Chapter Text
Billy Morison was going to be rich! At least he would be once he managed to find the vein of gold he knew was in this cave.
Six months, for six months of backbreaking labor he had been digging deeper and deeper into the caves, going farther than any of the other diggers were willing or able to, and soon it would all pay off!
He'd found gold dust, which had to mean gold, and once he struck it he'd be living life on easy street! No more Pa screaming at him, no more sad looks from Ma when he came home covered in rock dust with nothing but empty hands to show for it, no more nights staring up at the ceiling of their little poorhouse shack as his stomach screamed at him in hunger.
Billy slinked through tight squeezes like a snake, holding his breath as he crawled through tunnels only an inch bigger than he was laying down, following the gold dust that would lead to his dreams coming true.
But his heart stopped as the caves around him began to shake, and before he knew it he was screaming and pounding his fists on the ground as the tunnel he had been crawling through crushed his legs and packed down on his chest.
Billy screamed, both in pain and in despair, he was miles deeper than any of the other diggers went, and his body was pointing away from the exit to the caves, the only mercy being that his lamp had been the first thing he'd sent through, so that he at least wouldn't die in the darkness of the underground caves.
Breathing was difficult, his vison swimming with pain as the rocks pressed down on his back and the unbearable weight of the stones upon him pressed into his back and drove the little breath left in his lungs after he was finished screaming.
"Pa, Mama, someone please, anyone..." He wheezed out pitiably with the small breaths he could take. "I don't wanna die, please god I don't wanna die."
And as darkness encroached on the edges of his vision, his prayers were answered as an impossible light appeared before him, and a indiscernible silhouette appeared within the doorway of light, "Do you wish to live?" the voice asked, undeniably female.
"Please, please, I don't wanna die," Billy wheezed as he grew closer and closer to passing out. "I'll do anything, just please help me!"
Billy's awareness returned to him slowly, and terror filled his heart when all that welcomed him was silent darkness, had he imagined the light, the woman's voice offering him salvation?
Billy tried to scream, but no sound left him that he could hear, the musty damp smell of the cave was gone, as was the sensation of pressure on his back, but as more and more of his awareness returned he realized that he no longer had a back at all.
All Billy could feel of himself was a small flat disk hiding a multitude of sharp teeth, like some kind of insidious living bear trap, the surge of terror screaming through him only worsening as he realized that outside of his name and the cave in, that no memories came to the forefront of his mind, no matter how he strained to remember even the smallest detail of who in the Sam Hill he was.
Not even able to scream, a distraction soon came in the form of something scampering over him, and before he could even think twice about it his body snapped shut quicker than lightning teeth emerging to rip whatever had been unlucky enough to tread on him to a probably bloody shred.
For a time his body stayed shut around his unfortunate victim, closing tighter and tighter as he digested whatever it was that had been captured by him before snapping back open and laying itself flatter than a snake sunning on a hot rock.
With no eyes and no ears Billy wasn't sure how long he was like this, only staying sane by keeping a mental tally of every successful catch in comparison to every failure, amusing himself by imagining that the ones that got away were stupid enough to try their luck twice and get caught for their bullheaded pride.
After three thousand, nine hundred and eighty-seven catches something amazing happened, when Billy lamented his lack of eyes a pair appeared!
Billy stared up at the night sky, and tears leaked from his new eyes as he took in the infinite beauty of the stars above him.
With his new eyes Billy was able to count the days, and finally discovered what exactly he was devouring.
Rats, though Billy wasn't sure how he knew what they were, he knew they were rats, and the idea that he had eaten thousands of them sent a distant, muted tingle of revulsion through the back of his mind, but Billy tried his best to ignore that and continued to snap closed on the stupid beasts whenever they walked over him, delighting in the new view his eyes were able to capture as his body enclosed his latest victim.
With his new eyes, Billy was able to keep track of the days, joy blooming in his chest as he had a new way to keep himself entertained, watching as the sun sailed over the little alley he discovered himself to be in.
After three weeks of this, and many more rats, Billy encountered his first new meal, a scraggly cat that had entered his alley, probably attracted by the smell of the dead rat he had just finished digesting.
Billy waited, holding an imaginary breath as the scraggly orange thing stalked closer to him, until finally its head was in his range, sniffing at the spot of blood left behind from the rat.
Billy snapped closed, feeling the cat's shocked yowl as it was surprised by the sudden attack, a noise that was forever silenced as Billy let out his teeth, piercing flesh and crushing bone.
Billy's eyes looked as the cat's headless body fell to the ground, but ignored it as a feeling similar to the one that he had felt when he managed to grow eyes spread through him.
Billy's body changed as he digested the cat's head, morphing and twisting as new sensations formed, sounds appearing after being gone for so long, unwelcome smells making the two dots that made up his new nose close shut.
Billy's body rose as it twisted and unfolded into the shape of a flower's petals from his lost memories, a stem growing out of his bottom and allowing him to rise even higher, until finally his form took on a shape that made him feel nostalgic for some unknowable reason, a nearby puddle letting him see the pinks and dark reds of his new form.
A flower made of flesh stared back at him.
