When the pain was over with he was lower to the ground, his nose pushed into the earth. Everything about the world was different. The trees around him blurred, but his sense of smell was heightened. He could suddenly smell things he didn't even know had scents. The different minerals in the earth. The salt in the air floating off of the miles away ocean. He didn't have to see his reflection to know what he had become. The giant black paws below his face and the urges to scratch a tree and rifle through the bushes told him he was no longer human.
Seeing his distorted face in the reflection of a river confirmed everything. No longer man, he was a black bear. It was terrifying and yet right. The animal looking back at Brock was a part of him and yet its own separate entity. A being that had been in him for the last nineteen years, just biding its time. The desire to become human again was all it took to shift back. Brock gathered his shredded clothes and darted along the edge of the woods, running the three miles to his house.
Somehow he made it without anyone calling the police and reporting a naked man streaking around. He climbed in through his bedroom window, dressed, and waited on his bed for the dozens of mourners to leave. By nightfall only his mother and an endless array of casseroles were left. Hands shaking, Brock finally left his bedroom. She stood in the foyer, looking even smaller than she usually did.
Brock put his hand on her shoulder but the words wouldn't come. She needed him more than she ever had and he needed her just the same. Left alone, just the two of them, they would have to be each other’s rocks. No more secrets.
The woods behind their house provided enough coverage. In the dim twilight, before Brock shifted, he asked her not to scream. His body shook and convulsed, the second transformation faster than the first. His bear eyesight was just well enough to make out the look on his mother's face. She was sad. Shocked. But not fearful.
Not until the bushes near them moved. The teenager who lived several houses down from them darted from behind a tree and ran deep into the woods. Brock had been seen shifting. How long before the entire neighborhood knew what he was? Brock's bear bristled, afraid of the boy, but not as afraid as his mother. That hour they packed their bags. That night she bought three airline tickets to Nevada.
Hawaii wasn't safe, she had told them. Brock, his fifteen year old sister, Brianna, and his mother all had to run far, far away. And so they did. They left behind the ashes of what had only a few days before been a life of comfort and splendor. They ran into the unknown, disappearing fearfully to start a new life.
2
Ten Years Later
The beer was flowing and the music was pumping, but everyone around Brock’s table seemed bored.
“This song has been going on for twenty minutes,” Nash complained. He stretched his arms above his head and ran both palms through his unruly blonde hair.
Across the table, Toby laughed. “It's actually been four different songs.”
Nash shrugged. “Then all country music sounds the same. I knew it. I suspected it and now I know it. They should switch up the play list in here.”
Jax chuckled and took a swig from his pint glass. “Maybe you're just drunk and that's why everything sounds the same. How many fingers am I holding up?” Jax waved his hand in front of Nash's face.
All four men laughed, Nash included, but Lily, Toby's wife, didn't even crack a smile. She sat next to her husband with her arms crossed and her pouty lips pursed. A beautiful woman, it was a shame to see her in such a foul mood. Brock wondered if there was something going on with her and Toby at home.
Toby hadn't mentioned it before. In fact he always talked about his home life in an upbeat way. That was Toby’s MO. It didn't mean everything was going great.
Brock looked away, deciding to let it go. If Toby wanted to talk about anything he would. It wasn't Brock business, so he was not about to pry.
At the other end of the worn wood floor of the Steak and Ale Saloon the bar stretched out, only a few patrons sprinkling its stools. It was a semi-slow night at the bar that was Brock and his friends' regular hangout, and the mood was pretty even-keeled.
At the very end of the bar, two blonde waitresses leaned across it to talk to each other. Joleen was one of them. Joleen Emery. She was Jax's girlfriend, the only serious one he'd ever really had. The other woman was Sky Grayson. They had their heads pressed together and were whispering about something.
Sky's wavy locks were piled into a loose bun on top of her head, and a few strands had fallen down. They kissed her jawline and framed her face perfectly. Brock swallowed hard. Sky's big blue eyes were locked on her friend's. She had no clue he was staring at her, but if he kept this up, someone else would and he wouldn’t hear the end of it.