I left the library a bit dazed and confused. I'd only wanted to find one murderer. I guess the page had been organized based on views rather than recency, because instead I found newsletters from nearly twenty years ago. I grabbed my housecoat and flew down the steps. No. It can't be true.
At the lions, I stopped and looked around, trying to decide what to do. It had stopped raining, but the air was still heavy with moisture. Birds had taken the opportunity to come down from their roosts and forage for food. People dotted the streets, bundled up in scarves and hoodies. One kid had a rubber duckie raincoat- a tiny bit of sunshine amidst a world of clouds and grey.
I didn't know where to go. I most certainly wasn't going back to the pancake house, and the tears were coming back, unbidden. Funny how that works. The way that once the dam breaks, it takes so long before it heals up, and you can be brave again.
So I did what I always do when I'm emotional. I find a nitche- beneath the belly of the left lion in this case- and I begin to shrink. My clothes sink into my skin from which sprouts a thick coat of fur, grey as the day itself. My face stretches out, bones crackling as I change shape. Joints pop as my fingers shrink, and my fingernails grow to tiny claws. Within seconds, I have completely changed to my second Skin. All but my prosthetic, which clatters off like the dead thing it is.
Small, furry, fox-me snuggles under my houserobe beneath the stone lion. Today truely sucks.