Chapter 5 A Feral Awakening

• ~IAN~
• Consciousness returned to me slowly - like a flower coaxed into bloom by reluctant sunlight. But with each sense that flickered awake, one truth became glaringly clear.
• I wasn’t where I belonged.
• As soon as my eyes adjusted and took in the world before me, my breath caught in my throat.
• “What the actual fuck...?”
• I was in a forest soaked in eternal twilight. Silver-leafed trees swayed in a gentle wind that whispered lullabies, and the forest floor pulsed with soft blue-glow moss. The light it cast was eerie, serene, and unholy all at once.
• My head shook on its own, disbelief pounding through my skull. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered, wide-eyed.
• Everything - the fog, the rocks, the fucking shadows - was moving. Breathing. Watching.
• Panic bloomed in my chest like wildfire.
• CRINNNNN.
• Images exploded behind my eyes like shattering glass.
• One. Two. Three...
• Boom!
• The dam of memory broke.
• Brenda. Figo. The train. Me.
• My heart thudded against my ribs as the final image anchored itself deep in my brain. I had died. The train had hit me. I had felt my spirit leave my body.
• So why the hell was I breathing?
• “No. Wait. Let me think.” My voice shook. “I died, right? Yes. I died. I-I… Brenda… she left me. The train… it hit me…”
• The more I tried to make sense of it, the more sense it refused to make. The absurdity of it all clawed at my sanity.
• I staggered to my feet, shivering, eyes wild. “Where the fuck am I?”
• My hands roamed over my body, desperate for proof of life - or of death. My skin was smooth. Too smooth. No bruises. No cuts. Not even the faintest scratch.
• My lips trembled. “This isn’t possible. I’m… I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m DEAD!”
• My whisper turned into a chant, trembling out of me in waves. “This isn’t real. This isn’t real. None of this is.”
• The cold wind wrapped around me like a ghost and I felt my eyelids grow heavy. I fought to stay awake. I couldn’t sleep. Not now. Not here.
• The forest... it felt sentient.
• It reminded me of Superman, that old cartoon I watched at the orphanage - the baby from another world, dropped into Earth, destined to save it. But this? This wasn’t some comic book story.
• I wasn’t anyone’s fucking savior.
• I was the lost, the broken, the dead.
• “I'm no goddamn superhero!” I screamed in my head. But when I looked around again - at the glowing plants, the humming air, something in me started to believe it was real.
• Fuck. I'm losing my mind.
• A compulsion hit me. I looked up, and my soul shattered.
• A cracked, purple moon hung in the sky.
• It wasn't white. Not whole. Just purple. Cracked. Watching.
• Terror flooded me like poison in my veins.
• Still gasping, I squeezed my eyes shut. Please let this fade. Let this be a dream. Let me wake up in a cold morgue or even hell - anywhere but here.
• But when I opened my eyes, the world was still there.
• The trees. The moss. The sky. The broken moon.
• Mocking me.
• “No. No. No. This is too much,” I whispered.
• And then I screamed.
• “Can someone tell me what is happening to me?!!” My voice ricocheted off the trees, returning as something colder.
• Dread curled up inside my chest, making a home.
• My body - it didn’t feel like mine anymore. Something else was inside me, pacing in circles, waiting.
• Even the air felt wrong. Thicker. Wilder.
• "You're dead.” A thought struck me.
• It stole the breath from my lungs. Vomit surged up my throat and I couldn’t stop it. I doubled over and let it all out.
• “Fuck!” I hissed, wiping my mouth with a shaky hand.
• I thought I was growing weaker…
• But no.
• My chest began to thump, hard. Like drums. War drums.
• And then came the noise.
• It began as a flutter, maybe the wind. But it slammed into my ears like thunder. I clutched my head as it multiplied - moth wings, dripping water, my heartbeat, chaotic and loud.
• I could hear everything.
• Every damn thing.
• Then came the scents - too sharp, too vivid. Wet bark. Earth. Decay. Sweetness. All at once. My nose was too open, too aware. Like it had awakened something it was never meant to.
• I felt invincible and violated all at once. Something was surging inside me. Something ancient. Animal.
• My knees gave out. I hit the forest floor, scrambling forward through glowing moss and roots. My hands - itched, burned, twisted.
• I looked down and screamed.
• They weren’t my hands.
• Dark hair was crawling across them, up my arms. And from my fingers, claws began to unfurl like knives.
• Claws?!
• No. No. No.
• Rough bristles started threading up my jaw, my cheeks. My face burned as I touched it - felt the strange texture of a beast I didn’t know.
• Then came the real horror.
• At first, a pressure in my jaw. Then stabbing pain. My gums were swelling , stretching. I felt... movement. Bones shifting where bones shouldn't move. It was like my teeth were pushing themselves out, forcing space where there wasn't any.
• I clutched my face, crying out, “Aaargh!!”
• And then I felt it, something hard. Sharp. Alien.
• No. Not teeth.
• My hand shook as I reached up and touched them – long. Curved. Serrated.
• Not mine. Not human.
• My God!!
• "F-f-fangs?”