It's been three years since my life changed. For the better? For the worse? One cannot say, however all I know is, my life will never be the same again…
It all started on a typical Friday night, I'd just got home from the hospital, I was a paediatric fellow at John's Hopkins. I was so tired that once I sat down on the couch to watch a little bit of TV before bed I managed to fall asleep. However I awoke three hours later in excruciating pain. I couldn't feel, focus or do anything other than consider the white hot ripping sensation around my upper back and shoulders. It felt as if my upper torso was being ripped in half and I could do nothing but attempt to calm my breathing from the short shallow breaths that escaped my lips. After what seemed like an age the pain subsided and exhaustion took over me I slept until I was awoken by my alarm several hours later.
It was then that I noticed the wings protruding out of my shoulders.
The mirror on the wall of my living room showed a pair of two very distinct cream coloured feathered wings emanating from my significantly destroyed tank top. I looked to my sofa to find fluffy bits of crushed feathers all over it, some pinkish in colour suggesting that they are also blood stained. I remember being thankful that my sofa appears to be otherwise unscathed, however looking back on it I realise that that particular thought appears trivial now.
I slowly walked up to the mirror removing my tank top while turning around in an attempt to get a better view of the bizarre blemishes on my body. As I do so I unconsciously roll left shoulder which causes the feathered item to move. Unsure of what to do I roll my other shoulder, causing that wing in turn to move. I then decide to raise both arms to which the wings raise and stretch out with them. Shocked I immediately lower my arms, causing the wings to flap, the thrust of which sends me flying straight into the ceiling, I hit the ceiling head first then career down to the ground in a loud and painful thud.
"HOLY FUCK ARIZONA! What happened to you?" My housemate Teddy must've been woken up by the noise. I turn around to see her openly staring at me while still gripping the door handle that she obviously abandoned after noting my appearance.
"Arizona you have wings! Actual wings, coming out of your shoulders?! Can you not see them?!" She squawks at me in a tone somewhat higher pitched than I'd heard in a long time.
"Yes Teddy, I know, I was just trying to figure out if this is some kind of sick joke or how this could've happened. I fall asleep on the sofa one minute the next I'm waking up looking like some sort of weird chicken. Seems bizarre to me…"
As I said that the paper boy pushes my newspaper under the door. I've always liked reading newspapers in my spare time, I like to know what's going on and as a paediatric surgeon I often find that I don't have the time to catch the news so papers act as a substitute to me on the go. As the paper catches my eye I notice the front page headline "GENETIC ABNOMALITIES CAUSED BY RANDOM MUTATION, INCIDENCES SPREAD" Next to the headline was a picture of a young woman with what looked like yellow scales covering the entirety of her body. With shaking hands I pick the paper up to find that underneath the picture there were instructions for members of the public to act with "caution" when interacting with those "with such afflictions" as "one can never be sure if this mutation is also one of the mind". I pass the paper to Teddy who scoffs muttering something about "my best friend's not mad" and then grumbles about her ruined sleep. I however start to panic; I can feel the past half an hour crumbling down upon me causing a sickness in my stomach as my throat tightens in an attempt to ward off the onslaught of tears I fear might be looming.
"Teddy….. what am I going to do?"