//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Strange Thing Being a Changeling 
// by TaylorTheFailure 
//------------------------------//

	I couldn't have been happier!

I had just scored the game winning touchdown against our high school rival: the Broncos. My game winning catch-and-score in the last minute sent the stands into a frenzy. My teammates were feverish, tackling me into a heap of bodies. It seemed surreal, it really did! It was like the cheesy ending to a movie where the main character wins it all, despite all the hardships.

But that was a while ago. Now, I was at the nearby Circle K, refilling my car's tank. And even though the game had been over for a couple hours, I couldn't hide the excitement and adrenaline still pumping through me.

I took the gas nozzle out from the side of my car, humming our school's chant as I did so. And once I placed the gas pump back into its slot, my phone rang. I took out the flat piece of metal and saw that the caller was my Dad.

I immediately answered after seeing his name.

"Hey Dad!" I answered, with enthusiasm from the game still breaking through my voice.

"Hey Taylor. I'm so sorry I missed the game! Mom called and told me what happened," he replied.

"What did she say?" I inquired.

"Oh, the usual. How you lost the game again for your team and how you never should've tried to play receiver when you're..."

"No, really, what'd she say?" I interrupted with a light chuckle.

"Alright, that might not be exactly how she phrased it. But, she did say something really special happened at the end of the game."

I was about to continue the conversation before a gunshot rang through the air. The sound pierced my ears and sent me into an immediate panic. I dropped my phone and ducked before hearing my Dad's worried words mumbling their way out of the phone.

I looked up to see where the shot had originated from: the Circle K's convenience store. Through the glass, I watched as two figures with bandanas ran to the entrance of the store with bags of money and small firearms.

They aggressively busted through the store's doors, armed and making me want to run as far away from here as possible.

But then, I noticed them point towards a familiar car on the opposite side of the Circle K that they were obviously planning to use as their getaway vehicle. It was a white SUV that looked very similar to my Mom's car. Wait, it was my Mom's car! It was the same license plate and everything!

Still crouching next to my car, my eyes scavenged for where she might be. And then, I found her taking refuge behind a fuel dispenser near the car.

My eyes met the two armed robbers once again and they began to advance to the car, and more importantly, my mom.

The potential harm to my mother from those two robbers filled my mind with anger and courage. There was no way I was about to sit around and watch from a distance as two armed men approached my Mom.

Still crouching, I took a deep breath to try and calm myself, although it didn't do much. A moment of hesitation followed, before I slowly moved from my cover, trying to not alert the two men of my presence. With caution, and careful footsteps I moved between the fuel dispensers, inching closer to my Mom and her SUV.

And as my distance to my Mom closed, so did the robbers.

Eventually, I found myself only one fuel dispenser away from my mom. She hadn't noticed me, as she was obviously horrified by the approaching robbers.

Then, just as I was about to call out to her, I halted myself when the two robbers shouted something to one another, "There's someone over here!"

The two men raised their guns and approached my mom, slowly moving to corner her from both sides.

I knew that I had to act now! I charged up behind one of the armed men and kicked him in the back of the leg, making his knee buckle under him before he collapsed to the ground. He yelped in pain before I jumped on top of him and began furiously battering his head into the ground. Jab after jab after jab. I was in a blind rage, unable to stop or think.

*BANG*

My onslaught of punches into the man's face stopped when the noise rang out. However, once I recomposed myself, I went to try and punch the man's face once more, except I couldn't. A sudden feeling of fire against the left side of my chest made me look down at myself. Once my eyes made contact with the part of my body that felt it was on fire, I froze. There was a huge hole in my chest. I moved my hand over it, before poking it with a finger, noticing the flesh the stirred from my touch. I... I was shot.

Once the realization hit me, I could feel as blood began leaking from my mouth and out of the hole in my chest. I began to feel weak, as if all of my energy was being drained out of me. Once I couldn't stay up any longer, my flimsy body collapsed onto the hard ground, however the pain of the impact was nothing in comparison to the bullet wound.

I heard the two robbers begin to panic, although I couldn't make out what they were saying. My hearing and vision were becoming muffled and blurry. The sounds around me began to drown out until I could see and hear almost nothing. The last thing I heard before everything went black was the muffled noise of my mother who seemed to be lightly whispering my name.