Shifters

Here We Go Again!

'Wh-what is this,' he thought, ring vibrating steadily as he fell through the sky.

Despite the severity of his current predicament, his outward composure remained strangely calm even though the rational side of his brain screamed shrilly like a little girl on the inside. Taking note of his physical state a bit more in depth this time, he immediately noticed that both his pulse as well as his breathing was surprisingly steadier than his last encounter.

'Wait a second,' he thought as a sudden pain ran through his head, 'my last encounter?'

As if triggered by some unknown catalyst, various flashes of images careened through his head at breakneck speeds before solidifying into a uniform out look.

'How is this possible,' he wondered as the previously foggy instance became clearer.

Glancing around periodically, aside from the rush of the wind flowing through his hair, the intense fear and panic he'd felt previously was clearly unapparent in his current situation.

'Just what in the world is happening?' he thought, as a brilliant flash of lightning streaked through the dark skies in the distance, 'Wasn't the lightning closer last time?'

Tracing the arced, sliver of electricity as it went by once more, his calm persona faded instantaneously as he spotted what appeared to be another person seemingly undergoing the same predicament. Mustering everything he had, the boy let out a huge shout in an attempt to hail the other person. Just as before however, no sound escaped his lips, leaving him unable to complete his action.

'Of course it didn't work,' he muttered, internally reasoning with himself, 'Not like they'd be able to hear me over the commotion of the stormy weather.'

With no further options left to him than to observe the current happenings, the boy's eyes widened even further as several details came into focus.

'Hold on a minute,' he began, traces of panic beginning to form inside of him as the person's clothes seemingly matched the very same outfit he'd worn upon his first awakening, 'That can't be , there's no way, right?'

Before he could sink any further into thought, the person's body suddenly went limp as if they'd lost consciousness. As if waiting for that opportune moment, he watched in stunned silence as a dark, ethereal form, abruptly materialized behind the immobile figure, completely engulfing the person's body in a thick stream of shadow-like, smoky mist. After a few brief moments of inactivity, the misshapen blob of energy abruptly dissipated with a figure matching that of the same entity that'd chased him earlier emerging from the darkness. Even more terrifying than the unexpected transformation, was the ominous figure's direction.

'Is it my imagination,' he wondered, 'or is it looking straight at me?'

His question was answered sooner rather than later as the dark entity suddenly tore through the stormy sky advancing towards him at a rapid pace. Serenity became replaced with full blown panic as the residual cold froze the surrounding raindrops into minute spears of ice.

"What do I do?" he mouthed as realization struck, "What can I do?"

With no feasible way for him to evade the oncoming attacker, his heartrate rapidly increased, as the dark entity approached menacingly. Struggling between the opposing temperatures as the ring itself battled desperately to provide a steady amount of heat against the unending cold, Josh shuddered as the dark entity grasped his shoulder firmly sending a chill through his entire body. Upon contact, the ring simultaneously shot out a burst of incredibly hot energy resulting in the boy to undergo a lightheaded feeling. As if on cue, time seemingly slowed, almost to a halt as a bolt of lightning traced through the sky directly towards them. Without any time to process what was about to transpire, the boy stared wide-eyed as the jagged line of electricity penetrated the shadowy being before striking his chest.