With bright pink headphones blasting her favorite music, Ray on Sunlight by Hello Sleepwalkers, Kaz shoveled hard at the snow in her dad's driveway, muttering to herself under her breath for forgetting to buy ice melt before all the small town stores closed before the weekend. Her efforts proved more and more futile as she worked and chipped at the ice. One. Freaking. Step. At. A. Time.

She was getting pissed!

"Fucking Phil!" She cursed out loud. The hog was supposed to bring an early Spring instead of the miserable storm after snow storm of winter. Stupid human superstitions didn't mean a damn to her anyway, this elongated winter only added to her proof.

She chipped and worked until even her bones were tired. With a huff she chucked the blasted shovel away and chose this opportune time to light one of her smuggled cigs and took a nice big puff. God these things were bliss. She didn't care about dying, yeah she was that sort of angsty teen who wasn't bothered by death or anything of the sort.

Worn out and out of breath she still took a deep drag and relished the burn in her throat knowing she got a good shot this whiff. Holding her breath for a bit she contemplated what life meant to her. Nothing. Damn. She took another hit and tried again. Yess.. Here it was. Emotions riled up in her chest and she thought about what her life had amounted to so far. She was so angry at how sheltered she was. She wanted a real life away from the stupid advertisements and false hope all those movies and games brought her. All those fantasy novels she read only brought her longing for something she could never live in real life, for goodness sake!

Burning down to the stump she whipped out another cig and let the smoke encase her lungs. Now all she could feel was calm and clarity. The stuff put her morning coughs through a ringer and she did her best to not let her parents hear them but sometimes they were bad and left her feeling like shit but at this point she didn't care anymore. All she wanted was the high. To feel happy. Alive.

The song ended and another popped up from her playlist. Hah, coincidentally it was Winter Bird by Aurora. The song described her very mood right now. 'All I need is to remember how it was to feel.. alive.' Exactly.

She looked to the dreary sky and tried her best to not feel depressed from it. She honestly couldn't wait to escape Washington State to get away from the constant overcast skies and here she was under a never ending blanket of snow filled sky. Again.

With an amused huff, she ended her last stick in a mound of snow and tossed the remains in the trash barrel, knowing no one would look through it in time for garbage day. When an eighteen year old needed to hide shit, she was a pro at it by now. She even liked to sneak some of her mom's opened wine from time to time when she wasn't looking. Only a little, though, so she wouldn't get caught. Stupid laws. All over the world other kids were legal to drink to their hearts content by her age and yet she had to wait. At least she could buy cigs now but even then she could never do it front of her parents. They were so stuck up.

Kaz was the nickname she momentarily picked out for herself although her proper name was Katherine Lynn Jones. It sounded like something out of her mom's gaudy romance novels. Maybe that's where she got it from, who knows? She wouldn't know since no one else in her family had any of the first or middle names. So she picked for herself Kaz, as meaningless as everything else she knew in this life. There's so many people in this world now who would even care about her?

She contemplated trying to give shoveling one last go but thought better of it, feeling still delightfully dizzy from smoking, and so she turned to go back to the house but ended up stumbling and slipped on a patch of ice. Her feet came out from under her and in an instant she was back side to the ground. A loud crack echoed off the nearby residential buildings as her head came in contact with one of the rocks that lined the driveway and warmth spread thickly from the back of her skull. Surprisingly nothing hurt and yet nothing wanted to move. Instead she was accompanied with the sensation of the world turning around her despite her vision protesting that all was eerily calm as if time stood still, save the snow that gently fell from the sky, landing on her frozen face.

She could feel her soul stripping from her bones, like meat being torn from the tendons, leaving first her legs then arms and waist to go completely numb. The last to go was her vision as she slowly drifted away from the world of the living.

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Her body ached as it awoke over time, her clouded senses coming to, throttling her nerve endings in the process. She felt raw all over as she ached and urged her limbs to move. Her left arm lifted to reveal a new hand she wasn't familiar with- each finger possessed long elegant nails that ended in fine points. It lowered to examine her face which was flushed with wonder. Did I die? She noticed it was no longer clad with the knitted fingerless mittens she knitted herself. It lowered to brush away the hair strewn about her face to reveal long pitch black hair, ever so silky and sparkled in the rays of sun. She felt astonished as she pushed her hand away, easily combing it away. It had grown considerably, contrasting the short curly bob she had only recently fashioned.

The pain slowly faded away as she slowly propped herself upright, feeling so much stronger and graceful with no struggle in doing so. Her hand continued exploring along her naked body, noticing the lack of blemishes and stretch marks. Her skin felt so smooth! All the way down her hairless legs she had thought of previously needing a good waxing. This shit could best even models! Even her feet were rid of the scars she had earned when she was trapped in the house fire from her youth.Is this what heaven feels like?

It was that moment she took in her surroundings. No longer enveloped in harsh cold snow her body was lain in tall grass blades graced with beautiful small blue wildflowers and the like she couldn't name. Around the clearing she found herself surrounded by massive trees and thorny bushes. It was a sight to behold for even Washington, with all the natural scenery that made the state pale in comparison.

Her sharp ears could find the sources of birds and small prey that chirped and tweaked alarmingly as they fled from her environment. Her aura radiated dignity among the beasts and they were too afraid to stick around in case she chose them as her lunch on that splendid Spring eve.

She stood up with minimal effort and strode through the clearing in hopes to find out about her whereabouts. Where am I?

Curiosity over her phenomenal hearing brought her hand back up to feel her ear, wondering what had changed. A change she found, to her surprise. It was oddly sensitive and as her non-calloused fingers traveled, found it came to a delicate point much like her nails.

What am I?

A twig snapped, making her instinctively turn and crouch, her hands arched like a beasts claws at the ready, her ear ticked at the direction of the sound. Her eyes scanned the woods to find nothing out of place however something was there. Something powerful. She could feel it.

AN

Short chapters from me, sweeties! These will be short bursts of one shot-like stories, as they come to me. Review to your hearts content!