The drive home was peaceful and I used my bluetooth helmet to listen to my music. When I was twenty-five minutes from my house, my parents called while I was paying for gas. They asked how I was doing and I told them that I was doing okay and I told them about the feast.
The cooks went overboard with cooking different types of meat, sides, and deserts. Children had run around and play fought while their parents watched, and pack warriors talked about the fight with the vampires. Jeremy and Monica surprised everyone in the pack by making me an honorary member of their family, and even extended it to my entire family as well.
My parents were shocked at how far they were going for our family. They were even more shocked when I told them about the meeting that happened before the attack. That if anyone tried to go after us again, we can go to the Blackstone Pack for protection. Before we ended the call, I asked them if they wanted me to get them anything from the store, and they said no.
After I got home and unloaded my motorcycle, I went inside and was shocked by what I saw. Vases of flowers, clusters of balloons, and piles of get well soon cards were everywhere. I went upstairs to my room to unpack and then went downstairs to the living room. My family was watching Game of Thrones and I decided to watch it with them for a bit before helping mom with dinner.
She said that I didn't need to help since we would be ordering food in. Everyone agreed on chinese, so we got stir fried rice, egg rolls, dumplings, lo maine, different types of sushi, and crab rangoons. We all sat at the table when the food arrived, and they told me about what happened while I was recovering. They had informed the school about my coma, and they had said that if I could get caught up on all of my missed assignments, then I wouldn't get held back.
I wasn't worried about that since I had already done all the work, but I was nervous about the other students. While most have changed their attitudes toward me, a lot haven't and they were the ones I didn't want to run into. My parents also told me that Henna wanted my approval to do another interview, but I declined. I didn't want to dwell on this any longer than necessary, but I did tell them that I would let Henna know that she could spread the news that I had fully recovered.
After dinner was over, I went upstairs and got ready for bed. Once that was done and I had everything ready for school tomorrow, I dialed Henna's private phone number. I didn't know if she would answer, but while I waited, I stretched out on my bed.
"Hello?" A tired female voice answered, and it perked up when I spoke in return. "How are you doing Andrew? What can I do for you?"
"Hey, Henna. My parents just told me about your thoughts for an interview. I don't really want to do one, since I just want to forget about this. However, if you want to spread the news that I have recovered, you can. How would that work for you?" Henna was a little disappointed that I didn't want to do the interview, but she understood where I was coming from. When we were done talking, I put my phone on the charger, turned out the lights, and went to sleep.
The next day, I decided not to go on my usual run since I was still feeling sore. Even though I've physically recovered from the injuries, I still had the residual discomfort. After I was ready for school, I grabbed my backpack and helmet before getting on my motorcycle. As I left, I called Josh and asked if they wanted anything from McDonald's for breakfast, and he asked me to get sausage biscuits for all of us.
At McDonald's, I waited in line until it was my turn. I had purposely left the house early because I knew I would have to wait for the food. As I waited for them to bring me the ten sausage biscuits that I had ordered, I decided to check the notifications on my phone. The speed at which Henna worked always amazed me, since I was already seeing posts of my recovery.
My brothers had responded to some of them, saying how they're thankful that I was finally home safe. I decided to post a response as well, but I thought about what I wanted to say. Finally coming to a decision, I wrote 'Finally out of the hospital and about to go back to school for the first time in two months. Please wish me luck.' At the end, I put a laughing crying emoji with a puppy dog eyed emoji as well. By the time I posted it, the McDonald's employee came out with my order and I gave her a $10 tip for working so hard.
When I got to the school, I went to our usual parking spots, for when we did drive ourselves, and my brothers were already there. I took off my helmet and handed them two biscuits each and we ate before walking up to the school building. Taking off my gloves, I put them into my backpack before throwing it over my shoulder and grabbed my helmet. Inhaling a lungful of air, I sighed before following my brothers to face whatever was going to happen inside.
Before I could go to my locker, I went to the office to turn in the hospital note that Doctor Hail gave me. Even though it's a Pack Hospital, it's considered as a private hospital with all of the employees having licenses that said as much. It was done that way in case a situation like this occurred, that way there would be no issues with turning in notes from them. After I left the office, I got the books I needed for my first two classes and headed to my first one.
The conversations in the classroom stopped when I walked in, and everyone looked at me. When I walked a bit further into the room, the other students rushed and crowded around me. They were all talking at once, asking how I was doing, how I ended up in a coma, if I was going to do a concert soon, and everything in between. My heart rate was increasing and I knew I was on the verge of an anxiety attack.
Deciding the best option was to leave, I pushed my way out of the room and ran towards the bathroom. Josh rushed after me and followed me into the bathroom as I fell to the floor. He took my backpack from me and then he tried talking to me.
"Hey, man, just try taking slow, deep breaths, okay? Follow me, in, out. In, out." I tried to follow Josh's even breathing, but it wasn't working.
"Josh, get away from me. NOW!" I yelled the last part while looking at him through Nightmare's eyes. Understanding the seriousness of the situation, he backed away to the door, but he kept his eyes on me. Even though I was his brother, I was also a predator, and you never turn your back to one. My body started shaking and shortly after, I was forcefully shifting into Nightmare. He had pushed me to the back and had taken control until I calmed down, but from how overwhelmed I was, it was going to be a while. Luckily, he had chosen a smaller size to shift into, as well as disguising his ten tails as one and keeping his fur a solid black color, so we could get away with being called a regular wolf.
"Nightmare? Are you okay?" Josh was hesitant because Nightmare was always unpredictable, but Josh was grateful that Nightmare seemed to be calm.
"Believe me or not, I don't care, but I did this for Andrew. It was the only way he could have enough space and time to calm down fully." Nightmare telepathically talked to Josh and also asked him to get help. They needed a way to get Nightmare out, and they couldn't do it alone. Agreeing, Josh pulled out his phone and dialed dad's number.
"Hey, Josh. Is everything okay? Wasn't your first period started by now?" Dad kept asking questions until Josh interrupted him.
"Dad, listen really quick. Class did start, but something bad happened. Andrew had an anxiety attack because the other students kept talking to him at once. He rushed to the bathroom and Nightmare forced a shift. We need help getting him out." As Josh explained the situation, the other side was quiet.
"Alright, stay there with him and I'll call the school. Text Mr. Lite and ask him to send your brothers your way, they should know where you are, right?" He waited for me to confirm that they did know that we were in the bathroom, before continuing. "Keep everyone else out of that bathroom. You're his brothers, so Nightmare sees you as part of his pack and won't attack you. That can't really be said about everyone else." After he was done telling Josh what to do, Josh did as instructed. Shortly after, Adam, Damian, and Dominic arrived and played bodyguard for the bathroom.
It didn't take long before the intercom came on and announced that the hallways were temporarily locked down. Soon, the bathroom door was opened and four police officers, including our dad, walked in. Flattening our ears and tucking our tail, Nightmare spoke to everyone.
"I'm sorry for forcing this shift. The other students wouldn't leave Andrew alone, so I felt this was best in order to give his mind a break."
"I understand why you did it, so I'm not upset. We do, however, need to get you out of here. To make it more believable to others who might see it, could we put on a muzzle and a leash around your neck?" At my dad's question, I nodded my head and two officers walked out of the bathroom while my dad put the muzzle and leash on us. He then grabbed my backpack and we made our way out of the restrooms. As Nightmare walked down the hallway with two officers in front, my dad holding the leash, and the last officer following behind us, we heard running coming down the hallway.
Nightmare started a low warning growl as my dad's grip tightened on the leash and he put his body weight onto my back, and the two officers in front rushed forward to stop the two running students. Dad kept telling us to calm down, and slowly we stopped growling, but I was still on guard. The kids were terrified, but the officers explained that everything was okay and that they 'wouldn't let me hurt them,' but they had to get out of the hallway first. They apologized to the officers for being late to class before cautiously walking into a random room until we had passed.
When the kids were out of sight, my dad got off me and the other officers resumed their positions around us, and we proceeded to exit the school building. Making our way to the police cars out front, they opened the back door and I got in before turning around so they could take off the muzzle and leash. Dad then closed the door before getting into the driver's seat, while another got into the passenger side, and the other two got into the car behind us. This was going to be an uncomfortable ride to wherever they're gonna take me. When this happened when I was younger, they would either take me home, or I would go to the police station and stay there until dad went home. Turns out, I'll be going with them to the station. Lucky me.
At the station, Mr. Deus was there waiting for us. I followed my dad into Mr. Deus's office and laid down while dad explained what happened to the police chief. They came to the decision to let me stay in the Chief's office until it was time to go home, and in the meantime, dad would get in contact with my godfathers. Dad said that they might know of something to help me gain the control that we so desperately need. There was still quite a while to wait until we left, so Nightmare decided to take a nap, to pass the remaining time. However, it wasn't a peaceful sleep like we hoped.
Crack, crack, crack. The resounding cracks of a whip rang through the still air. Searing, debilitating pain racked across my body. Musty, stagnant air filled my lungs. Cracking my eyes open amidst the pain, I saw that I was in what looked like a root cellar. Of course, it was Démone, the Blood Witch that was the latest one to capture me. She loved to test how much torture I could take before passing out, not to mention the fact that she would collect my blood for whatever rituals or other things she did. This time, she was using a whip made of incredibly thin wires that were dipped in both Dragon's Bane and Wolfsbane. It kept the wounds from healing quickly, allowing her to collect even more blood. My eyes were drifting closed again, when I heard Magnis asking for permission to take over. I didn't know why he was asking now, if he could have done it sooner, that would have been greatly appreciated. However, I knew I could hold on for much longer, so I let him take control. As my arms broke to accommodate the transformation, they slipped through the chains binding them, and when we fell to the ground, the transformation was completed. We were weak, but he still managed to disorient the witch long enough for us to escape, and after what felt like forever, we finally reached home again.
"Andrew! Andrew, wake up!" I vaguely heard a voice calling out to me, but my mind slipped back into the dark oblivion that was calling my name. Not wanting to wake up to the nightmare that I was seeing in my mind, I decided to slip deeper into the darkness and go into a deeper sleep.