For Whom The Bell Tolls (Trollhunters continuation/Evil Jim AU)

11: Turning Blue

Dumbfounded was the only word to describe how Douxie was feeling. A creature towered over him, eight feet of hulking blue stone flesh.

"J-Jim?" He tiled his head curiously.

The creature huffed an answer, "Uhh yeahhh...oh man my head is killing me...what happened?"

Douxie watched on as Jim ran a hand over his head. It came into contact with the long horns now protruding from his forehead and curled back down his hair. His eyes shot open in shock, letting a loud dog-like yelp escape his lips. He grasped at the horns violently, beginning to freak out.

"No, no, no, no, no, NO! Fuck...fuck please no, not again!" The teenager panicked.

He careened around the store, tugging at the horns as if he was trying to remove them from his head, to no avail. Douxie tried his best to calm Jim down but this also was to no avail. Lake was on the brink of a complete anxious breakdown. His eyes wildly darted around the room.

"Jim, stop, breathe. Big deep breaths for me, okay? I understand you're scared but we can't do anything whilst you're panicking. I'm gonna need you to try and calm down for me if you can. I'm right here with you." Casperan uttered, keeping his voice gentle so as not to startle the boy further.

Jim nodded and flopped to the floor, his back pressed to the wall. He was close to weeping.

"This can't be happening..." He trailed off slowly.

"I'm not 100% clear on what's happening, but I did catch a brief glimpse of this when I established the link. Something to do with Merlin's magic right?" Douxie asked.

Jim growled, "Yes...he did this to me back then...but Claire- I was changed back again so why is it happening again?"

"I have one theory. Since the amulet contains the very last remnants of Merlin's magic and I activated that upon connecting with it and you, I very well could've accidentally triggered this transformation. Merlin's spell still lay dormant within you since you've had to endure it so many times. Similar to the Time Stone, I believe the creature is now bonded to you and only required awakening to trigger the change," Douxie furrowed his brow, "But it's only a theory."

Jim's dormant troll instincts began to slowly reawaken as he sat listening to Douxie speak. The intense senses; the raw, feral power. He'd almost missed it, but he wanted it gone right now. How the hell could he possibly hope to explain to literally anyone why he was currently a half human half troll hybrid? Especially when in this timeline, no one knew of the existence of trolls. The whole thing sucked. His friends would likely run screaming for the hills.

"Jim? Sorry, I think you zoned out there for moment mate."

Douxie's smooth voice brought his mind back to the present moment. He blinked slowly at the wizard, feeling thoroughly done with the entire situation.

"Jim, you can change yourself back. At least if my theory is right. The transformation is tied to your emotions, thusly you just need to try and calm those emotions and you should change back into a human."

Jim stared back, "Wait, can I really? But what if I can't do it? Or I get overemotional and turn back?"

Douxie raised a hand to the back of his head awkwardly, "Like I said, it's only a theory. I'd like to keep hold of the amulets if that's okay with you though? I wanna study them both side by side and see if I can work out how to fix this little issue."

"Knock yourself out." Jim sighed sarcastically, just glad to have the damn things out of his possession for the time being.

He stood up, realising his new shirt had ripped a little from suddenly gaining just over two feet of height. Despite the swirling chaos in his mind, he took a moment to breathe deeply as Douxie had advised him to, clearing his head until there was nothing there; picturing himself cramming the troll form into a locked box and concealing it behind a heavy door. From Douxie's little excited clap, he could tell it'd probably worked.
Although this didn't bode well for his plan of action, whatever that was going to be. He may have found a way to get the amulets gone and into safe hands, but now he had the added stress of potentially exploding into a troll if he got overly emotional. Fun times!
Douxie vanished into the back with the amulets and returned minutes later after spending some time rummaging through boxes.

"Here," He gleefully placed a small metal charm in Jim's hand, "this is a monitus charm. It's used to help young wizards regulate their emotions during puberty. It isn't exactly designed for your situation, but keeping it with you should allow it to emit a low frequency spell that helps to pacify anything like anger. Believe me, I know a thing or two about having...explosive bouts of anger. It won't always help, but it should take the edge off a bit."

"It usually resulted with me being lit on fire." Archie added snootily.

Douxie just laughed and ruffled the cat's fur, causing him to purr softly. Jim offered up a wry smile in response and pocketed the magical trinket. Archie trotted over to Jim and rubbed his head into the boy's leg before wandering off into the back of the shop to nap.
Emotions swirled within Jim. As his thoughts meandered, a wash of calm came over him in a wave. It ebbed and flowed like a gentle tide trickling across a shoreline. It felt a bit odd, but he felt clarity of mind. Whatever this thing Douxie had given him was, it was definitely helping keep the beast at bay.
Douxie had left again to run some quick errands, telling Jim he was welcome to leave if he so desired, or he was also welcome to sit around and read. Jim wasn't sure exactly what to do but decided he needed some fresh air, so thanked the wizard for his time, left his mobile number so they could stay in touch and went off on his merry way.
It was night by this point. The sun had disappeared below the horizon, leaving Arcadia desolate in darkness. Just as he liked it. He took a second to contemplate going home but he felt too awake to do so. Instead, he opted to scale the side of GDT Arcane Books and sit on the rooftop, staring up at the smattering of stars in the sky.
A bright flash towards caught his eye, a shooting star that streaked dramatically across the expanse above him before vanishing behind the buildings on the other side of town. He didn't really think anything of it.
Finally, he checked his phone properly. Claire and Toby had messaged him, called him, over and over. As had his mom. A pang of guilt grew in his stomach. Jim clung to the monitus charm as if his life depended on it, but it wasn't working. He jumped from the top of the building and ran down the alley clutching his head.
A continuous ringing tolled in his mind, leading him to scream. Before he knew it, Jim was a troll again. He froze in place as he heard voices approaching, hugging the wall to avoid being spotted.
Then a torch beam hit him, followed by the panicked gaze of Tobias Domzalski and Claire Nuñez.