The Last Shapeshifter Ch. 11

Derek knew he could not leave the mirror in the midst of all these people. He ran back to Max's body and dropped the mirror next to his friend before he hopped back inside him. As Max again, he picked up the mirror and ran. This time in all the confusion, no one stopped him.

As he exited security, Trevor and Sabrina came out of hiding in a nearby terminal. They pulled up short when they saw what Max firmly gripped in his hand..

"Why did you bring that thing with you?" Sabrina asked, clearly terrified. She had no wish to relive previous events.

"I couldn't leave it back there with all those people," was Derek's curt reply.

Trevor was finding it hard to think clearly. "I thought you left that thing back at Brian's house?"

"I told you," Derek snapped. "It will follow me. It will stay with the last person who used it. Brian glossed over that in his lengthy narrative. He skipped a lot of parts actually." He stopped speaking then. The presence was back in his head, trying to influence him, telling him to point it at Trevor and speak the word. Bekka was also there, agreeing with it. "I need a bag or something!" he managed to yell.

"Ours are all back at security!" Sabrina yelled frantically.

Bekka's voice rang out loud and clear in Derek's mind. "Just point it at Trevor, Derek. Speak the word and free me. I'll make it worth your while."

As Max's limbs began to tremble, Derek knew he had precious little time. "Just grab anything for me to put this in. Anything!"

Trevor had become a statue again, as his body came into view of the mirror. Sabrina did not jump in front of it this time, but ran towards a nearby trash can. She upended it, and the contents spilled all over the floor. They had an audience now as she grabbed the bag and rushed towards Derek. As she did, she held it open, ready for him to chuck the mirror in.

But Derek didn't do that. He couldn't speak, he couldn't move. He couldn't do anything other than use all of his willpower to keep from erasing his shapeshifting friend.

A TSA officer had worked his way through the crowd of onlookers. He had seen Max flee, and wanted to question him. When he came upon them, he was glad he had trusted his instincts, because there had to be drugs or something shady involved. He pressed a button on his radio and quietly said, "I need backup at Gate 47. I got at least one of the people responsible for the ruckus at security." Then louder, but with professional calm, he asked the man pointing a mirror wildly at another man, and a woman desperately holding a trash bag open in front of her, "Okay, let's all calm down. Someone mind telling me what's going on here?"

The mental strain was too much for Derek. He had to release the pressure. He willed Max's body to pivot slightly, and caught the agent in the mirror's reflection. "Copy!" he yelled.

Blinding light filled the surrounding area. Onlookers were momentarily blinded, and could not see as the TSA agent's uniform vanished, and his male form transformed into that of a young blonde woman.

What they did see as the light dimmed, was a naked female form running into the crowd. Someone yelled, "Streaker!" A few others whistled and cheered.

Trevor seemed to come to his senses, and he immediately spied more security coming from multiple directions. "What are we going to do guys? We're about to get arrested."

Derek would have laughed in any other circumstance. He calmly dropped the mirror into the trash bag, and said, 'I can take over people's minds and bodies, and you can shapeshift. I think we'll be okay."

Trevor blinked. "Right." He looked around, spotted a restroom twenty feet away, and walked briskly to it. A second after he disappeared behind the door, he shapeshifted into the agent that had been transformed into Bekka. He stepped back onto the scene and a supervisor who was responding to the alert almost ran into him. He began peppering Trevor with questions and speaking in jargon that Trevor did not know, as he had not touched the guard earlier and did not have his memories.

"Uh, you should ask this man," Trevor said as he pointed at Derek/Max. "He saw everything."

Derek strode over with a scared look on Max's face. "Thank goodness you're here." His feet wobbled, and as he acted like he might fall, the supervisor reached out a hand to steady him. It began to shudder. A few seconds later, it seemed like all of airport security had converged on their location.

The supervisor straightened up and with a loud, authoritative voice announced, "The cause of the disturbance is a naked blonde woman that just ran through here. She must be apprehended straight away."

"What about that guy there?" an agent asked as he pointed at Max. "He was one of the ones who stirred stuff up back at security."

Trevor thought he recognized him. This wasn't good. "Uh, I don't think..."

Before he could finish, he watched Derek go to work. Everyone had circled around them, and were in very close proximity. All Derek had to do was lean here and brush against someone there, and like a fuse to a powder keg, a line of shudders began to race towards the agent who had spoken up. A second later, that agent loudly changed his mind. "Nope, sorry. Different guy entirely." He then gave an order to the group, and the ones he had recently enthralled, "Everyone go find that girl!"

As people dispersed, Derek quickly made his way back to the supervisor. Per Derek's orders, the man was preparing to join the hunt as well. But Derek needed the man's clearance, so he hopped back into him, and sent the other agent to join the search.

A naked woman running through an airport tends to stick out, especially since she wasn't trying to hide. She was making a desperate bid for freedom. She might have breathed free air, if she hadn't gotten turned around and missed an exit. In the end, it wasn't a security agent that got her, but a no nonsense ticket agent that found her lack of clothing highly inappropriate. The woman had kicked off her heels and given chase the moment Bekka flew past, and less than a hundred yards later, she had tackled her to the ground.

The call came in on their walkies. "Suspect apprehended. Taking her to holding. Police on route."

"Where's holding?" Trevor asked.

Derek knew they needed to move quickly. "It's close. We don't have a lot of time. Follow me. Hold tight to that trash bag, Sabrina."

Trevor, Sabrina, and an obedient Max were right behind Derek as he made his way to a door with a pin pad. He entered a code, then led them through a series of corridors, and another door that took a magnetic card strip. Derek produced that from a pocket, swiped it, and walked into a small holding room. There was a chair and a desk, and two cells with bars and a chair in each. Inside one of them was Bekka, who was naked and shrieking. A couple of agents just outside the cell door were talking in quiet but firm voices, as if trying to calm a wild animal. They wanted Bekka to cover up with the blanket they had provided, but she was having none of it as she continued to rant and rail.

Bekka did not recognize the two agents that came into the room, but she did recognize Max and Sabrina. She stopped yelling, but only for a moment as she deduced what Max and Sabrina's presence meant. Then she began to yell in earnest and point at the new agents in the room. "Those two are not who they seem to be! One of them is a shapeshifter, and the other is being possessed. They're here to...to take my body from me! You've got to stop them!"

The two guards turned and looked at Trevor and Derek. Trevor frowned and shook his head while Derek twirled a finger next to his temple to indicate the woman was crazy.

"You've got to believe me!" Bekka continued "One of them will have a mirror! It's what they'll use to trap me again! You have to stop them right now, before they..."

"The police are almost here," Derek said with authority in his voice. "You two can get back to your posts. I'll hand her over."

The guards had heard a direct order from their superior, and began to leave the room. They were almost to the door, when Bekka spotted the bag Sabrina was holding.

"Ask her what's in the bag!" Bekka yelled in desperation. "If it's a mirror, you'll know I'm telling the truth!"

The two guards hesitated. One rolled his eyes and smirked. But the other eyed the trash bag Sabrina was now clutching tightly. He asked politely, "Miss, can you just show this lady there's no mirror in there. It might calm her down."

Sabrina began breathing hard through her nose. She wasn't going to reach into that bag for anything. She looked to Trevor and Derek for help.

"Miss," the man repeated a little more forcefully. He was beginning to wonder if there was something dangerous in that bag.

"Bekka, how did you think this was going to go?" Derek asked. A split second later, he had shuddered into one guard, then the other, then back into the supervisor. He addressed the two men again. "Go back to your posts now."

"No!" Bekka screamed as she watched her only hope go out the door. "No!"

"Bekka, I'm sorry," Derek said patiently. "I truly am. I don't want this either. But it's the way it's got to be right now. The two of us, our souls united, we'll be able to use this thing to take down Nevyn for good." His heart broke as he watched his friend sink to her knees.

"I'll do anything Derek, just don't put me back there. It's been great being with you, but it can't compare to having my own body. Doesn't it feel nice to not have me in your head?"

The question was like a blow to Derek. She was right. He was alone with his thoughts, for the first time in a long time. But he was looking at the big picture. It wasn't just Nevyn that needed to be stopped, but this mirror. It was possible, given Nevyn's very unique circumstances, that the mirror might accept him as a substitute. He reached for the bag. Sabrina started to relinquish it, but wisely told Trevor to wait outside. Trevor didn't need to be told twice. When the door closed, Derek's hand reached in and felt the wooden handle.

Bekka switched tactics. "You don't have to send me back, Derek. You can make this permanent, you know? The mirror showed you how. And I'd be yours to control, just like Brian's wife. I'd do whatever you wanted me to do, whenever you wanted me to do it." Bekka sat down on the bench in the cell and spread her legs. She licked a middle finger, lowered it to her clitoris, and began to finger herself. Derek knew it was all for show, but it was a good show. "You always liked fucking me, didn't you, Derek? If you make it permanent, you could order me to fuck you right now, and I'd have to do it. I'd be yours. I'd be your sex slave. Would that be so bad?"

Sabrina almost blanched at the thought. This had been her, or rather, it had been Bekka using her body to try and convince Derek to wipe Sabrina from existence. "Derek, you can't. Don't listen to her."

Derek was trying not to, even as his hand lifted the mirror up to face Bekka. It would be so easy. He'd be alone with his thoughts, and Bekka would be back. And she'd stay by his side. She'd be loyal, and love him, and fuck him. She wouldn't have a choice. She'd belong to him. Isn't that what he wanted?

But it wasn't. It really wasn't. And he remembered how the mirror worked. These were not his thoughts, but fabrications that invaded his psyche from an alien presence. This was how it worked. It entrenched itself into a thought or desire and expanded it exponentially, until it was all consuming. It became all you wanted, weakening you over time, forcing you to give in, no matter the cost. Derek knew a thing or two about this kind of temptation. Nevyn had manipulated him in a very similar way for weeks and months, and he had sworn to never be controlled like that again. He would not let this mirror rule him. He would use it for his own purpose. Derek reasoned if he could use it correctly, he could do the one thing that he had previously failed to do, and he might save the world in the process. There would still be a cost, and a hefty one. But he accepted it, and spoke the word, "Cancel."

A flash of light filled the room, and when it faded, a very confused TSA officer peered at them from behind the bars. Derek quickly dropped the mirror back in the trash bag, and then he, Sabrina, and a fully awake Max joined Trevor. The police were imminent, so they retreated quickly from the airport.

They hailed a taxi, and Derek promptly hopped the driver. After driving several minutes, Derek pulled into a gas station and shut off the car. He didn't look at them as he began speaking. "You'll need to drive to meet Aubrey. Max and Sabrina's faces are already registered on a 'no fly' list until you've been thoroughly questioned. I'll be going back to erase you from their database."

"And then you'll meet up with us?" Trevor asked.

Derek smiled, and his host's eyes met Trevor's in the rearview mirror. "Yeah. I'll see you soon."

This seemed enough for Trevor and Max, and they both exited the taxi.

But Sabrina had picked up on something. "Derek, you're lying. Why are you-" She saw Derek give her the briefest shake of his head as he silently indicated for her not to push the matter. Sabrina gave a sad, slow nod and tried to keep her voice composed as she told him goodbye. "Thank you for saving me earlier today. I'm sorry I hit you. I know it wasn't your fault."

"Take care of them," Derek added. "And let my sister know that... well, tell her not to find me until she's figured out a way to track Nevyn down. I think we know now that it's too dangerous to be around me as long as I have this mirror."

She squeezed his shoulder, then stepped out of the taxi. She tried not to cry, but a few tears escaped down her cheeks.

"Babe, what's wrong?" Max asked as the taxi pulled away.

"That might be the last time we see him."

"Uh, no, we're meeting up with him tomorrow," Max retorted. "He just said."

Trevor stared at Sabrina, and then at the taxi that was about to turn at a light. As it disappeared from view, it finally clicked. "He's trying to protect me. He's creating as much distance as he can between me and that thing."

"Yeah," Sabrina sniffled.

"Well that sucks," Max pouted. "I mean, I get it, but I don't like it. What are we supposed to do now?"

Trevor continued to stare at the empty space where the taxi had been. He hadn't been ready to lose someone that had helped him so much this past year. But he had never been alone. He thought he would be, from the day his father sat him down and told him about his curse. But his friends had been there, right from the start. And now he had Aubrey and Jasmine, and others he hadn't even met yet, but if Derek had vetted them, they were probably alright. And now they needed his help. "I think I will meet up with Aubrey, and find a way to track Nevyn, and then hope there's a plan."

"You mean us three go meet up with Aubrey," Sabrina corrected.

"No I don't," Trevor said. He faced his friends and drew them close. "You guys have done your part. Because of you, I didn't have to go through this alone, like my mother did. You were there, and with your help, I have more control over my curse than ever before. But what's coming next, I don't want you there for it. I don't want to see the people I love the most get hurt."

"We're not leaving you," Max said firmly.

"Yes, you are," Trevor said. "You've both been there for me my whole life. And you put your lives on hold for me this last year, when I needed you the most. I'm not going to have either of you give up more time for me. Go be happy. Live your lives. It's okay, because I've got others in my corner now."

"You mean Aubrey and Jasmine?" Max asked with a furrowed brow. "Cause Derek just left and..."

Trevor's laughter cut him off. "Yes, Max. Aubrey and Jasmine, and I'll get to meet others too. I'm sure I'll be in for a wild time!" He hugged them both in turn.

"I'll miss you, Trevor," Sabrina said. "Let us know how you're doing every once in a while."

"And if you ever want to stop by and... you know..." Max offered with a suggestive wink.

"Oh, I know," Trevor smiled.

"Sex," Max said solemnly. "I'm talking about sex. All of us together. Sex."

"I'll miss you too, Max," Trevor said. And before it became too painful for any of them to bear, Trevor turned and walked away. He found a bus stop, and began a journey that would take him to Aubrey, and eventually, to his destiny as the last shapeshifter.

Epilogue

A few weeks later, at Trevor's childhood home, Steve Burrtrick had just sat down to eat dinner. He had just put a fork into his microwaved meal for one, when the doorbell rang. He sighed. It was probably a solicitor, or school kids raising money for something. They were always raising money for something these days.

The doorbell rang again. Whoever it was, they were persistent. Steve got up and grabbed his emergency sweatpants he kept just out of sight of the entryway. With all the kids gone, a shirt and underwear had become his standard household uniform. He pulled the sweatpants on and reluctantly trudged to open the door.

What greeted him was the kind of surprise father's live for, a surprise visit from family that have left the next. His two oldest kids, Patrick and Sherri, beamed at him on the front porch. Steve reached out and pulled them both into a threeway hug. "What are you guys doing here?" Steve gushed happily. "I mean, I didn't expect to see you until the holidays. Come in, come in! Or wait, do you want to go out and grab a bite? It's on me if you want to-"

"It's fine dad, it's fine," Patrick interrupted with a gentle laugh. "We can stay in. We were just in the neighborhood and thought you wouldn't mind a little company."

"You're good kids!" Steve said as he ushered them inside. He was so elated to see them. Since Trevor had left, he valued any opportunity to see family. Sherri, his oldest at 25, had taken after her mother and become an exceptionally beautiful young woman. Patrick, the middle child at 22, was as handsome as his father, and had become the tallest in the family during his final year of high school. He had decided to go to a trade school, and had put on a lot of muscle since moving out.

Patrick walked into the living room like he still owned the place, and took his usual spot on the sofa. Sherri was right behind him, but instead of parking at her usual place on the other end, she sat in the recliner.

Steve chuckled and pointed at his daughter. "You know better than to sit in my chair, girl!"

This was a known rule. When the house had been full of kids, they often fought over certain spots to sit, but knew that this recliner was dad's seat. Always. That was where Steve relaxed after work. It was how it had always been. His kids never sat there, ever. But Sherri was looking at her father as if this were the first she was hearing of it.

Before Steve could say anything further, Patrick piped up, "Sherri, you're in dad's spot. Have you been gone so long that you know it is forbidden for anyone's butt to grace it but his?"

Sherri's face scrunched a little in thought, and then she batted a strand of her blonde hair out of her face in aggressively, angry that it had gotten in her way. After an awkward pause, she acknowledged her mistake. "Oh, right. Sorry... daddy," she said, letting the last word be expressed in the sing song way she addressed her father as a child.

Steve winked at her and jerked his thumb towards the couch, an invitation for her to move. "It's been a long time since you called me daddy, sweetheart."

"Oh, uh, sorry," Sherri said as she got up. Another strand of hair fell into her vision, and she flicked at it, annoyed.

As Steve watched his daughter move to sit next to Patrick on the sofa, he asked the question that father's ask when kids visit unexpectedly. "So what brings you here? Is everything okay? Do you need money? Have one of you made me a grandpa?"