ONE : The end
Riley looked down at the water, a hundred yards below her feet, watching the waves slapping angrily against the rocks below.
This is it. Riley thought to herself as she quickly thought her decision through once more. She absent mindedly pulled her pocket knife from her pants pocket, flipping it open.
She looked down, watching the newly shed blood flow across her wrists, sinking into the soil beneath her feet, turning it dark.
She squatted, wiping the blade clean on the grass and putting it away in her pocket where it would now stay forever.
Riley crouched, tensing for the spring that would hurdle her towards the last moments of her life.
She leapt forwards into deaths waiting arms, plunging deep into the vicious river below. She went under briefly, came back up, and, as Riley began gulping for air, another too-big wave crashed over her head, pulling her under once more.
Riley's body went slack, limp, as she inhaled her last gulp of water, making her life end all the more quickly.
A second splash suddenly interrupted the complete end of Riley Avery. His arm wrapped around her waist as Michael Edwards pulled Riley towards the shore.
"Breathe," he commanded, doing compressions steadily on her chest.
She responded obediently, coughing up the water she had swallowed. Riley's breathing was a little ragged and she was still unconscious, showing no signs of re-gaining it.
"Dr. Harper," Michael muttered to himself as he scooped Riley up easily into his arms. The warm liquid flowed onto Michael's arms before the scent hit his nose. Blood. Michael looked down, searching for the beginning of the river of blood.
His eyes stopped on her wrists, resting on her lap in his arms, scanning over the deep gash on each wrist, still gushing a steady flow of blood.
"Riley, why? You promised." Michael whispered brokenly as he began running.
Michael arrived at Harpers house, Riley still unconscious in his arms, hoping he wasn't too late.
He knocked loudly, praying that she was home.
Michael heard a muffled, "Coming!" from down the hallway hehind the closed door.
"Hello-oh! Hello Michael. How are you doing?" she asked, not allowing Michael in.
"Dr. H, she's almost gone, do you think you could turn her?" he looked pointedly down at Riley in his arms.
"I-of course," Dr. H flushed and motioned Michael inside.
"Follow me," she headed out her back door towards a newly remodeled out-building, Michael and Riley in tow.
Upon entering the building, Michael gently placed Riley on top of the stretcher, turning back to Dr. H as she began to speak.
"I can see you're anxious to keep her alive, but in order for her to change to be complete, she'll need the blood of another shifter and of the animal she shall become."
"Get your syringe," Michael told her as he shifted gingerly into a lion.
Dr. H shrugged to herself as she stuck the needle into his hip, drawing on ly one syringes' worth of blood.
Michael morphed back into a human and stood, turning to face Dr. Harper.
"Here," he scooped up another empty syringe. "I'll go get some animal blood. Pronto." he headed towards the door. Mid-stride Michael disappeared and a lion could've been seen leaving the scientists house.
Luckily, no one did.
The lion crouched in the grass, silently stalking the hunting lioness, the syringe being held gently within his jaws.
Michael sprang, tackling the un-suspecting lioness to the ground, knocking her unconscious.
Michael morphed quickly, immediately setting into action. He stuck the syringe into her hip, drawing a syringe full of blood.
Michael capped his syringe and set it down in the grass, morphing back into a giant lion in the process. He carefully picked up the syringe in his mouth and began running, knowing this form would get him there quicker.
He leapt gracefully through Dr. H's open front door, slowing down to get through the house without breaking anything.
Michael ran quickly through her back yard, morphing into a human before entering the little outbuilding to give Riley a life once more.
"That was quick," Dr. Harper muttered as she gingerly took the full syringe from Michaels anxious hands.
Dr. Harper immediately turned over Riley's - now bloodless - wrist where angry pink scars replaced the gashes and injected the lionesses blood quickly.
"How long now until she…wakes up?" Michael asked impatiently.
"Well, we just have to wait for her to start moving, then I can spray Scent around her face and she'll be up and at 'em within two minutes or so." Dr. H responded easily, not even seeming to think about her answer.
"Oh," Michael remembered the smell of Scent although it had been almost a ear now since he'd inhaled ny.
He sank to the ground and rested his head on one of the gurneys' legs, giving him a clear view of the shockingly pink scar on Riley's right wrist.
He sighed heavily and continued to watch for any signs of life on the girls body.
"Dr. H," he gasped suddenly. "her hand, she's alive!" He crowed. "Her hand just twitched, again!" Michael told her in excitement.
He heard the distant hiss of the Scent being sprayed around her face so he got up and watched, waiting for her to wake.
"What's happening? Where am I?" Riley opened her eyes and looked at him.
"You! What have you done to me? I was supposed to be dead!"
"Wait, Michael?" she changed gears.
"Yes?" he responded.
"You're alive. How?" she breathed.
"The same way you are. I just wasn't saved from a suicide attempt." he scowled at her.
"I feel like me, but I feel different. Why?" riley sat up, looking around the room, spotting Dr. H.
"Aunt Harper?" Riley asked.
"Hey chick. Why did you try to kill yourself? There's other was to deal with pain than that." she scowled.
"Because," she turned to face Michael as she brushed off the question. "I thought you were dead. You were my best friend and you like, disappeared. Why? How?"
"Michael, you can explain. It's okay, I'm going back into my house. Feel free to leave whenever you're ready." and with that said, Dr. Harper slouched her shoulders, looking exhausted and left, going back into her own home to rest.
"What have you done to me? I'm supposed to be dead." Riley hissed at Michael.
"Like you said, you're my best friend. I couldn't just let you die. So I took you here. You're just like me now. You're a shifter. You can change into a lioness when ever you want."
"Why a lioness?"
"Because, that's the animal I picked for you. You could've chosen for yourself, but seeing as to how you were unconscious without showing any signs of coming back anytime soon, I picked for you."
"Oh, and what animal are you?"
Damn, Michael thought, so close. "A lion…" he answered unwillingly.
"Oh," she muttered. "How many others are there?" she changed the subject.
"A handful or so. I was a huge project. There was supposed to be only one in each continent, but there's about a dozen here in Africa, twenty in North America, thirty two in Europe, only six in Australia, fourteen in South America, seventy one in Asia and like, two in Antarctica."
"Wow," Riley mouthed. "How do you know if someone is a shifter or not?" she shot at him.
Michael reached towards her face and gently moved a white lock of her hair into the corner of her vision.
"Oh," was all Riley responded.
"Where's yours?" Riley searched his hair for said white lock of hair.
"The tips of my hair are white. It's not always a white lock. It could be a streak, it could be the tips, the roots…you get what I mean?"
"Yes, so wait, how many others are there like us just here in Africa? I forget what you said before." Riley asked.
"There are twelve, or so last count."
"Count?" Riley hadn't been told about this yet.
"Oh, right. Every year on the darkest day of the year, the winter solstice, December twenty first, we all meet in the center of the world."
"But that's in water," Riley protested.
"No, we have a small hidden island off of the coast of Northern Africa. We meet there and talk and take the yearly count. We are checked for mental and physical emotion and health and everything is made perfect again for the next year round."
"So its like a yearly meeting," Riley clarified.
"Exactly. It's exactly like a yearly meeting. But be sure to be there, because if you're not, they'll be pissed."
"So I'll have to be sure to be there." Riley muttered to herself.
"Yes…Trust me, it's no fun having all of them cheesed off at you." he chuckled, remembering.
"Um," riley hopped down off of her to-be death bed. "I'm gonna get going. I don't want to impose on my aunt any longer…so…
"Peace I'm outta here." Riley took off out the only door of Dr. H's little re-modeled outhouse.
Riley thought about running on four legs and having paws as she heard a hard shredding material noise. She looked back and saw the scraps of her clothing, including her torn white thong and hot pink bra.
Shit, she thought, turning and scooping them up in her mouth. I'll bury them somewhere…Riley thought to herself.
Riley heard a muffled snicker behind her and decided to experiment with growling. A feral snarl rumbled deep in her chest and throat and then she could suddenly sense another lion by her side, his mane tickling her hip.
Riley growled once more, her embarrassing torn clothing garments still in her mouth and took of running faster than she'd moved in a while, even faster than falling.
Riley wasn't keeping her mind in any particular state and she heard the lion behind her making noises, to a human mind. She expanded her lion, well, animal mind, and understood. Jumping, Michael had corrected her.
Riley growled, shut up she told him back in, well, cat language. Screw this, Riley thought as she sent Michael one last message. Don't follow me. as she began sprinting towards the woods sheltering her parents home, her escape.