Mutation [ON HOLD]

Chapter 01.

IT WAS JUST five days. Five days until parents wept or rejoiced in happiness. Five more days to live a normal life. Five days to wish the best of luck to your closest friends and secretly pray that it will be they who would be chosen, not you. Five days of hectic drama and break-ups, of love and excitement.  

I decide on spending my five days on helping my mother. School was closed for the whole week for those who are seventeen. I might as well help out with the business.

My mother owns a creamery. It's one of the most popular parts of the human residence. The creamery is for humans and Supernaturals. Normally it would be a disgrace for a Supernatural to go into a human shop, but my mother's ice cream is so delicious they cannot resist to do so. I would know, after spending eight years of my life as an ice-cream taster.

I was just cleaning the counter when a man wearing a smart suit came up to me. He looked human and acted human. Nothing that hinted toward an air of superiority. All Supernaturals, even the babies, had an aura of arrogance surrounding them.

"Good afternoon sir," I say warily. "But I'm afraid that our shop is closed until another two hours later for clean up."

The man looks me up and down with his sharp emerald green eyes.  He gives me a smile.  "Are you Tam Brooks?"

"Yes..."  I say. I wasn't sure why this stranger would even know my name or want to speak to me. Better be careful.

"Perfect." He flashed his pearly whites and me and said, "I'll take a vanilla float please."

"Sir, I'm sorry but we're not opened."

My mother comes through the door, in her brisk little way.  Her face paled ever so slightly and with a shaky voice she says, "Hello Professor Finley."

"Greetings, Mrs. Brooks."

She laughs nervously. "It's Ms. Taylor now."  

My father disappeared when I was ten. My mother sent a search crew to find him, but they came back with fruitless efforts. We have no idea where he went or why he disappeared, but I suspect it has something to do with the Super Metropolis. Who other than those ruthless Supernaturals would take an innocent human soul?

My mom is a beautiful woman and she knows it. Everytime she walked around town, Supernaturals and humans alike stared at her drooling - and mind you, some of them were married - but she simply just smiled. I remember this one guy asking her on a date but she declined, saying that her special someone can never be replaced. "I would never be fair to you," she had told the man.

Don't tell her I was spying on her the whole time behind the thin door separating the kitchen and the sitting room.

"So this is your daughter."

"Yes.  Tam Brooks."

"May I have a little chat with her?  It's quite important, and I'm sure you'll understand."

"Yes, of course."

After hastily making a vanilla float, my mom leaves me with this strange Professor Finley. I walk over to a table and pull out some chairs. I gesture for him to sit down. He sits.

"Mr. Finley, is there anything you wish to talk about?"

There it was again. That twinkle in his eye. He laughs. "Please, do call me Sam.  And I do hope I'm not making you too uncomfortable, with you sitting like that."

I was going to ask him what he meant about me sitting "like that" until I realized how stiffly I was seated. I relaxed my pose just a little bit. "No, not at all... Sam."

"Anyway, I just want you to know that you're growing up and your birthday is in... Two days, I presume?"

"Yes, you are correct." My voice sounds so formal that even I don't recognize it.

"Turning seventeen. A huge milestone in life." Sam stated. He had a thoughtful look on his face.  

"Yes sir." Sam then snapped out of his reverie and stared at me, like he just realized I was there. I looked blankly back at him.

"Oh yes," He seemed to murmur more to himself. I waited patiently for him to speak. 

"Your life is about to take a turn for either what will be the worst or best part of your life. Be prepared." He leaves abruptly, with me staring at his back with a dopey look.  

He didn't even touch his vanilla float. What a waste.

My mother comes in with a peanut butter sundae for me. She sighs knowingly. I looked at her questioningly and her face closes off entirely.

"Tam, finish up your ice cream. Your shift is about to start in one hour and you still need to clean up." Like Sam, she leaves with suddenly.

Only one word: adults.

~*~*~

I ended up tossing and turning the entire night. The encounter with the stranger that scared my mother had scarred me. Judging from my mother's look, she knew something I didn't. Something she should have told me but kept it away.

I'll find out about it.

Finally, I fell into a deep sleep.  

~*~*~

The first thing I heard was angry battle cries.  Then the strange people fighting each other.  But it wasn't really a war.  It was more like training in a defense class.  

The whole room was gray, like it was supposed to make you more serious. I looked down at myself.  I'm still in my nightgown and fuzzy slippers. It feels out of place, especially when all the people there wear gray uniforms with brazen buttons and have stern looks on their faces.

A boy with ginger red hair comes up to me and calculates my looks.  He puts his long sword up and I immediately back away.  "Don't hurt me," I whimper.  He just smirks and brings down his sword.  Panicking, I think of a fast creature.  My body begins to shape into something else and I started turning hairy.  My skin is replaced a golden brown fur speckled with spots.  A cheetah.  I raced toward the exit as fast as I can.

Outside the training area, I see more kids like them fighting.  They all turn to look at me.  "There she is," the redhead who tried to kill me before snarls.  He turns into a lion and pounces on me.  I escape just in time to stop being crushed by a two hundred kilogram animal, but he managed to scratch me in the stomach.  I yowl in pain and lose consciousness.  Before I know it, I'm back to the familiar blue glow of my room. 

It was all just a bad dream.  A nightmare that seemed all too real.  I sigh in relief.

My stomach starts hurting really badly.  A sticky liquid seeps through my clothing.  I turn on the flimsy light bulb that's hanging right above me and gasp.

My stomach is bleeding.