A Scale of Sapphire

I slowly peeled myself off the floor and took stock of my surroundings. It seemed that at least for however long I’d been passed out, I’d been undiscovered by anything that wanted to hurt me. Or maybe, considering what I’d done to that bull lady, I guess she was some kind of minotaur, whatever was out there was giving me a wide berth. The restroom looked fairly ordinary and in relatively good condition, urinals and stalls lined part of the wall, and a row of sinks were lined up in front of a long mirror. The only abnormalities were a few small vines coming from one of the stalls and an unusual chill to the air.

I really didn't feel right. It's not that I was in pain, it was more like everything felt just slightly wrong, slightly off from how it was before. There was an unusual sense of vertigo as I stood, and everything seemed a bit bigger than it ought to be. I felt a clear sense of control over my body, as though I had all the coordination and finesse of a world class gymnast, but at the same time, this feeling of control was so new and confusing that it still left me feeling dizzy and disoriented. As I processed these immediate changes (while carefully making sure not to look down at myself), and I thought back to the changes that had been wrought in others, I came to a single conclusion: I wasn't human anymore. There was only one thing to do. I nervously approached the mirror.

I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to know what I had become. My gaze remained locked firmly on the ceiling as I closed the distance. When I felt my waist brush against the counter top, I closed my eyes and counted to three.

One

Two

Three!

I locked eyes with the person in the mirror and saw my new reflection for the first time. I was distinctly underwhelmed. I looked about the same. With long brown hair that could be politely described as ‘shaggy’, the same green eyes as always, and the kind of pale skin you only get from spending most of your time on a computer. That’s not to say that nothing had changed though. There was a kind of tension that hadn’t been there before, like every muscle I had was a tightly coiled spring, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Tiny nubs of bone or keratin or something were clearly visible just above each ear, but aside from that, my face seemed softer somehow, and judging by the way my shirt hung so much looser and the legs of my pants were now bunching up at my feet, I guess I had lost a few inches too. Lastly, my nails had grown longer and sharper, now looking much more like claws.

Overall, my reflection looked fairly human, a messy human with blood on his shirt, but still mostly human. There was just something a little unsettling about him, something that was just a tiny bit wrong that placed him right on the edge of the uncanny valley. His eyes were a little too big, his canines just a touch too long, and those claws really looked like they could kill.

I turned away from the mirror and made my way to the exit. I needed supplies, and upon seeing my reflection, I really needed a new shirt.

 

ashlynflagg Before anyone says anything about it, I'd like to once again reiterate that while some might stretch a bit longer, most chapters are going to be around 500 words. I get that that's not a lot, but I'm a working adult doing this as a hobby, and if I want to keep posting weekly without burning out, this is what I've gotta do. I appreciate y'all, and I'm happy that you want more, but for the sake of my own mental health, I'm going to stick to this release schedule. That being said, I'm really excited for the next few chapters, and I hope you enjoy them too