For a while, things settled down.After Stone and his goons were expelled, his father made some noise around, even going as far as to publish his rants in the local newspapers, but no one took to them. He certainly did not garner the attention he thought he would, and I have reasons to believe that the university was behind it. Stone did not come after me personally as I thought he would, none of his goons did either. After the expulsion, the rest of his gang avoided me at all costs. It was surreal walking into the campus without the threat of harassment hanging in the air. Through the gossip chain of the university, I heard that Kayla broke up with her boyfriend as well. But that was not my issue.On the downside, the university board figured out who my father was. They tried to approach me about him, to get him more roped into the activities of the university, but I refused. And so did my father, as he knew that I wanted my college life to be separate from him. I did not want to ent
Coraline instantly gets up from her seat and embraces me.“I’m sorry, Jace,” she says, squeezing me.I let her friendly warmth comfort me and wrap my arms around her. I do not like the fact that my mother’s death makes me feel so out of depth. I feel like I’m weak for still getting this emotional over it after so many years. The rational part of my brain understands that losing a parent, especially a parent who entirely raised you is going to be hard, and that kind of wound cannot be healed easily. But the smaller, illogically macho part of me that still reels over the fact Stone managed to send me to the hospital urges me to man up and bottle all my feelings inside. It’s a constant battle to not give into that voice because I’m well-read enough to know bottling up feeling ultimately leads to a nasty climax. So, I force away those feelings and focus on the present, on the tickle of Coraline’s hair on my cheeks, and the pleasant smell of her body wash that still drifts.“It’s alright,”
The paramedics who arrived at the scene manage to stabilize her a bit after asking me and the waiter who served us a rapid slew of questions, and immediately puts her on a stretcher and leads her into the ambulance.“Is she going to be, okay? What happened?” I demand, feeling my heart racing in my chest “where are you taking her?!”The woman EMT of the pair that came from the ambulance turns to me, holding her hands up. “Sir, you need to calm down. Your friend just had a severe allergic reaction to a spice present in the sauce of the pizza topping she ordered, which is why we took samples of the food to determine what exactly she had a reaction to. We need to take her to the hospital to treat her further.”“I’m coming with you,” I tell her.“Alright, you can follow us. We’re taking her to Clandestine General Hospital. However, you better notify and come with her family.”“Yes, yes, of course. I will be there, and I’ll call her parents.”“Of course, sir, we have to go now.”The EMTs ge
Coraline got released a day later from the hospital. She was extremely disturbed to learn about the situation with her life insurance, as she had not even been aware of something like that happening.“He must’ve forged my signature,” she utters in horror, sitting on her hospital bed as doctors fussed around, making sure she was ready to be released, “I do not have any sort of memory about altering my life insurance policy.”“You know, that is a crime, right?” I ask her, “you need to take this to the police, Coraline.”She nods mutely, “I’m afraid I must. But first, I need to talk to him.”And she looked so damned terrified at the idea that I wanted to find Aiden and strangle him for what he did to her. I could understand her hesitance, but as long as she was afraid of him, he would get the power to control her life even without being her boyfriend. I can’t even imagine how he managed to forge the documents and alter her life insurance without anyone noticing. I have a suspicion that h
The incident at the club has me shaken, and Coraline fumes throughout our meeting. We don’t really get any work done as we sit around the table back at my office. She is adamant about pursuing him once again, and I try my best to change her mind.“Get a lawyer and take him to court,” I tell her, “You saw how demeaning he was. He brushed you off without even thinking. Do you honestly think that he would listen to you again?”“He has to. This is illegal!”“And he somehow managed to do it in the first place.” I point out, followed by a sigh. “Look, Coraline, I understand you not wanting to have law enforcement entangled in this. It will become much more complicated.”“I’ve never gotten a police record in my life,” Coraline whispers, “I just don’t want my name to be tarnished like that.”“There won’t be any tarnishing, because you’re not the criminal here. You’re the victim.” I soften my voice, “and no matter what happens, you’ll have my support. Zelt Tech got some pretty good lawyers. We
When I meet him the next morning so he could give me a ride to school, Gerald profusely apologizes for not taking my calls.“I am really sorry, Jace. I left my phone at the office before going home and missed a bunch of calls, along with yours. Are you okay? Did something happen? Was there an emergency?”I blush at his questions. My idiotic actions had left him worried about me, and that was the last thing I wanted to do.“No, Gerald, no, there were no issues. I just wanted to have some conversation,” I scuff the floor with my feet, feeling mortified. But I somehow spit out the next part of the explanation, “Just wanted some companionship, I guess. You know how the house is at night.”Gerald’s eyes soften with something akin to parental concern.“I’m sorry, Jace,” he mutters, but I brush it off.“No, it’s fine. I was just a bit shaken from what happened that evening, which, by the way, I need to notify you about.”That does the trick as Gerald sits ramrod straight, his eyes focused. I
We managed to make it to the hospital to visit the victims within visitor hours. The employees were pretty shocked, and I couldn’t fault them for that. Gomez was still in the ER, but the doctors said that he was in a medically induced coma from which he would be waking up soon, to our immense relief. I promised the employees that they will be compensated for this damage, and their hospital bills will be charged by the company. They will also be getting paid leave for however long they needed to heal. The employees were thankful for this, which made me a bit uncomfortable. I was more than aware of the inhuman nature of corporate when it came to sick leaves and wages, but Zelt Tech wasn’t like them. Well, it might have been before, but not anymore. Not as long as I had a say in it.After visiting the victims of the shootout, I get a call from Coraline.“Hey, Coraline, what’s up?”“Jace. Are you at the hospital? Gerald said that he’ll take you to visit the victims of the shootout. My god
Telling the detective about Stone and his gang is easy because it is purely my own story to tell. I got nothing to hide in that regard. So, I go in-depth about the harassment, the prank, the assault, and the subsequent expulsion. Detective Blanco pulls a notebook from her pocket in the meantime and jots down notes from my statement, nodding her head lightly.“Do you think that Stone is somehow related to the shootout?”I shake my head. “No, of course, not. One, Stone is a bully, not a killer. He might be an asshole, but his family isn’t into such activities. They’d rather go to the media and slander you than shoot your employees.”The detective nods again. “So, who else are your enemies, Mr. Greyson? I have to admit, for someone so young you seem to have a lot.”I quirk my lips at the irony. “Not a lot. Just Stone and his gang, and this one guy who's got it out for me for a reason I cannot fathom.”“Who is this guy?”“His name is Aiden Collins,” I reply, “and honestly, much of this st
“Oh, fuck!” I let out as I spring away from where I’d been lying with my head on Estelle’s lap. “Holy shit, I’m normal! I’m normal!”I pat at my body, and sure enough, it’s two-legged, hairless, and my hands are actually my hands! With fingers and pink skin, with only some fine hair on my forearms, and no black fur in sight!I immediately look behind me, and nearly cry in relief when I see that I have a normal, human posterior, not one with a tail.And to my surprise, my clothes are still intact though I had ripped them when I had turned into a dog, but they were still here. Thank God, because I did not fancy getting naked for the second time today.“I did not think that would happen,” Estelle comments, and I turn to her. She doesn’t look too shocked at my reappearance as a human. She stands up from where she had been sitting, brushing off her pants as if on habit before turning to me with a smile, “Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t call that hospital.”I stare at her for a moment, won
I cower near the toilet, scared out of my fricking mind as the door opens, hoping to everything holy that she would not freak out, which is stupid considering who would not freak out when they see an animal in a room where they initially left a human in?But to my utter surprise, when Estelle opens the door, she does not scream or throw anything at me.Instead, she blinks.Once.Twice.And then she opens her mouth to say, “Oh.”I blink at her. What did she mean oh? There’s a fricking dog creature in her bathroom and no sign of a human, the human that came to her house naked in the middle of the rain! Why does she look so calm and curious? Why is she looking at me like this was every other Tuesday in her life? I feel so confused that a whine falls from my throat, and that seems to snap her out of her contemplative stare.“I didn’t realize that you were one of them,” she tells me in a confused tone, brows furrowed, “I mean, it’s not like I’m new to this, I should’ve been able to smell y
I felt different.It was like everything that made me myself, my personality, my conscience, my thinking, and my control over my body, had been plucked out of the said body and then put into a small box somewhere in my mind. I didn’t have any control of my body, although I could feel my body, but then I could not actually feel like I did every day. No, it felt like it wasn’t my body, but then it felt like my body, but not my body again…I didn’t know what to make out of this. My head hurt, and I felt like my breathing capacity had increased and my legs had shortened, and I couldn’t stand up regardless of my somewhat dubious control I tried to open my mouth to talk but couldn’t do that either.And my visions feel weird, everything feels lower than it did before whatever happened to me happened, and the pictures flitting through my eyes seem far more intense than normal. I can hear so many noises as well, the fill of water in the tank somewhere, the sloshing of liquid in the septic tank
“Okay, so this is going to sound utterly unbelievable at first,” I say, “but bear with me, okay? This really happening and I am not lying, not one bit.”Estelle raises a brow at me. “Okay, normally, if someone tries to defend themselves that much, I might get a little suspicious, but then again what happened to your girlfriend made it to the news and I would never have thought anything like that taking place outside movies or books so I’m going to let you tell your story and pass judgment afterward.”“Fair. To be honest, I don’t even know if I should tell you all this considering there’s still an active investigation happening,” not that the active investigation was doing anything to help. You would think that after being one of the centerpieces of a murder and kidnapping investigation you would be questioned by authorities daily and at least be sent to jail once, but so far, we were only hearing crickets from the police side. It felt like they were truly living under the impression t
Estele sighs, running her fingers through her hair.“I honestly don’t know at this point,” she says, “I’ve never really given any serious thought about this. I knew from the start that I was going to be very careful when having sex with people and was always prepared up until yesterday. And like I told you, I’m not the one for hookups and one-night stands. I love relationships, and I’d gotten out of one just mere months ago and still am not over it, not really.”“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I wince, wondering how two similar people like us could’ve done the same mistake, “was it a bad breakup? I didn’t bring back any memories or something, did I?”Estelle gives out a snort of laughter at that.“No, dude, I can’t even remember the hookup so nothing like that happened,” she reminds me, “and it wasn’t a messy breakup per se. I just…we fell out of love, you see. I never thought that would happen in a relationship. We had been dating for like two years now, and I honestly thought that the next step
After spending quite some time rifling through her wardrobe, Estelle comes downstairs to where I’m sitting on one of her mauve-colored couches with a fluffy blanket wrapped around my frame, holding some clothes.“Good news,” she grins at me, “there are some clothes one of my friends left here after staying the night, and she is about your size. So, if you don’t have an issue with pink,” she hands me the large pink t-shirt she’s got bundled in her hand with a wry quirk to her lips, “and basketball shorts,” she hands me bright red basketball shorts, “then these are yours.”I squint at the combination and comment, “You know, I don’t mean any offense, but who on earth wears this combo even to bed?” The t-shirt is fuchsia with cute, squiggly sheep jumping over a bright green patch of grass. It is truly an assault on the senses, and the less said about the shorts the better.Estelle snorts, “She’s a bit into the eclectic side of fashion. You want me to try and find something else?”“Oh, no,
“Follow me,” I’m being instructed as soon as I enter the quaint little house through the doors. I take a brief look around, my newly deepened senses getting acquainted with the new surroundings I’ve found myself in, and there's nothing to complain about. The lavender and cream scent that emanated from Estelle permeated every available surface of the house and then some, along with the intermingling scents of the cut flowers artistically arranged in various cute vases on almost every available flat surface, one vase each, and the smell of firewood burning in the fireplace. The wallpapers are mauve themes, the skirtings are white, and the floor is made of polished hardwood, and the house lighting is ambient. There is a window seat near the large window I failed to see from the outside, and the wall next to the window is covered with a bookrack. I squint at the old-looking books, trying to see if there are any names on the spines. Some have names, but a lot of them are nameless.Interest
I try to see if there are any materials lying around in what seems to be the backyard of the house, but there are only flowering plants and herbs, neatly grown in flowerbeds and growing heartily, all over the yard. It’s not fenced or gated, and while to me that looks like a bad move security-wise, I guess the residents of this quaint little house do not think so.It’s actually a cottage, by the looks of it, and extremely old-fashioned at that. Blue in color, freshly painted, with white windows and doors, as well as a black tiled roof that had an opening for a chimney.Smoke is coming out of the chimney, and the glow of evening lights emanates from behind the white curtains that had been put behind the windows. It looks homely, and surely someone living in a home like this would not turn away someone needing help, would they?I desperately wish I had something to cover myself, but sadly there is not, so I try to use my hand. Never have I felt this humiliated by a circumstance, and I h
There's something wet on my face. That is the first thing that registers in my mind when I start to gain consciousness from the sea of darkness that my being had been submerged in. The wetness is cold, cold enough to shock me into the real world from wherever it was I had been before, where darkness was a constant. The second thing I register is pain. It's the kind of pain that you would expect to overtake your body after extensive surgery done by some amateur medical professional after a rather terrifying car accident. I feel like I'm cut up and being sewn off raw, with needles pricking onto my skin from everywhere all at once. The wetness starts to increase, and soon enough through the pain, I realize that this had got to be water. What kind of water, I'm not sure. But judging by the force of the icy drops colliding with my skin, I feel like it's rain. Why am I being drenched by rain? Why do I feel so hurt? What's going on? I do not know, but I have been through enough harrowin