The Pain Of Their Presence - Sequel to Sound of Their Presence

Chapter Twenty One: Woof

Shane's POV

    I roam through the grassy grove in the midst of the park, in my alternate form. As a unicorn, my thoughts are not any less jumbled, but I can think of them in a different way. I can run freely, at speeds humans will never reach.

    Pacing, remmebering everything now. Almost everything, anyways. I know that I am still missing figments. But Cheyenne promised that Jillian would help fill me in, and then I would have a decision to makee. A big one, and I have no clue whatsoever what it may be. But before Cheyenne broke up Lysander's and my own fighting, she promised that on this night, in this exact spot in the park, she would bring my aunt at midnight so that we could all speak.

    Four in the morning, the sun already beginning to peek through some of the trees in the distant east. Still no Cheyenne or Jillian.

    Did they intentionally blow me off? I trust Cheyenne, through all we have been through. My fighting with Lysander was mostly jealousy. I don't know how to tell Cheyenne, let alone Kera. I was not truly fighting him in defense of Kera, although I tried to fight my emotions. In reality, I fought because I don't know how to get Cheyenne back.

    "Shane!" Cheyenne emerges from the tree line, tripping through the darkness, in her human form. Judging by the clothing clad to her pale skin, she ran here completely human, the entire distance. Then I see the blood, coating her arms and midriff. The white tank top and gray jeans she was wearing was thouroughly soaked in the sticky, thick redness.

    She shifts, so that I don't have to phase back.

    "Oh my God, what happened? Are you alright?" I think to her as soon as her horn is level with mine.

    "Sorry I am late. The blood isn't mine-"

     "Who did you kill?!" I misjudge the timing on my slight joke.

    "Not me, some random theif according to your cousin."

     "Is Tina alright?"

    Cheyenne nods her long, silvery unicorn face up and down, and I see how red her eyes are. The bobbing of her head doesn't hide the tears making their way out of her eyes.

    "Then who?"

    It takes a moment, but Cheyenne forces the image of my mind over our telepathic unicorn connection. But- I was supposed to see her tonight! She was supposed to help me remember- to help me understand!

    "Shane," Cheyenne starts- but there is growling from the horizon. Next thing either of us knows, an enormous wolf, as large as any full grown unicorn, bounds straight at us. "Stop!" Cheyenne attempts to make mental connection with the werewolf. The theory that the wolf is a shifter, therefor might telepathically connect, too . . . 

    The charcoal black wolf sits on it's wide haunches behind her.

    "Cheyenne?" I hear it's human voice in my own head. When we communicate, our thoughts have our actual voices inflected into our tones.

    "Lysander?" She thinks back.

    "What the f-"

    "But how?" Cheyenne continues. "I didn't think that werewolves- They- you are supposed to just be a legend. A myth, at that!"

    "So are unicorns!" Lysander responds, and looks at me. "So, what with the ex's meeting?"

    "How did you know?" I ask.

     "Not hard to tell, Shane," Lysander claims. "Especially when you go fighting because of jealousy. Anyways, you are hiding a lot from me, Cheyenne. I want an explanation."

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    We had to use clothing from my trailer and shift into our human forms because of the amount of time it takes to explain everything to Lysander. I mostly leave the details for Cheyenne to spell out.

     "Well that is all . . . really screwed up!" Lysander exclaims when Cheyenne has conluded.

    "As much as I would love to stay and chat with you two, I have some business to handle," I explain, as I turn and exit my own trailer, off to find Kera.