Transformation in the Shadows: Gage's Journey into the Haunting World of Zelda

The room was dark and steeped in shadow, an odor of mildew and mothballs lingering in the air. Gage Creed, the innocent and naive boy from the 2019 adaptation of 'Pet Sematary', blinked awake. His small, disoriented blue eyes were drawn to the grand, ancestral mirror hanging ominously in the corner of Zelda’s room. Zelda, Rachel's sister – his deceased aunt - was known and feared for her grotesque appearance, a side effect of spinal meningitis. Gage, with his bright cherubic face and wisps of blond hair, looked almost ethereal in his toddler-size blue polo shirt and cargo shorts, a spot of color amidst the gloom. His sweet high-pitched voice was still muffled from sleep as he sat up gingerly on the bed, his tiny feet buried in the ratty old sheets. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew the window open, and with it, an eerie, haunting presence filled the room. The Wendigo, a wooden, half-bone humanoid with piercing red eyes, appeared before Gage. It reached out a skeletal hand over Gage, and an ethereal light seemed to envelope the little boy. Gage gasped, his body convulsing. His tiny, rounded fingers began to elongate, becoming hooked and frail like those of an old woman, while his feet distorted into a deformed, mangled state. His small, padded feet bent and folded, strikingly resembling Zelda’s gnarled ones. His spine curved, forcing him into a hunched, painful posture. In the span of a few heartbeats, his clothes transformed into a diaphanous gown, much like Zelda's own attire, that hung loose on his transformed body. He stumbled up from the bed, struggling to balance himself on his new, grotesque feet, his toddling steps replaced by an eerie lurch. His once high-pitched, innocent voice gave away to Zelda's raspy, haunting tone. "Mommy!" he cried out in Zelda’s voice, struggling to turn and look into the mirror. The reflection staring back was not his own. It was Zelda's monstrous, skeletal face, her eyes sunken and haunted. Gage stumbled back, terror taking over. He hit the edge of the bed and fell onto the soft mattress, small shoulders heaving as burst into tears. "Mommy!" he sobbed again, burying his grotesque face in the pillow. As he raised his head again, trembling, he looked down at his changed hands, saw his transformed feet. He swayed before his legs gave way, causing him to crumple onto the bed. Squeezing his eyes shut and willing with all his heart for it to be just a nightmare. But even the innocent wishes of a three-yeard-old held no sway over the cruel reality. Gage was now, tragically, trapped in Zelda’s body forever.