A few Months Before:

SHADOW'S P.O.V:

Some people would think falling asleep in the middle of the forest—completely disoriented and unaware of your surrounds— is a result of drinking a little too much the previous night. I, on the other hand, don't see it that way.

It's usually a sign that I killed someone.

Waking up like this, soaking in the blood of a stranger, is something I feared might happen quite often. To be exact, every sunset that paranoia crept into my bones like a bad cold.

For a lot of people, sunrise meant the start of a new day, but for me and my three friends, it meant something completely different.

This all started around five years ago when my friends and I pissed off a witch. In my defense, I didn't know she was a witch and I didn't think she would seek revenge by casting some weird curse on us for what we did.

"Love and compassion does not live in your hearts. You are vain and egoistic. For that, you will learn from your mistakes."

At that point, I was about fifteen years old. Unlike other freshmen, I was the first to make it on to varsity football team at my high school. What else did she expect from me?

Of fucking course I had a big ego. But it wasn't like I was walking around campus as if I had a ten foot long cock. I knew my limits - and I had my jokes. My signature, if you would call it.

Most would say she was the one at fault for being stupid enough to believe I had untapped potential underneath my jersey.

Sadly, after the curse was set there was no way I could reverse it unless I followed her ludicrous instructions of "finding a cure" before I turned twenty-one.

I stacked up on vitamin pills and fish oil capsules, assuming that calcium and minerals was what she meant by "a cure."

My best friend Dario was the one to crack the code. I could eat all the Flintstone gummies I wanted, but they wouldn't get me any closer to be cured.

In translation, I had to make someone like me for something other than my looks. She did slightly go easy on us, if you ask me. The curse was only set for the daytime. Whenever the moon was out, we were back to our old selves, or at least to some extent. Despite the placement of the sun, I could always call upon my beast within during the nighttime. It was like I was a coin, more than a light switch. There were two faces to me, and the ability to go back and forth only became possible during the appearance of the sun in the sky.

Because most people would freak the fuck out at the sight of all consuming fire beast roaming the streets of a populous city, I stayed in a more rural area until I was allowed to rejoin the rest of the world.

But this time when I returned to my normal body, it was different.

There was blood.

And there was a body.

The blood was everywhere. It soaked into my skin and bathed into my clothes. I flattened my palms against my bloodstained shirt. The material stuck to my body, foul with the smell of death all around me. The stench coated the roof of my mouth, making it hard to breathe.

My spine curved as I hunched over this human beside me. She looked to be in her late teens, a college student perhaps. Far too young to die. Her flesh was still warm to the touch. The color of her lips were just beginning to pale, matching the blue complexion of the moon above our heads. I ran my hand over her cheek. A brush of blood followed my finger's path. Most likely hers. I couldn't see any cuts on my own hands.

I froze when her bruised lips parted. "S...Shadow... Where am I?"

She knew my name. Not a nickname, but my real name....fuck, how much did I tell her?

My mind went spinning in circles, piecing together my last moments. She knew my name... However, I did not know hers. I wasn't necessarily disconnected from myself when I was a creature. I spoke like a human and had the mannerism of a human. And despite having random spikes of anger, I still acted like myself as well. My memory of what I did in the daytime would not resurface until later on into the night. It took about three hours for it to all rush back to me. I never did anything bad. I still had my humanity intact.

Or at least I think I did.

My breathing became shallow, watching as her face drained of any life. I cupped the girls face, causing my fingers to get tangled in her raven locks as I looked deep into her brown eyes. "It looks like we're in the Redwood forest."

Redwood National Park was where I typically ran off to when I needed privacy. I had my own special spot where no one bothered me. When sunset occurred, I would return to my human form and go back home. Back to civilization.

She shook her head. When she opened her mouth again this time, only air came out. No sound reached me whatsoever. I watched in silence as the last bit of life drained out of her face. There was nothing I could do but witness her death, unfolding right before me.

. . .

My brothers were disappointed in me, to say the least. In all the years since the curse first hit us, I was the only one to spill blood — and now, another name would join the list. After tonight, there would definitely be new rules placed for us.

When I arrived home with stained fingers, blood caked into my hair, and a blank expression to match, they knew something was up. Before sunrise, we had all of our belongings packed and piled into the van. Dario, the second youngest brother, contacted a warlock to deal with the death. They could easily clean up the mess I had caused without anyone linking it back to me. Warlocks and witches infamously hated each other -- so there were quite a few we knew who found pity in our cure. We could get this patched up before lunch time.

Dario turned to me during our drive. It was too risky to take a plane so we would be taking our tented van across the country.

"You can't slip up like that again." Dario's jaw was clenched and his eyes were narrowed. "This can't happen for a second time."

"It won't." I promised. "It was an accident."

"Did you know the girl at all?"

My memory had only partially returned to me. "All I know is that her name started with a G. Gabby, Gwen, Gwendy, Gwendolyn, Gigi...The list can go on and on."

"Anything else?"

"I recall her acting a little odd at some points of our conversation. I think she might've been on drugs or something."

"I'm lost," Warner pipped in from the back. "Did you meet her during the night? It sounded like you were talking to her in your daytime form at first."

I shook my head, hoping that I could rattle out the answers in the process. "I don't think she saw me as fire."

"Then what killed her?"

"I'm trying to figure that out myself."

"Did she look burned?"

"Was her skin flamed off the bones?" Nolan inquired. "Were there any bite marks on her? Did you eat her, too?"

"Fuck, what kind of animal do you think I am?" I dropped my head into my hands, praying that the spinning would subside. All of these prodding questions and accusations made me feel more nauseous than when I had seen the dead body to begin with.

"I didn't fucking eat her, Nolan, okay? I'm not that much of a monster that I can't remember if I devoured my victims."

"Victim?" Warner echoed. "So, you're admitting you killed her?"

"I'm..."

Words failed to leave my lips. Only air came out when I decided to speak.

"More important question is," Nolan began, "was she naked?"

I immediately slapped the back of his head.

"Whaaat?" He shouted. "It's a valid question."

"She's dead, dipshit." I seethed. "It's not like I was staring at her tits the entire time. She was dying. You need to start thinking with your actual head and not the other one. Everything isn't about sex."

"But it is." He challenged. "If it wasn't for sex, none of us would be alive. Sex is the creation of life and all divine beings. Without it--"

"Stop trying to sound philosophical and shit." Dario huffed.

"Yeah," I chimed in, "Quit acting like you see it as some spiritual, grand thing. You see it as an activity or a pastime."

Nolan rolled his eyes. "We all know you're just jealous cause you can't fuck anyone without possibly shish-kaboobing them on accident. I used to think coming too early was the worst possible thing to happen during sex...but then I met you. Burning someone to death has got to be a major mood killer."

I swallowed the bile building up in the back of my throat. The car erupted in laughter, but I remained as still as a stone. Parts of the night before reappeared in my mind, flickering like a film, and I couldn't help but hate myself for realizing the reason as to why I had gone to the woods with that girl.

To find my cure.

. . . . . .

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