Days of Horror

Prologue: Changes

It was coming.

The woman could feel it and knew that no matter what, she couldn't stop it.

She fell to her knees, long blond hair falling in front of her face. Her beautiful and bright face contorted into a grimace of pain. Arms wrapped around her flowered dress covered belly, groaning at the growing discomfort and pain.

Every year, this happened. Every year, the woman found herself going through this pain and suffering.

She still didn't know why. Why she had to suffer after spending months in the sun, enjoying it's warmth and spreading light and good charity across the world.

Why she had to go through this change.

But it didn't seem to matter. Didn't matter what she did.

No matter how far she went to the edge of the world, no matter how deep into the woods she went, woods just like the ones she was in today, the change always happened.

And hell always followed with it.

The woman managed to look up through her pain, eyes locking on the trees and ground surrounding her. It was all so beautiful, the green grass and leaves, the blue sky and white fluffy clouds. And when the sun set, the colors that exploded across it...

It was a sight the woman would never get used to.

A sight that always made her smile despite the pain gripping her body.

Then those golden rays vanished from sight. The sky went dark.

And the woman could resist the changes no more.

The pain spread like a poison through her body, worming it's way into every space and every limb.

The woman fell to the ground, writhing on the ground, groaning and screeching in pain.

All around her, the once green grass and leaves shook and shuddered as the woman let out a sudden gasp, her back arching.

The gasp sent a shudder throughout the woman's entire body, and for a brief moment, her bright blue eyes shone with a one last glimmer of life and light.

One last glimmer of a season.

And then the woman's bright eyes faded to darkness.

Her back relaxed, falling back towards the earth. The moment it touched down, the world and the woman began to shift and change.

All around her, the grass turned brown and the leaves shriveled and died. The once proud and tall trees withered and became former shells of themselves, brittle and dead.

The woman's long blonde hair retreated up her body, falling back into her scalp to be replaced by pitch black hair that came no lower than the tips of ears. Her entire body became as pale as the moon overhead, glinting as the changes continued

Her feet grew claws, talons that stretched out and clawed at the ground, finding purchase and bringing the changing woman to her feet. Thick black fur spread across them, covering the claws and talons and spreading up the length of the woman's legs, stopping at her waist.

Simultaneously, her arms did the same, fingernails and hands lengthening out into deadly and gnarled claws. Black scales exploded across her arms, marching their way up and down her shoulders and breasts, stopping at her waist.

The woman's face became engulfed in a web of black lines, covering her face like dark vines on some twisted tree. From all corners of her hair, spikes and horns of all sizes broke through skin, some small, others reaching towards the heavens. The woman's entire body became hunched, her spine sticking up like spikes along her back as she almost fell to all fours.

And just as darkness had replaced the light in her eyes, the woman's mouth twisted from confusion and terror into a cruel and cold grin, sharp fangs literally poking out of her mouth.

She looked over her newly changed body, grinning at it's dark beauty. In one foul swipe of her new claws, she tore the flowered dress away, leaving it on the ground in tatters.

She smiled at it's remains, at it's demise. She looked around her, staring at the dead trees and grass. Embracing the darkness as she always did.

And wanting more.

She put her twisted hands to the dead soil and sent a silent message to the world below.

A message that her children heard and rejoiced.

A message that grew into a battlecry.

A battlecry that made humans all over the world tremble in fear.

Creatures of darkness rose up to terrify people.

The dead began to walk the earth.

Killers began to roam free once more.

And legends, long thought to be myths, became reality once more.

The woman let out a sigh of pure pleasure. She could feel the darkness spreading. She could feel the death of her former self in the air.

And she loved it.

For the woman she'd once been was gone.

The light was gone from the world.

Summer was dead.

Long Live Fall.

Long may her horror reign.