Heart of a Monster

Chapter One

I wake up a minute too soon. The cold steel burns my skin for a moment, my eyes snapping open. I want badly to lash out but my body is too numbed with drugs for me to do so.

I don't comprehend much except for the fact that my body is not human. I twist my head up, looking at the numbed limbs I have.

Scales pattern the skin of my legs, my feet adorned with talons like a Velociraptor's. Gold and black scales continue up my stomach and sides, mostly black but with a stripe on either side of my body.

A tail hangs limply off the edge of the surgical table. My tail. It's so numb it hurts. I notice a needle slip into my elbow; piercing the skin between scales.

Then nothing.

Blue. The color I saw when I woke up. The color of the ceiling above me. I feel numb all over, my body aching and tired. I sit up, expecting to be in a warm room with a bed. Instead I find myself in a nest, woven like a birds.

People are crowded outside.

Why are they staring at me?

I understand more than they do. I know the moment I see gray and blue scales why they stare. Somehow, I'm half raptor. Taloned feet, the scales reaching up my legs and patterning my ribs.

I pace around a bit, dragging my tail in the dirt. Light flashes go off, they're taking photos of me. I wonder what happened to the other halfling experiment.

I wonder if I'll ever meet them again.