The Pack - On the Run

“I’m. Not. Going. To. BED!!!” Roared Mikey, jumping at the dark brown leather couch and baring his teeth at our mum in an animalistic manner.

It was almost 11 pm. Mikey should have been asleep long ago, but we all got engrossed in a movie and lost track of time. And now that mum wanted to urge my brother to sleep, he was throwing a fit.

“Mikey, we had a deal,” Mum started patiently. “The film ends, and you’re going to bed. You know we have to get up early tomorrow. We’re going to Dover Hill.” She added, still trying to reason with the kid, though I could clearly see it was a lost cause. Especially now that my brother decided to go apeshit.

“No! We’re not going anywhere!” He hollered, successfully waking up the whole house. Fortunately, we were alone in the lodge. Rosalynd had gone to a family gathering or something, and no one else seemed to be actually staying in beside us, despite what she had told me the day before.

“Mikey!” Now, mum was shouting, helplessness tainting her voice.

I used my brother’s distraction and sneaked behind him, trying to catch him off guard and take him off the couch, however, he somehow sensed me and slipped away from my grasp at an abnormal speed, leaving me perplexed. He then abruptly turned around and looked at me with his eerily glowing eyes - his face contorted in a grotesque grimace, his canine teeth weirdly elongated. Somewhere next to me, mum gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, her lips parted in a soundless scream. Meanwhile, Mikey bared his teeth and leapt at me. He took me completely by surprise. I stumbled back, feeling his canines biting into my arm and breaking my skin. I yipped, smelling blood, but before I could react in any way, Mikey jumped down from the couch and landed next to mum on all fours. He then stood upright, shoved her out of his way, and rushed towards the outside doors. The woman, still somewhat stupified, tripped on her feet and fell heavily on her backside. I cursed loudly, rushing to help her up, just as I heard the front doors slamming shut.

“Quick, before we lose him!” She exclaimed, taking my hand.

We ran onto the front porch into the darkness and nagging cold. The wind almost immediately tugged at my hair, pulled some strands from my loose ponytail, and flung them in my face, bringing the smell of decayed leaves and dampness to my nose.

I let my eyes wander. Mikey was nowhere in sight.

“Mikey!” Mum called as she ran down the steps onto the gravel driveway. She whirled around, scrutinizing the darkness surrounding us, trying to see something through the dense undergrowth. She couldn’t, she wouldn’t.

“Mikey!” I joined her, placing my hands on both sides of my mouth. “Mikey, stop joking around! We get it! Mum and I won’t force you to bed! Just... come out, please!”

“We’re not angry, sweety!” Mum took up after me. “Come, we’ll watch another movie! Maybe about the boy and his horse, the one you like so much?”

She was met with silence. Either my brother didn’t hear us, or he was so agitated he didn’t want to leave his hideout.

“Mikey! Mikey, please, come out! This is not funny!” Mum called out once more, getting desperate.

“Mikey!” I tried as well, again, to no avail.

I nervously brushed away the stray lock that fell on my face and bit my lip, distressed. I had quite enough of constant tension, my brother’s fits, and mum’s fear. I just wanted for everything to return back to normal when dad was still with us, and we didn’t have to wander through cheap motels, hospitals, or chase after my crazed brother in the middle of the night at some Podunk. Back then, we had shot cans with an airgun and organized family board games night. I had my friends. I had my dad...

I wanted my life back.

I felt my eyes prickle with tears. Just as I was about to finally lose it and break down in the middle of the driveway, the wind picked up... and carried Mikey’s scent right to my nose.

My head snapped in the direction it came from. Without thinking, I rushed towards the bushes. Before I could be swallowed by the forest, though, mum clasped my arm, stopping me in the middle of my hunt. Strangely irritated, I whirled on my heel and wrenched myself free, narrowing my gaze on her. I heard a low growl.

Mum immediately paled and stepped away, watching me with wide eyes. She put her hands up as if she wanted to placate me or shield herself from me.

Me. Her daughter.

I felt as if I had been slapped. The growling stopped while I blinked a couple of times to chase away a red haze that, at some point, tainted my vision. I shook my head, clearing it, and mum winced. She thought I was going to attack her. Oh, God.

I froze, not knowing what to do. It was happening. I was becoming a monster. Mum was afraid of me.

I gulped, looking away from her, ashamed.

“I think I know which way Mikey went,” I mumbled through a clenched throat, breaking up the tense silence and fishing out my phone to distract myself. I turned on the torch. It illuminated the greyish tips of my once pristine trainers. “I’ll go after him. He must be scared.”

“You can’t go alone,” Mum suddenly said, licking her lips. She made no move to touch me this time. Instead, she put her hands in the back pockets of her jeans, trying to hide how they trembled. “The forest is dangerous. We don’t know what animals are lurking in. What if you get lost as well?”

“We can’t leave Mikey there, and one of us must be present... You know, in case he comes back,” I tried to be reasonable. “Besides... I know which way he had gone. I-I can s-smell him,” I stuttered, weakly.

It was the first time I had mentioned the changes my body had started to undergo. It was a taboo between me and mum. As long as we didn’t talk about it, we could pretend I was normal. It was Mikey, who was clearly changing. He was the one who mentioned scents, and noises and showed weird, animalistic behaviours. Not me. I was pretty much normal, even though the doctors called my healing miraculous and wanted to run more tests on me before mum firmly refused. But I never mentioned any of the weird stuff. No scents, noises, no growling...

Until now.

Mum brushed her hair at the back of her head, jittery. She had done it quite a lot lately. A nervous habit of hers.

“Yeah, right... You can smell his scent. Yeah...” She mumbled, trying and failing to hide how much that one sentence had affected her.

I used her distraction, unable to stand the way she was acting around me. Before mum could protest any further, I let myself be swallowed by the bushes. I heard her calling out after me.

She didn’t follow.