The Prison of Deviants

Chapter 5: Theo on her Deathbed

I've come back to my senses. I hear voices in the room, but I cannot make out what they're saying. My vision's still blurred. 

I am lying in bed. Weird, back in our cell, we only have mattresses to lie on... I guess it should be some prison-keeper's room? But why would I be there?

My vision sharpens, and I can make out some silhouettes at the window: Rufus, arguing with Ronald, Yelen and Annabelle, Shon, and some other tall guy with a black fur cloak, a scar on his face as if some beast has cut him, and an eye-patch. He's blond and has a green eye of a cat rather than a human. Must be some feline.

"We cannot leave it, she'll turn!" Rufus is agitated.

"But there should be some other way!" Yelen can barely hold back her tears, "She's still so young!"

"We cannot have another beast rampaging in our district. It'll sully our name in the entire society's eyes!"

"Rufy, Yelen is right, there must be a chance," Ronald argues. He turns to the eye-patched man: "Lord Vice-Warden, is there really no way to cure her while she's still in shape? There must be something!"

"Look, she's woken up!" Annabelle cries out, pointing at me.

They all gather around me and ask how I feel. Yelen is shedding tears, while Shon's eyes express pity, as always, and Annabelle watches me with more compassion than she's ever shown before.

"W... What happened?" I mumble.

"You drank blood when you're still a newly-turned... I had warned you!" Annabelle goes back to her usual attitude of scolding me whenever she finds a chance. "Ugh, it is all my fault! One cannot leave you alone for a single minute!"

"W... Why? What's wrong with me?" I ask.

"Can't you see, Theo?" Yelen sniffs, "You're turning! Like Kaleb!"

I stare at them blankly, for I cannot understand what they mean. Like Kaleb? I've got nothing of a bat... But then, I begin to make out black feathers on my hands and feet, and I grasp the idea: I've never been infected by bat-vampires but bird ones. So, apparently, I am now undergoing their bestial transformation - the raven.

"I'm turning into a raven?!"

I can hear my voice squeak like that of a corvid fledgeling. Yes, it is true - I'm turning into some beastly bird!

"Oh, no! Save me! Someone!"

My eyes fix on them, begging for help. Rufus, Yelen, Annabelle, Ronald... In all of their faces, I can only read pity and sorrow. They cannot help. None of them can, not even Shon, who was the one to save me from that rampaging shark back on the party. 

I can feel my heart throb - so, there is no way to reverse this transformation? I will turn into a raven and be put to death like Kaleb from that legend?! I guess it wasn't a legend, then... I did not pay heed to the rules of these deviants, mocking them for their "myths". Now, I am going to receive the punishment for it - I'll turn into the next Kaleb.

"I don't want to die!"

I squeak in my new ravenous voice. I feel the feathers are spreading onto my body. I am so helpless... I feel a lump in my throat. Tears gush from my eyes in a cascade. 

This is so pathetic...

I am pathetic. I lived so well as a human, studying in a university, pursuing my dreams of becoming a famous artist! I had friends, family... I had happiness. Yet I still kept whining like some brat, over trivial issues. Now, locked in this prison, abandoned by all those friends and even the family, turning into a beast, I begin to understand how pathetic I've been, and it fills me with wrath and anguish... That my life will end here, and all I can do is lie around waiting for it.

"Yes," I hear the vice-warden talk through his pager, "I am in the vampire district, Rufus de Corbet's office... Theo Sinclaire, eighteen. Yes. Yes... Alright, I'm waiting."

He turns off the pager and turns to Rufus and Ronald:

"I've called for the feline district to wake the warden. All we can do is wait now."

Just as I've suspected, they're going to call the warden. I can see horror appear on Annabelle's, Yelen's, and Shon's faces, while Rufus and Ronald only nod. I guess, for them, the warden's awakening is not a rare occurrence. After all, they're prison-keepers, they've been here for long.

As the minutes pass, I feel my body slowly cover in feathers. Doesn't matter, though - in a short while, the warden, that feline beast, will arrive and put an end to my life. Then, Annabelle won't have to run after me anymore and worry that I've done something stupid. I guess, my death shall bring relief to all of them, and to my family too, who think their daughter and sister has long turned into some beast.

How unfair, though? The true beasts - these inborn deviants - roam around the earth freely, and some arrogant ones like Rufus and Ronald even take up jobs in this prison to further abuse us poor humans who have turned into their monstrous kind. The way we humans end up infected is all their fault - they are the ones who infect us outside. Yet, only we end up locked away. We are no longer accepted by our fellow humans, and neither are we accepted by deviants, who think themselves superior. In these few days that I've spent in the prison, I've realised that, no matter how hard we infected humans may try, we shall never be fully integrated into the deviant society, for they consider themselves of a higher level. The prisoners like Yelen and Annabelle try so hard to gain these deviants' benevolence, yet still, all they get are condescending gazes.

The door creaks. The beast has come, I guess.

When the door opens, the monstrous warden is nowhere to be seen. Some tall blond guy enters, looking much like the vice-warden, save that he's a lot younger and much more handsome. His eyes too are green, with eyeballs like those of a cat. I guess he too must be a feline.

The vice-warden's face shows sincere surprise to see this boy enter instead of the warden whom we've been expecting. My friends look equally confused.

"Why are you_"

"You don't need the warden here, Bob, you need a doctor," the guy cuts the vice-warden's speech. His green eyes set on me. "So, she's the one, I gather?"

"Yeah. But it's hopeless, Knut, she's already turning."

"Nah, I'll see for myself..."

The blond guy whom he's called Knut approaches me and, to my complete embarrassment, pulls my blankets off to examine my body.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I squeal at him as loudly as I can while I cover my chest with my feathered hands.

"Okay, now, Miss Sinclaire, I am here to see if I can heal you, so if you value your life, you'll just shut up and let me do my job."

"Hey! Choose your words, you filthy bobcat!" I retort, for there's no way I will stand some low-level deviant's telling me to "shut up" while they proceed with undressing me in public.

He does not reply. Instead, no matter my flaring up, he proceeds with examining my body covered in only a thin night-robe. I can't tell how much I'll withstand until I slap him, to be honest.

"Yeah, can be done..." he shrugs. "Good thing I've been informed in time, Bob. I can reverse this."

"Really?" Bob, the vice-warden, asks. I can see he's quite impressed.

"So, she can be saved?" Hope twinkles in Yelen's eyes.

"Don't know, but have to try."

Sharp claws grow on Knut's hands. They are emitting some strange green liquid as if some plant medicine. His smile doesn't resemble the one of a bobcat's, now that I think of it. It's more like the smile of a leopard before it plunges on its prey.

He stabs his claws into my neck and my chest. I gurgle in pain. I feel my mind go black once more.