"You are a shifter, Kuro."
Those words I'll never forget. My mother had confessed that to me before she died. What was a shifter? I had no idea until a year later. My mother had died of cancer, and my father had abandoned us years ago. When my mother had passed I didn't know where to go, or what to do.
I lived on the streets. Scavenging for anything I could find. Food, blankets, shelter. The streets of New York City weren't as scary at night. There were less people scurrying about, hurrying to their destinations. The city was lit up and all you could hear were the cars on the road.
"You are a shifter, Kuro."
It replayed in my head countless times each day. My name, Kuro, is Japanese, meaning "black". Maybe it's because of my name, or just a huge coincidence, but the only clothes I would wear would be black. My mother was full Japanese and had married an American man. They had me soon after they wedded and decided to move from North Carolina to New York City. Big change. John, my father worked for a newspaper company and my mom, at the local bakery down the street from our house. A few years after I was born my dad walked out on us. Claimed he was in love with another woman. It broke my moms heart. She never loved any man again.
They got divorced and that's when she really broke down. I would hear her crying deep into the night, and she shut herself away from me until she said those words to me. I was 17 when she said that. It's been one year and I finally learned what she meant.
I was walking along the bridge, my normal walking routine, when a strong gust of New York wind came out of the blue. The railing wasn't very high. Somehow, the clutz I am managed to be blown off OVER the railing. I was falling. It seemed like it happened in seconds. I didn't want to die. I saw the water getting closer and closer by the second. Screaming, I closed my eyes. Realizing I still had not hit the water I opened them. I looked down and saw the water right below me, I was hovering above it. Looking into the river I saw my reflection. A seagull was staring back up at me.
I gasped not realizing at first that I was the seagull. What the, when did this happen. How?! It wasn't scientifically possible. At that moment when I was looking into the water I heard my moms voice say, "You are a shifter, Kuro."
Little did I know I had a lot to learn about my mothers words....