Time to change

Fight or flight

Lucy was surrounded by darkness. She knew she should open her eyes, could open her eyes, but she was just so tired. She didn't want to admit it to herself but she was also afraid. Afraid she might find herself in some sort of laboratory to be dissected like a rat, or whatever it was George and Camilla wanted her for. She lay there just contemplating the potential outcomes and why they even wanted her in the first place. She knew she should be brave and just open her eyes, but everywhere hurt and the tiredness pulled her in again. 

When she awoke again she was still to scared to open her eyes so laid there just listening. She could hear a steady beeping noise and could sense someone in the room watching her, but again fear prevented her from having a look.

"I swear I saw her move a moment ago, but I guess it could have been my imagination." 

Her eyes flew open at this, she knew that voice. That voice meant that she was safe, well at least for now. She looked towards the voice and there she was, her best friend Hayley. She was dressed in somewhat crumpled clothes and looked more bedraggled then Lucy could ever remember seeing her. Even her usually pristine bronze coloured hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in some time. 

"Hi there" Hayley whispered with an over-weighted tone of sympathy. 

"You really did give us quite a scare. You have been out cold for the last day or so."

Lucy pondered this for a moment, somehow she had managed to escape those people and looking around she could clearly see she was inside some sort of hospital. She needed to understand how she got there. 

"How..." Was all Lucy could croak before realising how dry her mouth and throat were.

Hayley handed her some water allowing her to drink while explaining what had happened. Luckily when she fell into the water and was dragged downstream, before she was actually unconscious unbeknown to her she had actually passed a very popular picnic place. A kind man had dragged her from the water and performed CPR while his wife phoned an ambulance. When she arrived at the hospital they found some sort of d**g mixture in her system containing among other things muscle relaxants. They would need to speak to her about what she had taken.

Lucy looked at Hayley blankly, that explained the heavy dose of sympathy. Hayley clearly thought she had purposely taken something and maybe she even jumped into the river important. The thought that Hayley thought she may have done this on purpose really stung. She may be a bit of an outsider and like her own company, but she had never done something or said anything that would suggest that she would do something as drastic as this. 

"There were two people chasing me. I fell into the river. They said they work for a company collecting supernaturals. They knew my full name. They knew what I was. They injected me with something that stopped me from changing." She stumbled over her words rushing to get the out before a nurse arrived or before she started doubting what happened actually happened.

Hayley looked at her with an air of confusion, then looked away almost embarrassed. When she looked at Lucy again there was an expression Lucy hadn't seen before. She looked almost ashamed of herself. The way she looked at the floor not even attempting to make or maintain contact with her made her stomach turn. She realised then that Hayley had been hiding something. Something important, something relating to why these people wanted to "collect" her.

She couldn't take the silence or the tension radiating of Hayley anymore.

"Ok out with it!" she blurted.

"I don't know where to start really. It carried on for so long and I know I should have told you, but you seemed content to not know and well I didn't foresee something like this happening and maybe I should have." She mumbled guiltily.

"Just start from the beginning. It's not like I am going anywhere fast."  

"Fine. Here goes. When I got in contact with the werewolves they also put me in contact with other supernaturals. I have been speaking to witches, sorcerers and other half demons. Every now and then you would come up in conversation. They would ask what other supernaturals I know and I would mention you. Anyway... one day I was talking to this professor of demonology and well we started talking about you and erm.... so it turns out you are sort of a myth." she trailed off.

"A myth? What do you mean a myth? Clearly I am not a myth as I am right here!"

"Well it turns out your father only sired one child before meeting his death and well he happened to sire that child with a witch, but since no one had seen you or proof that you actually exist within the supernatural world this all fell back into myth. So basically your father was the only demon with the shape shifting ability. Therefore you are the only shape-shifting half demon ever. Then to add your half witch side. You are the only ever half demon/half witch, shape-shifting entity ever and will probably be the last. Apparently to those that believe the myth you are somewhat of a prize." She looked up at Lucy, tears streaming down her face.

"You kept this from me! You didn't think I might need to know about this! You didn't think I would want to know! I can't believe you would do this!" Lucy raged.

"I am so sorry, if I honestly thought you would be in any danger I would have told you. You know that. We can make it right. We just have to find out who it was that was looking for you, why they were looking for you and well make them stop looking. We can fix this."

Lucy looked at Hayley. They had known each other for so long. She knew in her heart that she would never do anything to put her in harms way. She clearly thought the person who told her about this was mistaken or simply reaching. She could understand why Hayley hadn't wanted to tell her. Anytime anything about her past or other supernaturals came to light she was forever shooting her down, wanting simply to keep her life normal and mortal. 

"I guess I can understand why you didn't tell me." She conceded.

"But what the hell are we going to do now?" 

"Well now you mention it. I have a plan. I kind of originally thought that you fell into the water or something, so I had gone ahead and spoken to Jason, one of the werewolves and arranged for you to go on a little retreat. Now I am certain he will help us. I think the best place for you is to go and stay with the pack. I can work the angles here maybe try to chase down who these people are. You can concentrate on staying safe and sorting any leads the werewolves may have. It's a win win." She grimaced as she mentioned this.

Lucy looked at Hayley with a deer in the headlights expression. Trying to decide if kicking up a fuss would dissuade her from this plan, but the more she thought about it the more is made sense. The pack meant more people and people with fighting skills should they be needed. Plus if she was going to become the hunted, it couldn't hurt to be spending time and learning from people who are essentially hunters. That and as much as she didn't want to admit it to herself or Hayley, she could do with a bigger pool of friends and making friends with supernaturals that she didn't have to worry about hiding around was always an advantage.

"Fine I will go. we use flight for the start of this battle, but I am certain its going to end in a fight. I don't want to belong to anyone. I don't want to become a lab rat or some sort of trophy for display. So prey do tell.... where am I running to..."

"Well that's the fun part." Hayley broke out in a massive face splitting grin.

"You are off to Alaska."