Chapter 3

      I wake up in complete darkness, letting my eyes adjust. I’m surprised to see it’s nighttime. My dad has to be home. I get dressed and rush downstairs to find everyone eating. As I look around the room, I don’t see Dad. I look at Mom.

      “Where is Dad?” I said.

      “I don’t know. He never came home,” Mom said, looking at the clock, slightly nervous.

      Immediately something doesn’t feel right. I feel my heart in my stomach, so I ask if I can go outside.

      She looks skeptical but doesn’t protest. “Yes, but only if you take Ezra with you. And don’t go into the woods!”

      “Okay, I will wait for him outside,” I said, but I know exactly where I’m going. I don’t need Ezra. I get outside, off the porch, and take off running.

      I go to his workplace. He works at a factory by some cornfields. I know exactly where it is because my dad had to work late. My mom had to pick him up, so she took us kids with her. With aching pain in my stomach, a sense of desperation fills my body. I wait and listen, starting to worry that I’m not going to find him. Then I see my dad’s car, and out of the corner of my ear, I hear a scream, then another. I recognize this scream. It’s my dad’s. I’m frozen in fear. All I can think of is how terrified I am.

      “Daaad!” I holler back. I hear another scream, and I run in the direction it’s coming from. My mind is racing. I remember what my dad always said to me: “Stop and breathe. Think about every possibility, and then make a decision.”

      I have a sense of warning not to go any farther, but I can’t not go. My dad is in trouble!

      Field after field, I finally find him on his knees. I slide to him. I look my dad in the eyes, and I tell him it will be okay, even though I know this will be his last breath. I see the cuts on his chest through his shirt. I see the bite marks on his neck. Blood is coming out of his mouth. I put my arms around him to try to comfort him. My body is shaking, and I can’t speak. His blood starts to soak my clothes. His breathing is low. I can hardly breathe. He puts his arms around me. With his last words, he tells me how proud of me he is. He continues to tell me to protect the family with all my strength.

      He starts to slowly lose consciousness, and I feel his heart rate slow and almost stop. All of a sudden, he takes a deep breath and sinks his teeth into my lower neck. He falls to the ground, limp. I look at him, knowing he’s gone. His last breath leaves his body. Tears flow down my cheeks, and I start to breathe hard. My head starts to spin. I hear slight flapping, and I look up and see two creatures with huge wings escaping. It’s too dark to make out anything else. My head gets heavy, and my body collapses.

      I wake up back in my bed. I look up and see Ezra in his bed, staring at the ceiling. I see him wiping his eyes and making light cries. I go downstairs, and Mom throws her arms around me and starts to cry.

      “Ezra found you lying next to your father. I am so sorry you saw that.”

      My eyes begin to water, and I know that it wasn’t a dream, no matter how unrealistic it felt. Then I almost let it all out, but I go upstairs. While taking deep breaths to stop crying, I see Cara walking out of her room, her eyes bloodshot. She throws her arms around me, and we fall to the ground, crying on each other.

      “I thought we lost you too,” she says between her cries.

      “Why would you think that? I am here, and I will never leave you all,” I say, trying to be strong, hearing my dad’s words echo in my head.

      “You have been asleep for a whole day!”

      I don’t know what to say to her, but I can’t sit and cry on the floor like this. I rush into the bathroom and turn on the water so no one could hear me crying. I see a red and puffy mark on my neck where my dad bit me. With everything that is happening, I can’t tell my family about the incident.

      The next day, I wake up starving. After three bowls of cereal, I’m still not satisfied. This hunger deep in my soul is almost a craving. Food is not satisfying the craving; nothing is. My mom walks downstairs. She looks depressed and not at all ready for the day. Her eyes are puffy. She had no makeup, and she wasn’t even fully dressed.

      “Do you three want to go to school?” she asks, not wanting to force us to go.

      I partially want to go to be alone, but another part of me is starving and wants to stay home. I see Cara nod, and I follow her. No one wants to be around one another, crying. I know how Cara feels. Everyone crying in the house will bring a depressing atmosphere. Ezra throws his book bag over his shoulder and storms out of the house.

      At school, the urge gets overwhelming. I start to hear heartbeats and smells that overwhelm my thoughts. What is going on with me? First, I have this overwhelming feeling deep in my stomach. I only describe it as feeling hungry, but it is worse—more controlling and aggressive. My skin crawls from the hunger, and I can only think of the hunger. Now I can hear stuff that is supposed to be impossible to hear. It’s the only thing I can think of. I hear whispers a couple of rooms away. Unsure of what is happening, I force myself to hide in the bathroom.

      I hear a couple of boys in my class go into the bathroom. The smell of them is sweet and inviting. My body vibrates being in the same room as them, and I want to get closer. I force myself to sit there, unsure of what might happen if I walk out of the stall right now. I hear them start to talk, obviously unaware I’m among them. Their voices snap me out of this trance as I concentrate on their words.

      “Have you seen Levi today?”

      “No. Why? You worried about him? The guy is a freak!”

      “Ha ha, I know, right? I heard his dad died a couple of days ago.”

      “Probably killed himself because he couldn’t deal with his kid being a freak.”

      “I heard all three of them are like that!”

      “I’m surprised their dad lasted that long!”

      How could they be so heartless? Bullying me isn’t enough for them? Now they have to downgrade my family? I want to kill them, rip their heads off, watch as they see it’s me who finishes them off. I go to stand up just as the hunger intensifies as I think of killing them.

      “C’mon, Nick, we need to make it to our next class.”

      They walk out as I sit there angry. I can’t contain myself. I walk out of the stall and look at myself in the mirror.

      You are weak. Everyone walks all over you.

      Why would Dad ever trust me to protect anyone? Why me? Haven’t I suffered enough? I punch the mirror with everything I have—all the pain and sadness. The glass breaks, and I look at myself in the