An Impossible Curse

Prologue

"Do you think that it will happen again?" 

I peered intently at the screen. A little girl is standing there. She can't be more than eight years old, with light brown hair and innocent eyes. She is unremarkable except for one fact. 

From what I can see, she is part cat. 

Her eyes are yellow, but with normal pupils. Her skin is normal, except for one big, black patch over her eye, not unlike the one some cats have. She has no tail, but you can barely see the tips of black ears poking through her untidy hair. She is short, and her hands are constantly flexing, as if in pain. 

"Why is she moving her hands?" I ask. 

"From the x-ray, it seems that she is growing claws." 

I look into the wide, fearful blue eyes of my assistant. I look down at my own, pale hands, soft from hours tapping on a screen. Claws. 

"Have there been reports of more like her?" 

He shook his head, his blond hair flopping wildly. "But we can tell one thing. This has nothing to do with genes." 

I look up sharply. "What do you mean? What else could it possibly be? What made you think it could be something else?" 

He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down nervously. "Because. When I first looked at her DNA patterns, there was nothing out of the ordinary. I matched it with the DNA of my own daughter, Penelope, and she is perectly healthy." 

"Are you suggesting that this is some sort of disease?" I ask, my curiosity sparked. 

"I had that theory too, Doctor Farius. But it has absoloutely nothing to do with her body." 

I huffe in frustration, running my hands through my black hair, tangled from hours of restlessness. "Then what, Giuseppe? What could possibly have resulted in this?" I gesture to the girl on the screen, who has just begun to lick her hand. A cat bath? 

"I know sir. But here. Look." 

He tilted the monitor of another computer towards me, showing me an x-ray of the little girl. What I saw made my breath stop in my chest. If what I saw was true... I looked at the monitor again. Just the girl. 

"Giuseppe, if this x-ray is true..." 

"I know, sir." 

I swallow. "Giuseppe, contact the president and tell him to bring together every world leader that he can contact. This, I'm afraid, is much more serious than it looks." 

And I know I'm right. because if the x-ray is true, I shouldn't see a little girl. 

I should see nothing but fire.