Reality overload

Ten minutes later, Lucas pulled into the strip‑mall parking lot, headlights washing over the storefronts. The pizza place was two miles away from the All‑Store.

"Alright," Nate said. "We'll grab the food. You get the dye."

"Text us if you need anything," Lucas added. "You sure you'll be okay?"

I nodded and stepped out into the warm night air. "Yes, Lucas, I'll be fine, jeez." I rolled my eyes as I shut the door with more force than I meant to, walking toward the entrance.

The automatic doors slid open with a soft hiss, and the fluorescent lights hit me like a spotlight.

The store was quiet, just the hum of coolers and the soft shuffle of a bored cashier scrolling on her phone. I headed straight for the hair‑care aisle.

Rows of boxes stared back at me, blondes, brunettes, neon colors, natural shades. My eyes scanned until I found it.

Golden Copper Red.

My old color. My chest tightened. It felt like finding a piece of myself I'd forgotten I missed.

I grabbed the box, thought better, and grabbed a second. I had way more hair than I was used to. One probably wouldn't be enough, and if it was. I would have a spare. 

I detoured to the drink coolers. My throat was dry, nerves buzzing under my skin. This was the first time I'd been out since I started changing. I picked a cold juice and headed to the register.

The cashier barely looked up. "That it?"

"Yeah," I said.

She rang me up, handed me the bag, and I stepped outside before I lost my composure. I cracked open the soda, the hiss making my mouth water. Sitting down on the bench outside the store, sipping my juice.

Trying not to think too hard about the hair dye in the plastic bag beside me. The night air was cool, humming with distant traffic.

Five minutes was all it took for trouble to find me.

"Hey...hey, hold up. Look at her."

Four guys leaned against the brick wall near the entrance, older, maybe early twenties. Hoodies, cheap cologne, too‑wide grins. The kind of guys who didn't ask for attention, attention just found them.

One of them pushed off the wall.

"Hey, cutie. C'mere a sec."

I froze.

Cutie?

I swallowed. "I'm good. My friends are waiting for me." I stood to make my way toward the store entrance. It would be safer inside.

Another stepped closer, blocking my path. "Relax, we just wanna talk. You're cute. Thought maybe you'd wanna hang out."

My pulse spiked. My fingers tightened around the bag.

"I said no." What was wrong with me? Why was I so nervous?

I tried to move past when the guy grabbed my wrist.

Hard.

My breath hitched. That grip wasn't playful. It wasn't friendly. It was strong.

"Don't be like that," the guy said, tugging me closer. "We just wanna have some fun."

"Let go!!!" I said, voice shaking.

The guy smirked. "Or what? C'mon, let's have some fun together."

I reacted on instinct. I swung a fist as hard as I could, hitting him in the jaw. Hoping it would make him release me.

It didn't.

It only made the guy's face twist with anger.

"Oh, you think you're tough?" he snarled, grabbing me again, harder this time. "You're coming with us, bitch!"

My mind spiraled.

He wasn't treating me like a guy.

He wasn't even treating me like a person.

He was treating me like a girl alone at night.

And that realization hollowed me out.

Hands grabbed my other arm. Someone stepped behind me.

Too many. Too strong.

I couldn't breathe.

"Stop— please—" I choked. Why was I so scared? Before-before I'd have just-, but now it wasn't like before. I looked like a girl. To them, I was a girl. Small and weak, like prey

The main creep yanked me forward.

I tried to pull away.

I really did.

But the creep holding my wrist yanked me back with inhuman strength, fingers digging in like claws. My voice came out in a scared little yelp, and then I saw it.

Just for a second.

The guy's skin shimmered under the streetlight, not sweat, not shadow.

Scales.

Faint, reptilian scales crawling up his neck and jaw, catching the streetlight like oil on water.

"What...?" I whispered.

His eyes flashed.

Then the hit came.

A brutal, snapping crack across my face, harder than any normal person could swing. My head whipped sideways. My vision burst white. My knees buckled.

I stumbled, dazed, cheek throbbing, ears ringing.

That wasn't a human punch!

That was too strong!

The other three creeps stepped in, and I realized with a sick drop in my stomach. They were all different. Some had sharp teeth, and one even had tiny horns just peeking through his hair.

"Grab her," one hissed.

"She's dizzy hurry-now!" another cackled.

Hands grabbed me. I tried to lift my arms, but everything felt slow, heavy, distant. My thoughts scattered. My body wouldn't respond.

They're not human.

They're transformed.

I can't-I can't-!

I screamed, loud and shrill. "SOMEONE HEELP!!!" 

The guy with scales laughing "That'll teach you little Girlie!" They started closing in on me again.

The world narrowed to hands, shadows, fear, and their laughing. I couldn't do anything. My thoughts spiraled. They saw me as prey, as something weak they could control. As a girl...

Something inside me broke at that.

I was a "GIRL"... and I was weak.

Everything that had been happening to me, all the shit I'd been holding in. It crept like poison into my mind. I was on the verge of passing out.

Then-

A sound.

A footstep.

Heavy.

Final.

Like a judge slamming the hammer down.

They froze.

I blinked through the haze, vision swimming.

And saw Lucas, almost seven feet of him towering over them.

Expression blank, and cold as death.

Jaw clenched so tight it looked carved from marble.

He didn't look angry.

He looked downright dangerous. I'd never seen him make a face like that before.

Nate stood right behind him, coiled like a snake ready to strike.

The creeps turned toward them, confused, annoyed at being interrupted.

Too late.

Lucas moved like a juggernaut.

His fist was like a meteor, slamming into the scaled creep's jaw with a force that cracked the air.

CRRAAACK...

The guy flew backward - actually flew, hitting the pavement hard, and rolling to a stop out cold.

The others stumbled away, startled, suddenly realizing they'd cornered something far more terrifying than the girl they thought they were grabbing.

The second creep lunged at Lucas - claws out, sharp teeth glinting.

Lucas caught him by the hoodie and threw him into the side of a signpost so hard the metal folded.

The third creep spun toward Nate.

Bad choice.

Nate wasn't big, but he moved like lightning, ducking under a wild swing, grabbing the guy's arm, and flipping him over his shoulder in one clean, practiced motion. 

Whoosh...

The creep hit the ground with a sickening crunch. He lay still, not moving.

The fourth creep tried to run.

Lucas didn't let him.

Two strides.

A hand on the back of the guy's neck.

A yank that sent him into the wall.

The fight was over in seconds.

The four guys groaned on the ground, dazed, defeated, their eyes flickering like dying embers.

Lucas didn't even look at them.

He went straight to me.

Nate stood tense beside him, chest heaving, ready for more if they got back up.

Me...

I couldn't move.

My legs trembled. My fingers went numb. My breath came in short, sharp bursts that didn't feel like air at all.

The world tilted.

I tried to get up, but my knees buckled.

Before I hit the ground, strong arms caught me.

Lucas.

I didn't even register the moment I fell into him, one second I was standing, the next my face was pressed against Lucas's chest, the fabric of his shirt warm and solid and safe.

Lucas froze for half a heartbeat as I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt.

Then his arms wrapped around me, firm and protective, one hand cradling my back like I was something fragile.

My breath hitched.

Then broke.

The adrenaline drained out of me all at once, leaving me shaking so hard my teeth clicked. My fingers curled into Lucas's shirt without meaning to, gripping like I'd drown if I let go.

Lucas lowered his voice to something barely above a whisper. "Kris..."

Just my name.

Nothing else.

But it was enough to crack something open inside me.

My chest caved in. A sob tore out of me, small, strangled, and terrified. I tried to swallow it down, tried to breathe, tried to be strong, but my body wasn't listening.

I wasn't strong right now. And I hated that I wasn't anything but scared.

Nate stepped closer, worry etched across his face. "Is he...?"

Lucas shook his head once, still holding me tight. "He's in shock."

"I called the police as soon as we got here. They should be here any minute," Nate reassured me.

I squeezed my eyes shut. The world felt too big, too loud, too dangerous. I'd never felt this small before.

Never felt this... vulnerable. What was wrong with me dammit?

I clung tighter.

I didn't care how it looked.

I didn't care what it meant.

I just needed to feel safe, and Lucas was the only solid thing in the world right now.

Lucas nodded at Nate's words, shifting his grip so he could lift me more securely.

I didn't protest...I couldn't.

I just buried my face against his shoulder, letting myself be held, letting the fear shake out of me in silent, trembling waves.

In the distance, wailing sirens sounded, getting closer with every second.

"I'll stay here," Nate said, "in case they wake up."

As Lucas held me, my breath calmed somewhat back to normal, but my thoughts... well they were a real mess.

I saw red and blue lights as two police cars came to a halt in front of Nate, their lights flashing across the store.

The four creeps were still groaning on the ground where Lucas and Nate had left them.

Lucas didn't let go of me.

Not even when the officers stepped out.

Two of them. One older, and one younger, they scanned the scene with sharp, assessing eyes. The older officer's gaze landed on the creeps first.

"What happened here?" he barked.

Nate stepped forward, hands raised slightly, calm but firm. "They attacked our friend. We defended him."

The younger officer knelt beside one of the creeps, frowning at the faint shimmer of scales still fading from the guy's jaw. 

"Looks like we got some of those weird transformations, I'd better call it in."

He pulled his radio out. His words were lost to me as I clung to Lucas like a life raft. A big warm strong life raft.

The older officer didn't wait. "Hands behind your backs. Now." His voice cracked like a whip.

The creeps were too dazed to resist. Handcuffs clicked. They were lined up against the patrol car, heads down.

I watched from Lucas's arms, cheek throbbing, vision still fuzzy. The lights made everything feel unreal.

Nate kept talking to the officers, explaining what he saw.

The older officer nodded along, jotting notes.

Then he turned toward me. And everything inside me tightened. He walked over slowly, carefully, like approaching someone fragile.

"You alright, miss?"

Miss.

The word hit harder than the punch.

Lucas stiffened behind me. Nate's head snapped toward us. But the officer didn't notice, he was already crouching to meet my eyes.

"Miss, can you stand? Do you need medical attention?"

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

It echoed in my head, louder than the sirens, louder than the pain in my cheek.

I swallowed hard shaking my head. "I... I'm okay."

The officer nodded sympathetically. "You look shaken. That's normal. A young woman alone getting jumped like that."

Young woman?

My stomach dropped.

I wasn't a young woman.

I wasn't supposed to be.

But he said it so casually, so confidently, like it was obvious.

Lucas's hand tightened on my waist, grounding me. Nate stepped closer, jaw clenched.

The officer clicked his pen. "I need your statement, miss. Start from the beginning."

I tried to breathe.

Tried to speak.

Tried to be steady.

But the words kept looping in my head. From the start. Since everything had started.

Miss. Girlie. Cutie. Honey. Sweetheart. Her. She. All of them like circling sharks in my head.

"I... I came out of the store," I said, voice thin. "They cornered me. One grabbed my wrist. I told them no."

The officer nodded. "And then he hit you?"

I touched my cheek and winced. "My friends showed up. They stopped them."

The officer nodded. "Good thing they did. A girl your size..."

Lucas tensed like he was about to snap.

I grabbed his arm. "Lucas. Not now. Please?"

The officer didn't notice the tension. He closed his notebook and stood.

"We'll take it from here. If you need medical attention, miss-"

"No..." I said, my voice small. "I just want to go home."

"Alright, miss, we have the big guy's number. If we have any more questions, we'll call. Make sure you get that looked at, okay. Would you like to press charges? He asked me.

I nodded.

Right well get the footag from the store. We'll be in contact, Miss. Should be a quick case for these thugs.

Lucas exhaled sharply through his nose.

Nate muttered something under his breath.

My chest tightened.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

The officer softened his tone. "You did the right thing saying no. You were brave."

I didn't feel brave.

I felt small.

Wrong.

Seen in a way I wasn't ready for.

Lucas guided me toward our car, one arm around me like a shield. Nate stayed close, hovering protectively, holding my forgotten bag 

As the patrol car pulled away with the creeps inside, the lights fading into the night, the officer's words echoed in my head.

Young woman.

Miss.

Girl your size.

I couldn't tell if the world was wrong about me...

...or if I was.

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