Adapt (I)

SCARLET

Caron signs the release forms and hands them back to the nurse behind the desk. For the first time in my life, I internally thank Caron’s parents for being the absent presences they are. Usually, I despise the way that Caron has to run her life by herself, knowing how sucky that is for a kid. However, right now I am grateful that we do not have to weave lies about why Caron was in hospital and why she is as good as new the next day. I am also thankful that Caron’s mother worked in a private hospital that did not have an emergency room.

I wrap my arm around Caron’s waist, and she allows me to take some of her weight. I had explained to her that although she is being discharged because she felt well enough to go home, she should still fain grogginess until we got her to the vehicle. The last thing that we need is for nurses to have any suspicions about Caron’s condition.

“This is ridiculous.” She says through clenched teeth once the sliding doors of the hospital close behind us. “I am perfectly fine. Better than fine, actually.”

I set my jaw. That is about the thousandth time she has told me this. Boe had pulled me to the side and explained to me that Therian blood has more than just healing properties. It gives people a sort of high. When he told me that, I remembered what Logan had said about the blood being addictive. Now, every time Caron exclaims just how fine she is, my body tenses with worry. I did not need Caron turning into some sort of weird blood junkie.

“Just a little longer, and then you can drop the act.” I say.

She laughs sarcastically. “Oh, my act will be dropping. The question is, will yours?”

I spot Boe three car spaces down, leaning against the back of a shiny black Range Rover. I drink in his appearance. He had gone home this morning, presumably had a shower and put on fresh clothes. He sports a plain black t shirt and stone washed black jeans. His hair is wet and around his wrist is the watch that he always wore. Suddenly, I am conscious of my running clothes that have been sweated in and slept in. I’m sure that I look as close to a racoon as a person can get, with the bags under my eyes. And I am sure that my hair is mess.

“Oh great.” Caron snarls, breaking me from my run-away thoughts. “Wonder Boy is here to drive me home.”

I bite my lip to stifle my laugh.

When Boe sees us, he comes to take Caron’s weight from me. She jerks from his touch and Boe backs up a step.

“I can get in the car myself, thanks.” She snaps, dropping all of the façade. She stands straight and goes to the back door of the Range Rover. She hops in and slams the door behind her.

I whistle out a breath. Boe looks at me pointedly. “So, I take it you haven’t told her.”

How is it that he knows Caron so well? “Do you think she would be so cold if she felt like secrets weren’t being kept from her?” I half laugh. I look over at the black paint job of the luxury SUV, then back at Boe. “New wheels?”

He nods, though the action carries no pride. “HQ gave it to me when my bike got totaled.”

“You still have to fill me in on what happened there.”

He gives a relaxed chuckle. “Oh, there are many things I have yet to tell you, Ranger.” He walks to the driver’s side of the vehicle and hops in.

I stand there for a second, a little shocked at the use of my last name as a nickname. Then I gather myself and hurry to get in as well.

The car is silent for most of the way home. The hospital that Caron was taken to was two towns over. On our way back we wind along the coastline, seeing glimpses of ocean. The air in the cab is so thick with tension, I am surprised we all managed to breath it.

It is Caron that breaks the silence. I knew she would. She is a sucker for getting the first and last word.

Caron undoes her safety belt and slides to the middle of the back seat. She leans forward so that her head is poking between Boe and I. “So, are you two assholes going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

I look over to Boe for help. He suppresses a smirk. I let out a groan. Thanks a lot, Boe.

“Caron, listen-”

“Listen? Trust me, Scarlet, I am all freaking ears.”

I take a deep breath.

“Caron, now is not a good time.”

“Oh, okay!” I have never heard Caron use this much sarcasm with me. “Well, when is? Please, tell me when the next available appointment at the ‘Scarlet tells me the fucking truth’ clinic is. Perhaps it is when the sun starts setting in the east? The next Halley’s Comet? The next time someone parts the Red Sea?”

“Caron, calm down.” Boe says, but is clearly amused by Caron’s outburst.

I can hear the tone change in her voice from sarcasm to plain old psycho. “Who the fucking hell do you think you are?” She asks in a low tone.

Boe glances at her and visibly flinches at the crazy in Caron’s eyes. “Caron,” he tries again, a little more submissively. “There is a great explanation for everything, but telling you right now is not going to help anyone. You are just going to get confused and angrier than you already are.”

“I am already confused, and angry doesn’t even begin to cover it.” She shifts her glare to me, and I gulp. “I just can’t believe you would do this to me. I thought we were best friends.” Her tone is a little less aggressive, revealing her pain.

“Caron, I’m sorry. The truth is, I am keeping secrets from you because you don’t deserve to get caught up in this shit. You don’t deserve a shitty friend like me either.” The last words feel like acid on my tongue, but I know that they are true. “I know you want the truth but trust me, you are better off without it.”

She slumps back into the back seat. “Yeah, well, I didn’t deserve to be nearly raped either.” She murmurs.

I close my eyes, guilt drenching me. I had known it was a possibility, but hearing Caron confirm it was a whole other thing.

When I open my eyes, Boe’s nostrils are flared. His eyes glare out through the windshield and I can feel the anger emitting from him. “They what?” his voice is a low growl, like the sound of tectonic plates moving.

Caron doesn’t reply. I know that the words had been a slip of the tongue, and there is no way she is going to repeat them.

The guilt in my stomach curls and twists. I know that I have to tell her. Even if she does not believe me.

“Caron, you don’t live in the world that you think you do.”

“Shocker.” She says with a tenth of the bravado that she had before. “I kind of figured that when a guy with glowing blue eyes... attacked me.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, then continue. “What you saw was a creature that most would call supernatural.”

She is silent. I don’t look back, but I can picture her sitting with her arms crossed, waiting for me to go on.

“Boe and I, we hunt things like him.” I look down at the dash, momentarily studying the swirling patterns of the dark wood ingrain. “They are monsters that prey on humans, feeding off them. They have unique abilities and they are very strong.” I swallow. It sounds crazy, saying it out loud to someone. I continue though, knowing that Caron won’t be satisfied with half of the truth. “People like us,” I motion to Boe and I. “When we turn six, we undergo a change. From then on, our brain is wired to track and hunt down these things. Hunt and kill them.”

The car is silent. All I can hear is the thudding of my heart as I realize that I had just told Caron the biggest secret I have, and by telling her, I just shattered any chance I had at a normal human life.

Boe is tense too, waiting for Caron to comprehend what she has just been told. His knuckles on the steering wheel are white, and his eyes are steely.

“So you are, like, some sort of witch-hunters? Like assassins of the supernatural?” Her voice is soft. She still doesn’t know what to make of it all.

I cringe at her words. “Not quite as glamorous. We are more like exterminators.”

Boe humphs. “Speak for yourself.”

“So, you exterminate...?”

“They are called Therians.” Boe says, a-matter-of-factly. “Shape shifters if it makes it easier for you. They are strong and fast and very dangerous to humans.”

Caron leans forward between the front seats again. “Dangerous how?” All of the malice is gone from her tone. Outright curiosity takes its place.

“Well, they prey on humans. They survive off them.”

“As in, they eat us? Drink our blood? Like vampires?” The words should have been sarcastic, taunting us for trying to tell her such bullshit, but it isn’t. It is like Caron... believes us.

“Well, some do, sure. Some get carried away. We have found lower ordered therians doing such things. But immortal beings need something different. Immortals don’t need sustenance in the literal sense. They can get everything else they need from actual food. What keeps them alive, though, is emotions.” Boe says, his tone taking more of a college professor edge, rather than twenty-year-old monster hunter.

“Therians.” Caron tastes the word, reminding me of the time I had done the same thing. “You said they are shape shifters? Does that mean that there are other sorts of creatures out there?”

Boe shakes his head. “As far as we can tell, there is nothing else out there, but therians come in so many different forms that all of the myths are accounted for: gods, demons, angels, vampires, werewolves - they can all be explained by one sort of Therian or another. In all of my life, I have never seen the exact same sort of Therian twice, and I have seen a lot of them.”

Caron stews on this for a moment, taking it all in. Between her brows a divot appears.

I am just sitting in the front seat, eyes wide, unable to understand what is happening around me in the way that Caron seems to be doing fucking fabulously. I have never bothered to ask or find out exactly why Therians killed people. But this was Caron’s first question. Caron seems to be moving through the facts like it is just another book she is reading. Another paradigm layer added to the plot that she is unravelling.

“So that’s why that... Therian... tried to do that to me... because he would be able to feed off of my fear?”

God, I hadn’t even gotten that far! I look over at Boe, whose eyes are steel again. “Yes.” He says, but something about his tone tells me that is not all of it. “Whatever emotion you feel has to be strong for them to feed.”

Caron rubs her shoulders. “So, he fed off me?” I can tell by her tone that this bothered her. Maybe even more than being raped.

No one says anything. It isn’t a question that needs to be answered.

Boe slows as he enters Green Haven. The little town seems as if nothing has happened. Kids play in the front yards of houses. Sprinklers lay in the sun, raining water down on lawns that had already started to die off after only two days of sun. People walk in and out of shops with bags in hand. Some stop and chat to passers-by. Something about the way that life had just moved on in Green Haven unsettles me.

“Caron, I know that this is a lot to take in, but there are a few more things that we need to explain to you. Also I think you should stay with Scarlet for at least a few days. What happened to you... well we are worried that there will be side-affects. It is best if you are close so that we can watch you.” Boe says.

Caron shifts in the back seat. “Well, I should bloody well hope so. God knows that I am not going to stay at home. Oh!” She gasps. “My parents! They are in danger!”

Boe responds quickly. “I don’t think they are in danger. Whoever attacked you has been going after teenage girls. I think that your parents are safe.” Boe expertly quenches Caron’s rising panic. “But Therians are known for coming to finish the job, and once they sense Scarlet’s presence at your house, they will come straight to Scarlet’s place. And if they do, Scarlet and I will be able to protect you.”

Why is it that my heart flutters every time he says my name?

Caron sighs. “Okay, well I need to go and get some clothes. Frankly, these clothes that you got me, Boe, are far too... marathon runner for me.”

I smile. Boe had raided my closet to get Caron some clothes to leave the hospital in. When I had seen the clothes that he had chosen, I had laughed and told him that she would hate them. I should have bet him on it.

Caron and I give instructions to Boe to get to Caron’s house. When he pulls up out the front, I jump out of the Range Rover. It takes a moment before Caron gets out as well. We walk together up to the door. She hesitates.

“Are you okay?” I ask, realizing that she is remembering what happened yesterday.

“Yeah.” She says in a small voice.

“If you want, I can run in and get some things for you.” I offer.

“No,” she sighs. “You can’t put an outfit together to save your life.” She jokes.

I give her a weak smile. “I know, honey, but you don’t have to face it right now.”

She hugs herself. “Thank you, but I need to just get through this.” She defiantly says.

I nod. “Okay.” I say and hold out my hand.

Caron smiles at me, thanking me.

She takes my hand and we enter together.