My ribs felt like they were on fire, my left leg and right arm were numb and not responding very well. Someone pushed me aside as they got up and ran away. People were crying all around me, my mind couldn't make sense of what was happening. My eyes focused on the strangest things, like a little girl lying in a pool of red liquid had mismatched socks on. {My mother would never let me outside without matching socks.}
A man ran past me with a purse in his hands, I wondered if he stole it and that why he was running. {Men don't carry purses.} Johnny made fun of me for carrying a bag, he said men only carried a briefcase or backpack. My ears started ringing, like I was too close to a bell. "MOM?" I looked around, I tried to slide away from the people on the ground.
{Johnny was going to make fun of me for sliding on my but like this, but my leg won't work. I wish mom would stop seeing him or at least stop bringing him around me.} I felt someone touch my shoulder and turned to look. "Mom!!!" She hugged me and cried at the same time.
"Come on sweetheart, we need to get out of here."
"My leg won't work. I really hate Johnny. Can you stop seeing him? He kicked my leg and made me fall."
"Yes, I promise he will never be around us again."
"Good, that's what I wished when I blew out my cake candles this year."
"Okay. Honey, let's try to hide. The bad people could see us any minute." She tried to pull me, but she didn't have the strength. I wasn't going any faster than I had been by sliding on my butt alone. I still tried to help her as much as I could. I looked down and tried to slide my butt the way she was pulling but then something wet splattered on my head and I heard three bangs really close together. {Or did I hear the bangs first?}
The next thing I knew, mom fell over the top of me and lay down. Her eyes were open, but they didn't see me. I managed to get my knee under me and lean towards her. My working arm tried to shake her. "Mommy?" {Only babies cry for their mommy Thomas.} {Shut up Johnny, mom said you won't be around anymore. So go away!}
I looked at the red pool forming around my mother, {Blood isn't supposed to look like this. In the games, it's a much brighter color. Isn't it?} I heard footsteps coming towards me. Time seemed to skip, and I found myself looking up at the barrel of a rifle and then I heard another bang. The man with the rifle dropped straight down, falling on my mother's body.
I started to hit him with my good arm, but he wouldn't move, so I used the one I couldn't feel very well. "GET OFF MY MOMMY. GET OFF OF HER." A fire seemed to erupt in my head as this man wouldn't get off my mother. I kept hitting him and screaming in anger, until my right arm looked weird. It was still numb, but now I saw something white sticking out of my skin. Even as I looked at the bone sticking out of my right forearm, I kept screaming for the man to get off my mother and hitting him with my left fist.
I didn't hear anyone approach over the sounds of my screaming in rage, but I felt someone putting their hand on my shoulder.
"Your safe now son. My name is Officer Randal."
The man in a police uniform looked at me, asking me something or telling me something, but I didn't understand him. "Get him off my mom. PLEASE!"
The officer realized what I was doing and helped me push the man off my mother. Then he turned his head and started to puke next to us. I watched as he vomited twice more and then started to dry heave with tears running down his face. He quickly wiped his mouth on his sleeve and turned to me, "You stay here, I have to see if there are more of them. Someone will be here to help you very soon." He then started to move deeper into the mall, and I was alone with my mother.
My eyes popped open, and my breath came in fast pants. I tried to settle down and take deep breaths to regulate my thundering pulse. Then a thought broke into my head, {Why am I staring at a wall instead of the ceiling?}
I started to swing my head around and again felt something was just slightly off. Then it hit me, I shifted. There was now a 3-meter tall, 6-meter-long, Bengal Tiger lying in my bed, and I was down another pair of sweats. A deep exhale came out as a growl that I quickly tried to stop midway. The last thing I needed was for Bella to hear me and come in to comfort me, only to see me like this.
It took me about 5 minutes before I had calmed down enough to change myself back to human form. {That could have been very bad.} I looked at the time and saw it was less than 3 minutes before my alarm went off. I hit it early and gathered some clothes before heading to the bathroom. Washing my face, I pushed away the thoughts about what could have happened.
I knew my dreams would come back heavy around this time of year, but before I didn't have the potential of turning into an oversized cat. I relaxed my mind and went about my morning routine to further calm myself down. Once I had eaten, I put my bag in Charlie's cruser and ran into the woods behind the house. Taking a page from Sam, I had brought a band to tie my shorts around my leg before shifting and blasted through the woods.
As I ran, I felt a pressure against my mind that signaled Sam was out this morning as well, I reached out to him and he accepted me into his mind, {"Morning Sam. How's your morning going?"}
{"Morning? What time is it?"}
{"Almost 6 in the morning, what did you do, lose track of time?"}
{"Yeah, Emily is still being difficult. So, I needed to run some energy off last night. Must have lost track of the time. Some of what she says is pretty hurtful, even though I can tell she doesn't really mean it. She just loves Leah so much and feels like returning my feelings would be a betrayal. At least that's what I think."}
{I pray to God that imprinting is only a wolf thing, no way I want to have that happen to me.} I kept that thought away from Sam. The idea that my own nature could dictate who I devote myself to was a scary thought.
{"What are you doing so early in the morning?"} Sam broke into my thoughts.
{"I usually exercise in the morning, but my partner isn't here today, so I'm just spending time shifted to get used to it more."} I went on to explain how Jasper has been helping me work out and some of the training we did. Sam just went quiet as he listened.
{"How can you stand to be so close to a Leach like that? Aren't you afraid he could lose control and attack you, drink your blood?"}
I tried not to take offence at the term used against my friend, {"Not really. To be honest, when Jasper struggles with his thirst, it makes me appreciate him that much more. Just think of how hard they must fight to swear off their natural food source for something less appetizing. Just imagine, with our increased hunger as shifters and someone made your absolute favorite dish and placed it in front of you. But you made yourself fight the urge to eat it and reach over it to eat something you can barely stomach. Then throw in the idea that you are starving all the time."}
I let that sink in for a moment, {"The fact that they fight so hard against their nature just shows how strong their commitment to not being a monster is."}
To Sam's credit, he thought a while before replying, {"The fact that it's their nature to feed on humans is what gets me, Thomas. It isn't natural to my way of thinking, one slip on their part and it means a life has ended. No matter the remorse they may feel later. They are still dangerous."}
{"That will just have to be something we disagree on, Sam. I hate to put it out there… But I think if I was able to imprint, I would have imprinted on Edythe already. I just can't see a life without her anymore."}
Sam's reply stunned me to the core and caused me to stumble as I walked through the forest, {"I felt that way about Leah once too, Thomas."} Then I felt him break our connection.