~IAN

Slowly, I opened my eyes, and the first thing that greeted me was the harsh sunlight pouring in from my left. It pierced my sight, forcing a wince as I hurriedly squinted.

Wait. Morning already? Where am I? Last night… I was attacked. Brenda… she-

My mind was still foggy, disoriented. Each attempt to recall what had happened only worsened the throbbing ache in my head.

As I turned my head to the side, a hammer of pain pounded into my skull.

"Hmmm…" I groaned, raising a hand instinctively.

But my hands wouldn’t move.

Panic exploded in my chest. I looked down, and my vision cleared just enough to see him - a hefty, cloaked man.

A flash, like a clock’s pendulum, jolted my memory.

It was him. The man from the alley. The one who attacked me. Only now, he was unmasked. His face was a map of horror - taut, unforgiving skin etched with grotesque scars.

And he was strapping me into a wheelchair.

"What are you doing?! What the hell are you doing?!" I screamed, hysteria rising in my throat.

I bucked wildly, every fiber in my body struggling against the ropes biting into my flesh.

"Let me go! Fucking let me go!"

But he ignored me, calmly securing the straps.

"I said let me go, you monster!"

I bent my head, aiming for his hand on my chest. When I caught it, I bit down hard.

"Hmmm!!!" he grunted, then swung a heavy fist into my face.

CRACK.

Pain exploded through my jaw. I felt something loosen. Then it hit the floor - my front tooth.

"Bastard," he muttered.

Blood flooded from my mouth, painting my white shirt with thick, crimson ink.

I raised my head, glaring at him through tears and fury. "You monster! You dare hit me? You dare-"

His fist struck again, this time with brutal force. The blow toppled both me and the chair.

I cried out. Pain seared through my ribs and cheek. Bound, helpless, I writhed in the chair.

"Look who's awake."

That voice - icy, familiar.

I turned.

Brenda.

She stood there, arms folded, lips curled into a smirk.

"Get him up," she commanded.

The brute obeyed, lifting me and setting me upright before her.

Brenda stepped closer and crouched to meet my eyes. "Oh my! Did Figo do that to you?" she cooed with a mock gasp, her eyes twinkling with dark amusement.

"But you could've just complied. Figo doesn't like troublesome little pests like you."

Rage bubbled inside me.

"Untie me, you sick freak! You’re insane!"

Brenda's smile faded. She turned to Figo, irritation flashing in her eyes. "I told you to break him. Why is he still flapping his lips like a goddamn parrot?"

"I'll fix it," Figo grunted, stepping forward.

Brenda raised her hand, stopping him. "No. But just know there’s a deduction coming when I pay the rest."

Her words struck me like lightning.

She… hired him?

My breath caught. The realization was swift and suffocating.

She orchestrated this.

Brenda caught my expression. "Oh, poor Ian. You're just figuring it out?"

More blood slid from my lips as I stared at her, disbelief and sorrow roiling inside me.

"Why?" I whispered, voice hoarse. "Why are you doing this to me, Brenda?"

Her smirk dissolved into a bitter frown. "Don’t act clueless."

"Because I am clueless! What the hell did I do to deserve this?!"

WHAM!

Her hand lashed across my face.

"You ruined everything!" she screamed, seething.

I flinched, pain slicing my already throbbing cheek. My voice broke. "If this is about the hundred thousand do-”

Another slap, this one even fiercer.

"You sabotaged my plan! I would've been in Bellaham by now, spending that money. But no! You, Ian, you ruined everything. You even slapped me!"

Tears blurred my vision. "You tried to ruin my name. I only defended myself."

"Defended yourself? You exposed me! I lost my job because of you! Everyone thinks I’m a thief now!"

I choked on a sob. "I lost mine too."

She laughed coldly. "Lost it or ran away like a coward?"

How did she know? How did she know that I resigned?

I opened my mouth, but she cut in.

"Enough games. It’s time you die."

"W-what? D-die?"

She wheeled me around, pointing. "There. That’s your stage. That's where you'll spend your last minutes of relaxation."

My eyes followed.

A railway track. Just a few feet away.

My heart stalled.

Then I heard it.

"PONNN PONNN PONNN!!"

A train horn. Distant but fast approaching.

Vibrations rumbled beneath us.

Click. Click. Click.

I froze.

"Please, Brenda! Don’t do this!" I begged.

She smirked. "We’re in Kumasa now. Miles from the city. Took a boat ride. You might wonder how I escaped the station? Touched a few heads, sucked a few cocks. Got me favors."

She leaned in, voice like poison. "Did you think I’d let you ruin me and walk away?"

"Brenda, please! It hasn’t come to this-”

"It has!" she exploded.

"You’ll die here. No trace. No body. Just meat and bones under a speeding train."

Terror ripped through me. Tears poured freely.

"I’ll do anything! I’ll tell Mr. Barry I took the money! Just pleaseee. Don’t do this!"

She leaned in, her breath cold on my ear. "You want to do something for me?"

"Yes! Anything!"

She straightened and spat her answer.

"I want you to die. Die, Ian! Fucking die!”

She turned to Figo. "You know what to do."

And like that, he shoved the wheelchair onto the tracks.

My blood turned ice.

The rails shook beneath me. The train was coming.

"PONNN!"

I screamed. I bucked. I pleaded.

"Brenda!! Brenda, please!! We can fix this! We can talk!"

She looked at her watch. "Time’s up. Say hi to hell."

Then she walked off.

"Let’s go, Figo. I don’t want to see his limbs flying."

I screamed after them, raw desperation in every word.

"Brenda! Brenda!! Please! Don’t leave me here!"

They disappeared.

"PONNNN!!"

I turned to the oncoming train. It blazed forward, unstoppable.

"BRENDAAAA!!!"

But it was too late.

GBOAA!!

The train hit.

Silence followed.

No pain. No sound. Nothing.

Just… silence.

Just death.

~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.

Not white. Not whole.

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?”

~IAN~

As the pain came again, like something trying to rip my jaw off from the inside. I dug my claws into the soil, grabbing a handful of dirt as a choked cry tore free from my throat.

Then it hit.

A liquid explosion inside my mouth. It was metallic. Hot.

Blood! My blood.

Instinct took over. I swirled my tongue around the thick warmth, tasting it. The realization made my heart thud violently, like it was trying to escape my chest.

I reeled back. My breath caught.

My fingers, shaking, reached for my mouth. My gums ached, foreign points jutting outward, no longer human. They’d been waiting there all along, hidden like buried blades under my skin. My tongue grazed one of the sharp edges and recoiled instantly. Instinctively.

Like it knew they were dangerous.

What the hell is happening to me?

I wanted to scream, but my voice was gone. What came out instead were ragged, shallow pants - animalistic and frantic.

The fangs shifted with each breath, like they were still growing, still claiming space that didn’t belong to them. Pushing against the edges of my mouth, too large for the human teeth they’d replaced.

I didn’t recognize myself. Not my voice. Not my hands. Not the monstrous things splitting from my face.

No, this couldn’t be real.

But it was.

I was changing. Becoming something I couldn’t name. Something unnatural. Something wrong.

My mouth felt too full. My body, too tight. I choked on a growl I didn’t recognize - deep, guttural, and terrifying.

“What’s happening to me?” I whispered, but the sound that left my lips wasn’t mine. It was warped, distorted, barely human.

A lightning bolt of fear shot up my spine. This wasn’t a slow, graceful awakening. This was violent. Brutal. Like my humanity was being peeled away one scream at a time.

That’s when I heard it. A voice. Ethereal. It floated over the wind like a haunting melody - distant, yet terrifyingly clear.

“Ian…”

I froze. My spine tightened. My heart slammed into my ribs.

Someone called my name.

Someone knew me.

The voice came again - like wind through leaves, brushing the chaos in my mind into stillness.

“Ian…”

I spun around, crawling in a circle like a wounded animal, eyes darting between the trees.

“Who’s there?” I rasped.

No answer. Just the forest. Just the pounding inside my skull.

But that voice…

It didn’t sound human.

It sounded divine.

“Ian…”

“No,” I whispered, clutching my head as pain tore through my cheeks - thick, coarse hairs pushing through my skin like needles made of fire.

“Stop. Please. Make it stop.”

My hands shook. My bones twisted beneath the surface of my skin. My jaw distended. The fangs lengthened, digging into the roof of my mouth. My eyes stung.

And then my vision sharpened.

The world around me surged with impossible clarity. Every leaf shimmered. Every shadow pulsed with motion. The colors, too vivid. Too real.

My legs… felt wrong. Too long. Too wild. Built to run on four limbs instead of two.

The voice came again, right on the edge of pain and clarity.

“Ian.”

This time, it dragged me.

I wasn’t running toward her, or away from her. I was just running, chasing the voice that now lived in my bones, dragging me deeper into something I couldn’t name.

I didn’t want to follow. But I did. It wasn’t a choice.

Something inside me - like a string wound tight around my soul, was being pulled. Not by hands. Not by force. But by a calling so deep, it felt older than my own name.

I had no answers.

Just this feeling: I need to find her.

Maybe… maybe she’ll explain what’s happening to me.

±±±±±

I ran. My movements – jerky, alien. My limbs stretched too far. My claws dug into the dirt, which now felt soft, almost pliant, like the earth itself was shifting with me.

Everything was feral.

Is that what I am now?

No. God, no.

I’m human.

I just need to see her. I’ll beg her to fix me. To send me back to the grave. I’m already dead. Let me rest.

My shoulders lurched with each stride. And still, the voice followed.

Or maybe I followed it.

“Ian…”

It sounded like wind through fog. Feminine. Soft. Ancient.

It curled into my chest like smoke, wrapping around my ribs and dragging me forward.

The trees blurred. My past blurred. I couldn’t remember who I was anymore, only that I needed to reach that voice.

And suddenly, the forest parted with no warning. The brambles and thorns gave way to a clearing bathed in silver light. Quiet. Sacred. Unreal.

At its center, an untouched pool. Round. Perfect. Still. As though the moon itself had bled into it.

I staggered to a stop. Chest heaving. Claws dragging into the moss.

And then, her voice again.

Closer.

“Ian.”

It brushed against me like silk across raw skin.

I whirled. “Show yourself! You called me here, so show yourself!”

Nothing. Just air and silence.

I was losing my mind.

My lips parted, the words halfway out, when I heard her again.

“Here.”

I turned sharply, scanning everywhere. Her voice was everywhere.

“Where? Where the fuck are you?!”

“In front of you.”

My gaze dropped to the pool and my chest locked. One step. Then another. Then another. I moved without realizing, crawling now with hands – if they could still be called that – trembling. My claws clicked against stone. My breath steamed in the night air.

And then...

The surface stirred. First, a ripple. Then a hum. And the water lifted.

Not splashing, not spilling. Just rising. As if something ancient was waking beneath it.

It twisted upward into a perfect spiral - suspended mid-air as though gravity itself had forgotten how to function.

From the spiral, a shape began to take form; feminine. Flowing.

She emerged from the water itself - her body translucent and ever-shifting. Hair like rivers in slow motion. Eyes like twin moons, glowing silver. No pupils. No irises. Just light.

A woman made of liquid and light.

A goddess.

Not like anything I had ever seen in my world. Not even close.

“What the–” My voice croaked, producing an unrecognizable tone.

I stumbled back, elbows digging into the earth, my mouth open in a silent scream.

“What… who… what are you?”