~IAN~

The pain came again – like something trying to rip my jaw off from the inside – and I dug my claws into the soil, grabbing a handful of dirt as a choked cry tore fled my throat.

Then it hit.

A liquid explosion inside my mouth. It was metallic. Hot.

Blood! My blood.

Instinct took over. I swirled my tongue around the thick warmth, tasting it. The realization made my heart thud violently, like it was trying to escape my chest.

I reeled back. My breath caught.

My fingers, shaking, reached for my mouth. My gums ached, foreign points jutting outward, no longer human. They’d been waiting there all along, hidden like buried blades under my skin.

My tongue grazed one of the sharp edges and recoiled instantly. Instinctively. Like it knew they were dangerous.

What the hell is happening to me?!

I wanted to scream, but my voice was gone. What came out instead were ragged, shallow pants – animalistic and frantic.

The fangs shifted with each breath, like they were still growing, still claiming space that didn’t belong to them. Pushing against the edges of my mouth, too large for the human teeth they’d replaced.

I didn’t recognize myself. Not my voice. Not my hands. Not the monstrous things splitting from my face.

No, this couldn’t be real.

But it was.

I was changing. Becoming something I couldn’t name. Something unnatural. Something wrong.

My mouth felt too full. My body, too tight. I choked on a growl I didn’t recognize – deep, guttural, and terrifying.

“What’s happening to me?” I whispered, but the sound that left my lips wasn’t mine. It was warped, distorted, barely human.

A lightning bolt of fear shot up my spine. This wasn’t a slow, graceful awakening. This was violent. Brutal. Like my humanity was being peeled away one scream at a time.

That’s when I heard it. A voice. Ethereal. It floated over the wind like a haunting melody – distant, yet terrifyingly clear.

“Ian…”

I froze. My spine tightened. My heart slammed into my ribs.

Someone called my name. Someone knew me.

The voice came again, like wind through leaves, brushing the chaos in my mind into stillness.

“Ian…”

I spun around, crawling in a circle like a wounded animal, eyes darting between the trees.

“Who’s there?” I rasped.

No answer. Just the forest. Just the pounding inside my skull.

But that voice… It didn’t sound human. It sounded divine.

“Ian…”

“No,” I whispered, clutching my head as pain tore through my cheeks – thick, coarse hairs pushing through my skin like needles made of fire.

“Stop. Please. Make it stop.”

My hands shook. My bones twisted beneath the surface of my skin. My jaw distended. The fangs lengthened, digging into the roof of my mouth. My eyes stung.

And then my vision sharpened.

The world around me surged with impossible clarity. Every leaf shimmered. Every shadow pulsed with motion. The colors, too vivid. Too real.

My legs felt wrong. Too long. Too wild. Built to run on four limbs instead of two.

The voice came again, right on the edge of pain and clarity.

“Ian.”

This time, it dragged me.

I wasn’t running toward her, or away from her. I was just running, chasing the voice that now lived in my bones, dragging me deeper into something I couldn’t name.

I didn’t want to follow. But I did. It wasn’t a choice.

Something inside me – like a string wound tight around my soul, was being pulled. Not by hands. Not by force. But by a calling so deep, it felt older than my own name.

I had no answers.

Just this feeling of me finding her.

Maybe… maybe she’ll explain what’s happening to me.

±±±±±

I ran. My movements – jerky, alien. My limbs stretched too far. My claws dug into the dirt, which now felt soft, almost pliant, like the earth itself was shifting with me.

Everything was feral.

Is that what I am now?

No. God, no.

I’m human.

I just need to see her. I’ll beg her to fix me. To send me back to the grave. I’m already dead. Let me rest.

My shoulders lurched with each stride. And still, the voice followed. Or maybe I followed it.

“Ian…”

It sounded like wind through fog. Feminine. Soft. Ancient.

It curled into my chest like smoke, wrapping around my ribs and dragging me forward.

The trees blurred. My past blurred. I couldn’t remember who I was anymore, only that I needed to reach that voice.

And suddenly, the forest parted with no warning. The brambles and thorns gave way to a clearing bathed in silver light. Quiet. Sacred. Unreal.

At its center, an untouched pool. Round. Perfect. Still. As though the moon itself had bled into it.

I staggered to a stop. Chest heaving. Claws dragging into the moss.

And then, her voice again.

Closer.

“Ian.”

It brushed against me like silk across raw skin.

I whirled. “Show yourself! You called me here, so show yourself!”

Nothing. Just air and silence.

I was losing my mind.

My lips parted, the words halfway out, when I heard her again.

“Here.”

I turned sharply, scanning everywhere. Her voice was everywhere.

“Where? Where the fuck are you?!”

“In front of you.”

My gaze dropped to the pool and my chest locked. One step. Then another. Then another again. I moved without realizing, crawling now with hands – if they could still be called that – trembling. My claws clicked against stone. My breath steamed in the night air.

And then...

The surface stirred. First, a ripple. Then a hum. And the water lifted.

Not splashing, not spilling. Just rising. As if something ancient was waking beneath it.

It twisted upward into a perfect spiral, suspended mid-air as though gravity itself had forgotten how to function.

From the spiral, a shape began to take form; feminine. Flowing.

She emerged from the water itself, her body translucent and ever-shifting, her hair like rivers in slow motion. And eyes like twin moons, glowing silver. No pupils. No irises. Just light.

A woman made of liquid and light.

A goddess.

Not of this world. Not even close.

“What the–” My voice croaked, producing an unrecognizable tone.

I stumbled back, elbows digging into the earth, my mouth open in a silent scream.

“What... who… what are you?”