Help me! Someone, anyone, please help me! My heart was racing as my paws pounded the ground, and my breath formed mini clouds in front of me. Please make them go away! I wished that I had listened to mom. Mother always said not to shift without supervision, since bad people would come for me. Sadly, I didn't believe her. Nightmare wanted to get out for a little bit, so I thought it would be okay. Now, five people are chasing me through the woods on ATV's with guns pointed at me! As I was remembering the countless warnings my mom gave me, a sharp pain pierced my hind left thigh. I didn't know what it was, but I started to get really tired. My legs buckled from beneath me and as my eyes drifted shut, I saw the group of five people smiling down at me.
I woke up gasping for air as sweat dripped down my face. It was that nightmare again. When I was 6 years old I wanted to go into the woods off of our property. Not to do anything bad, but I just wanted to run in my wolf form. Nightmare had been begging to be let out, but mom and dad kept saying no. They wouldn't tell me why, so I decided to go anyway. I thought that it would be okay, but when I shifted and disguised my form as a normal wolf pup, someone had seen me. That someone worked for a witch named Démone, and she was a Blood Witch.
The memories were still vivid, all of my experiences being kidnapped and torture were. It's the main reason why my parents decided to put me in therapy recently. I thought that I was handling the trauma pretty well. The nightmares hardly occurred, I did well in school, and I was doing okay in my training with my godfathers. But recently the nightmares have been happening a lot more, and it's been apparent. My anger, which was already an issue, became more so. I was struggling keeping it under control, and my brothers had to step in a few times to help me get it back together. Not to mention the fact that for the past month, I had hardly slept more than 3-4 hours at a time. Mix the two together, and it turns into a ticking time bomb that went off two weeks before the end of 8th grade.
There was a group of bullies, five of them in total, that liked to gang up on some of the "outcasts" at school. I was one of them, but even then, I was an outcast of the outcasts. So, one day, they decided to gang up on me. They threw me to the ground and proceeded to beat me up, until I got back up and punched one of them, I think his name was William but I didn't remember, in the jaw. That day, he went to the hospital and ended up having to have jaw surgery because I had broken it. From what I had heard from the teacher, it would take him about a year to fully recover. I ended up being suspended from school for the rest of the year and could only go back in order to take the final test of the year. Because it was self-defense, I just got the suspension while the bullies got expelled and three months of community service.
That was the incident that initially made my parents put me in therapy. After they had it set up, they started piecing everything together, and they asked me about it. Telling them the truth, I had told them about the sleepless nights due to nightmares, my control slipping on my anger, and the fact that I've been struggling with not being able to shift like I needed to. Shifters weren't meant to not shift. If they didn't, then their beast side tended to go crazy and cause issues. It has already been about two months since I was last able to shift in our backyard, and the only reason why I could was because it had an 8-foot wall around it. That was a feat in itself since we had about 15 acres of forested land, most of it being our backyard.
Deciding it was time to get out of my thoughts, I got up to get dressed. Today was my first session with my therapist, Dr. Hannah Welsh. She was supposedly a specialist when it came to dealing with cases involving shifters, so my parents hoped that she'd be able to help me. I didn't know how I felt about it yet, but I guessed that I would find that out when I actually met her. Dressing in my ripped black skinny jeans, I paired it with an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt, a chain hanging from my belt loops, black combat boots, a dragon pendant necklace, and my piercings. I liked my piercings a lot. They consisted of an industrial on the top of my right ear, two on my left (one on the top and one on the bottom) connected by a chained piercing, and then my studs. I also had snake bites that I had gotten a couple days ago.
Heading downstairs to the kitchen, I saw my mom making breakfast. Even though we were technically nobility, my parents didn't believe in having servants doing all of the chores. We were responsible for keeping certain areas clean as well as making our own meals. The servants basically came once a week to do a deeper clean of the house and maintain the outside of the house as well. They knew not to mess with the forest, so they basically kept the front and back porch tidy.
Sitting at the island, my mom placed a plate with pancakes and bacon in front of me. Taking a quick look at me, she headed to the fridge before returning with a Monster Salted Caramel Java. I smiled at her while telling her thanks, and started eating. We had about an hour before my session, but it took about twenty-five minutes to get to the office, so we would have to leave soon. Finished with breakfast and my Java, I took care of my dishes and trash before heading upstairs to brush my teeth really quick.
Looking at my reflection, I couldn't help but sigh. My pupils had a slight vertical slit and my canines were slightly longer and sharper than normal. Throughout school, everyone thought that I had contacts and surgical implants and called me a freak because of it. I hate that I can't tell them the truth, but I knew that I couldn't. People would always want to hurt me, and the more people knew, the more danger I would be in. When I was done, I started down the stairs as my mother called up to me.
"Andrew, are you ready? It's time to leave."
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Sighing, I followed my mom out to her car and we made our way to Dr. Hannah's office.
Twenty-five minutes later, we parked the car and headed inside. I sat in a chair as my mom signed us in, and then we waited for my name to be called. When it did, I got up and followed the woman into an office and sat on the couch facing her. This was my first time seeing a therapist, and I didn't know what to expect. My parents had tried a few times, but I kept insisting that I didn't need it. This time they weren't going to take 'no' as an answer, and I resigned myself to talking to one. I knew I probably did need it, but I never knew where to start when it came to my trauma. The lady cleared her throat and started talking.
"Hello, Andrew. My name is Hannah Welsh, but you can just call me Hannah. Now, I know a little about what's going on from your parents, but I want to hear more from you."
"Well…as you know, my name is Andrew and I'm currently 14 and a half years old. Um, the main reason as to why I'm here is because I thought I was handling some things pretty okay, but that hasn't been the case. My parents are worried about me, so they decided it was time for therapy. They wanted to put me into it in the past, but I kept telling them that I didn't need it, but they wouldn't hear it this time."
"Okay, so what kind of things were you trying to handle on your own? Would you care to elaborate?" She pressed for me to continue, so I did.
"I have issues with my anger and nightmares that keep me up for most of the night. I've also had flashbacks and difficulty with anxiety attacks." As I explained a bit about what's been going on in the past month, she took notes. She seemed nice and I knew that she was a specialist regarding shifters, but I was afraid that she wouldn't be able to help me. That no one would be able to help me.
"So these nightmares and flashbacks, what are they about?" Now it was coming to the part that I had difficulty with. Trying to explain what happened.
"Well, they're from when I was 6-10 years old. As you could probably guess with my parents asking for your help, I'm a shifter. Um…I was kidnapped and tortured on multiple different occasions over those four years, and it's been hard."
With a look of concern, Hannah asked her next set of questions. "Who would kidnap and torture you?"
"They were Witches, and all they wanted was my blood and to hear my screams." At this point, I started getting lost in my mind, like I was in a trance of shorts. "I didn't know most of their names, but they would chain me in the air and take turns either whipping me, or slicing me with silver blades. They would also inject me with different serums. When they did that, I remember feeling extremely sick and I would start vomiting. I didn't know why they were doing it at first, but I quickly found out why. It was because of my power."
"What do you mean?" Came a whispered response.
"Shifter blood has a lot of magical properties, and my blood has more than most. Our blood can also be used to help them do stronger spells that can do more damage. Or in the case of vampires, it can make them stronger for a short period of time. But because of the fact that I'm different, everyone with an evil intent wants to use me in some way." At this point, I seemed to come back to my senses, as I sat there quietly.
"I asked your parents this and they said that I could ask you personally, instead. They did tell me that you were a shifter, but when I asked what kind they wouldn't tell anything specific. Would you mind telling me? That way I can better help understand the full situation and try to help you the way you need it most. Everything you tell me is confidential, so no one will know about what is said in this room." Listening to her steady heartbeat, I could tell that she was telling the truth. Taking a deep breath. I told her my secret.
"Apparently, I'm the first Dual Shifter that's ever existed. I'm both an Ayakashi and a Dragon, but both of them are the Kings of their respective species. That's why I went through what I did. Because I didn't listen to my parents' warnings and decided to go out running through the woods. At least, that's how they found me the first time. After that, I guess they could use my blood to track me. There's a local Druid Witch that specializes in finding dark spells, I guess is the best way to explain it? Anyway, she used every spell she knew on finding hidden dark spells and curses, but she didn't find any. However, she did warn that could change if they still had any of my blood left. They could use it to place something on me at a later time."
At this revelation, Hannah had a look of shock. She quickly hid it though, as she tried to think of how best to help me. Coming to a decision, she told me.
"I would like to continue talking about your experiences. Trying to go into detail about what happened, your emotions during those times. A lot of the time, just being able to talk about experiences tends to help a lot. I also want you to work on some coping skills that you can use when you need to calm down. Now I know this session must have taken a mental toll on you, so how about we meet again in two weeks. Does that work for you?" When I told her that it did, she gave me a card with a reminder of the appointment, and she led me back to the lobby. After telling my mom that the session was productive and about the day for the next session, we left. Hannah didn't seem deterred about what I told her today. If anything, she seemed more determined to help me than I expected, and I was grateful. Turns out, I really did need someone that I could just talk to about this.