I lead Jason into my bedroom and slam my door shut, locking it.
"There's more coming. A lot more."
Jason says breathlessly. Sweat drenches his white generic brand shirt, his face covered in a shiny glaze. There was something odd to his features that I couldn't place, a growing brutish and animal-like countenance that was unnerving. I put it off to the side.
My body felt as if to be several steps ahead of my thoughts.
I wrench my window open, which lead to a rusted metal fire escape, the light of my bedroom casting a pale illumination into the falling darkness of the night.
We diligently climb out the window, and clammer down the rickety fire-escape.
Those men did not look like the FBI.
I think, among the consternation wreaking havoc in my mind.
We reach the bottom of the fire escape, and unlatch the ladder so that is clatters to the cement below.
I unsteadily climb down the ladder, Jason directly following suit behind me. Once we reach the cement of the alleyway, I grasp my hands on my knees, my chest heaving to catch my breath, my heart pounding tumultuously in my ears.
"Who the fuck are they?"
I gasp, my voice noticeably raspy.
I start to jog to the opposite end of the alley, towards the parking lot, where my car was parked. Jason follows.
"They call themselves Night Blades. They are-"
As we reach the end of the alley, a voice yells at the other end of the alley.
"They're escaping through the alleyway- they're almost to the car!"
Like a sharp snap in the night air, the men take fire.
We dive into the safety behind a building as shards of brick explode in spray of dust on the side of the building.
I don't feel my legs as the two of us bound to my car. There, I unlock it, and we throw ourselves on the peeling leather of the seats.
Starting it, I back it out, and exit onto the parallel street behind the apartment complex.
I push the car to forty miles an hour, my body unnervingly numb, my limbs seemingly running on autopilot.
Devoid of my realization, I was instinctively driving us towards exit of town, near my college and the cafe.
With danger finally out of reach, I find myself capable of speaking.
"What the hell is going on. What the fuck are 'Night Blades'?"
I don't look at Jason as he sighs from the passenger seat, my eyes dart cautiously about the road and surrounding streets.
He finally reply, his baritone voice noticeably more potent than it usually is.
"Night Blades are a branch of the government who hunt down my kind."
I give Jason a questioning sideways glare.
"My 'kind'?"
From my peripheral vision, he smooths a hand over his sweaty brow.
"They hunt down Therians."
There was a silence, nothing but the night traffic, and the humming of the radio static.
Finally, I reply, a bit shakily.
"Therians. Therianthropy? Like from a kid's book? Are you telling me- that you can turn into an animal?"
Jason simply nods.
I see my college, standing tall amongst the sun that has almost completely dissolved on the horizon.
Before us- the town exit.
I pick up my speed.
"No. You are bullshitting me. It's your fault I'm in this car with you, running for my life. Stop fucking telling me lies."
He attempts respond, when suddenly from the perpendicular road, where cars yielded to my street, headlights flash from the passenger window, causing us both to flinch.
Jason tries to yell out-
"ALEX-THEY'RE GOING TO-"
My body is wrung against my seat belt as a vehicle rams into my car.
I lose control of the vehicle, my hands blindly going at the steering wheel. We spin out, and the vehicle violently meets with a building.
There were no airbags in the aged vehicle, so my head is thrown into the steering wheel, causing a detrimental dance of stars to flash before my eyes.
I reach for the door handle, I weakly thrust my door open.
I unclip my seatbelt, and stumble out of the car, the world whirling around me in a in-comprehensive blur.
Losing my footing, I scrap painfully onto the cement on my chest.
From across the street, I spot a large postage box, and crawl towards it.
I grip the cool metal, and lean my shaking back against it. My limbs ached. A headache pounded maliciously against my skull. I grit my teeth.
I look back to what was the wreckage of my car.
The entire hood had been dented and smashed in by the impact of the building.
Glass from the passenger side window lay strewn over the cement, sparkling lightly in the illumination of the street lamps.
I see the figure of Jason, as he climbs out of the vehicle, his body landing on the cement.
Blood was splattered over his white shirt. Cuts from glass shards lay carved onto his face like morbid tattoos.
The vehicle that had hit us: a large black van, was parked several yards away.
The doors set at the back of the van are thrown open, and men and women dressed in black spill out into the night air in uniform fashion.
Their weapons aim towards the wreckage.
Jason was pinned. He sits with his back against the side of the car. I see his chest heaving labored breaths.
There was nowhere he could possibly escape to. He would have to surrender.
My hands tremble as I grip the postage box, leaning my body out of the sight of the armed men and women.
Jason then does something I did not expect. He stands.
Looking more closely, I realize something unnatural was happening to his body.
My breath is caught in my throat as his muscles press out against his shirt, tearing it. His body swells, his legs ripping his jeans, his feet outgrowing his shoes.
I hear Jason let out a deep growl that sends a tremor of cold through my body.
Brown hair sprouts over his growing mass. His face and jaw crack open as a short muzzle forms against his facial features. I glare in horrified dismay as thick horns curve out of his skull, glinting wickedly in the lights around him.
Where Jason had once stood, a hulking humanoid bull stood at at least 6"4', Jason's tarnished clothing laying in tatters around the mass of its body.
Jason bolts from the shelter of the wrecked vehicle, directly at the incoming threat.
