Chapter 1A Chapter by lexgremlin88 This is a draft of Chapter 1. If I've made any mistakes, please point them out to me. Any advice is welcome :) Chapter 1 “Aw, c’mon Nick, which one was it last night?” “Forget it Chris, I’m not telling you squat.” “Why do I bother? You guys never spill the beans on your dates,” Chris huffed. “No good me asking Caleb?” “Nope,” Nick grinned, “he’ll just tell you the same thing.” “And no doubt in the exact same words too.” “What am I saying in the exact same words?” Caleb asked, joining Nick and Chris in the locker room. “Caleb!” Chris pleaded. “Tell me who Nick was on a date with last night. Pleeeeeease?” “Forget it Chris, I’m not telling you squat,” Caleb replied. Chris just rolled his eyes and the other two grinned at him. “And those, my friends,” he laughed, “are some excellent s**t-eating grins. Forget I asked. I’m off to hit the bench.” Filing out of the locker room, they were joined by three more of their inner circle of friends. One of their class mates, Richard, Chris’ younger brother, Tom and a friend from their first year, Bob. Also known as Harry. An odd nickname that came about when they were introducing the trio to a few girls. They had made the mistake of introducing Tom first, followed by Richard and didn’t get a chance to introduce Bob, because one of the girls burst out saying, “oh my God! Don’t tell me you’re actually called Tom, Dick and Harry!?” And so the name stuck. Just as they were all settling down on various weight machines and benches, an attractive blonde stopped next to Nick and Caleb, smiling warmly at all six of their group. “So,” she started, “who’s going to take me out tonight?” When Tom, Dick, Harry and Chris all raised their hands, her smile turned wicked. “How about a competition then?” she asked. “I see six treadmills and six guys. The last person off the treadmills gets to take me out tonight. And no walking, I only want to see men with stamina competing,” she winked. “Looks like us four are out then,” Dick grumbled. “Nick and Caleb have way to much stamina, we can’t beat them.” “We’re not running,” they replied in unison. “You have got to stop doing that,” Chris laughed. “It sounds like surround sound when you both speak at the same time.” “Enough chatter,” the blonde snapped, hands on her slender hips. “Six treadmills, six guys, go!” She gave Nick and Caleb a pointed look. Caleb sighed, “fine, but we’re just running for the fun of it.” “Yup,” Nick agreed. They each lined up and set their treadmills to their own comfort levels, Nick and Caleb’s being two levels above Bob, who usually kept the quickest pace. After five minutes, nobody even looked tired but the blonde was starting to look bored. She didn’t realise that all six of them ran at least five miles a day, three times a week. Tom flagged first and dropped out after fifteen minutes, deeming the challenge worthless when he could spend the time better working on his core strength. A six pack meant everything to him and he was determined to get one and keep one. He stretched out in front of Nick and Caleb. “If you guys don’t want the girl, why don’t you just drop out before the others?” he asked. “Because,” Nick said. “We don’t do anything by half measures,” Caleb finished. “If we start,” “We may as well finish,” Nick grinned. “But you guys are barely breathing hard, you’re not even breaking a sweat.” “Easy pace,” they replied. “You guys are machines.” They just gave him identical grins and winked at him. “That’s it, I’m out too,” Chris puffed. “You guys have fun on your date tonight, I’m off to hit the weights.” “Push yourself Chris, you won’t get those muscles if you don’t,” Dick panted. “You’re still a skinny little bugger.” “Bugger off,” he laughed. Blondie chose that moment to walk back past them, paying no attention to Dick and Bob. Instead, she focused all of her attention on Nick and Caleb, making it blatantly obvious who she thought was going to win her meagre little challenge. Nick glanced at Caleb to see him scowling at the blonde. He knew what was coming next. “What are you looking so smug about?” Caleb asked her. “Me? Smug? Well, wouldn’t you be looking smug if you were guaranteed to get a date with someone who’s as elusive as you two? I’m going to be the envy of every girl that knows who you are.” “Jog on, love,” he laughed. “Pun intended,” Nick added. “You’re not getting a date with either one of us,” Caleb continued. “Of course I am,” she shot back, “you’re obviously going to win because you’re outpacing everyone and you never back down from a challenge.” “True, we don’t back down, but only if we’ve accepted the challenge in the first place. But at what point did we actually agree to take on your little challenge?” he grinned. “We didn’t agree to play your silly little game. Did you conveniently not hear me when I said that we’re only going to run for the fun of it? We only do anything for the fun of it.” “And you’re not fun,” Nick injected. Enraged and sputtering, the blonde threw her hands up in the air and stormed off through the main doors. Dick and Bob started laughing from behind Nick and Caleb. “Hey,” Caleb complained, “when did you slackers get off?” “In the middle of your lecture to Miss Blondie,” Bob smirked, coming around to face them. “How can you carry on a conversation whilst jogging? I’d be knackered trying to do anything but breath.” “Easy pace,” they grinned. “Easy pace, my arse. See you guys later, we’re off to hit the punch bags.” “Later,” came the surround sound reply. Just as Dick and Bob turned away, Caleb stumbled and nearly flew flat on his face before catching himself on the sides of the treadmill and righting himself. Nick punched his own emergency stop button and turned to face Caleb, who ignored him and kept jogging as if nothing had happened. “So,” Nick prompted. Caleb shot a quick glance across at his twin brother. “So, what?” “What was that stumble about?” “Not here, I’ll tell you at Dads.” “Nothing wrong with telling me now,” Nick pushed. “We’re already talking lower than most people can hear.” “Fine,” Caleb conceded. “You’re telling me that you didn’t smell that?” “Smell what?” “C’mon Nick, don’t act dumb. Your nose is as good as, if not better, than mine. You honestly didn’t smell another vamp just now?” “What? Another vamp? I thought that was just you spreading your stink around,” Nick complained, wrinkling his nose. Caleb punched his emergency stop button too. “Not funny Nick, I smelled another vamp and I’m telling you, something doesn’t smell right about them.” “How do you mean?” “I can’t explain it, it just makes me want to follow. That’s why I stumbled, it almost had me going after that vamp and not caring what speed I moved. I moved too fast for the machine for a split second.” “Careful brother, we can’t let other people know about us,” Nicked warned. “You think I don’t know that?” Caleb snapped, his eyes flashing to black for a second before he got his temper under control. “I’m going to Dad’s. Coming? I need a proper work out.” “Sure,” Nick shrugged. Walking from the gym to the car quickly became a nuisance for Caleb. He just wanted to get behind the wheel of their car and get back to his Dad’s house, where he could shut himself in the cellar and really break a sweat doing some proper weights. He did not want to be nodding to people in passing and having to say hello for the sake of politeness, so he adopted Nick’s tactic of just raising his head a touch and giving each person a tight lipped smile. The ten minute walk seemed to stretch until it felt more like an hour. By the time they reached their car, he was practically twitching with the need to run and couldn’t climb in behind the wheel fast enough. Nick settled into the passenger seat to the left of him and gave him a pointed look while he set the convertible roof to lower. “Blow me,” he goaded Nick. “Gladly,” said a voice to his right, “if you’ll give me a ride in the back of this gorgeous Jag.” Their Jag was gorgeous, as far as the twins were concerned. It’s paintwork was a deep, forest green that they kept polished to a high gleam. They’d chosen the colour because it reminded them of the forests that surrounded their Dad’s house and their own. The alloys were also kept polished and they glinted in the sunlight, catching anybody’s eye. The plush leather interior was a matt black that was so soft you could fall asleep on it and be perfectly comfortable. They did not, however, want anybody like this riding in the back of it. Slowly turning his head, Caleb gave the blonde girl from the gym a scathing look and a sarcastic smile. “Not if you paid me,” he said, slamming the car into reverse and backing out of the space before she could work out a decent protest. The drive back to their Dad’s house only took ten minutes once they reached the outskirts of the city, but it was enough to let Caleb calm down. Pulling up to the huge, metal front gates, Caleb pulled down the sun visor and tapped the button to open them. As they swung open, they revealed a long gravelled driveway that was lined by fir trees on either side to hide the house from the road. When Caleb took a curve in the driveway and they had disappeared behind the trees, Nick stuck his head over the side of the car, held it with his hands and lifted his nose to the wind, scenting deer near by, feeling the need to draw on the adrenaline coursing through his body to give chase. He turned his head back to give Caleb a wolfish grin. “Get that thick head of yours back in the car. You’re a cat, stop behaving like a dog,” Caleb laughed. “Hey, a cat I may be but I’m a predator and that, my brother, is the beautiful aroma of deer.” “What did Dad say about chasing the deer?” Nick raised his eyebrows in mock shock. “Can I help it if my natural impulses take over and I just have to chase that succulent piece of meat? Besides, it gives you a good work out having to chase after me before Dad finds out. I haven’t killed one in how many years?” “About five. And you might not kill them yourself but I swear you’ve given a few of them a heart attack.” “True. Can’t you drive any faster? The smell of deer is making me hungry.” He pulled his head back over the side of the car and put his hands in his lap, hoping that Caleb wouldn’t notice the scratch marks he’d left on the paintwork when his nails had partially shifted to claws. In response, Caleb eased the accelerator down as they took another curve in the driveway. The normally three minute drive was made in one. “Here we go Cinderella, don’t lose your slipper in your rush to the kitchen,” Caleb quipped. Nick gave an amused grunt. They got out of the car and sprinted for the double oak front doors. It had originally only been one solitary door but over the years, their Dad had builders in to extend the small house to accommodate the growing twins. Now, it had tall, double oak doors with triple windows either side of the them, matched by the windows upstairs and a double window in between those. The double bedrooms at the back of the house had been extended to make larger bedrooms with full en-suit bathrooms, one for each twin. And finally, the cellar had been converted into their own personal gym, which held almost every type of equipment that they could possibly want and many different heavy weights. It even had a computer bank that they could monitor their progress on and test their blood levels by using a specially developed software programme that a friend had designed under their Dad’s request. Their Dad wasn’t much of a gardener so the outside of the house didn’t have any flowers or plants, unless they could grow on their own without being watered by hand. As it was, he rarely mowed their extensive lawns, even though they had a ride on lawn mower. That had started out as a novelty for the twins, and they made up any excuse they could to use it. That quickly faded into the background once they were old enough to learn how to drive. Their Dad had chosen the house with the boys in mind. They had a quiet location, surrounded by acres of their own forest to literally run wild in and be themselves. When you got through the front doors of the house, the door to the kitchen was a straight run down the hallway , the door to the cellar was directly to the right of that and the main stairs were almost opposite the front doors. Which was just as well, considering some of the speeds that they came hurtling through the front doors at. In the past they’d actually managed to take a few doors off and dent a few walls in their hurry to get to certain rooms. Their Dad would grumble, but always with a smile on his face and would repair the damage himself before immersing himself back in his own work. And today was one of those days. Nick burst through the left door, nearly taking it off its hinges in his rush to get to the kitchen, and Caleb burst through the right door, barely missing his Dad in his rush to get to the gym. “Sorry Dad,” he called over his shoulder, noting that his Dad hadn’t even paused in the conversation he was having on the phone. Instead, he just held up his hand to show that he’d heard and pushed the front doors closed, scowling when the left one didn’t fit flush against the right. Wrenching the door open to the cellar, Caleb paused to watch Nick raiding the fridge with the same intensity that he chased deer. “Is it a good idea to eat that much if you’re going to work out?” he asked. “Noph, doint, dim,” Nick mumbled around a mouthful of whichever meat he’d crammed into it. “Now you look more like a chipmunk,” Caleb chuckled. “I should call you Theodore. And why aren’t you doing gym?” Nick swallowed his mouthful, barely chewing. “Because I need food more than I need to work out. I’ll be down to spot you as soon as I’m finished though.” “Sounds good to me, check you shortly. I’ll pound the treadmill for a proper run then.” “Mmph, mmph.” On his way down to the gym, Caleb only paused long enough to grab his bottle of water. He stepped onto his treadmill and pressed the button for his pre-programmed routine, starting at a fast jogging pace, a pace that a normal human would have already been running at. As soon as his warm up was over, the speed kicked up to his sprinting level and Caleb maintained that pace for twenty minutes before it slowed down to his fast jogging pace again for his cool down. Jumping off, he made his way over to the computer to check his heart rate, muscle fatigue and blood pressure. None of which showed signs that he’d pushed himself. Time to up the level he thought. He was just getting the weights for bench pressing set up when Nick ambled down the stairs. “Yeah, hang on a minute,” he said to his phone. “I’ll ask him now. Caleb, Dick wants to know if we’re clubbing tonight. I’ve already told him that we’ve got work to do, but he’s insisting.” Caleb held his hand out for the phone. Neither of them really wanted to go to the club. They might act as if they had fun, but they really didn’t. It was too closed in for them and there were far too many people crushed together for them to feel comfortable. But they kept going, just to look normal and to keep their friends happy. “Hey Dick.” “Caleb! C’mon, you guys have to come out tonight.” “It’s Wednesday, and we have an assignment due in on Friday.” “Which you can do tomorrow. You’re going to get top marks anyway, everyone knows that. And Wednesday means student night. Half price booze equals full price tottie!” “So why do you need us to come with?” “C’mon Cay, don’t make me beg. You know we need you. You guys are the tottie magnets and we get to mend their broken hearts when you refuse them.” “So you’re telling me that none of you can pull without us there?” he smirked at Nick who in turn rolled his eyes, telling him to quit playing around and say yes already. “No,” Dick continued, “we can pull just fine, but the extra hot tottie flocks around you guys. We can’t get extra hot without you. You’re hot tottie magnets!” “Well, in that case then, maybe I should tell you that we’ve already done our assignment and we were going to say yes anyway.” “You b******s,” Dick chuckled. “See you there Dick,” Caleb smiled before throwing the phone back to Nick. “Guess I’ll be giving the weights a miss tonight then.” “Looks like,” Nick rumbled, deeper than usual. “And it sounds like you could do with a run out back. Food didn’t help?” “Not much, think I’ve got time?” “It’s not going to hurt anyone if we’re a bit late. Just give me a minute to change my trainers so I can tag behind you. Meet you at the tree line.” “Thanks.” While Caleb ran upstairs to grab his cross country running trainers, Nick made his way back to the kitchen and out the back door, stopping in the conservatory to remove his clothes and fold them neatly in a single pile. Stepping out into the early evening air, Nick let the cool breeze flow over and around him, breathing it in deep, holding it and releasing it. He repeated the deep breathing several times, letting the tranquillity of it relax his tense muscles and his turbulent mind as his cat fought for control. Crouching down onto all fours he released his breath and positioned his hands on the floor a couple of yards in front of his feet. He took another deep breath and started to let his cat through, grimacing at the initial bout of pain. His jaw felt like it had been sucker punched by Mike Tyson as it unhinged itself to realign, reattach and extend. Letting his breath back out slowly he felt his nose pop, widen and lengthen into a muzzle to allow space for his growing canines and pointed teeth, which made his jaw ache ten times worse than when all four of his wisdom teeth had come through at the same time. With the lengthening of his muzzle, he saw his vision change and knew that his golden amber iris’ had widened to encompass the whole of his eyes and that his pupils had formed into black slits. With his changed eyes he could focus better and see more clearly. As a human, with normal sight, when dusk fell, he could make out a dark outline of trees at the back of the garden. As a cat, he had the added advantage of having better vision but still being able to see everything from a humans perspective. Now, for example, he could make out the tree line, but instead of it looking dark and vague, Nick could see everything in varying shades of green and brown along with small animals moving through the branches. Another deep breath and his cat’s nose picked up so many more scents that it often took a few seconds for his human mind to sort them all out. Holding his breath, he savoured the scents of nature as his arms started to pop and shorten, his human muscles detaching, reforming and reattaching to his bones as they repositioned his shoulder blades and shoulder joints to suit a cats body. He bent his head down to watch as his growing muscles flowed like liquid under his skin, reminding him of ripples over a pond when a stone disrupts its smooth surface. The constant popping and snapping that his bones made as they either dislocated or broke used to worry him, but now the sounds were par for the course, as was everything else. It was just a part of who he was. His fingers popped and shortened, dislocating at the main knuckles so that they could bend in the opposite direction to allow his hands to become paws, his nails hardening and sharpening to grow into claws. Letting his breath out, he felt his legs and feet do the same, the muscles becoming more dense and powerful to allow for his weight when pushing off to jump large heights or for an ambush. Another deep breath in and he felt his spine begin to break at the same time that his skull started to reform itself. The pain was almost completely unbearable at this point but he refused to cry out. He was stronger than that. Instead, he let out an extremely low growl that reminded him of the low thrum their car made when it was pulling out of a junction or a parking space. With his bones breaking, Nick felt new ligaments form and attach themselves along his spine as it grew, forcing his shoulders further away from his hips, claws scraping on the concrete along the way. At the same time, his skull finished reforming and had pushed his ears up on to the top of his head where they morphed into small points and could rotate easily to pick up the smallest of sounds from the smallest of animals. Nick let his breath out and felt new muscles flow and form from the base of his skull, across his newly formed shoulder blades, down his back to his haunches and ended by pushing his tail out to swish lazily behind him. Taking his final deep breath, he braced himself for the worst of the pain. As his vital organs grew and repositioned themselves, his ribs had no choice but to lengthen and expand to allow for added protection around his larger lungs and heart. To top it all off, short dark hair forced its way out from under his skin, through every single pore on his body, covering him in the sleek black pelt. It felt as though he was itching all over but he knew better than to try and scratch himself, he’d only end up shredding his own skin with his claws. A lesson he’d learnt the hard way during the first time he’d changed. To his cat’s eyes, he just looked like a powerful beast without any distinctive markings, he’d even done the whole ‘cat attacking the mirror because it doesn’t realise it’s a reflection’ thing, which had been a very embarrassing experience. He didn’t really know what he looked like to anything else. His change probably wasn’t a very nice thing to watch, considering that a cats body is vastly different from a mans. The last thing to change was his voice box and that was the part that he hated the most. After the constant tickle that his whole tongue went through as thousands of tiny backwards barbs sprouted all over it he released his breath and prepared himself for the tickle to continue to flow down his throat. As his vocal chords changed and reformed, he struggled to control his urge to cough. He stubbornly refused the urge, despite it’s constant nagging, deeming it undignified for a cat of his size and rank to cough as though he were choking on a bone. He heaved a sigh of relief as the annoyance ended and he finished his change. He was left panting hard, his head drooped to touch the floor and his pelt was covered with a thick sheen of sweat, making it glisten in the waning light of day. As Caleb stepped out of the back door, in his running shorts and trainers, he could tell that something wasn’t quite right about his brother. He hadn’t cried out this time, he’d accepted the change without hesitation, which could only mean that he needed this run a lot more than they’d anticipated. Caleb was normally at the tree line before Nick could finish his change, but this time he stood before him in all his magnificent feline glory. From the tip of his nose to the end of his tail, Nick was at least six and a half feet long. Much bigger than your average jaguar. Once, Nick had accidentally changed while they were on a camping trip in the Bodmin Moors in Cornwall. Unfortunately, several people had seen Nick and rumours had started soon after. Luckily people didn’t seem to know that a panther is actually a black jaguar or leopard so they mistakenly just called him a panther because Nick’s pelt was almost pure black. The only way you could tell that he was a jaguar was because his large rosettes were there, they were just a deeper shade of black than the rest of him. You could only see them if you got right next to him and Nick never let anyone but Caleb get close enough. Ever. Not even their own Dad or his friend Sabine. As far as they knew, she was the only other person who knew about them. Caleb shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, gently hopping from foot to foot. He didn’t like the way Nick was looking at him and being nimble on his feet might well help him get a head start on his brother. The change didn’t take very long anymore, but something was already waiting on the back patio, shifting from foot to foot. Fight or flight, his cats mind thought. With his cats eyes he could see the play of its muscles clearly. Its calf muscles tensed and relaxed as it continued to shift back and forth and then shake its feet. The movement was hypnotic and Nick found himself lowering his body to the ground and shifting his weight between his haunches, tail swishing lazily behind him. Before he could pounce, the target stopped moving from side to side and started moving towards him. A face came into view as it squatted down in front of him. “Left it too long brother,” it said. “Looks like I’m the target instead. Ready,” it stood back up. “Set,” it moved one foot forward. “Go.” And just like that, his target had disappeared from right in front of him and was streaking towards the forest at a pace no mere human could follow or see. But this cat, he wasn’t human, and he had a perfect view of his target and the speed to match. He lurched into a ground eating run only a split second after his target had moved. Chasing a target was ninety percent more fun than catching it, but this time, he would catch it just to prove that he could. As Caleb reached the tree line, he sensed Nick move from where he’d been crouched. He’d left it too long between chases. Normally, Nick went out ‘hunting’ and Caleb would follow just in case Nick looked like he was going to kill his target. On occasion though, Caleb played the target because Nick needed to catch something. Caleb was harder to catch and harder to kill than a deer. And usually, Nick had his senses about him, so that when Caleb did let himself get ‘caught’, Nick knew to let go without striking a death blow. This was the first time that Nick had actually looked at him as though he were prey and that worried him. I’ll just have to wear him out before he catches me, he thought. Come on brother, show me your worst. He kept to familiar paths at first, hoping that the normalcy of it would draw Nick out of his cats mind and back to his own. After a few minutes however, he started to take random tracks that other animals had made. Nick stayed almost on his heels. Mine, the cat thought. My prey. Must catch, must kill. But something wasn’t right. His prey shouldn’t be running this fast. And his prey had no desire to slow down. If it didn’t, the cat was going to be forced to give up the chase and go in search of some easier food. No, challenge. We never back down. Wait, who’s we? The cat’s mind slowly pulled back as another tried to assert its dominance. Brother, his human mind told his cat’s, just as it came to the forefront. Enough chasing for today, I could have seriously hurt Caleb. Nick slowed down and let out his usual cry to tell Caleb that he’d had enough and couldn’t keep up. Hopefully his brother would realise that he was back in control and would turn around. Thankfully he did and he’d reached him by the time Nick had sat back on his haunches. He stood back up and ambled over to Caleb, rubbing his head along his hands to say sorry. “It’s OK,” Caleb’s voice said from inside his head. “Let’s not leave it so long in the future.” Nick bobbed his head in agreement. Why hadn’t Caleb used his telepathy earlier? It would have saved him the miles of running through unknown forest. “You needed to get the chase out of your system. I knew you’d come back to yourself,” his voice held a hint of pride. That’s a lot of trust he has in me, Nick thought. I’m lucky to have him as my brother. He bumped his head against Caleb’s hand again to say thanks. Caleb set off at a sedate pace, re-tracing his steps back to the house. Nick kept pace beside him the whole way. Caleb waited while Nick changed back and handed him his clothes, then went inside to fix some dinner. He pulled out two large steaks, threw them into a heated frying pan and barely cooked them before placing them onto separate plates. Nick had the bread sliced thickly and buttered while the steak was in the pan, so they made their rare steak sandwiches and whacked a big dollop of barbeque sauce over each one. “Mmmm,” Nick groaned. “Perfect.” “Welcome,” Caleb said around his own mouthful.
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lexgremlin88United KingdomAboutHi there. I've been a story writer since I can remember, thanks to my Nan. I used to spend hours over the summer holidays writing short stories and unfortunately most of those have been lost. So n.. more..Writing
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