NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: Something Sinister
After escaping the park, Jayden felt too unsettled to go straight home. Instead, he wandered toward the lake—a familiar refuge that had always seemed to clear his mind and calm his nerves. He had a habit of coming here whenever life felt too heavy, and tonight was no exception. The last thing he wanted was to worry his mom, the only person he loved. He cared deeply for her, and letting her see him like this wasn’t an option.
As he crossed the grassy path leading to the lake, Jayden noticed an odd tingling sensation beneath his feet. Curious and hoping to ground himself, he kicked off his boots, hooked them over two fingers, and began walking barefoot. The cool earth usually soothed him, but tonight felt different. An unsettling heaviness weighed on his head, and his muscles ached as though gripped by fever. He brushed it off, stubbornly continuing down the path.
Above him, the moon seemed larger and brighter than he’d ever seen. Its glow flooded the landscape, casting silvery beams across his path and drawing his gaze upward, as if beckoning him closer. As he neared the water, the air grew hauntingly still, increasing the tension creeping through his body. When he was just ten feet from the lake’s edge, his vision started to blur, his head pounding with dizzying intensity. His knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the damp ground.
Clutching his temples, Jayden squeezed his eyes shut as a piercing whistle pierced through his mind, loud enough to drown out his thoughts. Desperately, he opened his eyes, but everything swayed and doubled in his vision. The world around him seemed to spin, the once-stable ground slipping out from under him. He looked up at the moon, which now seemed to pulse with each wave of pain, until the agony became unbearable. Unable to fight it anymore, Jayden slumped forward, surrendering to the darkness.
In this strange darkness, he began to dream—or so he thought. He found himself surrounded by a sickly warmth and opened his eyes to a horrific sight. He was standing over a pile of flesh, a mass of scattered, torn remains, with just head and arms remaining, but all he sensed was a thick with the scent of decay. Nearby, something grunted, low and guttural. He whipped his head around, but there was no one to be seen. Heart racing, he took a step back, and his foot hit something solid.
When he looked down, he felt his stomach twist in horror. Beneath him lay Felix, he was lying in the same position he died in. But Felix’s body was torn, his flesh ripped apart and scattered in pieces around his corpse, leaving him in a grotesque mockery of the position he’d died in.
Jayden jolted awake, a wave of disorientation hitting him like a punch. The dim morning light filtered in, and he found himself lying on the cold, hard ground in his own room, confused. His head was pounding, but not with the same intensity as before. Slowly, he sat up, blinking as he tried to shake off the fog of sleep. It took a few moments for him to notice something strange—his clothes were torn, shredded beyond repair. But he wasn’t fully exposed; scraps of fabric still clung to him, as though he’d been through some kind of violent transformation.
He pulled himself up, feeling every ache and strain in his muscles. Stumbling to the bathroom, Jayden glanced at himself in the mirror—and instantly froze, his pulse racing. His mouth was stained with dark, dried blood, stretching down to his chin, staining his skin with rusty streaks. His heart pounded as he moved closer, tilting his head to inspect the horror before him.
A sharp, throbbing pain radiated from his gums, and when he opened his mouth, he saw them: two long, razor-sharp fangs protruding just in front of his canines. His jaw felt sore, as if these fangs had forced themselves out in the night.
Then he saw his hair—no longer the white he was used to. It was brown, a caramel like brown, and slightly longer than it had been the day before. A wave of panic flooded through him. His chest felt tight, his breath came in shallow gasps, and his hands were trembling. He could hear his mother’s voice in his mind, urging him to breathe deeply whenever he felt overwhelmed.
Taking a shaky breath in through his nose, he exhaled slowly through his mouth, hoping to steady himself. The technique worked, but as he looked back into the mirror, he caught a glimpse of something strange: his eyes. They were glowing a vivid green.
Jayden, startled, splashed water on his face, desperate to shake the vision away. The coolness of the water stung his skin, but when he looked again, his reflection seemed...normal. His teeth, now entirely human, revealed nothing out of the ordinary. His eyes were no longer glowing, and his hair seemed only slightly darker. But the image of those fangs and green eyes haunted him.
“What...what happened to me?” he whispered, his voice barely audible. Fear gripped him as fragments of memories flashed in his mind—images he couldn’t piece together but left him with a sense of dread. He was almost certain he had done something awful, something he couldn't undo. It wasn’t just the blood or his changed appearance; it was the heavy feeling in his gut. He remembered killing Felix, but there was something else he had done, something unspeakable, but it was hidden, shrouded in his fractured memories.
He quickly scrubbed the blood off his face and tried to clean up, though his torn clothes were beyond saving. He had no time to wash them, no time to linger; if he showed up late, it would raise too many questions. He bundled the clothes, shoved them into a plastic bag, and stuffed it deep into the trash can, burying the evidence. After a hurried wash, he popped some mint candies into his mouth, hoping to mask any trace of the strange, metallic taste lingering there.
His mom had made breakfast, the smell filling the kitchen, but he had no appetite. She didn’t press him when he declined, though her eyes lingered on him with slight suspicion. “Nice hair color!” she said with a smile, clearly noticing the change.