The First Shifters

A meeting with Evelyn

I felt like a creep. I was standing outside the boys’ dorms, hidden in the shadows under the staircase. Fiona was sitting close to me, her dark grey fur blending in beautifully. I was dressed in all black; black turtleneck, my favorite black sports leggings, and black combat-styled boots. Even my undergarments and socks were black. My silver hair was braided and tucked under a black winter hat, borrowed from Trio. My ears were aching, and it felt like they were going to be permanently crinkled from this damn hat; it was not made for someone with big fluffy ears, but hiding them was kind of the point right now unfortunately. My tail was wrapped tightly around my waist in an attempt to keep myself small and hidden.

“Sunbeam,” I hear a whisper, and know that it’s Ryker. He told me in a secluded area on campus two days ago that he was going to start calling me that, the inspiration from my golden eyes.

“Took you long enough,” I grumble, releasing my tail and stepping out from behind the stairs. It hurt to try and move my ears, but I knew they’d be pinned back in annoyance. He’s chuckling at me, and I feel even more irritated. “This better be good.”

Five days ago, he dropped this lovely little bombshell that I was grouped in with people who the science center wanted to experiment on. I thought I was going to puke. My own family were okay with this, my uncles and aunts, cousins that worked in the science center. I tried not to think too hard about it, but I was scared that even my father knew. I had to believe my mother had no idea, she’d never agree to something so vile. I sat on Ryker’s couch, head in my hands, wondering if I was going to pass out right in his dorm.

“I have someone I want you to meet,” he tells me lowly, his face inches away from mine. The warmth from his body makes me shiver. His dark ears block the light from the streetlamp, and I can see his green eyes roaming over my face. We can never seem to meet without this tension between us, but we haven’t had the time to figure it out.

“And who would that be?” I ask him, my voice a whisper. The trust I had slowly built for Ryker meant that I knew I could be safe with him. I held no fear in meeting this new mystery person, but I was very curious.

“My mother,” he chuckles, and my face pales a little.

“Y-your mom?” I squeak. This was all new territory. And why were we meeting his mother like this?

“I’ll explain more when we get there,” he tells me, humor in his voice. He steps away from me, and I can see his muscular figure defined by his black tee-shirt, his black sweatpants fitting comfortably over his hips. He had on black running shoes, and his black hair was slicked back in a natural way with no hair product. The way it fell over his eyes a little as he looked back at me nearly took my breath away. I still couldn’t figure out what he was doing to me. The jerk wasn’t even trying and I couldn’t breathe right.

“Where are we going?” I ask him, scrambling to catch up with him. He’s taking long strides across the grass, keeping to the back of the building and the shadows. Fiona is keeping an easy pace with me, trotting about a foot away.

“You’ll see soon enough,” he tells me, and I conclude that’s about all I’m going to get right now. After we get past the dorms, we exit campus and start walking down a street; it’s unfamiliar to me, I don’t think I’ve ever been on this side of the city before. The neighborhood is cute, kept up but quiet; there’s no cleaner robots and no advertisement holograms screaming at you. I thought maybe I’d feel more at ease, but it just put me more on edge. I could hear my heart beating in my cramped ears, and it made it hard to focus.

Ryker slows to walk next to me, and pulls my hat off my head. I let out a sigh, my ears feeling good to be free, but I’m even more worried someone will see us and recognize us. It was late in the evening, not quite midnight yet, and I left my phone at Caliste’s in hopes I couldn’t be tracked. For all I knew my paranoid father put trackers in my shoes; he always seemed to know where I was.

“Aren’t you worried we’ll be seen together?” I ask, and he shakes his head.

“It’s not so much that I’m worried about getting seen, as it is annoying that your heart is beating a million miles an hour,” he says. “You need to relax, Sunbeam.”

“I’m taking this seriously,” I growl at him. “Are you?”

“I’m serious enough,” he chuckles at me. “Trust me, this side of town isn’t watched like you think it could be.” Ryker gives me a once over look. “But I appreciate you listening to me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask him with a huff; he told me to dress in all black, and I did, it wasn’t my fault he didn’t specify that I didn’t need a hat. I was paranoid as it was, being watched and all. We pass homes that are not ritzy and flashy, but homey and quaint. He chuckles again, and I cross my arms.

“Nothing,” he says in a teasing voice, and I have half a mind to smack him over the back of his head, but he’s just tall enough that I can’t do that without having to jump up a little, and it would give it away. I settle for another disgruntled huff, and keep following him.

It’s not much longer before Ryker starts to slow down in front of a beautiful old-style home that’s fenced in with a white picket fence, four cream-colored pillars standing tall on a brown-bricked porch. There are black flower pots with pink and purple flowers sitting on the edge between the pillars, their little bell shapes swinging delicately in the slight breeze. Dimmed lawn lights illuminate the pillars, and there’s two lights on either side of the black front door; the door itself has a beautiful stained-glass window of a golden retriever dog sitting in the rays of a sun. It’s beautiful, and I can feel myself relax as we walk up the walkway leading to the house.

“Welcome to my home away from home,” Ryker says, gesturing to the home before us.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathe. It’s nothing like my home, but somehow it feels better. It feels real, and not like they were trying to fit in with the city. The front door opens, and a woman that looks kind of familiar steps through the doorway.

“Sunbeam, this is my mother, Evelyn,” Ryker introduces us, and I give a small wave.

“Sunbeam?” Evelyn questions Ryker with a raised eyebrow and slight smile.

“Code name,” Ryker tells her plainly, and she playfully rolls her eyes at him.

“Whatever works I guess,” she giggles. “Come in, we’ll go through the house.” Her statement leaves me a little confused, but I follow Ryker and Evelyn into the house. It’s cozy; from the doorway I can see a living room to the left, stairs leading up to the second floor ahead of me that shares space with a small hallway, and a dining room to my right. I’m assuming the light down the hall connected to the kitchen, and I find myself to be right as she leads us through the house. There’s another room that looks to be a laundry room across from the kitchen, and we head out the back door. Fiona nods at me as she lays in the grass by the back door, letting me know everything is okay. She was going to keep watch.

“It’s just down here,” I hear her say, and I look at the metal doors she’s opening. I look up at Ryker, and he unexpectedly grabs my hand without making eye contact with me. The warmth from his hand over mine sends tingles through my body, and I involuntarily shiver. I think he mistakes my reaction for one of fear, because he looks at me and reassures me it’s okay. I’m more confused than anything, but small spaces never really bothered me. We head down, and I see Evelyn push a button that closes the metal doors with a surprisingly quiet click. Another glance at Ryker’s ridged body language, and I’m guessing he’s not a fan of being down here.

“Holy smokes,” I breathe, taking in everything down here. “You’ve been doing some serious work.” There are stacks of paperwork, files upon files and manilla folders. A square metal table is in the center of the room, holding three stacks of folders separated into their own piles. One entire wall across from the entrance is a cork board with pieces of paper and photos, little red strings of yarn linking some pieces to others. A white board is set up near it with questions and ideas.

“It’s not been without its help, now that Ryker is in on it all,” Evelyn tells me. Ryker sits in a worn-out grey computer chair, and she motions me closer to the table. I see my name on one of the folders, and I gulp. Silas’s name is on one, Rowan on the other, and I think my vision tunnels a little. My own brothers were targets too? Did they even know any of this? I blink my eyes in an attempt to reset my brain. Now I understood why Ryker wanted to show me instead of telling me; it was all hard to believe.

“How long?” I ask in a whisper, sickened. I should have expected things to get weird, crazy, messed up. “Is my sister Scarlett in there as well?”