Shifters (Feline english version)

Chapter 18

It was getting dark, covering the entire scenery behind my window with all the shades of grey that existed. This feeling was reinforced by the fog that was spreading, slowly but surely all around us. The whole thing had an unpleasant aspect of a horror film set. To my great surprise, we had not headed to Charles' house, but to the refuge from which we had just come from. My question on the subject had remained unanswered, as had my few attempts at conversation, so much so that I had fallen silent, my eyes lost in the twilight landscape.

This silence weighed strangely on me, despite the familiarity of it. Loneliness was also no stranger to me, yet today both bothered me. It was that guy who was getting on my nerves, there was no other explanation! I was going to open my mouth to try to engage in another conversation when I felt it. An unhealthy and nauseous sensation, identical to the one in the forest a little earlier, crept into my mind and disturbed the usual background noise. Instinctively, I spread my senses in search of this disturbing psychic signature... Big mistake!

Unlike the previous times when I tried to connect to a particular psychic vibration, I was invaded by a black and oily wave that seemed to want to infiltrate me to submerge me. I had an uncontrollable gag and suddenly struggled to breathe, mechanically carrying my hands to my throat.

Jude realized this and immediately slowed down to a stop on the side road. I shook my head frantically to tell him to keep driving, because one thing was for sure: we couldn't stop.

- 'What is going on?' he asked, worried.

His voice pulled me out of my panic and I concentrated to close my mind and push this thing away, whatever it was. I succeeded, without really knowing how, and the feeling of suffocation decreased, allowing me to take a big breath of fresh air.

- 'Don't stop. Speed up!' I managed to tell him between two hoarse breaths.

He followed my instructions and pressed the throttle without worrying about curves or even fog as he was so focused on his driving. He took winding roads as if his life depended on it, which, given our current luck, was probably the case. At times, his taciturn side was a good thing, I thought ironically. He didn't feel compelled to ask ten thousand questions before he complied. I had to look on the bright side!

- 'What did you feel?' he asked me in a tense voice, never taking his eyes off the road.

- 'I... I don't know. But their auras are like... corrupted,' I breathed as an uncontrollable shiver ran through my body. 'I don't know how to explain it. All I know is that we can't stay here.'

I was still a little queasy and my voice was still hazy, even though I was feeling better. They were always there, I felt them on the periphery of my mind and I knew there were many of them. From the corner of my eye, I saw that Jude was about to ask me a new question, when he suddenly took a deep breath. He then began to shiver as I had just done and began to curse rather creatively.

- 'They're the same ones as this afternoon! This time, I'm not sure I'll be able to lose them,' he said in a tense voice while accelerating. 'Can you determine how many they are?' he asked me, as he was manoeuvring through a series of curves, which sent me into a painful waltz against the door.

His features were contracted and his whole body was stretched by concentration.

- 'No. I just feel like there are several of them and they're getting closer. Why are you only now detecting their presence?'

- 'Because unlike you, I detect them by smell and all this metal disturbs my senses.'

We were driving at breakneck speed on a road surrounded by large flat areas, presumably fields, when indistinct shapes began to appear intermittently in our visual field.