Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. I only wish I did. And not even because of the $$
Chapter 1: Out of His Mind
"I'm going to stay at Joe's tonight." Cory yelled to his mom in the kitchen. He stood at the back of the house, ready to walk out the door.
Cory's mom hesitated and that was the break he was looking for. He bolted out the door and jumped on his bike. He barely heard her yell after him that she thought Joe was a bad influence. Joe's house was only a couple miles up the road and he was so anxious to escape the bad mood that had occupied his own house these last couple of weeks.
Cory thought back on the last couple of fights he'd had with his mom. She was disappointed in his grades and hated his current set of friends. But at 14 Cory felt he needed to be taken seriously. He was in high school now and a new set of friends went with the persona he was hoping to cultivate for highschool. And its not like his grades mattered. He doubted he'd even finish highschool. He figured he'd try his hand at a trade, he'd always been good at making things run. There weren't too many options on the Hoh reservation anyway.
No, Cory was not about to keep being bossed around by his mom. So what if she didn't like his clothes or music. He was pretty sure she didn't like anything about him. Lately she'd been dragging him to tribe gatherings. Counsel meetings, dances, bonfires and the like. As if she was hoping he'd follow in his grandfather's footsteps and become a "contributing member" of society. It was like she was trying to change who he was. No, it was more like she hated who he was and was hoping to garner group support to force him to be something he wasn't.
At Joe's house, the usual crowd had gathered. Two of the guys he knew from school and another was new to him. They were restless and bored. They were itching to go out and "do" something.
They decided to walk down to the corner and see if they could score some beer. It wasn't like Cory had really drank that much but with the recent fights he'd had with his mom, he felt like doing something she'd disapprove of. This ought to fit the bill. Outside the convenience store they approached an older man who wasn't from the area.
"Hey mister, could you get us some beer?" Cory's friend said.
"What's in it for me?" the man replied.
"We've got 40 bucks, if you get us a couple twelve packs, you can keep the rest."
"Sure kid, whatever."
The man took the money and went inside. He returned a few minutes later with two of the cheapest 12 packs of swill the store carried.
"Thanks a bunch" Cory's friend responded sarcastically. "There wasn't anything cheaper?"
The man huffed and walked away.
Cory and his friends milled around the back of the store. Joe dared Cory to shotgun a beer.
"Just stab a hole at the bottom and then crack open the top." He said.
"Why don't we race?" Cory shot back.
It didn't take long for the crowd of boys to get loud and belligerant.
Finally, an employee opened the back door of the shop. He was bringing out trash.
"Hey, you better get out of here. I don't need to be cleaning up piss and puke tomorrow!"
"Why don't you go fuck yourself." snorted Joe.
The man flung the trash into the dumpster and hurried back inside.
"You know, I'm so sick of being told to do shit." he continued.
"Yeah, I wanna trash this place." someone else replied.
Two of the boys had brought backpacks and pulled out cans of spray paint. Cory hadn't even noticed they had brought the packs with them until this point. They handed a can to Cory and began spraying three foot letters, F-U-C-…, on the sides of the building. Joe and another were tipping over the dumpster and trying to light the trash on fire. Cory finally felt like he had an outlet for all his frustration. It felt good to do something bad, something that his mom would definitely disapprove of. Show her she couldn't control him.
It began quietly and since they were drunk and loud, they didn't hear the siren until the car pulled into the station. Joe and the two friends from school ran into the woods. One thing about this area of the world, there were always forests nearby. One police officer exited his car and chased after them. Cory ran in the other direction across the street and into a field. Cory heard the cops footsteps getting closer and had he been paying attention to where he was running instead of the footsteps he might not have tripped on a knot of grass. The officer quickly overtook him and yanked him roughly upward. Cory was dragged back to the parking lot and thrown into the cruiser.
Cory noticed that all the others seemed to have escaped. Great. Add running as one more thing he sucked at. The officer, a big man with no neck, didn't say much. Instead he mumbled something about the station and calling his parents. Well, this night was just going to be awesome!
Cory's mom picked him up at the station and they drove home in silence. That was his first inclination of how mad his mom was. She was almost shaking she was so angry and Cory could see the unspoken curse words she was holding back. Once home, Cory stormed into his room – and immediately saw that his mom had taken the door off the hinges. Too bad, because he was hoping to slam it so hard the whole house would rattle. Since his door was unavailable he began throwing whatever was handy. His mom followed him to the bedroom and began screaming. Cory saw red. He was so enraged he didn't even hear the words she said. Only saw her livid features and her lips moving. He saw the spit flying out of her mouth and the vein throbbing in her temple.
She was going on about something about responsibility and growing up and being grounded. Didn't she realize that it was his life, to live as he wanted? And then he started to sweat and shake. And the beer he downed earlier in the evening was working its way back up.
Why was he trembling like this? Why did he feel so weird, out of control and sick? He thought he was going to vomit and still his mom continued to yell. He moved shakily to the bathroom to be sick but his mom followed him. "Get away from me" he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"You need to grow up" she vented, furious.
Cory barked out "You don't understand, do you... I can do what I want! If you hate me so much, don't bale me out next time!" He pushed past her, out of the bathroom and stomped into the kitchen.
The trembling was getting worse. He felt like he was going to burst from his skin. That the walls were closing in on him. It was too much. He slammed his fist on the counter and tried to control his breathing. It was no use, he needed air!
Cory ran out the back door screaming in a rage "I'll do what I want, go where I want and you can't stop me!"
The woods backed up to Cory's house and beyond that, the river. He stumbled blindly toward the river. The shaking was getting worse. And suddenly everything changed. His body exploded out of his clothing. He felt four feet on the ground and his sense of smell was so acute he could smell the river. It smelled like earth, water and the fresh smell of fish and vegetation. He could see clearly even though it was way past midnight and overcast. He shouldn't have been able to see 3 feet in front of himself and instead it was as if it were twilight in HD.
Cory started to panic. What was happening? He couldn't even scream. Instead a noise like a howl came from his lungs. A wolf's howl. This freaked him out and the adrenaline and his wolf took over.
Cory ran. Ran away from his house and his life. He kept running, the anger and fear and frustration pushing him further. Cory felt the rain and wind in his fur. Felt his muscles stretching and contracting. After awhile the fury and frustration relented which left him with just his fear. He ran until the skies grew lighter. Finally he collapsed and willed the nightmare to end.
Rain had started to fall, actually - it never seemed to stop lately. But he wasn't cold. He was so exhausted, the adrenaline spent. But he could barely think, the panic was still beneath the surface and he was pretty sure that this was what it felt like to be in shock. Cory lay down on the frosty ground under some brush. He shivered but not from the chill. He shut his eyes and willed himself to wake up from this nightmare. Soon, unconsciousness found him and he slept.