Inheritance of stars

Chapter 1 - Transformation

Mike opened his eyes and was forced to immediately close them again, a bright light directly above him was blindingly intense. He tried to raise his hand but it was bound to the table beside him. He desperately strained against his restraints a few times, but he couldn't break free. He was lying on his back on the cold metal table, unable to move an inch, and even his head was held in place by some kind of clamp.

He felt tears well up in his eyes and he struggled to remember how he had ended up here. He could only remember that he was going home from school but he had been caught in a bad thunderstorm that soaked him to the skin.

He remembered Bob and his gang. They had been bullying Mike since he had started school and they had stolen his umbrella lots of times, whenever a storm threatened. Mike was a nobody at school and the other kids mostly shunned him or made fun of him. Even Mike's teachers did the same, too. Some of them enjoyed harassing him, especially the sports teacher.

Mike's skull was pounding and it felt like there was a lump on the back of his head. His memory was slowly returning, but this just seemed to make his headache worse. He remembered the narrow path that led to his parents' home in the middle of the woods, and he also remembered his fear. Something seemed to be following him, something sinister in a long black robe, with glowing red eyes. He couldn't protect himself. Whatever it was, it just beat him to the ground, and he couldn't remember what happened after that. He thought he had seen a horribly disfigured face, with metal plates and cables sprouting from the back of its head.

Get these restraints off me, Mike's thoughts pleaded, and again he was overcome by a terrible wave of fear when he thought about the creature. He shook his restraints once more, a river of tears running down his face.

"Please, let me go," Mike said meekly, in the hope somebody would hear him.

Hours went by and the light above Mike didn't dim at all. He lay there, bound to the table and crying quietly, his limbs starting to hurt from the tightness of the restraints and the pounding in his head seeming to get worse with every passing second.

He thought he could hear the dull hum of huge machines, seemingly in the midst of some endless production run. Sometimes he thought he could hear low stamping noises and, now and again, voices, somewhere off in the distance.

Suddenly Mike heard a quiet hissing noise and shambling footsteps somewhere nearby, and they sounded like they were coming directly towards him. He heard a rattling breath near his ear. Mike whimpered, as he suddenly caught the smell of something foul.

"Please, don't hurt me. I just want to go back to my mum and dad," he begged, his voice almost silent.

A dark shadow interposed itself between Mike and the light above him. "Hurt you?" a voice asked, a voice like a death rattle, and Mike began to shiver uncontrollably. He tried to blink the tears from his eyes.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the voice continued, "I'm your doctor. I just want to help you."

A wave of relief flooded through Mike's body and he blinked away the last of his tears. "Are my parents here, as well?"

"No, my ugly little friend. Unfortunately, your parents couldn't be here to marvel at my work. But you have me. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Bloodmind," the doctor said.

The name gave Mike the shivers, and he almost started crying again. "Why am I restrained on this table? I want to go."

"It's for your protection as much as mine, while I get on with my work. I hope you understand. But we can take that restraint off your head and we don't need all this light. If I can do anything to make this process any more comfortable for you, all you have to do is say," the doctor told him, then giggled softly to himself, which gave Mike goosebumps.