All The Afflicted

The Carnia Cabins

It's been a week now, living in the Carnia cabins. Ahlex has been helping me learn how to use my powers. There isn't any training rooms inside of the cabins. Just a couple of bedrooms with people in them, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen. I've befriended Cas and Stunner and a younger, quiet boy named Ben. Each one of them is like me.

At the moment Ahlex and Ben are trying to teach me how to properly change myself into a wolf.

"All you need to do" Ahlex begins telling me but I decide to finish what he's saying.

"all I need to do, is clear my mind and think of stuff a wolf would do"

I say calmly.

"Yes" Ben says.

"Okay." I say.

"Now close your eyes and clear your mind" Ahlex says looking at me.

I listen immediately, stand still and slowly close my eyes.

"It will get easier the more you do it" i hear Ahlex say. I clear out all the thoughts I have and I imagine myself on all fours with paws and fur, full of adrenaline. I imagine myself sprinting after a small animal, maybe a rabbit. I feel air shift around me and I fall to the ground. I open my eyes slowly, scared of what I might see. everything looks a lot clearer to me and when I squint I can see closer than usual. I can smell the wild flowers and dog on Ahlex and I can smell pot smoke on Ben. I can feel hair covering my body and my feet sit soft and bare on the ground. I can hear bugs walking and flies buzzing from far away. my body feel relaxed and weightless, like I could just run in circles for days. I feel the new muscles I can move in my tail. it feels so weird. When I try talking it comes out in a bark, and almost scares me.

I look up and see Ahlex laughing at my reaction to this. Ben looks at me and smiles. they both close their eyes and they turn into wolves. Ahlex's wolf is a dark red with black at his feet and a white tip on the tail. Ben's wolf is blonde like his hair, he isn't shaggy like Ahlex. I realize they're based off themselves, Ahlex has shaggy hair so his wolf is more furry.

Ben has short blonde hair so his wolf isn't furry. I look down at my paws and realize Im colored like my hair, blonde ombré. Ahlex and Ben start walking away and signal me to follow. I do. But I do not know where they're taking me. It feels awkward walking on all fours and I'm sure the boys notice how uncomfortable I am.

they start running and I stop, looking at them. Ahlex turns his head and whips it back around signaling me to follow this too.

so, I do.

I race after them, I can run so fast it doesn't even feel like my feet are touching. the wind whips me through the air and I'm not even trying that hard.

I finally catch up to them and they run slower. We are approaching a drop off of some sort, from what it looks like, it seems deep. They stop a couple feet away from the cliff and turn into their natural form, human.

"Jump." Ahlex says, at first I think they are joking, there faces tell me otherwise. what? Okay this is insane, what?

"Jump." Ben says.

"Wha..."

"Jump!" they both say with energetic looks. "no!" I say. I am so confused, why would they want me to jump?

"Listen, you won't even hit the bottom. trust me." Ahlex says.

I stand there, reluctant to what they are saying until,

"LET ME GO!" I scream in the face of Ahlex pushing me towards the edge.

"Trust me!" He growls in my face.

I scream.

"Just, clear your mind!" Ben says. its the loudest I've heard him since we met. Before I know it, the ground disappears beneath my feet and I fall.

Something's starts tugging on my back and I'm whipping through the air. it pushes into my skin and adrenaline rushes into my veins.

The tugging turns into pain. a sharp pain, like when someone pulls on your arm way too hard. I start to scream. trying to bare this pain. I turn my head at a painful angle to see what's pulling on my back. dark feathers appear in the corner of my eyes. wings? Ahelx wasn't lying! I can fly! I can fly? oh my goodness I can fly!

I pull my wings downward to stop the pain and I hear a faint cheering from above. they're the sickest, cruelest people-things I know!

I glide downward until I realize I should probably try going upward.

whooooooo.

I push upwards and clear my mind and my body shifts and changes. it's kinda painful to be honest but the pain only last for a second. I am a wolf-thing now. I laugh in my head for a while. wolf-thing. Did I really just call myself that? It's so much easier to fly as wolf-thing than to fly as a human-thing...