“Is that even possible?”  Sorrel demanded, unaware of my internal meltdown.  “Would they be capable of changing their DNA to hide their identity?  And why wouldn’t he know?  Why would whichever parent was a Vist not tell him what was going on?”

     “Yes, it’s possible,” Adair sounded sure, “but as far as why, I don’t have the answers to that.”

     “Riven’s father disappeared before he was born,” Ren murmured.  “He might have been one.  We know nothing about him.”

     I could hear their words, their discussion, but internally I was shutting down.

     This was supposed to be a dinner.  Meeting Ren’s family.  Terrifying, but I was going to do it to make Ren happy.  Instead, it had turned into a living nightmare.  Ren’s dad was trying to convince me – all of us – that I was a species which was extinct.  That I wasn’t even human myself.

     Breathe.  Just breathe.  Don’t think about anything else.  Breathe.

     Finally managing to get some air again, I found I couldn’t deal with this anymore.

     “I have to go,” I said abruptly, standing.  I didn’t even give Ren time to say anything before bolting, doing as I should have done the moment I came into the garden, hopping over the fence in one fluid movement and then running.

     Run.  Don’t look back.  Don’t stop.  Just run.  Keep running.

     I ran as if somehow I could escape from what they’d said.  I ran as if somehow I could escape from what I was.  I ran until I couldn’t run anymore.

     Breathing heavily, I leaned my hand against a wall and tried to figure out what to do.  I was lost, fine, but that wasn’t the problem.  The problem was what I could do about myself.

     I’d always wondered why I was different.  Why I saw things no one else saw.  It hadn’t ever occurred to me that the reason could be that I could be one of them.

     I looked down at myself, trying to see anything other than my own hands, my own feet, my own body.  No, I couldn’t see anything that looked inhuman.  Granted, I couldn’t see my own face except in a mirror and…I couldn’t see things in mirrors.

     If a Vist saw me, would I look human to them?  Was I wandering around with some sort of magical creature head or something that other people could see, but I had no idea?

     This was crazy.  I was delusional.  I was deeply reconsidering the idea that I’d been crazy all along.  Maybe I’d invented all of this, invented a friend, everything.  Maybe I was just plain crazy.

     Wait, the pictures.  They proved it was real.  I fumbled around in my pockets before remembering – the pictures were still on Ren’s bed.  Back at that house.

     I closed my eyes, willing the tears not to fall.  I wouldn’t cry.  I couldn’t.  I had decided long ago that crying about my situation was useless and didn’t help anything.  I just wouldn’t let myself cry over something I couldn’t help.

     But this was all so overwhelming.  I – I might not be human?  How is anyone supposed to process that?  How can someone just accept that and be okay?  I didn’t want to be one of them.  They were monsters.

     Well…no, maybe not all of them.  I couldn’t help but feel guilty at even the idea of classifying Ren as a monster.  He wasn’t.  He was too kind and warm and pure to be a monster.  He had never hurt me and never would, I was pretty sure.  Instead he let me be myself, something I had almost forgotten how to do.  I’d almost forgotten the boy who could tease his friends, who was curious about everything, who wanted to hang out with other people.  I’d forgotten him because he’d slowly been suffocated under layers of fear and paranoia.

     Ren had started to bring him back to life.  Bring me back to life.  Ren wasn’t a monster, he was something else.  Something good and pure and amazing.

     So, if even one of them wasn’t a monster, did that mean others could be okay?  Did that mean, even if I was one of them, I didn’t have to be a monster, too?

     I shuddered to myself.  No, no – this was too much.  I couldn’t deal with it.  I needed to just get home, faceplant in my bed, and fall into oblivion.  Maybe I could process this over time.  It was too much to think about right now.

     I pushed myself off the wall, suddenly aware it was dark, I was in an unfamiliar part of Avenglade, and I had no idea how to get home.  I looked around nervously, then jumped when I heard something rattle in the shadows.

     Instinct took over and I started running again.  Just running.  I didn’t know where I was going, but hopefully if I ran long enough I’d encounter something – anything – I was familiar with.  Just keep going.  As long as I didn’t stop, I couldn’t get caught by whatever lurked in the shadows and eventually I had to find somewhere I knew.  Just as long as I didn’t stop.

     And then I ran full-tilt into someone as he rounded a corner, knocking me to the ground and knocking all the breath out of me at the same time.

     Still seeing stars, I tried to catch my breath so I could apologize when I heard a voice that made my heart sink and my body freeze.

     “Riven?  Riven?  No it can’t be, you’re dead.”

     That voice.  No.  Of all the people I could run into – literally or not – in this city, it had to be him.

     A giant, rough hand reached down and grabbed my left arm, squeezing it tightly as he dragged me to my feet and up so high I had to stand on my toes to avoid dangling in the air.

     “You seem awfully alive for someone who should be dead,” he spat at me.

     I choked down a sob, my eyes on the ground, trying to come up with any solution, any way to escape.  Anything.  Anything at all. 

     And I got nothing.

     He started dragging me, roughly, around the corner and down the street towards a dark corner in the alley.  I tried to struggle, but it was pointless – his grip on my arm was like a vise and I might as well have been made of noodles for all the success my actions had.

     “Brian please,” I whispered.

     He slammed me against the wall, hard, his foot kicking me in my right thigh as he did.

     I stifled a scream, dropped halfway to the ground.  Searing pain from my leg – I didn’t even need to look at it to know it was broken – I’d felt it when he’d kicked me, felt the bone snap.

     Then he grabbed me, shoving me against the wall, claws sinking deep into my collarbone by the right shoulder.

     “I could have sworn I’d killed you,” he growled.  “I don’t know why you’re alive, but I’m not making the same mistake twice.”

     I looked at him and wondered why all I could see in his face was pure hatred.  Hadn’t we once been friends?  Had that year he’d spent trying to befriend me meant nothing?  I should have realized it wouldn’t, since he’d almost killed me when I was 15, but still, it shocked me to see so much hatred in his face.

     “Why?”  I found myself asking.  “Why do you have to kill me?  I never said anything.  I was never going to.  Weren’t we friends?”

     “Friends!”  He barked a vicious laugh and I found my heart sinking even more.  “My stupid parents insisted I make some human friends and not just interact with my regular friends, and I picked you because I figured you’d be less bother than some of them.  At least you didn’t talk all the time.  But I never liked you.  You were useful, as it turned out – I could get you to do my homework – but it was like having an annoying pet I had to take care of.  Naturally, when it turned out the pet was dangerous, it needed to be put down.”

     Bile rose in my throat.  So, the only friend I’d thought I’d had growing up didn’t even view me as a friend?  He’d only approached me to use me, only saw me as something like a pet.

     A surge of hatred ran through me, making me forget for the moment – stupidly – that my collarbone was almost being crushed in his hands, that his claws were digging deep into my flesh, my blood dripping down my chest.

     “So…you’re just racist?  Against humans?”

     He laughed that terrifying laugh again.  “Humans aren’t worth breathing the same air we do.  We should be kings, they should be our slaves.  You ran out of usefulness to me.  So this time, I’m going to make absolutely sure you die.”  He smiled a smile full of sadistic delight.

     “This time I’m taking your head off – and then I’m ripping out your heart and eating it.”

     And then he shifted into a bear and his jaws closed around my neck.

     It was strange.  In that moment, I didn’t feel pain.  I could feel his teeth sinking into my flesh, feel the blood flowing down from my neck, feel the crushing power of his jaws against my throat.  I could feel myself dangling in the air now, my broken leg jarring with every movement he made, but I couldn’t feel the pain.  I could feel his claws rake against my side, ripping through fabric and skin alike, but still – nothing.  I could feel his other paw, the bones of my chest and ribs starting to crack under the pressure of him trying to literally rip my ribcage open.  But still, I could feel no pain.

     Instead, I just felt relief.  Finally, this nightmare that was my life was going to be over.  No more running from threats, no more trying to flounder through life, no more struggling to get through conversations or interactions without doing something wrong by accident, no more struggling just to survive.  And most importantly, no more fear.

     And then I thought of Ren.  I felt bad for him.  He was the only person in the world who truly saw me and might care about my death.  I hoped he wouldn’t find me, hoped he’d never even find out what happened to me.  Eventually, I hoped, he’d forget about me.  He wouldn’t miss me, wouldn’t feel sad.  He didn’t deserve to feel sad.  I didn’t want me – or my death – to cause him grief.

     “RIVEN!”

     A wild scream brought my eyes up, and there, to my dismay, was the exact person I didn’t want to see – Ren, standing at the other end of the street.  No – no!  I didn’t want him to see this!  Didn’t want him to see me, blood coursing from my body, dangling helplessly from a bear’s mouth.  Definitely didn’t want him to see in a moment when Brian finished closing his jaws and there was nothing left to hold my head onto my body.  No, he wasn’t supposed to see that.  I wanted him to remember me – if he remembered me at all – to remember the me from this morning, on the outlook, almost smiling.  Remember that moment of happiness we’d had, not like this.

     For just a moment, our eyes met, horrified teal blue eyes that I got to see one last time –

     And then there was a distinctive crunch, and the world went black.