I Was Once Human

Chapter I - A Drastic Change, Part II

He dreamed of what seemed to be an eternity, until he heard a familiar voice waking him up

"Jesse! Jesse wake up!" he could see Edmond shaking his weakened body in the middle of the forest

"Ugh, what happened?"

Edmond just shrugged and said "You tell me, I just snuck up behind those people and saw you jumping into the river, I knew I had to get to you, so I went to look for you until I saw this trail of wet rocks by the riverside leading into the forest, that was when my heart sank, I thought they had found you, so I followed the trail and saw you laying here, weakened, with bite marks on your arm and shoulders"

Jesse tried to stand up, he felt a strong stabbing pain in his chest, he fell back down and gripped his chest, Edmond saw him and helped him up

"Easy now, you've been through so much in one day, just relax, I'll take care of things until you had enough rest."

Edmond set up a tent and placed a bedroll inside

He handed Jesse a can of dog food, "Don't worry, it won't taste as bad."

Jesse smiled, he took the dog food and went in, he laid down and let out a sigh of relief, he thought for a bit, and asked "Say, those people wearing white coats, do you know them?"

Edmond was shocked, he didn't think Jesse would ask this question, but he had to answer truthfully, he doesn't want to lose the trust of his best friend, he chuckled and said "Well, funny story actually... they were my colleagues once, the one who spoke to you was one of the high rankings at the institute, he goes by with a name called 'Alcides.' They were cunning, intellectual and natural geneticist capable of doing great things and achieving what many people thought were impossible, however, their methods are very questionable, had they gotten you first, they will do some terrible, terrible things to you, it will not surprise me if they turned out to have no morals, believe me, I've seen them perform experiments before, and after several years working along with them, they took a sample of my blood, and threw me out in the darkness of night." Edmond looked down "it all happened so fast, had you been through all that, I'm not so sure you can still have faith in humanity, I didn't even know what i did wrong." Edmond seems to be lost in his mind, remembering what had happened that night, looking up into the sky "but then I realized that I didn't do something, I became something, and realized something even worse than just being thrown out of my favorite government-funded research institute"

Jesse looked at Edmond with a look of total confusion, he looked back at Jesse and continued "You are not the only one with genetic flaws, you know..."

Jesse is in disbelief, Edmond couldn't possibly be a freak like him, could he? Edmond saw right through his stare and just lifted his right upper lip to reveal an elongated fang, "I am half a vampire" Jesse couldn't believe any of this, his disbelief and his fatigued body was enough to knock him back to sleep.

The night when he finally woke up, feeling properly rested, he had the urge to eat... his saliva was dripping, he could smell flesh from all across the forest, he was seeing the world differently, it was like a psychedelic experience, he remembered his dream, and tried to control himself, but it's no use, he could only watch as he stumble across the forest floor, he managed to catch a fox, and proceeded to eat it after biting it's neck, he could only repeatedly say "No." in his head whilst this is happening, Edmond who is watching all of this took notes whilst hesitating to help him, Jesse's uncontrollable body turned to him, approaching him slowly, and growled much like that of a feral wolf, Jesse pounced at Edmond, but Edmond hit him in the head with a wooden stick, Jesse finally regained control over his body, he was breathing heavily, afraid, and with no means to comfort him