There was a moment in my life where I reconsidered everything that had led up to that point. I was thirteen then. I had my whole life ahead of me. Wasn't sure what I wanted for a job, but that's fine. I'd wake up at 7:AM absolutely beaming to get ready for school. I ate breakfast semi-regularly, would push my cheek against the window on the car drive there. Relatively normal I'd say.
But somehow along the way, that all led to now. The muted taste of iron in my mouth brought me to consciousness. Everything felt numb. I was dead. I couldn't hear, I couldn't feel, I couldn't see. At least, for a while. Slowly, all the blood started rushing back to my limbs, which would sound good if it didn't lead to immense pain. I was squirming around on the coarse ground beneath me, that then retaliated by cutting my skin with sharp rocks.
When I thought I was deaf, that was really just the dead silence of the room. Last I was in here, it was anything less than quiet. Sensory overload almost. Harsh white lights would give off an ominous buzz at all times and make it almost difficult to keep your eyes open at times when mixed with the white tile walls.
Good news. Not only are there rocks that I'm rolling on, but large shards of glass too. With a quick strike of pain, my body clenched as I felt one piece propped up into position on a rock charge right through my left calf. I yelped, echoing off the walls which at least relieved me of thinking I could still be deaf. None of the pain was relieved though. The cut stung, but my limbs were so stiff I couldn't do anything about it. I was a lifeless corpse that felt everything.
My eyelids fluttered open. All I could see was pitch black, I assumed that would be the case but it didn't stop me from questioning if I was blind too. Luckily my eyes began adjusting and I could point out a very small bit of detail in the room, if not for everything being blurry.
My arm attempted moving down to my leg. It shook like crazy and was even worse when I started to feel the glass. It was hard to say without being able to see it but that's definitely not coming out without someone else's help. It's embarrassing I'm tearing up over this.
Eyes were starting to function as normal now but if how I'm feeling is any testament to the state this building is in, I don't know if I want to see the rest.
The room had a moldy green haze to it. On the floor where my face pressed against were, as I expected, small rocks and rubble of varying sizes dotted around the room sporadically. Another piece of glass sat centimeters from my head. Something I could only assume is moonlight perfectly reflected off the edge of the glass and into my eye.
I rolled onto my back and almost set my bad leg on the ground. Blood trickled down my leg. I could almost hear each individual drop hit the ground. The continuous rhythmic pattern helped lower my stress. Didn't stop it from hurting like hell though.
My eyes opened again to the broken ceiling above me. It had crumbled in and scattered concrete all around the room. The hole above was the only place that let in a small amount of light. Not enough to make any difference, it was comforting though.
My head tilted down to get a better view of how bad the wound was. I had an idea of how bad it could look in my head, but nothing was going to prepare me for what was actually there.
The cut itself was hard to look at, yeah. Blood stained the glass, almost looking like a mural you'd see in a church where the shard met my skin. Nothing I didn't expect though and definitely not the worst. My initial feeling of apprehension of seeing the damage quickly turned into wild confusion that was difficult to put into words.
The rolled up pant leg showed not only of course, the glass, but also how it was no longer, human. Black fur, or something rather. I can't see it being anything other than some sort of animal due to my leg also being completely different structurally. The ankle bone was moved up further turning it into more of an animal type digitigrade leg. Claws and everything.
From my memory, that's the only thing that seems to have gone right in all of this. It's been, what, a few minutes since everything happened and I can't remember what the end goal of all of this was?
Anyway as you would expect, the other leg is the same. Minus the glass. I rolled onto my good leg in hopes of being able to stand up. As I propped myself up on my forearm, it became clear the legs weren't a one off. Pushing onto the glass, my arms had the same black fur and claws, except for the paw pads my legs had. Thank god though, as trying to grab anything with those would be a headache.
Ooh, speaking of headache, I had a massive one. More like an entire body ache. It felt like every movement I made was supplemented with a bone cracking.
I was procrastinating standing up. These new legs were already tripping me up and I haven't even tried to stand. I rolled onto my back again when something started hurting very badly. I jumped, trying to twist back over and get a look at it. Here I got a double whammy with both finding out I had a tail and a long fuck off snout. The bottom of my sweater was rolled up slightly to reveal more white and red fur on my stomac- okay you get it.
On my stomach now, I tried pushing myself up to stand. Normally this would be very simple but my bones had completely different concepts of what's simple. Even just putting weight onto my arms to hold myself up made them quiver. Legs? Don't even get me started on trying to work those. I ended up swinging my legs around me and sitting awkwardly like a kid in preschool listening to the teacher while completely spacing out thinking about bologna sandwiches or something.
I wasn't sure how I was supposed lay my feet on the ground. I tried keeping just the front part on the ground, like how a cat would walk, but it felt uncomfortable. I lowered my legs down until the weird new jointed legs were touching the ground. It was a lot more natural and comfortable, but it made my feet look like rabbit ears. At this point I'd take anything just to be slightly comfier. However sitting on stones wasn't gonna get me far.
I pushed myself over to the closest wall in hopes of managing to finally stand up. Getting my footing was tough, but I hadn't even considered that pulling all of my body weight up from the ground would take effort as well. Both my legs and arms shook violently. I clasped tightly onto the edge of the wall trying to get a grip. Eventually I got myself into a position that was, almost standing. It felt like I was standing on my toes, and thinking of it that way helped me keep my balance standing up.
It was super small victory learning to walk for the second time, still getting a proud smile out of me in the end. I looked back at the room I was now standing in the doorway to, and that smile was killed instantly. A thin river of blood from my leg trailed into a small puddle in the middle of the crumbled and decrepit room.
Memories of this room came flooding back to me. Those white walls and the hum of the lights from before. Machinery I had no idea the use of beating at my eardrums day in and day out from other rooms down the hall. The air constantly being too warm, even with the AC on. People in shoddy clothing scribbling in notepads. And, Dad.
Nothing from what I remembered matched with what stood before me. Gross greens and greys overwhelmed my eyes that could barely see anyway in the dark. Everything was silent, except for my own breathing and the cool breeze I could hear whistling from outside. My eyes starting watering and I didn't know why. Maybe it was the pain from my leg setting in again.
I rubbed my eyes and turned to the hallway outside. More slabs of concrete decorated the floors, leaning against the shattered tile walls. I walked forwards, passing by one of the empty rooms where the steel sliding door that welcomed you in was crumpled like a piece of paper in the middle of the room's floor. I looked on in disbelief, as one of the last remaining red lights flickered on and off, illuminating the sheer amount of dust floating around the air. Smashed key card readers could be found scattered around, even into other hallways where they didn't belong.
At the end of this hallway was the lounge. Inside, the mahogany walls and leather sofas still managed to stay intact. The eggshell white fridge in the room was tipped over, letting out all of the cans. I cautiously limped into the room, kicking over pieces of rubble hoping for a water bottle, but only crushed coke cans and pepsi cans were found. Disappointing.
I picked up one of the cans, inspecting it closer. It reminded me of a moment in this room a long time ago. Sitting on the plush leather couch with a tall friend of my dad, named Josh. He would hang around at Dad's house as they would chug beers and watch hockey downstairs. But Josh was cool. He played borderlands, he got my jokes. And in the memory, I can remember him scratching his neckbeard, laughing at something I might've said after tossing the crushed coke can into the plastic garbage can across the room.
I looked at the can with a sudden urge to throw it. The empty can smashed off the wall, ricocheting back close to my legs. I kicked it back into the corner of the room. The sounds echoed endlessly off the stone walls and faded into the background. After biffing the can, I felt surprisingly out of breath. Turning around, I went towards the staircase that led upstairs. The stairs below me creaked while the single wooden railing wobbled in place. I almost missed a stair and tripped, before catching myself on the railing. I almost expected it to snap off and leave me falling back down to where I came.
Pushing myself against the heavy metal door that opened up to the main floor barely moved it. It scraped against the ground creating an awful ear piercing noise, but there wasn't any other way out so this will have to do. Where did this lead to again?
My heart skipped a beat when I looked up from the floor. A row of severed animatronic mascot heads decorated the walls of the room, somehow both looking blankly into nothing and staring deep into my soul. Their rotten matte fur encased (up to) two glazed over slightly yellow plastic eyes. The paint that used to represent irises was almost worn out completely. As I walked further into the center of the room, I became evermore aware of their gaze. My head shot around after my brain told me one had moved, but nothing changed. Again the same feeling from behind. Nothing.
I looked back down the staircase. At the bottom, an endless void of darkness that ever so slowly creeped up closer to me. Sudden images of me falling down the stairs, only to look up at a shadowy figure locking the door, blocking out all light, began to fill my mind. Locked down there with all the creatures that roamed beneath the Earth. I could hear growling rumble throughout the claustrophobic hallways. Snarling coming from behind boarded off entrances.
I opened my eyes and, I was back in the room. Clutching my left arm with my other hand, creating scratch marks, even managing to draw a small bit of blood. I haphazardly wiped it on my pant leg and rushed out of the room.
Being out of there was relieving. Even when I was staring at the closed door of the room, I still had that feeling I was being watched. I turned slowly towards the main floor. Once the dining hall for many kids that would run around and eat subpar food was now a crater. The middle of the room collapsed into the floor below. Looking in, I could see the blood pool from where I woke up.
I looked back at my leg and remembered there was a piece of glass stuck in it. It wasn't bleeding as much now, but it still wasn't pretty to look at. Which reminds me, if I'm gonna leave this place, I'm gonna have to hide myself somehow. Harder than it sounds when there's glass sticking out of your leg and a giant fluffy tail you have to carry behind you forever. I tried sliding my pant leg over the glass. It hurt like hell, probably because I was pushing it in even more doing it. Thank god I wasn't wearing skinny jeans. I grabbed my tail and tried to stuff it under my sweater behind my back. Not the most subtle thing I'll admit. I flipped up my hood but it hit something and fell back down. I felt the back of my head, moving my hand up slowly to find the things my hood hit, were two giant ears. I sighed in both disappointment and relief. Pushing them forwards let me cover them with my hood, but it felt weird and stuck out in front. If anyone sees me from the front I'm toast anyway so this will have to do.
I waddled my way to the back door that lead outside. It smelt atrocious, with bugs flying around the giant metal garbage bins left outside. There were even tiny black specks attacking the orange streetlight across the road. Twinkling artifacts made from the light caught my gaze for a moment, until my brain started working again and realized I'm probably gonna get seen standing still staring at a light.
My knowledge of my hometown isn't the best, but I could confidently find my way around. Luckily for me I had the trail my dad drove us to this place from his house locked down. There's got to be someone there if this place is entirely evacuated.
I adjusted my hood and crossed the barren street. As fast as I could I dipped into the tree line. I've never actually walked from here to dad's, and it was gonna make what was already a fairly lengthy car drive even longer. My hands kept hidden in my pockets out of fear somebody could identify something was odd just off of that.
Running across the street left me short of breath really quickly, so the rest of the trip was going to be walked, which I was fine with. I didn't have to be urgent, only cautious. Streetlights were gonna be a big problem, although I guess the problem isn't that big if there's no one there to see it.
Weaving in and out of tall pine trees shed a whole new light on a part of town I've never experienced before. Arguably more light than I normally get that isn't a laptop screen. The shivering winter winds now felt like a light breeze.
A part of me didn't want to go home. I didn't want to go back to school, I didn't want to go back to Mom's, I didn't want to be stuck looking like this all my life in a world of normal people. I guess that's not how life works though. Cops would be stuffing me into a car, dragging me back home in a matter of hours. My spine shivered at the thought.
I kept limping through the town, feeling close to Dad's but infinitely far away at the same time. Two headlights came barreling down the road and I froze. I bolted for the closest tree to hide behind. Holding my breath, my eyes shut tight listening to the car pass. I wanted to get a look at the car, but that would undoubtedly be too risky. When the sound dampened, I looked over my shoulder watching red taillights drive into the horizon.
I turned and wandered for, I can't even remember how long. In my head it felt like half an hour, but it was probably something more like five minutes. I was strolling through backyards carefully avoiding piles of leaves and sticks. Last thing I needed right now was a fence I had to climb over so I didn't get caught, and in front of me, was a fence I had to climb over.
I groaned. Beyond the fence was more forest. I placed my hands on the top, preparing to jump over. Thank god it wasn't a picket fence or I'd have to have some choice words with whoever owned the house. I crouched down readying myself. I breathed in and out, looked around the area hoping no one was awkwardly staring (no one was thank god) and pushed myself up.
Surprisingly, mantling the fence was the easiest part. My foot slightly clipped the edge but it was pretty clean disregarding that. Landing however, was a bit harder. I hit the ground hard, landing on my arm and knocking the wind out of me. I clutched my side trying not to gasp. Very slowly, I pushed myself to my feet.
In that moment, I had a sudden guttural feeling of being watched. Like accidentally smashing a vase and hearing a door slam from across the house seconds later. Once that kicked in I started jogging away. Jogging through the endless forests. That jogging turned to running. That running turned to sprinting. I've lost all sense of direction at this point, I just had to keep running without looking back. I couldn't even prove someone was following me but I knew it.
Every time my foot planted in the ground my body told itself it was on the brink of tripping. Just about to fall but never close enough. It gave me a rush of adrenaline that I've never felt before, and it felt good. Dodging trees and tree stumps left and right, ducking under their branches.
For a moment I forgot what I was worried about, until it grabbed me by the seem line of my sweater.
