Chapter Five: A Feral Awakening

Ian's POV

Consciousness returned to me slowly - like a flower coaxed into bloom by reluctant sunlight. But with each sense that flickered awake, one truth became glaringly clear.

I wasn’t where I belonged.

As soon as my eyes adjusted and took in the world before me, my breath caught in my throat.

“What the actual fuck...?”

I was in a forest soaked in eternal twilight. Silver-leafed trees swayed in a gentle wind that whispered lullabies, and the forest floor pulsed with soft blue-glow moss. The light it cast was eerie, serene, and unholy all at once.

My head shook on its own, disbelief pounding through my skull. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered, wide-eyed.

Everything - the fog, the rocks, the fucking shadows - was moving. Breathing. Watching.

Panic bloomed in my chest like wildfire.

CRINNNNN.

Images exploded behind my eyes like shattering glass.

One. Two. Three...

Boom!

The dam of memory broke.

Brenda.

Figo.

The train.

Me.

My heart thudded against my ribs as the final image anchored itself deep in my brain. I had died. The train had hit me. I had felt my spirit leave my body.

So why the hell was I breathing?

“No. Wait. Let me think.” My voice shook. “I died, right? Yes. I died. I-I… Brenda… she left me. The train… it hit me…”

The more I tried to make sense of it, the more sense it refused to make. The absurdity of it all clawed at my sanity.

I staggered to my feet, shivering, eyes wild. “Where the fuck am I?”

My hands roamed over my body, desperate for proof of life - or of death. My skin was smooth. Too smooth. No bruises. No cuts. Not even the faintest scratch.

My lips trembled.

“This isn’t possible. I’m… I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m DEAD!”

My whisper turned into a chant, trembling out of me in waves. “This isn’t real. This isn’t real. None of this is.”

The cold wind wrapped around me like a ghost and I felt my eyelids grow heavy. I fought to stay awake. I couldn’t sleep. Not now. Not here.

The forest... it felt sentient.

It reminded me of Superman, that old cartoon I watched at the orphanage - the baby from another world, dropped into Earth, destined to save it. But this? This wasn’t some comic book story.

I wasn’t anyone’s fucking savior.

I was the lost, the broken, the dead.

“I'm no goddamn superhero!” I screamed in my head. But when I looked around again - at the glowing plants, the humming air, something in me started to believe it was real.

Fuck. I'm losing my mind.

A compulsion hit me. I looked up, and my soul shattered.

A cracked, purple moon hung in the sky.

Not white. Not whole.

Purple. Cracked. Watching.

Terror flooded me like poison in my veins.

Still gasping, I squeezed my eyes shut. Please let this fade. Let this be a dream. Let me wake up in a cold morgue or even hell - anywhere but here.

But when I opened my eyes, the world was still there.

The trees. The moss. The sky. The broken moon.

Mocking me.

“No. No. No. This is too much,” I whispered.

And then I screamed.

“Can someone tell me what is happening to me?!!” My voice ricocheted off the trees, returning as something colder.

Dread curled up inside my chest, making a home.

My body - it didn’t feel like mine anymore. Something else was inside me, pacing in circles, waiting.

Even the air felt wrong. Thicker. Wilder.

"You're dead.” A thought struck me.

It stole the breath from my lungs. Vomit surged up my throat and I couldn’t stop it. I doubled over and let it all out.

“Fuck!” I hissed, wiping my mouth with a shaky hand.

I thought I was growing weaker…

But no.

My chest began to thump, hard. Like drums. War drums.

And then came the noise.

It began as a flutter, maybe the wind. But it slammed into my ears like thunder. I clutched my head as it multiplied - moth wings, dripping water, my heartbeat, chaotic and loud.

I could hear everything.

Every damn thing.

Then came the scents - too sharp, too vivid. Wet bark. Earth. Decay. Sweetness. All at once. My nose was too open, too aware. Like it had awakened something it was never meant to.

I felt invincible and violated all at once. Something was surging inside me. Something ancient. Animal.

My knees gave out. I hit the forest floor, scrambling forward through glowing moss and roots. My hands - itched, burned, twisted.

I looked down and screamed.

They weren’t my hands.

Dark hair was crawling across them, up my arms. And from my fingers, claws began to unfurl like knives.

Claws?!

No. No. No.

Rough bristles started threading up my jaw, my cheeks. My face burned as I touched it - felt the strange texture of a beast I didn’t know.

Then came the real horror.

At first, a pressure in my jaw. Then the stabbing pain. My gums were swelling, stretching. I felt... movement. Bones shifting where bones shouldn't move. It was like my teeth were pushing themselves out, forcing space where there wasn't any.

I clutched my face, crying out, “Aaargh!!”

And I felt it, something hard. Sharp. Alien.

No.

Not teeth.

I reached up, my hand trembling, and touched them.

Long. Curved. Serrated.

Not mine.

Not human.

My God!!

"F-f-fangs?”