What Lies Hidden in Your Closet: Part Six

      "This time, unlike all the other times I had drunk her potions, I did notice a change. Before drinking the potion, I had been a blue Aisha. After drinking the potion, I rapidly transformed into a green Blumaroo. My owner had concocted some sort of morphing potion, and for a few minutes after transforming, I had no idea what I would do. I obviously couldn't leave my owner's potion lab looking completely different; she'd have known immediately that I was snooping through her potions. So, I did the only thing that I could think of. I ran out of the room as fast as my legs would carry me, grabbed a cloak that had been hanging in my closet and my savings, and ran out the front door, heading toward the local market. Even though the temperatures that day were extremely high, I covered myself with the cloak, just in case anyone I knew happened to catch a glimpse of me as a Blumaroo. My plan had been to simply run into town, find someone selling a Blue Aisha Morphing Potion, and buy it. On the way there, however, I happened to see my owner returning from town. Luckily for me, there had been some bushes along the side of the road, and I dove into them, hoping that my owner hadn't already seen me. She passed by without a glance in my direction, and I felt relieved for the moment. After she had passed and was a considerable distance down the road, I snuck back out of the bushes silently and continued toward town. As I was walking, I next realized that my owner would wonder where I was if I was gone when she returned home, so I started running. I knew it would be next to impossible to return home before her, yet I thought it would be less suspicious if I was gone for a shorter period of time.

      "Once I got into town, I made a beeline straight for the local potion vendor. When I arrived there, several other customers were there, awaiting the services of the shopkeeper, but I didn't have time to wait, so I ran straight up to the front counter, past the others, and breathlessly asked the shopkeeper if he had a Blue Aisha Morphing Potion.

      "'Why can you not wait your turn?' he asked in return with a small glare. 'All these other good pets have been patiently waiting their turn in line, and yet you barge right up to the front of the line and demand that I find you a potion!' He threw his arms up into the air.

      "'I'm sorry,' I said apologetically. 'And I normally would have stood in line and waited, but I'm in an extreme hurry!'

      "The shopkeeper rolled his eyes and took a deep breath, as if weighing over in his mind whether he should serve me now or make me wait. With one quick movement he roughly slid a blue potion in a clear glass vial across the table. '7300 Neopoints,' he said grouchily. 'And another 150 for rudely cutting in front of my other customers.'

      "At the time, I was shocked at the price of the potion, since this was back in the old days, back when a single Neopoint had a much greater value than what one does today. Seeing the predicament I was in, however, I reluctantly paid the 7450 Neopoints and took the potion. I thanked the shopkeeper for his kindness and ran out of the hut. Since buying the potion had taken longer than I had expected, I didn't have time to duck behind a hut or find some other concealed location to consume the potion.

      "So, I had to consume the potion on the run. I pulled the hood of the cloak up over my head and concealed myself the best that I could and drank the potion. I assume I still got stares from a few pets in the market anyway; it isn't every day that you see someone running through the market at top speed, drinking a potion, while wearing a long brown cloak, especially if the feet of said pet begin to transform during this spectacle. I don't remember what I did with the empty vial, but I probably just threw it into the bushes on my way home.

      "When I arrived home, my owner was pacing through the front room of our house, looking very worried. 'Where have you been?' she demanded to know. I told her that I had just taken a quick walk, but she was still upset with me for taking off without leaving a note saying where I was going. I apologized and said that I'd make sure to write a note next time and turned to walk upstairs. 'Oh, and by the way,' she added watching me walk up the stairs, 'I'd like to know why you bothered to take a cloak with you if you were just taking a walk. It's not nearly cold enough outside to need one.'

      "I'm sure a look of nervousness must have flickered across my face as I heard this, and immediately afterward I almost considered myself caught. Trying to make up a story, I quickly told a lie about how I had intended to have a picnic in the woods but decided to return home.

      "'And you needed a cloak?'

      "'Well, I was going to sit on it.'

      "'Whatever,' she sighed, finally allowing me to go upstairs.

      "Once back in my bedroom, I had let out a long sigh and felt very relieved that she hadn't found out where I had been. Somehow I was still worried, though, that she already did know and had asked about the cloak simply to make me uncomfortable and to try to get me to confess.

      "Despite what had happened, I still continued to sneak into my owner's laboratory almost daily. You would have thought that I would have learned my lesson when I had been transformed into a green Blumaroo, but I continued to taste potions. Just as before, most of them had no effects--at least, none that were apparent to me. My gut instincts tried to tell me it was wrong, but that didn't stop me. It caused me to worry each time I sipped a bit of a potion, though. What would happen if another potion would affect me in an obvious way? What if, this time, I wouldn't be able to fix it so easily? Looking back on my actions, I now wonder how I could have ignored my instincts so much. The first incident should have been enough to teach me..."

      Kalina's stomach growled, interrupting Sury's story and reminding her that she hadn't eaten a thing all day long.

      "I'll tell you one good thing about being a ghost," Sury said, glancing over at Kalina. "You never have to worry about eating. Or sleeping, for that matter. Should I continue with my story, or do you want to get something to eat?"

      "Oh, I think I can wait until later to eat. Continue with your story."

      "Very well. Where was I? Oh yes... I was saying how I should have learned after the first incident. I truly should have... but I didn't, probably because I was such a curious pet. You know what they say! 'Curiosity killed the Aisha.' Due to this extreme curiosity of mine, I started poking around the house more than ever before, searching to see if there were any other hidden doors leading to secret rooms of my owner's. I expected to find some, especially since I remembered the comment my owner had made months ago about the 'visible' living room. You remember reading that in my diary?" Kalina nodded, so Sury continued. "It took me a long time to figure out what she meant by that. In fact, I didn't find out until long after I had stopped being a blue Aisha. I know now, of course, but I'll get back to that later. I looked in nearly every room in the house, in every closet, and even checked under several rugs, but I couldn't find any more rooms, so eventually I gave up. Naturally, one of the last places I looked for entrances to secret rooms was my own bedroom--or rather, my own closet."

To be continued...