Benji`s secret

Wanna falls through the portal right on her bedroom floor. She manages to stand up while breathing heavily.

"What on earth was that?! My head is going to explode. This is not how it was supposed to be. It is even better to be a powerless freak than to have weird powers. Nobody is going to believe me...Heck, I don`t even believe myself. I have no proof all of it happened. Maybe I am going crazy...Oh God! What if grandma leaves me when I tell her...I will be completely alone," cried Wanna while walking back and forward across her room with tears rolling down her cheeks.

The elephant was gone and there were no signs of anything unusual, but Wanna even wished that there was, because that way she would have proof that she was not mad. She sat on the floor while sobbing uncontrollably. She was a freak of her clan for as long as she can remember...She didn`t want any more features that would make her strange or scary to others.

Suddenly, she heard a knock on her window. It was Benji in his normal form! He was tapping his paw against the glass with his eyes glowing even brighter green than usual in the half darkness of the dawn. Wanna wiped her tears and stood up to open the window. The cat hopped inside.

"I bet this is just a coincidence... I do feed you every day on my way to school. Maybe you forgot it was Sunday and came for a treat." sighed Wanna sadly.

Benji jumped on a small chalkboard Wanna accidently left on the floor and started to look around as if he was searching for a piece of chalk. Wanna laughed.

"I do have a wild imagination. Why would a cat want chalk? Oh, God, I imagine things too much. One day I will completely lose my sanity. I just hope grandma Ava won`t leave me. Maybe she won`t. Maybe she will help me figure out what is wrong with me. She was always by my side, even when Viatores wanted to get rid of me." continued Wanna.

Benji looked at her while rolling his eyes. He went to the small fireplace in her room and put a piece of charcoal in his mouth. The cat carefully went back to the chalkboard and started drawing with his mouth. He made a simple drawing of a smiley elephant. Wanna sighed, picked up Benji and hugged him tightly. He meowed angrily in sign of protest, but Wanna didn`t mind.

"So, I am not crazy! Oh, Benji, thank you so much! Maybe no one will believe me, but now at least I know it was real," said Wanna happily.

The cat managed to get out of her tight hug and jumped on the floor while snorting with annoyance.

"Ok now. Will you please follow me to the kitchen? I have to talk to my grandma Ava." asked Wanna.

She took the chalkboard and headed down the stairs. Benji nodded his head and followed her.

Grandma Ava was mixing porridge next to the stove in the kitchen.

"Good morning grandma!" said Wanna.

"Good morning my dear! Why are you up so early? You could have slept more. You know that your chores for the Viatores don`t start before 8 AM on Sunday. You work too hard and stay up too late studying, dear. I am worried. You have to rest more..." answered grandma.

"Don`t worry granny, I am not tired. Something very important happened, you know. Please take a look at this!" said the girl, while holding a chalk board in her hand and pointing it towards Ava.

"That`s nice sweety. You have an art project at school?" said Granny.

"Noo, granny. I know it sounds funny, but this cat drew it." said Wanna.

"A hat? My eyesight is not that great... It looks a bit like an elephant to me" answered Ava.

"Not a hat, grandma. A cat! Benji, the neighbour's cat, came and knocked on my window. I let him into my room and he drew an elephant on my chalkboard" said Wanna, while pointing at Benji who was standing behind her this whole time..

"Oh...That is unusual. Such a gifted cat. But our neighbour is probably looking for him, so you should return him...I wonder why he drew an elephant," said granny while staring at Benji like she was asking him a question.

"Grandmama! You believe me it happened?! Oh, you are the best as always. I wonder why I even doubted you would believe me," said Wanna while tightly hugging her granny.

"That is normal, my child. God knows you were disappointed in many people in your young life, but I am sure that will change in the future. In my 86 years, I learned that nothing is impossible and I am completely certain that my granddaughter is not a liar. I am going to tell you as many times as you need to hear it, love. I will be by your side until my last breath and I will always believe in you and take care of you," said granny while gently rocking Wanna back and forth in her warm hug like she used to do when she was a little girl.

Wanna`s eyes became a little teary and she smiled.

"That`s more like it, " said granny while letting her go from a hug and smiling back at her.

"Thank you for everything, grandmama. I don`t know where I would be without you. I am going to take Benji back to our neighbour and finish my chores. I will tell you the whole story when I get back home," answered Wanna while going towards the door and blowing her granny a kiss.

"You are very welcome, my child. I assumed there was a story connected to that drawing, but I didn`t want to push it in case you were not ready to tell me. Take care dear and I will see you in the evening. Take your lunchbox with you," said Ava.

"Bye, granny. You take care, too," answered Wanna with a wink "We`ll talk in the evening."

Wanna got out of the house with Benji and they headed towards the neighbour's apartment. When they arrived, she rang the bell and waited in front of the door. No one was answering.

"Maybe he went out," said Wanna to Benji.

He tapped her leg with his paw and pointed towards the bell with his head.

"You saw I rang. No one answered. We will have to come back later," said the girl.

The cat jumped and tapped the brick below the bell while staring at Wanna with his hypnotizing green eyes. Wanna looked at the brick and noticed it was slightly more drawn out than the others. She pulled it, and the door opened.

"Oh..." sighed Wanna "Maybe we shouldn`t come in and wait for the neighbor to arrive...I really don`t want to trespass. On the other hand, I doubt Mr. Higgins would mind. He knows me and I assume you often go into the apartment this way, do you?" asked Wanna.

Benji nodded his head, so they went in.

The apartment was very small but pretty cozy and neatly decorated. The entire left wall was covered with a giant antique wooden shelf with interesting wood carvings. On the shelf were mostly history books and peculiar figurines that looked very ancient. The walls were covered in tapestry that looked a lot like papyrus with wonderful small drawings of Egyptian Gods, scarabs, cats and interesting hieroglyphs. In the front of the room was a big, white couch and on the left was a slightly opened door which showed a bathroom with blue tiles. A small fireplace made of terracotta bricks was in the corner next to the bathroom door.

"Wow, what a lovely apartment! Mr. Higgins sure has a wonderful taste for decoration. He probably knows a lot of stuff, too. Look at all these books!" said Wanna.

Benji seemed happy with her reaction. He gave her a warm look and jumped on the couch.

"It is hard not to snoop around…But I am not going to. It is a private apartment after all. I might ask Mr. Higgins to come for a cup of tea to his place one day… He doesn`t seem to despise me like other Viatores. We never talked too much and I don`t know a lot about him, but he was always decent to me."

The cat nodded its head in agreement.

"Alright. I am glad we are friends, Benji. Thank you for all your help and I hope we will see each other more often. Now I have to go and get my chores done. Goodbye!" said Wanna.

Benji made a small bow as a sign of goodbye and followed Wanna towards the door. They automatically shut after she went out.

When the cat was finally alone, he suddenly started growing and losing its fur. After a few seconds, instead of a cat, a young man was standing in the room. His eyes remained the same as a cat's, but instead of their ginger red fur, his hair was a grayish color. He was quite tall with a handsome and pleasant face and a nice body.

"Finally!" he gasped "It is hard to be in a cat`s body for so long in this world. I thought she would never leave…Though I do want her to stay forever…Maybe she likes me, she did call me a friend and she wants to see me more often… Oh, no, I shouldn`t get my hopes up. She knows me as a cat and this is how it has to stay for now. This is just a job, Benji, don`t get attached or it will end badly. She will start hating you at some point and you are lying to her about your identity…You piece of human shit. Ah…I do need to get out in human form more often and stop talking to myself this much," said Benji.

He continued to mutter a bit more in his beard, then he transformed into Mr. Higgins, a middle-aged baldish guy and went outside.