Chapter Five

I could feel it coming. I felt it tearing at the walls inside of my human body, it wanted out. My anxiety levels were increasing by the minute, and I knew I'd be shifting soon. I was already in tears, and the pain hadn't even started yet.

There was a knock at my bedroom door a second that sends me nearly jumping out of my desk chair.

"Why are you locking yourself in your room?" I knew the voice all too well.

"Mark," I sniffle through my tears. "Mark right now's not a good time to come over. I'm-I'm sick." The door opens, but I had a feeling it would. Mark is just a little taller than me. 5'9 and all guy. Tall, dark, and handsome. His dark brown hair goes just below his earlobes, never touching his shoulders and falls above his eyebrows. His skin is a light tan as if he's been in the sun only when necessary, and his features scream boy. Mark has somewhat of a baby face, but it completes his look. Over the summer he came over to my house for a pool party I had, and damn I've never seen a boy with a better body than him. He's definite eye candy.

"You don't sound sick, you sound-" he catches a look at my face and hesitates. "You sound like you need a friend." My heavy sigh confirms his hypothesis, but he'd never fully understand why.

"Mark, please." But his arms were already wrapped around me from behind before I could say anything more.

"Missy, it's okay. Whatever it is that's bothering you, you'll get through it. K?" If something was wrong with me that he would be able to comprehend, those words might have worked tonight. But tonight was a different kind of problem that he could never know about.

"Tell me, what's bothering you?" Here we go.

"My dad." I lied.

Mark's eyebrow rose. "What about him?"

"He's an a*s."

He chuckled softly, still holding me. "Well, we know that already."

I manage a grin. "I've known it since I was born."

Mark slowly let me go, standing against my desk beside me. "Besides all the fuss with your dad, how have you been?"

My tears were starting to stop, even though I felt I could still flood my room with them by the end of the night.

"I've been alright I guess. I'm just trying to get through life if you know what I mean." My eyes catch a bloody towel I had neglected to throw out from under my bed after last month's shift. How did I not remember it?!

"That's good. And yeah, I get what you mean."

"Parents." We both simultaneously say the word, and we both smile.

I grunt softly, feeling a sharp pain in my stomach and wrap my arms around my torso.

Mark looks at me, concerned. "Maddie, you okay?"

I shake my head, my face progressively twisting in pain. "Bad cramps."

His eyes widen with unfortunate wrong understanding. "Oh. It's that time of the month huh?"

I groan softly, putting my forehead to my knees and slumping over slightly. "You have no idea."

"Do you need something? Should I go? Uhm.." I felt bad for Mark, even though he really didn't have a clue what was going on. What he did think was happening, must have been awkward for him to stand there and watch. So I did the only thing that was good for the both of us.

"You should go, Mark. I'll see you tomorrow at school in 3rd period okay? I'll be fine."

Mark still stood there, as if his feet were planted into my carpet floor. "Promise?"

I grit my teeth slightly. Growling in my thoughts, Just go already! "I promise."

"Cya later." I watch him walk out, nodding when he stops at my door.

"Bye."

                                                                                                                        

Now..

what was I gonna do?

                                                                                                                        

I was in the middle of a clearing, stripped of everything human about me. It was midnight, the full moon's glare was beating down on my skin and I'd shift any second now. The city's lights were a blur to me from the place I was standing now, all alone. The second it happened, it seemed as if time slowed down. I could feel my body reshaping and shifting into the animal caged within me. The animal I'd soon become was tearing its way out. For me, the shift seemed to take forever and a day, but really if you were to blink while watching me shift you would miss everything.

My dark brown pelt was almost black, and made it easy for me to blend in with the night around me. So I disappeared into the darkness on the prowl.

Since the time I had first started shifting, I've found out that I could probably make it to New York and back before dawn broke. Tonight, I wanted to stay a little more "local". Within a matter of minutes, I was standing on the north-east side of Isabella Lake in Kern County. There was a slight breeze that carried the scent of camp fires and food from the small town just up the road. The crisp night air was like ice in my nostrils, but a relief compared to the way the city smelled. The cold lake water washed over my paws, making a small shiver rack through my body. I stepped away and sunk back into the brush alongside the main road, padding along until I finally reached the low lights of the town. Laying as low as possible, I manage to sneak past the stores and small homes far enough to find my way to the fish hatchery. Leaping the small fence, loping down the hill towards the back pond where fish that had escaped from the holding troughs stayed. If I was human, I don't think I could find the back of my hand in this darkness.

Thanks to my own "built-in-night-vision" though, everything was as clear as day, but my nose was what now guided me to the smell of fresh fish. As I got closer, the distinctive sound of some of the fish splashing up to the top. As my dad would have called it, they were boiling. My ears perked at the sound of the restless fish, my mouth already starting to water.

Fish scatter in the water at the cast of my shadow over the water and the movement triggers my inner animal. I snap at the water but come back up with nothing other than a dripping muzzle. A low irritated rumble vibrates through my throat and chest. I keep my jaw stiff, thinking about my mom and how she had always nagged me about grinding my teeth. Stepping wrong, my paw slips on the small embankment, with far too much of my weight leaned forward I fall into the frozen pond water. The loud splash echoes throughout the small area, almost seconds later a light in one of the buildings flicks on. My heart starts to pound in my chest, frozen in place half-way out of the water, sunk low to the dirt. A decently tall silhouette, male most likely, appeared in an open doorway and a beam of light traveled out into the bush. My human self could only think it was a flashlight, my wolf though, could only keep thinking two words. Danger, danger, danger. Threat, threat, threat.

"Who's out there?" Yep. Definitely a man, who sounded in his early twenties.

I mentally cussed to myself, sinking as low as I could into the damp soil. He must have heard a noise, cause next thing I knew, he had something long in his hand. A small shiver ran down my spine and I felt colder now than I had before, almost as if my blood had ran cold er something.

"F**k."  As much as his posture and approach looked brave and unafraid, his voice was quite shaky and fearful. It wasn't even spoken, it was whispered if anything, but I could hear everything. Too bad he didn't know that.

I couldn't just sit there and wait for him to come find me, so once he faced the flashlight away from my direction, I tried to make a run for it. Before I could completely get out of the water, I felt the glare of the light in my eyes and couldn't see very far past it but I could hear the guy making his way towards me cautiously. For a fraction of a second, the light wasn't directly in my eyes anymore and I could see him. He was taller up close, maybe five'eleven. Maybe even six foot. I could barely get a glance at him before the light was in my eyes again.

"What the hell are you?" I'm Sasquatch, you idiot. "You're huge like a bear but look like a damn wolf." Wow, congratulations. You know your animal. No who wants a cookie? "I outta turn you in...might get famous for finding a new species." I was already panicking by the time he said "turn you in", so I started backing away.

"Ah, f**k that." He started after me, being brave and trying to grab ar me. That was my que to leave, turning the other way and running when a sound similar to an old truck backfiring rang out through the hatchery. A strained yelp escapes from me, tripping over my own feet, I fall heavy onto my side. Pain. White hot pain surged through my upper thigh and back. Blotches of black and blue ran across my vision and I felt my body trembling, quite possibly going into shock. What the f**k just happened? Last thing I saw before passing out unconscious was his face in mine, studying me like an insect under a microscope. Then, nothing. Darkness.

Author's Note

Spent a lot of time trying to finish this and I hope that you all like it! Thanks for reading!!