Premature Metamorphosis

Chapter 11

"Come on Hunter, you need to get up. You don't want to be late for school, do you?"

Hunter simply buried his face further in the pillow, pulling the sheets tighter around himself, ignoring his mother's attempts to try and get him up out of bed.

Evelyn sighed. "C'mon now, I know you're tired but you've been so good at getting up for school again! What happened?"

Hunter yet again ignored her, only giving her a frustrated whine. God, why did Caleb have to leave for work so early today! She could really use the help right about now!

She looked over at the clock on her bedside table. It had been fifteen minutes since Hunter was supposed to have gotten up. They really were going to be late if they didn't hurry things along.

"Hunter, what's the matter?" She tried, leaning her arms on the mattress and then her chin on top of those. "I know things have been difficult lately, is this something to do with that?"

He shifted slightly so one eye could peek up at her. Those eyebags he'd gotten while at Philip's house although they looked better, still hadn't completely faded. No wonder with how God-awful his sleep schedule had been as of late.

"If you wanted to talk about it, you wouldn't have to go to school. We could stay here and have a little chat?" She offered

Suddenly, all of his opposition had magically vanished and he was up out of bed and walking rather quickly back to his own room just like she'd been trying to get him to do for the past fifteen minutes. Who knew it could be so easy?

Evelyn sighed with a worried frown and followed after him.

She entered Hunter's room, now eerie after not having been in proper use for so long, feeling like some kind of liminal space that had been left behind. Hunter was sat on the edge of the big armchair, pointedly avoiding looking at her, his knee bouncing up and down as he clutched Flapjack close just like usual.

Evelyn grabbed his school shirt from where it had been hung on the closet door, and just as she would any other day, she reached for his pyjama shirt to help him take it off.

Though, instead of his usual compliance, he whined and pulled away from her, trying to swat her hand away with a poorly concealed look of terror. Immediately, his words from last night came to mind and began to play over and over again in her mind like a broken record, taunting her. Her stomach dropped.

"Do you want to do it yourself?" She offered, hating that there may be a possibility that she had made him think she'd been planning on doing something so disgusting. He shook his head at her offer. "Then you've got to let me do it, baby. I'm just changing your shirt, okay?"

With a high-pitched squealing sound as if he were about to start crying, he slid himself out of the chair and onto the floor before backing himself away until he hit the wall, frantically shaking his head with his eyes screwed tightly shut.

Evelyn bent down to try and pull him back up again but he kicked out at her, smacking her away with surprising amounts of violence. "No! No no no no no!"

"Come on now, we've got to—"

He cut her off with a shout, something so uncharacteristic from the usual quiet, calm boy she was so used to. "I don't want to go!"

"Why not?"

Out of nowhere, he burst into tears, burying his face in Flapjack's soft plush as he heaved great big sobs filled with all the weight he could no longer carry.

"You need to go to school, baby." She sighed.

He choked on his sobs, tears dripping down his face, flushed red with emotion and he whipped his head back and forth, quick and harsh to the point where Evelyn worried he might make himself sick from dizziness.