by Mandy Rosko
Asshole.
"Look, you need to come with me."
"Nope. I don't have to do anything."
"You want your friend to get hurt?"
Cindy.
Trisha pulled together every ounce of bravery she had. Her horn glowed some more. "Listen, asshole, I can stab the crap out of you with this if I want to." She didn't need to point out her horn for him to see it. Obviously, it was right there.
"I know, but if you do that, then you're definitely not going to see your friend again."
Another terrible shiver racked her body. It wasn't even cold in there, but she trembled as though it were snowing in her room.
"Are you...are you from the labs?" He didn't answer her. The ground tilted, but Trisha forced herself to stay on her feet. "You are, aren't you?"
"Something like that, but I can help you."
She didn't believe him, and it was a fight to stay upright.
Trisha had always thought she would be braver than this. After the FUC agents had come and set her and the others free, she'd forgotten about the terrors of being locked up, of being forced to do things she didn't want to do, having multiple needles stabbed into her body with no care for the pain they caused.
And she tricked herself into thinking she could be brave when faced with that reality again.
Now she was here, struggling not to pee herself because a guy, a kid who couldn't have been older than Cindy, said a few words to her.
She could do this. Warren was nearby. He'd only just left, and he had so many other shifters with him, some who could even fly.
Right. That was a comfort; she just had to hold out for some help.
"What do you want?"
The young man cleared his throat. "Well, the lady I work for would like to get a look at your horn."
"My..." Trisha's hand reached up, touching it on instinct as the glowing intensified nearly enough to light up the entire room. "Why my horn?"
The young man squinted, lifting his hand against the light.
Unfortunately, the light didn't last long enough to make him uncomfortable for too long, which was a real shame.
"How much do you remember about your time in the labs?"
She glared at him. "Enough."
"Okay, I get that it isn't something pleasant to think about, but do you remember anyone talking about your horn? About anything special that might be going on with it?"
This wasn't where she thought this was going to go. "I...guess so? I mean people were shocked that I have a tooth growing out of my head. Aren't you supposed to be threatening me to get me to go to Cindy?"
"This involves her. You can help her with that."
He pointed at her horn, and she still had no idea what he was going on about. "With my forehead tooth?"
"It's not a tooth, that's what was so amazing. You can help so many people with that."
"Fine, but the first person I want to help out right now is Cindy, and you're getting really off-topic for a crazy guy in my room."
The guy pressed his lips together, clearly annoyed.
Good. Trisha was glad she finally got his attention.
"Fine. Get into your raccoon shape and come with me. We're going outside, and I don't want to be seen."
Without waiting for her to answer, he shifted into his snake shape. She still wasn't used to watching someone's body change so drastically from a complete human to animal. In this case, a snake.
Where exactly did all his body mass even go?
He slithered back up to the windowsill with an ease that made her really uncomfortable, glancing back and flicking his tongue at her. He was clearly fast, could probably strike at her even from this distance if she turned and tried to get out the door.
Trisha inhaled deep and pulled herself out of her clothes, doing something she rarely did if it could be helped.
Focusing on the confusing and strange animal that now lived inside her head, she let it come out just enough that hair began growing along her face, her arms, and her legs in a way that made her desperately wish she could shave her legs. That feeling soon ceased to be so discomforting, feeling more like her body as she became something small, and even a little pudgy.
The viewpoint of her room from this low to the ground was off-putting, but she followed the snake to the window regardless, leaving the academy building under cover of night.
Warren was going to be so pissed off when he found out about this. She just hoped a majority of that anger was reserved for snake eyes here, and not her.
Warren ran with Mason and Chase. They searched the lake first but found nothing.
The bears might be used to hunting in rivers for their precious salmon, but it was a different matter altogether in the depths of a lake. They needed Viktor for that, but even he turned up empty-handed, growling that low, reptilian noise crocs made as he crawled out of the water and shifted.
"I got nothing. She was here, along with another guest, but they're gone now."
Great, that was two that might be in trouble. Warren shifted as well, though he did it only enough so that he would have working vocal cords. "All right, we should keep our ears and eyes open. We're either dealing with two missing guests or one or both of them might be working with our snake friend."
"You really think that's a possibility?" Viktor asked.
Warren felt the eyes of the damned bears on him.
Might as well be honest with it. "Jonathan was a student here. He was going to be a FUC agent before he took Albert's wife and kid. It's not necessarily the case, but I'm keeping all my options open."
Speaking of Albert, the owl was still circling above, looking for anything they might be missing down below. If a flyer couldn't find what they were looking for, then it would be a real problem for them very soon.
"Any chance they went down deeper? How deep can you swim?"
Viktor narrowed his eyes. It was difficult to say whether or not he was annoyed. The man always sounded annoyed with that harsh accent and tone of voice he used.
"The depths of this lake are trivial to my abilities, but I will do one more sweep to be sure then circle the lake if you want me to, just to make sure no one comes back. This Cindy woman is a swimmer, yes?"
"Yes," Warren said. "She can spend hours in the water if she wants to."
Viktor nodded. "Then, I had best get back to work."
His body changed, leathery, rough skin replacing his human flesh as his arms and legs returned to their former stumpiness. The croc wiggled his way back into the water, disappearing into the darkness.
This was such bullshit. Where the hell could she have gone?
"We'll find her."
Mason and Chase had shifted without his noticing.
That wasn't good. He needed to be completely on the ball here, though Warren pretended to not have been caught off guard.
"I'm not too worried about finding her. It's what state she'll be in when we do that worries me."
Neither man said anything. They all knew there was a window of time they had before things started to look dire.
He didn't want it to get to that point. Not only because it was his job to protect the new shifters at the Academy but because it might destroy Trisha.
She'd already lost so much.
"We'll find her," Chase said. "She's a swimmer, not a flyer. If Viktor caught her scent here and it's fresh, then she's not so far away."
"He's right," Mason said, both brothers managing to sound so much more confident than Warren felt.
Fortunately, it was infectious.
"You're right. Enough bitching. Let's go."
"Finally," Chase said, getting back into his bear shape before running off.
Warren did the same, chasing after both bears as they searched for the trail.
The lake wasn't that large, but it was big enough that this might take a while.
And the longer it took, the more chances there were that something would go terribly wrong.
The snake-ma
n, Jonathan, led Trisha into the woods. She thought they were going to the lake, but apparently, that wasn't going to happen.
She would have preferred the lake because at least it was more open space.
Trisha was a raccoon, so she was supposed to be comfortable in the woods, but her paws were too soft, her claws not exactly sharp, and what if a real snake snuck up on her and tried eating her when she was like this?
What if the snake she was with right now tried to eat her?
Some shifters ate other shifters. Usually, it was an accident, but after learning that in some of the health and safety courses she'd been forced to take after being rescued, that piece of knowledge stayed with her.
Raccoons were scavengers, but they were also prey to other animals, and Trisha wasn't so confident in her ability to climb trees.
This was taking too long. They were in the bushes; there should be no need to hide anymore. No one would see them.
Her horn glowed ahead of her, like the lights of a car, showing the way as she followed the snake. He was going too fast, and they were getting a little too far away. She squeaked a noise at him, but of course, he wouldn't be able to understand her.
Being alone in the woods with a guy like this didn't exactly instill her with a load of confidence, and so it made her want to talk.
A lot.
She chittered something at him again, but he did not stop or even look back.
Super annoying, so screw him. Trisha couldn't contain herself anymore, so she got back into her human shape, almost bursting into it, as though her body couldn't hold itself down as a raccoon.
"Will you slow down?"
The snake went on without her.
"Hey!"
Was this it? The trap she'd let herself walk on all fours right into?
So stupid. She shouldn't be here.
But then the snake came back, and Trisha froze as it stared at her.
She narrowed her eyes. "I can't keep up with you. Where are we going anyway?"
The snake turned back into a naked man, and Trisha really wished he hadn't bothered as she covered her boobs and her furburger.
He didn't seem to notice. "Will you stop talking and just hurry up? It's dangerous for me to be here."
"That happens when you cut a baby out of a woman's belly to steal it."
He rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't understand. Let's just go."
Trisha pressed her lips together, but she couldn't stop herself from talking as she followed him.
"You know that Warren and the rest of his team are going to find out what you're doing, right? They're all out looking for you right now. It's not like we're that far away from the school. They're eventually going to come over here."
"That's fine. This will only take a few minutes." Trisha stopped suddenly. Jonathan, realizing she was no longer following, glanced back at her. Then he rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to hurt or kill you, but you do need to come with me so we can get this over with."
"Are you actually taking me to Cindy, or am I about to get raped and killed here?"
His eyes popped wide open. "Jesus Christ, you just asked me that out loud?"
"Yeah, I did."
The fact that he was still looking at her as if waiting for the punch line showed how little self-awareness the guy had.
"No! Christ, no. I would never do that. Will you just...stop talking and come with me?"
"Are you going to strangle me and swallow me whole?"
"No!"
Trisha was probably the prime example of what Too Stupid to Live was, but if he had Cindy, then she didn't have a choice in the matter. She went with him, though keeping a distance like they were still under social distancing mandates.
She was able to keep herself from talking after that. It took a lot of willpower because she desperately wanted to ask after the ethics and morals the guy apparently kept where kidnapping and torturing people for science was all right but rape and killing and eating alive was a step too far.
Considering what those assholes had done to her, it had, at times, felt like just as severe a violation.
"Trisha!"
She yanked her attention away from the snake boy at the sound of Cindy's voice.
She looked up. The blonde woman ran to her, throwing her arms around Trisha's shoulders and holding her tighter than any snake ever could.
"Oh, my God!" Trisha couldn't believe it, but she was more than happy to feel Cindy in her arms, and in one piece. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"
Cindy shook her head, though she didn't respond right away, which had Trisha worried anyway.
"We're going to get out of here," Trisha whispered. "Warren is out here looking for us. They're going to find us and deal with all of this. I promise."
"Little overly confident, aren't you?"
Trisha pulled away from Cindy at the unfamiliar voice.
Jonathan went to stand by the woman who appeared from the shadows. A thin, middle-aged lady who somehow managed to stand as tall and powerful as Superman. She looked like she hadn’t a care in the world as far as her prisoners fighting back and escaping went. Not that it was easy to read her expression when she stared so coldly, her lips thin. The familiar aura Trisha got from her was not comforting.
"Who are you?" Trisha remembered she was older than Cindy, and she yanked her friend behind her back.
The woman tsked at her, shaking her head. "Do you really believe you can help her? Or anyone else here? You're outnumbered."
Trisha looked to Jonathan. She didn't get the impression that he wanted to hurt anyone, but he was still a threat. Still, she could use that to her advantage. She was pretty sure it was what Warren would want her to do.
Exploit every opportunity she could.
But Warren had also explained to her, with his words and his actions, that remaining calm and assessing the situation was also an excellent strategy.
"I would like for you to tell me who you are and why you wanted me out here so much. Can Cindy leave now that I'm here?" She glared at Jonathan. "That was our deal."
A few strands of grey and mouse-brown hair escaped the woman's tight bun. She pushed it behind her ear, glaring at Jonathan. "He did, did he?"
Jonathan wouldn't look back at her, but it was awkward. He clearly knew he was in trouble and being sized up, but he refused to look back at the woman.
She was definitely the one in charge here.
"No matter, everything has been revealed to her. She can go if she wishes. After we deal with you."
Trisha blinked. "What?"
She looked back at Cindy, waiting for her to explain this now because there was no way she was going to trust anything that came out of the mouth of this psychotic bitch.
Cindy looked as ashamed as Jonathan did. "Maybe you should listen to what she has to say."
Trisha was in a clown world. She'd fallen asleep, and none of this was real, and she was going to wake up at any moment to find out she was back in her bed. Cindy was safely in their room, and after she left to go practice her swimming in the lake, Trisha was going to entertain herself by digging through their shared trash bin as per usual.
Trisha waited, and of course, nothing happened. She didn't wake up, and she was still here.
Which meant she was alone with two strangers, and someone Trisha realized she might not be able to trust as much as she had thought.
"All right, so what's going on?" Trisha backed away a step. There had to be a way she could turn around and run. She wasn't that far from the academy. Only a short trip, then she would be within shouting distance of Warren. "Why would I want to listen to anything they have to say? They're from the labs, aren't they?"
"I must say, I'm surprised you don't remember me," said the woman.
Trisha glared at her. "I wasn't talking to you, you bitch."
And she sure as hell didn't want to remember her either.
Cindy's hands gently took Trisha's shoulders. "No, Trisha, listen to her. This could be a good thi
ng. For all of us."
The words made Trisha pause. Was her friend not kidnapped, but willingly hanging out with these weirdos? Nothing was making sense. As her head spun, the horn in the middle of her forehead started to glow again. The leaves on the trees seemed to get a touch bigger, and new ones formed as well. The smell in the air changed to something fresher, but Trisha's heart wouldn't stop slamming around.
"What did she say to you? What could either of them have said to make you want to listen to them?"
And if this woman or Jonathan had anything to do with it, then Trisha didn't want anything to do with them.
"Because she might be able to fix us. We just need your horn to do it."
Trisha blinked. "My horn?"
Cindy nodded as though that should have been the easiest thing in the world to comprehend. "Yes."
Trisha stared at her for what had to be the longest minute of her life. "Riiiiiight," she said slowly, her brain seemingly working on half speed.
The realization came to her slowly, but as soon as it did it was like an alarm going off in her bran. These people wanted to hurt her, and Cindy, her friend, was in on it. Trisha's body shot into full gear and she turned and made her break for it.
She made it two feet before hands reached out, grabbing onto her shoulders and chest well before she could make any move to defend herself with her horn.
She'd been so focused on the woman and Jonathan that she hadn't seen the others sneaking up around them.
"Get off me! Let me go!"
She should have known there would be more people out there. God, she was so stupid. How had she not seen this coming?
She flailed in the man's arms, hoping her horn would catch him somewhere and cause enough pain that he'd release her. If she could just get him to loosen his grip...
"Trisha, stop!" Cindy shouted. "That's TJ!"
"What?"
Trisha stopped trying to stab the man that held on to her, and she looked up into the many long, thin teeth of TJ's terrifying forced smile.
13
Warren didn't like it. He didn't like that he couldn't pinpoint Cindy's scent. It didn't vanish, but he could tell when a scent was being fucked with.
