Feeling cold, I found myself waking up in the middle of the night. My immediate thought was of standing up to see if I could find something that could double as an additional blanket in one of the drawers. I had barely moved when the sound of whispering stopped me. I scanned the room, hoping to find the source.

Nothing.

Shrugging it off as my mind playing tricks on me, I took off my cover and moved my legs to the edge of the bed. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a silhouette emerging from the darkness. A small pair of bright golden lights stared at me. I couldn't make out the face, but its shape was that of a young girl.

How did she get in!?

I pulled my legs back up and covered myself with the blanket at the sight of the mysterious figure, somehow expecting the thin layer of fabric to protect me from whoever, or whatever, that was. Despite the fear, I took a deep breath and attempted to reason with this being.

"Hello?"

Silence. She cocked her head to one side and took a few tentative steps in my direction until she stood in the middle of the room, never removing her eyes from me. I was more than slightly nervous and uncomfortable at this point.

"What do you want?"

She took a few more steps towards me, sending a chill up my spine. Gripping my blanket fearfully, I returned her stare. She raised her hand to point at me and then moved to the foot of my bed.

All of my instincts were screaming at me to run, yet I was frozen in place. Climbing onto my bed, she crawled along me until we were face to face. Suddenly and inexplicably, I was in excruciating pain.

"Go away!" Screaming was the only thing I could do as she dispassionately stared at me with her glowing yellow eyes.

"Nora..."

A distant voice called out to me. The girl reacted by jumping off of the bed and darting into the bathroom. After a brief pause, her head peeked around the door frame to stare at me once again.

"Nora!"

The voice was louder now. The girl walked further into the bathroom and giggled mischievously before climbing into the mirror over the sink and disappearing after a blue flash of light.

"Nora, wake up!" I opened my eyes to find myself violently shaken by Anna.

She sat beside me and took me in her arms, rubbing my back as I cried. "Shh... It's okay now. It was just a nightmare." She leaned back to look at me. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Hesitantly, I sat next to her at the edge of my bed and narrated what I saw to her. While I was explaining, I noticed the small finger-like protrusions coming out of my ankles had grown to be about six centimetres long. I tried moving them, unsuccessfully.

Anna tapped a finger against her chin when I finished. "Yellow eyes, you say?" She thought about it for a short while, then smiled. "Don't worry, I think I might know who she was."

My eyes widened, "You do?"

She nodded and stood up. "Yup. Why don't you wash your face while I go and get my stuff for today's examination? I'll tell you more about her in a bit."

Reluctantly, I let her leave the room. I stayed in bed looking at the bathroom in trepidation. Yes, despite her words, I was hesitant about going to the place where the ghost in my dream went before Anna saved me.

My mind kept going back to that girl's appearance. If Anna knew that person, perhaps that meant I caught a glimpse of her at some point during our tour and didn't remember. I once read that dreams used the faces of people we saw in our lives at one point, so it actually made sense if that was the case. However, there were no other patients around, and the only way someone else had eyes like that was for them to wear contacts.

After convincing myself it had only been a nightmare, no doubt caused by all the horror stories I'd been reading, I walked into the bathroom. I glanced at the mirror and screamed when I saw those same terrifying eyes staring back at me. I fell on my butt and quickly dragged myself out of the bathroom.

"You have one hell of a scream, Nora." Anna laughed as she walked through the doorframe.

More than a little confused by her statement, not to mention upset, I looked at her through my tears. "What are you laughing at!? That thing is still in the mirror!"

She crouched and stroked my hair with a gentle smile. "That's your reflection, silly."

"Huh?" Her words stunned me briefly.

I stood up and went back to look into the mirror, my fear quickly replaced with curiosity. There they were again. Those bright eyes stared back at me. Yellow like a canary and with a vertical slit for a pupil, just like Anna mentioned previously. I knew they were mine and yet, they made me feel uneasy. The young girl in the mirror kept staring at me. Her face looked so different my mind refused to recognise her as myself, and yet, I was reminded I used to look like that long ago.

My sight then focused on my mouth. I got closer and pulled one corner with a finger to reveal my teeth. Slightly smaller incisors, yet bigger and sharper canines were the first changes I noticed. They were followed by what should've been the two sets of premolars. In essence, they were still that, but they were so pointy they looked more like extra fangs. Lastly, my molars looked the same as before, though I only had two sets now. I could probably deliver quite the nasty bite.

Finally, the shape of my ears had changed slightly. They kept their original length, though they were now pointy, just like the vampire I saw in that picture on the day of my arrival.

"How is this possible?"

Anna came over and stood behind me as I looked at my reflection. It was then when I noticed she was much taller than I remembered.

"You've been unconscious for eight days, Nora. We thought you would remain like that until your mutation was over. Well, that was until I heard you scream."

I wiped away what was left of my tears and turned to look at her with a frown. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"Well, you scared the hell out of me when you collapsed the other day. I simply took the chance and returned the favour."

Giving her a hurt, pouty expression, I muttered, "You're so mean. I was terrified!"

She merely smirked at me. "I'm sorry. I really couldn't help it. Going back to our previous topic, though, I don't know why your dream was so creepy, but I think it was some sort of premonition about what you'll end up looking like."

"That makes little sense. Why would she act like that? She had no wings either."

She began taking measurements as she answered. "Look, I'm no dream expert, so this is merely my guess. Speaking of wings, have you seen yours? They're 43 centimetres long already! The tail is not far behind either."

How did they grow so much in just eight days!?

I looked back to the mirror so I could get a better view of them. Not only were my wings bigger; they had somehow split into two ends. It was as if I was growing two pairs of wings instead of one.

The first and biggest set looked like my upper arm, so it was obvious that a forearm and a hand would eventually sprout to complete the wing.

The second one was strange, though. While it also grew from the wing's shoulder, it was barely thicker than my fingers and had close to no muscles. It was more like a stick than a limb.

Bats' wings are very similar to our arms. Their hands are huge and they have a skin membrane connecting everything, from fingers to legs. Such tissue was also present in my wings, and it connected their 'upper arms' and the mysterious bone.

"What are these things for?" I asked, pointing at the skin covered sticks.

Anna gave me an apologetic look as she replied. "We aren't completely sure, yet. Even after three weeks, the first patients who share your condition have yet to finish their transformation. This is only speculation but, from what we've seen, we think they're meant to give your wings additional surface area."

My tail had also grown to be quite long and thin, somewhat like a whip. While I remembered some bats having similar tails, mine was unusually long in comparison. It was closer to that of a rat.

I tried moving my new limbs like I did with my ankle protrusions. Needless to say, it was equally successful. I didn't even feel them. They simply hung from my back like the arms of a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"Any other things I should expect?" I asked as I played with my limp tail.

"There are," Anna answered. "You should expect a pair of black horns to come out in a few days."

"Horns?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Beats me." She shrugged. "Why would it give you blue hair? Not even my father could come up with anything other than those being random side effects of the mutation. Perhaps the result of a clash between genetic codes. They will be too small to affect your daily life, so don't worry about them."

Wings, horns, a tail...

No matter how I look at it, I'm starting to resemble a...

I kept playing around with my unmoving limbs while deep in thought. Anna noticed this and she stared at me briefly before saying, "Your wings are probably just underdeveloped. I'm sure you'll be able to move them once your transformation is complete."

That's not what worries me, though.

"Alright, time to take some pictures, Nora," she said, flaunting the camera at me.

"Yeah, sure." After a couple of sessions, it no longer bothered me that much, or so I thought. I wasn't so sure when I realised my underwear was gone. I quickly closed the gown at the sight.

Seeing my face, Anna snickered. "Oh right. We took those already. They didn't quite fit you anymore. And since you weren't waking up, we didn't think of getting a replacement."

I gave her a pleading look and asked, "Any way you can get me some? I don't feel too comfortable with this."

She gave me a wry smile as she replied, "Not right now, sorry. We don't have anything you can wear other than gowns. I'll check with some of the staff and see if we can gather a few things for you to use until your transformation is over, but it will have to wait until tomorrow."

"Okay, I get it." I replied, as I shyly removed the clothing once more. Her comment, however, reminded me of the other three patients. "Speaking of which, how is everyone else doing? Has anyone besides me woken up?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Anna replied as she took the pictures. "Dave did. It's been four days since then. He's a lucky metahuman and has already returned home. We chose not to tell him about the transformation. There's no need to, yet. We'll keep him under surveillance in case he somehow learns how to use magic, though.

"Allison, on the other hand, is about to reach three metres tall. The good news is that the first giants are finally waking up after a month, so we got an approximation of what her final height will be and prepared her room accordingly. We relocated her two days ago. What a mess that was! It only helped showing how understaffed we really are."

I had, indeed, noticed there weren't many helping hands around. A couple of nurses and a few assistants had been the only people I'd seen. Based on her comment, I assumed it was hard finding people who could keep the secret.

"What about Lily?" I asked, noticing she hadn't mentioned her yet.

Her ears dropped as she replied, "She's shrivelling up. We know the culprit is a dragonfly carrier, and we have received reports of other dragonfly victims going through the same mummification. I tried to use my healing magic on her, but I only sped up the process. I don't know what I did wrong! It hadn't failed before!

"We told her parents she would be fine. That they didn't need to worry about her. How are we supposed to tell them their daughter will really die after all!? We can't even do anything about it because they're forcing us to wait until she either withers completely or miraculously recovers."

I didn't know her, but it was sad for Lily to suffer such a fate when she was so young.

"It's not your fault, Anna. If someone is to blame, it would be the people who created this thing. If she's still alive, then there is always a chance for you to save her, so don't lose hope just yet!"

Even I wasn't convinced by what I said. Still, I didn't want her to feel bad when she had done nothing wrong.

Anna silently hugged me for a few minutes. She eventually let go, forcing a faint smile. "I have to take this sample to the lab before it goes bad. I'm sorry, I didn't bring your breakfast because I didn't know you would wake up like this again."

"It's all right, Anna."

She nodded and wiped the few tears that came out with her sleeve. "Say, I'd rather have you rest here for safety, but I know it can get boring for you. How do you feel right now? Do you want to come with me downstairs and join us at the cafeteria?"

"Sure thing, I feel great!"

While I was still in some pain, it was only at a mildly annoying level. It was the same as every time I woke up.

"Actually, wait..." Giving me a concerned expression, she continued. "You did mention having a lot of pain during your dream, and I don't want you collapsing on me again. I should probably bring that wheelchair for you."

"Why did you ask if you won't believe me? There's no need for that, I swear. It was intense during the dream, but now it's barely there. I think the pain may get stronger when I sleep."

She crossed her arms and looked at me in silence. "Well, that does make some sense. The changes are stronger at that time too. Excluding the scream, you do act like the rest of the patients while you sleep. The pain is evident. I don't remember having any dreams or nightmares, though. What worries me the most, is that you being awake is probably slowing down the process. Let's keep an eye on it."

We headed out into the hall where Anna forcibly led me to the elevator. She still didn't believe me, even when I assured her I could walk down the stairs without a problem. Once we arrived at the main floor, she went into the lab to drop off the sample while I waited for her beside the entrance. With that task completed, we made our way to the cafeteria.

The place was nothing extravagant, but also not as lame as my school's cafeteria. There were plenty of sturdy looking, dark wooden tables and cushioned chairs in the middle, while the walls had the typical booth seats you would find in restaurants. Despite the large windows, the presence of curtains made it so it wasn't too bright. It was just enough to eat comfortably.

As we stepped inside, we saw Dr. Blake sitting alone at one table. He was reading something on his tablet when he heard us walk up and raised his head.

"Good morning, Anna." Then he turned to face me. "I'm surprised to see you again so soon, Nora. I thought you would stay down until the end of the process this time."

I shrugged and replied, "I'm not giving up that easily."

He chuckled and dropped his tablet on the table. "Well, now that you're here, shall we go get our food?" he asked, standing up.

Was he waiting for her all this time?

It made me feel a bit guilty for taking so long. It didn't last, though. I was quickly distracted by the large selection that awaited us at the food warmers. Seeing my amazement, Anna chuckled and mentioned it was nothing compared to what they would serve for lunch and dinner. Confused by all the options, I decided on something simple, so I went with scrambled eggs, a glass of milk, and an apple. I would try everything else later on.

Once we filled our trays, we went back to our table, where I had trouble finding a comfortable position to sit as my dangling wings and tail kept getting in the way.

Thankfully, Anna got a small stool for me so I could sit comfortably and, since I was much shorter now, its increased height compared to the chair allowed me to reach the table properly as well.

Dr. Blake looked at me as he ate. "I meant to ask earlier, but is anything wrong with your wings, Nora? They don't seem to be in a good mood right now."

I shrugged. "I can't move or feel them at all. If it weren't for Anna, I probably wouldn't even know they are there."

He continued eating quietly with a thoughtful expression. Then stared at me once again and nodded to himself. Standing up with his fork in hand, he walked around to stand behind me.

"Don't move. I want to try something," he told me, grabbing my fork, too. I started fidgeting, suspecting what he was about to do.

A moment later, I felt pain in my back as Dr. Blake poked my wings with the forks. They jerked in response, hitting his hands and knocking one of the utensils away. I hoped it was his.

Thanks to his actions, however, I could finally feel and move them normally. It was just like an additional, and rather clumsy, set of arms. A little bizarre, to put it mildly. After some stretching, they folded tight against my back with the additional extensions now lined up parallel to the wings' humerus.

I looked at him in confusion. "How did you know that would work!?"

Dr. Blake laughed and immediately tried the same to my tail, only to get smacked by it before making contact. He yelped and threw the second fork somewhere behind him.

"It was merely a hunch," he replied, rubbing his hand as he walked away. "You're welcome by the way," he added, taking a new pair of forks from an empty table.

He handed me my new utensil, and I rolled my eyes as I accepted it, which made his smile widen. "What, no apologies?"

I looked up at him and returned the smile. "I think we're even."

Anna quietly watched our exchange with an amused expression. It only took a few seconds of looking at each other for all of us to crack up. I barely knew these people, but I found it easy to get along with them. They reminded me of my family. I already missed them.

We continued eating and talking. Their main topic was about carrier animals. Dr. Blake told me they began appearing a few days after the first infection. Only cats and dogs at first, then bats a few days later. Before the dragonfly got Lily, there were only a total of four types of known carriers. The fourth being a species of lizard called a 'Skink'. They identified it as the first reptile carrier a couple of days before my infection.

He further explained that the increasing number of carriers made it difficult to prevent the MAV from spreading. They still had it under control, but it was only a matter of time until the truth was made public because of them. Things were worse now that insects could become carriers, too. As if that weren't enough, the virus also made animals prone to biting.

In an attempt to find out how these animals got infected, Dr. Blake mentioned sending Jack to retrieve some water samples and live specimens from the Lake where Lily got bitten. Unfortunately, they still had no clues after that.

Once we were done eating, Dr. Blake headed off to the lab. Since I had no trouble moving around yet, Anna took me to perform a hearing test once more. My hearing still wasn't nearly as good as hers, but I could see it had improved when comparing it to Gary's. She also had me blow on a weird machine to measure my lung capacity.

After that, Anna needed to continue with her morning duties of checking on the other patients. I offered to help her since it was much better than sitting in a room alone while doing nothing. She gladly accepted, mentioning the only two nurses they had were not available at that moment. Now I understood what she meant when she said they were understaffed. Even the cleaning personnel were rarely around.

First, we visited Allison's room. It was basically a much bigger version of my own, though it had two entry doors next to each other. The bigger one clearly meant for her exclusive use.

I imagined they would place the normal door within the bigger one to save space, but when I mentioned it to Anna, she replied by saying that it was an accident waiting to happen. Allison could try opening her door at the same time someone else did with the small one.

Looking at her when we entered, the rejuvenation had already made Allison look as if she were in her early twenties. The way the virus did this kind of thing was impressive, to say the least. Her black hair had also grown back some. Each strand thicker than normal.

Anna mentioned that she'd look around sixteen by the end of her transformation since it was already known giants aged at half the rate of a human.

I remembered when she said that my race had an even stronger age regression. I hoped they were wrong in their calculations. I was already down to 1.45 metres tall after just ten days, and it scared me to think I could even go back to being a baby if my transformation took too long.

We followed the same procedures as Anna did with me. Allison couldn't stand up while sleeping, so we used a long measuring tape to get her height. We skipped weighing her; She was so big and heavy, it would have taken far too much effort and people to do anything about it. Anna also mentioned that getting data from her was a formality more than anything, since they already had plenty of information about the transformation process from other giants, so it was fine to get it once she woke up.

One thing I noticed whilst helping with Allison was that there was no serum or anything to supply nutrients. I found it weird considering the amount of energy and matter I expected was needed to change someone like that.

When I asked Anna about it, she explained that it wasn't necessary. Apparently, the virus didn't need any external help when transforming someone. They initially thought they could accelerate the process by supplying said nutrients, but they hadn't gotten any proof of it making a difference. More importantly, it took mere minutes for the body to expel any foreign object like the needles they used to administer the serum. It was a mystery how the body created its own resources when mutating, although many believed it was due to the mana itself.

Once we were done and dropped off Allison's blood sample at the lab, I followed Anna to the living quarters. We silently stood in front of Lily's door when we arrived. We needed to check on her status by order of the government. Anna had that grim expression again, though. The situation was too much for her. It made me wonder why she became a doctor if she couldn't deal with this sort of thing.

Jack was supposed to be the one checking on Lily, but he was still out in the city, patrolling as he did every day. I didn't like the idea either, but I offered to check on her so Anna didn't have to.

It truly was a horrendous sight. The poor girl looked like a flat mummy. Her head, limbs, and abdomen were nothing but pieces of dried grey skin. Neither meat nor bones were present anymore, and her fingers were already disintegrating. I couldn't even imagine how they could consider her to be alive.

The only part that had any volume was her chest. I assumed it was because of her ribs and poked it out of curiosity, only to discover it was nothing but a leathery bag full of a viscous substance. The sensation alone almost made me puke. I was glad there was no odour, or I probably wouldn't have been able to resist.

Looking around the room, I saw a thermal camera and a screen displaying the image it picked up. Whatever was inside of that bag appeared as a yellow, orange, and red image on the screen. This must have been the reason they thought she was still alive.

I kept looking at the screen for a while, though there was nothing important. Convinced that I wouldn't see anything else, I turned to leave when I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. I rubbed my eyes and blinked several times. There it was again, movement so faint I almost missed it.

I looked at the door and, even though I wasn't sure if it was a good idea, shouted, "Anna! Come quickly!".

She rushed into the room the instant she heard me. I would have hated myself if I was wrong. Her expression was bad enough after seeing Lily's current state. She had obviously not looked in on her for days.

"I know she looks terrible, but I saw something move on the monitor just now!"

Her eyes widened, and she placed her face right in front of the screen, grabbing the frame with both hands. I could barely see anything with her blocking the view, but it happened again. They were slow, erratic movements. If I had to relate them to something, it would be like those of a baby.

As we kept looking at the screen, an idea came to my mind. "You said your magic sped up the process, right?"

Anna knew where I was heading with this and approached the mummy. She took a deep breath and placed her now glowing hands on Lily's 'chest'. It was my first time actually witnessing magic, so I was excited.

The result was strange, though. The sack shrank slowly. I turned to look at the screen again and noticed the movements inside became faster, violent even.

Something is wrong.

"Wait!" I yelled.

Anna stopped and looked at me confused.

I sat down and prepared myself mentally. "Cast it on me first. I want to check something."

She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Can't you wait until I'm done with her?"

I shook my head furiously. "I just have a terrible feeling about it."

Surprisingly oblivious to what I meant, she nodded and placed her hands on me. I clenched my teeth, somewhat expecting what was coming. She applied her magic once more, and it happened. The excruciating pain almost made me feel as if I were disintegrating.

"Stop, stop, stop!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Once her magic stopped, the pain slowly began to fade. At first, I was curled into a ball on the floor, unable to move or speak. What I felt eight days ago wasn't anywhere near this horrid. It surprised me that I didn't lose consciousness immediately. I would have preferred that. Anna was saying something, but I couldn't understand anything. She sounded frightened.

No wonder Lily moved around like that when she was being 'healed'.

A whole hour passed before I could finally sit back up on the chair. Even then, I had to fight to keep myself awake. I brushed away my tears and looked at the still worried Anna, who kept trying to get a response from me.

"Never use that on someone while they go through this again, okay?"

"I'm so sorry!" She hugged me while crying. "I'm such an idiot!"

Returning the hug, I weakly told her, "It's fine. I didn't know it would be this bad, but it was me who asked you to do it. It's not your fault, and I'm glad we didn't continue hurting her."

We acted far too rashly. Hope blinded us.

Anna turned to the bed and looked at the now smaller sack. "I owe you an apology too, Lily. I'm sorry I made you go through this."