Chapter 1: New Reality

I screamed. Well, tried too. It was a bit muffled thanks to the fucking hand over my mouth, and my possible murderer was ironically drowning out the sound of my shouts with what sounded like panicked shushes. The idiot also stupidly wasn't trying to keep me still, so I elbowed the fucker right where it hurts in an attempt scrambled away.

What I connected with felt like anything but human flesh. It was a mesh of hard and soft material, and I nearly ended up fracturing my elbow. Regardless of my attackers oddly textured abdomen, however, their grip lessened enough for me to fall out of their grasp as I heard them give a screech of pain alongside the sickening crunch my blow had caused.

I cringed at the sound, lead in my gut. Nothing was making sense, and through my hazed and violent escape attempt I turned around to face my attacker and try to give myself some context. Understand where I was, who was attacking me, and exactly what kind of person felt like they were made out of hardened styrofoam when you hit them?

I don't know what exactly I was expecting to see, but I felt the blood drain from my face as I sat frozen in the moonlight staring at the figure before me.

They were vaguely human, likely male, with shaggy hair and loose clothes. He was pale and gangly with twisted limbs, but where his skin was exposed he had green and yellow patches pattered like scales and a stick of celery. One of his hands had its fingers fused, the shape changing to look like long, thin, green crab claws. The side of his face was hard to see in the dark, but the outline visible looked like a mutated amalgamation of human and insect.

I didn't know whether to feel pity, fear, or disgust. I had expected my biggest enemy on the other side of the crack to be the police since I was paperless, but the truth was beginning to seem so much worse.

"What are you?" I asked, pouring all my fear and confusion into the phrase, a swirl of other questions on my mind. Was this what people looked like in this universe? Did some kind of virus break out, or evolution go wrong? What could have possibly created the creature before me?

"D-don't look at me!" The insect man hissed desperately, shielding his face with his hands and curling in on himself as he crouched away from me to a corner of the room. His voice was raw and fragile, and upon closer inspection I could see that he was shaking. Suddenly, I regretted my question. Obviously this man had meant no harm to me, the way he looked like a cornered animal.

"I'm sorry for hitting you." I apologized. "You really scared me, coming up behind me like that. Why don't we start over? My name's Emma. What's yours?"

The insect man's head slowly raised from above his arms, looking at me suspiciously. He brought his legs up so that he could sit more comfortably, still a distance away before hesitantly responding. "J-Jacob."

"Is this where you live?" I asked, scooting a bit closer and getting in a more comfortable position myself.

It took Jacob a few second before he decided to respond again, twitching when I inched closer.

"Y-yeah." He nodded, before quickly tacking on; "I'm sorry for… scaring you. I-I just didn't think and I knew you'd scream and draw attention—I don't even know how you got in here."

I grinned at that. I briefly wondered if bug people would actually believe me about the whole popping into alternate universes thing but decided against in.

"Not quite sure myself." I lied, "I got totally smashed earlier and probably broke in then, sorry. Feeling a bit sober now though thanks to the adrenaline rush you gave me."

Jacob nodded, as if remembering something. "That makes some sense, I guess. I found you because of the smell."

"Rude." I frowned, and Jacob tensed again, making me feel guilty.

"A-Are you not scared of me now, though?" He stuttered, voice quiet.

"Maybe a little." I admitted.

"And why wouldn't you be, with me looking like this?" Jacob said sardonically, his face twisting even more as he rested it in his lap and crossed arms.

"What happened?" I asked, curiosity overcoming my manners. No matter what world no one likes to be asked about their defects, and god knows if there was even a cause for Jacob beyond simple birth mutation, but I still needed to know what I'd gotten myself into. All those earlier questioned still unanswered.

Jacob shuddered before he spoke, his arms tightening around his legs.

"I-I don't know. One day I just woke up and had these scales that itched. And then it starts spreading and spreading. Now I'm this… thing."

"Didn't you try going to the hospital?"

Jacob laughed, but it was shallow and empty.

"You don't understand."

I frowned at that, scrunching my eyebrows in confusion.

"Understand what?" I asked, but the only reply I got was silence.

Jacob didn't even so much as twitch.

"Please, Jacob, talk to me." I urged him.

Jacob said something, but it was muffled by the arms his face was still buried in.

"What was that?"

His head snapped up, giving me the first clear look at his face in the moonlight, unobscured by angle or arms. His eyes, both human and insect, where a flickering a bright red, the purples veins under his sickly skin straining. His jaw moved jerkily as he repeated himself.

"Get out."

"What?" I said, confused at the sudden gruffness from the shy, almost childlike, man I was taking too moments ago.

"GET OUT!" He hissed, lunging towards me.

I couldn't do much other than obey, the adrenaline from earlier coming back full force and helping me to scramble towards one of the exits in the room.

I realized as I ran that not only was this apartment eerily empty, but nearly all the doors where boarded up or locked somehow.

"You just had to come in here, didn't you?"

I felt my blood freeze at Jacob's voice from down the hall, changing my method and reaching for one of the window curtains. I remember there being trees outside of my own apartment, and some neighbors had small balconies. Even without that, though, I could probably survive a fall from the third floor. Might most definitely have to make the rest of my escape on a broken leg, though.

"It's not just what I look like that's changed. It's… these urges I can't control."

Underneath the curtains, however, was just more boards. Each and every one.

"You really didn't want anyone getting in, did you Jacob?" I muttered, panicking. The sound of the insect man's popping joints getting louder and louder. "Or out."

I couldn't afford to go back. I doubted Jacob had much control of himself now, whatever was happening with him. I reached for the boards, jerking them loose with the force of my muscles and body weight as I grabbed the planks and kicked off from the wall. The skin of my hands broke, splinters digging into my fingers and palms and I grunted through the pain, but eventually I pulled three boards off, and used the last to break the glass of the window.

I didn't look back to see how close Jacob had gotten, closing my eyes instead to keep calm as I wiggling my way out backwards of the window before I could chicken out, hissing when glass cut my hands. Underneath me where bushes and a long-ass drop, but it was my only hope. I tried to shorten the drop with my height, and felt the ghost of hot breath on my fingertips as I let go of the windowsill, bracing myself for the impact bellow.

My earlier prediction hadn't been wrong, and I landed at an awkward angle on one of my legs as I crumpled to the ground. Funny thing is, I've never actually broken a bone. I've had scrapes and cuts and minor fractures, but never anything too severe. Protective father, remember?

So I wasn't prepared in the slightest for when all the dizziness and bile that churned in my stomach hit me alongside the deep ache of pain. Black spots tinged my vision and the last thing I saw before they completely consumed my consciousness was the night sky and a vaguely familiar face.

AN: Thanks to everyone who's followed/falorited/reviewed so far! A bit short, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter anyway.