A new day dawned and Evan woke up well rested; after all that had happened, it almost felt like a miracle. However, it lasted little. As he rolled onto his side, his chest exploded into a fit of itchy skin. He sat upright against the wall and scratched ferociously, hoping to cease the irritation; his skin got instantly smoother, yet its density felt...firmer, . His belly was strangely firm at the touch, a firmness that upon further examination extended to his neck and the rest of the frontside.

Evan struggled to get out of bed in his upright position, but once he got on his feet he found it less difficult to move about. He examined himself in the mirror; his pectoral region was barren, as he no longer had nipples.

“The fuck is this?!”

His fingers brushed against his smooth skin. His body was changing and he didn’t know what he was changing to, nor did he know to stop it, but one thing Evan did know: he couldn’t let anyone see himself like this.

That day, focusing on his job proved to be too much of a challenge. His mind was elsewhere all the time, to whatever was happening to his body: from his abdominal cramps to his reptilian eyes and now his chest. Thoughts swirled around his head of him being forever closed off from society as a mutant that would disgust regular onlookers. Thoughts of never being able to see his family and his own unrecognisable visage being but a twisted husk of what it once was. He began to hyperventilate as the panic from his thoughts sent him on a downward spiral, just in the middle of his workday...

CRACK! A wet pop sounded off in his chest and his heart rate skyrocketed. Clutching his chest as he fell to his knees, terrorized by that horrible sound, CRACK! Another sharp crack sent pain up and down his spine as he yelped in pain. CRACK! A third one sounded off in his chest. Evan struggled to breathe as he felt his ribs being forced outwards, out of their sockets; his heart pounded in his growing chest, as he convulsed onto the ground as each forceful push inside his body sent waves of pain throughout his body; with both hands he desperately pushed against his sternum in the vain attempts to force his ribs back into their normal position. He heard voices around him, but could not make sense out of them; he just writhed on the ground, while his chest pushed outward forcing itself against his hands - and CRACK! Evan to yell in pain until he had no more air left in his lungs.

He lied flat on the ground, breathless, helpless and speechless. His heart was like it was going to explode out of his chest. His chest swelled and pressed outwards while his ribs grew and expanded, becoming twice as large as before together with his lungs. Each breath he drew felt enormous as they worked to inhale as much as it could. Only then did he notice the pain had ceased.

Evan hadn’t noticed the tears. His brief respite would give him time to look over his enlarged chest: he couldn’t see past it like he used to, although his ribs were still pronounced underneath his skin.

Evan couldn’t handle it anymore and broke down into tears. He was becoming more of a freak by the second and as he cried he heard his own voice go down in pitch making his voice deeper in tone.

He didn’t even get the time to scream out his struggle that from the core of his being something else began to build up. He could have tried to cease his crying and brace himself for what was coming - but how could one ever be truly ready for it? The scream of crying became quickly a scream of suffering as the sensation of an explosion went off inside his chest, pressing itself against his ribs and forcing them outward as his chest grew in size. The first volley of this attack pressed on his lungs, forcing all the air trapped inside him to get out; he was breathless once more as he experienced the horrific pain he was forced to endure.

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Unnatural sounds originating from his chest reverbated off the walls as they popped out of place and cracked into their new ones. The push in his chest forced him into unnatural proportions. The groans and yelps of pain descended another pitch, while his vertebrae pop once or twice as he struggled for air.

With futility he clutched at his sternum while his heart burned and thumped in his chest with a ferocity he hadn’t experienced. With tears in his eyes, Evan for the first time in his life begged for death.Please, he thought, take me and free me from this, I’d rather not feel anything at all and this, all alone...

Without warning the pain stopped.

For a very short moment, Evan thought his prayer had been listented. However, he quickly came back to reality once he reconnected with the world around him. He was lying on the ground, drawing huge breaths for his enlarged lungs and reeling from the pain.

He convulsed as he broke down into a bigger fit of tears. His newly deep voice felt so wrong to his ears, and only increased his despair further.

He rolled onto his back and saw his barrelled chest. At the same time, the itching returned but after what he went through it didn’t feel as bad as before. His belly had rhombus-like plates forming; the itch itself intensified as Evan stared at himself and saw his smooth skin and his navel disappearing replaced instead with plates hardening on his chest and belly. Nothing of his front side resembled what it used to be.

And then, everything began once more.

The immense pressure in his chest forced itself up into his neck. The pops reverberated echoed in his mind while his head moved further away from his chest. It slowly inched itself further away while his once flat chest bulged outwards beyond its natural shape. His neck grew in length yet his head, which felt ready to explode, remained untouched. The itching took a hold of his neck as it had with his abdomen, the front of his neck firmed up into smaller plates of keratin. The skin around it started to constrict as if he was being choked by an invisible hand, forcing him to claw at his neck as if to somehow stop the feeling of being strangled to death until it stopped all of a sudden, leaving Evan taking ragged, shaky breaths.

Getting up on his trembling hands and knees, Evan, tried once more to get up. His heavy chest made it more difficult to stand upright. He wobbled side to side like a pendulum trying to maintain his upright posture, with no success. His enlarged organs added to his dilemma of being able to stand perfectly.

He leaned on the kitchen bench for support as he made his way to the bathroom, reaching his mirror. He knew he had to do it. But what was going on had left his mind incapable of preparing himself.

There, he found the mirror.

His chest had expanded to look too large for the rest of his body. His front plates had firmed up, upon touch they felt as though he was bullet proof. His belly plates had a vibrant yellow colour made more vivid by his enhanced eyes, going from underneath his chin down to his flattened out stomach. The skin surrounding the plates had even begun showing signs of discoloration.

He pried his fingers underneath the plates, trying to pry them off and barely lifting the plates before he felt as though he was peeling his skin off, hurting. How ironic that after everything he went through, this would still hurt him. He stopped immediately.

Leaning on the ball of his heels helped him maintain his balance immensely. With shaky steps he practiced walking around normally. His eyes became watery as he worried at what “Normal” meant for him now. Throughout the day Evan tried to return to his duties but he discovered each task he performed he had to relearn because of his new condition. Soon, night fell on his home and Evan stared restless at his twisted form in the mirror, his overlapping plates and his discoloured skin. His vertebrae poked underneath his skin, as if his spine wanted to poke out of his back.

And there, his mind fell into dizziness. He held his head as if to stop it, sitting on his couch while his head grew heavy. And slowing his breathing to slow his intake of air. His growing body had drained more energy out of him than he thought at first. His whole spine ached in each joint. His eyelids grew as heavy as his head and before he knew it his body pulled his mind to a deep slumber.

As Evan fell to his slumber little did he realise that his body had begun growing a brand new appendage.