by Miles, D. L.
“I think we have some in the back, give me a minute,” she told me and I said she could take her time. As she disappeared into the backroom, I moved past the shelves until I found the Young Adult section, and began to pick through books. Most of them I had already read, but I still felt that familiar urge to pick them up and flip through their pages.
Just as I reached for a title I didn’t recognize a grunt came from around the corner. I glanced over my shoulder, still partly admiring my new hair while doing so. There was nobody there, but I heard the grunt again, this time it sounded more like a groan.
Slowly, I turned the corner to find a blonde girl leaning over holding her stomach. She didn’t look much older than me, and she groaned again. Her brow was scrunched in pain as her expensive looking blue clutch fell to the carpet.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I ran up to her. I was ready to yell for Brenda to call 911, but the girl just shook her head as her hand shot out to grab my sleeve. She clutched at my arm, hair falling in front of her eyes as her knees connected with the ground.
“Don’t,” she moaned. “Go away.”
“It’s okay, I won’t go,” I cooed, falling to the floor with her. My knees gave a small throb in protest as they hit the carpet, but I kept my focus on her. “Do you want me to call someone? Get you something?”
“Go away,” she ordered, and I realized that her first order was the same.
“I can’t just leave you,” I said, and then I felt it. That heat that I had felt so many times before and wished I could create. The sparks struck at my skin, crackling as they lingered safely against me. When another jolt hit me I was actually knocked back, landing on the carpet with a gasp.
Her brown eyes met mine, and in them I saw all her fear and pain and confusion. But there was anger there as well, and as her mouth opened to scream her body contorted. I had seen it happen plenty of times, but never so fast; it had only taken her less than a second to transform from a gorgeous girl to a tiny green toad. Never, in all my fifteen years of life, had I seen a shape-shifter change so quickly.
Scrambling to my knees I reached for the girl, her new legs ready to jump her away from the area. But I could tell from earlier that she had had no idea what was happening, and I had to help her somehow. “Have you lost your mind? Why did you Shift here?!” I grabbed her and her clutch into my hands, ignoring her squirms to get away; I only hoped she didn’t change back while I was holding her.
“Good news,” Brenda said when she suddenly appeared behind me, and I jumped. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, but I found the book you wanted!”
I stuffed the girl into my jacket pocket and zipped it up, spinning on my heels to find Brenda holding exactly what I had come here for. She held it out to me, and I took it after wiping the sweat from my palms on my sleeves.
“Thanks,” I said, voice a little too high. “I think I should hurry, meeting Jayd later.”
“Well I’ll help you at the cash then.” She smiled as she went around the corner. Quickly, I grabbed two more books, and hauled them towards the counter. The girl squirmed and croaked in my pocket, and I prayed that Brenda didn’t hear it.
When the books were paid for I said goodbye and shoved them gently into my backpack. I couldn’t get out of the store fast enough, and bumped into a boy with dark red hair on the way out. As I crossed the street I called to him, “Sorry!” But he didn’t seem to care.
When I was safely behind a bush I yanked out my cellphone and dialed Jayden. He picked up on the first ring, “Hey, Em, what’s up?”
“Uh, I’m not sure,” I said, biting down on my nail. The girl began to calm down in my jacket, hopefully she wasn’t suffocating. I placed my hand lightly over my pocket, and she grew still. “I ah…I found a girl and I don’t think she knows she’s a spook.”
He laughed. “What are you talking about? You know it’s not possible to not know; this isn’t one of your books.”
“I’m serious!” I pouted, my feet moving fast as I tried to find somewhere private for me and the girl to talk. I also needed to contact Wolf, but for some reason Jayd was the first I called. Well, family always came first, right? So my cousin was a logical choice…sort of. I continued, “I found her Shifting in the bookstore, and I don’t think she knows what’s going on.” I explained how I grabbed her and was now across the street in the little park that sat there. Jayd was quiet on the other end, realizing just how serious I was.
“Go into the bathrooms,” he ordered, voice stern. “I’ll be there in five minutes. Call Wolf!”
As the line went dead I dialed for my mentor, my guardian, my second favourite person in the whole wide world. There was no answer, and it was a rare occasion he didn’t drop everything to answer the phone for me. I bit hard on my lower lip, and made it into the bathrooms.
They smelled like stale water, and just a hint of cigarette smoke. Half of the lights that sat on the ceiling were either out, dead or flickering. Three sinks were in the same condition with a bit of grim and dirt coating their surface. I wrinkled my nose, I was not fond of public washrooms like this. Only when the girl started squirming again did I remember why I was there.
“Sorry, sorry,” I whispered as I pulled her out. Thankfully the room was empty, and I didn’t bother locking the door behind me. It was ten o’clock at night, nobody was going to be walking in any time soon.
I went to set her down in the sink, to ensure she didn’t try and run away but rethought it when I saw the dirt again. First I set down my bag and placed her on top of it; she hopped around the edges, but when she saw the drop to the tiles she returned to the center. I said again, “I’m really sorry. But I couldn’t just let you turn human again in front of people. It’s against the rules.”
She croaked. I asked, “You don’t know what you are, do you?” I leaned over, resting my hands on my knees. It was cold in there, and my fingertips were beginning to lose feeling. I pursed my lips, completely unsure of how to explain anything to her. I wasn’t even sure if I was right. So I called Wolf again, and still got no answer.
My phone buzzed with a message from Jayd: Are you okay? I’m almost there.
I wrote back: She hasn’t turned back yet.
The thought of having Jayd with me was comforting, but he hadn’t arrived yet. He would know what to do, he always did. I always thought that was a benefit of what he was, but it was really just him. He was a natural at helping others.
“I’m Ember.” I nodded at the girl who was still watching me with giant toad eyes. “Um…you might know this, but if you don’t you’re a shape-shifter. At least I think you are, um…anyway, you’re really lucky to be able to Shift so fast you know. Your family must be super strong! I bet you’re a pureblood, not like me. My mom’s—“ The bathroom door banged open before I could continue rambling about everything. Jayd crashed into the room and wrapped me in a hug, curly brown hair flying into his face.
“Jeez you had me worried,” he sighed, my cheek pressed against his chest. His heart was calmer than I thought it should be if he ran here. “Where’s the Shifter?”
I nudged away from him, and pointed at the girl. Or at least, I pointed where she had been.
“Oh, she must have jumped,” I looked around my feet, careful not to move in case I stepped on her. Jayd did the same, already figuring out what happened. Leaning against the sink I peered underneath it when the fire hit my back, almost knocking my face into the ceramic.
“Shit,” the girl swore as Jayd and I whirled around to face her. She was only a few feet from the door, and when she saw us, she made a run for it. Jayd was already in action, and closed the distance between them. She screamed and tried to hit him, but he grabbed her and spun her towards me. His arms locked overtop hers, and her feet flailed wildly.
I stepped back as Jayd said, “It’s okay! We want to help you!”
“Yeah, right!” she shouted. “You want to sell me to some government lab and let them test me! I bet you do this all the time, how e
lse would you know about anything?”
“Because we’re like you,” I blurted, my posture stiffening. She must have heard me, because she stopped kicking and met my eyes. “We’re spooks.”
“Spooks?” she repeated in a breath. Jayd never let go of her, and I didn’t blame him. But the way she was looking at me now told me she wasn’t about to run or attack again. I waved my hand at him, and he released her. She stood there for a moment, as if she hadn’t noticed, but quickly stepped away from him and towards the stalls.
She jumped in the one nearest her, and I heard the lock click over.
“That’s what we call ourselves,” I explained to the door, “but usually we’re just called preternaturals, or supernaturals, sometimes it’s just Others. Um…what’s your name? This is Jayden, but everyone just calls him Jayd.”
She was quiet. “You can turn into things, too?”
Jayd shot me a pitiful look, and I turned away from him. In seconds he was at my side, hand on my shoulder. I cleared my throat, “Sort of. Everyone’s different.” I looked to Jayd, and how bright his blue eyes were beneath his brown bangs. I whispered, “I couldn’t get Wolf.”
His eyebrows rose. “Really? We should take her to the Center then. The director would want to talk to her.”
The stall door creaked as she peeked out, hair falling over most of her face. “Director? Center?”
“It’s the Sagefall Center,” I said before Jayd could stop me. My lips curled into a big smile for her, and she seemed to feel more comfortable as she stepped beneath the broken lights. “It’s got a special section for spooks to go to, kind of like a refuge. We can take you there and they can probably explain better than me.”
She just stared at us, or more accurately me. Her eyes were wide, and her breathing became ragged when I stepped towards her. Other than that she didn’t respond until I touched her shoulder she crumpled to the ground. I tried to tell her it would be all right, but suddenly her hand caught mine, nails digging into my skin until blood was drawn. Jayd yanked me away from her as I winced.
“We’re trying to help you,” he said, facing me as he reached into his pocket for a cloth. He covered my hand with it but I knew he was talking to the girl, who still sat looking like a hopeless mess on the floor. His voice took its usual dark turn when I was hurt. “Let us take you to the Center, and we can help you.”
My hand stung, but I had a strange sense of hope welling in my chest. Jayd was my only friend, like…only friend. I loved him like nobody else, but I had never had a girlfriend before; I had always wondered what that might be like. Maybe with this girl…maybe if she stayed I might get to find out? Suddenly the pain in my hand didn’t feel so bad, and I moved towards her again only to have Jayd pull me back.
“Please come,” I begged. “You’ll see, it’ll be okay. You can get your own mentor, and they’ll teach you how to control it! It’ll be fun, seriously.”
She wasn’t looking at me, she was watching Jayd. Her eyes drifted down to his Batman Converse sneakers, and up to his worn out black tee-shirt that sat beneath a green army jacket, the matching scarf around his neck. Finally, she looked to his eyes, and blinked. “Okay,” she agreed, “but it better not be—“
“It’s not a trick,” Jayd said, his own eyes finally leaving me. He had an intense stare sometimes, and I saw her flinch under it. I quickly stepped over to her and lifted her from the ground. I smiled and gave her a hug, which she didn’t reciprocate. But hey, she didn’t push me away! “Nothing bad will happen there, it’s a haven for us. Well, maybe not for someone as strong as you, but you’ll love it!”
Jayd was grimacing at me, clearly not happy with how things had turned out. He opened the bathroom door. “Let’s go.”
It was unbearably quiet on the walk to the Center, and I knew it was because we weren’t supposed to bring outsiders with us. I wanted so badly to tell my new friend, Scarlet I learned her name was, all about the Center. How it was one of the best places in North America to be if you were a spook, or how it was the best place to learn how to handle your abilities. Not everyone that was a preternatural, as the government called us, needed to go to it, though. It wasn’t like some boarding school for supernatural creatures (which I had read a lot of books about and would love to find), or a camp for people that misuse their abilities and risk exposure to the general population. It was sort of like…summer school, or even detention to some people. It was where we went if we couldn’t do something that should come naturally; it felt like I had been going my entire life.
I peeked at Jayd from the corner of my eyes, remembering all the times he had gone to class with me, or skipped his own classes to go. He went to the public school in Sagefall, and was in perfect control of his abilities. But like me, he was considered a…reject. I wrinkled my nose at that word; we were who we were supposed to be, and it wasn’t something that could be changed. Why were we rejects for being ourselves? Especially Jayden; he did so much good for people, he didn’t deserve the stares he received.
Besides Jayd I wondered if Scarlet would want to be my friend. She didn’t know about me, so I thought I stood a chance. But if she started going to the Center, I was sure the others would accept her; she was pretty and powerful. Of course they would accept her, and I would be left behind. My eyelashes brushed my cheeks as I looked to my feet.
“So what are you guys?” Scarlet asked, the silence seeming to bother her as well. “Are you…what did you call it? Shape-shifters?”
“I am,” I said without a thought. Jayd elbowed me and gave me a stern look but I just shrugged with a weak smile. “You’ll find out more at the Center.”
“What about you?” Scarlet looked up at Jayd with curiosity. Her eyes seemed to sparkle under the yellow streetlights, a slight blush on her cheeks. My stomach twisted a little, noticing how she seemed more interested in Jayd than me. A mean part of me was hopeful that she would dislike him when she found out what he was; how cruel could I get?
“You’ll find out more at the Center,” Jayd repeated as he picked up the pace.
After a few more minutes, she stopped on the corner of the sidewalk, and demanded, “Prove it.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Jayd warned, looking to me. I wasn’t sure why he was so determined to get her to the Center.
“Prove what?” I asked her. She crossed her arms.
“That you are what you say you are.” She shrugged. “I want proof that you’re…a spook.”
I pulled my lips towards my teeth, knowing that wasn’t possible. Jayd inched closer to me, and reached out to touch my shoulder again. His fingers were cool even through my coat, part of what he was. I shook my head. “I-I don’t know.”
“Then I’m not going anywhere,” Scarlet declared, cheeks puffing out slightly, and soon I conceded. I didn’t want to lose this one chance of getting a girl as a friend!
“Okay,” I mumbled and Jayd’s grip tightened. Across the street that same couple I had seen earlier walked by, looking just as happy as before.
I closed my eyes and concentrated, focusing what little energy I could muster on my ears. I felt the prickle of weak sparks, and a mild heat forming as Jayd wrapped his fingers around mine for support. When I opened my eyes, I knew the transformation had worked; Scarlet didn’t seem to notice though.
“Here.” I reached my free hand and brushed my hair behind my new ears; my new white cat ears. Scarlet gasped and hurried over to me, needing closer inspection. Jayd gave my hand a squeeze and let go as soon as Scarlet’s eyes fell to his hand over my shoulder.
In the blink of an eye, my ears returned to normal. Scarlet seemed satisfied, “Okay. Did you just change your ears because…” she looked to the couple, who were further down the dark street.
I only nodded, and we kept moving towards the Center. I wondered, will Scarlet like me when she finds out I’m a bad Shifter?
Would she want to be my friend when she finds out I can barely Shift?
When we arrived at
the Sagefall Recreation Center Scarlet had already called her father to say she would be out late. I heard part of the conversation, and it didn’t sound good. But I didn’t need to hear her father tell her, “Do what you want.” I just had to see how her shoulders slumped towards the ground, and hear the drawn out sigh that escaped her lungs when she faced us again. Her eyes were a little watery, and I wanted so much to ask what was wrong, but Jayd stopped me.
Now, as we stepped up to the Rec Center, Scarlet snorted. “This is it? This is the great mighty ‘Center’ you’ve been talking about? It’s a Recreation Center. I bet old people come here to play checkers and shuffleboard.”
“It is,” Jayd said with a grin, “they even have wheelchair races in the fall. It’s a big tournament; my grandfather won last year.”
Scarlet actually started to smile, but quickly looked away from him. We followed Jayd around the corner of the large red brick building, and found the side door. It was just a grey thing, without a handle on the outside to ensure nobody got in unless they were let in. My finger poked the doorbell, and we listened to it buzz inside.
Footsteps approached the door and it swung open to reveal Bridget. She lit up when she saw us, “Ember, Jayden, what are you doing here so late? Don’t you have school in the morning young man?”
“That I do,” Jayd sighed, “but we’ve sort of…found someone.” He stepped to the side to reveal Scarlet to the woman. They studied each other a moment before Bridget pushed her gray hair back and let us inside. Jayd explained how we had come across Scarlet, and how she’s a Shifter that didn’t know what she was.
“You didn’t know?” Bridget gasped. “And Ember, you said it was instant? That’s quite rare.”
“Why’s it rare?” Scarlet questioned, eyes darting between us. “Don’t you get lots of people not know what they were? I’m not even sure I believe it.”
“Well,” Bridget said, her lips a tight line, “I think we should wake up the director.”
