Page 19 of Forget Me Not
“Please!” Bas called out desperately. “Please, wait!”
He stopped again and scanned the woods with the mausoleum at his back, praying she was close enough to hear. A twig snapped just ahead and he threw his hands up, crouching down to make himself seem as non-threatening as possible.
“Please, I’m not here to hurt you.” He took a few tentative steps forward. “You’re…You’re Syve, aren’t you?”
Syve
“Please!Please,wait!”
Syve hesitated, steps slowing a fraction, but did not stop threading through the pines. She hadn’t noticed that she was being followed.
“Please, I’m not here to hurt you. You’re…you’re Syve, aren’t you?”
Deer, meet headlights. Slowly she turned her head until she could see a familiar man standing just inside the tree line, crouched low with his arms raised like he was approaching a scared animal. Which, she realized, he technically was.
Recognitiondawned on her and she tentatively took a few steps back toward Timberfall. It was the man from The Glass—the one Aimi said worked at Hal’s.
Syve was beyond baffled at this point—how did he know? Why was he here? How did he know hername? Why did he follow her? How was any of this possible? Why was she a fucking deer right now? How was he not freaking out too?
He knew.
He knew.
But how?
Was he like this too? Did he share the secret like her parent’s friends? But…her parents’ friends had been killed over this. Was he dangerous?
“Syve, I won’t hurt you. You’re freaking out right now, aren’t you? I can see it in your eyes.”
He kept talking softly, but stopped trying to come closer. That was probably because she had unwittingly closed the gap by another three feet on her own, she realized. Syve turned her head, effectively giving him as much of a side eye as her current form could manage. She decided to listen for one more minute, if he didn’t say anything convincing, she would resume the flight portion of her emergency response.
“It’s not safe to shift in town, so either you have no control, or you are in danger. Based on our previous encounters, I’m going to put my money on the former?”
This garnered him her full attention. He noticed and continued, “Are you in danger?”
Syve shook her head frantically and when his face lit up, she realized she had officially blown her cover.
“Good. That’s good. And you can understand me. That’s also good.” Relief flooded his features, his body relaxing so wholly he almost looked like he was going to sink to his knees. She took another step closer.
Why did she do that?
“Alright. Let’s start with the easy questions. Is that okay?” he asked gently, never taking his cool, gray eyes off hers.
She mentally calculated the chances she could outrun this man if he was indeed a threat, and stopped walking completely when they were a stone’s throw apart. The odds were in her favor, as long as he was unarmed…She shook her head to keep herself from spiraling into another full-blown panic attack, which more or less just shook her entire body. Human reactions and movements did not seem to translate one-to-one with her animal body. With that in mind she concentrated on her movements to deliberately nod.
“Yes, yes? Yes! Okay!” The man sighed, running his hands through his wavy black hair as he stared at nothing in particular—she could almost see the wheels turning in his mind.
“Would I be correct in assuming that you have no control?”
Another nod.
“You shifted on accident then…Can you shift back?”
She aggressively shook her head ‘no’ and he sighed.
“Will you let me help?” He stepped forward and she immediately retreated. “Okay, okay. I’ll stay right here.”
She nodded.
