The Society Pt. 14

I felt a cold shiver curl up my back.

"Don't tell me-"

"When this was discovered by Therians, he received more than criticism. Having children with humans is considered wrong: an impure, filthy act. In order to uphold his respected image, he went to the woman's house, and forced both of them to become Therians."

Behind my eyelids, I see Jason, gripping the metal shard covered in his blood, as he plunged it into my side.

A specter of pain shot into my side as I remembered that night, and I instinctively grabbed my side.

I look away from Dan, unable to believe what I was hearing.

I hear Sal's voice in the back of my head.

My mother hasn't been the same- how could she be the same after what he-

I rub my hands over my face. After a long few moments, Dan gives my thigh a slap, pulling me from my thoughts.

"I'm hittin' the sack big guy. We got our meeting tomorrow."

He walked towards the door of my room, but he paused at the door frame, leaning against it for a moment.

"Night, Alex."

I smile at him.

"Night."

And he was gone.

. . .

Voices broke through the murky darkness.

You're my best friend and adoptive brother, do you think I wouldn't notice?

I see his face hover in the darkness, it was unmistakable.

"Andrew?"

I say, reaching through the darkness, straining, wanting to hear his voice.

But it was gone.

Gunshots fill the void around me, echoing endlessly, screaming in my ears with the intensity of explosions rippling through the darkness.

I try to scream, but no noise comes through my throat.

And there he is, laying before me.

Jason, his body malformed between his human and bull form, his dark brown eyes glaring at me, bullets ripped through his flesh like parchment.

The red of blood lay everywhere.

I attempt to stumble away from his corpse, but I felt as if I gain no distance from him.

He raises a hand drenched in red towards me, trembling.

Please, Alex. Save her...

"I don't know how!"

I grip my hair in panic, wanting to scream, wanting to get away, wanting the darkness to be gone, the gunshots, Jason.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

I manage to scream, falling to my knees, squeezing my eyes shut, pulling my hair until I it felt as if I'd wrench it from my scalp.

Save her. Save her. Save her. Save her. Save-

. . .

"Alex? ALEX, wake up, you're just dreaming."

I gasp, my dream ripping away from me, reality flashing to a sharp clarity, my dark room materializing around me.

My lungs burned as I heaved in shaky breaths of air. Sweat glazed my naked body.

Kneeling at the side of my bed, his face is shrouded by the thick screen of darkness, was Dan.

His hands were still rested on my shoulders from shaking me.

"Are you okay? You were yelling in your sleep, man. I thought something was happening."

I rub my hands over my damp brow, attempting to slow my heart rate, to dull the anxiety wracking through my body.

"I'm- fuck- I'm sorry. Yeah, it was just a dream, I didn't mean to wake you."

Dan nodded, his blue eyes looking at me with concern that was visible even through the darkness.

"It's alright."

He paused for a moment, nothing but the sheer blackness of the room draped between us, the air-vents within the walls churring softly.

He continues:

"You were screaming something like, 'save her' 'save her' 'save her'. Who were you talking about?"

I sit up, leaning my back wearily against the wall my bed was against. Jason's corpse, his bloodied hand raised towards me cuts through my vision, and I hold my hand against my brow as the burning sensation of tears weigh down my eyelids. I fought it, but nonetheless salty tears smoothed down my face and pool in my lips.

Dan must have sensed my emotions, for he sat down by my legs.

"Alex- are you okay?"

I nod numbly, removing my hand from my face, feeling the sharp sting of embarrassment of exposing myself like this. After sucking in a breath that shook in its passage to my lungs, I unload what I had told Edan many days ago, when we had sat draped in hot moisture of the bathroom.

When I was finished, Dan placed a hand on my knee.

"You can't let what he said haunt you. He was a dying man, his sister is missing, he was in panic."

I stammer with my words, but Dan speaks once more.

"His sister isn't your responsibility."

A swallow hard. His words made sense, they were realistic.

But he gave me his powers for a reason. I wipe the drying tears that glazed my face, finally finding the words to speak.

"He believed I could help saved his sister. He saved me, and I owe it to him."

At those words, something passed over Dan's narrow featurest. It was an almost a spiteful expression, but before I could comprehend it, Dan smiled in the darkness, enticing me to believe that I had almost imagined it.

He gives my knee a light squeeze.

"I think I'll head bac-"

But as he moves to leave, I uncontrollably reach out and grab his hand.

"Can you stay?"

My face burned for having to ask the question, but I couldn't help myself.

I hear him take in a surprised breath.

But the voice that responded was warm.

"You got it."

Through the darkness, his bare feet pads to the other side of the bed.

He begins to rustle into the sheets with me.

"Man, a big guy like you wanting someone to sleep with ya', This is new."

He teased.

And suddenly I felt him against me. He was naked as well. I feel his arm wrap over my stomach, and I hold it. I felt the warm press of his genitals against my ass, his feet and legs tangling with mine.

We lay there in the darkness, and I felt safe with his arms around me. With his body against mine, Jason was gone, Andrew was gone. It was only us, together wrapped in the black of my room. I close my eyes, and for the first time since becoming a Therian, peaceful, dreamless sleep washes over me.