Monster Amongst People

Today I'm happy to publish the first of many chapters to come. This is chapter one of the story. Enjoy

Chapter One

Turning

I awoke with a start and rolled around in the uncomfortable bed sheets the hospital provided. I was nervous and confused. ‘Why can't I remember anything? I ran my slender fingers through my hazelnut coloured hair. My multi-coloured eyes darted around the room but stopped at a silhouette of a tall person. ‘Doctor? Doctor is that you?’ I said in a weak voice. I watched motionlessly as the silhouette slowly walked away. I thought to myself who was that? If it was the doctor they would have checked up on me. I suddenly felt a stabbing pain in my stomach as I began to get up off the bed. I clutched mystomach with a mighty grip and hoped the pain would stop.

‘Ahh. Doctor!’ I screamed as I slowly stumbled out of my bed and fell onto the cold wooden floor beneath me. I lay on the floor trying to pull myself off the clinical floor. ‘Come on. Get up’ I began to lift myself up but I was stopped by two doctors who wore green gowns, surgical masks and a white hair cap. They dragged me back to my bed and told me to stay there. I wanted answers and that is what I was going to get. I once again struggled out of my bed and stumbled down the hallways. I looked around the hallways and saw people sleeping in their beds. I eventually found an elevator that would lead me out of the hospital. I called the elevator and waited for it to take me to freedom. I clutched my chest and dropped to my feet. I rested my head against the elevator doors but the doors suddenly flew open.

I stumbled into the elevator and started to examine the buttons as my vision shifted from focused to blurry. I grabbed onto the handrail and pressed the ground floor button. I started to cry as I screamed in pain, I sat there motionless until the elevator doors opened. The exit was right in front of me but I was pinned down by the growing pain that has now spread to my whole body. I watched as people stared at me and took photos of my struggle. ‘What are you looking at!’ I snapped at the onlookers as I growled under my breath. The people just looked at me and mocked me. I managed to get up and walked towards the crowd. Suddenly an onlooker took a photo of me and I snapped once again. I grabbed the person's phone and crushed it in my large hands.

‘Hey buddy. You’re going to have to pay for that!’ The man snapped at me grabbing my hairy arm. I jerked out of his grasp and continued to walk away. I walked around the familiar areas of town and eventually a few hours had passed when I stumbled into a store and was greeted with hundreds of eyes staring at me. Brown hair covered all my body and my posture had seen better days. ‘Hello. Sir do you want anything?’ A store clerk walked up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. I spun around and snarled at the clerk, he looked at me shocked and slowly backed away from me. I let out a low growl and then asked where the toilets were. He pointed behind me and said to turn left at the end of the store. ‘Thanks’ I trudged to the back of the store with what felt like a thousand eyes following me as I moved closer to the toilets.

I stumbled into a toilet locking the door behind, sweating like I was in a sauna. I growled in pain as my body was suddenly engulfed in what felt like a bed of needles. I felt like a I was a human pin cushion. My hands and feet twitched as I moved around the small white cubicle. I wriggled like a worm trying to escape someone's grasp. I looked at my hands and noticed my already slender fingers and nails had grown longer. I unbuttoned my red checkered shirt and noticed sprouts of hair appearing on my chest and up my arms. I let out hot filled coughs as I clawed at my chest and arms and was shocked to find hair coating my body. I put my shirt back on and I felt my blood pulse through my veins as I got up and walked out the toilet cubicle.

I was once again met with thousands of eyes and this time looks of terror. ‘Who is that’ ‘What the hell’ my ears filled with unpleasant comments from onlookers. I ran out of the store with mighty speed. As I exited the store I was greeted with a variety of noises from cars, people and planes. I bent down and rested my body against the wall of the store. Gathering the thoughts in my head about what has happened to me, suddenly someone dropped a five cent coin near me. ‘You look like you need it’ said a man wearing all black clothing. I looked up and saw two small white eyes looking at me. I stared back at the man and asked ‘Who are you?’ The man looked me and replied with a rough voice like gravel ‘I’m just an officer’ I watched as the man turned around and walked away down a busy street merging into a crowd of people.Scratching my head I got up and walked down the street as normally as I could have.

I hobbled down the street growling to myself. ‘What happened to me?’ I counted how many times I asked myself this question. I hobbled along tripping over my own feet with every step. I looked at my shirt and my destroyed blue jeans.

‘What happened to me?’ I asked myself as I walked into the road and was met with screaming people as a red car screeched to a halt in front of me. ‘What's wrong with you!’ ‘Get out of the way!’ I watched as a woman stepped out of her car and walked towards me. She walked towards me and was getting ready to hit me with her bag. Without thinking or hesitation I flexed my hand and swiftly sliced her neck open. Blood splattered across my clothes and hand, her body fell to the cement floor and her motionless body lied there in a puddle of blood.

I snapped out of my rage and saw frightened and scarier onlookers. I ran away from the frightened crowd with thoughts of what will happen to me. I ran down streets hoping of avoiding the crowd but it was no use I felt trapped. I was being cornered in a dark back alley and with a keen eye and quick thinking I jumped from wall to wall. I looked back at the crowd of people and once again I flexed my hand and before I knew it a bloody mass of bodies lied in front of me. Blood spilled from the wounds and my blood lust didn't stop there. I walked out of the alleyway leaving the mess of the bloody bodies.

‘Ahh. What happened to me?’ I asked myself as I looked at my hands and my chest. ‘Freeze. Get down on the ground!’ I heard a voice yell at me from behind, I spun around and a bullet pierced my chest. I jumped on the man and dug my claws into the man's chest. My ears filled with the man's screams as I dug my claws into him tearing him apart. I then gripped one of the mans limbs and drained his body of blood. ‘Ahh. I n… need more’ I yelled as I ran out of the alleyway. I ran into a woman and suddenly a bit of humanity leaked into my stone heart. The woman screamed as I got up and walked away. Suddenly a hard object hit the back of my head and then I realised it was the woman's purse. I turned around and I was hit with another blow from the bag. I looked at the woman with a deadly stare and the courage and colour drained from her and she started to back away and sprint away from me.

I growled at her and she was terrified of me. I can't blame her, I'm terrified and curious about what I've become. I walked down a street and with every step I become more human until I was a normal man again. People stopped looking at me like I was a monster and more a homeless person. My hazelnut hair was scruffy and untidy and my clothes unkempt and in ruin. I walked for a couple of hours to gather my thoughts and to calm down from the killing. A thought suddenly sprouted in my head and I remembered a friend of mine was staying over in Mornington for a business trip. I was close to Mornington and decided to walk to her house.

The sky went from a light orange to a dark black that engulfed anything it touched. ‘Olivia. Open up, it’s me!’ I screamed as I bashed my hand on the red door. The door swung open revealing a window of light and a woman stood there in the doorway with her head cocked to the left. ‘Where the hell were you?’ Olivia’s voice was volatile and sharp. Her eyes filled with anger as she dragged me inside and slammed the door behind me. ‘What the hell! You just left me there last night’ Her voice was like a dagger cutting into me, every word making the cut deeper into my soul. ‘What?, what happened to me?’ I asked as I rubbed my head.

‘First. What the hell happened to you?’ Olivia asked as she looked at my blood covered clothes in horror. ‘I...I ran into some trouble, nothing to worry about’ I replied sharply as I walked upstairs. ‘Get changed. You reek of blood and sweat. The spare room will have clothes and a bed, but in the morning you leave’ I nodded to her as I gripped the banister in fear of falling over. I climbed up the stairs and into the spare room where I flung my deformed raging body onto the bed. ‘Ahh. What time is it?’ I slid my fingers into my side pocket and pulled out my phone. Unsurprisingly the screen shattered and the case contorted into an irregular shape. I looked at my phone and a sigh of relief escaped my body as the shattered screen sprung to life.

I noticed a notification at the top of the screen, I tapped on it and suddenly my screen was filled with the same message ‘Don’t worry. You're in good hands’ I stared at the screen in confusion but I quickly snapped out of it and decided to get changed. I got up and opened the closet to find a variety of clothes, I looked at them and eventually grabbed a red and black checkered shirt along with black jeans. I went into the bathroom and looked at my chest remembering the bullet that was shot into me. I grabbed a pair of tweezers and inserted them into the wound, I gripped the bullet and I screamed in agony while I slowly took the bullet out. I went back into my room and fell into the blood covered bed. ‘You okay?’ I heard Olivia’s voice echo throughout the house. ‘I'm okay. Just a cut!’ I replied, being careful of what I’m saying. I didn't want to worry her, but then again, stumbling into her house covered in blood wasn’t going to put her mind at ease! I fell onto my bed and before I knew it, I was in a white room.

Two doctors walked up to me , one holding a syringe and the other a blood pack. I couldn't move or scream. I was tied down to a hospital bed by leather straps, thoughts rushed through my head as I struggled trying to release myself from the uncomfortable leather. I started to growl and roar as the leather snapped and I pulled myself up off the bed. The two doctors stumbled backward as I freed myself. My blue eyes darted across the room I walked away from the doctors and with every step my posture became more damaging and my body the same. My mouth and nose contorted and stuck out of my face, my legs twisted and forced me and the ground. My chest and back pressed into my rib cage. I was a demon, I was a monster amongst people.

I crept along the ground and occasionally jumped onto my legs walking like a human. As I walked, I questioned the state of my mind. Is this a curse or a gift? I thought to myself, as I examined my body and the changes it just went under. I stopped for a second to think to myself but I was distracted by a noise behind me. I looked behind me and was startled to see a man all dressed in black with small white pupils piercing the veil of darkness. ‘What the hell!’ I said as I jumped back. I remembered a man that wore the exact same outfit. ‘Don't worry. You're in good hands’ He looked at me emotionless as he repeated the line over and over. I realised it wasn't fear stopping me from walking up to the man it was that sentence, he was like a broken tape recorder. I looked at him and I suddenly woke up with a start. ‘What the hell’ ‘What was that, oh god’ I muttered under my breath as I frantically checked my body for any sign of the changes that happened in the dream. I was panting heavily and sweat covered my body. I was scared of what I might become in later life.

My heart pounding against my ribs and my ribs cutting my chest. I rolled over in my bed trying to get some sleep, my mind was stuck at the line “Don't worry. You're in good hands.” I rolled into my back so I was facing the ceiling and thought to myself that is it, better I leave here rather than stay and put Olivia at risk. The thought floated around my empty mind as I stared into the black abyss that was all around me. I stared at the ceiling and suddenly I was out faster than Mike Tyson’s opponents. A loud crash woke me up, I looked out the window and saw a silver Honda that had been forced into a dozen silver trash cans. Litter was spilled over the car and alleyway. I shook myself awake and walked downstairs. ‘Morning. How did you sleep?’ Olivia looked at me with a cheerful look, ‘I slept fine. How about you?’ I slurred my words as I walked into the kitchen. My clothes creased and stiff. I dragged my feet across the wooden ground to stop the pain of walking. I walked to a counter in the kitchen and found a plate of fresh bread. ‘I didn't know what you would want’ Olivia said as she stood behind me. ‘Thanks this is fine’ I replied as a smile formed in the corners revealing rows of sharp blood soaked teeth. I grabbed a slice of bread and walked out the door.

My hand reached for the doorknob and a reflection of my face appeared on it. My eyes pierced through the curtain of brown hair that coated my face. ‘Thanks for last night’ I said as I opened the door and walked out of the house.