I stared down at the glowing line projecting from my PHCW. It hovered in the air like a tether, urging me forward.

  "Great," I muttered. "A creepy trail of light leading me to mystery meat."

  I stepped out of the room. The door hissed closed behind me.

  The hallway was still and sterile, humming faintly with distant power. White floors. White walls. White ceiling. The only sound was my own breath—and the unnerving scrape of clawed feet on tile. My clawed feet.

  Every few steps, I caught my reflection in polished surfaces. The tail. The ears. The eyes. All of it still there. Still me.

  The scent of food drifted in gradually—rich, warm, overwhelmingly strong. My stomach twisted, hungry and unsure at the same time.

  I rounded a corner.

  The cafeteria doors loomed ahead, metallic and seamless. They slid open as I approached with a hiss loud enough to make me flinch.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Inside—people.

  No. Not people.

  Students. Mutated. Changed.

  Some barely looked different. Others… others didn’t look human at all.

  There was a boy with silver, iridescent scales lining the back of his neck, twitching like they were alive. A girl with massive wings folded tight against her spine—white feathers brushing the floor as she walked. Someone else with twitching antennae, half-hidden under a hoodie.

  I stood frozen in the entrance like a kicked puppy, heart pounding, eyes wide.

  Then—

  “LEO!”

  A blur of motion. A grin. A tray clattering to the table.

  Cal.

  He looked like himself, but… wrong. Familiar in the way a dream feels almost real. His hair was still messy, his eyes still full of light. But fur lined his arms and neck now—short and dense, deep brown with streaks of silvery blue. His hands ended in thick, webbed fingers tipped with dull claws. And behind him, swaying lazily, was a long rudder-like tail.

  He grinned like it was just another Tuesday.

  “You look like roadkill, man. Come sit.”

  My throat caught. “Cal?”

  “In the flesh,” he said, patting the bench beside him. “Well, some flesh. Some fur. A little cartilage. Y’know. Science.”

  I sat down slowly, still staring. “Your… tail.”

  “Yeah?” He turned, looking at it like he’d forgotten it was there. “Oh right! Forgot to name it. You think ‘Captain Wiggles’ is too much?”

  My voice was dry. “You’re a freak.”

  “Proud of it.” He beamed. “Dude, you should’ve seen me wake up. I sneezed and almost slapped myself with my own tail. It’s got a mind of its own.”

  I stared, trying to laugh, but it got caught somewhere in my chest. I wasn’t ready for this. For any of it.

  Cal’s smile faded just slightly. “Hey. I know it’s weird. But you’re not alone.”

  Before I could answer, a shadow passed behind him. Another figure dropped into the seat across from us without a word. Claws clicking against the metal tray. Eyes sharp and low.

  “Kit,” I breathed.

  He glanced up.

  His face was still his. But his pupils were too large, stretched vertical like slits. His ears twitched, half-hidden under a messy wave of hair, and there was something tense in his posture—like he could bolt underground at any second. His fingers tapped against the tray rhythmically, claws sharp and curved.

  “I heard you woke up.” His voice was quiet but steady.

  “What the hell did they do to us?” I asked.

  Kit’s eyes met mine for a moment. Then drifted toward Cal.

  “They turned us into monsters.”

  “Yeah,” Cal said, mouth full. “But we’re hot monsters.”

  Kit snorted.

  I didn’t laugh. Couldn’t.

  The room was still spinning a little. My body didn’t feel like mine. My friends didn’t look like mine. I suddenly wasn’t sure who I was supposed to be in all this.

  But they were here.

  And I wasn’t alone.