Young Writers Society

Chapter 2:

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

Those words resonated within me. I slowly stood up and walked into my dining room, welcomed by the sight of my horse friend still standing outside the garden door.

“Can I come in?” he asked politely. I was slightly flattered by his courtesy.

“Y- yeah… Sure…” I struggled to speak. Although, inside my head, I was slapping myself yelling:

You bloody idiot!! Why are you inviting a fucking horse into your house?!

The horse-boy walked through the door, his hooves making a bit of a mess wherever he stepped. At least he had the courtesy to close the door behind him, despite nearly knocking my dining table over. He turned around from the door and looked at me with a friendly smile, though I was still trembling. Suddenly, a bright white light surrounded him, I quickly closed my eyes and twirled so that my back was facing the light. I covered my eyes with my hands too, just in case. When the light finally died out, I turned around to see my now-not-so-horsey friend. He now had Human legs, and yes, he had some black boxers on. I didn’t particularly want to ask him where he got them from. His legs were just as muscular as the rest of his body.

“S- so,” I said. As I did, I realised that it was me being the timid one now. “W- what’s your name?”

“Crystallos.” he replied, smiling clemently. “But you can call me Crystall.”

“Well, n- nice to meet you, Crystall. I’m Katrina.”

“Nice to meet you too, Katrina.”

“W- wanna have a seat?” I gestured at my sofa, my hand shaking uncontrollably. Crystall nodded slowly and we sat down next to each other. I quickly moved over a bit, just so that the conversation wouldn’t get more awkward that it already was.

“So, h- how’d you get here?” I asked. Crystall looked down at the floor, his smile was wiped clean off his face. I could see a small tear rolling down his cheek, followed by gradually bigger tears as he began sobbing quietly. I began panicking.

“I- I’m sorry!” I cuddled him without thinking, his body was about as hot in temperature as a furnace. “I didn’t know it was going to make you cry! You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to!”

“It’s ok.” Crystall smiled at me through his tears. His smile was so warm, it made his body look cold. I wiped the tears from his cheeks softly, his skin was extremely smooth. I moved away from him and decided to carry on asking him, though I knew deep down that it wasn’t a very good idea. I just couldn’t keep my curiosity chained.

“Why did you pick my house to stay in?” I asked softly.

“I saw your performance, it was amazing.” Crystall replied quietly. I felt extremely flattered by the complement. “So, I decided to follow you here.”

My eyes widened slightly, making him chuckle quietly.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I looked around in shock, before whispering into Crystall’s ear:

“Go hide in my bedroom upstairs. It’s the room to your right as you leave the stairs. Go in there and hide in my wardrobe, but be warned; you’ll be there for a while.”

“I’ll be fine.” Crystall whispered back, before quietly sneaking upstairs, while a second knock came from the door. I quickly ran to the kitchen to grab a wet cloth, which I used to clean up Crystall’s hoofprints. There was a third knock.

“Give me a second!” I yelled. After I finally finished, I quickly threw the cloth into the kitchen sink and dashed to the door. I opened it to see my mother standing outside in her cream-coloured, fur-lined coat.

“Surprise!!” she squealed, showing me a bottle of Martini champagne.

“Mother…” I was absolutely gob-smacked.

“And not only that!” came a familiar voice from behind her. Then, Nate jumped out from behind her, making me jump a bit. He wore the same coat he wore at the competition and carried two bottles of Bailey's.

“You idiot! Stop doing that! You know I hate it!” I laughed. “Either way, come in!”

I let my two guests in and helped them to a seat by the dining table. After I hung their coats up, being the very kind and humble host I was, I joined them at the table, where my mother kissed and hugged the life out of me. Not that I had anything against it.

“Mum,” I began. “Where's dad?”

“Oh, you know him, dear. He's always asleep at this time.” my mother replied.

“I guess that's a good thing because I won't have to listen to his lectures. I've already got this one pushing me over the line!” I gestured at Nate, who chuckled in response.

“You did amazing, Katrina. You beat your personal best and the world record!” Nate said.

“I know! I still can't believe it!” I don't think I was ever that happy in my life.

“So what plans do you have for the next program?” my mother asked.

“Well, I want to expand my horizons a bit, so I'm deciding to change my double Axel to a triple Axel-”

“Are you mad?!” Nate exclaimed. “You want to break the record for the Free Program too?” we all burst out laughing.

“Why not?” I laughed, “And that's not it! I'm also changing my triple Toe Loop to a quad-”

“Katrina,” Nate suddenly turned very serious. “I don't want you to hurt yourself. If you can show me that you can perform a quadruple Toe Loop three times perfectly tomorrow at training, then I'll allow you to put it into your program. The same goes for the Axel. You can't afford to fail after such a good start to the Finals.”

“Yeah I know… At least I didn't change it to a quadruple Salchow, though!”

“However, I was almost expecting you to do that.” my mother said, before all three of us giggled. My mum had her fair share of Figure Skating knowledge. She even was my coach for a while until Nate showed up. He's a friend of my dad's co-worker. They recommended Nate to go and help me out and I don't think I was ever that grateful for someone else's kindness.

“Anything else you're planning to change?” Nate asked.

“Nope, that's it, I think. If I find something that should be changed, then I'll make sure I tell you.” I replied

“The skaters nowadays are breaking new grounds every day.”

“What do you mean by that? No one’s performed a quadruple Axel in competition yet, and no one has done a quintuple jump either.”

“They may have not,” my mother answered. “But they have performed other quad jumps. That would’ve been a dream when Figure Skating was first introduced in the 19th Century.”

“I see your point, Figure Skating has evolved a lot since its recognition as a sport.”

We then carried on for the next hour or so to talk about my mum’s and Nate’s skating careers, from which I didn't necessarily learn anything new. Not that I mean to brag, but I do my research.

After my guests finally left, I was about to go upstairs to my room, but I turned and looked at my expensive TV in the living room. I grabbed the remote and turned on the news channel, where I saw the one thing I was partially expecting:

“Last week in Cornwall, a group of farmers claimed that they saw some sort of tribe of men with horse bodies in their nearby forests. They claim to have wiped out the entire tribe, which the Cornish Police have not yet confirmed and are still searching the Cornwall area for any more of these Horse-Men. The police say that they can’t rely on the witness of the farmers alone, because it has been revealed that they have a tendency for dementia, as mentioned by their wives, children and GPs.”A police officer suddenly appeared on the screen and began expanding on what the reporter said earlier:

“We surveyed the entire area inside and and around the forest and it is possible that some of the Horse-Men escaped. We can confirm that there definitely was a group living in the forest, but we cannot yet confirm whether they were actually part horse, or whether they just rode on horseback. We also can’t yet confirm whether there any of them are still alive.”

I turned off the TV. I heard enough.

I walked upstairs to my room, where I expected to find Crystall. The room had one large, black wardrobe left of the entrance and a large window just opposite the wardrobe. In between the two was a large double bed, all for me. I opened the first door, he wasn't there. I moved on to the next, still not there. I sighed and was about to leave the room, when I was suddenly given an unpleasant jumpscare. Crystall stood in the entrance, and was clearly amused by me being spooked.

“A’ight, let's get one thing straight,” I said, putting my hand against my chest to see whether I was still alive. Mh breathing pattern was disturbed greatly. “Don't you fucking dare do that again! I hate jumpscares and I will be prepared to cut you if you underestimate me!”

“Ok,” Crystall replied calmly. “I won't do it again.”

I felt kind of guilty for being so harsh on him.

“So… Where do you want to sleep?”

“Maybe on the fl-”

“Out of the question; you're not an animal. I mean, if you want to sleep in my bed, I could go down to sleep on the sofa-”

“Oh no, it's your bed, so you have to sleep on it. I'll sleep on the sofa downstairs. Goodnight, Kind-hearted Katrina.” Crystall walked downstairs, as I began getting dressed into a pyjama version of my Eros costume (the one I used for my Short Program). My mother’s sister made it for me by my request, bless her soul.

As I got under my duvet, I began thinking about Crystall.

I don't know what led me to letting him in, I thought. But I feel like I won't regret listening to it.