Transamagei

 The birth of a baby is meant to be a joyous occasion surrounded with smiles and tears of happiness, but that was not so for my birth. When I came into this world, I was surrounded by strangers who immediately recoiled at my presence. A woman with makeup dripping down her face and blonde hair plastered to her head was screaming. Her only friend; a short woman with dark hair tied into a knot, was cowering behind the woman. The pair of chicken sheers she gripped were shaking as she inched towards me.The short woman hacked through my umbilical cord frantically, while I cried out for the protection of my mother, who was panicking and trying to drag herself away from me on the musty couch we were on. Once I was free, my mother kicked out at me, pushing me across to the edge of the couch.I could hear her hysterical sobbing and moaning echoing through my ears as a heavy hand gripped my arm and dragged my naked body around to face both women once more.“What is it?” the short woman

Playing with fire The creature who called himself Tin raised me and nurtured me like the parent I never had. He grew incredibly defensive of me and always kept me hidden from the unseen dangers lurking outside. As I grew older and more aware, he taught me how to walk, then how to run. Running was my key to survival up here. Night Claw, the species Tin was, were all equipped with poisonous blood and an arm they could turn into a spear. They were bred specifically to haul heavy loads other creatures couldn’t. Because of this, they were often rounded up and forced into labour with another species called Shade.The Shade were like gigantic spiders with extremely thick skin and had claws protruding from a joint in all eight of their legs that surrounded the top of every hoof. They had huge, spiked mandibles that were forever clicking away, and eyes that were tiny slits.Compared to them both, I was useless. I was only five; my tiny teeth and weak claws could not defend myself aga

Face to face with death Instead of being met with nightmares, the void shielded my brain with a fog that made my head swim. Somehow, I was still here; probably being sizzled on the hot tar of the road I had passed out on.My hearing was the first to come back, unfortunately.A sobbing, distorted at first, got clearer as I struggled to piece together what had happened.I had been in a car crash, I knew that; but what occurred afterwards was a mystery.The last thing I remembered was lying on the hard road with glass skewering me. Was I still there? Was I still free?“He’s breathing” someone noted, but I was too disorientated to tell if it was a male or female “he’s not reacting to touch though.”Touch. Well, it wasn’t Cosmo.“Keep pulling the glass out until he comes around, then we’ll fill him in” another interrupted.Fill me in? What had happened? Where was everyone? How come the crying wouldn’t stop?The black void started to lighten and reveal distorted shapes, but

Fresh meat Eagle was on my mind after that discussion with Torch; quite literally.When his voice invaded my mind, I thought I was imagining it; growing frightened that I was going insane.Apparently, that's what most people assumed when Eagle had first invaded their mind; as he told me.It was helpful having the extra voice beside me through the night and into the next morning, but I could tell it was making the other Soul Stealers avoid me when I began muttering back to Eagle and arguing with him around the Base.To them, I was probably at sanity’s edge.He kept his distance, so people wouldn't too suspicious of our plans, but placed himself right beside me at training where he wanted to meet two days later.He said nothing until other Soul Stealers started leaving and we were mostly alone. The others still here were too far away to be of any concern to us."I thought we should meet up before the next part of our plan. I sent out a guy yesterday to steal a baby Kalfar

Soul Searching Torch or Stripes didn't dare to speak to me after the stint in the truck. Once we arrived back at Base, they were dragged away by Nightshade and Concussion while I was abandoned by the door, with the mountain of crumpled bodies before me. I watched the Souls dragging them across the ground to the back field before I was forced into doing the same thing, dumping them on the burning pile before repeating the process over and over again.When the pile was gone, I was met by a stranger with a clipboard who led me to what was now my new room on the third level.When I was left at the entrance, he scribbled something down, ripped off the label on the door, and went to gather up another Soul to fill in the rooms surrounding me.This was all happening too fast. I didn’t deserve my own room after what I had done, but I wasn’t going to just leave it either. There was no way I could crawl back to Torch’s or spend another night trying to avoid the dangers in the dark. I