Shifted

Chapter 17

I sat in the hospital waiting room for what felt like hours. My mom came down to visit me a couple times to see how I was holding up. I told her I was fine, though honestly I felt like my entire world was being turned upside down. In just a few short weeks, everything I thought about the world had been proven wrong. It hadn't really felt real until now. Sitting there in the hospital waiting room, I couldn't help but remember how pail Gabe's face had been. How cold his skin was when I touched him. It's a miracle that he's alive.

I also couldn't help but think about Jackson. He'd said that he was going to end things with Sadie tonight, but somehow this only made me feel worse about myself. I was taking him away from his family, his friends, his pack. It felt selfish for me to have him when he had to give up everything he'd known to be with me. It didn't feel right.

But at the same time, I couldn't imagine life without him anymore. It seemed like every second we were apart there was a physical pull trying to bring us back together. The energy I felt between us had been building since the first time we met, and now it was something I relied on in my daily life. Whenever I was feeling scared, or nervous, or upset, I reached out to him in my thoughts, and I could feel our connection. Somehow I new what he was feeling, even when he was silent.

After a while of waiting, Gabe's dad came out and said that he was still resting. He told me I could go in to see him, but that I shouldn't wake him up. I went down the hall and first looked through the window at my friend lying asleep on the bed. He was hooked up to various machines that were monitoring his vitals, making him look small and fragile. I walked quietly into the room, and sat down in the chair next to his bed. It was quiet except for the sounds of the machines and his small raspy breath.

After a moment, he stirred a bit in his sleep. I heard him groan a bit in pain as he moved, but he remained asleep. Then I heard him mumble something incoherently. I stood up and leaned closer to catch what he was saying in his sleep, but just rolled my eyes when he said, "Pretty boobies."

He was definitely going to be all right.

I left the building still feeling a bit uneasy. I decided to go to the library to look through my family's private collection. There were so many books in there on the strange and the supernatural that I was bound to find something about the creature that attacked Gabe and I. I got on my bike and made my way to the library. The weather felt as confused as I did. There was a chill in the air, and dark storm clouds swirling angrily above, yet every once in a while a warm, humid breeze would blow through, scattering leaves that were starting to fall from the trees.

I pulled into the library parking lot and locked up my bike out front. As usual, the parking lot was empty. I said hi to Ms. Margie, and went back into the private library. I set to work looking through the books for anything that looked like it could help. I spent hours looking through books of all different kinds. I looked at bestiaries filled with strange looking creatures. I looked at hand written encyclopedias of the supernatural. Nothing proved useful.

I got the feeling I was being watched, so I slowly turned around. Sitting in the middle of the room, was the fox. I watched the animal for a moment, and it watched me. Then the fox turned and scampered off. I followed it into the small room below the stairs. The room smelled different than the rest of the library, probably due to all the dried herbs lining the shelves of the room. The fox was in the back corner. He was looking at a small wooden box sitting on the bottom shelf. It tilted its head, and made a small sound like a whine.

I walked over to stand next to the fox, and bent down to have a closer look. The lid of the box bore the same Celtic knot as the doors to the library. I was starting to think that this symbol might have some significance to my family. I reached out and whiped the dust off of the lid. When my fingers met the wood engraving, a jolt of energy ran from my spine down my arm and through my fingertips into the wood. The carving on the lid glowed faintly for a moment, and I heard a soft click. I picked up the box and opened the lid. Inside was an old leather-bound book. I looked back down beside me and saw that the fox had disappeared.