Page 81 of After the Fall

“Fiona,” I screamed. As she lay groaning on the floor, the creature turned its attention to Savannah and me. Without hesitation, I stepped forward to protect Savannah. After seeing it pick up Fiona like a rag doll, I knew I stood no chance. But I had to try.

It snorted like a bull, its breath stinking up the room. It pounded its giant feet against the linoleum flooring. Thunder echoed across the room, and my hands shot to my ears. The creature stared at my wrist and continued to grunt, almost as if it was trying to communicate.

My fear suddenly dissipated, replaced by something far worse. “Oh, Dad,” I whispered. “What have they done to you?”Tears cascaded down my face for all that my father had sacrificed. He was alive, but he was a monster.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Fiona begin to stir. “I g-got your gift.” I held out my wrist. The gold USB glinted in the neon glow of the room. My voice shaking, I began to sing the lyrics to “Don’t Give Up On Me Now.”

The creature, my dad, tilted his head as if he understood. From behind me, I heard Savannah’s sharp intake of breath. “Keep going,” she encouraged.

My voice increased and so did his moans as he clawed desperately at his face. I sang at the top of my lungs, repeating the chorus. Don’t give up on me now, Dad.

I sang like it was a final Broadway performance. I sang for my life, and for Savannah’s; for Dad and all that had been taken from us over the last ten years.

His large hands ripped his hair and scratched at his face. Yet I carried on, belting out those damn lyrics on repeat.

It happened so fast. Fiona had him pressed against the wall, her fist raised. “No,” I screamed. “Look.”

The red had disappeared from his eyes, the warmth returning to them. “H-Harper,” he managed to gasp. He was trapped between Fiona and the wall. “You brought me back.” He glared at Fiona. “You need to get them out of here. Quickly. Before—”

“Before what, Joe?” The dark shadow in the doorway growled, his large body filling the door frame. In the blackness of the hallway, it almost looked like…

No, it couldn’t be.

The lights flickered on, bathing Wyatt in an orange glow – an Icarus in the sun. My heart stopped beating as shock coursed through me. “Wyatt.” Before I could stop myself, I was running toward the doorway, toward the man I loved.

“Harper,” Fiona yelled. But it was too late. I didn’t notice the vacant black stare in his eyes, or the manicured hand gripped around his bicep, until I was close enough to see her evil smirk.

“You really do live up to the dumb blond name, don’t you?” Michelle Carder sneered, stepping into the room. She gave Wyatt’s bicep a tight squeeze. “Well, what are you waiting for? Get them, pet.”

FORTY-TWO

WYATT

“Get them.”The voice screamed again.

I turned to look at the female human holding onto my arm. She screamed the words again, but this time it sounded like they were in a different language. I tilted my head and squinted, trying to figure out what she was telling me to do.

My biceps were growing, and the hair on my arms had been joined by fur. I was going fully wild, if I wasn’t already there.

Human thoughts still ran through my mind, but my language comprehension and ability to speak was gone. Soon, complex thoughts would be replaced by primal ones. If the progression to wild continued, all I would want to do is eat, fuck, and sleep – and maybe not in that order.

The human with the red, pointy claws shoved me toward the human with the yellow hair.

I paused. She would satisfy the first two of my cravings, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to wrap my hand around her skinny neck.

A zap shot through me like a giant bee had stung my ass. The red-clawed woman was holding a cattle prod in one hand.

Confused. I’m so confused.

I dropped to my knees as another jolt hit me, this time in the head. It was so hard that my teeth chattered. Reaching to the back of my skull, I felt something foreign there, something metallic.

“No,” I screamed, but it came out as a grunt. I didn’t want this foreign metal attached to my body. I clawed at it like an animal in a trap. If it had been on an extremity, I would’ve chewed off whatever leg or arm to get the alloy off of me.

The yellow-haired girl was making sounds. Another human female was on the ground behind her. It would be easy to kill them both.

ZAP.

I rubbed my skull. Red Claw pointed to the girls. If I killed them, would she stop hurting me?