Morph [EDITING] || Wattys 2017 Winner

~TWENTY THREE~

~amelie~

He stands there, in the doorway, staring straight at me. He's stiller than death as I open my mouth.
"Why are you here? Are we calling off the plan?" I ask again, confused.
He doesn't respond, just walks further into the room, and now I can see the expression on his face more clearly. Anger, hate...
"Ryan, what are you doing?" I say carefully.
"What do you think I'm doing?" he laughs humourlessly, breaking his silence suddenly. His eyes narrow as he begins to stalk round me in a circle. "I tried before, I wanted to leave you behind at every mission we went on, but you managed to escape every single time. But this time? This time I'm going to be successful."
"Ryan," I whisper. "I don't... I don't understand. What did I do? Are you trying to... to kill me?"
"You're Nathan Carmichael's daughter. You always have been. You came here to gather information, get into our ranks, and then destroy us from the inside. You already killed one of us, and I'm stopping you before-" He stops dead in the middle of the room as his voice catches slightly. "Before you hurt anyone else."
"I swear, what happened to Cade, it wasn't my-"
"Save it." Ryan pauses, and he looks at me. "How else did they find out? You're the only one of us with any motive. You know your father, and I bet he's made a deal with you. You turn traitor, and you walk free."
Panic hammers in my chest. "Ryan, I-"
"Shut up, Amelie," he growls. "It wasn't just Cade that started this. He was the match, sure, but you built the bonfire. I've known who you are all along. Cade just confirmed it." My heart beats faster and my breathing becomes panicked. I back away from him, slowly but surely, and I bolt for the door and grab the handle. But before I can twist it and sprint, he's pulling me away. He pins me up against the wall as he hisses, "So. I thought I'd tell you my plan before it's too late and you find out for yourself. You need to know there's a price to pay for betraying us, and this is it."
"Ryan," I say, slowly. "Ryan, what have you done?"
He waits for a few seconds before he says, "I told Nathan Carmichael there was a shapeshifting rebel here, and he's on his way now."

No.

My fist swells, lashes out and hits him in the stomach, and he lets out a grunt and charges. But I'm already out of the way, and as he hits the wall I spin and punch again, my hands growing and shrinking at my every command. It's a perfect punch, exactly the way he taught me - but it's the way he taught me.

He's expecting that exact blow, and he twists and grabs for my arm. I scream as he yanks it towards him with a horrible wrenching sound, and suddenly my arm is dangling uselessly, snapped in two. Agonising bursts of pain shoot up it as I try to hit back, and through the pounding in my head I realise he's just disabled my dominant fighting hand. I try to shift it and make it less vulnerable, but my focus is so shattered that I can't concentrate enough to use my power. He bends over me and grabs my shirt, pulling me up, predator over prey, and raises his arm. I attempt to shield myself, but the pain from my shattered arm makes me weak, and my strength floods out of me as soon as I try. Ryan's fist clenches, he lifts me higher, and he's about to go for the blow when a roar sounds from outside the door.

"WE HAVE SURROUNDED YOU!"

Ryan looks down at me and lets go, and something like pain fills his eyes. But he tries to hide it, even as he says, "That's my cue. Good luck getting out of this one."

"THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION BUT SURRENDER. PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD AND COOPERATE, OR YOU WILL BE NEUTRALISED!"

"Ryan, you can't leave me here, you can't leave me, what will the others-?"
He looks surprised for a moment before the anger returns once more. "They won't care. Everyone knows you're a traitor, that you're the reason we got ambushed. And now you're going where you belong."
"Don't do this. Please, we're friends, teammates, even-"
"You mean nothing to me!" he shouts. "Did you really think love can happen that quickly? It was all pretending - to get close to you, get your defences down. If you actually believed it was real, you're even more naive than I thought. I'm not going down with you. You're on your own."
"Ryan-"
"I'm sorry, Amelie," he says softly, and it's almost genuine, almost convincing, but then he turns and jumps and I scream as he shoots out of the window and the door is kicked open.

"HANDS ON YOUR HEAD! NOW!"

~~~

~sophia~

amber is good at being nice. i asked her where ammy was, and she said she was coming soon. i hope she's not lying. i won't be happy until ammy comes back. her sister is sitting with us now. i think her name is lila. her hair is pretty, and she looks the same as amber. the room we're in is empty apart from us and hunter. there's a tv on the wall.
i bounce on the sofa and say, "amber, can we watch tv?"
amber says, "sure. what would you like to watch?"
i don't know, so i say, "anything. i don't mind."
amber picks up a remote and clicks it, and the tv turns on. the news is on right now. i tug on amber's sleeve and say, "i don't want to watch this."
she says, "hang on, sophia, i just need to..."
i tug on her sleeve again and say, "please can we watch something else?"
but amber says, "ssh, sophia, we have to watch this for a minute!"
i don't say anything. hunter stands up and so does lila, and they both say something that i can't hear. then amber says,
"that's not...?"
i look at the screen. there's a picture of a big hotel. underneath it says "rogue shapeshifter discovered".
but i only know one person who can do that.

amber stands up and so do i, and i say, "we have to help ammy."
she bites her lip and hunter says, "sophia, we can't. we have to stay here and wait for ryan to come back, and then, maybe..."
i have to help her, and i know something that will make them help her, so i say, "he's not coming. look, he's there!"

everyone looks at the tv again. there's a person hovering above the building and looking inside. as we watch, he flies off, and i see his blonde hair. amber puts her hand to her mouth.

"oh, god," she says. she looks scared. "he... he set her up. that's why he wanted us gone. oh, god!" she says again.
"i knew it." hunter grits his teeth, and then he says a word i've never heard before.
lila stares at the tv disbelievingly, and amber keeps talking, panicking. "what do we do? why... what has he done?"
hunter walks over to her and puts his hands on her shoulders. "amber, don't panic. we can help her."
"how? we can't get there! ryan betrayed her, he's sure as hell not going to help us save her!"
lila says, "how do you know he did it? he's been one of us for years."
"you know he went over the edge when cade died. we just didn't realise how far," replies hunter.
lila repeats, "but how do you-"
amber starts crying, and she shouts, and i flinch. "lila, will you shut up? this is serious. this is... we're not going to be able to get her back!"
"what about her sister?"
"what?" says amber.
"sophia is here. can she not help?"
"she can grow flowers, lila. how will that save amelie?"
she's wrong, so i say, "not just flowers. look!"

i was practising when i was on my own in the dark room, before ammy made it okay. there was a little bit of dirt in the corner, so i tried to grow a tree. it worked. i search for any plants nearby, and i find another tree outside. i reach out with my mind and tell it to grow, and it does. i make it twist in, so that suddenly there's a loud crash and the tree has come through the window. ammy's friends stare at it, then at me, and they look shocked. amber says,

"sophia. where did you learn to do that?"
i say, "in the dark room."
hunter says, "she means the cell. sophia, can you do it for a long time? say, across a city?"
"i don't know. i haven't tried much."
lila says, "you saw how much amelie could do within a very, very short time. is it unreasonable to think her sister could have the same level of power?"
amber says, "yes, but it's too risky. amelie needed victoria to help her change back while she was untrained."
"sophia isn't changing anything about herself. she's just influencing plants. worst case scenario, we have giant tree trunks stretching from our hideout to the hotel. but that doesn't matter. amelie is more important that anything now. with her power... she can stop her father. she's still undiscovered, they won't know her identity yet, but she won't be for long unless we do something!"
amber pauses for a long time. hunter says, "amber. think about it. even if the worst scenario does happen, lila can just use her illusions to disguise them. she's been practicing for long enough. she can do it."
amber bites her lip and finally says,

"okay. sophia, carry us to that hotel."

so i do.