Because You Exist(29)

“Josephine. Look...”

“Save it, Staus Quo. I’ll see you the next time we shift.”

Did she need a friend?

I watched her leave. I didn’t stop her. I wanted to tell her that maybe we were friends. That I was sorry I wasn’t like her. I wanted to tell her to stop making me think there was something wrong with my relationship with Jenna. But as the hallways became more and more crowded, I didn’t say anything at all.

“Look’s like there’s trouble in paradise,” someone yelled to me as I hurried to class.





Chapter 16





I made a promise to myself as I sat in the bathroom stall waiting for the shift to do its thing—whenever I found out who was doing this, choosing to make us shift whenever it suited his needs, I was going to kick him right in the balls. If it turned out to be a woman, I’d punch her straight in the boob. Like I said, you can’t call me sexist.

I was pissed because less than twenty-four hours after almost being tortured and killed by a bunch of freak plague survivors, I was once again shifting. My body was still sore from my last adventure, and who knew what awaited Josephine and me on this trip. Not to mention I had a football game to prepare for.

Apparently, there are some things more important than going to State.

With a frustrated grunt, I let the shift consume me. I didn’t fight the vision and hearing loss. I let the darkness have its way.

When I awoke I didn’t waste much time washing the blood off my face. It’s not like I had anyone to impress in this world. Josephine was probably still pissed, and unless the plague survivors were really lonely, I didn’t think they would care much how I looked either. Besides, something seemed fitting about my face being marked with blood.

Ready for battle.

Josephine was waiting for me at the school entrance with her hood pulled up. It was going to be a long day. Or hour. Or minute. However long those in charge decided we needed to be there.

Like I said...much punching would be done.

“Where shall we explore today? I’m not packing a gun, so maybe we stay close to the school?” Josephine asked dryly.

“Lead away,” I replied.

Josephine stuffed her fists in her pockets and walked ahead of me.

“How was..”

“I swear, Logan, if you ask me how my day was, I’ll punch you right in your pretty, little face.”

“You know that’s the second time you’ve told me I’m pretty?” I replied, jogging to catch up with her.

Josephine turned on me. “I’m not Jenna.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m not her. You can’t use your charm to make your jackass behavior less jackass like.”

“I wasn’t trying to—”

“Of course you were. I’m all you got here. So, of course you’d try to make nice once we shifted. I knew you would. But you could at least be a little more subtle about it.” Josephine continued to walk, though backwards so she could face me as she belittled and shamed me.

“Listen, Josephine. I know you have this I don’t care about school politics attitude,” I began.

“You think I don’t care? I care. I care probably more than most. Definitely more than you—”

“There you are little shifter”

Before I could move to protect Josephine, a survivor appeared and grabbed her by the arm, spinning her around to face him. Her eyes widened just as his arm swung back and he punched her squarely in the eye. Josephine fell against the wall, knocking her head and crumpling to the floor.

I stumbled backwards. There wasn’t much time to decide—stay and attempt to fight this crazed man and help Josephine or run for my life? Being the faster thinker, the survivor leapt towards me and tackled me to the ground. He sat on my back and pressed my face against the dusty floor. A position I was getting used to finding myself in. I craned my neck, struggling to see if Josephine was all right, but she was still unconscious.

“You dumbasses. You think we wouldn’t figure out your starting point? Two teenagers? I mean come on. We found you a mile from here.”

I pushed with all of my strength and managed to shove the man off me. The survivor scrambled to his feet and began to laugh. I was still on my ass, but at least he wasn’t on top of me. This was the first time I could really look at him. He was one of the men from before.

We had been stupid. Only three of them had chased us. When we first met the survivors there were four of them. This man must have stayed out of the hunt, and now he had tracked us down for revenge.

“I got some friends who want to see you two pay, but I’m not really into sharing though. I want the light one. I want the light one. I want the light one.” The man wiped a hand across his mouth as if the very thought of conquering us caused him to drool.