The Woods ✔

Shift

Caden woke up with a headache and a dry mouth. The pounding in his head made him feel nauseous and extremely grumpy.

He slowly pried his eyes open and was thankful for the dim light. Otherwise he would have emptied his stomach's contents onto the concrete floor for sure. The headache got worse and he breathed carefully in and out.

Wait, concrete floor?

He blinked to clear his vision. Yes, concrete floor. And concrete walls.

He raised his head - regretted it immediately because of the pounding - and stared at his surroundings. The room was claustrophobic small and aside from a closed door, a window just under the ceiling and the blanket he was sprawled out on empty. Any furniture would have made it difficult to fit his body into the tight space.

Did he after all die and this was hell? Lucifer had a bad taste or needed to kick his current interior designer to the curb.

There were bars in front of the window and he assumed that he was in a basement because grass was growing directly in front of the glass pane. He would be able to reach the window if he stretched but it obviously wasn't possible to escape this way and furthermore his headache got worse the longer he stared into the light. So he lowered his head back on the blanket and inspected the door.

It was nothing fancy, just a plain door with a handle and a keyhole. Of course it was as grey as the rest of the room. Luckily the blanket was green so Caden had a proof that he didn't become colour-blind.

He detached his tongue from the roof of his mouth and grimaced at the gross taste. Damn, what did he eat?

Groggily he rolled onto his stomach and sorted through his paws. There were four of them and it was unnaturally difficult to place them at the right spot under him. Although he had never been drunk before in his life he imagined it to feel exactly like this.

But back on topic, he still needed to get out of this grey hell and something to get rid of the awful taste.

Maybe the door wasn't locked because they thought he was just a cougar that couldn't do more complicated things than lick his own backside. Probably his best chance.

Cautiously he rose from his impromptu bed and staggered to the door. His head was seriously killing him. He stretched and pulled the handle down but the door didn't open and he huffed disappointed. Stupid door.

He tiredly returned to the blanket and plopped down on it. There wasn't anything he could do at the moment. Apparently he couldn't escape from the room offhandedly and needed to wait for a better chance. But he could wait.

Caden yawned and placed his head on his front paws.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed but he got more and more restless and a bad feeling had settled in his chest. The memories were fuzzy but he remembered the lioness and the humans. The knowledge was enough to make him incredible nervous and he wondered why he was still alive.

Finally, the door was opened from the outside and Caden moved back until he felt the cold concrete against his haunches.

It was the woman with the gun. He hissed at her and she paused in the doorway.

Up close she was kind of beautiful. Her round face was framed by raven black hair and her skin was tanned as if she spent most of her life outside. Probably hunting in the woods. He hissed again, warning her to come not an inch closer.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she said calmly and he huffed. Whatever.

"Can you shift back?"

He froze and stared at her fearfully.