Short stories

The two small lumps.

I opened my eyes and turn to my alarm clock, 3:48 am. I realized that something was hurting my back. As I got up to move the unidentified object, I realized that there was nothing there. I shrugged it off and tried to fall back to sleep on my back. That didn’t work, it actually made the pain worse. So, after begrudgingly getting out of my soft, warm, comforting bed. I went to the bathroom to see if something was attached to my shirt.

    After adjusting to the light, I looked in the mirror and took off my shirt. As I twisted my body I saw two small lumps near either of my shoulder blades. I started thinking about what it was that could make me react like this. It wasn’t my shirt, I’ve worn this shirt a million times. Nothing out of the ordinary from my regular college routine. I could find nothing, so I decided to go to my roommate and best friend Elizabeth. 

    She wasn’t very happy that I awoke her but on her forehead, were similar lumps, although they just looked like zits. I asked her what was happening since I didn’t get a clear view of my back, I was worried and scared. I think she heard the fear in my voice because next thing I know she’s forcibly turning me around. “I don’t know what is happening, but you should see a doctor if it gets worse” she said in a comforting tone. “Now go back to sleep” she slumped back down in her bed and fell asleep. 

    If Elizabeth wasn’t worried I shouldn’t be worried either. So, I went to bed as well. Over the course of two weeks, the lumps on both of us got bigger and it worried us. But it’s not like we had money to go to a doctor, we already have college debt to deal with. Another week passes and white feathers started coming out of my back, whereas she had horns coming out of her head. We didn’t know what to do, so we just hid them. Luckily the seasons were changing so Elizabeth started to wear a beanie to cover her horns, and I wore my brother’s sweatshirts to hide my wings.

    Another week passes and Elizabeth has long, curly horns. I have large, white, dove wings. We just tried to hide it but, it appeared that no one noticed except for the two of us. After several experiments, we just decided to stop hiding it, and no one noticed.

    Soon after the both of us got accustomed to our new appendages, our attitudes changed. Elizabeth became more aggressive, sinister, and mischievous. On the other hand, I started acting nicer and helped everyone I could. I started to forget somethings about life that got brought up often due to my degree in Animal Science. Eventually others started to notice and after Elizabeth almost set our dorm on fire for the fifth time that week. I decided that I would try and get us back to be normal again. But, I didn’t know where to start.