Prologue

Honour

Where are we?

There's no clues for me discern.

The only sight is black aside from the orange red glow beyond our eyelids.

The only sound the rush of blood in our ears.

Smell. What is that smell? There's earth, we're used to that. But what else? It's sweet, but not to eat. It makes me think of colors. We don't see colors often. It bring to mind the color of Carla's hair clip. The one with the plants, what did she call them? Purple flowers. She called it wist.. something. Wisteria? Yeah, purple wisteria.

'Hetty, are you there?'

Silence. It's deafening. Painfully so.

'Herietta!'

Panic consumes me. I've never been alone like this.

I should open my eyes.

The light, it's blinding. I blink the sting away. Something isn't right. I feel weak, and cold. I'm never cold in my form. Ok Honour, think. What's the last thing you remember? Think. Think. Think.

We were in the white room.

Dr. Krauft had just checked our straps.

He said it'd only be a pinch.Carla had just walked in, she gave him a syringe. She soothed us when she saw our panic. Her sympathetic eyes put us at ease. "You'll feel much better once you wake up." Hetty was confused, but I knew what they were trying to do. I heard them talking while she was asleep. This wasn't going to be good.

Dr Krauft lifted the syringe up and it glinted in the bright lights. It wasn't just a glint though, it shimmered. Why did it shimmer? He tapped the inside of Hetty's forearm and Carla wiped the spot with alcohol, the smell burned Hetty's nose.

'Honour' Hetty called out to me.

'I'm here' Dr Krauft pushed the needle into her skin and plunged the simmering liquid into our veins.

'Do you know what's going on?'

Before I could answer all I saw was black.

No. They couldn't have. How?I snap our eyes open and call to Hetty again.

'Please be here Hetty, I can't live without you.'

Nothing.

I stare at the blue sky above through the leaves of the trees overhead. I start to become aware of what is around me. I hear insects. Eli called them cicadas. How did I not hear them before? Their chirps consume the air around me. I look to the left and see the flowers Carla had in her hair, only they're bigger. They hang from the branches of a tree just as they hung from her clip. I try to roll over to get up. I've never controlled Hetty's body before, it's awkward.

As I become more aware of everything I start to feel an itch under the surface. Pins and needles trying to push through Hetty's skin.

I know this feeling, we're about to shift, switching to my form, my body. I hold it off as I get my bearings.

I hear a car. Help!

I run as fast as Hetty's legs can carry me. We can run faster if we shift. I push the shift forward as I keep moving us towards the sound, I get to the treeline just as the shift takes over.

Blinding pain fills all my senses. I push the pain away in my mind and see the road. It's a small road weaving through the dense forest.

I'm blinded again as pain eats away at me. This is bad, worse than the first time we shifted to keep Krauft away from beating Evie for growling. Bones snap and shift. Our face morphs. Teeth and claws grow and hair starts to sprout. I can feel the end of the shift nearing as I hear a car approach. And then black.