Under The Moon. (Chapter 3)

Shawn looked in the mirror. A black button up shirt hugged his arms and chest a little tighter than it used to. Shawn wasn’t exactly a fashion guru, but even he couldn’t help but admire his reflection. He had really filled out… His mom would’ve been proud. Shawn stifled a shaking smile.

Oh hey Annie, your son is doing great. I mean, he’s having nightmares about werewolves and he’s probably going to be expelled for losing control and crippling a classmate… but he looked great in a button up.

He eyed the clock. The party started at seven, but he wanted to be fashionably late.

It was 7:05… Good enough.

He slipped into a comfortable pair of Nike’s and jumped down the stairs.

Shawn paused and looked back. There were easily 13 steps between his room and the living room. He had only intended to skip a few steps but… 13?

“What is happening to me?” Shawn whined. He glanced over at his stepfather. Steve was still passed out, but the pizza box was gone and Max was in his cage. Shawn shook his head and headed for the door, grabbing the Porsche keys as he passed by.

Brian was already waiting by the car when he got outside. He was… not as well dressed as Shawn was. Only Brian would own a Hawaiian shirt.

“Dude, where were you today?” Brian asked, tossing his hands up in confusion.

“I got suspended”

“What?”

“Yeah… Probably expelled”

“For what? The fight?”

“No, an overdue library book” Shawn spat.

“Jesus bro…” Brian said, shaking head.

“And what the fuck do you think you’re doing with my car?” Shawn froze.

“Oh” Brian ducked behind the Porsche.

“Hey, brat, what are you doing with my keys?” Shawn turned and saw his stepfather standing in the doorway.

“I think you mean my Porsche” Shawn didn’t have to look around… He knew the gruff voice was back. “Not again” he said to himself.

“What?” the drunk asked. Shawn didn’t have time.

“Brian, get in the car” Shawn ordered.

“Brian, you stay right there” his stepfather barked.

“Dude, I’m not trying to get in trouble”

“Get in the fucking car” Shawn could almost feel his eyes get bigger as the gruff voice screamed from his throat. A look of pure fear took over Brians face as he stumbled to get into the Porsche.

“If you take that car, I’ll call the cops” Shawn turned to his stepfather. His heartbeat started to race.

“Oh yeah?” the gruff voice said.

Please stop. Shawn begged to himself.

He has it coming…

“Get inside you fucking brat” Shawn felt his legs carry him towards his father.

“No, you get inside” Shawn saw his stepfathers eyes grow wide as Shawn lifted him up and threw him through the door.

His heartbeat slowed.

“Shit…” he whispered. He turned back and was greeted by Brian’s shocked face.

The drive to Angel’s house was an awkward one. Quiet and tense. Occasionally Brian would take a deep breath and open his mouth to say something, but then he would close it and shake his head. As they pulled up the long driveway of Angel’s mansion, Shawn tore through his mental dictionary, begging for a combination of words that would make it okay. As he parked the Porsche, he took a deep breath and turned Brian, but his friend cut him off.

“Listen, Shawn. I don’t know what the hell happened back there, and why you were doing your Christian Bale impression… But I kinda want you to stay away from me tonight… Okay?” and Brian leapt out of the car and nervously hopped away.

The party was awkward after that. People were coming up to him and treating him like royalty. Girls were smiling and giggling at every word he said, flashing their eyelids faster than a broken strobe light.

Just yesterday, all of this attention would have made him happy… But now all he could see was the mixed fear and disappointment in Brian’s eyes. He felt a cold hand on his arm and jumped.

“Whoa Shawn, chill” and for the first time, Shawn saw a hint of the infamous “Ew, what is that thing” glare on Angel Mercury’s face.

“Sorry Angel, your skin is icy cold”. She pouted at him.

“Then maybe you should come warm it up” A band of cat calls and “Bow chicka wow wows” exploded as she took his hand and lead him up the stairs to a bedroom and locked the door.

She pushed him onto the bed and crawled on top of him. The moment he had been dreaming of for years. Her provocative body sprawled out on top of him, her impressive cleavage pressed up against his chest as her lips approached his. He took a deep, shaky breath and closed his eyes and…

The girl he saw was not Angel.

When Shawn closed his eyes, he saw the girl from the dream. Except she wasn’t tied to a chair in a broken down cabin, she wasn’t screaming or crying. She was laughing. Perfect teeth reflected the light of the sun of a beautiful day. Her chocolate eyes weren’t cold or strong, they were warm and open.

Shawn’s eyes shot open.

No dream girl, just his dream girl, inches away from him, lips puckered. Shawn felt confused, guilty. Suddenly all of the attraction to Angel was gone. He felt nothing for her. Actually, he began to feel uncomfortable. He was about to say something when she pressed her lips to his. He tried to resist but she moaned a rebuttal and pushed his hands by his side.

Shawn briefly wondered how the scene would go down if he tried to tell the police that the head cheerleader had raped him…

Something told him they wouldn’t sympathize.

“It mmf!” He moaned. She briefly separated her face from his.

“Huh?” she gasped. Shawn opened his mouth to speak but noticed that somehow Angel had managed to remove her shirt. His eyes briefly wandered before he shook his head.

“I-… uh” he stuttered. She gave him a confused look. “I gotta go” he said before he tossed her off of him and inched off the bed.

“What?” she spat, suddenly furious and… quite frightening.

“I just… don’t like you that way” he said unsurely. In the last twenty-four hours, someone else had used his mouth to talk, but he was more surprised by the words slipping from between his teeth now. “So… I gotta go”. He turned his head and heard a scream that rivaled the roar of the beast from his nightmare, and then a lamp shattered on the wall next to his head.

“Get back here you freak” She screamed. Following his instincts, Shawn slammed the door and jumped down the stairs. His sudden arrival made the surrounding partiers jump and mutter.

“Did he just jump all of those stairs?” He heard a girl say.

“Yeah… Hey isn’t that the kid who beat up Ryan Williams?”

“Yeah, John something”

“Shawn! Get back here!” the scream shook him from his eavesdropping haze. Angel Mercury was running down the stairs… Still shirtless. Shawn burst through the front door, passing the sounds of girls slapping their boyfriends. He ran down the driveway, trying his hardest to get away from the suddenly violent object of his dreams. Shawn hit a gear he didn’t know he had, running faster than he ever had… consciously. He couldn’t make out the shapes of cars or startled teenagers as he bolted by. He felt great.

Gotta love this power.

And for once, he didn’t disagree with the voice. He just ran faster and faster until… He tripped over something soft. He slammed into the ground, getting a mouthful of gravel and dirt. Slowly he lifted himself up, groaning and spitting in an attempt to clean himself. He glanced up. He was surprised how far he had ran, he was near where he had parked his Porsche. Then Shawn heard it. Then Shawn heard the noise.

It sounded like really raspy breath, or a heavy door opening in an empty house. He nearly broke his neck scanning the area for the source, until he identified it as the thing he had tripped over. It looked like someone was drunk already. Shawn rolled his eyes.

He walked over and flipped the drunk over.

It was a kid around his age. His face was swollen and bruised, his nose was out of place, he was missing teeth, and bleeding from his mouth. His arms were clutching his ribs as he rocked back and forth. His Hawaiian shirt was covered in blood. Wait… Hawaiian shirt.

“Brian!” Shawn screamed as he managed to identify the frail being before him. Brian tried to talk but he started coughing up blood and saliva. “Holy shit, Brian, what happened?” Brian furrowed his eyebrows as if to say, Hey Shawn, I can’t fucking talk. “Right” Shawn responded to the facial expression. He patted down his pockets… His phone, it must’ve fallen out in Angel’s room. “We have to get you to the hospital”. Shawn picked up his best friend, Brian practically screamed as his fresh wounds were pressed against Shawn’s firm muscle. He placed him in the Porsche and sped off for the closest hospital. There’s no way this night could get any worse.