Flames and Starlight

11🌘

Laura

I woke up the next morning and found Grandma sitting at the kitchen table, reading the newspaper, her brow furrowed with worry.

I walked up to her chair stood beside her. "What's wrong?"

She lifted the paper up so I could see the headline. As I read the bolded print, my heart sank. The title read that nearly thirty shapeshifters had been reported dead by police only yesterday, the cause of their deaths unknown. They all had been in animal forms at the time they died, like the crow that had fallen dead by Grandma's car three weeks ago. I remembered the police officer saying that it must've been an unfortunate accident, that it seemed like there hadn't been any foul play involved, but now reading the scenarios and seeing how many shapeshifters were dying like this, I knew that the deaths weren't accidental. Someone or something was causing them.

Grandma set the paper back down, a visible shudder coming over her. "Just dreadful. I've never seen anything like this before."

"What do you think is causing this?"

She shrugged. "I have no clue, but until they figure out what's going on, you should stay close, not shapeshift alone, and stay indoors. If you want to fly or something, let me know so I'll come with you. And I want you here at all times unless it's school or work."

A part of me balked at that, but I knew it was the best thing to do right now and it wasn't like I had any other places to go other than school or work anyway.

I nodded. "Okay."

She, fortunately, changed the subject; the whole conversation was causing me to grow nervous and sick. I was still replaying seeing the shapeshifter in their crow form falling just a few feet away from me, his or her blood painting the grass and driveway with red. Nausea threatened to rise in my stomach and I barely managed to force it down. "Did you hear from Peter last night? Do you know how he's doing?"

My eyes widened for a brief moment before I groaned and slapped my forehead. "No. I completely forgot. I was so caught up with work and Ruben that I didn't think to check on him."

Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Who's Ruben?"

I rolled my eyes at the speculative gleam in her eyes. "Just a shapeshifter who goes to my school and was at the coffee shop last night. He was really rude to me on the first day and he apologized when I was taking his order."

She didn't say anything, just raised her mug to her lips, her eyebrows still raised.

"There's nothing going on, Grandma."

She drank a long gulp before setting the mug back down and shot me a disbelieving look. "If you say so."

"Grandma, I'm not dating every guy I communicate with."

"Oh, I know that and wasn't insinuating it. You don't realize it but you had this look in your eyes when you just mentioned both of them. You should check on Peter, see how he's doing."

"Right," I muttered and quickly left the room, an embarrassed flush creeping over my cheeks.

I walked into my room and picked up my phone off my nightstand and saw there was a text from Peter. I quickly opened it up, my heart racing with anticipation then quickly plummeted when I read his message.

Hey, I'm going away for a while. I won't be at school and I'm not sure when I'll be back. See you soon, I hope. - Peter

I read the cryptic message over and over, trying to make sense of it. Where was he going? Why wasn't he going to be at school? Oh god, did I blow his secret? Was I the reason he had to go away?