A Change (of heart)

Chapter 15: Cops Catch up

Wow, how long have we been hugging for? I don't mind though, but then I remember, David's coming! I quickly retract from the hug, as to mine and Shell's disappointment.
"Why James?"
"David's coming remember? I don't want him to see us like that"
"Fair enough. Can I still feel your tail until he arrives though?"
"What's with you and my tail?"
"It's just so fluffy!"
"Fine"
I flicked my tail back towards her and then self-consciously started to clean myself, like a dog. You know, when they lick their paws and then brush their ears? That sort of thing. It wasn't until Shell was looking at me kind of funny I realized I was doing it. Man, that's really embarrassing.
"Your cute"
"No I'm not, I'm a dog"
"A cute one"
"Gee... Thanks!"
"James, I-"
"No, don't worry! I know you weren't trying to be offensive"
"OK. I'm going to message David to see how long till he arrives"
Hopefully a while still, I'm quite enjoying the time with just us two.
It was a few minutes since Shell had spoken, and I was about to say something but she shoved her phone in my face.
"Ow! My nose is a bit further away from my face than it used to be, remember!"
"Sorry, but you need to read this!"
I could see the worry and urgency in her face so I grabbed the phone from her hand and scrolled through the messages.

Oh No!
"No, I don't want to be on the run again!"
"Do you have to be?"
"What do you mean? Of course I have to be, I'm not letting any random people see me like this!"
"They might not be random people though, David did say he talked to your father"
"So, who can say he'll come by himself?"
"Fine, I'll let you go. But James"
"Yeah?"
"Please promise me, you won't run from people you know, and you will keep contact with me"
This was a hard offer, I don't trust everyone I know, and it might get to risky to keep contact with her, but I will try. I gave her a confident(ish) smile, exposing my canines.
"OK, I'll try"
And with that, I jumped out of the window.
"Goodbye Mishell, I'll try to come back, as soon as I can"
"Don't worry about me James, just take care of yourself!"
After she said that, I heard a car pull up.
"OK, goodbye!"
"Goodbye James! Good luck!"
I started to run inbetween houses, avoiding lights, just to try to get out of town.
...

There he goes, into the darkness, I hope he'll be alright.
"Mish?!"
"Yes mum?"
"Come here right now!"
"Okay!"
I quickly close the window and curtain and run out into the lounge room. There were two policeman sitting at the table with my mum.
"Hi, I'm Mr. Wolf, you must be Mishell"
"That's correct, nice to meet you"
"Now Mishell, I think you know why I'm here"
"And what would that be?"
"Mishell, we know James is here. Your mother has informed us that she hasn't seen him at all. So we can gather that he snuck in and is currently in your bedroom. You are his friend, after all"
"What proof do you have that he is in my bedroom?"
He then went to show me a photo of some text messages, a conversation I (actually James) had with David.
"That's David's phone!"
"He's talked to us, we know James is here"
Then mum stepped in, looking at me with pleading eyes.
"Shell, I know that you're just trying to protect him, but this is his Father! James needs to be with his family. Where is he?"
Yeah, I broke apart then.
"I didn't want him to leave! He knew you were coming and he freaked out, I tried to stop him, I... I..."
Mother grabbed me then and held me in her embrace, I started crying.
"I only wanted to help... I only wanted to help..."
Mr. Wolf spoke up then.
"You still can. Shell, where did he go?"
I came to grips with myself, and focused again, trying to make myself look a bit more respectable infront of the cops.
"I don't know where he went, he didn't tell me. But I can show you which direction he traveled in"
"OK, would you mind doing that now?"
"OK. Yeah, sure"
We all walked into my bedroom, which, to be honest, was kind of embarrassing. I hadn't cleaned up in a while, my room was a mess. I started to do the typical rush-cleaning-of-room-because-there-are-people-coming-in-right-now move. Whilst hiding all my junk, I noticed there was some blue fur on my bed so I quickly pulled the sheets over.
"Heh, I haven't made my bed for a while, sorry"
Mr. Wolf was the first one to enter.
"Don't worry Mishell, you should see James' bedroom! Now, where did he go?"
"Well, he stood over here," standing close to the window, "then he jumped out here," I then proceeded to jump out as well, "He then ran in that direction." I say whilst pointing in the direction he left.
"OK, thank you Mishell, we'll be on our way, sorry about the inconvenience"
"Wait!"
"Yes?"
"Can I have a quick chat with you Mr. Wolf? Just you?"
"Yeah, sure" he then gestured for mum and his workmate to leave, and they did.
"Mishell, what's the problem?"
"Well, I just thought. James is in a bit of a state right now, I was wondering if you could go alone, I think he will only trust family"
"Yeah, I can do that"
"And there's something else"
"Yes?"
"James, he... He's changed"
"I see..."
"He's not the man you used to know"
"I know"
"You do?"
"Yes, I do..."
Then he started to act kinda weird, he walked towards my bed and pulled up the covers.
"He was on your bed, wasn't he?"
He then proceeded to bend over, reach down, and grabb something so small that I couldn't see it from where I was in the room. But I knew what it was.
"Y-yes Sir. But we weren't d-"
"No no. I trust you weren't. I was just making sure this this was his"
Looking intently at the piece of fur he held in between his two fingers.
"Excuse me?"
"So he's blue now"
Was that a question or a statement? I replied anyway.
"Yes s-sir"
This was weird, how did he know? Is there something in James' history that I don't know about?
"Not to be rude or anything, but don't you need to get going?"
"Wha- Oh, right. Yes! yes, I'll get going. Oh, and Mishell?"
"Yes?"
"Don't tell anyone"
"Oh, trust me, I won't"
...

Finally, I'm out of town. I'm not sure what to do now, I think I'll find somewhere to sleep for the night. After looking around a bit, I think I found a good place to stay, it has shade from a overhanging tree, so I don't get woken up from the hot sun. It also has a lot of dead leaves to have a good rest on. Sure I'll be sleeping like a wild animal, but only for tonight. As soon as I threw my bag down to mark the spot, I heard a growl, well, growl is the wrong word for it, it sounded more like a strangled street cat, but I know which animal it belonged to. It was that animal's version of a growl. And having lived on a property with chickens, we've had several attacks. I know which animal is in the shadows. I would never mistake it, there's a fox, growling at me.
It was going to attack me, I knew it was. No animal growls at another animal like that if it's not going to attack. So I'm not sure why I was so surprised when it did. As soon as it showed itself it leapt towards me but I dodged, but not without it giving me a light scratch on the way down. It got up quickly, but by now I was ready for a fight. As it ran towards me I quickly got on all four paws and ran towards it to, I went for the shoulder, but he was more experienced than me, he went for the actual front leg. I only ended up with some fluff in my mouth, but the fox, he got a good grip on me then. And it hurt, real bad. When he released, I gave him a good claw in the eye back. We were face to face again, he had blood dripping out of his left eye. We ran. This time we both jumped at each other, but because I was still getting used to this, he had way more power in his strike than me, and I was the one to be knocked onto my back. It then turned into me holding him back with my arms, snapping jaws at each other, my now bad arm was starting to fail, and it wouldn't be long till the other one would weaken to. It's amazing how much power a fox clawing into your chest can put into an attack. I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep it up, so I cut it short. I let his forward momentum fuel him over me whilst I spun over and gave him a good kick to the head. Once he got over the initial shock he looked towards me, just in time to see me lunge at him and give him another strike. He growled at me, and I growled back. We both ran at each other one last time. He went for my other arm, as expected. I anticipated this move and followed the direction of his lower jaw. As he was about to make contact with me with his paws, he opened his mouth, ready to sink his small fox teeth into my other arm, as he did this, I opened my mouth as well, and went into the motion of biting his jaw, but I didn't. I grabbed his lower jaw and didn't let go, my long canines helped lock my jaw onto his because they sank easily into the bottom flesh of his mouth. I used his jaw as a handle for the rest of his body and shook him violently until I heard a crack and then whimper came out of him. Then I let go. I growled at him once more, and he backed away into the darkness, to finish off and show my superiority I took a deep breath and howled.
Once I was finished I turned around to see where I had put my backpack, and I saw him. I saw someone standing there, just looking at me. He didn't seem scared, or afraid, or, well, any negative emotion at all. He appeared happy to see me, which I found odd, who would be happy to see me?
"I've been looking for you for a long time now"
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
"Simple, I knew you were missing, I knew you needed help, so I came looking, and everything led me here, to you"
"You shouldn't be here"
"No James, you shouldn't be here"
"Who are you?"
"Oh, sorry for not introducing myself, let me try my introduction again: Hi James, it's about time me met, I'm Dr. Wever, head of the James Wolf project."