Blight Academy

No Longer Human

I woke up looking up at a white ceiling, the room spinning as my head pounded. The light blinded my eyes but something forced me awake. It was the presence by my bed, I looked into bright yellow eyes and I sat up quickly. She was beautiful yet terrifying. I couldn't help but stare and her eyes looked at me in question. I wanted to scream for help but just her gaze kept me frozen.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Ebony Williger, I'm here to help you."
Although she wore a suit and looked generally like a human. Ebony Williger had eyes like an owl, and feathers that sprouted up her neck and around her head like hair. She talked with her mouth yet her nose was that of a beck.
"You're a bird?"
She gave a small smile and I relaxed, I was far too tense. Yet soon my eyes went wide as I started to remember last night. The lake, the octopus. I was pulled under, I was drowning. My head was smacked against the rocks.
"I see your starting to recollect your memories," Ebony said.
"There was an giant octopus, with a woman's face," I paused, remembering something else. I touched my lips in response but that was just a dream. Wasn't it?
"I'm here to inform you that your life is going to change. It can be for the worst or for the better, only you can decide," she said. Crossing one leg over the other, her hands curled in her lap.
"What are you talking about?"
"Some humans are born with a certain gene in their DNA. This gene acts as a magnet, if this gene is activated before their twenty fifth birthday they can be... Converted into a supernatural being. More specifically into the supernatural being that turned them in the first place."
"I'm still twenty years old. Are you saying that..."
"The attack on you and your friends at Lake Greenwood last night was done by a gypsy. They have the ability to morph themselves into animals. We found you by the shore, you somehow got her blood into your system."
"What are you saying... That- that I'll become like her?" I yelled. "Like the monster that attacked my friends?"
My eyes opened in realisation. Cathy, Brandon, Jessica. What had happened to them? Had they all gone under like me? Did they survive? Will they become like that thing too?
"If you are concerned for your friends, I'm afraid the boy named Brandon didn't make it. Yet your roommate, Catherine Deros, is only injured mildly."
"When can I see her?" I asked. "I need to know that see is okay."
"Unfortunately you can't, as far as they know you died Mr Quince."
"What?" I said, shocked.
"Because of the attack and what it is that you are going to become, you cannot be around humans until you can learn to control your newfound abilities and since that may take years, we can't have them asking questions."
"So I'm never going to see them again? I'm dead to them? They will never know what really happened to me?"
"Unfortunately you can never see them again." Ebony said. "It's for your safety just as much as theirs."
"Where am I going to go? I have nothing."
"I will gladly offer you a place to live, if you wish to accept,"
I looked at her suspiciously. "What kind of place?"
"A school, Blight Academy. I'm the principal there. The students are just like you, lost and in need of education. You can stay in one of the dorms and learn about what you will become, about the people around you and if you like, you could return to studying linguistics like you did in university."
"That sounds too good to be true." I said. "I don't have to join some kind of satanic cult do I?"
"No, not unless you want to. I assure you, we at Blight Academy don't judge."
"Good to know." I say.
Ebony stood, towering over the infirmary bed like a hawk. No pun intended. "So, I assume you are saying yes?"
"Yes. I would be crazy if I were to miss an opportunity like this," I say. "Besides you don't look like a women who takes no for an answer"
"You presume correctly," Ebony says with a smirk on her lips. She turned the leave when my voice stopped her.
"Why are you doing this for me?" I asked
Ebony laughed. "Don't presume to think you are special Mr Quince. I do this for many other people like you."
She was about to leave but she paused at the door, turning to look back at me.
"Though, I will say this; You are the first person I've done this with, that has managed to cope so quickly."
And with that she left. I watched the door for a while before sinking back into the bed. I was going to turn into a gypsy. A person who can turn into any animal they desire? It sounded surreal. Like I was being sucked into some kind of movie.
I couldn't help thinking about Cathy. Was she hurt really bad? And Brandon, poor Brandon. Dead before he even got to live. I didn't love the guy but I didn't hate him either. I barely even knew him. Yet Cathy did. She must be devastated.
I felt a sudden pain along my back. I sit up as something pinched my skin. I twist my arm to get my hand to slide over the skin of my back, investigating the pain by touch. Nothing was out of the ordinary, maybe the pain killers were wearing off. I say this yet when I brought my hand back, it was coated in blood. I looked wide eyed at the crimson liquid. Darting my eyes to the pillow but found no blood stains. Gazing back to my hand, the blood that had once lathered my hand was gone and was back to the clean pinkish flesh I was used too.
I shake my head, thinking it to be lack of sleep or the knock to my head. But deep down, I know something isn't right...