The Beast I Have Become

Chapter 1

I started running home; I got attacked by something. I barge through the door of my apartment, Matt and Ryan jumping from the couch to ask what was wrong. There is a huge bite mark on my neck, blood pouring. My vision is blurry and black corners them. Before I know it, I collapse, the loss of blood draining my life.

***time skip***

I wake up slowly, the beeps from the heart monitor filling my ears. My neck is wrapped up with gauze and my head hurts.
"Aah!" I scream out, the feeling of my body being burned alive coming to notice. "What happened?! IT BURNS!!!" Matt and Ryan hold me down and keep me from moving around too much.
"Whoa!" Ryan said. "It's ok, Mark. Just calm down." Calm down?!
"How the hell can I 'calm down' if my body is burning?!" I yell, my muscles tightened. "MAKE IT STOP!!!" Their eyes widen and they try to calm me down. Matt grabs a wet rag that was on the bedside table and presses the nice cool rag to my forehead, calming me down a bit and cooling off my hot body.
"I just wanna go home," I mumble tiredly.
"We know, buddy," Ryan says with a pitied look. "You should be fine for now. We'll let the doctor check on you and see what he says." I groan, the fire hasn't entirely ceased, it still burns furiously.
"Well," the doctor starts when he walks in. "Mr. Fischbach, you look alright for now. Just don't go jumping around and get lots of rest. That's quite an injury you have there."
"Thanks, doc," I mumble. After that, we sign the paper, and Matt and Ryan take me home. I push my blue-purple bangs out of my face, running my fingers through my hair. I push my glasses up the bridge of my nose and sign.
"What the hell got you anyway?" Matt asks, glancing at me before turning his gaze back to the road.
"I have no idea," I mutter. "Whatever the hell it was, was a bigass thing."
"Do you remember some of what it looked like?" Ryan asks me while petting my head. He sat in the backseat with me. He's a good friend.
"Big and hairy," I reply. We don't talk for the rest of the ride and with some help from Matt and Ryan, I get to my bed.
"Don't worry about washing, Mark," Ryan calls out. "The nurses and doctors already took care of that. You were a mess." I give him a small smile and set my glasses on the bedside table.
"How you feeling?" Matt asks me before letting me sleep.
"Like I'm being consumed by fire," I mutter, my body hot and my blood feeling more like fire. They leave, closing the door behind them. I try to sleep, but it just isn't working. I roll around, trying to find a comfortable position, but my whole body is in pain and it's keeping me from sleeping. I growl and bite the covers, keeping myself from yelling out in pain.
After a few hours of rolling around, morning slips by. I haven't slept at all. The pain kept me up and is still doing so now. Matt comes in, peeping his head through the door.
"Feeling any better?" He asks me with his morning voice. I shrug, he nods and leaves me be. I slowly wake up enough to get up. I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth and hair and use the bathroom. I do my business and wash my hands. I catch a glimpse of my reflection and honestly, I look like shit. My hair is a big blue mess atop my head and I have dark shadows under my eyes. I don't know if it's just because of lack of sleep, but my eyes seem to shine brighter in a way. Almost a yellow color. I shrug it off. Curiosity then gets the best of me when I see the bandages.
"It wouldn't hurt to catch a glimpse of the wound, right?" I mutter, thinking out loud to myself. I slowly and cautiously peel off the bandages and I become shocked when I see the wound. It's mostly healed and looks like it's been there for a month now! "The fuck? How did this heal so quickly?" I decide to wrap it up again. I don't need Matt and Ryan getting more worried than they already are. I'm sure they had enough of a heart attack when I fainted at the door last night. I wrap it up comfortably and head downstairs, the smell of eggs and bacon filling my nostrils. My mouth starts to water as the delicious smells come to me.
"Hey, Mark," Matt says from the table. "You look a lot better." Ryan turns around from the stove, a smile appearing on his face when he sees that I can stand up and walk around by myself without falling.
"Morning, sleeping beauty!" He says happily. "Are ya hungry?"
"Hell yeah!" I reply enthusiastically. Ryan fixes it up, sliding it from the pan to my plate. I grab a fork and dig in.
"Man, Ryan!" I reply with my mouth full. "This is good! Thanks!" Ryan nods his head and sits on the couch with his own plate. I eat it down and put the plate in the sink when I'm done. The burning is still present, but it's bearable. I sit down on the couch next to Ryan. I check my social media and post a picture or two. By about mid-afternoon, I post a prerecorded video. Prerecorded videos really come in handy sometimes. Today is a good day, I thought to myself. At least that's what I thought. I didn't think things could go wrong.