Freak
He took a dive and latched on to whatever was the closest thing to him, not caring what it was. It was like a shot of adrenaline to the heart at first, shocking him awake and causing him to spasm all over the ground. A few on lookers gasped as they watched the man convulse on the grass and scream out in pain. He curled himself into a ball and tried to ride it out. The man closed his eyes and tried to think of something better. Anything better. Maybe his family, or his friends, or how well he's doing in classes? But all those things came up short and he felt worse for having to think up such imaginary things.
Moments later, the pain stopped and his body ceased jumping. He kept his eyes closed, knowing full well of the hell he would witness when he opened them.
"Are you alright sir?" a woman asked above him.
He refused to move. He refused to open his eyes. He refused to acknowledge what he had done to himself. The woman above him screamed out for someone to call 9-1-1. No! He didn't want them to see him like this. He didn't want anyone to see him like this.
His eyes opened and he was running, running as fast as he could. He made the mistake of looking down at his feet, if that's what you could call them. Two long metal stalks petruded from his torso down to the ground. His new legs. He already hated them.
The man found himself on the streets now, running through crowds who could care less about what had happened to him. That's not what he thought though. They were all staring at him, calling him a freak in their mind. They had to be. Or maybe, he just didn't want to be alone in calling himself that.
He stopped his sprint to rest against a wall. In that moment, he saw more of himself. He saw his arms. Just like his legs, they were a grey metal, long and stuck out. It was strange having limbs this long. He reached out a finger to touch his arm. Cold to the touch. It scared him.
The strange man looked into a nearby convenient store. A cigarette! That would definitely hit the spot right about now. But no... he refused. Those things are what got him into this dilemma in the first place.
In the window of the convenient store, he saw the rest of himself. His body was bright red and no longer flesh. He was... painted. Is that something he would have to upkeep? The man began to playfully flick at the metal door located on his groin. This was certainly going to put a damper on his sex life, as nonexistent as it was. A strange device lay above the door. Some sort of wheel with a coin mechanism attached.
The pieces were beginning to fit together in his mind. He had figured out what he had melded into. He had brought this on himself, from years and years of destroying his lungs. How many packs a day did he go through? Why had he done this? It was his fault and he knew it. His body had rejected him at the age of seventeen. He hadn't even finished high school. How was he going to graduate? What would his class mates think? Oh god, what would his parents think?
He took one last look at himself in the reflection of the window. His head was a large perfect circle, that he could see through on top of that. He noticed his mouth, eyes and nose, and was happy that some part of his original body stayed with him. But when he saw the gumballs inside his head he knew what he was.
He ran from that spot to find a nice dark alleyway to hide from the world. When he had found a place for him to be alone, Benson took a deep breath and screamed.
Freak... Freak... Freak... Freak... Freak... Freak... Freak... Freak... Freak... Freak...
Until Next Chapter...
Adieu...
