Part-Time Griffin

Armed

The rainstorm is officially on its way out, but that only means that it is raining somewhere else now.
Diesel flies by my side. We pump our wings as we surge toward Roxanne's house.
Earlier, when I had still been stuck in my friend's basement, I overheard Roxanne talking with my parents. She explained to them that I was going to spend the night with her. But she failed to mention that I would be locked in her basement the entire time.
I briefly tell Diesel about how I won't be able to return to my house later, unless I want my parents to start asking questions. My parents still know nothing of my nighttime adventures with a pegacorn. I hope they never find out.
Roxanne's house becomes visible through the clearing clouds. It's the same as when I left it. Dark, uninhabited.
"Okay, they're not here yet. Let's go see if we can find out anything about the man who's blackmailing them." I tell Diesel who seems unsure.
He snorts, "Now that I think about it... this isn't thought through well. Thea- I mean Olivia- a lot has happened to tonight already. You got kidnapped by someone who you thought was your best friend, and watching townhall get partway destroyed..."
"Correction: Roxanne kidnapped me because she thought I would tell someone and therefore would endanger myself along with her family." I explain as we dive downward.
"You can coat it with sugar, but she kidnapped you instead of trying to work things out." He objects.
A second later, our feet hit the ground. My always clumsy landing causes me to slide in the freshly made mud. My talons and claws immediately bury themselves into anything they can cling onto. I stop sliding as soon as they sink into solid ground.
"Let's stay in this form. None of them will know it's us, if we happen to be seen." I say as we slink toward the house.
Shaking his head, Diesel whispers, "How will we get inside like this? By the way, both of our feet out covered in mud, and you didn't happen to leave the door unlocked, did you?"
We are hidden in the depths of a large group of trees. Roxanne's house can be spotted through the trees' trunks.
I narrow my eyes, "There's a spare key under the third stepping stone in the back yard."
As if by coincidence or sheer bad luck, a van without headlights rolls up to the house's driveway, but stops there. Three figures dressed in black jump out.
A growl rises out of my throat, "Diesel, we're too late."
The van silently leaves. The three figures who are probably Roxanne and her two brothers walk up their driveway and toward their garage.
"Come on. We can make it across the yard without them seeing us. Human's can't see in this darkness." I tell Diesel who is still by my side.
A quick jump sends me out of the woods and across the yard. The three figures have no idea of the creature near them.
They arrive at the garage and a motion-censored light flickers on.
Seriously?!
The light shines across the yard, and catches Diesel and I in its full brightness. The three heads jerk in our direction.
"There's those things again!" An angered and intimidating voice speaks from one of the three.
I instantly recognize it as Roxanne's oldest brother, Kyle. Though I can't see his face, I know his voice.
I open my wings to make myself seem threatening. Diesel follows my lead. For the first time ever, I watch Diesel open his jaws and neigh. Not the cute, sweet kind. No, the loud threatening kind that makes you have nightmares. His long fangs extend outward like a snake's.
Two of the three dark figures pull rifles out from over their shoulders. The third, who most likely is Roxanne, retreats to the house in order to avoid what might come next.
Diesel and I duck right before bullets explode over us. I expect to hear loud earsplitting gunshots, but I glance up and notice that silencers have been added to the guns' barrels. A small pop still signifies that a deadly weapon is being used.
One has their sights on Diesel while the other is trained on me. I weave back and forth trying to avoid being shot by my attacker. My eyes glance over at the other armed figure as I watch him point his rifle at Diesel who still thinks that my attacker is trained on him.
Everything slows down as my back legs spring me off the ground and in front of my friend. My back faces the shooters as my I lock eyes with Diesel.
Pain erupts in my back like a volcano. The intensity courses through my whole entire body. A tearing, biting, stinging sensation strikes me before I even hit the ground.
"Let's get out of here!" I hear Diesel shout at me, but my mind doesn't interpret it properly.
I struggle up and barely run despite the pain that has overcome me, because I don't want to die there on my friend's front lawn. Primitive survival instincts fill me, giving me the urgency to run and not be killed like an animal.
I finally stop fleeing when I am safely back in the woods. But nothing seems important or meaningful at the moment. All I feel is pain. It surges from my shoulder and racks my body. Tears roll down my griffin face.
I'm a sixteen year old girl. Such an amounts of pain is a completely foreign thing in my life. A certain extent can be endured, but only so much.
I don't remember falling to the ground. Instead, I find myself lying in the mud, reaching out as if trying to grab a remedy to my suffering.
Then without any further thought, I shift back to a human. The intense pain stabs me no less though. It only continues to reek. When I broke my wings many years ago it hurt, but this... this is torture!
Something warm is running over my shoulder and down my back. I at first don't feel it through the blinding, shocking pain. I smell it. Metallic, musky, salty, and unpleasant.
"Olivia! Where are you?" I hear Diesel as if he's just a background noise.
I am not exactly sure, but I think his name escapes my lips. Somehow, I'm not sure how, Diesel magically appears beside me. I stare up at him. Instead of seeing a black pegacorn, I see a teenage boy.
Lowering down on his knees, he slowly pulls me up into a sitting position, "Olivia... you... you're..."
He is the only thing holding me up right now. I watch him remove his hand from my back. It's completely red. I suck in a rough breath as a crashing wave of pain hits me once more. My eyes start to flutter shut.
"Stay awake. Don't let go."
Arms instantly wrap around me, and then I feel myself being carried. My head bumps against Diesel's bicep as he starts running.
I didn't think I would die today when I woke up this morning.
"Olivia, you're gonna be fine. You hear me? You'll be fine." His voice vibrates through his chest.
My eyes crack open and then they close again. Darkness envelopes me. The pain can not reach me when unconscious.
For the second time within twenty four hours, I black out.