HEROES ─ fallen warriors series one shots

15| Reborn

(takes place before "Brainwashed")

Soroya

November 13th, 2000
I don't know what's going on. This whole week has been so confusing, I really don't know how to explain it.

I don't remember getting home on Monday. I left school as usual, and turned to walk the same route home that I have my entire life...but I don't remember actually getting to my house. The next memory I have is standing at my front door.

Ever since Monday I've felt wrong, but I don't know exactly what is wrong. I've been feeling angry, angrier than I ever have been in my life, but I don't know why. The tiniest things have been setting me off, making me lash out. I've also been craving meat, like really craving meat. I ate an entire rotisserie chicken yesterday. I've been smelling strange smells recently, been getting such bad headaches I could cry. Every noise feels like the volume has been dialed up to eleven, even a whisper sounds like a high pitched shout.

I'm afraid to tell Mama and Papa, I don't want to scare them. Part of me thinks that if I told them what is going on, then maybe they can help. But there's something deep inside me that's telling me this is different than the flu or the common cold. This is something else.

I'm pulled from my thoughts as the bus pulls to a stop, the bus driver announcing that we need to get off. I sling my polka dot backpack over my shoulder, tucking my Harry Potter book inside as I walk down the isle. I smile at the bus driver as I pass by him, waving at him in goodbye as I do whenever I get off the bus. He winks at me, telling me he'll see me tomorrow.

Once I get off the bus I walk towards my usual path, ignoring the strange smell that fills my nose. It's revolting, it smells like one of Alex's socks. I keep telling myself that the smell will die down as I walk home, but it doesn't, if anything it gets worse.

There's a ringing in my ears that begins the further I walk down the path, like someone has blown my eardrums out. It gets louder and louder, making my headache worse. I stop my walking and grip onto my temples, feeling tears sting my eyes. I just want this to be over, whatever it is, whatever illness I have, I want it to go away.

I make my pace a bit quicker, wanting to get home as soon as possible. Mama should be home and so should Alex, maybe they can help me with whatever is going on.

But my attempts to get home faster are futile. I finally understand what I've been smelling. On my path home, I come across a dead deer near the tree line of the forest. I want to look away from it but I can't. It's like my brain has now been split; part of me wants to cry and run away, but the other, the dominant part, wants to step closer to it.

I take a step closer to the dead animal, feeling my backpack drop to the ground, feel my breaths grow ragged. The ringing in my ears has now grown so loud that I can't hear anything else. The smell from the animal has turned from sour and revolting to something else. It's not necessary a good smell, but it's a smell I want to explore.

But as I step closer to the animal something occurs to me. This smell isn't the dead animal, it's something new. I lift my head up and find another curious creature staring at the animal. From beyond the tree line I see a lurking figure, a snarling intense figure. I see a wolf.

The wolf steps out from the trees and stares at me, his expression turning from feral to curious. As I stare into those black eyes, I feel something stir inside of me. I no longer care about the deer, all I care about is the wolf. I feel a magnetic like pull towards the wolf, and as I dare to take a step closer, the wolf doesn't move, doesn't flinch. The wolf's expression returns to feral, to hostile, but all it's anger is directed towards me, readying for whatever is about to come it's way.

I don't really know why I continue to walk towards the wolf, why the sight of a wild predator doesn't send fear into my heart, but it doesn't. If anything, the sight of the wolf feels threatening in a different way, like a challenge.

My pain from my head begins to grow, spreading to the rest of my body. I feel like every muscle, every joint, every bone in my body is being pulled on aggressively. As soon as these pains start, I feel my body convulse, a cracking sound filling my ears, sounding like the crash of a whip. I feel myself bend over, a yell escaping my lips along with something else, something inherently different, something inhuman.

The wolf's eyes go wide, it's aggression fading into fear, it's instincts telling it to flee. I find this act even more of a challenge.

I continue to feel the pulling and breaking of every bone and organ inside of me until my eyesight grows dark, until I can no longer hear the ringing in my ears, no longer smell the wolf. Before my world is completely torn apart, I hear the sound of a howl, a wolf's howl escape my lips. This isn't just any howl though, it's a howl like nothing I've ever heard before, it's a howl no animal has ever made. It's the howl of a monster.