Shifters

Chapter 33

WILL

"What happened to you?" Thea asked.

"Wat—" I choked and coughed.

"Water!" Thea ordered. "Someone get him water!"

The mysterious green-and-brown-clothed girl disappeared and reappeared a few seconds later with a bottle of water that she shoved into my face. "Drink," she said.
I obeyed, drinking nearly the whole bottle before I was satisfied and my throat didn't burn as much.

"Did you get caught in the fire?" Luke asked. "Ouch. Hot darn."

"Shut up, Luke," Thea said, leaning forward to stare at me intently. "So? What did they do to you?" She grimaced. "You have one of the brain-devices too. Do you know what they're for?"

I shook my head. "All I know is they can't be good."

Luke frowned. "Agreed. Static in your head is so annoying. I could barely tell what I'm thinking to start with."

Thea gave him a disapproving look before turning her attention back on me. She looked at me expectantly for a few seconds before I understood what she wanted.

"After I 'died,' " I began, "they brought me to the lower levels—they 'needed another subject' or something. They took me to these prison cells. I met these two kids, Ivy and James—did you meet them? Are they here?"

Thea and Luke exchanged a glance, and I saw it all.

"Oh." I swallowed. "Okay. Well, I met them—they were cool. Then Edmont gave me something, and turned me into a gryphon." I hesitated and stumbled over my next words. "There-there was something in it. I was...hungry for blood." I risked a glance up to see Thea and Luke staring at me with matching horrified expressions. Could I see a touch of fear in their eyes? The other girl was looking off into the distance, emotionless.

I looked back down. "Anyway, they brought me to 'the Maze.' I-Ivy and James had mentioned it earlier. I guess they'd been there before. I saw this girl in there—the cat-girl, did you meet her?"

Thea and Luke made the same face they'd made when I'd mentioned Ivy and James.

"Oh. Well. I suddenly had this desire, this uncontrollable...I wanted to kill her. I chased her, and then I ran into Ivy and James. I attacked James—I couldn't help it—and I hurt his shoulder—"

"The bandages," Thea realized. Luke frowned, remembering whatever Thea had.

"Then they ran," I continued. "I found the cat-girl again, and threw her into a wall, and then she disappeared. I turned back into me. The next time I woke up," I said, "there were a bunch of feathers. Edmont came, and I got mad at him, and I sort of changed back into the gryphon," I said sheepishly.

"Wait a second," Luke said. "You changed into the gryphon? By yourself?

Thea frowned. "Does that mean we can change into anything whenever we want to? Or just the things we've changed into before?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. What I do know is, you never want to be a gryphon."

"Got that," Luke said.

"Yeah," I said tiredly. "Then I found the device in my skull, and there was noise in my head."

Thea winced.

"Then later I woke up to find restraints on my ankles and chest. There was this beeping sound. I think it was from the device. I was in this pentagonal room. Suddenly I was jerked up—does the device control your body too?—and I was pulled around the room, and then the walls opened up and I went through. And then..." I tried to remember. "Darkness. It was pitch black. The chamber was moving. I tried to find an exit, anything, but there was nothing. Then it started shaking, and I got pretty"—I winced—"injured. See?" I pulled up my sleeve to show the many scratches and bruises covering my skin.

There were more than I had thought, but none were very serious. I was sure my whole body was in the same condition. "And I was falling, and then I exploded—"

"Hold on a second," Luke said. "You exploded?"

"I think it's a hyperbole," Thea said.

"It felt like I exploded," I said.

"Thanks for clarifying," Luke said.

"You're welcome," I said. "After that...more darkness, more pain, and then there was fire...and then I got hit by something and went unconscious."

I paused for a moment to take a sip of water. My throat had started to burn again, from the smoke and because of talking too much. I had spoken more in the last five minutes than I usually did in a day.

"Then I found this camp and found a granola bar and was celebrating the fact that I might not die when she"—I gestured toward the strange girl—"pinned me to the ground and said I'd better explain myself or—I'm not joking—she would 'make a few painful adjustments' to the contents of my head."

Luke laughed. "We got a similar welcome."

The girl didn't smile. She had a perfectly expressionless face, really.

"Ok then," Thea said, smiling, but with troubled eyes. She turned to the girl. "Who are you? What's your name?"

The girl looked Thea straight in the eye for several long moments, as if deciding whether or not to tell Thea the truth, or anything at all.

"Ren," she said. "My name's Ren."

A/N: @judgethis @CjVisser @KarimFadi @Midori55 @R_L_Seethr @Mxdanger @mysterygirl7913 : ty for commenting