Silent Heroes: Wildcat

Chapter 5: Dreams

If my face had been red before, while I was making a fool out of myself in front of Lucas, I could only imagine what it looked like now.  My cheeks felt like an inferno.  The heat reached all the way down past the collar of my shirt.  I could feel every set of eyes on me like they were drilling holes right through my skin.

"Holy crap," someone finally said, breaking the silence.

"How did you do that?" said another voice.

"Did you see what just happened?"

"Completely totaled her desk."

"Turned it into a pile of splinters."

The noise in the room was picking up, dozens of voices buzzing all at once.  People were staring at me and whispering behind their hands.

Only one person did not seem the least bit alarmed by what had just happened.  Lucas was still in his seat.  His long body was stretched out across two chairs, his left elbow hanging casually off the back of one, his legs crossed on top of another.  He was looking right at me through the crowd, his bright blue eyes locked onto mine, a faint smirk on his lips.

"All right, let's settle down, everyone."  My second period English teacher—a short, lively woman—bustled forward to examine the ruins of my desk.

"The wood must be going rotten," I wasn't sure if she was talking to me or herself.  "Termites, maybe.  Or just shoddy workmanship."

The desk looked perfectly fine from where I was standing. No evidence of rot or the network of holes that would suggest termites.

My English teacher was still talking, but her voice sounded muffled and quiet.  Like she was speaking through a glass wall.

"I said, are you all right, Eve?"

"What?  Oh yeah... sure..."

"Your hand is bleeding.  Why don't you go down to the office and have that looked at? I'll see if I can find another desk for you."

"Yeah, okay..."  I left the room as quickly as possible, keeping my face turned away from my fellow classmates.  I knew they were following my every move.

I didn't go to the office.  The thought didn't even cross my mind.  The second I got out the door, I started running.

The restless, almost uncontrollable energy I had been feeling all day seemed to explode out of me.  I sprinted as fast as I could across the school grounds, hardly conscious of where I was going or why.  I just knew I had to get away from this place.  Away from everyone.

I blasted across the parking lot.  Jumped a five foot fence in a single leap.  Shot past bewildered looking teachers and students so quickly they were nothing but brief flashes of colour.  I felt like my legs were moving twice as fast as usual.  Objects flew by me as if I was riding full speed on my bike.  It was like someone had hit the fast-forward button.

The school was far behind me before I had even fully registered what was going on.  I had no idea where I was going, but I didn't stop myself.  I wasn't even sure if I could.

 I jumped more fences and cut across people's lawns.  I ran uphill as quickly as I ran down.  Yesterday, riding my bike out in the rain, all this energy had seemed like fun.  Now it was about as much fun as a drill being run into the back of my head.  I had no control over it.  No matter how far or fast or hard I ran, it was never enough.

This time, it was not by choice that I stayed outside for hours.  It was like someone or something else was in command of my body.  I kept running as the day wore on, as the sun reached its peak and then began to drop lower and lower in the sky.  The shadows lengthened, the air cooled and I was still going full speed with no indications of stopping or even slowing my pace. 

I stayed out as the sun gradually disappeared over the horizon, painting the sky with streaks of orange and gold.  As the moon rose into the sky and the stars began to blink into existence.  I had no concept of time, no way to gauge how long I had been running.  I only knew that I was seriously pushing the limits of physical human endurance... and not even breaking a sweat.

In the end, somehow, finally, I found myself back home.

My mother immediately went into hysterics.  "Eve, where have you been?  It's almost midnight!  Your father's been out looking for you for hours!  He said there was some kind of incident at the school!"

"I'm fine, mom," I said in a blunt, impatient tone that sounded nothing like me.

"Where on earth were you?  Why did you disappear like that?"

"I was out, all right?" my voice was almost a snarl now.  "Get off my back, would you?"

"Eve, what is wrong with you?"

I didn't answer.  I walked straight past her and pounded upstairs to my room.  I heard wood crack when I slammed the door.

Inside, I paced up and down the floor like a caged animal.  I clenched and unclenched my fists.  Several times, I attempted to run my fingers through my hair in frustration, but they kept getting stuck and I'd have to yank them free again.  Before long, tangled wisps of brown and blond surrounded my face like a halo.

My mom came up and pounded on the locked door.  I snarled at her to go away.  When my father came home, he ordered me in his most commanding voice to unlock the door and come outside.  I snarled at him too.

They eventually left me alone and I stayed in my room, pacing until the small hours of the morning.  As time went by, reality began to blur.  My movements slowed and consciousness gave way to a restless sleep.

I dreamed that night of running through a strange, otherworldly forest.  Through a world of vivid greens and browns and exotic flowers in every eye smattering shade imaginable.  I saw colours I had never seen before.  Strange mixtures of blue and yellow, green and red.

My perspective of the world had shifted dramatically.  I was closer to the ground.  My peripheral vision had expanded, giving me a much broader view of the objects flashing by on either side of me.  My eyes were particularly drawn to movement.  The tiniest flick of a branch, the smallest twitch of every leaf, leapt out at me like a flashing beacon.

It came to my attention that I was chasing something.  It was small and quick, squealing in fear as I hurtled after it, my muscles contracting and releasing like coiled springs.  I was closing in fast, leaping over branches and making sharp turns whenever the creature changed direction.  My front paws were inches away from its haunches now.  I could smell the fear coming off of it.  To me, the scent was intoxicating.

The creature stumbled.  I seized my opportunity and pounced, teeth bared, claws extended, the taste of blood already strong in my mouth...