Struggling to shift

When you've been able to assume whatever form you've wanted for as long as you can remember, it's very unsettling to discover that your power to shapeshift is waning. It's not the sort of thing you can reboot either: shut down, leave it for a minute and then power up. You can either do it or you can't.

I first noticed that I was struggling to shift when I had had to transform suddenly into a cactus and hadn't been able to change back. I had been following a man who his wife thought was cheating on her. He was actually not a cheater at all but a serial killer, burying his victims in the desert. I was almost rumbled by him but managed to transform into a saguaro just in time.

However, transforming back took a lot of effort. It's a prickly subject, pun intended and oh, how my arms ached!

But eventually, I resumed my original form: regular Joe, although my name is Darren. Nothing outstanding about me: in fact, I blend into society well with my unassuming air, average height and off-the-peg fashion sense.

I'm a private detective, by the way. Just in case you wondered why I was doing favours for married ladies. I wasn't: I get paid to snoop.

Back to the problem. It is a problem. I'm scared, if I'm honest. This is me, the essence of me. I don't know who I am if I can't shapeshift. I certainly won't be able to do my job as well although as the best P.I. in Vegas, I've earned my fair amount of cash and there's a lot of paranoid people out there, let me tell you.

But it's not the job. It's the ability. Losing that will make me, well, someone else and I don't want to be someone else. You could argue I'm always someone else - the irony is not lost on me - but it's the transforming that's at the heart of me; not the others I become.

I have a decision to make: I can continue to shapeshift and risk getting stuck as something hateful, or choose a form forever.

I don't know what to do.

***

366 words

What would you do?

The inspiration for this was taken from: