Page 71 of Shaped to Be Yours

Lightning hit the ground or a tree somewhere in the woods nearby. We had seconds to think. To act. Jensen Senior’s attention was on me and Ricky, while Colt rushed to his father’s side, holding a freaking hockey stick. The ogre was working her way over to us, trying to get the jump on Jensen Senior, I figured, but there wasn’t enough time—

Jensen Senior ripped the hockey stick from his son’s hands, raising it over his head like a madman, but Ricky leapt at him from around me and tumbled with him onto the ground.

“Ricky, we—”

The ogre was pulled backward a full foot along the ground. The suction was getting stronger, and as her eyes met mine with a look of panic, I rushed forward, grabbed her by the arms, and threw her out of the perimeter as hard and as far as I could.

Only for moments later to get sucked into the portal myself.

“Jason!”

As I hurtled into the light, which quickly erupted into blackness, the first thing I saw clearly again was an empty sky.

“Oof!”

And then Ricky, as he landed heavily on top of me.

“Jason, are you—”

In an instant, everythinghurt.

“Ahhhh!” I howled, giving way to gasping and grunting as my body convulsed.

Ricky scrambled off of me. I had been doing so good, in complete control of my changes, but now that we were definitely in the monster realm, I was being forced into my new form that I freaking hated. It was happening so fast this time with the way the vines and branches burst out of me, wrapping around me as I lengthened and shifted with all the other added features, that of course it hurt, butfuck.

“Fuck!” another voice cried.

My vision was blurry in the final moments of the change, but I saw Ricky look behind him. When I followed his line of sight, I saw the Jensens. They’d been sucked in with us, but at least I’d managed to keep the ogre guard from getting sucked into the portal too.

A portal that was quickly fizzling out of existence, until it was merely a shimmering, fluctuating line.

“Damn it, I lost my scanner,” Ricky grumbled, but we didn’t need it to know that we were not getting back through the portal the way it was.

“No!” Jensen Senior reached for the sparking fissure.

“Don’t!” Ricky warned him. “Being that unstable means it’ll only blast you backward!”

The man hesitated but looked at Ricky with a snarl. “This is your fault! If you’d told us what you were doing—”

“I tried! You didn’t believe me until it happened to you, so telling you sooner wouldn’t have made any difference, would it?”

“U-uh, Dad?” Colt wasn’t looking at the diminished portal or even at me, still shaking on the ground as I acclimated to how swiftly I’d changed. He was looking into the trees around us.

Allaround us.

The sky was dark. Overcast like back home? It was difficult to tell. There was this strangeness to the sky without a sun or moon, and I couldn’t be sure if what was above us was clouds. The portal was in a small clearing like back home, meaning trees and other plant life surrounded us on all sides. But the flora was too weird, too colorful, too twisted, and it was what might lay beyond that bothered me more, because Ricky dropped back down beside me and grabbed my hand as I sat up.

I knew he could feel whatever was approaching long before we both saw what Colt had.

Dozens upon dozens of glowing eyes like mine. When they reached the tree line and emerged, they all looked like me too, just in varying shades and shapes.

I pulled Ricky against me as I stood, lifting him fully off the ground for a moment in my haste. I held him tight to my side, rotating and moving him with me, unsure where he might be most safe when the monsters were everywhere.

“Stay back! Stay away from us!” I growled. “I want to know which one of you did this to me. Why did you do this to me? What did you do with my dad? And all the other people who came here? Where are they?”

“Hush, child,” a female voice said from our right, as an older looking member of the tree people stepped closer. “We mean no—”

“I said stay back!” I threw an arm out in front of me, and the vines from that arm shot forward and launched her into the trees.

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