Demonic Regime

Chapter 14: Lost Friendship

"Hi, Rudy," said my teacher. "Do you feel better?"

I nodded. "My dad gave me medicine, and I slept all day. I feel great now."

"Awesome! I have your homework ready, so take it home and have your mom and dad help you."

"Okay." I went to my desk to wait for the teacher to tell us what to do.

Class started soon after, and the girl who sat across from me was missing. I hope Case was back.

***

"Case! You're here!" I ran to meet him at the big toy. "Where'd you go?"

"I got sick." He sighed. "I can't wait until I'm older and can't get sick anymore."

"Me, too. My daddy gave me medicine, and I slept forever."

"Me, too! It tasted nasty."

I grinned. "Yeah, we're better now. Let's play on the tire swing."

We raced to it and jumped on the empty one. I pushed off the ground and swung the tire around. Case laughed as we whipped around in a circle. We jumped off and hurried up toward the big slide. After that, we raced each other across the set of monkey bars. I ran toward the tire swing, but some girls were by it. Case caught up and ran into me.

"Are you?" I asked, pointing to it.

"No." The one shook her head. "We don't want to get sick."

"Why?" I glanced at the swing. "If you don't spin too fast, you won't."

"You touch it," she said before running away.

I frowned. "I'm not sick anymore. I'm better."

"Why are they being weird?" Case swung around on the swing. "Girls are funny sometimes."

"Yeah." I glanced over my shoulder to see most of the kids had left the big toy.

"Rudy, what's wrong?"

I shrugged. "When you were gone, a third-grader called me the bad word, the m-word."

His eyes grew wide.

"He said I was a human and the m-word because I can't change forms." I picked at the tire.

"They're wrong. You're not that," Case stated. "One day, you'll figure it out. You got red fur, so you're going to be dominant. You'll learn how."

I smiled. "Yeah. I'm going to learn." I sighed. "It's just taking me longer, that's all."

***

I jogged onto the playground and started looking for Case. I spotted him out of the soccer field. Running to the edge, I stood at the side and waited for him to notice me. He looked at me.

"Hey!" I waved my arm.

Case turned away. A third-grader was talking to him, and they glanced my way. Did he not see me? I stepped out onto the field. The kids chasing the ball ran back and forth. Case jogged along with them. Why wasn't he wanting to play with me?

Moving to the middle of the field, I waited for the group to come back. The ball was kicked in my direction.

"Get off the field!" yelled the third-grader from the other day. "The dirty human is going to make us all sick."

My mouth fell open. "I'm not. I'm not sick."

"Humans have all sorts of diseases. You're why everyone is getting sick."

The game continued as he glared at me. Case ignored me and chased the ball to the far end.

"I'm not sick," I stated. "I'm better now."

"Humans are so gross; you never know if they're sick. They die all the time, and you're going to kill us all because we don't have healing enzymes."

"That's not true! I'm a werewolf. I'm going to get healing enzymes, too. Pups get sick. My daddy said so."

"That's a lie. You're a human, and no one wants you here. Go to the human school. No one cares if you get them sick." He ran off as the tears returned.

I searched for Case. Did he think that, too? Wiping my eyes, I started to cry and ran toward the school. I hurried into my classroom.

"Rudy?" My teacher rose from her desk. "What happened?"

"I want to go home."

"Is there something I can do?"

"No!" I cried. "I want my mom to come and get me. I want to go home!"

"I'll call her okay." She led me to the pillow corner, where we read books. "Sit here and take deep breaths. It'll be okay."

Sniffing, I sat down and hid my face in a pillow. I didn't want to go to school anymore. No one wanted to be my friend, and all the kids hated me. Even Case didn't want to play with me anymore because he thought I was a human. Wiping my eyes, I looked at my hands. I wanted claws and fur. If only I could shift, then they'd like me, and Case will still be my friend.

***

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