Chapter 10: Cracks Beginning to Form

Two days after Ferral’s procedure, while everyone else was in the kitchen eating breakfast, Ferral struggled to get out of bed. Every fiber in his body ached and his head felt like a hot nail was being hammered in. He groaned, rolling out of bed and hitting the floor. He gripped the bed as support to get up, every muscle tightening with every movement. As he shuffled toward the kitchen, the lionesses greeted him good morning. He opened one of the cabinets to grab a coffee mug, and as he grabbed it by the base, his left hand spazzed smashing the mug in his hand. Loni and Zuri yelped, Ferral looked at his hand, moving the fingers to see if it would happen again. “That’s the second time you’ve broken a glass or mug, Ferral.” Venus said. “My hand must have some broken joints,” He said, turning his back, “I’ll fix it after breakfast.”

After breakfast, everyone except Leona headed downstairs to open up the gym. “Hey, Al old buddy.” Hyde greeted Ferral, smacking him on the back. He groaned in pain but tried to hide it. “Hi…” Ferral slid against the front counter, trying to move as little as possible. He knew this pain was just a side effect of the serum, he just needed to endure the pain until his body could get used to it. Ferral was prepared beforehand, and yet he wasn’t. At least he was glad it was working. Before coming downstairs, Ferral went into the bathroom and tried to transform, the result was the same. He laid his head back and rested his eyes, but was quickly woken up by Venus dropping a pen on him. “No napping during work hours. You’re our head security, Ferral, you need to be on the lookout.” He sighed, reaching into his pocket and grabbing his phone. He texted Everett to see if she wanted to meet up sometime in the afternoon. It did not take her long to reply saying yes. Ferral smiled, telling her they’d meet in the park at twelve. He put his phone back into his pocket and grabbed the journal he had at his side. He opened it to two blank new pages and started writing down the current results of this test. But as he was writing, his right hand spazzed the same as his left and snapped his pen in two. He sighed, closing his journal and throwing the broken pen away. 

Once twelve hit, Ferral got up off the floor. “I’m going out on my lunch.” He walked to the back of the gym, hopped on his bike, and raced off. But even that proved to be a struggle as with every move his muscles tightened. He got to the park, groaning in pain as he messaged his leg muscles. Everett walked over behind Ferral and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and smiled when he saw her face. The two sat on one of the park benches, and that’s when Everett noticed the metal ring around Ferral’s neck. “What’s with that collar?” She asked. “This?” Ferral pulled down his sweater, “I lost a bet with one of my roommates and now I gotta wear this for the rest of winter break.” He chuckled, and his lie fooled Everett. “Ferral…” “Yeah?” “You know how you told me you want to create a cure for other experiments?” “Yeah, why?” She hesitated for a minute, resting her head on his shoulder. “Would…would you hate me if I wanted to BE an experiment?” He looked at her confused as she took her head off his shoulder. “Theoretically, of course.” “Never. Would I try to talk you out of it? Yes, but I wouldn’t hate you. I could never.” The two’s face reddened. Everett turned to look at the lake, “What you have, what you all have. This….uniqueness. I want to be a part of that.” Ferral joined her in looking at the lake, “At the cost of being segregated and hated? That’s not an even trade-off.” “Not everyone is like that though. There’s always light, even in the darkest of places.” Ferral’s eyes peered down. He knew she was right….but at the same time thought she wasn’t. “Hey, you wanna spar?” She asked, getting up off the bench. 

Ferral looked up at her and grinned, nodding his head as he got up. The two went on a simple back and forth, however, Ferral felt a hot searing pain shooting through his body. He stepped backward as the pain pulsated, his muscles contracting. “GAAAHHH!” He cried out, as he fell to his knees. Gripping the side of a tree, panting heavily as he cocked his head back and involuntarily transformed into his restrained state. Ferral gripped the tree so hard he broke into the bark. “FERRAL!” Everett screamed as she slid down next to Ferral. “What’s wrong?! Are you okay?!” He continued his deep panting, closing his eyes and nodding his head. “I’m….fine.” He labored. He didn’t know what caused it, or what caused him to transform, but being in the form seemed to calm the pain. His body forced him to transform, and it was as a defense mechanism. But why? Why?!

All the while, a small bug-like drone hovered over the two, saying out of site. The man in the black and green lab coat watches through the drone’s eyes, smiling. “It seems he hadn’t perfected the cure,” He smirked, “And I fear this little science fair project of his will only do more harm to him than good. Excellent, it’s all going as predicted, soon he’ll come to me and we’ll go from there.” The man chuckled and continued his monitoring of Ferral.