Dark

Everything was floating, like when you're in the bath tub, letting the water carry your weight.

I woke up and I found out I was alone, completely alone, no sounds around me, no smells and no one anywhere near me, not that I would have seen or felt their existence: I had no eyes to see, no hands to move and nothing but the thoughts in my head. The first thought that passed through my mind was: what is happening? I feared for my life, I wanted to escape from the danger I was in, but was I even in danger? Where was I? I could do nothing so I did the one thing I could: wait. I waited and waited and waited some more. What was I even waiting for? Hell if I know, something I guess, anything at all really. Just, even a fart would have been nice at this moment.

And then, came the light: bright, burning on my skin, warm and fuzzy, I could move now but I still had no eyes to see with. I seemed to be sitting on the cold ground or something like that, my head resting on something soft and warm, enveloping me in the most perfect hug.

Something beeped at my side and I focused my attention to it: a slow but constant sound, electronic, beep, beep, beep, moving with my heart. An ECG? Was I in a hospital? The next thing I felt was the smell: spicy, pungent and acrid, disinfectants and medicine, coupled with a lack of dust and the usual smells of a home or the outside world. Inside my left arm I felt something hard inserted and held in place with band-aid. So I was really in a hospital.

Try to remember when I got there, what was the last thing you remember? Think you goddamn idiot! Think! Ok, so, I was in my home... no, apartment, or was it an office? A hospice? Maybe even a dumpster? Why couldn't I remember anything of where I was last? Ok, calm down... breathe. The ECG beeped erratically now. What year is this? 2080? 2300? Fuck. Who am I? Oh, god, who am I? Why can't I remember who I am? Have I lost my memory? Am I completely paralyzed? A vegetable? No, I can still move my fingers, not much but I can... it must be the drugs pumped in my system, yes, that must be it. But what kind of drug? Morphine? Tylenol? Valium? Dilantin? Could be any of them and all may be plausible if I cannot tell why I am in a fucking hospital.

Well, I'll have to figure this out by myself and slowly... I know I know stuff so it cannot be total memory loss and I know how to tell something from nothing, I can remember everything I have been taught, but I cannot remember where I learned this or who taught me. Could... could I be a clone? A copy of someone with artificial knowledge of everything? No, why wouldn't I know who I am then? Would a clone not be able to know the original's past and preferences?

Wait, what do I even like? Strawberries, milk, chocolate bars, lasagna, olives, movies about sad stories, books that talk about stuff that happened, running in the rain, parties, alcohol, the smell of lavender in the summer... I don't know why I like any of this but I'll have to roll with it.

Let's make a quick inventory of what I know: nothing except I am in a hospital or somewhere similar and that I have no idea on why or who I am. Well, that was fast. Guess I'll for something to happen again. Oh, it seems that someone is coming here, I can hear the footsteps. Wait, wait, wait... are they talking? Yes, they are... fuck I can't hear them... ok, let's concentrate...

"How is he still alive?"

"Rona, I have no idea. The transplant was risky and the medicine we had to give him was even more of a gamble. He was clinically dead for five minutes for fuck's sake! He died and then something happened and he came back. We should just be happy that he didn't stay dead."

"Fine, I understand, Andre. I'll send a nurse to keep him company until he wakes up, although it may take months... if we're lucky."

Oh, Jesus, oh sweet baby Jesus... I died? What the fuck? What transplant? What operation? What happened to me? Wait!

No matter what I try, my body seems to not be willing to respond to me. You fucker! I am the brain and I control you! Just move one hand or something!! No luck? I'll wait. I'll wait as much as I have to. I'll wait an eternity if needs be but I will definitely, get up from this bed

Time is... tricky to say the least: one moment I think that hours have passed and then someone next to me tells his friend that barely ten minutes ago something happened and the next thing I know a week went by and I didn't even notice. There is one thing of which I am sure though: I am slowly getting better at controlling my body, which, by the way, is a total asshole. Just get moving already you lethargic piece of shit.

I'll go and try one thing that may work as soon as I hear the nurse pass to change my IV bag: morse code. That one will surely attract some attention but... how do I know morse code? Why do I know it? How do I know anything at all? No clue, but here I am, knowing how to use morse code. Oh, there she is: my lovely nurse Carol. I don't know what she looks like, I don't have a clue on what she looks, I only know what I can feel: her footsteps, her rose perfume, her voice and the softness of her hands. It's weird how sensitive I am, being paralyzed like this. She stopped next to my bed and did what she had to do, one thing at a time. Hopefully she'd understand what I was trying to do.

"How are we today, Brandon?" Oh? Brandon? First time anyone says my name, if it's mine at all, but let's roll with this. Hi, I am Brandon, surname still to be decided. "Let's see if you have gotten any better... nope, not at all. I'm sorry man, you must be suffering." Hell, yes, I am. Well, then, let's try... ".... . .-.. .--." God, I hope I didn't mess it up or forgot how to... "What is this? Are you tapping something?" I repeated the sequence over and over and over. She probably either stared at me in confusion or just didn't understand it al all... And then. "Wait, is this morse code?" Yes, yes, you beautiful lady! Again. "Hold on! Let me get a pen or something. Alright, got it." She took off and left. It worked! Ha-ha! Yes! Life is not shit! A few minutes later more people came and stood at the side of my bed.

"What do you mean he spoke in morse code? He's a vegetable, Carol!" Oh, you shut up!

"Hold on, he's doing something! Can someone translate this?" People fumbled around and then passed something to each other. I felt someone put electrodes on my head. "What are you doing? Whoa, he can hear us? And even use morse code? This, this is unprecedented! How many cases of brain damage like his are in the world? One? Two?"

"Harold, you shut up. Brandon, do you know where you are?" Hospital. "Good. Do you know what year or who the president is?" No. "Ok, do you know who you are?" Brandon."Aside from that?" Amnesia. "Alright. Since you can hear me, I can tell you that you are Brandon, probably 25, no known residence, found with severe trauma and internal bleeding on a street. You only had your wallet on you, but no credit card, ID and after searching we didn't even find an insurance policy in your name in the system. There are no people responding to the posters we put out and since the police never arrested you, you're not in their system either. By all means, you're a ghost. I'm sorry to tell you that you are alone, but do not worry, we'll try and help you as much as we can to get you back to normal soon." Operation?"So, you remember that far back? Well, yes, we had to try an experimental treatment to keep you alive. We will tell you all in due time, now, you need to rest. Carol, see that he had everything he needs."

"Yes, doctor Reed."

And with that, the worst part of my life began. Alone and abandoned, with no place to call home and no money to pay the bills for the hospital. Would I end up in prison or in debt for the rest of my life or something like that? God, I hoped not. At least I had Carol with me to keep me company. Morse was not the best way to talk but it was better than waiting for weeks or months with the vague hope that I would regain my sight or could talk again.

Doctor Reed told me that I had some weird form of selective amnesia: I had lost knowledge of all that was related to my family and my past but all the rest was fine and dandy, like someone had removed a folder from a computer, taking away only one part of me and leaving the hard drive just fine. I knew that already but it made me feel... wrong, empty, incomplete. They say a man is shaped by his past and shapes his own future, but if I had no past, how was I supposed to make myself a new life? Not that I was complaining, maybe I had some bad stories and memories and not remembering any of it was kind of good for the new me, maybe I was a murderer, maybe I had hurt people, that I didn't want to know, or did I? Would I feel anger at something that I did, when I didn't actually do it? Would that make sense?

At the third month of near comatose state, I finally managed to move my toes, or rather, wiggle them a little, still, progress. On month number five: my arms could move again and I finally was able to scratch that itch on my ass and on my nose. How awesome is that? Life is not so shit now, maybe...

Slowly, very slowly, over the course of the next two and a half months, I got back most of my body and one day, one miraculous and beautiful day, I opened my eyes. In front of me I saw an empty white room, mostly empty at least, with the standard hospital furniture, a green curtain separating my bed from whatever lied to the right and then an open door. I stared at the door for a long, long time, but I had gotten very good at waiting and so it passed fast. Within the hour, a lady walked in, a nurse, carrying a medical folder in her hands and though I had never known what she looked like, the sound of her steps was unmistakeable: Carol. She was just as beautiful as I expected her to be: black flowing hair, a perfect smile, nice curves hidden under that ugly azure clothes she had and... a wedding ring. Of course, taken already. Just my luck.

She called the doctor responsible for me immediately and I watched her go around, taking the vitals, putting a new IV bag on the metal hook, doing the things she did for a year and now I could watch her. But my eyes fell on that ring every time I felt happy to see those motions and somehow, for some reason, it soured my mood. In my head I had made hundreds of plans, I did everything I could to imagine what I'd have to say and it was all gone to naught. It's hard, being rejected before even saying anything. The doctor arrived late, an hour late, but he didn't seem to care. Another few weeks down the line and I could speak, badly, slowly, it hurt like hell and it was amazing. I did therapy, I went down to do exercises with the amputees and the veterans with PTSD and worked on my body, trying to get it back in shape. It was a long process.

"Let's see your charts: white and red cells are normal, you got your vitamins earlier, heart rate stable, the MRI you took the other day doesn't show anything out of the ordinary which is good, x-rays look, well, good... Biologically speaking you are as healthy as we expected you to be, just a little muscle atrophy but that is to be expected after almost a year in bed with no movement and rehab is going better than expected. How are you feeling today, Brandon?"

"Like shit, doctor." My throat was making me feel like puking as I spoke, horrible and itchy and the rehab wasn't going well, everything ached and I felt as weak as a baby.

"Why is that? Can you tell me what may have caused this distress?"

"I have no job, no memories, no money, no family, no place to live and most importantly I have no intention of going to prison because I cannot pay the bills."

"Brandon, you have no need to worry, I have taken care of that already." The doctor smiled complacently and handed me a stack of papers with a pen.

"What is this?"

"Since I had no way to save you other than that procedure I tried on you, I took... some liberties with your body and, since it seems to be working, I have received some rather hefty founds from the hospital to monitor your progress and wellbeing, call it a stroke of luck. You will stay in a house I prepared and live there until you can provide for yourself or someone comes that can do that for you." I heard that the operation was a very risky one, never heard the details, never even agreed to it, but here I was, alive and... mostly well.

"So, I just have to sign this and I won't have to worry about rent or anything? Just this?" Reed nodded and waved for me to sign the papers. It was too good to be true but did I have any other choice? Had I not put my signature on this, where would I go? What would I do? They really left me no other choice. I sighed and did as he wanted. "What was the procedure anyway? Some kind of experimental drug?"

"Gene splicing my friend. I spent ten hours in the OR inserting some very special DNA inside you to repair the most damaged areas." Gene splicing? I was aware of what that was, I had read it somewhere some time ago: it was experimental, highly experimental, and forbidden to perform on humans, much less unconscious ones. Still, he did it and he wasn't in jail so there might have been something that I wasn't aware of going on, maybe some special law. "Don't worry, I didn't literally inject you with foreign substances. I just used a new technique for organ grafting which required me to insert some genes in the new tissue to make it grow faster. I don't want to scare you, but your liver and heart are part lizard and gecko."

"Reptile DNA? Really?"

"Well, they can regrow limbs with relative ease and are exceptionally sturdy so they were the better choice. I would have asked if you preferred octopus or some other animal but that would have been just gross for me, I hate fish and crustaceans."

"Lizard... I think I like them, maybe I had one when I was little or something..." It was weird, liking something and not knowing why. It was just as weird remembering bits and pieces of stuff I did, pets I had, things I saw in school trips I had no memories of. It was all weird, fuzzy, annoying, frustrating.

"Good, rest and later this week we'll transfer you to your new home." The doctor smiled again and left the room, leaving me alone with Carol. She disappeared for a moment and returned with food and something to drink.

"Here, I'll help you, your muscles are still weak." She offered to put the food in my mouth but I refused and tried to do it myself for some reason, and my pathetic attempt at doing something myself ended up with me dropping a spoon of soup on my lap. She looked at me the same way you'd look at a baby who was still learning to eat by themselves and that made me furious. "Brandon, what's wrong? Did the soup burn you?"

"No, I am just tired and pissed."

"Why?"

"I have no idea of who I am and no way to even go back to where I lived since there is no way for me to contact my family. I have no social media that can help as far as I know and that leaves me alone. I can talk, move but I have no reason to."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I had no idea you were in such a state. Do you want me to get a private investigator and work on your past? Maybe call the police?"

"No, it's... it's fine. I have the feeling it's better for me not to know why I do not remember a thing. Thank you for your help, Carol, I appreciate it."

"Don't worry, it's my job to give you what you need." Right, it's her job to be nice to me, she's not into me and she doesn't probably care for me for real since she gets paid for it. And here I was, making plans and dreaming about asking her out, hoping to get someone to help me through this but the universe as always, has other plans for us.

As the doctor told me, I was in my new home by the end of the week, getting pushed in the front entrance by a new nurse on my very personal wheelchair. The flat was on two floors and the access to the building a little ways out of the city, had a lift reserved for people with handicaps. All very good and nice, but the place was empty as it could be. Carol stopped by the next day just to check on me and see how I was doing and the doctor came not long after to hand me some food, instructions and a prepaid card with several thousand dollars free for me to use.

"Is this much ok for you?"

"Ten thousand? It's way more than enough for me, I'm alone and with no hobbies, what am I supposed to do with all this money? Buy a car?"

"I'd prefer that you didn't do that, this card doesn't come from my pockets, but from the hospital and given to you to get by for a while in consideration of your, ehm, unwilling participation in this operation. As of this moment, your body is a treasure and invaluable, never before has a patient in a coma been able to communicate with the world. Just that is enough to be examined for decades, but what I have attempted on you is a little more radical and there may be some unforeseen side effects."

"Side effects? What kind of side effect?"

"If I knew what kind I wouldn't have called them 'unforeseen', Brandon. The procedure was invasive and quite frankly experimental, but that you know already. What you do not know and what I do not know is how the implanted tissue will react with your body. I am afraid to say that these effects will be weird. Nothing too serious of course, you may experience insomnia, loss of hair, cravings or any other symptom really, I'm shooting in the dark here."

"Let me be clear: you have put something inside me that may or may not have some effects on my body and mind and you have no idea of what to warn me. Is that correct?"

"More or less, I'll give you this folder that will give you a training regimen to get back on track and even give you a list of what you may expect or what not to do to avoid any lasting effect. Brandon I am sorry, really. I did what I did to save you and I hope you won't hold a grudge against me."

"You did save me and I am grateful, but you also put me in a coma and then replaced half of my organs with hybrid tissue that may or may not make me bald and/or fat. I'll survive somehow." Maybe it was me but the doctor didn't seem fazed by my subtle critique and just smiled as he always did and that was very, very annoying. Jesus, why didn't this man show any emotion at all? It's like talking to a rock with a mouth and extensive medical knowledge. But, he gave me money and a place to live so I guess that balances things out or something. "Thank you."

"You're very much welcome. The house has a couple of buttons around the place, bathroom, at the front door, in the bedroom and the kitchen, in case you fall or get hurt or feel so bad you need to call an ambulance. Just press them and we'll send one in minutes. Just, don't press them by mistake ok? It happened before and the drivers and neighbours didn't like it."

"This house has been used before?"

"Ehm, kind of. I let someone I was monitoring live here and the guy got drunk as hell, invited his boyfriends and while they were getting at it, they pressed a button, we came here with the sirens blaring and opened up the door on them fucking like dogs. So, no wild sex."

"You know my charts by memory, doctor Reed, I am in no state to run, much less sex, not that I have anyone to call for that." For a split second he almost seemed sorry for me, almost, maybe he was trying to suppress a sneeze or something... "I won't press the buttons unless there's the need for it, don't worry, doc. Have a good day."

"Good day, Brandon. I'll return in a week or so to check. Take your pills every day, ok? They're to make sure the tissue doesn't get rejected."

Reed closed the door behind him and disappeared once again, without saying one more word. I looked around the house for a while, exploring the functions and the spacious environment perfectly modelled for patience with deambulatory issues: rails on the walls, a large corridor and a lot of space between the various items of furniture, one of those thingies that help old people to get up the stairs and a similar one in the bathroom above the bathtub and the toilet seat. They even added a bidet! Trying to spoil me?

Once the excitement for the new home, my first home since I remembered anything or as far as I could remember, I was left with little to do beside try and exercise a little or watch tv. Going outside was not in my plans which left me with these two options.

For days on end, that was what I did: get up, eat, do some stretching, follow the training regimen, eat, watch tv, more exercise and then eat and go to bed. If Reed knew what I was doing, he'd probably yell at me for not taking care of my body and rest, but I had the impression he had put some hidden cameras in the house. I had no proof of this but I kept having this weird feeling all day like something was wrong and someone was watching me from the shadows. After a week or so, I began having nightmares, vivid ones in which I died over and over again or where I would lose myself in a desert, unable to die and perpetually thirsty. I'd wake up with a sore throat and a parched mouth, like I had really been in a desert, hungry in the middle of the night.

The days spent with the most horrible hunger cramps were getting the norm but no matter how much I ate, I didn't get fat and I didn't get any less hungry or that matter. I went to get scans and biopsies and all kinds of tests, but they all pointed that I was not ill and instead more than fine, in perfect shape and even healthier than some athletes that passed from the hospital. Reed was overjoyed but for my sake, he gave me some pills that he swore would make thing better and, weirdly enough, they did. I stopped having nightmares, slept well, but I still ate like two truckers after Ramadan. Good thing I wasn't a Muslim, well, not that I would have known, but having to fast was not something I could have lived through it in my condition.

Aside from the unbearable hunger, the not so frequent nightmares, the crippling fear of someone watching over me and my total and complete loneliness, I was living the life I would have wanted if I had any idea of what I did before.

One Saturday, I finally decided to get a grip on myself and got out of the house not to buy groceries for once and planned to go to a fucking club or bar or whatever, in the vain hope I'd get laid or something. I had gotten some muscle in the past month of total isolation which puzzled the doctors in a variety of ways, something about the amount of testosterone and other rare compounds in my bloodstream, but they all agreed it was for the better. There was no medical record about me so telling whether this was normal for me or not could not be done just yet and we all assumed I had some pretty nice gene that allowed for rapid muscle growth.

I spent several hours grooming myself and choosing the right dress, only to discover that the bar I ended up in had decided to do a surprise masked party and that was just what I needed: to be the one normal looking dude in a sea of masks and costumes, and even the sexy nurses were not helping me in the least. I also found out I was not gay when a dude, drunk already, tried to hit on me and kiss me, ending up on the floor when I pushed him away and passed out in moments. His friends came soon and dragged him out and slammed in a cab before resuming their party.

"Idiots."

"Agreed, what if the guy needs help? I can't believe these dudes have literally put their friend's life in a taxi driver's hands." A rather charming woman, dressed as a private investigator, sat on the stool next to me. Her hair were all contained within an old fedora that must have belonged to her grandfather and her clothes too, given the very... authentic look they had. "Name's Marlene, but now I may as well call myself Burt McHarthy, private investigator."

"Is that your costume's name?" She took the glass I had in my hands and sipped the cocktail, leaving a small red mark with her lipstick.

"Well, more or less. You, on the other hand, don't have any, unless you wanted to come dressed as a superhero in disguise or villager number three."

"Yeah, I wanted to come and see where the wind took me and ended up in this place without knowing that there was a costume party. Didn't feel like getting one and didn't feel like leaving either, so, here I am, drinking Long island iced tea and waiting for my last shred of will to dissipate and go back home."

"Whoa man, cheer up. What's with the long face?"

"It's complicated, Marlene... not something that a stranger should know."

"Alrighty then." She gave me the drink back, coughed a few times and then spoke in a low voice, raspy and old. Or at least that should have been the case, the end result was more comical than serious. "Then you can speak to Burt, nor Marlene. Tell me what troubles you, ehm, pal."

"Pal?" For some reason I found that funny and laughed, soon joined by Burt, who ordered a beer for herself. "Really? I would think that a rugged private investigator in his fifties would say something like: kid or boy or something. But I appreciate the effort."

"Will you tell me why are you so depressed then?" I sighed and told her just enough about me: the coma and the amnesia, nothing else. She didn't have to know the rest for now. "Holy... that's one grisly adventure, Brandon. It's almost out of a horror story."

"It's not that bad, you know?"

"That's what you think, but not knowing who you are, damn, that would kill me, quite literally. Are we still... we when we lose out memories?" She looked at her glass, pondering about something deep and then slammed it on the counter. "Fine, let's drink the night away! Cheers!"

"Cheers!" We made our glasses touch and the edge of mine fractured, but I didn't notice, not until it was in my mouth and I cut my tongue, bleeding all over my clothes. Marlene got scared of the blood and helped me get to the bathroom, surprisingly a quite clean one by a normal bar's standard. She waited outside and I tried to stop the bleeding as best as I could by pressing with paper towels and hoped for the best. After a couple of minutes and a lot of bloody paper, the blood stopped flowing and I calmed myself, but I knew something was off: why did my tongue feel so weird then? I knew what a cut was supposed to feel like but what I was experiencing now was way too different and weird. I dashed for a mirror and opened my mouth, struggling to get a look inside with the low light of the bathroom and when I saw what had become of it, I felt grateful for the fact that no one was inside: my tongue was split right in the middle for a couple of centimetres, but it wasn't bleeding anymore and felt fine, completely fine, like it was supposed to be like this. I could move the two halves separately and there was no other issue other than the fact that it was split! Jesus, what was happening to me? I stuck it out and looked at it better, opening the halves and making them move around. In that moment a man, rather buzzed came in and saw me, and, much to my happiness, didn't scream and instead stuck out his own, decorated with a large piercing.

"Sick tongue man! Good job! Hey, listen, could... could you, ehm, tell me where you got that? I want one toooooo!" He was a little bit more than buzzed, speech blurred and very thick with a southern accent. "Come on man!"

"Not possible, sorry." I shoved him aside and got out of the bathroom. Marlene was there, still waiting for me and evidently relieved to see that I was fine and not dead or something.

"You ok, Brandon? Do we need to go to the hospital?"

"No, I'm... ehm, fine, I guess. I'll go home and disinfect the wound and hope for the best. Don't worry, if it hurts more or swells, I'll call the hospital."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. Here, take my number, if you do go to see a doctor, call me and I'll pay."

"You don't have to."

"I do, I broke the glass and I'll pay. I also ruined your evening and I want to apologize, so, take my number anyway and if you feel better or want to see me again, call me and we'll meet up, ok?" Did, did I just get a woman's number and a promise for a date? That was almost enough to make me forget the issue with my tongue. Almost.

I promised to call her soon, whether for a bill or something else, and rushed home. Luckily, the place was not that far from home and I got back in about twenty minutes of frantic walking. Taxi was out of the question since around here they didn't take credit card and the few bucks I had were already spent in that couple of drinks I had. I locked the door twice and then switched on the lights, not bothering with taking off my shoes as I rushed once again to the closest mirror, which, again, was in a bathroom, mine this time. The lights were much better and I could see well what was happening to me: I was indeed seeing a split tongue with no scar tissue, no signs of swelling and no other symptoms aside from the obvious ones. It took me a while to accept this and even longer to try and find a way to explain this to the doctors, and that will be hard, very, very, very hard, so hard I didn't have any idea what to say.

Ok, let's make a quick recap: I got cut by a glass and then there was a lot of blood, I went to the bath and tried to stop the blood, somehow managed to and then I found out what happened. The cause could have not been the drink and a glass could not make such a thing, so, unless there was some kind of amazing secret in that bathroom, there was another explanation. The only one that I could think of was that foreign tissue in my body but that was impossible. Then again, nothing is really impossible, is it? Even getting to the point I was now in a month after a year in complete coma, that would have been considered impossible too, right? Oh, god... what the fuck is even going on?

I decided to do the one thing that was clever and took a shower, going to be straight after that. Sleep makes for a great companion and an excellent advisor. The nightmares came back that night though, bad ones, even for my standards and I awoke in the morning sweaty, tired and with a weird taste in my mouth.

As per every morning that came my way, I got up, washed my face and made myself a coffee, dark and with no sugar. I looked at some tv while I waited for it to cool down: in the news nothing important happened overnight, maybe a couple of drunkards fighting and getting arrested weren't enough to make it to the national channel. I took a sip of the coffee and spat it right out.

"What the fuck?" I took another smaller sip and then another one, all were absolutely disgusting, like someone had condensed three million cups of coffee in one and put it in my mug.

The mix was the one I used always and the machine was working fine, no extra bits inside and no malfunctions, which left me with one and only one explanation. Once more I searched for a mirror, the one I kept by the window this time and looked inside my mouth, sticking out my tongue and I found out, with not a small amount of fear, that it had grown longer and the split part was also longer and more agile, moving like separate tongues. Fuck me that's, ehm, creepy I guess, but kind of fun. I could even touch my nose now but that was revealed to be a horrible decision, oily and disgusting like few things in my life.

Wait... What was this... smell? Like... smoke? I didn't smoke... where was it anyway? I smelled around and tried to see where the source of this smell was but nothing came out. By mistake I stuck out my tongue, still not used to the new dimension and there it was again, that smell, smoke. Took me a few seconds to realize what was happening: somehow I had gotten a Jacobson's organ, well, activated the human one rather than growing one. I tried a few more times and located the smoke's origin as the gift that Carol left, a picture of me in bed after I had woken up. I licked the frame and the smell of her perfume invaded my nose, well, not exactly. A quick look on the internet told me that the vomeronasal organ was mainly used to detect pheromones and other chemicals for mating or seasonal change, in mammal at least, and there was the first problem: there weren't any females in heat or any fresh source of pheromones, which meant that my new friend was working in tandem with my other olfactory system and produced one big piece of shit that made everything so much worse. I tried tasting everything in my kitchen and the result was pretty damn sad: most of the stuff was not inedible, the taste either too strong or too weird for me, though a few things were safe, mainly meat and some vegetables. I'd have to refurbish the entire pantry if I wanted to survive. Too bad I loved coffee a lot, adding sugar made it less unbearable.

"What do I do now?" I wished for a sign from god and then the phone rang. Coincidences? I don't think so. "Hello?"

"Hello, Brandon, it's doctor Reed. I wanted to call in to check in, you know, just to be sure, your last visit was over a week ago."

"Oh, yeah, no, I'm, ehm, I'm fine. I had an uneventful week and I didn't feel like bothering you."

"Brandon? Your voice seems a little off, is something wrong?" Fuck, my tongue... what should I do? Ok, just stick it back in and try to sound normal. "Brandon?"

"Nothing, I went out to drink and, ehm, made a friend, drank some more and I still feel hangover, just that."

"Oh, I see. I'm happy for you."

"You are happy that I got drunk?"

"I am happy that you made a friend. If this person a man?" I didn't say anything. "I see, it's a she. Well, then, I shall remind you that sexual intercourse must be safe and not extreme so, no gagging or any kind of kinky play, please."

"Whoa, I'm not that kind of person, I think."

"Well, don't think, just be careful and make sure she doesn't have any STD. I don't want another patient contracting HIV because of some stupid mistake."

"Another? Doctor just what kind of patient do you even have? Getting drunk and pressing the button by mistake, contracting venereal diseases."

"That's the same guy: his boyfriend cheated on his and they both got it. Make sure she's safe and take care. Oh, remember to take your pills, ok?" He hung up a moment later. What an ass.

One thing done, now, what to do? Might as well get something to eat somewhere, since what I have is not good enough now. Checked for keys, closed the windows and all that jazz, now, onto the wide world.

There was this market, a little ways from my house, very nice, always very busy and offered extremely fresh ingredients but there was always this smell of meat from the butcher that annoyed me, not today though. There was something in the smell of blood in the air, one that surpassed the one of fresh oranges and vegetables that I always liked. I'd stick my tongue out every now and then just to get a whiff of the scent, trying to be too obvious in my attempt. Damn, this tongue had a mind of its own sometimes.

"Brandon! So good to see you here!"

"Mrs Coppen! It's been a while I know, but I had something to do."

"I bet it was something very fun. Would you like the usual? Tomatoes and carrots? I also have this nice head of lettuce that will make you love it and come back for more."

"Oh, no thank you, I wanted to try something different. Do you have anything sweet?"

"Sweet? My dear, my vegetables are not sweet, well, not really, maybe some sweet potatoes or parsnips? That's all I have. Will that be ok?"

"Yes, thank you." I took the fresh stuff and put it in a basket. I normally would have returned home at this point, maybe make a stop at the ice cream shop, but today was not a normal day, was it? I turned on my heels and headed for the butcher, mouth slightly open to get as much scent of meat on my tongue. Fuck, I needed it and I needed it now. The butcher was as stereotypical as he could get: large white apron stained with blood and a large knife in hand, chopping on, lamb? "Hello."

"Hey there, what can I do for you?"

"Ehm, you see, I was searching for something very juicy, a large cut, possibly beef. It's for a very important, ehm, date. Price is not an issue."

"Trying to impress a lady with meat? That's ballsy man, but I'll roll with it. Here, look at this beauty: two kilos of pure meat and fat, no bones, prime American steak, straight from Texas, I got it from a friend, care to try it? I know people do not like raw meat because it's unsanitary but this is as clean as it can be." The butcher sliced off a piece of meat and wiggled it in front of me and I gave in to that craving I had inside me, taking the meat in my hand. I rolled it on my tongue and felt the explosion of flavour that pure muscle could give. God, how could something taste so fucking good?

"It's pretty good."

"Just good? I can see that you love it and since you are a first time customer and you need this for a date, I'll give it to you for thirty percent off, provided that you do not ruin it and come back for more, got it?"

"With such and enticing offer, how can I say no? Deal." The butcher wrapped the meat in a white package and put it in a plastic bag and I gave him the full thirty dollars for the steak. I thanked him and rushed back home.

To hell with parsnips and carrots, this was the real deal. I tossed the vegetables on the counter and then unpacked the meat. The hunk of muscle and protein stared at me without any eyes but I knew it was watching me and invited me to eat it now, raw as it was meant to be. I licked the blood seeping out of the fibres and moaned at the taste of iron. Jesus fuck this is some good shit. Next I licked the whole steak before biting it as I held it in my hand, I felt the juices fall on my chin and then on my shirt, my good shirt, but that was not my concern. For a few long moments I stared at the steak once more and then shoved it down my throat whole. Why I did that I had no idea but it just felt, right somehow. My jaw dislodged with ease and I pushed it down deeper and deeper and, oh, god, why did it feel so good to do so?

The two kilos of steak moved further down and for a second I was without breath, but then the meat got past the trachea and then dropped in my stomach. Weird as it may have been it was the most satisfying meal I had even had. I looked at the bulge inside my stomach and then lost consciousness.

I don't know how long I slept for but when I woke up, I was hurting all over and I was thirsty as fuck, immediately reaching for the faucet and drinking straight from there, my tongue literally latching on the tap, coiling around it. At least I cleaned it before. Once I wasn't dying from thirst anymore, I sat on the couch and stared at the ceiling, following the movements of a fly. It took quite a lot of effort not to freak out because I could clearly see the damn thing beat its wings and move around and I was pretty sure that if I wanted, I could have caught it. My whole body felt... weird, weightless or something on that line, lightheaded was the word I was searching for.

"What the hell is happening?" I asked but of course, no one answered which left me with some pretty big questions. After waiting for a while, I went into the bathroom and took a shower.

The normally hot water seemed a little cold and I turned the handle to the maximum before I finally felt that boiling heat around me. That felt good... I just stood there in the shower for a long while, letting the heat wash over me and eventually closed the stream of water and stepped out. As the steam cleared and I cleaned myself, I noticed that I was leaving flakes of skin on the towel and rubbing only made it worse. Moulting? Really? Fuck.

I decided to keep going on a small spot and saw that the more I rubbed skin away the more the colour changed to an emerald green, hard and cold, definitely not something a human would have. Should I call the doctor? No, that would only make me a subject for some study and used as a guinea pig, I knew how the man worked, more or less, and he had little in the way of empathy. Maybe I was wrong and he was a caring and gentle guy but that was hard to believe. I carefully dried myself making the best effort not to completely remove all of the now probably dead skin and wore something comfortable and got out of the house for a walk.

According to the phone, I had slept for almost a day on the floor and it was now a Wednesday, instead of Tuesday, which didn't help my general discomfort or anxiety or anything else really, even just, breathing was making me nervous, making me fear that in a moment something would happen and I'd, I don't know, spit fire or venom. Just to be sure, I touched the roof of my mouth and didn't feel anything weird, well, more weird than having a snake tongue, but you get the idea.

I went towards the nearest park and sat on a bench, one that I liked using when I went there and looked around. The world was... different: the air was slightly more unbearable to breathe, with the pollution carried by the wind from the centre of the city, the light was brighter and sound a bit more defined. The billboard that I saw in the distance now seemed closer and I could even read the letters like they were a hundred metres closer. This one change was interesting and I quite liked it: if I looked far and focused, I could make out even faces but if I looked down at my shoes or at someone, I could make out single hairs on their faces and specks of dirt or food.

"Brandon! Hey!" Someone called for me and shook me, grabbing my shoulders and putting their face right in front of mine. I stopped staring at the pores in her skin and then noticed that it was Marlene. "Hey? Are you there?"

"Oh, hi." Was the one thing I managed to squeeze out.

"Hi. Are you ok? You seem really spaced out."

"Just, ehm, thinking about something." She looked at me for a second and then sat beside me. I noticed that she was wearing running shorts, gym shoes and all that stuff for running, iPod included.

"Mind if I sit?"

"Not at all. Do you go out running often?"

"Sometimes, when I don't have to work or find someone else's cheating husband or wife." I looked at her for a moment. "What? You thought the persona of Burt was just a character? Well, he is, but his job is not. I am an actual investigator you know? A pretty good one at that."

"Oh, I didn't know and I forgot to ask. I was of the impression you were just in character the other day."

"Yeah, I know. People tend to believe that I am just a good actress, I am, don't get me wrong, but I also an a pretty good investigator. Finding people is my job, though most of the time I am contacted by worried wives or concerned parents. Speaking of which: do you want me to find out who you were before? I could do it not for free but we can agree on a price."

"No, thank you. I'm fine the way I am."

"Really? Why?"

"I don't know, I just... don't want to know who I was. I seem to have forgotten everything and I am happy this way, I can start a new life and make my own, be a new Brandon, one that doesn't die on the road with severe trauma because of some unknown reason. I have to be honest with you, Marlene, I'm scared of who I was. I mean, what kind of person is left on a road to die like that? I may have made someone angry or gotten myself hurt while doing something stupid. I literally died, for five minutes. Whoever Brandon was, he's dead." I knew she was a strong woman but even her seemed to struggle not to cry and just hugged me. I hugged her back and felt her heartbeat, the faintest scents of her: food, drinks, the alcohol she must have drank yesterday, the components of her shampoo. In a fit of primal instinct, I gave her the quickest lick on her neck and tasted her sweat and boy was it good. I felt horrified at the thought that her sweat tasted good but goddamn it, it did. She didn't seem to noticed fortunately. "Thank you for the support."

"It's ok, you deserve something better. Hey, I know it's sudden, but how's your tongue? Is it ok?"

"Oh, ehm, yes, it's alright. It stopped bleeding soon and healed already, it was just a little cut after all." She exhaled and put a hand on her chest, over the sports bra. Damn, she had nice tits and I never noticed it. They looked... soft. I wondered how they'd taste.

"Thank god, I'd have blamed myself forever if something bad happened to you." She smiled and then got up. "Get off your ass and come with me."

"Ehm, where?"

"To get some coffee, you look like you need a lot and I know just the place."

She took my hand and dragged me towards some unknown destination. She was smiling all the time it took us to reach the Frenzy Café, a place that screamed hipster a mile away but had a nice look to it, especially from the lack of basic white girls on boots around it. She went in and the cashier greeted her warmly, calling her by name. Marlene led me to a booth that was free and tossed me a menu.

"Choose whatever, I assure you that everything in here is incredibly good. I come here often and they have never let me down."

"Ok then, let's see what they got." I was kind of scared of what to order, since my taste buds were more sensitive now and although every single name seemed enticing, they could all lead to a bad taste and make me look rude. I went with something that was sweet and then just hoped that it would be too bad. A few minutes later, express service for a regular customer, we got what we wanted and, surprisingly enough, I liked the taste.

"Told you. I don't know what mix they use but it's perfect."

"Agreed." I drank some more and bit on a cookie the waitress gave us. Tasted horrible but I could not say that I didn't like it.

"Don't like it? I think it's nice. Hazelnut and raisins..."

"Well, it's ok I guess."

"Hey, I'm not going to kill you if you don't like it or something. Are you sure you're ok? You seem pretty nervous and I don't understand why?" Excellent, the one person I knew was a detective and a good one at that. Fuck me sideways... how worse could it get?

"It's nothing, just had a few bad dreams..."

"Jeez, I hope that you'll get well soon." She drank all her coffee in one go and handed me the cash to pay for both of us. Before she left, she leaned in and whispered in my ear. "Look, I donk know what's up with you but I suggest that you do not open your mouth too wide, your tongue is creepy as hell. I didn't notice it before and I would have never thought that you had been into that stuff, then again, you didn't know it either." She patted me on the back and left.

Fucking hell... she saw it! I'm so fucked. At least she mistook it for one of those weird things punks and teens do when they are young and stupid just like that dude in the bathroom. I'd have to learn how to speak without making this 'kink' of mine show too much. I paid the waitress and left the change as tip, heading home to clear my thoughts, maybe take another shower.

The house was weirdly silent and that made me nervous, the only thing that could make me feel somewhat better was to experiment with my body and monitor all the changes to take my mind off the most pressing problems.

Day 0: I went to a bar to change the boring life I was living and met M. We talked a lot and during a round of cheers, the glass broke and I cut my tongue. The cut didn't seem to deep but the blood made it difficult to see and once the flow stopped, I noticed my tongue had split. No pain or scar tissue could be seen and each half was about half, roughly three centimetres long, as mobile as a normal tongue.

_ _

Day 1: I woke up with a weird feeling in my mouth, my tongue is now much more sensitive and the Jacobson's organ, normally inactive, has come to life, not limited to pheromones or air-borne steroids. Smell is greatly enhanced, taste is different, sweet things are better and meat is preferred. I went to the market and bought two kilos of meat which I ate raw and whole. I think my jaw dislodged and went back in place. I fell in a coma.

Day 3: after a day of what I presume to be digestion, I woke up with an extreme thirst. Muscles and bones received no damage from the extreme size of the consumed meat. If anything, I feel like I could eat even more the next time. Senses are enhanced: sight and motion tracking, reflexes. Moulting seen after a shower: skin is being replaced by something else, harder but smoother, definitely not human in origin. I met M again, she saw my tongue but mistook it for some mistake I did when young. She seems to be ok with it. I think that hiding any issue will be ok as long as I use my amnesia or a troubled past as an excuse. I didn't eat dinner: didn't feel hungry in the least.

Day 4: again, no lunch or dinner after day one. This leads me to think that there is something else inside me, something that processed food much better than any human could. If this is the case, eating will be a problem: if two kilos is the standard for me now, it will get expensive soon, especially if I get more of that steak. Three or four species, including human, are fighting for the control of my body. That's the idea I am getting from all these... changes. So far, nothing too major. Moulting seems to have stopped for now, no amount of rubbing sheds any skin, which is good I guess. I wonder where all the extra energy goes...

Day 5: I'm feeling tired for no reason today, I thought it may be because the air was too cold but there was no change when I turned the AC to thirty degrees Celsius for five hours. The bill will be extreme but I had to try at least. I ate something but it had little effect. Tomorrow I'll go back to the butcher and get some more meat, five kilos should suffice. I'll pretend to host a party or a BBQ to make the purchase valid. I'll have to try something new next time. Taste is getting better: anything not made of muscle fibres or sugary needs to be either watered down or taken in little amount. Coffee is especially hard to dose but I'm going to find a decent mix. I took vitamins, lots of them, just to be sure. I'll have to ask Reed to give me more pills for transplant.

Day 6: rough day: I met M again and she tried to get home with me, I settled with the promise in a remote future but it's just a temporary measure, I bet if I keep refusing she'll find my home on her own. I went to lunch with her and I found out that hamburgers are one of the 'ok' foods, if the patty was raw it'd be better but for social reasons I'll settle with cooked. I hate this cravings, they make me feel like some kind of beast. Reed called in again, told me that he's take some pills and something else to eat if I wanted. I asked for some steak or ribs on top of what I was going to buy at the market. The butcher, G, was very nice and gave me another discount and tossed some homemade sauce for BBQ on the deal, I tossed it in the trash, too bitter. The meat though, I had to resist the need to scarf it down on the spot.

Day 8: another day for digestion, no issues with thirst this time, but I'll have to make a feeding schedule, as weird as it sounds. It seems that when I eat, I change some more. I shed some skin on my legs but it doesn't feel weird at all, if anything, I like the texture, maybe I really had a lizard or snake before... I ate about another two kilos so the other three will likely last me another week, if I do not get out to grab something with M. She called and invited me in two days to go and run together, may be a good chance to test a few things.

"Yes?"

"Hello, Brandon, it's doctor, Reed. How are you?"

"Doctor? You called two days ago and I told you I was fine."

"I believe that we need to take another examination, it's been over a week since you went to live on your own and you are still fresh from the coma."

"Doctor, there's no need for me to go to the hospital..."

"Oh, don't worry, I am already at the door." A second later, the bell rang and I froze. Fucking overzealous doctor. The worst thing is that I cannot lock him out since he has the keys too and if I do, things will be worse than they are. I took a few, quite a few, long breaths and then opened the door: the doctor was standing there, waiting with his usual fake smile plastered on his face, bag with medical supplies in hand and stethoscope on his neck, the perfect stereotype for a doctor. "Hello, may I come in?"

"Sure..." I stepped away from the door and closed it behind him. Reed put the bag on the coffee table and sat on the couch, waiting for me. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming? I could have prepared something to eat."

"I already ate something on my way here, but I'll take some tea if you'd be so kind. No sugar please." I went into the kitchen and prepared the boiler and the filters. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, I believe I told you more than once."

"I know but, as an experienced doctor, I do not trust my patient when they tell me for a month that they are just 'fine'. Tired, hungry, depressed sure, even horny and suffering from insomnia, those I can deal with, but when someone lies to me, that, is how people die. So, Brandon, is there something you want to tell me, before I find out by myself?"

"Have you considered that maybe there is nothing wrong for real?"

"In that case come here and let me have a look. You don't have anything to hide, right?" He smiled, a real smile this time, but I wished he didn't. God, he was creepy as fuck. I didn't move and stared at him, pouring hot water in the cup and stirring it with a spoon. "I am always right, Brandon. Now, show me." I sighed and opened my mouth, tongue stretching out until I could touch my forehead with the tips. Reed's eyes widened and he jumped on his feet, immediately moving closer to look at me, the freak. "Fascinating..."

"Not so much when you can tell what someone ate the day before."

"Elaborate." I tasted the air once more.

"You ate lamb, didn't you? The smell is still on your clothes."

"Oh, magnificent. A behaviour and reptilian organs are showing in a human, active and functioning... this is unprecedented. How did it happen?"

"I don't know... I woke up and there it was, I did cut my tongue the day before but that was it, nothing weird."

"Hmm, I see. The cut may have triggered something inside your body, maybe the reptile DNA and it forced your tissue to reconfigure like a snake's in an attempt at healing the damage."

"Doctor, I lied to you, but you also lied to me didn't you? There wasn't just some lizard and gecko in those tissues, was there? What else did you put in? Snake? Alligator?"

"Only snake, but I assure you I had reasons!" I grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up in the air with ease. He waved his arms and legs, trying to kick me and force me to get him down. "Please, Brandon, let me, ugh, explain." I tossed him on the couch, tea spilling on his pants.

"Speak."

"Lizard was necessary to accelerate the process but the gecko wasn't enough to stabilize the process so I inserted a third DNA strand to bind the two together, it was only ten percent of the total mix, nothing to worry about!"

"I am the one that should be worried! I am the one with reptile shit inside me!"

"I understand that you are angry, but I can still help you... let me..." He fumbled around the bag and tossed me a box with pills inside. "These are basically a kind of stabilizer, something I made to keep the foreign tissue in check, the ones I gave you before were a weakened version, but now that you are experiencing changes, I'll give you stronger retardants. They should help you stop the process."

"And how can I trust you?"

"You have to, I am the one that made the tissue and used CRISPR to bind it all together, I know how it works, I know how to contain it in case something went wrong."

"So you DID know something would go wrong with the implant and didn't BOTHER TELLING ME ANYTHING???!" He knew it! He was aware of the danger and didn't tell me that this could happen??? I looked at him and for a moment I was tempted to kill him and eat his body to hide the evidence and I was sure I could do it. My entire body was swelling, building up muscle at a visible rate, abs growing more defined, more toned, all the fat tissue melting and being replaced with muscle and far beneath the skin, I knew I was growing something else. I was scared but the rush of hormones and whatever the fuck was inside me had other ideas and took control, leaving me barely enough freedom to speak. Reed tried to run away and hide but I grabbed his leg and shoved him back on the couch, squeezing his arms so tight I could have broken them like twigs.

"Brandon, please..."

"Fuck off you filthy bastard. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was sure that the tissue was stable, the animal trials were all successful and the fixing agent was more than enough to keep things in check!" He was on the verge of tears and I could literally smell the fear on his body, so acrid and bitter. I gave up on the idea of feeding from his meat and sat on the chair opposite him. He took the chance to fix his hair and clothes. "I'm sorry, this should not have happened. I'll work on a cure, try and revert the process. Take the improved pills for now, it should slow the changes at the very worst."

"And if it doesn't work?"

"Then you can call the police and have me arrested, get someone else to help you."

"You'd better keep your promise or I'll fucking eat you and believe me, if I change some more, I think I'll consider it." I felt my tongue flick out of my mouth and tasted him again. He wiped off the sweat on his forehead, grabbed the bag and dashed out of the door.

I grunted and looked at the pills: they smelled stronger and tasted even more awful but I had to take them, as much as I hated the man who made them. It's not like I had any other choice, did I?

Day 9: I took the pills as Reed told me to and I hope they'll work, else I might really begin to entertain the thought of eating him just for fun. This is an urge that I may not be opposed to after all. Are the reptiles messing with my head? To what extent will this go? Will I lose my humanity one day? Even if the changes revert, wouldn't I still be able to remember everything and thus be forever stuck with primal urges not belonging to humans? I feel like puking right now but I have already digested everything so it'd be useless. After yesterday's stunt with Reed, I spent some time looking at my body and I noticed that I have lost all the fat I had in me, muscle mass has increased a lot but I do not really feel different from before. I'll have to wait and see what will happen. Tomorrow I have to go and run with M, I hope things will go well. For now, no other changes and no moulting, thank god for that.

I waited for Marlene in the park, trying not to freak out too much about the smell in the air: someone was hosting a feast somewhere and they had meat, lots of it. It took a lot of effort not to follow the scent and steal all of it, but when I thought I was finally over, Marlene arrived and oh, boy, was she hot as fuck. Her top was a little bit too tight and her pants were showing every little curve but the worst thing was that she was clearly going through that period of the month. She was ripe for the taking and everything in my brain was firing on all cylinders, telling me to take her right there. Fucking lizard brain... and she was also sweating a lot since today was hot and there was little wind.

"Hey, Brandon, ready to go running?"

"You seem to have already done your part though... I'd feel bad for you..." At this point, I needed an excuse to get away, fast. She chuckled.

"I run from home to this park and beyond every week at least three or four times, this is barely halfway over. Come on, let's go."

She slapped my back and resumed running, taking the lead and leaving a trail of her scent behind her. Oh, hell no you don't leave me behind or I'll give up on controlling myself...

I dashed to get next to her and then passed in front, smiling. She took up the challenge and tried to get back. She was good, damn good and gave me a run for my money (pun not intended), but for some quirk of my biology, messed up as it was, I won when she dropped on a bench, sweating profusely and panting. I did my best not to look at her or smell her, but it was proving to be a losing bet.

"Jesus, and you were in a coma for a year? What kind of coma gets you that kind of stamina? Please tell me."

"I have no idea, it may be just genetic, maybe I'm just that good at running."

"Yeah, sure. Please tell me you don't do steroids or something."

"Well, I don't but who knows what I did before, although the tests didn't show any drugs in my system."

"Alright then, you won the genetic lottery! Just, whew, give me a second here, I'm beat."

"I can give you the whole day."

"Yeah, shouldn't have gone running while on my period. Bad choice." Yeah, now you think it's a bad idea, think about me for a second. God, you smell so good. "But, I wanted to see how good you were. I thought that giving you a head start by running a little bit before would make things even and boy, was I wrong. Next time, you go run and then I join in."

"Sure..."

"What?"

"The doctor told me not to run like this too often. He came home the other day and gave me the whole 'take it easy' speech and all that jazz. He still thinks that I am not ready for this kind of activity and if he finds out I did this, he'll kill me."

"Jeez, sounds like he's not a good doctor. From the looks of it, you're healthier than I am and that is a lot to say."

"Yeah, he's the worst doctor ever." Ok, calm down, don't think about how much you want to kill him and eat his heart, breathe, breathe. Marlene seemed to notice that I was a bit upset and put her hand on my arm.

"What's wrong? Are you not feeling well?"

"Mmmh, kind of, maybe I pushed myself a bit too far. I think I need some rest."

"You do need to rest, your skin's so cold." She put her other hand on my forehead and her scent hit me like a truck. "Holy, you are cold and hot at the same time. Come, I'll take you home."

"There's no need..."

"I won't take no for an answer, you clearly are sick. I know you don't want me in your house but you need to get home and I cannot let you go alone. We'll take a cab if you get worse ok?"

"O-ok."

She helped me stand and I let her, feeling the warmth of her skin deep inside me and it felt heavenly, leaving me in a permanent state of concentration not to get a boner just by being near her. She must have thought I was in pain or something because she kept reassuring me I'd be ok and that she was going to make me something to eat. How could I tell her that I wasn't going to be ok? How was I going to tell no to her help? Fuck me...

It took me half an hour to get back home wither her by my side, slowing me down quite a bit but at least we didn't have to get a cab. I opened the door and let her in.

"Nice place. Now, you sit down and I'll get you something to drink."

"Water's fine but add some sugar."

"Good idea. Where do you keep it?"

"Ehm, the shelf on the left, the second one." She took the sugar and mixed it with some room temperature water. This was something I was more than happy to drink and I gulped it down in a couple of seconds. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. So, you live in this big house all alone? Seems like a waste."

"It kind of is, yes, but what else can I do? I don't know where I could find a roommate and I am not sure I want one."

"Oh, I guess you are right, but, what if you found someone that wanted to come here?"

"I'd have to ask my doctor first, this flat is not mine, but the hospital's." She snapped her fingers as if she was remembering this just now. "Why do you ask?"

"Ehm, nothing, forget it. Ok, no, don't forget it, look, ehm, this might sound weird, after all we have known each other only three times now but, ehm, I like you."

"I'm sorry what?" I stared at her for a couple of seconds with my mouth open like a dead fish. She blushed hard.

"Oh, fuck it." I saw her reach out with her hand and put it on the back of my head, pulling me closer and then kissing me. I could have stopped her at any moment but I didn't and let her do it, I felt my arms melt like jelly when she pressed her lips against mine and forced her tongue inside, wrestling me for the control of my mouth. God, I could taste her and she was so... delicious. I moved a hand and groped her ass, squeezing it a little and feeling my fingers sink in. Eventually, I won the competition and pushed her tongue back in her mouth and took the chance to explore it, wrapping mine on hers. She moaned at the extremely weird feeling but didn't stop me from doing it. "Brandon, what with your tongue? It's amazing!"

"I-I guess." I licked her neck and tasted the sweat of her skin, covering it in my saliva. She moaned again and hold me closer to her, breasts squished against my chest. I felt my heart beat faster and faster, making breathing hard. I waited for a moment and looked at my reflection in the tv and saw that my eyes were slitted like a reptiles and my fingernails were growing longer and more pointed. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Not now! Not now! "Hey, ehm... you need to go. I ca-can't do this, not now." I grabbed her, gave her all her stuff and shoved out of the door just as I felt myself lose consciousness, but only for a moment.

"Brandon? What's going on? What did I do? Let me back in, we can talk this out!"

"I'm... sorry, I'm not feeling well." I was kind of lying but then I felt my stomach contract and I puked my soul out since I didn't have anything inside it. I guess she heard it and banged on the door several times. "Just... go... I'll be... fine."

"Brandon, let me in."

"I SAID GO! Leave me alone!" God, everything was hurting all at once. Why was it hurting so much?

I shambled towards the medicine cabinet and took every single pill in one go and waited but instead of helping, it made things worse. The world spun so fast and I knocked my head on a wall, blood truckling down my forehead, the cut mending back together in seconds. I touched my skin and saw it peel off like I had just passed through a bad day at the beach, large pieces just falling like leaves and revealing the green and slick skin beneath. I began tearing off as much moulting stuff from my body and tossing it to the side of the bath, with the claws I was growing now it wasn't hard. They were long and sharp and looked dangerous. Between the long moments in which I was in so much pain I couldn't even open my eyes, I saw that the entrance door open and Marlene rush in, just in time as my teeth fell off in a pool of blood, new ones growing in mere moments. She yelled when she saw me but still managed to get close to me, trembling and horrified.

"Don't! I told you to get away!" She jumped back, hands close to her chest, panting heavily.

"As if I could let you alone and look, I was right! What is happening?" I would have really liked to tell her but I could barely think straight. I yelled and she retreated in fear, looking at me on the ground, peeling off skin, crying like a baby.

The last thing I knew what that I felt my teeth fall off before I lost consciousness. I had bad dreams, if those were in fact, dreams and not just flashing images in my head. I think I woke up several times throughout the whole process and Marlene was always there, sometimes close, wiping my skin, sometimes far and looking at me with a worried expression. For the whole time, everything was pain and no amount of what I guess were pills, helped me and maybe dying again was not so bad this time. But I didn't die and survived. Lucky me I guess.

When the pain was finally over, I guess a while had passed but I was still in the bath and still on the floor. My moulted skin was gone and Marlene was nowhere to be seen. The air tasted weird and I felt that something was off.

Getting up on my feet was hard and proved to be a very tough challenge, like I had lost all of my strength and I had noodles instead of legs. I had to lever myself on the sink and cracked it in the process but I still did it and in a few long minutes I was standing, wobbling a little but standing. The mirror showed a green face, my face but green, a mouth filled with sharp teeth, two of which seemed to be able to grow out like a snake's when I contracted a new muscle. My eyes were slitted and yellow, creepy and so alien. Fucking hell... what would I end up becoming?

My stomach grumbled and I slowly went to the kitchen, slamming on a few walls on my way there, but I still didn't wake her up. Marlene was sleeping on the couch, clutching a pillow, snoring a little.

I tried to be careful as I opened the fridge and took the slab of meat I bought the other day. It was still soft and tender but somewhat firm and the flavour was just as amazing as the first one. I licked it, feeling the texture of the fibres slide on my tongue like velvet.

Something moved in front of me and I saw Marlene peek from the cover of the sofa. I hissed and instinctively grabbed the meat close to me and swallowing it all. She shuddered and looked away for a moment.

"Brandon? Are you still there? It that still you?" Her voice quivered as she spoke, I could smell her fear in the air.

"Y-yssss. Isss me." Fuck, why were words so hard? "Ffffck!" It was so weird, my speech failing me. What was going to be next? Would I lose my mind? Become a monster? Eat people whole?

"How are you feeling?"

"Guessss..." I pointed at my whole body and then walked away, headed for my room. She followed me and waited by the door. Since I ate I was feeling sleepy and I'd probably be out for some time. I got in my bed and wrapped myself with layer upon layer of blankets and I hated how good I felt, so full, so heavy with a bloody meal, covered in warmth from head to toe, in the dark, alone.

"Brandon? D-do you want me to get you something to drink?"

"Yssss." She went to the kitchen and returned with a jug of water and placed it in front of the bed, on the nightstand, stepping back as soon as I peeked my head out of the covers and lapped at the water. I drank some and then returned to my fort of shame. "Go."

"I'm not. Brandon, you need serious help, this is not something you can just sleep off! Let me call a doctor or a...veterinarian or something. Let me help."

"No, go. Imm fine, jusssst neeed ta shleep."

"No! You can't!"

"Jussst ate, ssso I go ta shleep." I had to clarify the situation. "Like a shnake."

"Oh. O-ok then."

I waited for her to go away but she didn't move so I just curled up and tried to sleep. It didn't take long and soon I was out again, better asleep and almost dead than having to look at myself. As per usual, a day and I was up again. Marlene was nowhere to be seen which made things better again. Finally some time alone.

Day 12: I was out for two days with but a pause to eat, which was good. I looked into the mirror today and saw that my face was growing out, just a tiny bit but I knew that it was happening because my nose was smaller and the nostrils were getting thinner. I took the time to feel my new skin and I can say that it's smooth but much tougher than my old one, my claws were retractable at least, but those could not cut my skin. Other than my genitals receding in a slit, the rest of the changes are minimal but I think I am also growing a tail and more stuff is coming. I feel my bones creak when I walk. It hurts and makes me want to stay in bed all day, which is what I did.

"H-hey Brandon I am coming in!" The front door opened and Marlene entered. I stared at her from a corner and grunted. Not what I wanted to see now, as much as I liked her. "I brought ehm, meat." And she won me over, I could taste the meat in the air and it was oh, so sweet. She stared at me as I tasted it, evidently scared.

"Don't llloook. Isss ugly."

"It's ok, really, I'm here to help. Is there something you need?" I gave her a flick of my tongue and she shuddered for a moment.

"Ssssorry, you sssmell good."

"Smell? What do you mean?"

"Period, I can ffeel it." She blushed. "Isss good, like sssweet fruitssss." She blushed even more and I felt just then how stupid I was. "Sssorry. Creepy."

"I, ehm, it's fine," No, it wasn't fine and we knew it. I turned around and hid in my blankets again. She looked at me and then got inside the covers as well. I was speechless, not that I could speak well anyways. "Move, come on."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm keeping you company. What? You don't want me to?" She pulled closer and hugged me, caressing my back. What did I even do to deserve this woman? Nothing, but here she was.

I tried my best to not get too aroused because of her smell but under the covers it was all mushing together and thickening. I licked her neck again and she shivered but didn't stop me. She should have. I ran my hands on her body, exploring it with the greatest care I could muster, tongue lashing on it, tasting every inch. My everything moved along that stupid organ, shifting around inside the blanket fort. From her shoulders to her arms and legs, even her feet. How could that part taste even better than the rest of her? The subtle scents, the sweat between the toe and that smooth yet firm skin. I realized a little late I was humping my way to a pretty sizeable erection, my dick now tapered and slimy, warm and much longer than before. I licked and licked, over and over, her very being a source of pleasurable tastes and incredible scents that I never wanted to give up. I hugged her tightly, still feeling her flushed skin rub against my member, slickened by the same fluids, making me shiver. Something urged me to kiss her deeply, wanted me to mate with her, not make love, no, that was for humans, that little voice wanted to mate like animals and I was tempted to. I'd grab her, flip her on her belly, rump raised in the air and then I'd push myself inside her, right to the slit and mate her hard and long. I'd nibble on her neck, lick her some more, she'd moan, she'd love it, we'd come together. I was loving the mere idea of it. She wasn't.

"Brandon? C-could you stop? Please? It's weird."

"You ssshould have gone. Why do you sssmel sssso good?" I sighed and pushed her out of the blankets in a moment of clarity. I hated the fact that I was almost going to go through with that need, that desire to fuck and breed and be like seventy percent of me wanted to. "I'm a monssster, go and forget about me."

"Brandon, just because you look weird, I'm not going to leave you behind. You need me." She regretted saying that I looked weird a moment too late: she hurt me, my feelings, despite me knowing that she was right and had all the reasons to say so. I hunkered down once more and begged her to go away. "I nnneed to stay alone in a ditch. I hhhave to die, disappear, not bother you like this."

"Hey! Now, I chose to help you, you are not forcing me and you should stop sulking, also, ehm, slow down with the tongue thing the next time around, ok?" God, I really didn't deserve her, did I? She did not run, she did not hate me, didn't look horrified by the changes, she helped me. If what I felt for her wasn't just mere animalistic attraction, it was love.

"I'll try." She sighed and got out of the bedroom. In the next moment, when I knew that she was out for real, I closed the door and locked it, rushing back to the bed and burying my face where her crotch was, taking in more of her scent. My bothersome erection returned but this time I didn't try and get it back in, I mean, I had to try and find out sometime soon, right?

There was something desperate in the way that I gathered all the sheets that had been touched by her and inhaled like my life depended on it. I imagined her, naked in front of me, legs apart and spreading herself for the male that was going to breed her as I used a ball of sheets as a makeshift partner, thrusting inside it and staining them with pre and slit fluids. I wanted her to be like me and thinking about her, waiting on all fours on my bed, tail raised high for me to bury my face in, green skin glistening with saliva and sweat. Oh, how beautiful would that be? How good would she feel? How many children would she bear? I came at the mere thought and scent of her several times before I even realized how warped my thoughts were getting but the problem was that I didn't mind at all and instead I found these foreign urges intriguing and enticing. What stopped me from getting out of my room and fucking her was a mystery but deep down I was glad I didn't do it. I could have washed my sheets but then I'd lose her scent and that would be a terrible waste. I got out of the bedroom and poured myself some water in the kitchen, Marlene always staring at me with a complex expression.

"What?"

"Sorry, I-I didn't meant to stare."

"Isss ok, llook at me and lllaugh. Not that I care." She seemed hurt by my words. "Why are even hhere?"

"I told you I want to help. I know it's hard for you but could you at least tell me how this happened? Why are you becoming such a weird creature? Oh, sorry."

"Ta operashion: ta doctor put lishard shtuff in me and patched me up, ssshomething went wrong ssho, here I am. His pilsh don't work."

"Pills? Are they supposed to help?" I nodded. "Did the doctor that operated on you give them to you?" I nodded again. "Alright, sit down, Brandon, I have a few things to say. I made some research yesterday when you were, ehm, digesting the meat. I tried to dig something up about the hospital you were staying at and the doctor that performed the operation, Mathias Reed and well, he's not such a good person: he has been sanctioned several times for doing invasive surgeries to patients in critical conditions, but his success rate was good and so the hospital never fired him since they need his skills. There may be some bribery involved of course but those are merely my hypothesis and I may need to dig deeper. The worst thing I found was that this apartment, this whole building, doesn't even belong to the hospital, or rather, on a first level it seems to be that way, but the funds that pay for maintenance and your living expenses are not linked to the hospital. They come from an offshore bank and are hard to trace but I have asked a friend to look into it, he's good but it will take time. I was thinking that some shady stuff was going on the hospital for a while but you are the proof I needed."

"Why are ya doing thish?"

"Because I can't leave a friend alone when he needs help." That warmed my cold snake heart more than what she could have ever imagined.

"Ya didn't seem ta think of me as friend ta other day."

"Oh, yeah, I mean, I like you Brandon, you're a good guy and a nice person, I liked the moments we spent together, though they were few and short. I just wanted to, you know, try and see if we could work out." She sighed and I knew that any chance I had with her was lost when my skin turned green.

"I take that ya don't like me anymore." Her expression changed a few times and then she put her hand on my chest, feeling the smooth skin and the muscle beneath.

"I still do, Brandon but this... this is beyond me... I'm sorry. I like you, a lot, but... ehm, I'm human and you're... not." God, why did it hurt so much? She wiped a tear falling on my cheek and I blinked a few times to force the rest back in, my second set of eyelids popping up for the first time. "Hey, hey, it's ok, I'm not scared, just startled and confused. I'm not going to run."

"Isss that so?"

"Yes."

"Thankssss..." I really wanted to kiss her in this moment but I knew that if I did, she's freak out and that was not something I wanted, not now. I just hugged her and did my best not to taste her, something that I think she appreciated. A moment later I heard someone stop in front of the door. Marlene looked at me, worried. "Open, tell thhhhem I'm out." I ran into my bedroom and waited for her to open.

"Hello, who's this?"

"Is Brandon not at home right now?" Reed, fuck me twice, not calling in again. I hated the fucker even more now. "Can I know when he'll come back if he isn't?"

"Well, you see, he left earlier this morning and I really have no idea." Reed chuckled and seemed to force his way in, Marlene tried to stop him but he was insistent as always.

"No matter, I came to give him some medicine for his treatment plan. I'll just, go in his bedroom so that he knows where they are." Fuck! I had no place to hide. In a frantic moment of fear I searched for somewhere, anywhere, even the bed, but it was too low to be suitable. One place left: the ceiling. Please, gecko, do your fucking job for once. I jumped and touched the ceiling with my hand and hoped my idea would work or we'd be fucked hard, but it worked. I felt my hand stick to the surface and gravity pulling me back. I immediately put my other and feet on, moved to a corner and held my breath. Reed came in and looked at the inside, putting the bottle with the pills on the night stand. After a quick search of the house, he didn't see me and left, giving Marlene some information. She rushed back and searched for me as well, even looking inside the wardrobe. Damn fucker was trying to get to me...

"Up hhere."

"Brandon? Why are you on the ceiling?"

"I'm ssshtuck."

Day 13: so, the gecko inside me has proved to be more useful than the other two tenants. It did take me twenty minutes to get down and an hour to learn not to stick to walls or to be permanently holding a pen in my hands. M found my predicament funny but helped me. She promised to return tomorrow if work was good, which made me a little happy. When she left I made sure to pass through every single surface she touched and put every object in my bedroom. The scent was driving me crazy but I think it's good and gives me that edge when I come that makes it better. I took one pill.

Day 14: mother fucker of a doctor! I should have stopped taking the pills. He said that they were to stop the growth but they seem to accelerate it instead: I woke up with a longer muzzle today, my nose has disappeared in the growing bones and what I think it's a proto-tail is getting longer and makes wearing pants a big problem and it will get even worse if it keeps going on like this. Since I ate on day 11 I am still not hungry enough to eat but I still try to, get something in my mouth because I miss the feeling of chewing food instead of swallowing it whole. I think my jaw is getting less suited for talking and more for just shoving stuff in. It's annoying. As a good piece of news, I am getting super stretchy and flexible.

Day 15: ok, I am officially freaked out, completely. I refused to take the pill yesterday and I waited until a few minutes ago to take it. The pain wrecking my body must be a consequence of that. When I ate it, the pain stopped and I'm guessing tomorrow I'll have a longer tail. Fuck. M didn't come today, told me that she got a job for a married couple that lost their son after he got to a rave. I took my mind off in bed, but the scent will soon get weaker if I keep covering it with my own, I need her to come back and give me something of her own. My bones are evidently shifting and reshaping but there is no pain at the moment, at least one good thing from this whole mess. What the end result will be I have no idea but it won't be nice to see and I doubt I'll be able to walk right for a few days until the process is complete. The sight of me walking hunched over would have been funny if I didn't look like a freak out of a sci-fi movie.

"Y-you want me to give you my underwear? Really?"

"Isss weird I know, but it hhelpss."

"And how does that help? You can't... oh, ok, I get it, sorry." She blushed heavily and had I not been unable to show it or had I been less obsessed with her smells and her taste and not as slave of my new body, I would have blushed as well.

"Isss the lishard brain, sssorry, I try not to think abaot it but you just shmell so good." There it was again, that tongue, longer than ever and with a mind of its own. God...

"Y-you told me that before but, ehm, I'm not sure I can do it. sorry, It's just too weird for me." I sighed and the stubble of a tail I had swayed just slightly. God, it was so embarrassing. At least a period lasted for a week or so. "It's going to be day or so and then it's over."

"God! I hate mysssself." I curled up even more in my fort of blankets. "Jusht go, please."

"I'm staying." She rubbed my back from the other side of the blankets and hummed. "Did you take the pills today?"

"Yesh."

"How much have you changed?" I took off the covers and showed her the stubble on my ass and my feet, fingers longer and more mobile than before. "Ok, it's bad, very bad." That was a severe understatement if anything. "How are you feeling today?"

"Like ssshit as alwayssss. You?"

"I'm holding up, but you do need serious help and I cannot provide it, Brandon. Let me call a real doctor."

"No."

"Brandon, please."

"No. They'll kill me or put me in a ssschell or sshomething."

"But you cannot hide in here forever. You need to get out one day or another. I could, I don't know, get you in my car, have you go out of town and..."

"Live in ta woodsh like shome kind of beasssht? No, I ssstay."

"Fine." She put her hand on my face and caressed my cheeks. Oh, that felt good. I unconsciously flicked my tongue and smelled something sweet, delicious, much more concentrated than Marlene, mixed with something... familiar. What was it? Why did it remember of myself? "Brandon? What's wrong? Your tongue is going crazy."

"Isss something... tasty, ripe..." I got out of the bed and followed the scent coming from the window in the living room, crawling on the floor to be faster. God, it was getting so strong now... "It's... out there..."

"Out? What's out?"

"Ssssomeone like me..."

"What?" Her eyes widened in a moment and she moved the curtain aside for a moment, looking outside. It was late, past eleven in the evening and out there were no people. "This is bad, I don't like it." I slammed on the window and tried to look out, opening the window just a bit more. Hmm, she was out there and she was ready for me. I opened the window even more and peeked my head out. "Brandon, don't!"

"Ssshe neeedsss me..."

"Think for a second! How can there be someone like you? How? This could be a trap!" For a moment she had a point but then the scent tripled as a gust of wind washed over my face and I lost control. I gave Marlene one last look, filled with all the love I had for her and then dashed out of the window, climbing the wall down, true to two quarters of my DNA.

She tried to grab me but she was too weak and I was too fast for her. The scent was drawing out all the parts of myself that I didn't want to come to life but, fuck me, they pressed all the right buttons and maybe it wasn't so bad. I bet she was beautiful with a long tail and wide hips, maybe red or blue with black stripes... Marlene was probably out and following me but at this point I couldn't care less. The scent came from a dark alley and it was getting stronger and stronger and the urge to mate her as soon as I saw her was overwhelming. Something made a noise from a dark spot, like feet moving on concrete, I saw two glowing eyes look at me. She was real! I knew it!

I dashed for her and crashed onto something hard and metallic, banging my head hard. I was left dazed for a couple of seconds and then I heard another metalling sound behind me as a grate closed and locked me in what must have been a cage. Through a small hole in the walls I saw a familiar face, wearing a grey coat, a fake smile directed at me, Reed. He pressed a button and the cage closed completely, flooded with a white gas. I felt my head spin and then I lost consciousness.

When I woke up again I felt chains on my body, big ones that locked me tight, very tight. I tried to shake them off but I could barely move and tearing them off was out of the question as both my hands and face were bound by leather straps. On my neck I could feel something, a collar maybe, what was it made of I didn't know but it was tight and had something sharp poking at the back of my head where the spine met the cranium. Well, I'm fucked.

The sides of the cage opened and I closed my eyes, narrowing my pupils to see better after a second: the room I was in had nothing inside, nothing except a very happy looking Reed.

"Hello, Brandon." I hissed at him. "Well, aren't we feisty? Sorry for the bondage but I thought it was necessary and it seems I was correct. Now, I'm going to be nice to you and take off the muzzle, but you need to promise me you'll be a good boy, ok?" He reached for the lock around my mouth and released it, after which I immediately tried to bite him and extended my venomous fangs. He sighed and took a long rod, pressing one end to my chest and delivering a few thousand volts. "I told you to behave."

"Fffuck you!"

"Hmm, the words seem to be a little strained, must be the different mouth and tongue. I'll have to check your vocal cords later but for now, I have better plans for you."

"Let me go!!"

"Not possible Brandon, I'm really sorry to say that. No, that was a joke, I'm not sorry, not after all I did for you."

"You turned me inta a monsshter!"

"Monster? That's a harsh word, I'd prefer to call it and improvement on the basic human genome, which, in my opinion, is terribly flawed. You see, humans are weak, yes we have stamina and big brains but we could be so much more than this bags of flesh and fat. Now, I know well that as soon as I come out and reveal my work, the world will turn me into a mad scientist or something like that, and we do not want that, do we?" He smiled and waited for me to say something. I didn't and just hissed. "My, how rude of you not to join my conversation. I wonder how far has your brain chemistry changed. I'll have to look at that as well."

"Why?"

"Why am I holding you in a cell? Why am I talking to you when I could be either dissecting you or prodding your brain with needles? Why am I doing all of this? Because I can, simple as that. I have power and my research grants me the ability to do what I want and the patents I put out with fake names and sell to corporations give me the extra funds to bribe a few high ranking officials in ten different countries to leave me alone. It's simple, really." I stared at him.

"Where is ssshe?"

"The woman with you? She's still in your apartment of course, I have no use for her."

"Where'ss the female I shmelled?"

"Oh, that... she doesn't exist: I just made a cocktail of hormones and sprayed it in the air. Tricky to make but I knew that it would work. I didn't expect you to fall for that, honestly, it's almost sad to see such a magnificent specimen trapped because he thought a little too much with his loins rather than his brain. Then again, fighting the primal part of your brain must be hard, right? Those pesky reptiles must be always horny and ready to mate."

"Fffuck you. I hhhate you."

"You can hate me or love me, I don't care." He pressed a button and I felt my cage move towards the wall which opened and revealed a long and dark tunnel. "I'll let you rest and adjust to your new home."

The cage moved inside the tunnel and I did my best to break free of the chains but no matter how much I bit them and chewed on the leather, nothing worked. I gave up and waited for something to happen.

Soon, the tunnel ended, opening up in a large room filled with grass and trees of all kinds, the scent of live animals flowing in the air. The room, no, cave, such was the size of the place, must have been huge, akin to an underground forest, a man made one, judging from the walls. There were tracks on the ground, on which my cage moved, leading to the centre of the cave. The wall closed behind me and the chains were unlocked with a loud beeping noise, leaving me 'free' to move.

"Welcome to your new home! I prepared this for any experiment that might have survived the procedure but so far you are the only one I'm afraid, maybe I should be happy instead and you should definitely be, it's not something that happens every day after all. I hope you'll feel comfortable in here: there's a small hut at the end of the tracks if you feel like sleeping under a roof and if you have something you want to eat, just ask." The voice spread from a small speaker placed on the support of the cage, tempting me to break it on the spot.

"Hhow about I eat your hhheart?"

"Hmm, well, there are some live animals here so you can eat theirs, I need mine. Have a good day my friend. Oh, don't try and remove the collar, it'll pierce your spine with a titanium needle and inject your body with enough chemicals to kill an elephant."

The speaker fell silent and, just as I wanted to, I broke it, tossing the component on the ground and smashing them under my feet. After this very much needed venting action, I stared at the remains. The cage shoat back and slid inside a hole on the wall, small enough to let the thing get in and definitely not suited for me at all. Walking on two legs had gotten... hard in the past two days, since my feet were changing way too slowly in respect of the rest of me, but going on all fours, except on small distances was even worse, which left me with the only option to shamble around, half crouched all the time and with my back hurting a little. It worked though, badly but it worked.

I wandered around the small forest for a while until a baby goat popped up in front of me, those weird eyes looking at me. The goat bleated at me and then left, trotting out somewhere. I watched it go and then went my way, going opposite and after ten minutes I ended up at the centre, in front of a hut, just like Reed said I would find. It was about two and a half metres tall, just as wide all around and mostly empty but had a somewhat decent pillow on the ground which smelled the same as the female I thought I'd meet and a small drawer that had a bottle of pills. The bottle had a smiling face on the side and a note below: one a day or you know what will happen. Fucker.

I dropped on the pillow and buried my face in it and I hated how much I liked it, the smell, the softness, the size... why was it so hard to make my brain happy? Was I just a lizard with a bigger body or was I still human. Oh, god why did it smell so fucking good? I bet Reed was laughing at me from the back and jerked off to my medical reports or something like that. Fucking hell.

I decided to sleep and I was even about to manage to escape from my problems when I felt the incoming cramps from the hunger and the lack of pills. I took one as per my doctor's orders but that still left me with the issue of food. I hated the idea but I had to go and hunt that fucking goat.

Luckily the damn thing wasn't smart and was easy to find, sleeping under a rock. I picked it up in my arms and it woke up, bleating and flailing those little limbs. The noise was annoying so I snapped its neck and finally it was over. I stared at the dead goat for a few minutes and dragged it back with me.

Inside the hut I breathed in and opened my mouth as much as I could, wide enough to get my meal in, I misjudged how big it was and when my jaw dislodged even more, I could only hope it couldn't get any worse than it already was. Getting the torso in was the worst and its ass tasted like, well, ass but soon it was over and the goat was in my stomach. The meal stretched me very wide and I felt heavy like a stone. At least I'd be out for a day or so and that was good, too bad when you sleep, time passes faster and thus makes the whole thing rather pointless.

I woke up groggy and tired as hell, mouth dry. I shambled with some problems towards the small pond that was off by the side and drank like an animal from there but I didn't even care now. I was a prisoner and I could not escape. From the reflection I could see that my muzzle was fully grown or maybe not, who knew anything about how I would end up, bones settled in place, nose gone and but two slits on the edge, teeth small and sharp, tongue stretching well past my eyes with ease. It took me a moment to realize my tail was fully grown and functional, almost a metre and a half of muscle. Controlling it was proving to be a problem because it kept getting between my legs and it was incredibly annoying and the fact that I could not get on two legs at all made it even worse. My back had reshaped itself, forcing me to a four legged stance and my arms had gotten long enough for me to be more comfortable like this than standing on two legs, but my hands were still as agile as before and my feet were also pretty mobile. I could have been happy to not have to hunch over all the time but then I found out I had to pee really bad.

With all the shame in the world, I raised one leg and relieved myself on a tree. It felt weirdly satisfying to do that and I won't lie: I felt like I was marking my territory, eerily proud of what I had done. I went as far as to sniff the fucking thing and god did it feel good. Fuck.

A drone shot from a hole in the wall and reached me in moments, stopping just above my head and buzzing consistently. There was a camera on the underside and a speaker as well. The drone stabilized and then Reed made himself known.

"You're up I see. Good to have you back, Brandon." I tried to shout something at the ceiling but no words came out, only hisses and growls and the more I tried, the more I felt like I could even manage to utter a single word. The idea that I had lost my speech left me completely destroyed me. "Oh, I'm sorry that you cannot talk, I had so many questions to ask but I guess it's a wasted chance. Oh, well, time to move on the important stuff. Follow the rails and wait for the cage to arrive. Do not try any funny stuff or I'll activate the collar."

I could do little more than grumble and hiss my way over as the drone followed me, buzzing, camera pointed at me. The noise was annoying so I picked up the pace and broke in a somewhat awkward run, going on all fours was harder than expected but I got the hang of it quickly, following my instinct and then I dashed under the foliage, jumping on trees and under branches. The feeling was exhilarating and when I arrived at the cage, I was positively happy and panting for the satisfying exercise. My heart was racing and my muscles ached pleasantly, finally getting some action after two weeks of total rest and inaction. I'd do that again for sure.

The drone beeped and the cage opened, reminding me of what I had to do, the wall closing behind me after I got my tail inside and curled in a donut to make use of the little space I had. For a time that was undoubtedly longer than my first trip in the tunnel, I stayed in the cage and waited for it to open.

Eventually it did open but I wished that it hadn't: once outside, about a dozen people were staring at me from behind a reinforced glass panel, chatting. They saw me and stopped talking, concentrating on my figure as I tried to rush back in the cage which closed with a slam and locked me out.

"Subject Brandon, step on the pedestal please." Reed spoke through the intercom and ordered me to get on a large white thing at the centre of the room I was now in. I noticed a door at the opposite end and the scent in the air didn't bode well at all. "See how he tastes the air like a snake? Perfect integration of the DNA and if you look at the video feed I gave you, you'll also see that he feeds like one, with a digestive period of roughly 24 hours followed by three to four days of fasting." Reed didn't cut off the comm and let me in the explanation he was giving but considering him he had done it on purpose. "You can see that his body has assimilated all three DNA strands with relative ease and the formula I gave with the pills has managed to make the proportions equal, with a lizard like body, a snake's behaviour and most likely some of the gecko's abilities. Subject Brandon, please climb that wall." I stared at him and he took out a small controller with a stereotypical red button on the top. "Should I use the collar? Be a good pet and follow orders." I hissed at him with all the strength I had and he inched his thumb closer to the button. I grumbled and did as he asked, sticking to the wall and going towards the ceiling, stopping there. The men and women gasped and took photos, smiling and chatting, making Reed shut them up as he continued his speech. I dropped back on the floor and waited. "As predicted, he has no trouble making use of his DNA and stick to surfaces. Now, he also possesses venomous fangs, and although I have not managed to milk him, I believe a first-hand demonstration will suffice."

The door on the other end slid open and two very large rottweilers ran out and sat in front of me, snarling but clearly not intending to attack me as long as Reed didn't give the signal. I looked at him and he smiled, pressing an icon on the tablet he took. An ultrasound beep wracked my ears and the dogs dashed towards me. The sound left me confused for a second, just enough for the dogs to bit my forelimbs. I hissed in pain and sunk my fangs in the dog on the left, just as it bit me harder but his teeth barely pierced my skin, whereas I felt the blood gush out and my venom spread in its body. The second dog did its best to bite harder and I raised my arm, slamming the dog on the wall. I heard his spine break and it died on the spot. What a waste of two beautiful creatures. In the meantime the first one had also died and I retracted my fangs, licking the blood from my teeth. A woman from the audience seemed particularly interested in me and barely blinked, watching with rapt attention.

"Marvellous, good job subject, since you have been so good, I'll give you a present." He pressed another icon on the tablet and a moment later a large object, big and fluffy came from a hole on the ceiling. It was something like bean bag chair, cream coloured and smelled good. "Now, he can smell the pheromones I spread on the surface and, I know for sure, he will try and resist them because his more evolved thought are conscious of what is happening but, here's the catch, his more basic functions will work against him. Look, he's smelling the air and his heartbeat has quickened, his pupils are several times larger." Oh, the fucker was trying to get me to go all lizard in front of him and I was not willing to do it.

Or was I? I loved that smell, it made me feel good, made everything inside me tick in place, made me feel powerful, losing control of my human part felt incredibly exciting and rewarding. I loved every single part of it and I knew it was wrong, by human standards though. I took my time to think for a moment, holding my breath to keep the scent out as much as possible, even if it was for just a moment. I wasn't human anymore, was I? I looked different, thought different, ate different, peed different, so why was I so hell bent on keeping my humanity? What good would that make for me? Keep me sane yes but what else? It made me feel bad about everything that I was, from the tip of my snout to the tip of my tail, everything was an insult to my old self and I had been in that body for what? A month or so? I was Brandon in name but did I have anything to do with him at all aside from that? No, I was someone different and I wanted to be free of that part of my life. Whoever Brandon was, I wasn't and I didn't owe him anything. I could just... let go and be free now, well, not free actually but it was a start. I stopped holding my breath and took in as much as I could. The rush was beautiful and for once, I didn't fight it. It felt good and I was going to make the most out of it. I buried my face in the pillow and grabbed it, flopping on my back. Oh, god why did I even try to resist this? It's so liberating. I grew erect, dripping pre all over the floor and began humping, no, mating with the pillow. Long, hard thrusts, heavy with the weight of my entire body behind me, my cock feeling like it was on fire for how pleasurable those pheromones were. I humped, bit, licked and sniffed the pillow until I came, spraying seed all over the floor in front of a dozen people who had the same look of amusement that one has when they look at an animal at the zoo and I didn't care.

Reed smiled from behind the glass, thinking he had won over me but he didn't, I just stopped caring about human standards. He thought the lizard brain was controlling me but it was more of a cooperation. Let him think that he was the better one, let him think what he wanted. In my being prisoner, I was free because he thought he had chained me.

"See? Primal brain functions can override even a strong mind. Thank you for your time, I'll take offers for the tech and the venom later, I have something to do now." Reed sent the people out of the observation room, coming in mine a moment later. He was standing on front of me and I could have easily killed him. He extended his hand and I smelled it and goddamn it, he sprayed himself with pheromones. Maybe I'd rape him or something, my dick was out anyways so... oh, he rubbed my face with his hand, oh, that felt good. Oh, god, he was scratching my chin... was it supposed to feel that good? "No, I'm not interested in mating, but if you are a very good boy and behave, I may make a female for you." Really? That'd be interesting. "Very well Brandon, you're being a good boy. It wasn't so hard, was it? You ate, you're finally transformed, you have a nice pillow that smells good, a roof on your head and a large garden to run in. It's the perfect life, isn't it?" I nodded, he wasn't wrong after all. "Good. Get back in the cage and it'll take you to the garden." I motioned at the pillow. "Yes, you can take it with you." Yes!

I dragged the pillow and went in the cage, squeezing it a little. The space was much less but at least I had it. Some ten minutes later I was back at the hut, pushing the pillow past the small door. The old one stared at me, probably jealous of the new one but I put it on top of the other and flopped on the both of them, rolling in the cloud of happiness I was in. Why even worry about human needs when I had this piece of heaven under my nose? I wonder if Reed will give me something to relieve myself if I do what he wants... For now, let's claim these pillows.