How Could You?

"Alex? Are you feeling better yet?" Jimmy muttered as he slowly rose from the bloody field.

The fetid pool was long scattered amongst the forest.

He inspected the were-rex and found him lying face first in the crimson grass, snoring away. Chuckling, he chose to let him sleep a while longer. Instead, he retrieved a change of clothing for them from the car.

Jimmy washed himself as well as he could with a water bottle before getting dressed and woke his companion.

"My real dad lied the entire time! There never was any money!" Alex snarled as he was shaken awake.

[That's not true!]

[She was given a check, it should have cleared]

'Bullshit, I can't believe you!' His fists shook with rage as he screamed in his mind.

"Alex, you need to calm down!" Jimmy placed his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"Your body can't handle going through the process again! You've been through enough today." He helped Alex to his feet, allowing him to lean on Jimmy. "Plus, this is the last set of clothes I brought!"

"Damn it, what was this even for!" Alex pushed the old man away from him as he regained strength in his legs.

"Is this some bullshit power play? Show me that I'm weak? I spent all day transforming, and I still haven't learned anything!" He stormed off toward the car and pulled out the last water bottle. "And what the Hell are we going to do about this forest? If someone finds this spot before the blood is gone, won't there be investigations? There is evidence everywhere!"

The young man poured the water over his face in an attempt to clean the blood off, but it only caused the color to change from a deep crimson to light pink.

"Screw you, Jimmy! This was a terrible idea," He screamed and tossed the empty water bottle at the confused elder!

"Yeah, this got a little more carried away than I expected…" Jimmy turned and looked at the forest clearing, now dyed red as if a massacre had taken place.

"We should find a local gym that we can train in. I'm sure they wouldn't mind the mess. I still don't know how we produce so much blood!" Jimmy calmly used part of his now dirtied shirt to clean off, or rather smear, coagulated blood from the car window.

He pointed at the hand that Alex used to throw the water bottle, "Look at yourself. You did learn a bit today. You just need to learn control."

Alex stared at the back of his hand, which had taken on the familiar gray skin tone that was reminiscent of his tyrannosaurus skin. His anger seemed to have brought out a partial transformation in the limb.

"Honestly, once one of the families gets told about it, they'll take over the investigation. We don't have to worry about civilians getting involved. They still don't know that we survived, so this will be huge for them—It's been years without activity." Jimmy recalled the stormy night of Alex's arrival into the underworld.

The two of them decided there was nothing they could do to hide the evidence. The scope of the bloodied mess was far beyond their control, and they could only hope that a severe storm or a forest fire would clean it up.

Deciding to just accept the consequences as they come, they got into the car. They left the clearing, searching for a secluded water source so that they could clean themselves before returning to the city.

They managed to find a lake that they could drive to—thankfully, Jimmy still used maps. The area was surrounded by colorful hardwood trees with their leaves changing for the coming of the winter months, giving them great cover. It was filled with vegetation and algae, which made it unappealing as a swimming lake.

The lack of any vehicles indicated that there likely weren't any fishermen they had to worry about either.

They gathered their soiled clothing and cleaned themselves by jumping into the lake, quickly dyeing the shallow waters with a pink hue. Alex never learned to swim well, so he stayed close to the shore, but Jimmy explored the lake deeper to ensure they were truly alone.

After confirming there was nobody on the shore, the old man took the form of the spinosaurus. He carried as much water in his mouth as possible, and he dumped it onto the car to clean the dried blood.

Alex assisted by using his T-Shirt to scrub anything too stubborn to be washed away.

This wasn't the most efficient car wash ever, and it wouldn't make it to the cover of any calendars, but it worked!

After spending the remainder of the afternoon ensuring that the car would be presentable for returning to the city, they could finally head home!

The day had exhausted the young were-rex, and he felt like he would pass out during the ride home. The training had taken a toll on both his mind and his body, and he just wanted to relax—leaving Jimmy responsible for the drive yet again.

Before he dozed off, he turned on his cell phone to see what Vikki was up to and ensure she had a decent day. The phone powered on and immediately chirped…

"186 missed calls."

The phone began vibrating in his hand.

Alex stared at the caller ID as he quickly tried to come up with an excuse to explain his absence. He knew he was going to be in hot water after he didn't think about her for the entire day.

The phone rang for the third time as he selected the answer icon.

"Hey, babe! I'm sorry, I went hunting with Jimmy and lost track of time," he apologized immediately, hoping she would buy his excuse.

"Don't 'hey babe' me! You left me sleeping with Layla, half-naked, without saying goodbye," Vikki shouted in a high-pitched tone, sounding more embarrassed than upset.

Alexander held the phone away from his ear so he didn't go deaf.

"How could you? After what happened last night? I thought you were in jail!" Her voice sounded shaken as if she were about to burst into tears.