Horizon

Chapter 9

"No, no. You don't get to sleep anymore," said Thomas as he lightly hit my cheek.

The first thing that I noticed wasn't Thomas's paw heavily moving my head. It was the feeling that I was human again. I must have transformed after Thomas had knocked me out. The second thing was Thomas's huge paw in my face.

"Wake up!" he yelled, hitting me harder.

I opened my eyes, and squinted as I looked around. I was back in Thomas's basement, and had been laid onto the gurney. Thomas lumbered over me menacingly, while Al sat in the corner, folding his arms.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Thomas asked.

"Huh?" I grumbled, "About what?"

"About this," answered Thomas as he pulled out his phone. He placed the phone's screen in front of my face and showed me a video that he had already loaded.

The video was from a security camera, which had been in the alleyway that I was in. I guessed that it had been placed there to deter anyone from sneaking into the buildings without permission. The video obviously, and clearly, showed the teens that were beating on the weaker one. I sighed, as the camera showed me entering the view of the camera, and breaking the young man's arm.

"They caught you on camera, Hank!" Thomas yelled. "You jeopardized everything...and for what? Food and the chance to heave thousands of dollars of medical bills on a child's parents?!"

"I...I...was just..." I stammered, trying to get something out.

"You were what?!" Thomas asked, getting back in my face. "Tired? Lazy? Stupid? Go on, tell me! Which one was it?!"

"I saw someone in need of help, so I helped." I argued.

"You didn't help, Hank. You didn't! You saw an opportunity to use your new gift, and that was it. You and I both know that you could have taken on those kids as a human...so why didn't you? Why risk someone figuring out who you really are? Why risk getting captured?" asked Thomas, pleadingly.

I didn't answer him. I knew he was right, but something else was in my mind. I couldn't get the image of Eric's lifeless body out of my thoughts. Thomas handled that situation as if he had a lot of experience with it. It chilled me to the bone to think about what Thomas had done in the past.

"How are you able do it?" I asked, in response. "How are you able to just...end someone...without any hesitation? How many people have you killed?"

Thomas turned his head to the side. With a shake of his head he replied, "You really want to talk about that? What...am I some crazy killer because I decided to kill your dad? If you think that I enjoy killing people, then you'd better open your eyes!"

"You didn't have any problem with it, either," I added. "You just went in there and..."

Thomas surged with anger, and lifted me from the gurney. His claws dug into my skin, making me grunt in pain. With a shout, he threw me towards the other side of the room.

My head was the first thing to hit the wall of the basement, and whatever happened to the rest of my body was fuzzy. As I regained my senses, I saw Thomas slowly walking towards me. I feared his was going to try to throw me again, so I transformed, and got back to my feet.

I knew that Thomas was going to come at me, so I prepared for a fight.

Thomas made the first move, as he got closer to me. He threw a left jab at me, which I easily dodged. What I wasn't able to dodge was his right paw grabbing my left arm, and getting a firm grip around it. Thomas then pulled me towards him, and brought his left elbow to my face. While my eyes were disoriented, he raised his right elbow on my arm, put all of his weight on it.