Waking up

The familiar drums of Judas Priest's Painkiller woke me up. It has been my ringtone for a while, I usually needed something loud to make me break free from Morpheus' embrace.

I had a throbbing headache as I slowly regained consciousness.

What the fuck did I dream of…?

I opened my eyes but immediately froze when I saw that I wasn't at home. I tried to get up but noticed spines emerging from my right hand's fingertips, my eyes widening instantly in shock.

"No way…" They were identical to the ones Dahlia showed me last night, confirming that what happened wasn't a dream. "It was real…"

I started breathing heavily as more memories of last night's events flashed in my mind. "Skinwalker… That's what I became?"

I barely had any strength in my body, but I did my best to stand up, leaning against the wall. I had no idea what a skinwalker was, but it didn't sound good. I needed to learn more, and thought that Claire might be able to help me.

"Fuck, Claire!" I exclaimed as I looked at my phone. It was 6:30 AM, I've been out for about five hours. She tried to call me multiple times. I quickly called her back, using my left hand since my right still had those weird spines.

"Ed, where were you? Are you alright?" she was worried, I could hear it.

"S-something weird happened…" I didn't know if I should tell her the whole truth or hide what I became. "I-I'll be back soon."

I hung up before she could reply and stared back at my right hand, the alien protrusion making me feel uneasy. The more I looked at them, though, the more I felt some sort of instinct awakening inside me. As I focused on this sensation, I saw the spines slowly retracting inside my fingers in a disgustingly enjoyable feeling. It stung but I was surprised again as my skin almost immediately healed itself, my fingers now looking normal, without any trace of the horrifying new bones hiding underneath. I focused on it again, the spines re-emerging and then retracting one more time, faster than before. I noticed that my left hand also had similar spines. It was so freaky to see these things pierce through my fingertips, but I let out a sigh of relief knowing that I could hide them.

More information started to pop up in my head. I somehow knew what these spines were used for. Through them, I had the ability to send a liquid able to turn humans into wearable skins, another liquid to restore them back to normal, and a healing liquid able to close wounds on skins. There was a last one that most likely was to turn humans into skinwalkers, but I felt like it wasn't something I'd be able to do anytime soon should I want to.

I looked down, starting to calm down, realizing the situation I was in. "I became a monster… and can wear people…"

I glanced around. I was still in Dahlia's house, but there was no sound whatsoever, so she most likely wasn't here. I was certain that Dahlia wasn't this monster's real identity. She was probably one of its victims.

As I approached the door, I saw a note stuck on it.

"Hope you had a good nap. Here's a spare key and my number if you want to contact me, handsome. Please be so kind as to lock the door on your way out." was written on it, followed by her phone number and a drawn heart.

"You bet your ass I'm gonna contact you." I grumbled, taking the note and leaving the house. Despite what she did to me, though, I still locked the door behind me.

As I walked back home, I couldn't help but shiver. We were in Spring, but it was surprisingly cold today, almost unnaturally so. I couldn't wait to get back to my flat and rest. I'd need some strength to confront that monster, even if it didn't seem outright hostile towards me.

Fortunately, it didn't live too far from my own flat, and I reached it before Claire had to leave for work. As soon as she saw me, she jumped to hug me.

"What happened, Ed? I was so worried…"

I hugged her back, wondering whether or not I should tell her the truth.