Never the same

Chapter 4

I stare at myself in shock. My mirror reflection stares at me in shock. I stare at my eyes in terror. My eyes start back at me.

All my life I've had regular brown eyes. But the pair of eyes reflected in the mirror or not brown.

They are green. And not some sort of brownish green that I haven't noticed until now, they are light green, the same light green colour that made up the dragons irises, now my own irises. I slowly step backwards, away from the mirror, staring at my eyes in shock. I hit the bathroom wall and my shoulder blade accidentally flicks the light switch, plunging the room into darkness. This is when I realise it's night or morning. But what shocks me even more than the time is the fact that my eyes glow, a faint green.

I remember when I went to bed Friday night and the dragon's eyes glowed. Now my eyes are doing the same, just a lot fainter.

What's on earth? How on earth?

The faint glow from my eyes is just about enough for me to be able to find the light switch without having to look for it with touch. I flick the lights on and leave the bathroom, not wanting a reminder of what has happened to my eyes. I feel tears start to form and hastily enter my room and close the door, before letting them fall.

Why me? Why did this have to happen to me, of all people?

I half expect my phone to receive a message from the unknown guy, just seems like the perfect moment, since I'm here crying my heart out, sniffling, vulnerable. Through my wet eyes, I can just about read the time is 5:30 a.m. However, even the fact that I need to go to school does not deter my sorrows. I continue lamenting my fate for as long as the tears keep coming, the tears being a release from all the pent-up stress, confusion and sadness that has weighed on me.

When I finally stop crying, I know the bus has left me since it's 7 am. This does not stop me from half-heartedly getting ready for school. I'm trudging slowly up the driveway when I hear the unmistakable sound of the busses horn.

I'm not late!

This revelation gets me to put on a burst of speed, and I sprint up the driveway and open the door of the gate just in time for the driver to see I'm here. I quickly step through, close the door and enter the bus. It's only when I sit down at my usual seat do I realise that I'm not even breathing heavily. I check my pulse and notice it's higher than it should be normally. Throughout the bus trip, I check my pulse and see that my average pulse is a little higher than it should be. It is normally 80 beats per minute, but now it's 110 beats per minute.

What else about me has changed? How on earth is this even possible?

My questions go unanswered, and eventually, I just stare at the scenery.

"Alright class! Today we will be doing a practical. Well, sort of. After we're done learning about the human heart rate we will come together and record your heart rates." The teacher announces. My classmates let out small cheers and start chatting amongst themselves. The excitement is very clear. Even the teacher is excited for a break from dictating notes. I'm the only one not excited.

What on earth am I going to do about my heart rate? I could end up being sent to the nurse, studied. I mean, how on earth can I be human with all that that happened last night? At least we did eyes last school year, that would have been worse.

For the rest of the lesson, I pay attention to the class, hoping that the teacher won't spot me and ask for my heart rate to be measured first. When the time for the practice comes, there are only 20 minutes left of the lesson. With 18 students, including me, I hope that things take a while. They bring in a small heart rate monitor that has a strap for your arm, and my classmates start to go to the monitor. I'm rather anxious as time goes by, and find myself counting the students remaining.

8 more... 7 more... 6 more...

Some students are faster than others, some are slower. Some students waste time trying to go again. For me, every second is worth solid gold.

3 more... 2 more, oh please ring!

Finally, the bell rings, indicating that we go to our next lesson. I sigh in relief and pack my things up, before going to my next lesson. With one less stress in my life, I calm down a bit.

I sigh as the clanky, ringing bell goes off without warning. With the school day finally over, I can relax a bit and think.

What is happening?

I do know one thing, what happened during the weekend, something strange happened and nobody, NO-BO-DY must no what happened. To reveal that, no logic needed, would put me in grave danger.

Even if I am human, fingers crossed, the would still call me crazy. They would likely lock me up in an asylum for all they cared.

Who "they" is? Bah doesn't even matter. My message still makes a strong impression on me.

I must never be discovered!

-Almost One Year Later-

The school bus drops me off at my gate and I breathe out in relief. With the school week over, I can finally get as much relaxation as possible. No having to stress about people seeing my eyes and no stress about people asking why my breath remains almost normal after exercise. Just me and my thoughts, especially since my parents are on another work trip for a while, they left on Thursday and are returning on Wednesday.

Once I'm in the house I go to my room and dump my bag onto my bed, then relax on the armchair, quickly using my eyes to take in every detail of the room.

Good, no change.

Out of habit, I look at the dragon painting. There has been no change since almost a year ago. Since when my life turned from naivety to fear. The stress and anxiety of the past year have been severe.

"It is here to help you." Ha! As if! All that dragon did was introduce me to a life of stress.

However, there is no denying some of the change to my body, positive change. My growth sped up slightly, I'm faster and tire slower and the glow of my eyes in the dark had helped me several times, even if the glow is rather faint.

After two months I had finally grown 100% comfortable with the change in my body. No longer do I get surprised when I see my eyes or do lots of physical activity without getting very tired. No longer do I have to fight back tears when I see my green eyes. The pain and misery have now been dealt with, especially since in those two months I had taken to crying every other night, with the frequency of the crying reducing, until I finally stopped.

Eventually, the alarm on my clock tells me to go and cook dinner. I cook something simple, 5-minute noodles to be precise. This is because I need time to think about things, frankly what I'm going to need to do next week to avoid being discovered, thank goodness Monday is a public holiday. Also because noodles are rather small and I'm not particularly hungry.

I slowly eat the noodles as I stare at my reflection in a nearby mirror. I notice that my eyes are a shade of dark green.

Huh? They only seem to get that shade when I'm sad, or something is wrong with my body. Why is it happening?

Deep down I have a theory. Perhaps I'm so sad and tired about having to hide from others.

If so then this is only the beginning.

But I know this isn't the case. Or at least I suspect it isn't the case since almost a year ago some weird stuff happened. Perhaps this year, when I'm 15, more weird stuff will happen.

I'm lying in bed, thinking. The glow from my eyes makes the dark night glow slightly green, making the night seem a bit creepy. I sigh and shut my eyes, hoping to calm down enough to fall asleep. My thoughts get more and more sluggish, and I pay less and less attention to them until I can think no more since sleep has claimed my body.

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