Chapter Text
Severin staggered through the back streets, trying to avoid any people on his journey. He didn’t want anyone to see him this way, or, even worse, run into someone he might know. He didn’t have the energy to know himself what was happening, much less explain it to another person.
Even so, there was one person he ran into.
An older man bumped into him in an alleyway, attempting to steal a wallet from him. At the startling touch, Severin growled darkly and turned to grip the stranger’s arm, violently pushing the older man against a building wall. He leaned in towards the guy’s neck and smelled him. A light-headed sensation clouded his mind, and suddenly his instincts sprang into action. He opened his mouth to bite on the man’s neck.
Pain.
The crook swiped at Severin and succeeded at hitting his target. Severin’s lower chest erupted in agony, causing him to let go of the older man. The guy made some noises as he scrambled away.
Severin gulped as he looked down at the knife stuck in his chest. One hand met the ally wall for support. Blood began to bloom in his shirt. No matter how he looked at it, there it was, the end protruding from his body.
Figuring this was the end of him, Severin leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. At least he would go out quicker, now.
What was he about to do to that man? No matter how he viewed it, there was nothing rational about it. For some reason, he wanted to bite him. But more then bite him, he wanted to…
hurt him. He was hungry for it. He wanted to tear him open with his teeth. And he wasn’t even sorry.
Wait, what? Yes, he was.
Severin wasn’t an animal, was he? That man was a human, not food.
Severin opened his eyes, frowning. Being stabbed was a lot less painful then one would think.
Absently, he ran a finger along the inside of his mouth, only to freeze in terror. As his skin touched his teeth, he realized that his top and bottom canines were abnormally large and sharp. They protruded from his mouth in an animal-like tendency.
The man let out an cry in surprise and clutched his mouth. How had he not realized the new detail of his teeth earlier? He gulped, chills engulfing him. What else did he not know about himself? In rising panic, he took off his shirt from the back as to not stir the knife, and looked at his body. It all seemed exactly as it should be except for the knife wound. Which already had scar tissue crusted around it. “Ahhh!” Severin gasped, horrified. In his panic, he suddenly wanted the knife out of him.
He gripped the handle with both hands. And pulled.
The knife came out with a tug, and blood flowed from the wounded area. The shirt that was attached to the knife fell to the ground.
Severin, feeling faint, felt tears in his eyes. The blood that flowed out of the wound, it had suddenly stopped running.
Blood doesn’t just do that.
This wasn’t an illness. Maybe he wasn’t dying. His body was changing. He wasn’t human anymore, he was a creature. His breath caught, but he made sure to steady his breathing after a pause, since he didn’t want to stop breathing altogether like he did before. He could remember who he was up until recently. Stephanie Danse: 22-year-old college student. But what about now? How did this happen? His brain moved too fast for him to sort anything out. There were only flashes of recollections at a time. He couldn’t figure it out right now.
Knife in hand, he decided once more to walk home. He staggered through the suburbs, taking the back alleys – one hand covering his mouth self-consciously.
He wandered down a path that felt gradually more recognizable as he progressed. He needed to get away from the public and organize his thoughts. Even through his haze, he knew how to find his house.
The mailbox outside of his home pointed him in the right direction. Grateful for familiar sights, he walked up to the doorstep of his one-story-rental and tried the handle. It was locked; of course it was locked. Frowning, Severin searched his pants before remembering that he had put his keys in his shirt pocket before. He would have to go through a window. Heart pounding, he went out back to where he knew a window was, and tried to open it. It lifted easily from the outside.
He looked around the bedroom, searching for the bed and the bed alone. He found one and went to it, but when he touched the covers, he stopped. There was a man laying in his bed. Someone he vaguely recognized. They had their eyes closed. After a sweeping moment of confusion, Severin realized that the man was his neighbor. Someone who he’d only noticed because of the guy’s general friendliness. He must have went into the wrong house. He should leave soon before he’s noticed.
But. There, hanging from the side of the bed… limply… was….
Severin quietly went to his knees. He gazed at the dark arm that dripped off the side of the bed, admiring it. That feeling was welling up inside him, the one that startled him before. It was a feeling that he wanted to fight against. This wasn’t just a man who passed him in an alleyway, it was his neighbor who hadn't done anything wrong. His neighbor, who he knew to be very ill….
No. No, he couldn't. Not this.
But he was helpless against the urge.
Tears spilled from Severin’s eyes, and he gently picked up the arm. “I’m sorry,” he said, before tearing it open with his new teeth and lapping at the blood.