” she said and looked back “and i’m not turning back ever”. Everything started glitching out and she turned back “uhh whats happening” she asked no answer “hello?” she yelled her two friends disappeared everything was disappearing.

‘This is a prank right?” she asked looking all over she knew that Jill and Anne always pranked her but this was a bit much…

It felt like they weren’t pranking her Emily walked around trying to find someone she didn’t care who it was (though would really like it to be someone she knew). I definitely made a mistake coming here she walked until she found a tall building that she thought was trying to be a castle but ended up not looking like one.

“I wonder who built that because it doesn’t look good” she muttered she walked up and knocked on the door waited a bit and nothing happened so she knocked again “go away!” a voice yelled. And after that the huge building disappeared as well. And soon she felt herself start to disappear “well damn” she muttered as everything went black.

made in canva

## Chapter One: Shapeshifter

    “whats 388x4” Mr.Smith said but then the bell rang “we will finish tomorrow” he said but I knew we wouldn’t  I walk out from my mathematics class “Hester!” A girl yells

“Yes Jenna” I said, “I overheard someone saying your sister has a crush on the new kid” she said

“Alexa-Grace?” I ask then looked back making sure her sister wasn’t here “yea! And I thought jeez imagine what would happen if Bailey found out” Jenna said

“I’m pretty sure Missy would be in a lot of trouble” I said “anyways I should get going see you tomorrow?” I said “definitely” Jenna said

I walk out of the school building like any normal day and ride my bike to a huge elementary school and see my sister Bailey waiting for me you see she goes to an after-school theater club while she waits for me.

“Hester! Hester!” she yells “what?” I say “I overheard Jenna talking to Katherine and she said that Missy was dating” Bailey said

“its true” I said “now get on” I said Bailey nodded and got on the bike we ride home and I grab my phone and texted ‘mom were here’ put it away and waited. Soon the door opened and I walked inside to see my dad cooking Missy playing Minecraft with her friends and my mom reading.

Bailey ran over to her comic book she was reading and I walked into my art ‘studio’ and Missy walked in “Jenna told me” she lookd at me confused “told you what?” she asked “about Alexa”  Missy stared at me "how did she know" Missy asked.

"Overheard it-" i look behind myself as i hear a noise then Missy dissapeared Baileys laughs turned into tears then went silent and so did my parents "hello!" i yell