MICHAEL

It's been about two weeks since I stepped out of the safety and security of the woods-- the lonely woods that never actually felt like home once Mum was gone. I would sit alone against the rough bark of the tall oak tree, huddled inside the ratty blue blanket my father gave me as a child, and I would watch the sun set against the horizon-- the pallid light illuminating my narrow cheekbones, sunken in unhealthily with grief and lack of food.

Luke noticed a few days after my arrival at how malnourished and skinny I was, skin desperately clinging to weak bones. I had fallen asleep on the floor after a very long, tiring day and Luke picked me up to carry me to our room, resulting in Luke noticing my lack of weight. He made me eat the next early morning, and eating felt uncomfortable and unfamiliar from not having anything to digest in so long. Luke watched over me though, like some sort of blonde angel, and nursed me back to health.

This morning, Luke and I are in the middle of his room, him peacefully teaching me how to play the guitar since I asked. I am seated on the chair, my tail tucked against my left thigh to keep out of way of the large acoustic guitar, a tad bit bigger than is made for my small body.

"Good." Luke praises me when my fingers form a nice sounding D minor chord. "Let's try D major." Luke points to where my fingers are supposed to press down on the wiry strings, but when I strum, it comes off sounding hideous. I huff, sticking out my lower lip in frustration. Luke just laughs, lifting his hand and covering it over mine, moving my fingers to the correct spots and helping me push them down hard enough for it to play correctly.

"See?" Luke says, his voice tender and quiet like a ghost. "It's easy."

Suddenly, Luke's door flies open and the doorknob slams against the wall with a sickening crack, surely punching a hole in Luke's pretty wall. Liz emerges from the gap in the doorframe, her hair a mess on her head and her icy blue eyes frenzied as they land on the two of us. She visibly deflates, gasping for breath as her eyes train directly on me, her hands reaching like claws at the doorframe for stability as her knees give out, lowering her body lower to the ground until she has collapsed to the wooden flooring, still gaping at me like a fish without water.

"M-Michael." She stammers out, and I watch her, horrified. I have absolutely no idea what is going on and apparently neither does Luke, who places a tense hand on my shoulder in a lost sign of reassurance.

"Mum, what's going on?" Luke asks, his voice straining in worry. I slowly drop the guitar from my grasp, setting it down carefully on the ground, not knowing that I wouldn't ever touch it's smooth brown surface again.

"Downstairs-- TV-- look, Michael--hybrids, they're-- they're coming--" Liz chokes out messy words, her red-brimmed eyes swelling with panicked tears as they unwillingly stream down her cheeks, gesturing to us frantically. Luke carefully grips my arm and pulls me up out of my seat, yanking me towards the door, past his stricken mother and down the narrow steps. The combination of our hurried footsteps clambering down the hallway to the kitchen beats to the timing of my throbbing heart, pulsing against my chest with a heated urgency. The small television sitting on the granite countertop stops us, our converse squeaking as we jolt to a stop, grasping onto each other in preparation for what we might see.

Nothing could have ever prepared me for what blared on the screen in front of me.

A reporter stands in front of a busy intersection jammed packed with cars, their warning lights shining brightly against the effervescent sky. A look of urgency is on her face, as a picture appears in the corner of the screen-- the silhouette of a person with a long tail and two ears standing upright on its head.

"...from a car wreck weeks ago, a lady was found injured in a head-on collision. When she was taken to the hospital and her clothes and hat was removed, it was revealed that she was, specifically, a cat hybrid-- a person with cat physical appearances and characteristics. These demonic creatures have been known to attack innocent humans, both children and adults. Detectives have reported that the lady, whose name has not been found, has given birth, and so it is confirmed that a hybrid could be walking the streets of Sydney, completely disguised to look human. The lady has been executed for the safety of the workers in the hospital."

My breath hitches in my throat and a strangled choking sound escapes my lips.

"Mu-Mum!" I gasp, and drop to my knees. Luke's hand tightens around my arm, confusion etched into his face at what I said. I vaguely hear Liz's footsteps running over, but all I can hear is the earnestness in the reporter's voice, the complete terror.

"There are detectives storming the streets of Sydney now, and are searching every shop and home in an effort to find the hybrid. Please remain calm and report to your homes as soon as possible. We do not want anybody on the streets because it is unsafe. The detectives have weapons in case they find the hybrid and it attacks, but the animal will be sent immediately to a hybrid facility located in a site across the country. We assure everyone that--"

"You have to leave!" Liz shrieks through tears, pulling a beanie on my head in a hurry. "Luke, baby, you need to go with him. You have to drive him out of here, quick. They can't find him. Who the hell knows what those detectives will do with him?"

I look up in time to find Liz pushing a backpack stuffed full to the brim at Luke, who is shocked paralyzed as he starts at the TV screen, where it zooms in on a detective kicking down a door to a local clothing store, a loaded gun in the crook of his arm, his thumb on the trigger. I get to my feet shakily, adjusting my beanie and stuffing my tail uncomfortably in my pants. She's dead. She's dead, gone, never to be seen again.

I turn to Luke, who carefully throws the backpack over his shoulder, giving his weeping mother a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek.

"You can't go with m--me, Luke." I stammer out hurriedly. Luke turns to me, his eyebrows furrowing. A look of determination is clear on his face, his eyes a stormy blue.

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm going with you." Luke snaps, and Liz wipes her eyes, sniffling as she hurries over to the window, peering out for any sign of the detectives.

"No. You could get hurt. If they find me--"

"Michael--" Luke breathes.

"They could kill me, they could kill you. They hate me, I didn't do anything but they hate me. I can't let you get hurt, I won't let you--"

"Michael!" Luke barks, and I shrink back at the ferocity of his voice. "You're my best friend. I'm not going to let this happen." Luke turns and grabs two jackets from the coat stand at the front door. Liz has stopped crying, instead she looks slightly angry. She yanks me over and pulls me into a huge, tight hug, pecking my cheek with a small kiss.

"I'm sorry, Michael." Liz whispers. She seems to want to say something else, perhaps something encouraging, but instead she closes her mouth, pushing our two stiff bodies towards the door. Luke doesn't hesitate in pushing open the front door, sunlight streaming in from outside, and I can't help but wonder how everything changed so rapidly.

Outside, it is easy to hear the hollers of the detectives, the police sirens, the random shrieks of lost children and yells of parents. Figures that look like skeletons run down the street, ducking into their home as though the world were going to explode. My heart pangs painfully. They're running from me. I'm the monster here. I knew that hybrids weren't accepted anywhere, really. But I had no idea that they thought we were dangerous. How can we be? It is in a cat's nature to shrink away from ferocious things. The only dangerous hybrids out there are a select few of dog hybrids, because dog hybrids have a temper.

I see a child reach out to her mother's outstretched hand, her tiny fingers reaching out to her mother's until they touch, the child's mum pulling her inside the house and shutting the door firmly. I want to run up there, pull off my beanie, and show them that I would never hurt anyone and that there is no need for all this drama-- all the detectives and guns and sirens. I'm right here, standing right in the open with my ears pressed flat against my head and my tail quivering against my leg. Why do they hate me? What did I ever do to them?

"Michael." Luke says softly but firmly. He is standing at the driver's side of the car, the door open, one converse covered foot inside. I stare at him, tears springing in my eyes before ducking my head and scurrying over to the passenger side, opening the door with timid fingers and climbing inside. I close the door and see Liz nodding at us and giving a tiny wave before turning and sprinting further into the house, probably to try and clear any proof that I was there before the detectives arrive. I can hear them making their way closer, their shouts deafeningly loud to my fragile ears. Luke drops inside the car, slamming the door closed and jamming the key into the ignition as the car roars to life. Luke glances at me and sees the tears sparkling on my cheeks, sees the hurt eating everything inside my body until there is nothing left but dejection to control my diseased mind. The angel beside me lifts a perfect thumb to wipe a salty tear from my cheek, silencing any words my bruised tongue would have attempted to say as he places his hands on the steering wheel and presses on the gas. The car lurches forward and doesn't slow down, zooming forward at a perilously high speed in order to get out of the city, out of sight, before the people with guns that want only to see my fragmented form locked up in a cage somewhere, can find me.

~*~

Thankfully, Luke knew an exit out of town through a small alleyway that leads to an interstate, where we can drive freely on a lonely road for a while. For now, of course. Until the detectives have realized that I'm not there and beginning searching the entire country for the boy with cat ears, who wants nothing more but to crawl into a small hole and vanish.

Luke drives in apprehensive silence, both of our thoughts drowning out any possibility of squeezing words into the tense air. I feel like a thousand pounds has been dropped onto my delicate shoulders, my heart being squeezed in the palm of the man who killed my mother for his own unneeded safety. My ears ache and everything I hear is muffled from having the beanie over my head, and everything sounds like it's crying.

Luke pulls to the side for gas, halting at the machine, but he doesn't move, dropping his hands to his lap and staring at them, as though they had the answers to life's darkest secrets. He lifts his head to me, his blue eyes just as soft and warm as they have always been.

"Are you alright?" Luke asks. Such a simple question, with so much depth, with so many answers. I don't feel like I can answer. I am a lonely figure in a world that wants nothing to do with me. I'm breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide, filling my lungs with efficient enough air in order for the cells in my bloodstream to be happy enough to do their jobs, but I am not. I am empty, emotionless, a hollow void. My tail is uncomfortable beneath me, yet another reminder of the error that is myself.

At Luke's question, I let out an unintentional sob I had no idea I was holding, and bury my face in my hands, my shoulders shaking uncontrollably but no more tears escape my eyes. Perhaps I have used them all, dried up to a point of nothingness.

I feel Luke's warm arm wrap around my trembling, brittle shoulders and squeeze me, trying to hold my broken pieces together because he knows that if he lets go, my dusty form will collapse into a pile of ashes. Eventually though, Luke's arms go cold and I am alone in a dark attic once again, soundlessly screaming for a way out, but to no relief.

My eyelids force themselves open and my surroundings come into view. A lonely old gas station off of a hectic highway. A few slumped bodies pressed up against the side of the gas station, a cigarette dangling from their fingers and smoke funneling through their dry lips. The dark circles under my eyes tell me I am no better off than them.

"Mikey?" Luke's voice finds its way to my ears, the soft timbre trembling every cell in my body. The new, unfamiliar nickname brings a rush of warmth to my cheeks, but only for a second before sallowness returns, and my bloodless veins turn into stones.

"Yeah." I answer quietly.

"You're going to be okay. We're going to be okay." Luke murmurs, and I no longer have the strength to hold myself together anymore. I break apart, my insubstantial pieces succumbing to the overwhelming force that is my diseased mind. I'm a little boy, mourning over the loss of his father with his weak mum, tearing at the seams. I am the frail teenager I was when I watched my mother be killed in front of my own tortured eyes, screaming at the world for its cruelty and its unforgiving strength. I am the feeble boy I am now, aching at the loss of my family. I am hurting for the loss of the small unit of humanity I thought I detected in the individuals inside Sydney. I was wrong. Oh, I was wrong.

But there is this angel of a boy beside me, whose fingers keep returning to my cheeks to swipe away tears and to draw small circles on my clenched fists, and for some reason that is enough to keep myself from breaking.

---
A/N don't really know what I just wrote but here you go?

I hope this wasn't too dramatic but basically Michael's mom was discovered as a hybrid, they found out she conceived a child and they suspect he (Michael)lives in Sydney and so they sent detectives to capture him and Luke and Michael have to run away from home and Michael is just really sad about all that's happened okay

hope that makes sense lol

PLEASE VOTE and comment about what you think? thoughts on having to run away and thoughts about what will happen since they have nowhere to go?

idk

love you guys to death bye