Authors note: This is the sequel to Silent Heroes: Wildcat, but it can be read on its own. The first book in the series can be found on my profile.
Six months ago, if someone had asked me to create a list of the things I was least likely to become, "shapeshifter" probably would have been near the top of that list, followed by something equally ludicrous like, I don't know, "superhero," maybe. But, never in my wildest, most insane-asylum-worthy daydreams would I have imagined becoming both.
Of course, that was before all the craziness started. Back when I thought I could still be something realistic and normal, like a doctor or a lawyer or an astrophysicist (all of which I had been seriously considering.) That was before I found out I had abilities far beyond those of a normal human. That was before the catastrophic incident that sent my life spiraling out of control and de-railed every one of my normal, every-day plans.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself, here. Maybe I should start at the beginning.
"Shoot! Crap! Darn it, not again!"
I threw myself out of bed, pillows, sheets and comforter flying out in a whirlwind behind me. How did this keep happening? Not only had I slept through my alarm, I had slept through both of my back-up alarms. The lighting inside my room was all wrong, too strong and bright. The sun was too high, casting angled shadows against the back wall.
"Crap, crap, crap!"
I grabbed the outfit sitting neatly pressed and folded on my dresser, glad I had through to put it out the night before. I dressed in a frantic rush. I attempted—twice—to push my head through the sleeve of my shirt. I rammed my elbow into the wall as I tried to wrestle my arms through the skin-tight fabric. I almost fell over as I half-hopped, half-shuffled my way across the room, pulling my jeans on at the same time.
I pounded down the stairs, yanking my fingers through my sleek, black hair as I went. No time to brush it. No time for a shower. I hurtled around the divider between the stairway and the kitchen. Our big, ancient TV was blaring in the other room.
"Mom?" I called. "Mom! Why didn't you wake me up? I thought you were going to make sure I was awake."
My mom's face appeared in the living-room doorway. "It's only seven AM, Cyprus."
"I was supposed to be up at five!"
"Well, you didn't tell me that."
I released a frustrated growl and turned to the mountains of colour-coded study notes I had left on the dining room table. I grabbed the first binder I could reach, tore it open and started reading.
I tried to block out the rest of the world and concentrate on my work, but it wasn't easy with all the outside noises competing for my attention. Pots and pans clanged together as my mother prepared breakfast. The TV continued to blare in the other room. The morning news was on.
Now, under normal circumstances this wouldn't have bothered me. Back when the world made some kind of sense the news had been pretty easy to ignore. Just a bunch of people talking in bland, monotone voices about elections, distant wars and the fluctuating price of gas.
But things were far from normal these days. These days the news had turned into some kind of overly-dramatic soap opera where news anchors and viewers alike constantly 'ooohhhed and "ahhhhed" and shrieked and squealed over one thing and one thing only.
Shapeshifters.
See, about six months ago now, some crazy teenage girl—for reasons best known to herself—jumped off the roof of a skyscraper in downtown LA. Now, you'd think doing something so utterly and completely insane would have ended with her as nothing but a nauseating pile of blood and guts on the sidewalk. I mean, heck, that's how most people would have ended up.
Not this girl. Instead of splattering on the pavement she sprouted wings and feathers and turned into this gigantic bird.
People understandably freaked. Within seconds traffic had screeched to a standstill and people were crowding the street, filming the whole incident on their phones and making frantic calls to the authorities. Within minutes the cops and media had arrived. By that time the huge bird had vanished, but the girl reappeared not long after.
Completely unharmed and surrounded by a gang of improbably graceful, attractive companions, she had calmly announced the earth-shattering news to the world. That people like her—people who could turn into animals at will—existed. That they had always existed.
Why the shifters had chosen that moment to expose themselves I couldn't say. But, ever since that day, humanity has become obsessed. Shifter merchandise is everywhere you turn. Celebrities and millionaires and pretty much anyone with more money than common sense have taken to re-designing their cars with leopard spots or bird feathers or zebra stripes—or sometimes all three.
And, to top it all off, today just happened to be the six-month anniversary of the day-a-crazy-bird-girl-jumped-off-a-building. The news anchor on our ancient TV was re-telling the famous story for the hundred-thousand-millionth time, his voice rising and falling with excitement.
I put my hands over my ears in an attempt to muffle the noise. "Mom, could you turn that off?"
There was no answer. My mom was busy frying up eggs in our tiny kitchen and didn't seem to hear me.
I pressed my hands more firmly against my ears and re-applied myself to my notes. Or at least I put my eyes on the page and skimmed over the words, but the TV was so distracting I could have been reading a letter stating I had won a million dollars and not known the difference. The male news anchor had been replaced by a woman, who was telling the viewers in a high, squeaky voice about the interview with Evelyn O'Connor—AKA bird-girl—scheduled in just over an hour.
I spotted the remote at the other end of the table. I stretched across my notes to grab it, aimed it towards the living room and hit the power button. The house went mercifully quiet.
My mom poked her head into the dining room. "Hey, what did you do that for?"
"I couldn't concentrate."
"Oh, come on, Cyprus. This is exciting! You know they're broadcasting the interview from downtown?"
"I'm trying to study, here. This exam is worth thirty percent of my grade."
My mom gave in with a sigh and went back to the kitchen.
That's better, I thought. It wasn't that I didn't care about all this crazy shape shifter stuff. It was cool and interesting and all that. I just had other things to think about right now.
My mom placed breakfast on the table in front of me. Scrambled eggs, toast and orange juice in a chipped, white mug. The smell made my stomach growl but I barely looked up.
"Cyprus, would you stop studying for five minutes and eat something?"
I grabbed a piece of toast without taking my eyes off the page.
"I was thinking more you could put the notes away for a bit?"
"Hey, you wanted me to eat. I'm eating." I tore off a bite of toast and swallowed without tasting it. My foot bounced anxiously up and down. Oh man, I was so gonna fail!
"Relax, Cyprus. Breathe. You'll do great. You always do."
"I need to ace this. I only got a "B" on my last test."
"A "B" huh? Well, I should disown you for that."
"Hey, do you think they'll just let me coast into med-school on a "B" average?"
"Med school? Didn't you want to be a lawyer last week?"
"No, that was the week before."
"Oh right. Last week was... astrophysicist or architect or... well it started with an "A," I know that much."
"Actuary," I said, my eyes continuing to dart across the page.
"Oh, I see. And what, pray tell, is an actuary?"
"They work for insurance companies. Like statistics and stuff."
"That sounds awfully boring."
"I'm exploring my options, all right?"
"Okay. I just think you worry too much, that's all. You don't have to decide on a major for at least another year."
I glanced up at her, making eye contact for the first time. My mom looks a lot like me, with burnished copper skin and pitch black hair that hangs dead straight. At the moment, however, I was more focused on the tired lines etched into her face and the dark circles that constantly shadowed her eyes.
"I'd better go. Don't want to be late."
———————————————-
I pushed my way out the front door, face still buried in my biology notes. The air outside was mild and faintly humid. The sky was a solid mass of pale grey.
I made my way down the street, swerving instinctively around pot-holes and cracks. The houses on either side of me were in various stages of disrepair. Broken shutters creaked in the wind, sometimes slamming against an adjacent wall.
How did my mom not get it? I loved her and all, but I didn't want to end up in her situation. Struggling day to day simply to survive. Everything was a commodity in this world. You either turned yourself into a useful one, or people would just walk all over you.
It was ten blocks to school. I navigated through the streets without once looking up from my notes. Some guy shouted at me to watch where I was going. I rolled my eyes. I could have made this trip with my eyes closed.
After a couple blocks, the houses got bigger. Lawns perfectly groomed and shiny new cars in every driveway. Big trees lined the streets and a forested trail stretched out on my right shoulder. No one yelled stuff at me here.
I got lost in my notes, head swirling with a million terms and definitions. Mitosis and Meiosis. Chromosomes and nucleotides and somatic cells. Damn, this was boring. Maybe med school wasn't for me after all.
Focus, girl! I ordered myself.
Okay, mitosis and meiosis both start off with one diploid cell, but in mitosis it splits into two new diploid cells and in meiosis it splits into four haploid cells. Or, is it the other way around? What the heck does that mean, anyway? When am I ever going to use this? I mean, unless I want to be a microbiologist—WAS THAT A SQUIRREL?
Focus, Cyprus! FOCUS! I really had to nail this test. Why was I getting distracted by squirrels?
I turned left, taking a short cut through the woods. So, two haploid cells split into four diploid cells... wait that's not right. Two diploid cells split into four haploid cells... no mitosis splits into four haploid cells. But I thought haploid and diploid cells were the same thing. No, that doesn't even make sense!
Something scampered across the forest floor, small and lightning fast. My ears naturally honed in on the sound. Okay, that was definitely a squirrel.
Forget about the damn squirrels!
Right, okay. So haploid cells are the same as diploid cells. Mitosis splits into haploid cells and meiosis splits into diploid cells. But Mitosis and Meosis are different and haploid and diploid cells are the same. But if Mitosis and Meiosis are different how can—did the forest always smell this good?
Concentrate, damn it!
But I couldn't. It was getting harder and harder to keep my mind on my tedious notes. The woods really did smell amazing. How had I never noticed it before? The damp, loamy soil. The faintly sweet aroma of rotting wood. The fresh, green scent of newly budding leaves and flowers. The salty, briny tang of the ocean.
The ocean?
I stopped, coming into full awareness of my surroundings. The ocean was at least a mile away. I shouldn't have been able to smell it from here. And where the heck was I? I couldn't see the trail. Had I wandered off into the thick of the woods without even realizing it?
Shoot, now I really was going to be late for school. What if I missed my exam?
All right, I thought stay calm. Don't freak out. It's not like you're in the middle of no-where. You come through here every day. You can find your way back to the trail.
I tucked my oversized binder under one arm and started walking. However, I had barely gone two steps when the strangest sensation coursed through my entire body.
It was like a bolt of pure, unfiltered energy. Like a zap of lighting that, instead of frying me to a crisp, awakened all the nerves and synapses and chromosomes and nucleotides and haploid cells in my body. My breathing accelerated. I actually felt my pupils dilate. A slightly numb, prickling sensation traveled from my fingers all the way up my arms.
What the heck?
I stood completely motionless, confused and baffled by the sudden changes. My biology notes were on the ground, the pages bent and peppered with dirt, loose sheets scattered in the grass. I was afraid to move. I didn't know why. It felt like there was something powerful and dangerous pulsing just under my skin.
The earth began to vibrate under my feet. It was a vague, distant sensation at first. For a second, I though it was just in my head. Then the vibrations grew to a faint rumble, which turned into a growl, which became a terrifying, ear-shattering roar. The mixture of dead twigs and leaves that littered the forest floor began to pop and dance around my shoes like corn kernels on a hot stove. I looked up. Tall, stately trees lurched and swayed as if the solid ground that supported them had transformed into jello.
My brain worked slowly, struggling to make sense what I was seeing. What the heck was this? What was going on?
Then it hit me. Earthquake. This was a freaking earthquake!
I tried to run, but the ground chose that moment to rear up like a surging wave, hurling me backwards. I fought to stand up, scrambling for purchase on ground that felt about as stable as a mudslide. A huge tree crashed to the ground just a few meters behind me, torn out by the roots, taking smaller trees and shrubs down with it.
Move! I ordered myself.
I gritted my teeth, dug my nails into the dirt and bolted out of there as fast as my legs would carry me.
I ran with no direction, no purpose but to get as far away as possible. The bucking earth tossed me from side to side. I smacked into trees and shrubs. My stomach roiled with nausea. How long was this going to go on for? I thought earthquakes were only supposed to last a few seconds.
I sprinted out of the forest and back onto the street. My balance stabilized a bit on the hard surface, but the ground continued to shake violently under my feet. The houses on either side of me seemed to ripple and crumple in on themselves. Cars rocked back and forth. Patio furniture bounced around like discarded toys.
I took a hard right, cutting across someone's lawn. I didn't really know why I was still running. There's no sense in running from an earthquake. But, I was in a sheer panic. And yet, as terrified as I was. As much as the immediate danger loomed in the front of my thoughts, I couldn't help noticing the strange energy that continued to pulse through me. It seemed to boil over every time my feet struck the ground, sending shock-waves deep below the surface.
Was I causing this?
I was approaching a tall, chain-link fence. It was still at first but, as I got closer, it began to shudder and lurch. It was over six feet high, but I cleared it in a single jump. I darted past a deserted playground. The swings rocked back and forth as if propelled by invisible feet. The sand caved in on itself. A red, plastic slide toppled over with it.
No! I thought in desperation. Stop! Make it stop!
But it wasn't stopping. It was only getting worse. And something weird was definitely happening to my body, now. My skin prickled. My bones ached. My muscles seemed to liquefy and re-form into strange, unfamiliar shapes.
I lost my balance and pitched forward, but I didn't fall. I didn't even stop running. Suddenly, I had four legs instead of two. My hands struck the earth as enormous black paws. Like the paws of a wolf.
Inside, I was screaming. Completely freaking out. There was no more room for even a sliver of calm, rational thought. My brain was a whirlwind of uncontrollable panic.
I tore across the park, moving twice as fast as I had on two legs. I jumped another fence. I changed direction erratically, trying desperately to escape the violent, roiling ground. Images blurred in front of my eyes. Trees and houses and cars. Human-shaped figures scattering out of my way.
A terrifying sound, like a crack of thunder, suddenly split the air. I looked back just in time to see a hair-line fracture slicing into the earth, leaving a jagged trail in my wake.
Oh no! No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!
I put on a burst of speed, trying to outrun it. It matched my pace exactly. It changed direction whenever I changed direction. I didn't know how to stop it. I didn't know how to make it go away.
A horn blared in my ear and I realized I had bolted right into the middle of busy highway. People screamed. Tires squealed. The tiny crack had expanded into a massive fissure that split the road in two, chunks of pavement breaking off and falling into the darkness below. Traffic shrieked to a halt on either side of the gapping hole.
In that moment, something woke up in the depths of my fear-addled brain. Stop! Stop, you're going to kill someone!
I locked my knees and elbows in place and planted all four paws firmly on the ground. My front end stayed in place while my back end swung around nearly a full one hundred and eighty degrees...
And that's when I saw it. A gigantic transport truck was barreling straight towards me, too much weight going way too fast. As I watched, the truck slammed on it's breaks. The wheels spun madly, throwing off sparks. I caught a glimpse of the driver frantically spinning the steering-wheel. It was no use. The trailer swept forward, cutting across three lanes of traffic. It grew bigger and bigger in my field of view. Cars swerved and dodged out of the way, yet I seemed to be completely frozen in place.
I felt a huge, shuddering impact, an explosion of pain and then everything went black.
--------------------
Hi everyone! This story is on a bit of a hiatus at the moment. I'm having some trouble with it and I'm currently re-writing. But feel free to read and enjoy what's here so far. I will message all followers when it's underway again.
I can no longer keep up with comments but please know that I read and appreciate every one! I will respond to private messages and comments on my profile if you would like to get in contact there