Look at Me

The police showed up.
They saw the body.
And then things went very quickly.
Flashing lights…sharp voices… an eager young officer asking too many questions.
It was inevitable, but utterly useless. Of course Hayden hadn’t killed his mother. Once the evidence was collected and everything was examined there wasn’t even a whisper of implication that he had. The eager young officer suddenly seemed to notice things.
The cuts on Hayden’s cheek. The blood still dried to his swollen bottom lip. And then…
There it was. The half curious-half pitying stare. The need to say something helpful or supportive or-
Or maybe just nothing at all.
Hayden understood how it worked. He knew how uncomfortable he made other people feel. He made them face of part of human nature they tried so hard to just ignore. But every time they turned away with avoiding eyes, his mind whispered.
Coward…
Just look at me. I’m not normal, I’m not safe, but you could at least look at me.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Hayden listened detachedly to a new police officer speaking to him. She was saying something about Family. Maybe she was asking if he had any besides his mother?
His father. But did that even count? Hayden didn’t even know who his father was. He could be anything or anyone.

***

The crunch of the leaves…
The earthy smell of moss and deep rich earth…
It all registered inside Gabriel as he crouched on his haunches in the very border of the woods. His pale eyes watched intently as a police officer led a thin boy out of the house and toward a squad car. Was that him? Was that the scent he’d caught?
Lifting his nose Gabe tried to catch the strange musky smell on the wind, but there too many others around. Human scents mixed and fogged up his senses.
Slinking further into the protective boughs of the trees that surrounded him, he watched the scene play out in front of his eyes.
Poor bastard, Gabe thought dryly, he lost control…
But fuck…
It wasn’t surprising. If the boy he saw was like him… in every way. It wasn’t surprising that he’d lost control the way Gabriel had before.

He could still remember it perfectly. The way the edges of himself seemed to blur and then disappear completely.
Drifting…
Floating…
Lousing himself.
And then waking up and realizing something was different. Some thing was WRONG.
Gabriel realized he’d changed in some indefinable way. Shifting into his other self was strange, but it only happened when he was completely and utterly calm.
THIS… it was like getting black out drunk on anger. It only happened once, but that was enough for him to know.
Whatever he was, it wasn’t safe.