Metamorphs

Bits and Pieces

Pain.

I can’t feel nothing but pain.

I am reduced into small parts that hurtle through the fabric of space and time.

I don’t know where my head, hands, and feet are.

I don’t even know if I still exist.

Voices.

I can hear a cacophony of sounds that I cannot make sense of.

“Hide.”

“Run.”

“I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

“HELP ME.”

My eyes flung wide open.

I am on my back, panting heavily; every breath I take sends a knife-like pain in my lungs. I feel like I was mashed, chopped and put back together and I am afraid that if I move, I’ll start to fall apart.

I try to raise my hand to shield my eyes from the glare of the sun, but the effort almost makes me pass out. I try to raise my legs, but a sudden stabbing pain shoots up my pelvis that made me moan and lay limp.

I claw the ground where I am lying and felt the softness and the unbelievable heat of sand granules slide in between my fingers. Sand.

I start to panic. What happened? Where am I? Am I dead?

I screw shut my eyes and try to remember what lead me here.

I was standing from the rooftop, about to jump to my death. But somebody pushed me; I remember the panic when I saw the ground closing in on my face, ready to flatten me like pancake on the ground.

Then…then…what happened?

Could I be dead? No, I’m in too much pain to be dead, I mean you’re not suppose to feel anything when you’re dead right?

It’s so hot; I’m perspiring even just by lying down here, if the fall didn’t kill me this kind of heat will surely do. It feels like I am being slowly baked inside a furnace.

A laugh escapes my dry lips. Maybe this is my punishment, to be cast away in some hot and remote place for trying to take my own life…for being such a coward.

There’s a sudden buzz inside my head, then I hear…words. I don’t understand them; it seems garbled, like a lot of people trying to talk at the same time. The buzz gets louder and louder until it rises to a crescendo and I can’t take it anymore.

A white-hot pain I’ve never experienced before slices through my head like a sharp knife. It blots out every single pain I feel and for a moment I regain control of my body. I curl up and clutch my head in agony, blood is roaring in my ears; it feels like somebody is trying to pull my brains off my skull. My stomach roils, making me heave and retch. My heart beats erratically as if threatening to burst. Something sticky and warm starts to trickle down my nose.

“Run.”

The voice again, the one I heard before I arrive here. I thought it’s the same voice that pushed me off the building but it’s a female voice now.

The pain continues as I roll down the sand.

“Hide.”

“Please, before they find you.”

“Where are you?” I scream around, while my head is still being flatten by pain.

“Find me. Help me. Time is running out. They are going to kill us.”

Then she screams inside my head; the pain reaches its zenith along with her scream.

Then there’s silence.

I move up gingerly and wipe my tingling face. Blood and tears came off it.

I take in a few deep breaths, trying to calm my heart. The pain in my head leaves me feeling drained and disoriented. I manage to lift up my head and look around.

I’m in the middle of nowhere, in a middle of a desert to be exact.

The golden brown sand stretches from miles and miles, not a single life form can be seen in every direction I look. The sun is so hot that reduces everything into a mirage, even the sand I am sitting at feels terribly hot in my palms.

What was that about? The voice and the scream, it seems like she’s in a state of agony that’s beyond human comprehension. What does she mean? Run? Where to? I don’t even know where I am. Find her? Help her? I’m in terrible condition as she is.

And most importantly…how did I get here?

I remember feeling being pulled apart and scattering like dust, hurtling though…through where?

I raise my arm and stare at it and clench and unclench my fists. I stretch out my legs and roll my ankles. Except for the heat and the residual ache of that massive headache, I feel perfectly fine now.

I struggle up, raising my hand to shield my eyes from the glare of the sun. I need to leave this place. It’s funny that a while ago, I was contemplating on killing myself, now I am trying to find a way to live.

After a few steps forward, I hear an uncharacteristic growl behind me. I slowly turn to find myself face to face with a spotted hyena.

It bares it teeth at me menacingly, I must’ve attracted it a while ago as I screamed my head off in pain. I keep eye contact for about a minute then I bolt. I run for my life as I have never run before, while the hyena is on hot pursuit. I stumble on some rock and I fall face first on sand, swallowing a mouthful of it.

I flip over and crawl backwards, the hyena advances, its drool dripping off the corners of its mouth. It tenses and sprang at me, I raise my arms to shield myself and I brace myself for those serrated teeth to sink on my flesh. I am going to die here in this valley of death, alone. The fall and heat didn't finish me off, now I am going to be lunch for a hungry hyena. What a stupid way to die.

But my fear did not materialize. Instead, I feel the horribly familiar sensation of being rip apart.

A loud horn blasted in front of me, sounds of car engines speeding away and screaming and shouts of fear assault my ears.

I slowly lower down my arms and I find myself nose to nose with a ten-wheeler truck. I’m not in the desert anymore; I’m in a middle of a busy highway. The place I was hoping I could be instead, rather than that sweltering desert just before the hyena attacked me.

The truck driver emerges and goes over me.

“Hey man, are you alright? Oh my God, I swear I didn’t see you! You-you just came out nowhere…one second no one was there…then-then you just appeared! Oh my God, what happened to your face?” The driver apologizes incoherently.

I stand and stagger, the driver catches me and steadies me.

“You want me to bring you to the hospital?” he asks.

“No…no…I’m…I’m…” I say distractedly, it feels like things are spinning out control. Bits and pieces of realization slowly fall into place. I push myself off the driver’s hand and start to walk away.

“Hey! You sure you’re alright?” the man calls after me.

“Yeah…”

I walk away into the busy street, people are staring at me but ignore them all. They don’t matter and in fact, nothing matters at the moment. The realization of what’s happening to me leaves me reeling and speechless.

This is the change I’ve been waiting for.

My metamorphosis.

I can teleport.