Trajectory

“He’s the one I want to punch the most,” Mrs. Hamil said, elbowing Brent. “Where’s Chloe? I know she doesn’t want to have anything to do with her father’s boobs, but I figure you two would be together today.”

“About that,” he said, getting ready to tell them why they had to get out of there when he saw him. Ash was walking slowly toward the festival down the middle of the street. His shotgun was raised and aimed into the crowd. Some people at the edges had seen him and were starting to run. His face was covered with a black ski mask, but Brent knew it was him. “Get down and stay down. Whatever you do don’t shift, and don’t let him shoot you.” He took off.

Brent didn’t think he’d seen him as he ducked around the back of the nearest building. He needed to sneak up behind him so he could take him by surprise. The only thing he knew to do was tackle him. Taking a deep breath, he broke into a run as Ash fired the first shot into the crowd. He heard a scream and knew someone had gone down. He heard the click of the gun as Ash pulled it back, ready to take another shot, and he launched.

Too late he realized he’d already been spotted and the gun was pointing right at him. Before he could react, Ash fired and time slowed down. He saw the bullet coming at him and his chest started to vibrate where the ugly pendant lay. The air in front of him became wavy and the bullet struck something right in front of his body that he couldn’t see.

It stayed there, spinning in an invisible force field and then it turned around and went right back through Ash. Time sped back up and Ash yelled. Blood exploded from his right shoulder and sprayed Brent in the face. The pendant had really been protection, he thought right as the butt of the shotgun connected with his face. His nose made a sickening crunch and he went down hard on his knees. Ash ran away.

He ran toward the woods and disappeared into the trees. Brent jumped up as he felt the blood pour out of his nose as he ran toward the Hamils. They were behind the tits.

“He shot her!” Mr. Hamil yelled at Brent.

“Mrs. Hamil.” Brent panicked, looking around on the ground frantically.

“No, Mrs. Silver American Princess.”

“Was that you screaming, Mr. Hamil?”

Rob Hamil looked at his feet as his wife walked up and slapped him on the back. “That was him. You saved everyone, Brent, good job.”

Brent was thankful the only casualty was a naked statue, but he had to go get Chloe.

“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time, but Chloe was captured and she made me come here to make sure you were safe before I came and rescued her. They are torturing her with black magic and we have to go and figure out a way to get her out of there.”

“What?” Mrs. Hamil grabbed her chest and Mr. Hamil had already started running toward the car.

“Ride with me, it will be faster.”

“She’s in trouble, we’ll shift,” Rob said as he ran behind him to his truck. He went behind it as did Debra and out flew a nuthatch and a mountain lion.

“Holy shit,” Brent said as he saw Mr. Hamil’s other form. “I thought you were a bird.”

The mountain lion roared at him and he took a step back. “They’re at Layla’s place near campus. We’ll be right behind you.” The two of them took off and Brent jumped in the truck with his grandmother.

“Thank God you gave me this protection pendant. I would have been a goner.”

“Oh, that hideous thing. I got that at a yard sale and just wanted to get rid of it. Look who came into their powers,” she said, patting his cheek.

“You are freaking kidding me,” Brent said as he took the crystal off and threw it on the floor. Stepping on the gas, he headed to Layla’s house.

Chloe couldn’t take much more. Her veins and insides had to be turning to liquid magma. She was so hot she thought she literally felt her skin melt off. Her vision kept blacking out from the pain and she didn’t know if she could hold it together much longer. She could vaguely make out Zazie moaning from her experience with the bugs and Sarmia laughing, but mostly what she could hear was the fire roaring inside of her, roasting her from the inside.

A loud crash sounded through the cabin and she tried to get her eyes to focus long enough to see what it was. A mountain lion was attacking Sarmia. It jumped and she shot, getting it in the leg. The burning stopped, but the pain didn’t. Her arms and legs were free finally from the work she’d done while she’d been in the chair, but she couldn’t move.

“Daddy!” she screamed, falling to the floor on her side from her chair. Her face hit the floor and she bit her cheek hard, tasting the blood in her mouth. The gun had slid away from Sarmia, because as she shot him Rob had slid into her and taken her down. Chloe crawled toward the gun, almost able to reach it. She didn’t know how badly her father was hurt, but if she could get to the gun she would kill her.

A bird flew in and started working at Zazie’s knots while she crawled toward the gun. Zazie was unconscious, but she knew her mother would shift out of it and wake her once she felt like it was safe.

Looking back toward her dad, she tried to see the wound. There wasn’t a ton of blood, so she hoped it didn’t hit a major artery. Her body still hurt so badly from the fire that she wasn’t moving fast at all. Her fingertips were almost touching the gun.

Sarmia was bleeding, but she was coming for her. If she didn’t get to the gun before her then she would be in trouble. Her mother must have sensed that and flew at Sarmia, pecking at her face as she swatted at her. She got one of her eyes and flew quickly above her as the dark wizard screamed and clutched her face.

Chloe’s fingers wrapped around the pistol and she pulled it to her, slowly sitting up. The pain was starting to dull and she fought through it so she could point it at Sarmia and make sure she didn’t try anything.

“Get on the wall, you bitch,” she said through gritted teeth. Sarmia did it with a look of hate, and the little nuthatch fussed over the mountain lion’s leg. She knew they weren’t shifting back because they were waiting for Ash.

She couldn’t believe Brent would send them into such a hostile situation, but she was happy to see them after the fire storm she’d just survived. If they were there, maybe Brent had stopped Ash before anyone was hurt. She was amused to think what the people in the apartment complex must have thought when a mountain lion ran through and crashed in a door. If they had cameras they’d be trying to figure out what happened. Someone needed to call the police.