-Chapter 10-








Mike awoke from his suspended animation, finding himself on the hardwood floor with his left cheek pressed against the hard cold floor. He groaned loudly, lifted himself off of the ground, and steadily stood up. He put his right hand to his head, noticing that something strange was happening to him. It started off as another headache, one of the series of migraines and minor pains that came and went ever since his revival, with this in mind he did not immediately realize that there is something different about this one, an oddness. He just squinted his eyes to block out some of the morning sunlight that irritated his eyes, refusing to give in to the relentless and persistent throbbing that filled his skull.

He hoped that the pounding in his head would subside for a while so that he could actually think of what to do with himself. Keeping this plan as the only course of action to take, he staggered towards the large cushioned arm chair that stood about six feet away from him. He reached the chair and sat down, leaning back in the comfortable pillowed cushions that were perfectly formed to try and make him relaxed. But the throbbing got worse than anything he had ever experienced during his life before or his life now. He felt as though his skull was made out of clay, as if it were being pounded into a new shape by every fierce throb, as if a child was pounding a ball of Play-Doh to make something out of the design from the kid's imagination.

He stood up, clenching his head with both hands; but was actually thrown back into the chair by a new wave of pain that surged throughout his forehead and into his body. For a moment he was engulfed in such agonizing pain that he could not even move, cry out, or breathe. When at last he could draw a breath, he screamed, a scream of frustration rather than pain, the pain had ended as suddenly as it had begun.

Another surge of pain raced throughout his body, causing him to recoil, bend forward in the chair and fall to the ground. He let out sharp and melancholy groans, grunts and screams as he felt change surge throughout his body. He felt his muscles contract, expand, and relax; felt it repeat the pattern again for two more times, realized that his muscle mass was growing to two times its normal size. He screamed in agony as he felt his muscle rip through the skin, exposing itself to the outside world; he stared in shock, not because of the sight of seeing his muscles break his skin, because of the look of the muscle. It was a dark gray color, closer to black than gray, but still an extremely dark shade of gray that was way beyond normal coloration; aside from the color, the texture of the muscle was not the ribbon like texture as regular muscle but a rough and scab like texture.

Another surge of pain throbbed from within his chest. Instinctively, he gripped where his heart was; gritting his teeth as the pain become stronger. His chest muscles expanded, ripped open the shirt and sweater, exposed the protruding muscle that would normally be underneath the skin. His neck muscles also expanded as well, again exposing the muscle to the outside world. He looked down at his right hand, noticing spike like protrusions emerge from out of the top of it, covering his fingers as they grew larger. He realized that his hand was actually transforming into a hideous claw like appendage, his fingers spilt open, allowing razor-sharp claws about the size of daggers to emerge.

His body size increased from 5'8 to 6'4 in a matter of one minute. His leg muscles tightened and increased in size, ripping the seams of his black jeans to the extent of the jeans ripping right off. He struggled and managed to get up while the pain started to subside; not knowing when the pain will strike again, he stalked towards the bathroom, wanting to see out of curiosity to view what he was becoming even though he didn't really want to see himself, scared of what he might find.

The blinding light of the bathroom lights filled the small bathroom, bright enough to reveal everything, every hideous detail.

He was only half surprised but still horrified by what he saw, while feeling the transformations occur on the living room floor in front of the chair he had started to create a blurry mental image of his physical appearance. Visual confirmation of what his severely destroyed imagination (or what he had left of it) was more shocking, horrid, or depressing than anything he had ever seen in his life through watching movies with grotesque movie monsters; he had never thought back then that he would become something like one of those gruesome monsters, with this happening to him he was completely shattered.

He looked even deader now than he had looked when he had first entered his house days ago. "No," he said softly, finding that his voice sounded gruff and raspy "no," trying to deny what he sees before him.

His body was transforming itself either at random or some incomprehensible purpose, having a feeling that there would be no way to stop it when it would happen again. It may never stop. He may go on growing, changing, and remaking himself into a number of different images, endlessly. He was transforming into a monster, a creature that may ultimately be malformed into a thing that was something so strange that it may not even be considered as human.

As he stared into the mirror, his headache returns.

He noticed something different about his eyes.

He leaned closer to the mirror.

Something about his eyes seemed horribly wrong, different than the usual crimson with a reptilian slice iris. His eyes had turned completely crimson, only showing a faint iris within.

He heard a low and monotonous sound, something like a weep. He realized that it was him, showing the only remaining exterior reminder of a faint humanity. Saddened by his uncontrollable changes happening to him, he bent over the counter, looking at his lower body inadvertently. He saw fine threads of muscle form around his genitals, forming a casing; his legs had become more muscular and powerful.

His sadness was quickly replaced by a sudden thought from his shattered memory. He gritted his teeth and smashed the mirror, shattering it into millions of pieces, turned around slowly, and lumbered towards the sliding glass door, shattered the glass and stepped into the warm sunlight. The warm radiance of the sun covered his mutated body, instantly warming his cold body to a false temperature of regular body temperature.

A passing woman jogging was instantly paralyzed in terror as she noticed him emerge from the house

He slightly turned his head, noticing the woman frozen in terror. "Don't... be... afraid..." he found his remaining human part saying with the same deathly monotonous voice, but was suddenly overcome by a part of him that he figures is meant to exist only to kill. He stared blankly at her as he approached her, flexing his newly transformed right hand with an intention to kill. She let out a bloodcurdling scream as he subconsciously thrusted his right hand turned claw through her stomach, instantly soaking the white jogging sweater in a deep shade of crimson and filling his consciousness with deep disgust. He tossed her aside like an unwanted plaything, and headed towards a destination undetermined by him personally but known by the killing side.