by Fay Walsh
Lisa couldn’t wait any moment more. She left the office in a huff. Her mind was racin he had just admitted. The shifter were real…
Why was he so afraid of talking about this? Could it be that he knew who the shifter in this town were? Was there a reason behind why he was being so aloof? Lisa wanted answers, but she didn’t really know how to pressure Thomas. He was her boss.
“Anyway, let’s see what I can find offline,” she decided.
Lisa went once again to the library and looked through the shelves of books on the paranormal. Apparently, this town was known for paranormal activity, and even in history, there were accounts of people seeing various things.
However, when it came to shifters, there wasn’t anything of value. All of the accounts were hazy, as if someone had blurred them on purpose. This was definitely a lead.
“So they hid their tracks well, huh?” she said.
Lisa wasn’t going to let this stop her though. She wanted the answers. She left the library, cutting through the abandoned park on the way back to her car.
It was already dark outside, and the cool air, along with the slight howl of the wind, immediately made the hair on her arms stand on end. She looked around, not noticing anything. However, it seemed to her that there was someone following her.
“Whoever you are, you can come out. I’m not stupid. I can sense you,” she yelled.
Suddenly, a figure of a man appeared as if out of nowhere. He had a hood on and in his hands there was a knife.
“W-what do you want? I don’t have any money on me,” she said.
It was a bald-faced lie, but she hoped that he would leave her alone.
“I’m not here to mug you or to take anything from you. I’m here to warn you. I know what you’ve been doing,” he said slowly.
“What are you talking about? I just wanted to do some research on a few things. Besides, why does it matter on what I’m working on?” she demanded.
“Simple. I don’t want you getting involved in our business. If you want to die here, then, by all means, continue to argue, but know that this is for your own good. Whoever gets into this story gets killed and you are better than this. Trust me, I will kill you if you continue to refuse,” he said.
Lisa didn’t take her eyes from the figure, but he didn’t budge.
“What, are you going to kill me with a knife? I can defend myself, I know martial arts. I’ll be okay,” she said defiantly.
“No, you can’t. You’re going to hurt yourself, and others along the way. And, we’re the ones who will take care of those shifters. If you don’t want to get caught up in the crossfire, you go back to your car, never set foot near that section of the library, and stop trying to uncover the truth.”
Lisa fealt the threat of his words sink into her mind. She looked around, wondering her answer should be. In reality, she wanted to tell him to leave her be but she couldn’t get the words out.
She looked at the figure in complete, unadulterated anger. Once again, he didn’t budge. Not even a single step. Finally, Lisa spoke.
“Fuck you. I’m not leaving. Not anytime soon. I’m getting that story, whether you like it or not,” she yelled.
Upon uttering those words, she halp-expected the person to rush forth towards her. But before she could even blink, she was pushed down on the ground. She opened her eyes and saw that the figure wasn’t that of a human anymore. His face had changed.
It was a lion!
Lisa tried to scream, to get away from this, but she couldn’t move. She was frozen on the ground, unable to move from this position. She struggled, but his arms kept her pinned down.
“Somebody, help me!” she cried out.
“Nobody is here to help you. You’re all alone, and people will find your dead body on the ground. I’ll make sure to leave the biggest, deepest gash on your pretty little body. This is why you shouldn’t get involved, honey. Or maybe I should just gore your fucking throat. Mmm, that would be fun. You’d die instantly,” he seemed to enjoy it.
His mouth was right next to her neck and Lisa was sure that this lion was going to kill her. She couldn’t help but feel her body shake, the fear growing and growing, overtaking her completely.
She needed to leave, to get the fuck out of here, but she couldn’t. She was stuck in this fucking rut, and she knew that a quick death would only be a mercy.
After a while, Lisa didn’t bother to struggle. She closed her eyes, expecting things to pass quickly. But suddenly, she heard a thud and a loud cry. When she opened her eyes, she saw the lion on the ground. She looked around in wonder.
The one that saved her was a bear.
Chapter 6
Darren kept thinking about the warning he saw the other day on the wall of the silo. Something didn’t feel right. They had never experienced anything like that.
“Should I go see her? I’m not totally sure,” he asked Travis.
The Alpha said that he would be better off just warning Lisa to not be alone at any moment. From their recent adventures with Alana, if there were some other shifters involved, they would definitely target everyone around them.
Darren couldn’t help but wonder if Lisa was okay, even though he didn’t really like her. She was a meddlesome girl and he had a bad feeling about this. He feared what might happen if she found out the truth.
Would she come after him? Would she run away in fear? Would she tell the whole town, causing them to leave this safe haven that had build? He grimaced thinking about all these possibilities.
“If that damn girl forces me and the rest of the Clan to move, I’m going to be pissed,” he said feeling the anger grow inside of him.
That was the last thing he wanted, that was for sure. They had finally settled down and he didn’t want their lives to be disrupted by this irresponsible woman.
“Why can’t I get her out of my head though,” Darren wondered.
He hated this. He never thought of women in this fashion, but here he was ruminating over some damn girl. He slammed his fist down on his desk, sighing in annoyance.
“The last thing I want is to create more tensions. This is a drama fit for humans. So why can’t I stop thinking about her?” he asked himself.
The same question kept nagging him all day long and as he continued with his work day, he couldn’t help himself. It was if some sort of spell was forcing him to think about this reporter. Could it be his own foolishness coming about?
That night, Darren decided to walk home from the office. He wanted to make sure that there was someone patrolling all of the routes. Benjamin was decent at what he did but he was still a little bit limited in his abilities. He probably wouldn’t even pick up on other shifters, but Darren, due to the fact that he had been a shifter for a long time, would know immediately that there was trouble going on.
As he was passing by the park he heard the sounds of two people. One of them sounded like a woman, while the other sounded like a man. Neither of them sounded familiar to Darren, so he decided to move closer.
Darren saw the girl first. It was the journalist, Lisa. He immediately noticed something off about her. She looked uncomfortable, yet with a strange determination on her face. There was some sort of foolish pride in the way that she looked and at for a moment Darren found her extremely attractive.
Howewer, Darren didn’t let this thought dwell for long. He looked around and noticed a guy standing not far from Lisa.
Darren knew immediately that this man was a shifter. He did a poor job of hiding his presence. He didn’t even seem to try to hide it as much as others did, especially Darren.
Darren kept his eyes fixed on this man. He had a sinister look on his face but he wouldn’t interfered if he didn’t do anything reckless. He just kept on staring at him until he approached Lisa.
Lisa looked visibly uncomfortable. She was vulnerable and he needed to do something to help her. At that moment, the shifter changed into a big African lion.
The moment he pinned Lisa down,
Darren shifted as well. He assumed his bear form, hoping more than anything that he would get everything handled before she would realize who he was.
He raced in and pushed the lion away. He started to wrestle this lion with the big mane. The fearsome creature was biting him back. Darren hit him back in the chest with his claws. The lion winced but he managed to push Darren off.
“You fucking asshole!” the lion said.
“Get the hell away from her. She’s a stupid human. She doesn’t know anything. Leave her out of this,” Darren yelled and a slight roar sounded at the end of the phrase.
“Do you know her, bear?”
Darren tensed. He eyes the journalist, who was sitting there with her body shaking. If he admitted that he did know her, she would figure out his identity right away, but if he lied he wasn’t sure if he would be convincing enough.
“I don’t. I insist though that you need to get away from her before it’s too late. I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to scare her away. I’ll talk to her and I’ll make sure that she leaves us alone,” he said.
“Bullshit. This is my kill and-”
Darren got on his two back legs and smacked the lion straight across the face. A deep cut appeared on the lion’s face.
“That should do it,” he said.
The lion snarled, immediately running away. Darren looked at the lion retreating into the park.
“Fuck. Well, at least I found who is causing all this trouble. Are you-”
As Darren moved towards the reporter, she mirrored his moves getting further and further away.
“G-get away from me. Please,” she pleaded.
“I know who you are. Just listen to me,” he tried to make his voice less threatening, keeping the roar as light as possible.
Darren didn’t know if was doing the right thing. On the one hand, he thought about just telling her the truth, but at the same time he dreaded the consequences. He was at least glad that there was no way for Lisa to recognize him in his bear form.
“Come on, I want to talk to you. I don’t want you to go on reporting me or the other guys,” he said with a calm, yet forced voice.
“N-no. Please leave me alone, you monster,” she yelled.
Darren immediately felt a strange urge within him. He wanted to explain everything to her, to make her understand. He hesitantly took a few steps forward, looking at her, and that’s when she did it.
It was so quick, but as he was reverting back to his human form, she immediately snapped a picture with her phone and ran away before he could say anything. Fear and anger filled him, as he realized his foolishness.
“What the fuck. What did that bitch just do?” he screamed.
That’s why he hated humans. They were unpredictable and full of surprises. A moment ago Lisa seemed so vulnerable and the next she had done this. It would certainly get out of hand.
“I have to go back and inform the guys,” he said with a sudden urgency to let it all out.
He feared what that picture might mean. Would she come after him? Would she write some disparaging piece on shifters? Would she blame it all on Darren? Did she even know what he was?
He didn’t have the answer to any of these questions. The only thing that he could do right now, was hope for the best, but expect the worst. In the worst case scenario he would have to pack everything up and move.
Chapter 7
Lisa was shaking, but the only thing that she could do at this point was run. And running was what she did. She could feel her legs moving on their own. She didn’t look back, in fear of seeing one of those creatures hunting her down.
She couldn’t believe that she had just seen a lion and a bear. She just couldn’t fucking believe any of this. However, the bear had protected her. She didn’t have a clue of who that guy was, but his presence felt so familiar to her.
The black fur and the creature’s demeanor just seemed so damn familiar to Lisa. She had no idea who in the world it was. The only thing that she could do, was to get back to the apartment and zoom into that picture, hoping that it would be clear enough to make out who that guy was.
The picture was the only evidence of the encounter and she regretted of not sticking a little longer in order to take another one. She wished that she had, for he was definitely fascinating. Both of them were.
She was still trying to process the fact that she saw two people turn into animals, a black bear and a lion with a big mane. She couldn’t believe that these creatures were… living in town with her. She suddenly realized how little she knew about the people around her.
But, what should she do now that she had stumbled upon the truth? She had no idea what to do, other than to take her time understanding it. When she got to her apartment, she unlocked the door, not looking back at all. She went straight to her laptop, in order to study the photograph.
She didn’t even know why she took a picture like this, but a part of her was glad she acted on instinct the moment she saw what was happening. Every click of her mouse brought the image closer. As the figure started to become clearer a bit of fear flowed through her body.
The rumors were right about the shifters and she was worried to no end. What did this mean for the town? She felt a great weight on her shoulders. Was she the only one with substantial evidence of their existence in her hads?
When the picture was close enough, she took a lot of time examining everything. She could feel the air leaving her body, her whole existence shaking as she realized who the figure was.
It was a blurry picture, but there was no mistaking of the long hair and the pallid face.
Darren.
The bear that had saved her, the one that pushed that other creature off of her, was none other than Darren himself. But why? Why would he do this for her? She didn’t get it. This picture proved the rumors about him correct. She finally had what would make her story important. There was just one thing that she needed to focus.
What to do with it next.
She knew that this picture would be damning evidence in a good piece on him. That piece would reveal everything. Not just that he was a cold-hearted man, but it would also reveal his dark secrets. People needed to know of who this important man really was.
She knew that this evidence could ruin Darren’s business. Everything that he had worked for. For a brief moment, she wondered how much a picture like this would sell on the market.
In truth, the money was a huge incentive for Lisa. She was tired of always struggling financially. Maybe she should pocket the picture right now, and go give it to her boss.
But there was something holding her back.
“Why do I feel guilty?” she wondered.
She should be happy about this. She would be the one to finally reveal to the world who Darren really was. There was something about this though that made her feel like it was wrong.
“No way, he’s an unkind man. It can’t be,” she exclaimed.
She went online and searched once again for anything regarding him being a shifter. There wasn’t a single picture or article on it. Just the comments on the forums.
If she ended up posting this, either people would believe her, leading to his ruin, or people would ignore her. She knew that what she had seen was legit. But, would the rest of the world be convinced?
It wasn’t just her imagination. She had seen that bear saving her. Now, in this picture she was seeing this bear turning back into a human form. Into Darren. Just like that, he had shifted in front of her.
She considered doing it. As a journalist, she had to let people know the truth. She wanted to reveal everything, especially since it was about Darren. That damn face was enough to make her want to scream.
He was cocky. He was cold. He was a totally cheeky towards her. And yet, there was something almost pulling her to him. It was making her want to hold back on sending that picture.
Another part of her wanted to just submit it and call it a day. To help her make up her mind she searc
hed online to see how much a photo like that would earn her. When she saw the price, she thought that she was going crazy.
“Three thousand dollars?” she exclaimed, feeling lucky that no-one was around.
She had no idea that big tabloid pieces like that would sell for that much money. That price almost made her faint. It could change everything in her current situation.
Her conscience though, or whatever the fuck it was, kept stopping her. Everytime she tried to hit the send button to her boss, hesitation won her over.
It felt wrong, for some reason, although she knew that the money would be worth it. After all, she was a journalist, and the goal of journalism was to get the best scoop possible, in any way possible. That included catching people doing unsavory things.