Alcohol flowed bountifully as jazz music wafted through the air. Zara Thibedeaux and her two best friends had managed to procure more than their fair share of libations as well as the boat that belonged to her best friend's father. It was a mild night out on the bayou behind Jackson Bouchard's house and the gang of three had decided to celebrate Zara's birthday in abandon.

Thick as thieves throughout high school; Zara, Jackson and Halle had always had each other’s backs through thick and thin. Three months away from their graduation, they had been thoroughly infected by Senioritis and the warm spring air of a late March evening.

The deck of the boat was strewn with the group of slightly intoxicated teenagers, tipsiest among them the birthday girl herself. Wrapping her fingers around the longneck bottle of beer, Zara tipped her head back and took a long languid sip. “Slow down there, champ, you don’t wanna get completely smashed this early in the night. Your official birthday isn’t for another three hours.”

Zara arched an eyebrow as she bemusedly looked over at Jackson. “Always looking out for me, aren’tcha?” The Rolling Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ blared from the sound system aboard the boat as Halle leaned against Jackson’s shoulder, a bottle of Loopy in hand as they passed it back and forth.

‘If you didn’t have somebody to look out for you, you would’ve gotten your ass beat by now, chere.” Half true, half not. Zara had a tendency to not back down from trouble. So when pretentious girls decided to cause issues with her best friend and things of theirs went missing, eyes turned to the sometimes quiet, sometimes boisterous mysterious Thibedeaux girl. Over the years she’d built up a reputation as somebody not to screw with, but that just brought people out of the woodwork in an attempt to do just that.

“I would...I’d disagree with that.” The beer hung loosely from her fingertips as the words were slurred slightly, the night of drinking beginning to take effect.

“Oh, would you?” Wrapping an arm around Halle, he pulled her in against his shoulder while Zara stood and padded her way across the deck. Wearing high-waisted jean shorts and a tank top that hit her just above the pierced belly button she looked like your normal teenage girl, getting ready to celebrate her impending eighteenth birthday. But there was something other about her, something off, something not of this world that flowed through her veins. It showed every now and then with the pure gold eyes or a little wry look unbeknownst to her, unbeknownst to anybody.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I would.” Zara grinned at them over her shoulder as she leaned on the flat wood rail of the boat. There was a rumbling pain in her stomach as she spoke, one which she ignored and chalked up to too much alcohol. “I would’ve kicked all their asses.”

Halle shot Jackson a knowing glance. Zara may be hard on the outside, but her two best friends knew that inside she was as soft as any, as much as she didn’t want to be. “Right, Zara, right,” Halle placated her as eyes began to droop and Jackson got up to grab the next six pack.

Three Hours Later

11:27 PM rolled around and the three teenagers were all passed out drunk, splayed aboard the deck where they’d set up blankets and pillows for this eventual circumstance. A sudden shooting pain in her hands woke Zara up from her drunken sleep. Her fingers curled into her palms against her will, spasming uncontrollably.

The pain was like nothing that she had ever felt before. It felt like fire flowing through her veins, a needle puncturing every inch of her skin, over and over again. If she could rip her own skin off and crawl out of her body, she would have done just that at this point in time.

The wailing noise of pain sounded inhuman on the warm night air and it immediately roused Halle and Jackson from their sleeps. Despite being still intoxicated from the ample amounts of liquor consumed earlier in the night, they both stumbled up from their sleeping positions and rushed over to the side of the deck where Zara was splayed out on her back, body tense with pain.

“Make it stop, make it stop. Pleaseeeee,” she begged, as if that would make any difference. Jackson was immediately down on his knees next to her, feeling her forehead, running his hands over her to check for injuries. All of those AP anatomy and biology courses he’d taken in pre-med anticipation suddenly kicking in. It was of no use, there were no discernible injuries to her, physically speaking, at least. Internally was another matter. Her organs felt like they had all been smashed with a battering ram.

“Zara, Zara, what did you drink?” Jackson shook her lightly as her head just rolled back and forth. Black hair with tones of gold strewn about, falling riotously across her face and the wood planking of the deck.

“Beer...some vodka.” Waiting several seconds for the pain to pass, Zara bit her lip, leaving tooth mark impressions in her lower lip. “Not....that.”

“Halle, get behind her, help support her.” Jackson directed his girlfriend as she sat behind Zara, grasping her hands. It sent Zara into a frantic spasm that displayed in an almost seizure-like state.

“Jackson, what the hell’s wrong with her?” Halle was frantic, kneeling off to the side of her best friend and able to do nothing to ease the pain, let alone explain it.

The second hands of the unseen clock ticked by. It was now 11:34; three minutes shy of the 18^th birthday of Zara Thibedeaux. “I don’t know…I don’t freaking know. Get your cell, call my house, and tell them to call an ambulance.” Cell service out in the bayou was spotty at best and entirely nonexistent at its worst. He prayed that it worked this time. “Then get behind the wheel and bring us in while I stay with Z.” Halle was in action, her ash blonde messy bun bouncing up and down as she trotted off.

Wails and small keening noises of pain that had been continuous stopped with no prior warning. Zara went entirely still and her eyes shot open. Naturally hazel, tending to appear various shades of green, they were now pure gold.

Zara had no idea what was happening to her, what this prowling feeling inside her gut was, why she was in so much pain, But it was happening nonetheless and all she could do at the moment was ride out the pain and pray to a God that she had stopped worshipping that it would come to an end soon.

Her fingers spasmed as they involuntarily clenched and unclenched. The light of the nearly full moon beamed down on her, casting an eerie glow on the young woman in the throes of her pain. The flats of her feet slammed against the mahogany wood of the boat’s deck as her back arched up in the air.

All of a sudden, long sleek claws sprouted from her fingernails as her hands transformed into what could only be described as paws. Zara blindly reached out and the claws dragged through the wood of the deck as Jackson stared at her, speechless. As quickly as they had appeared, they were gone, although the gold still lingered in her eyes toned down from the initial shock of color.

Everything went silent as Zara rolled over onto her side, reverted back to her normal self. The pain was subsiding and her clarity of mind was returning, but everything was still all scattered. She braced one palm against the deck as she came up onto her knees, leaning on all fours as she tried to catch her breath.

Halle had come back over, stopping the boat in its own wake in the center of one of the bayou outlets. Jackson and Halle just sat down, Halle’s hand rested against his knee as he placed his own in hers. None of them spoke a word as Zara sat down Indian-style, her back against the rail of the boat. “That was new.”