SoF: Chapter Three

Scales of Fayt:

Chapter Three:

I woke up early, partly due to the fact that I was too worked up by the oddity that was my body, and partly due to the fact that I had a splitting headache.  I sat straight up in bed, and immediately wished that I hadn't, it only made things worse.  I clutched my head in silent agony for what seemed like forever.  The initial pain subsided, replaced with a dull throbbing, so I got up and stumbled into my bathroom, clicking on the light and looking at myself in the mirror.  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, my scales hadn't really spread any more, but my head was still swimming.  I ran my hand through my hair, and nicked my finger.  I pulled my hand away from my head abruptly looking at my finger, there was a small puncture in the skin, nothing really big, it looked like a thorn had stuck me.  I cautiously ran my hand through my hair again, finding the offending spot, and pulled my hair apart to get a better look, fortunately for me it was just behind my hairline, which made things fairly easy.  There was a small piece of what appeared to be bone protruding from my skin.  I carefully examined the rest of my head finding a total of five of these protrusions running in a line from just after my hairline to the base of my skull, and two larger ones above and behind my ears.

“Great, I'm growing horns too?  I've got to be dreaming.”  I yawned and headed back to bed, hoping that this was just an insane dream.

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I woke up the next morning without any further incidents, and sat up, kicking on the TV out of habit, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.  I yawned loudly, and watched with mild disinterest as the weather report came on screen.  I scratched my head slid to the base of my bed, hanging my feet off the edge.  I watched the TV drone on about cold weather and dressing warm, and flipped it off, it was the same report as yesterday, so I figured there was no point in watching again.  I stood up and stumbled into the bathroom, still half asleep, what I saw was a bit shocking, to say the least, I could see clearly enough three of the spikes that I had felt during the night, and the two horns that I had noticed as well, they were sticking out of my hair quite a bit.

“Well, this just gets weirder and weirder...”

I looked myself over, my scales were covering enough of my body that I looked as if I was wearing a green and copper short sleeved wetsuit.  The horns and spikes were going to be hard to hide, and I knew that I would be exposed in the next few days unless I stayed reclusive until I was ready, I decided to take some action on the matter.  I had to schedule some time to get my family together and figure out how to tell them what was happening to me.  I sighed, looks like I was playing hooky with my job again, I wondered how that particular mess was going to play out.  I went back to my room, and dialed up work and told them that my rash was still pretty bad, and to top it I had a splitting headache, which was partially true, seeing how my skull was adding spikes and horns to itself.

I rummaged around to find my pants from the day before, I had tossed them into a pile of clothes on the floor.  I dug them out and checked the pockets, finding the note with Greg's info on it, I noted his phone number into my cell, but decided against calling him at six thirty in the morning, even if I was partially scaled I figured that it would piss him off.  I decided to kill a little time by eating breakfast and getting ready for the day as much as I could.

It was about nine o'clock before I actually got around to making my calls, I called everyone that was in town, seeing how my parents had split up years ago and dad was no longer in-state that I would have to deal with him later. I hoped that I didn't change too much, so they would believe that it was me talking to them, and not freak out quite as much.  I got done alerting everyone in my immediate family, and remembered that I had blown of my cousin.  I thumbed through my phone-book, chances were that he would be home, he wouldn't have work until later that night, and would be available to talk to.  The phone rang, and I heard him pick up.

“Hey, Henry, you got some time today?”

“Yeah,” I heard him groan, I must have woken him up. “Man, shouldn't you be at work?”

“Should be, can't though.”

“Why not?”

“That's what I need to talk to you about man, it's kinda, well, odd...”

“What do you mean odd?”

“You'll have to come over man, I don't think that you'll believe me on the phone, you have to see this, and trust me, you need to see this.”

“Alright man, I'll be over in a bit...”

I sighed and closed my phone.  I was risking a lot by showing everyone, but I risked a lot more by not showing them and having them find out when I was unable to prove who I was.  I figured that I would loose every identifying mark that I had on my body, and I needed to prove myself before that happened, or loose my family.  I shuddered at the thought.  I got dressed and called Greg, filling him in on what had happened, he asked me to stop by the shop again later that day, I told him I'd try, but had to deal with family first.

I waited about an hour after that before I heard a knock on my front door.  I put on a cap, just in case it was a neighbor, and not Henry, family knowing was one thing, but someone that had no ties to me knowing didn't sit well with me.  I opened the door to nothing.  I poked my head out and looked around, seeing nothing, and stepped outside.  I heard a something move to my left, and ducked, spun and grabbed the attacker by his wrist.  I almost did something to incapacitate him, before the shock of what had happened hit me, and I realized who it was that I was attacking.

“Dude!  Easy!  It's just me!”

Sure enough it was Henry, the guy used to play football, but had since stopped playing.  He still was a big as any player out there, and he was a few years younger than me, but could pass as just as old, if not older.  He had a look of shock on his face, as did I, I had never moved that fast, or reacted so quickly to anything.  I let him go and motioned that we should go inside to talk.

“What the hell was that man?  I've never seen anyone react like that before.”

“Instinct I guess, I'm betting that it has something to do with the changes that I'm going through.”

“Okay, what the hell's with you, you usually aren't so ambiguous like this, at least not so seriously.”

I scratched the back of my neck nervously, and chuckled.  “Yeah, I've got a really good reason this time.  I need you to swear to secrecy man, I can't have this getting out yet, not to anyone other than who I plan on telling.”

He saw the look that I was giving him, it was one of complete seriousness.  “Alright man, what's up, you've got me nervous over here, it's like you're dying or something.”

“If anyone talks I may very well wish I was dead.”  I took my hat off and tossed it into the corner.

He leaned forward, noticing the spikes. “Dude, what the hell is with your head?”

I turned my head from side to side and pulled at my horns. “Spikes and horns man, and it just gets weirder, you ready?”

He nodded, stunned into silence.  I took off my shirt, exposing my scaled chest and arms to him.

“Like I said, it needed to be shown, not told, and was I wrong?”

He shook his head.  “What the....  Are you for real man?”

I nodded, “Yeah, it appears that I'm growing scales and horns and who knows what other kinds of weird shit.”

I pulled my shirt back on, careful of my horns, I was finding that they liked to hook on things, which annoyed me greatly.  “If these things get much bigger I don't think I'll be able to wear shirts anymore, unless they're button downs.”

I sat down, “I need you to verify my identity with the family if this progresses faster than it has been, I don't want to freak them out by randomly appearing as a full lizard, or whatever the hell I'm turning into and expecting everyone to accept it.”

He nodded, “Yeah, it's a good thing that you had me come now, I wouldn't believe that it was you if there were many more changes.”

“I figured that I could trust you with this man, I just needed to know that you'll be willing to vouch for me should I not be able to convince everyone else on my own.”

“So what exactly is happening, do you know?”

I leaned over, resting my elbows on my knees, and started to talk.  It took me a very short time to recap what was going on, then the conversation turned to things that were a bit more typical for us to talk about, ranging from games, to current events, and random tangents, whatever our minds wanted really.  I was glad to have someone else that was willing to just accept me for who I was, and what I was becoming.  We ended up chatting away for a few hours, until my phone rang and disrupted what was going to be one of the last bits of normality in my life.

I jumped at the sudden intrusion, and dug around in my pocket to dig my phone out, I flipped it open and placed it to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Yeah, you wanted to see me tonight right?” It was my mom.

“Yeah, you and everyone else, I've got something that I have to show you guys.”

“Alright, I'm on my way over now, and should be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“ 'Kay, I'll check to see if everyone else is available, I want to tell everyone at once.”

“Okay, I'll see you when I get there.”

“Later mom.”  I hung up the phone and sighed, this was going to be interesting, to say the least.

I dialed up the rest of the family and made sure that everyone had remembered, and was en-route to my home.  As I finished I flipped my phone shut and sighed. “This is it man, wish me luck.”

Henry laughed, “You'll probably need it to, but that's why I'm here.”

I rolled my eyes, but he was probably right.