Into the Wild Dark

CHAPTER 19 - JACK

"Get...get away from me!" I pushed to my feet and ran.

"Oh, catch him! Get him, Darcy," Delilah called out gaily.

My respirations came in panting bursts as I crashed through a hydrangea bush. When I looked over my shoulder, Mr. Cyprian crowed with laughter. He came after me through the shrubbery, not in any hurry. His expression seemed to oscillate from a stoic deathmask to a garish clown smile.

"Are you the Magician or the Fool?" he asked.

Or I asked. I couldn't nail down reality. The Magician or the Fool? Was I in control of this madness, or was it controlling me?

Glistening fangs showed in the billionaire's horrifying mouth. He was yards behind me. My mandibular unhinged and the howl of sheer terror that tore from my throat frightened me more than the rest of my psychotic break. I pushed my uncoordinated legs harder, though it felt like I was running through quicksand.

Forceful arms wrapped around me. I feignted woozily to the left, struggled to the right, but they held strong. I didn't have much fight left in me, entranced by the magical nightscape. It took a second to realize it was Sunny. My friend had me in a vise grip of protection. His panicked eyes raced over my face, and his mouth moved frantically, but I couldn't hear a word.

Delilah's voice echoed in my ears, instead. "Did you drink the absinthe?"

The green stuff! It was a hallucinogenic. I was tripping. Vampires didn't exist. This was a bad, bad trip–but, no. I shuddered at the first wild whisper in my head: "The forest is calling." My eyes speared at the mesmerizing full moon.

"Can't you hear it? The forest..."

I did. Not so much a word or coherent thought as an impression, images forming wholecloth in my consciousness. Memories of every time I had felt most alive flooded me. Then dreams of every whim I had shelfed for the safer alternative. A quiet, primal voice whispered, "Freedom.

I heard someone clapping off to my left. "Well done, bodyguard. You can let him go now." Mr. Cyprian spoke as if from a vast distance, despite being within reach.

I didn't cower away from him. My fear had slipped through the cracks of reality and found wonder. Unprepared for it, I stopped fighting and realized how sharp the leaves smelled from the trees beyond the big house. The wind picked that moment to blow in a kaleidescope of more aromas. I recognized them all–growing things, dying things, hungry things, prey.

As per the boss's command, Sunny released me. "I need to assess his vitals."

"Shh!" I waved him to silence. All my senses were heightened. I could hear insects tunneling beneath the topsoil. And the stars were singing, but their song wasn't a dirge. It was some glorious hallelujah in a language humans forgot. "Can you hear that?" I gasped as I took in Sunny's radiance. He was beautiful, too. The whole stinking universe was.

Another spasm went soul deep.

It jolted me to the ground on four legs, a misty white wolf, which yawned and clapped at the air with teeth that could bite through bone. The animal smiled. I felt like I smiled, but then I didn't feel like myself.

Bewilderment slammed me at the shocking realization that the wolf and I were one. This couldn't be happening. I tried to speak but growled. Sunny stared at me in dismay before glaring at Mal. I skipped away from the cloying people-smells, whining as I realized I was trampling my own clothes. I had shapeshifted out of them.

I wanted to be Jack; I wanted to be myself again. I concentrated on who and what I was like wishful thinking might undo the impossible. Suddenly, the oversized wolf gave his body a vigorous shake, as if wet, and I shuddered into my former shape, naked, lying face-down on the ground.