If you are here than you have heard of us. Or you are one of us. Maybe you think this is fiction, a silly story for you to read to pass the time, let me tell you something, our little secret.

It's not.

What you are about to read is real. All of it. Every word, every sentence, ever paragraph and every chapter has no ounce of lies. You probably don't believe me you might be rolling your eyes at the words in these pages or you might be laughing at me, fine. Don't believe me.

My name is Rosemary Gravett and I'm not human, not exactly.

We were thought to be nothing but a story, a tale a fable to make kids imagine of creatures thought not to be possible. However, we are, we hide among the shadows among the animals you think are everything but abnormal.

We are Shapeshifters.

But I think you want to know the very beginning don't you? Well your wish will be granted whether you think this is real or not I will tell you everything.

My parents found out I was something more than a human when I was ten, I had grown a tiger tail when I was playing with my father my mother dropped the tray of cookies in fright and picked up my baby brother from the floor far away from me. I looked at her and slowly turned around to find the tail I squealed and ran towards my father but he backed away slowly.

The way his almond eyes looked at me.

It was in a way I was never looked at before by him.

He wasn't scared but I would have preferred that over what I saw. His eyes were full of disgust towards me, I looked over at my mother scared and she went towards me but my father blocked her dragging her and my brother out of the living room and locked the door behind them. I walked towards the closed door and listened.

"We have to leave this house!" My father hissed, "Some creature took over our daughter we have to protect our son from-from that." I felt my heart break at the venom in his voice at what he called me, tears started to fill my eyes.

"No." My mother said.

The other side was quiet for a while but my 'father' soon broke it.

"Excuse me?"

"I said no. We can't leave our daughter! She is family and family sticks together no matter what, we will help her through this."

"No."

"What?"

"You will help her through this, I'm leaving. I don't want to be anywhere near the Devil's spawn."

With that I heard a door slam shut and the door to which I was listening through open and I see my mother giving me a smile but her eyes brimmed with tears. She bends down towards my still holding on to my brother, who somehow stayed asleep through the argument, and hugged me close. "I'm not going to leave you. Not now, not ever Rosemary."

I hugged her back tight she and my brother, I knew, where my only family left. My grandparents died when I was born, I never knew them and now my father was leaving me because I grew a tail. Yes, this isn't something normal for a child but it is no reason for a father to leave their child, but no family is perfect and mine was far from perfect.

That happened seven years ago.

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This is the first chapter of a short story for bluedrop77 's contest. I hope you like it!