He wrapped his arms around me, and the vision of him shifted to a full werewolf as he looked into my eyes again.
“Thank you.”
The sound of shattering glass filled the room as his image crumbled, and the black room turned to blue sky and green, rolling hills. The cool wind blew, and the sun warmed my face.
Had I made it to heaven? Had I truly made amends for what I did?
No…
Inside still felt hollow. Around me was paradise, but I couldn’t feel joy or peace. Something terrible was still happening, but what that was, I couldn’t place. Something with me had changed, though.
My face was dry, and I didn’t want to go back to my blue box anymore.
Chapter 35
You’re Safe in My Arms
Adam
The visions tossed me through months and years before I could even blink. Standing before me was an older teenager, maybe around fifteen. His hair was dirty blond and he was a lot less frail than before. All his hair had grown back, his muscles had thickened, and the once vacant pupils now burned with furious determination.
His steps were uneven, and he still needed to hold things for balance, but every day he pushed himself a little further. When the doctors would praise him for reaching another milestone, he didn’t smile. He barely spoke, and when he did, it was usually a one or two word response.
This day, he walked with a metal crutch instead of the cane or walker the rehab center had provided. He carried it most of the time instead of using it for support, but when he’d grow tired, he’d put it under his arm and keep walking.
A brunette girl around his age caught up to him. She was missing one of her legs from the knee down, the fresh amputation scars partially hidden under bandages. She was very lean as though she had been an athlete before ending up here, but she also wore a smile that seemed to warm everything around her.
“Hey,” she said, walking next to the teenage boy, who was only slightly taller. Austin must have been around five feet, five or six inches, barely as tall as I was when I was human. She handed him a chocolate pudding cup. “I saved it for you.”
“Thanks,” he grunted.
“You’re always walking alone. Where are your parents?”
Austin’s face remained oddly stoic, but he squeezed the pudding cup hard enough that the foil popped and the contents fell to the floor.
“I don’t need anyone’s help.” He dropped the half-empty container and hurried out the door of the facility, balancing on his crutch. I followed him until he stopped close to the edge of the woods surrounding the rehab building.
This place wasn’t familiar, and I wasn’t even sure what state I was in. Huge laurel oak branches sprawled outward, Spanish moss hanging like old rags. The weather was humid and hot, and the shade barely made a difference.
Austin slowed his steps and carefully sat on the ground, using his crutch for leverage. He stared at the trees for a moment before closing his eyes to breathe in deep through his nostrils. When they opened again, they glowed a pale orange.
“I’m gonna run one day. I’m gonna run into the woods and never come back. I don’t wanna come back.” His cheeks werewet as he wiped his tears with the collar of his white T-shirt. “Why am I still here?”
The scene faded, and a short, blond half-turn made his way through fallen leaves as he sprinted along the forest floor. For the first time, Austin smiled. It was only for a moment as he leapt from the ground to the branches, swinging to the next before deftly landing on his feet. These woods were different from the others. In the place of massive, sprawling oaks were tall, skinny pines, and the air was crisp and dry. In the distance, mountains with light snow patches towered several thousand feet into a cloudless sky.
Austin leapt up into the thin branches of a yellow poplar tree, holding himself steady with one hand while shielding the sun from his face with the other. I jumped into the tree as well, which was much easier now that I was a full werewolf.
Getting a closer look at the teenager, I could see he made good on his word. His T-shirt was ragged and dirty, the blond, fur-like hair covering his body had flecks of dander and sand, and whatever skin was uncovered was just as filthy as the rest of him. He likely hadn’t been back to civilization in a while.
His eyes darted to what he was after in the distance. It was a deer with large ears and white on its face and underside. Austin studied it carefully before letting himself fall to the ground. He had grown a lot bulkier than before, muscles I’d never seen on a half-turn rippled with his every careful movement.
He focused his glowing, orange stare on the clearing ahead, making sure he moved into the wind. I could smell the deer, and though I’d never hunted a day in my life, the scent seemed to bring out something I often repressed. Austin didn’t repress the wolf. It was like he didn’t want to be human anymore.
As soon as he was within sprinting distance, he prepared himself to lunge, but froze when another werewolf leapt onto the deer, instantly severing its spine with his massive jaws.
“Better be a lot quicker than that if you wanna eat,” the werewolf said in a mocking tone, looking up from his fresh kill. He was pure black with a few specs of gray on his muzzle and completely nude but had a lot more fur than most of the werewolves I’d seen.
“I did what you said.” Austin ran over to the kill, clenching his fists. “You said to track, stay downwind and be patient. I’d have killed it myself.”
