It was not lost on Charles. “Will, why don’t you go home and get some sleep.” William looked over at his friend sitting on his bed and nodded. Charles smiled broadly back at him. “I told you already, I’m going to be with you tomorrow. There’s nothing to worry about.” He shook his head toward the open doorway. “Now go, get some sleep.”
William walked over to his friend on the bed and shook his hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Charles.” William started to turn away but said over his shoulder, “Although you might wish that you had stayed in bed.”
Charles smiled, “After all this time being bedridden and quarantined, I’m looking forward to the exercise.”
William said as he stopped by the doorway, “Famous last words…see you tomorrow.” Charles raised two fingers to his forehead as William walked back out into the city.
The city was always cool, but the oppressive silence that draped over it was as thick and as uncomfortable as the highest humidity readings. He felt like he was in a ghost town, almost. This place had been the source of countless wonders for him when he first arrived here. Now it was almost barren. There needed to be new life here. He had no idea what kind or even how to make that thought a reality. How do you bring something as intangible as ‘life’ into a city? People and animals are life. The only beings that could be allowed to see this place were shape shifters. So, bring in more shape shifters. Only problem with that was the Elders had lost their main source of identifying and tracking new shape shifters.
The Whyte Plain. That place must have been amazing once. His experiences there were less than pleasant. He had nightmares from time to time. He would wake up in the middle of the night and it would take him a few minutes to realize that he was in his room and not trapped back there. Even thinking about it made a cold shiver run down his back and goose bumps spring up on his arms. But he felt nothing else.
Where are you? He asked inside his head. His other, the one thing that could ensure his death by the Elders, had been disturbingly absent since he was set free from his prison cell. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe that his other was gone. It was in there somewhere, hiding in some far corner of his mind that he couldn’t consciously access. It was possible that his other was the source of his nightmares. The invisible enemy within would always be with him. It was a part of him and that reality was just as inescapable as the fact that one day he would have to go back to the Whyte Plain.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He looked up and realized that he was already at his own apartment building. He walked up the ramp, covering another massive yawn. How had he gotten so tired? Well, going through the obstacle course five times in a day and a ten-mile run before that, probably did take it out of you, even with his pack bond that he shared with Aceso and Katherine. Stamina was a great thing, but the body still needed time to recuperate and rest. And that was exactly what he was going to do.
He mounted the third-floor landing and turned to enter his room. The room was as comfortable and as familiar as the city was. This place was the closest thing he had had to a real home since before he could remember. He walked to his dresser and ripped his shirt over his head. The musky scent of his own body wafted over him as the fabric was lifted off him. He dropped the shirt on the floor and shook out his lengthening hair. He ran his fingers through it to find that it was only an inch or two short of his shoulders. I’m going to have to get that cut. He wondered how he had let it get that long. Back in the real world he wouldn’t be caught dead with the martial artist shoulder length hair, and yet here, in the bowels of the earth, that’s exactly what had happened. He wondered what else he had learned to ignore since coming here.
He wandered over and sat on the bed. Looking down at his shoes he thought that it would be really cool if it was possible to simply will the shoes off somehow. Could Katherine do anything like that? Heaving a sigh, he hunched over and took off his shoes, flipping them to the dresser in a pile. He collapsed back on the soft furs of the bed.
‘Life goes on’ Ares had told him once. He knew there were things that had to be done and he knew what was at stake if they weren’t accomplished. But the most painful thing was he knew that neither he, nor Aceso, nor anyone in his pack was ready for what they knew the Elders would ask of them someday. He flexed his right arm, then his left. All of his strength, which had grown since coming here, went for nothing in that place. Fear gripped him and his body broke out in goose bumps. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. Fear kills faster than a bullet, faster than the sharpest claws. Again, as it was since the time he was released for his cell, there wasn’t the slightest hint of his other.
Was he truly alone? If it hadn’t been for his other, he and the rest of his pack would dead. He wouldn’t have to think about going back to the Whyte Plain because he would now be calling it his home, as one of those shadows. One of those things that only knew hunger and destruction. One of those monsters that came straight from every child’s nightmares. He sat up in his bed and rested his head on his folded hands.
Nicolas had to get faster and stronger. Katherine had to get and keep an edge to her, a need to win that she had been lacking in every training session. Aceso had her weaknesses too, no one was perfect, but he couldn’t tell what they were. And himself, he needed to get smarter, faster, move with more fluidity.