BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEEEE-
The sound of beeping was the first thing I heard, next was frantic shouting followed by silence. Then the beeping of multiple other machines came to my ears. The harsh sound drummed at my ears annoyingly, I wanted to shift into a position which could block out the horrid sounds but I found I couldn't move my body much. So I laid there, listening to the constant beeping and sometimes the shouting of a man to a group of frantically screaming people. All the noise was unfamiliar and left me uneasy, especially since I couldn't move at the moment.
When I could finally move a little I was able to open my eyes, I immediately closed them though. The harsh blinding light of overly white lights hurt, I blinked rapidly trying to get used to the light blinking tears from eyes only for them to be instantly replaced by new ones. The blurry image of the ceiling was becoming more bearable to see as my eyes adjusted to the light slowly.
When I could finally see I was greeted with a cream ceiling sporting oval shaped ceiling lights that harshly realised a white glow. Scowling at the lights I turned to my right where a heart monitor stood, monitoring my heart beat. My slightly elevated heart beat was a little calming, as at least it gave me the assurance I needed that I was alive, I mean I obviously was since I was breathing and clearly looking around but I was a bit panicky and it calmed me slightly.
My thoughts immediately came up with a single word 'hospital'. Was it all a dream? Did I just faint and mum and dad brought me to the hospital? I could only wish this was all a nightmare, but the more rational part of my brain knew nothing my mind could come up with was anywhere as good to fabricate all the happenings I had seen within the past 24 hours.
I moved my hand up to my face ready to pinch my cheek to make sure I was awake, just to double check, you know just in case.
I stoped short. I stared at my fingernails, they weren't normal. They had turned black and where almost like claws... no that's exactly what they where; claws. Am I really dreaming? Did I not give myself enough credit? I moved my hand to my cheek, mindful of my sharp nails and pinched. It stung, the sharp pain making me gasp and as I looked down at my nails agin nothing had changed they where still black and sharp.
So I'm not dreaming. Panic started to set in and I found myself staring at my hands frantically looking for anymore abnormalities, but there were none much to my relief. A small relief, but I'd take what I could get.
I turned back to my nails... claws, whatever they where I took my time to look closer. They had a curve to them that made them shaped like cat claws, not anywhere as flimsy looking though. Carefully Turing my hand around flipping it up and down I looked closer and really tried to understand what the hell this was, not that I was getting anywhere. A load clang of metal sounded a little further from my curtain cubical that made me jump and tens in surprise, griping my sheets a laud tearing noise instantly had my attention. Whoops. Looking at the ripped sheets I noticed that my nails had lengthened to twice their size. Slowly realising my grip I naturally un-tensed finding my nails sliding back in to my skin returning to their normal length. Now that disturbed me, fingernails aren't supposed to do that, like at all!
Trying to put my disturbing claw/nails out of my mind for now I moved carefully to try and sit up, I found out pretty quickly that I was very sore all over. Was this the effect of the black hole? Or of that dream with the dragon? I had an inkling that the nails where defiantly from the dragon, but why was I sore? I don't know which one it was and I don't want to know either, both options disturbed me in different ways.
I successfully sat up and saw that I was in a hospital bed with curtains drawn on all four sides of me. I concentrated on the curtains and tried not think to hard, if I did then I'd no doubt do something stupid like try and run away...
The curtains where a dull white, and frayed in a lot of places, they where obviously very used and had probably seen very horrific injuries in their life. I found my eyes wandering over the fabric and just as if something clicked everything zoomed in, I could see the tinny grains imbedded in the fabric and the fibres that held the fabric together, the stains and the imperfections in the weaving of the fabric.
I gasped and shot up straiter, my back now flush against the headboard of my bead. My eyes adjusted again and every thing was normal, well everything was in very high definition but normal. Getting excited I focused again on something different this time, I did this a few more times having fun with my new super vision. Temporarily forgetting about my nails or more like trying not to think about them, my new vision was way cooler than those disturbing things... well anyway this was a nice change from having bad eyesight, thinking this was much better than having to ware my glasses ever again I was monetarily happy. That is until my curtain that I was having fun staring at was harshly pushed to the side.
Almost jumping ten feet into the air my curtain reviled a haggard and tired female nurse. Her head was down focused of what was written on her tablet so she didn't notice me. Questions that I wanted answers to started to form in my head but before I could say anything she began talking, to herself I assumed.
"Patients name: Mara Dragoon. Age: 16. Place of birth: Wales. No previous history of her family being part of the war. Blood type: AB." She sighed heavily rubbing her face with her free hand. "I want my brake." She complained. I understood of course, I mean she looked so tired she would keel over any minute. Her vibrant pink hair was disheveled and violet eyes where dull and in need of some serious Z's. I wanted answers desperately but the first question should be to make sure she's ok.
"Are you ok?" I asked hesitantly. Her reaction was pretty funny. She jumped back about five feet, stumbling as she did but catching herself before she fell clinching the curtain she had pushed herself up against desperately like a life line. Jeez I know I'm not the prettiest flower but I'm not that ugly.
She looked up at me with owlish eyes, blinking a few times not believing what she was seeing. I found her gaze and she sucked in an audible breath almost choking in the process. I stared at her violet eyes and she stared back into mine, it was almost as if she couldn't look away. I broke eye contact to then stare at her shocking pink hair that was befitting of a pixie, she sighed in relief as soon as I tore away from her vision. Her relief was amusing and I didn't quite know why I found it funny.
"You're up?" It was a question but there was no need to reply, after all the answer was pretty obvious. She laughed nervously and came closer to me, probably to run some tests or something. My eyes snapped to hers again in curiosity and she froze looking like a deer caught in headlights, a poor lost bambi I thought. I don't know why she looked so frightened but it satisfied me in some wired way, which frightened me more than my nails.
The curtains where once again roughly pulled to the side to revile a doctor who was also disheveled and needed a good sleep. "Lydia, I need you to hurry up and do the checkups on the other patients." He also froze and looked shocked when he saw me. My eyes broke away from the nurse to the doctor, capturing his vivid yellow eyes with my unwavering gaze. They were a beautiful yellow swirls and patterned with darker and litter tones to make them more personal.
I was curious but also confused, I didn't know what was going on and I want to know why I'm in a hospital bed. My panic started to escalate and I found myself gripping the bed sheets very tightly, easily ripping them apart with my new nails. My escapism of the reality I was in was torn down and I was now left with a ton of questions and a need to understand.
"Um? What's going on? Where am I? Who are you people?" I asked quickly desperate for some answers, The doctor was the first to snap out of his trance.
"Lydia, go check up on the others and let me deal with this." The doctor turned to the nurse tearing his eyes forcefully from mine, it made me feel uncomfortable the way he forcefully tore away but I ignored the feeling trying to focus on getting answers.
The nurse, Lydia, hurriedly left back through the curtains making sure she absolutely didn't make eye contact with me. I turned to the doctor my eyes finding his instantly, they where very fascinating. His eyes told of many stories of what he had seen throughout his life, how I knew this I didn't know but the information was there telling me he saw many battles and lives lost but also saw lots of new life being brought into this world. It some what scared me that I somehow could tell somewhat of what he has experienced but it was all so new and intriguing.
He sighed, rubbed his tired face and took a seat next to my bed. He looked at me, assessing me head to toe, it irked me but I again ignored that feeling, he was doing nothing wrong.
"My names Dr. Leonard, now where should I start from?" His question was meant for himself so I didn't answer. He once again sighed then folded his arms. "Well the beginning is always the best place to start I guess." He rubbers his eyes with his forefinger and thumb exasperatedly. I was again cut off from his eyes, why was this bothering me so bloody much!?
"After you and everybody else that was unconscious and is a new student was moved here-" He gestured to the tinny room then proceeded. "-the infirmary, we moved each of you to a bed then injected all of you with an awakening serum. It awakens your inner beast or guardian, whatever you want to call it, depends on your religion I guess..." He posed thinking bout it, all the while I was thinking he was taking his sweet time explaining this. Although I guess he was talking for time, time for him to have a little reprieve from his work.
"Well anyway you then go into a coma like sleep, from average you'd sleep for a week to a month and we doctors and nurses will be here around the clock monitoring all of you. Half of you make it while the other half does not. However it's only been a week and a half and you're up, it's very strange and although it's not the soonest someone has woken up it's still very early. Put it this way, you are the first one to wake up." He paused to let it settle in and if I had questions I was to ask them now.
I was angry. These so called doctors had injected something into me while I was defenceless, I glared at the doctor my trust for him gone.
"So I'm in the academy?" I asked, my grip of on shredded sheets tightening, I houndstooth don't think I could call them sheets at this point.
"Yes." Was his short reply.
"And I'm not human anymore?" I asked looking him in the eyes again, from what I could gather this was the answer I came up with.
He held my gaze before sighing and looking down at the floor, again it felt uncomfortable it was starting to irritate me greatly this feeling. "No, you are no longer human. It's not that bad of a thing really. You're now much better than a human, you strength, speed, agility among other things..." He paused looking me in the eyes again. "You might want to not do that to much, it makes people uncomfortable." I looked at him like he was stupid, he sighed again. "You, you're looking at people straight in the eyes and it makes people feel uncomfortable, not only that but it's almost like I'm getting lost and it feels like I might get devoured. I guess it's one of your beasts characteristics but it's very easy to get captured by your eyes. And no, it's not a good thing." His eyes wandered over to my heart monitor, to get away from mine I suppose but just because I now understand why he felt breaking eye contact didn't make me feel any better about it.
I gave him a hard stare not believe what he was telling me, after all what had this man done to earn my trust? He sighed again, damn this guy does that a lot, then he handed me a mirror that he fished out from one of his many pockets of his lab coat. flicking it over to me I looked into the small mirror and immediately new what he was talking about.
My eyes had become a dazzling red, they danced like fire. There was no longer any sclera just a black diagonal slit surrounded by fire. I also noticed that my hair was as black as nothingness, it was so black that it felt like it would swallow me into an abyss. This was to weird for my brain to handle bu fluffy brown hair was gone and I was left with a pitch black nothingness, it was so unsettling to the point I couldn't really see any separate strand of hair. Touching it I could feel the strands falling through my fingers but even with my new vision it was impossible to see... why was this weird stuff happening? Why me? My eyes though they where cool, sure I liked my blue eyes but these were much cooler. I don't know why this didn't unsettle me as much as my nails or hair but it didn't and I was taking as much as I could get at this point.
I was honestly shocked. I sat there staring at the mirror that reflected somebody I didn't know. How was my family going to recognise me? How wold this effect my day to day life? Was I ever going to be normal? Could I still live normally? My panicking was evident by my short of breathing, panting I could feel myself loosing it a bit.
I looked up at the doctor frantically, not knowing what was going on. "Don't worry it's normal, this is now how you'll look for the rest of you're life so get used to it." He shut me down before my not panic attack could escalate, his words probably should have made me panic more but his blur tone made me more irritated at him than panicked at myself.
He got up from his chair gently taking the small hand mirror from my hands tucking it back in his white doctors jack and heading for the curtains. "Get some rest, I'll be back tomorrow at twelve to run some cheek ups but until then don't do something crazy. Please." He left, and soon after I found that my head was on my pillow whirling with questions, fear and confusion, sleep soon found me though and blackness blanketed my vision.