Blood. Warm, thick, crimson blood. It poured down my hands and stained my already filthy shirt. He'd tried to warn me and I was too foolish and caught up in my own world to listen. Here he was now, dying. This was my fault. I scrunch my eyes closed and a distant memory came. They always came when I didn't want them.
"Isra! Pay attention! You know these skills will come in handy when the stranglers come. You're a shifter and your only defense is shifting," Lucas said impatiently.
"You don't say?" I replied with a bored tone. "Aren't stranglers just a scary story we tell the young children?" I ask.
"No," Lucas spat out bitterly. "They're as real as you and me."
"I'm-" something caught in my throat. A shrill cry rang out behind me. I dropped Lucas and spun around to face my attacker.
"Stupid arrogant girl! Weren't you ever warned about us?" The strangler cackled. My heart stopped and I stared wide-eyed at the strangler.
"I, uh, I-" Tears started to well up in my eyes again. Why hadn't I listened to my older brother? Shifting was our only defense and I was useless against this strangler. The strangler stalked forward, his dragon-like talons that replaced his hands were curled, ready to spring open and slit my throat. Panic washed over me and I tried desperately to remember what Lucas taught me.
"Picture what you're shifting into, think about how it moves, try to remember every detail, especially the important traits. For a bird, its wings. Why don't you try a bird?" Lucas suggested.
"Ugh! It's too hard. Why does it take so much effort?" I asked, slumping into my seat uselessly.
"Because if it were easy, you might get sloppy and end up with deer antlers and duck feet," Lucas snorted at the idea. "Just focus on say, a blue jay? You know those well enough right?"
"I mean I guess, can't we do this another time?" I grumbled back to him. Lucas shook his head in frustration.
"You'll never learn, Isra... "
He was right. There's no way I could shift to save my life, which was the case right now. What was I supposed to do? A blue jay? It seemed like a place to start, especially since nothing worse could happen to me now.
I pictured the blue jay in my head, from the black streak lining the back of their heads go the bright blue crest, from their jeweled feathers to their splayed out tails. I focused on every detail of the wings, the way the feathers overlapped and the colors that coated it and shone like diamonds on its back.
What was the next step? If only I had listened I would know. Something about letting the details wash over your body? The memories of what Lucas told me to do next were a bit blurry. I pictured taking the details of the jay and plating them over my own features, arms into wings, nose into beak, feet into talons.
A strange sensation waved over my body, The strangler growled menacingly as my bones creaked and shifted form. I glanced down and my arms had become wings, feathers and all, while my feet became bird talons. The strangler watched in horror as his meal became smaller and more aerodynamic.
I did it! I was a blue jay! Small and light with a feathered crest, I would be able to fly where the strangler couldn't get me, at the cost of leaving Lucas. I couldn't do that! He was the reason I was able to shift, the reason I could escape! He also wouldn't want me to get caught, and he was a little beyond hope now... I stole a glance at the wide slash on his midsection, revealing organs and guts.
I shuddered in flight and soared over the now angry slasher's head. Seeing the scene from a literal bird's eye view I was able to assess the scene. The strangler had attacked me just outside of our house, in between our house and the house next to us. I had been hiding from Lucas, too upset from school to even try shifting.
As I cried in the alley, a strangler had found me, his claws itching to kill me, but Lucas heard the strangler and had rushed out to help me, right into the strangler's line of fire.
I brushed away the memory and looked back at the strangler, his eyes now lit with fury. He glared at me once more as I circled overhead and turned back to Lucas. I knew what he was going to do and didn't want to see it. But I didn't have to. At that moment a police car arrived, apparently summoned by a concerned neighbor who had heard something outside.
The strangler saw him too and dashed away, climbing the fence into our backyard and running to the far side, before disappearing over the other side.
I panicked for only a second, before realizing they wouldn't know I was a human girl because I looked just like a passing blue jay.
