The Raptor's Stare

Chapter 1

Al woke up. It had been a tiring night. He had been to the school disco. Up on the stage, singing to all his favourite bands, break-dancing, and after such an active night, you can guess how he felt. He slumped out of bed. It was 8 am, and was Saturday, which gave him some relief. He stood up and sighed. "What a night!" Al murmured. He got to his PC and turned it on. He went on YouTube and had a look at some videos.

45 minutes later, his mum shouted up,"Al, we're setting off to London today so make sure you're ready by quarter-past nine!" Al suddenly remembered. He had only 30 minutes to get dressed and ready! He slipped on his clothes and got himself washed and teeth brushed, and then rushed downstairs for breakfast. Al sat down and gobbled down his cereal. His parents were already in the car! He locked up the house, and jumped into the car. Next stop - London.

After the family had settled into the hotel in London, Dad said, "As a treat, shall we visit the Natural History Museum?" Mum and Al agreed and they set off. When they arrived, Al marvelled at all the displays and the big Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in the centre hall. Dad asked for the guided tour. Al groaned. He hated guided tours. So boring and long, and no freedom to explore the museum for yourself.

The tour guide took the group around the museum until they reached the Raptor exhibit. He talked about features, behaviour, and various details. Then after that, he took a fossilized Raptor eye from his pocket. He asked for volunteers to have a look. Al put his hand up straight away as the Raptor was his favourite creature. The tour guide gave the eye to Al. He stared at the eye in wonder for a few seconds. Then suddenly Al felt dizzy and hot. He didn't want to embarrass himself in public so he made up a quick excuse and said, "Excuse me, do you know where the toilet is?" The tour guide replied "Yeah it's just round the corner by the baby changing rooms..." Al nodded in acknowledgement and rushed to the gents.

He was sweating heavily now, and an aching pain was spreading around his body. He ran into the cubicle and locked the door. The pain got worse and worse every second. Al said, scared, "What is happening to me?" As this horrible sensation couldn't have just come from nothing, what the heck was wrong? But then that thought got overtaken by searing pain all over his body. He started screaming. Because of the immense pain striking him he didn't notice what was happening to him...

His head extended and his neck grew longer. His eyes spaced out and went to the side of his head. He grew a muzzle with nostrils on the end. Both his ears shrank until they were just tiny holes behind his eyes. He started to grow a tail, which lengthened to about two metres. His teeth grew longer and sharper, resulting in razor-sharp fangs. His legs became more muscular and spread apart from each other. His torso humped forward and his neck went into a slight S-shape. His arms reduced slightly in size and went into an S-shape position. Finally, his hands turned into a couple of three-clawed talons while some of his toes fused together to make sharp claws and his big toe turned into a big retractable claw. The pain ended. Al stopped screaming, but felt weird. He tried to correct his position, but it seemed stuck. He looked at the mirror. He had a tail, a dinosaur head and menacing claws on his hand and feet. But what struck him the most were the eyes, which as he looked closely, looked identical to the Raptor eye that the tour guide had showed him. He tried to say "Oh my god..." but all that came out was a menacing growl. He stood there for moment getting over the fact that he was now a Raptor. He thought,"But how? And why me? And why the heck would looking at a fossilized Raptor eye do this to me?" But then before he could think, his mum came bursting in saying, "Al! What's taking you so long? Are you all right?" He turned his head in alarm. Suddenly his mum fainted and collapsed on the floor. Al quickly walked over to help, but then Dad came in and gasped in horror.

He managed not to faint but still stood there, feet pinned to the ground and totally bewildered. Al stared at his father. He stared back. Al moved slightly and this sent his dad running in the opposite direction. Al thought, "This isn't going to be easy..."

Chapter 2

Al was in for it now. He knew that if people started passing this on, then it would be heard by everyone, including police, army and all that. He had to hide. He thought quickly and jumped through the open window above the cubicles. He landed in the bushes outside the museum and stayed absolutely still. But Al had got himself into a bigger dilemma – he was now slap bang in the middle of London!

Someone must have found out Al's location because there was a big police truck parked right in front of him! A squad of armed policemen came running out and headed for Al's bush. They pulled him out and Al scratched and struggled, hoping to get free, but he knew they had guns and one shot and he'd be dead. He let out a deafening screech. But the police would not give up. He was shoved into the truck and they slammed and locked the doors. Al got really angry. So angry in fact that his raptor instincts kicked in. He slammed himself against the walls and scratched the door locks at the back. He screeched loudly. But it was no use. He sat down exhausted as the truck pulled into a science lab.

Then they opened the doors and Al jumped out violently. They grabbed him and dragged him to the lab. He was then strapped onto the surgery table, and injected with anaesthetic. The scientist looked at Al asleep and talked with his fellow scientists in the room. Al suddenly awoke and tried to attack the scientist. The guards grabbed Al again and put him into a soundproof room.

The door closed and Al scratched and bit the door handle. No use. Al sat down and thought. "This must be a dream, I mean, how can this be real - scientifically, it's impossible!" He rubbed his eyes, hoping it was a dream. To his horror it wasn't. He then got angry again, really angry. It was probably the angriest he'd been so far. Suddenly his raptor instincts went crazy. He charged at the door, and made a big dent. He scrabbled away at the dent and finally the metal gave way and he leapt through. His instincts completely took over and he attacked everyone at the lab. He then smashed through the door and went scampering off into a nearby wood.

Al managed to get control of his instincts just before he entered the wood. He looked back and saw what remained of the lab. "What have I done...What have I done..." Al thought.

Chapter 3

Then Al woke up on a surgery table. He was still a raptor. A scientist bent over and talked. "Don't worry, everything is OK," But Al was not OK. He was shaking, scared and confused. "You must feel a bit shocked and exhausted..." Al nodded faintly. "Now, let's get this straight, when you were strapped to the table, and when we put you to sleep, you must have had a nightmare while asleep. That was not real." Al relaxed a little. But the scientist carried on, "But you are a raptor, oh yes, I'm afraid that is real. We did tests on you while asleep to see what happened, and how, and we have come to a conclusion – that fossilized raptor eye you looked at had some raptor DNA in it. When you looked at it, enough of the DNA was transferred to you to make you change. I'm afraid we can't reverse that - in other words you're stuck as a raptor from now on. Now, we don't have much time, we now must get you back to your parents." A wave of fear blew over Al. What would his parents think of him? But he had to. He knew he had to. He was put in the truck and sent to his house.

Two hours later, they arrived. Al got out and stood outside. He tried to walk in but he couldn't. He was too nervous. Finally, he bravely entered. Home at last. But there was nobody there. He went upstairs, searching the house, making sure not to break anything with his tail. Then Al peeped round the door of his parent's bedroom and saw his mum asleep. His dad was in the office, as usual. Al crept in. His dad looked behind and bravely said with a smile, "Welcome back son..." Al tried to smile back but smiling was difficult with his newly shaped mouth.

Later his friend Dan came round. Al was nervous again, what would he say? Dan walked into Al's bedroom and stumbled back shocked. "What the heck!" Dan gasped. He stayed still, scared to move. Then, struck with fear, he said, "But that's...but..." He was lost for words. Dan automatically rushed to Al's parents and said,"Did you know there's a live dinosaur in Al's room! It's freaking me out!" Al's dad said, "Calm down, calm down. Listen, I'll explain..."

Al's dad explained about the situation and Dan felt better. He then bravely stepped into Al's room and sat down. Al looked his direction and put a clawed hand on Dan's shoulders. Dan shut his eyes tightly, scared like nothing else. But carefully, he opened them again. Al gave Dan a reassuring look and he felt much better.

About 10 minutes later, Dan and Al played games on the PS2. Getting to grips with the game controls was fairly hard with his new claws, but Al got used to it. Then suddenly, the door slammed and he heard shouting and someone running upstairs. Dan stopped the game just before someone pulled open the door. The person looked like a secret agent, wearing a suit and dark shades. He spoke in a deep accent, "Buddy, you're coming with me..." Al stayed back. But the man grabbed him and took him downstairs. Dan followed. Al struggled madly but the strength of the man was too great. The guy put Al in a black van. Dan ran to the van and said, "What the heck are you doing? The agent looked sharply at Dan. "You're coming too." The guy threw Dan in. He locked the doors and jumped in the driver's seat. "What is gonna happen to us this time?" Dan said. Al shrugged in reply. Al went over to the barred window and watched the environment pass by. Then the van turned violently and sent Al falling backwards. It came to a sudden halt. The agent got out and opened the back doors. He grabbed Al and Dan and headed for a big building. Dan shouted "What the heck do you want with us anyway?" The man just turned his head and said, "You'll see..."He sent Al and Dan to the lab. Dan was strapped on a table while Al was put in a room with a tiny window. Al managed to peer though the window and see what was happening. Dan shouted, "Please, please, let me go!"The scientist said, "Oh no, not yet, we have jobs to do..." A sample of blood was taken from Al and then injected in Dan. "I think I know what this means." thought Al. Then Dan felt strange, really strange. "LET ME GO!" Dan cried. Al couldn't watch. He knew what was going to happen...

Chapter 4

Dan felt searing pain all over his body. He couldn't help but scream. Al watched in horror as Dan started changing. Halfway through, Al couldn't take it anymore and smashed the door down. He ripped off the straps and picked up Dan and headed for the exit. But an armed guard got in Al's way. He loaded his weapon and aimed. Al thought quickly. He put Dan down for a moment and dodged the guard's machine gun fire. Al then leapt onto the guard, knocking him out. He pushed the other guards out of the way and picked up Dan. Al scampered through the exit and deep into the woods with Dan where nobody could find them. He put down Dan down. Dan breathed heavily as the change finished. As Al had suspected, Dan was now a raptor. There was nothing he could do. He was stuck as well. Al built a shelter with branches and leaves and Dan crawled in and rested. Al got in the shelter afterwards and stayed in for the night.

Dan woke up to a weird noise in his head. It sounded like voices. When he had fully woken up he could hear talking like, "Dan, if you can hear me, great. I'm trying to use telepathy on you, and if I can talk to you, you can talk to me..." Dan knew this was Al speaking in his head. He tried talking back. It worked. Now, they had to get out, somehow...

Later, Al and Dan were thinking up a plan."We could go down the edge..." Dan noted.

"Are you bonkers? We would be easily spotted that way!"

"Yeah, but if we are gonna get to your house we're gonna get spotted anyway...aren't we?

"Yeah, but let's try to stay unseen for as long as we can..."

"OK, right let's go. I know these forests better so...er...is it OK if I lead the way this time?"

"Yeah, sure..."

So off they went, scampering through the forest. When they neared the edge, Al came up with something.

"OK, remember, stay in the bushes at all times, and try to stay undercover."

"It's a bit hard with a massive tail, huh?"

"Yeah. OK. Now, come on, let's go..."

Al took the lead and set off out of the forest and into the roadside bushes. When they got to Al's house they climbed the tree in the garden and hopped through the bedroom window. Al and Dan breathed heavily after all that. They sat down.

"Phew, that was a close one Al..."

"Yeah, but we survived..."

"So, I'm afraid you're stuck as a raptor now, Dan my mate.

"Yeah I know. But I'll live with it, I mean; it's not all that bad is it?"

"Nah... I could just get used to it myself"

Epilogue

So, Al and Dan lived the rest of their life as raptors, that secret agent guy was arrested, and slowly, but surely, Al and Dan got used to it. As usual, life went on, as it normally does, eventually, people got used to seeing two raptors walking through town every Saturday. But they never ever knew that they were just two normal teenage boys...just with a slight twist...

THE END