He ran.
He ran, leaving Nathan's bag behind. His uneven footsteps splashed through the puddles as he rushed down the empty street. His injured arm was throbbing with every movement.
The creature lunged and stood infront of him. Like there was no way she would let her prey escape.
He stopped abruptly, breathing heavily, his mind completely blank. The blood from his wounded arm dripped steadily onto the pavement.
She staggered where she stood, body cracking and shifting like the transformation hadn't fully settled.
He felt like he was out of choices. He already tried running once. He couldn't bring himself to try that again. He didn't even know how he was supposed to feel.
He had no memories of anyone to miss.
No memory of anyone who would miss him.
No one who would cry over his dead body.
Tears started falling before he even realized it.
He held his bleeding arm against his chest as his shoulders shook.
She took a wobbly step towards him. The boy stepped back.
His heels hit something behind him and he stumbled slightly.
She lunged forward at him. Aiming at his face again.
He threw himself sideways as the claws slashed through the air where his face had been a second earlier. He fell hard onto the wet pavement. Pain shot through his injured arm.
He tried to push himself up but the ground seemed to tilt beneath him. His vision blurred. His stomach twisted painfully. He was losing a lot of blood.
He stayed on the ground. He knew if he tried to stand up he would lose consciousness completely.
The boy dragged himself backward across the wet pavement, his palms slipping on the rain soaked road. Pain burned through his injured arm with every movement.
Warm blood continued to mix with the rain water and the wet pavement beneath him...leaving a trail behind him. He was feeling faint.
She followed slowly, leaning on walls as body still shifted and bones cracked. One shoulder jerked unnaturally with every step, as if it hadn't fully settled into it's new form yet.
She kept walking slow, small staggering steps ...stepping on the thin trail of blood. Then her foot came down directly into a dark puddle on the pavement. A puddle of rainwater with the boy's blood.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Then the creature twitched.
Violently.
Her leg jerked back as if the ground had burned it.
A strange, broken sound escaped her throat.
The creature staggered, claws scraping across the pavement as she tried to steady herself.
The blood that had splashed onto her claws began to smear across her skin.
The cracking sounds grew louder. The creature clawed wildly at its own arm, as if trying to scrape something off.
The boy froze, staring in confusion and terror.
He didn't understand what was happening.
The creature staggered again, and stepped into another streak of blood he had left behind.
Its body twisted violently, letting out a distorted shriek.
The boy could only stare.
His head felt light.
The world around him seemed to tilt slightly as he struggled to breath. He tried to push himself back again, but his strength was fading.
The creature was still shrieking and cracking.
Then....
Bang..bang...
Gunshots echoed down the empty street.
The creature's body jerked as the bullet struck it, sending it crashing across the wet road.
The boy flinched. He just stayed there on the pavement, his breathing slowing all of a sudden.
Footsteps approached. He slowly lifted his head off the ground.
Willow stood a few steps away. The gray sky behind her made her almost look like a dark silhouette..
The boy stared at her, his vision getting more blurry and more dark.
He didn't know what to feel. Relief....Guilt...Fear....
She said something.
But he couldn't make out the words. His strength was fully drained from his body.
She slowly approached him and crouched infront of him, saying something....again.
His ears rang softly, and her voice sounded distant and blurred.
The last thing he saw was her blurry face infront of him.
Then everything went black.