The Transformation
After what felt like minutes I woke up in a dreary, lemon filled haze. I looked around me and saw I was strapped to a hospital bed, bound tight. I was in an unflattering hospital gown.
In my hazy mind I could barely form coherent thoughts; but I noticed one thing. At least my naked arms still looked human. I couldn't say the same for the rest of my body, but it seemed vaguely humanoid.
All too soon I was being injected once more and I faded out of consciousness.
This process occurred a few times, but I couldn't remember how many. In and out of consciousness, never awake long enough to form real thoughts.
When I finally awoke on what felt like the 5th round, I was laid back in my room on the second floor. I had discarded the hospital gown and it had been traded for some silky pjs. A fact that I didn't feel comfortable with. I didn't want to be seen naked. With a shock I noted that I felt human. I patted my body down in a quick once-over, and I still felt like myself.
I race into my bathroom and skip past the pool/bath. I run into the little side-beauty room and look at myself in the mirror.
What I see shocks me right down to the core. I was the furthest from human I could ever get.
My dark black hair with its slight waves is thicker and curlier than ever before. It rises off my shoulders and floats in the air above me (although still attached to my head) in an ethereal way, enchanting and unnatural, as though I'm floating in water. As I move it twists and turns with my body, lifted as though it had a life of its own.
My pale skin is now pearly white with a candescence, as though I have been lit from within. I trace my fingers lightly over my arms and ripples appear on the surface of my skin; everywhere I touch, echoing and rippling like on the surface of a pool.
My dark blue eyes remain the same, however now they seem to have a depth deeper than the ocean; the colour shifts different shades as though the irises were moving.
I feel onto my back and discover hard scales embedded onto sections of my back, my neck and hips. They have a rainbow shine, but mostly the deep blue of the sea.
I scream in horror and smash the mirror with a hairbrush before I can look at myself anymore.
I sob and scream helplessly until Avoxes come to take me away. I struggle and cry, but my heart isn't into it. I let them take me.
"I'm a monster." I mutter helplessly, repeating it over and over.
I don't pay attention to where the silent servants are taking me. I don't care. If I remain like this forever, I would prefer to die.
When I arrive at my destination, I realise as I am gently being placed down onto the sofa in the TV room, that the rest of our team is sat here.
Brutus, Alexandria, May, Ameile and Daemon all sat perched around the room, looking at me with such intensity I felt like sobbing again.
But instead I drew myself up and stood before them
"Well, have a good look." I snap. "Look at the monster I have become. I am disgusting." I say, spitting venomously. May flinched.
"Not as disgusting as me." I heard Theo say behind me. I turned, feeling my hair float along with me, and gasp.
He stood there before us, bare chested in only a pair of boxer shorts. His skin seems to have gotten darker. Where I was pale and pearly, he was bronze and dusty. His physique was much thinner and lithe than before, as though he has been on an extreme diet, his muscles much smaller than before, but still there. His wide jaw had become more angular, and black dust such as the one that covered our Opening Ceremonies outfits, ringed round his eyes, sparkling such a deep black it had blue and purple hues. Theo's hair was a considerably darker shade of black, much thicker than before. It had been cut a bit so now it no longer flopped over his face.
But the most striking thing of all was his magnificent wings. He unfurled them slowly; careful not to hit them on anything in the room and to give us all time to take it all in.
They reached the ceiling and were such a big span. Each feather glittered unnaturally. The colour of them were coal black, and they were the most beautiful things I had ever seen. They were real wings.
I tentatively reach out a hand to stroke the feathers, and they quiver under my touch.
"Is this real?" I breathe, looking in awe at him. He shrugs nonchalantly and folds them up again, almost hidden from view.
"So I beat you on levels of disgusting." Theo said with his signature smirk, the spell of enchantment and wonder broken. "But you're off the scales for the creep-factor." He says, poking my arm and making it ripple. I snatch my arm away and give him my best death glare. Yep. He was still the same Theo.
"We are so going to win this year!" May squealed in delight. She rushed over to Theo and I, perhaps to give us a hug? She never makes it though.
Alexandria, dear sweet Alexandria, throws the TV remote so hard at Mays head she falls to the floor, unconscious.
I make a weird noise in the back of my throat, sounding like a laughing goat, and moved away from Mays falling body.
Once I had composed myself, Alexandria came over to me and studied me intently. She watched the ripples on my translucent skin, she pressed down hard on my scales, she tried to cut off a lock of hair, but it kept twisting out of her grasp. She then traced the skin around my eyes tentatively, which I found odd due to it just being normal skin. I didn't have any dust like Theo.
In answer to my questioning look, Alexandria with a half-smile, led me to the nearest mirror.
I did have that fucking dust. An eerie black sparkly dust collected and stuck around my eyes and on my shoulders. A light coating of sparkles around my eyes and extending out from the corners in delicate swirls, giving off the impression of waves. I hurriedly tried to scrub it off.
"Olivia, don't be foolish. It won't work." Brutus snapped at me, and I immediately stopped my fruitless attempt.
"What is happening to us?" I sobbed, throwing myself onto the nearest sofa. I barely sat down before I was being yanked back up like a puppet by non-other than Theodoros Gift.
He then did something that I never expected him to do.
He slapped me. Hard.
This shook me out of my pit of desperation and threw me back into anger. I retaliated immediately.
Jumping higher than I ever had before, moving more fluidly than water, I flipped over his body and ended up him giving me a piggy back. He squirmed to get me loose, but I held on tighter, squeezing his throat with all my strength.
My temper rose and rose, and I didn't know what was controlling it. My anger for my parents for never being proud, anger at Mays death, anger at Snow, anger at my District, anger at being a new mutt, anger at Theo.
His face was turning an odd shade of blue but it wasn't enough. I squeezed harder and I felt something inside me snap.
Then all of a sudden water was running up Theo's legs and was transferred onto my body, until I was coated in a thin layer of water. Fascinated, I let go of Theo, and pushed back.
My strength was enormous; he went flying across the room and smashed into the huge television. Hate and fury shone in his eyes as he strode back towards me.
That snap inside me broke again, and the water on my body flew at him, choking him, drowning him.
It was only when Brutus punched me hard enough till I saw stars that I eventually let go.
Theo lay on the ground, gasping, twitching and coughing for breath.
I should've felt bad for doing that to my friend. I should've felt at least proud. But instead all I felt was calm.
I went and sat down with a fluid grace and looked over at the remaining team. Theo had pulled himself up onto a chair and was wringing the water out of his wings. I smiled serenely at him.
"That was the scariest shit I have ever fucking seen." Brutus said bluntly. "Thank rock you're both going to be taken to training tomorrow. I'm too old for this fucking shit." He mumbled as he strode out of the room.
Theo and I exchange looks of amusement as Alexandria looks furious to be dealing with us on her own.
"Well, we've known what you would mutate into but we had no clue pn what you'd look like!" Daemon said enthusiastically, ushering Theo and I back to our seats.
"We already have a vague idea of what we want but we just needed to see you in person. But we'll be off now, have fun! We'll be back soon to make you guys up to show you off to the world!" Ameile said, getting up with Daemon following like a lost puppy.
Soon there was just Alexandria, Theo and I. And an unconscious May.
Alexandria stares at us both intently and I shift uncomfortably. You never know exactly where she is looking without any pupils or irises. I look at Theo and see he feels the same way from his constant nervous twisting of his hands, never taking his eyes off Alexandria.
"What are we going to do with you?" She says eventually, exasperated. She then reaches behind her and brings out two packs of information, both with the Panem seal on the front. "These packs are to help you adjust to your new lifestyle," she said, disdain evident in her voice. "If you both are still okay with being trained together I'd like you read them now." She doesn't wait for our replies and just hands us the packs.
May's sleeping form mutters something incoherent.
I read through my pack carefully. There is a short introduction about adjusting blah blah blah and the length of the procedure and how my body responded to it etc etc. And then something caught my eye.
They were calling me the 'Water Element'.
I flipped to the next page and saw a list of my newfound abilities.
"Abilities: Water Element is able to breathe under water. Gills grow on side of neck each time Water Element is submerged." I gasped in shock and felt the sides of my neck. Silky smooth, normal. If it weren't for the little scales further back.
"Water Element is able to control bodies of water. Small at first, after practice amount with grow. Has an understanding of sea life, water locations and information necessary to survive only on water. Water Element can drink any liquid and/or poison liquids as it will turn to clean fresh water in their mouth. Does not include poisonous food. Movements become more fluid and graceful; speed increases; strength increases; sight is clearer; skin is more sensitive to non-aggressive movements. Skin hardens up and becomes converged in scales when in danger, full of adrenaline and is moved against in an aggressive manner; during this process more scales may grow - not guaranteed to disappear. When weakened water will heal some wounds, rejuvenate and revitalise."
Numb, I put down the info pack and turn to stare at Theo. He is looking green while studying his info pack intently. I flip another page.
"Appearance: Water Element's hair becomes its' better self and floats off W/E shoulders as though they are submerged in water. Skin becomes pearly and translucent. 1 cm big scales grow on various parts of the body, colour of the ocean. Aforementioned gills. Side effects: Skin ripples like water upon human contact. Eyes turn an unnatural shade of the sea. Sparkly black/purple dust coats eyes, the surrounding skin and swirls up and around imitating waves- signs of this dust in various colours have also been found on multiple other mutations.
Personality: Personality mainly stays the same, except everything becomes heightened. Mood swings are more noticeable in Water Element than any other mutation. (Theory: Due to the sea being so interchangeable W/E has gained that trait). More knowledgeable about the sea/lakes/rivers etc. W/E is known to act more coldly towards those they care about (Test Subject-102;113;114;123;134) this trait is not set in stone."
I had just finished reading when I heard Theo finish too. He had thrown his pack onto the floor and had his head in his hands.
"All I can do is fly and think bugs taste good." He moans loudly, enough to get a stir from May.
Alexandria gave us a dirty look. "You better pull yourselves together for training tomorrow, or you're both dead." And with that she left the room.
Not wanting to stay here a minute longer I leave a breaking down Theo and an unconscious May to their own devices.
I rush down the corridor, faster than I have ever moved before. But I barely pay any attention. I'm too focused on the fact that my skin is absorbing my tears abnormally fast and I feel stronger for it.
I crash into my room and see the Avoxes cleaning up the broken mirror.
Not understanding what I intended I screamed at them to get out, anger building up inside me until I was on the pinnacle of exploding in an angered frenzy. They hurried out of the room, obeying orders and sensing danger. I rushed into the beauty room and stared with a sadistic glee that the silent servants hadn't been able to clean up all the glass. I grab a shard and raise it to the light, watching the beam glint off the reflective surface. I raise it like a blade and catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. With renewed horror and disgust and anger I bring the shard down onto my wrist.
Until now I never realised that I had been drowning in my own mind.
Drowning from the desire to kill children. Drowning in my sister's death. Drowning in my mother's disapproval.
And the minute that blade opened up my skin with an unbearable sting and hot red blood flowed down my arm and onto my silken pyjamas, that's when I knew I could be in control.
The pain, the rage and the fear… it was all cancelled out and focused onto the physical pain I dealt myself. I slashed and slashed and slashed until my arm was such a mutilated mess that I couldn't do any more cuts.
And all of a sudden, my anger and fear was gone. Replaced with a deadly calmness that frightened me. The carpet was soaked with my blood as were my pyjamas. There was so much blood. But I felt no pain in my arm and wrist.
I tried to stand up but my brain was pounding too hard onto the inside of my skull, making me feel weak and light-headed. I heard a girl screaming but she sounded very far away I managed to get half-way stood up before I saw stars circling in my periphery and all to soon the floor was rushing up to meet me.