Shadow

Oct 12, 2011 05:47

Title:  Shadow
Author: dtsguru
Fandom: original
Rating:  PG-13 (for some language)
Genre: urban fantasy
Spoiler Warnings: none
Word Count:  1256

This is what happens when I drive past a surly looking teenager standing in the fog, waiting for the bus.  My mind is a dark place ya’ll.

Look at them all.  Just standing there waiting placidly to be led away, like lambs to the slaughter.  So weak.  So soft.  I could rush them all, tear into their soft bellies, rip out their pale white throats.  They probably wouldn’t even try to stop me.  They’d be too busy screaming, too lost in incomprehension.  They weren’t only weak in body.  They were weak in mind too.

This is bullshit.  I shouldn’t be here.  Shouldn’t be forced to stand out in the dark foggy morning with these inferior creatures. In fact. Glancing either way to be sure no one was watching, I slid into the shadows of the trees.  My feet made no sound as I glided through the leaves and twigs.  My intentions danced on the edge of reason.  I should go to school.  I should allow the others to arrive safely.

Brakes squealed.  Cocking my head to the side I listened.  The bus was half a mile away. I still had time.  Up ahead was a secluded home.  The driveway barely peeked out from the trees.  The driver habitually missed the stop and the kid had to run several yards when the bus finally screeched to a stop.

An image popped into my head of both of my parents frowning at my half-formed plan. They’d be so disappointed in me.  Well, what’s new there? Fury swept through me.  I crashed through the woods with more speed, bypassing the easy prey.  My father had the strength and yet he wasted it, choosing to settle down with a weakling.  To give it all up.  To live a lie for the sake of society and his precious love.

I would set off on my own.  I couldn’t obey them any longer.  Couldn’t live under their rules.  Not knowing the freedoms she had forced him to give up.  Not after experiencing them for myself.

While my old friends sat at home playing X-box and jacking off I spent hours running through the forest.  I had run to the state line and back last night.  While they stuffed their faces with chips and cold Pop-Tarts I ran down rabbits.  I had hunted down my own dinner last night.  The taste of the blood flowing down my throat, all hot and thick, had been intoxicating, addictive.

My feet took me to the school, running on auto pilot.  Might as well go in, since I was there anyway.  A day of planning couldn’t hurt.  So I sat in class, planning out my strategy.  The other students edged away from me, putting as many chairs between us as they could.  They could sense the threat I posed.

I despised them.  Spineless wastes of oxygen.  Even the old group I had once called friends.  Worthless.  They didn’t even have the balls to approach me. The morning I had walked into school after that first shift, they had felt the change in me.  The whole school had felt the violence I barely held in check and they trembled in fear.

Lunch was the worst part of my day.  The scent of whatever atrocity the school had prepared would waft out and combine with all of the home-packed meals to create a miasma of olfactory torture for me.  And everything tasted horrible.  I could taste the food decomposing.  Sure, it was safe to eat, but as soon as it died, either by a butcher’s hand or a gardener’s, it began to decompose.

Just another reason to despise my father’s choice.  He had given up the right to hunt his own meals in favor of this.  Over-processed foods pumped full of preservatives to mask the flavor of rotting flesh.

It was always worse when they sat next to me.  The Future Farmers of America.  The group of kids had their favorite class right before lunch and came in straight from the Agriculture building.  Their clothes reeked of goats, pigs and even a calf.  My mouth watered at the thought alone.  I could slip through the side door, be in and out of that Ag building before anyone would know.  The pig would make a good lunch.  Who didn’t love ribs?

I could hold out one more afternoon though.  I would make it through the day.  Eat with the family one more time.  Pack a few things, for the times I missed society and wanted to walk amongst people.  Then I would head out to meet the bus and just keep on walking.  Head out on my own.

~~

“He’s going rogue.  We’ll have to isolate him until we can teach him control,” my father stated calmly over dinner, like he was discussing the laundry or something.

Mother nodded, slicing into her roast without even glancing up.  “I’ve noticed.  The sooner we leave the better.  In the morning?”

I sat up straighter, glaring back and forth between the two.  Now was the time to assert myself.  I would not sit back and let them rule over my life any longer.   I had a plan.  I was getting out.  “I’m not going anywhere with you people.”

“I’ll call Jeff tonight, let him know I’ll be taking an extended leave.  Family emergency.” My father spoke as if he hadn’t heard my words at all.

My mother chewed thoughtfully. “I can begin packing.  I assume we’ll be using the cabin up North?”

“Of course.”

I slammed my fist down on the table hard enough to rattle the place settings.  “Dammit! You aren’t listening to me!  I’m not going!”

Father turned steel gray eyes to meet mine.  “You will do as you’re told.”

Baring my teeth, I snarled back, “I’ve got news for you old man.  You can’t stop me.  I’m walking out that door and I’m not coming back.  If you try to come after me I’ll rip your fucking throat out.”

I didn’t even see it coming.  One second I was staring down my old man, and the next I was on my back.  An iron grip had me by the throat and claws pinched painfully into my throat.  I could feel warm liquid trickling down my neck into my hair and smell the coppery scent of my own blood.

This can’t be happening.  She’s human.  My mother is human.  But those hazel eyes, they were reflecting light in a way I had never seen before.  Her lips were pulled back over her teeth in a snarl I recognized immediately, instinctually. The grip on my throat tightened, cutting off what little air I had.  Only then did I realize that I had been tensed up, grasping desperately at her arms, fighting against her.  I forced myself to relax, to shift my eyes away from hers.

“You will learn your place in this family.  You do not challenge your father.  If you ever speak to my husband like that again I will rip your fucking throat out.  Do you understand me?”

I nodded.  Then in another shocking move, she stood pulling me with her.  It was like being a toddler all over again. She just picked me up and set me back in my chair, easy as can be.  I was inches taller than her and had to be a good forty pounds heavier.  But she didn’t even grunt with the effort.

She settled in her chair, picked up her fork and sent me a smile.  And then, she was speaking in that serene voice of hers, like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, “eat your peas, Honey and then get to bed.  We’ve got a long day tomorrow.”

2011, oct writing challenge, original

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