Jamie Gray's Arc

Chapter 5 of 9

Jamie sits on the edge of the ring, still catching her breath. Her body feels wrung out, but her mind is sharp. The woman checks the sun's position through the gaps in the junkyard fence. Maybe four hours until sunset. Four hours until the thing that tracks the shift arrives looking for her. The woman walks to the rusted chain link fence at the junkyard's edge and stops. Jamie watches her scan the dirt road beyond. Something's wrong. The woman's shoulders tense, her hand moving to the knife at her belt. Jamie stands and crosses the ring, her legs still shaky. When she reaches the fence, she sees what caught the woman's attention: tire tracks in the dust, fresh enough that the edges haven't dried yet. A patrol car, azure and silver, sits parked a quarter mile down the road. Its engine is off, but someone's inside. The woman pulls something from her jacket pocket and hands it to Jamie without a word. It's the FBI wanted poster, creased and dirt-stained like it's been folded and unfolded a dozen times. Jamie's own face stares back at her from the paper. Her full name printed underneath in bold letters. "They've been asking questions in town since noon," the woman says quietly. "Showed that to the mechanic, the diner owner, the gas station clerk. Someone told them about the junkyard." Jamie's hands start to shake again, but this time it's not the curse. It's the choice forming in her mind: run now and lose everything she just learned, or stay and risk getting caught before she can prove she's not a threat. Jamie folds the poster and shoves it in her pocket. She looks at the patrol car, then back at the ring. Four hours until the hunter arrives. Maybe twenty minutes before whoever's in that car works up the nerve to come investigate. She turns to the woman. "Teach me how to shift back faster," she says. "If they come before sunset, I need to be able to control both directions." The woman studies her face for a long moment, then nods once. "Get back in the ring," she says. Jamie climbs through the chains, her decision made. She's not running this time. If the FBI gets here before dark, she'll face them as a girl who's learning control, not a monster who's lost it. The cursor blinks behind her like a deadline she can't ignore, but for the first time in three days, she's choosing to stand still.