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Description
I jolted awake as the plane shook violently. The sudden turbulence sent waves of shock throughout my body. As it passed, I sighed.

Why did Mom have to send me on this "vacation"?

This trip was supposed to get me closer to nature, as my mom put it, and apparently to get my great-aunt Adeline closer to people. I guess it seemed like a good idea to her.

Of course, she hadn't let me bring my laptop. After all, it would just "distract me from the beauty of nature." It's not like I don't like nature. I'm just not very much of an outdoor person.

My thoughts were interrupted by a beeping sound over the intercom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our final descent into Priest River, Idaho. Currently, the weather is clear, so we shouldn't have any issues," the pilot announced.

Finally, we were landing. At least I didn't have to sit in that rigidly uncomfortable seat much longer. I was amazed that I'd even dozed off.

Thankfully, getting off a plane is much easier than getting on. I just had to unbuckle myself and walk out, aside from avoiding bumping into the other passengers. I sighed as I entered the terminal, taking in the sounds and smells of the airport.

There were quite a few people in the reception area, but even then it wasn't very hard to spot Aunt Adeline. I looked to my right and saw a woman in her mid-60s sitting in the corner of the room. She wore a pale green vest over a blood-red flannel shirt, along with a worn pair of jeans. She had wavy but frizzy hair that extended just beyond her shoulders.

I walked over to her nervously. I was never much for meeting new people, even relatives.

Still, I was going to be stuck with her for the next three months and I'd have to get to know her sooner or later. Preferably sooner because I didn't even know what I was going to be doing at her house. The whole thing was all so hastily put together, that we couldn't even plan anything.

She looked at me with analyzing eyes as I approached her. But as creeped out as I was, I needed to at least say something. "Uh... you're... Adeline, right?" I asked.

"Then you must be Devin," she answered, getting up from her seat. "Finally. I've been waiting to get out of this jam-packed airport. C'mon. The luggage conveyor thing should be this way."

I followed her down some escalators into a small area of the airport where I saw a conveyor belt of bags and cases. It was surrounded by several former passengers as they waited for their belongings. There we waited for about a minute before I spotted my luggage. A large, red, rolling case full of clothes, my toothbrush and toothpaste, and more clothes.

I picked up my bag, and soon we were out of the airport and heading for my great-aunt's car. I actually stopped to process what I saw. It was an old sedan, rusty and dirty. It looked as if it hadn't been driven in months. It may have been brown, but there was a red tint to it. I couldn't even make out what was grime and what wasn't.

Once I was done staring at Aunt Adeline's car, I walked around the back to open the trunk, but I was interrupted by a wrinkly hand slapping the rusty metal as I reached for the handle.

"No!" she exclaimed hastily before calming down. "It's broken. Throw it in the back seat."

"Oh... kay," I muttered, startled by the sudden action.

We were both silent for most of the ride. I just stared out the window. I watched as the urban streets became grassy fields in minutes, only to be covered up by forest a few minutes later, all the while Aunt Adeline looked onward, steering us toward her house.

"So... did Mom tell you anything about why she wanted me to come over here besides the getting-closer-to-other-people thing?" I eventually asked.

"No." She sighed. "She hardly explained anything before resorting to begging me to have you over for the summer. It was so out of nowhere that I still don't know the real reason for this, or even why she chose me of all people to send you to."

This sparked my interest. "The real reason?"

"She's hiding something, I know it. I know a thing or two about keeping secrets and she reeks of it."

We then turned onto a dirt road surrounded by what seemed like miles of woods.

"Hiding something?" I asked.

"She was very rushed. She stuttered... again she didn't say much before just begging. I'm actually worried for her."

I sat quietly for a second before responding. "Yeah. To be honest... I'm kinda worried too."

In the distance, I spotted a small, run-down cabin with two floors and a chimney on its left side. "Has Mom even been here before?" I asked.

"Not once," Aunt Adeline replied. "She never cares to visit."

We parked near the right side of the old cabin and got out onto the moist, leafy ground.

"Here we are. My cozy hunk of junk in the middle of the woods," Aunt Adeline said as I took in the cabin. "Go ahead and get your stuff out of the back seat, and I'll give you a tour."

I got my luggage out of the car and walked into the rickety house. The ancient, corroded floorboards creaked under my feet.

The tour was relatively short, as I had expected. She led me through the almost barren living room, which contained an old, torn-up sofa and a dusty tube TV, and then into the kitchen with an old gas stove next to a small fridge topped awkwardly with a microwave oven. A vintage coffee machine sat on the counter beside a partially rusty sink. To the right of the kitchen was the dining room, which contained a splintery wooden table surrounded by four identical chairs. Above the table hung a basic chandelier.

Moving back towards the front of the house, she led me up a staircase to the second floor, which consisted of a hallway with four doors, two on the left and two on the right.

"This is my room," she said pointing to the closer door on the left. "Yours is at the end of the hall on the left, across from the bathroom."

"What about this one?" I asked, gesturing to the door across from her room.

She hesitated. "That's just the storage room," she said, sounding a little nervous.

Without another word, she led me to my room, gestured me inside, and retreated back down the hallway. I stepped in, rolled my luggage to the dresser, and started unpacking my clothes, but I was interrupted by my phone buzzing in my pocket. I took it out and saw that it was a text from my friend Rob.

Hey dude, you there? Your mom said you should be off the plane by now, it read.

Yeah, I'm off. Flying all the way here from Arizona was a complete nightmare, I replied.

Ha, yeah. Flying's a bitch. So how's your great-aunt's house? Is it creepy and rickety? He texted back.

Actually, you're not too far off. She even called it a piece of crap.

There was a fifteen-second pause before Rob texted me back.

Gotta go. Mom's calling me.

Okay. Talk to you later.

I closed my phone and unpacked the rest of my clothes.

We didn't have a whole lot for dinner, though we did have these weird cheese sandwiches. Not even grilled cheese sandwiches; they were just slices of cheese in between two slices of bread.

We sat at the table in awkward silence for several minutes. The only thing filling the room with sound was the low hum of the fridge. "So... um..." I eventually muttered. "What kind of job do you have?"

Aunt Adeline looked up from her half-eaten sandwich with a blank expression, then back down, as if she was thinking. "I'm... retired," she replied.

"Oh," I said in response. "Well, what did you do before you retired?"

"Nothing much. A bit of freelance photography here, a little tinkering there. I did travel a lot, though."

She paused for a second before asking, "How about you? Have any... plans for a future job?"

"Uh... well... I haven't really thought about it."

Out of nowhere, I heard a ringing coming from Aunt Adeline's general direction. Her blank face became one of frustration as she hastily pulled out her phone. "One minute, I need to take this," she said as she got up and walked out the back door.

While Aunt Adeline was on the phone, I took the time to go up to my room and check my phone, which I had accidentally left up there, but as I reached the top of the stairs, I saw something flicker out of the corner of my eye. I looked to my right where I had seen the flicker and realized it came from the storage room. I glanced into the dark, dusty room through its wide-open door. Nothing but boxes. I hesitated before stepping into the room to get a closer look when it suddenly flickered again. For a split second, the dark storage room became something completely different.

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. "What the hell?" I muttered to myself as I rubbed my eyes. It flickered again! I thought I was losing my mind. "Holy shit," I whispered, astounded. Any normal person might've just run, but something in the back of my mind egged me on, and I stepped even deeper into the room.

The flickering continued as I looked around in surprise. But then, in one area of the room, the flickering became fading. On the back wall, a small, ornate cabinet made itself visible. I slowly made my way towards it like an idiot. Maybe it was teenage curiosity, or perhaps the sheer power of whatever this thing was. But one thing was for sure. There was no turning back.

The cabinet was kept closed by two guitar-case locks that looked like they were hastily screwed on. Every instinct in my mind at that point told me to get the hell out of there. I continued nonetheless, drawing closer to the ghastly cabinet. I put my hand on the first lock and undid it with sweaty palms before moving my hand to the second. What the hell was I doing? I had no idea what was in that cabinet. But that was why I needed to find out.

I undid the last lock and the door of the cabinet fell open revealing... an egg. Or rather an egg-shaped stone. A fossil maybe. Two feet in height and about a foot and a half in width. I stared at it in wonder. Wondering just how a fossilized egg could cause so much insanity. I reached into the cabinet to pick up the egg, but as soon as my skin made contact with it, an extreme searing pain shot through my hands as if I'd dipped them in lava.

I ripped my hands away, screaming, but the pain didn't stop. Instead, it started spreading up my arms. I looked at my hands and found... scales, mahogany brown scales under what was once my skin melted away by the liquefying heat. The heat continued up my arms, my skin melting and peeling off to reveal more scales as it spread.

Then a stabbing pain erupted under my fingernails. I whimpered as one by one, my nails fell out to reveal bone-white claws pushing their way through the tips of my fingers. However, it couldn't distract me from the heat as it reached my shirt. I reeled as my melting skin started to burn the fabric. I frantically tried to put it out, only managing to fuel the flames with the added heat of my clawed hand.

The excruciating heat continued past my shoulders and into my chest and neck before quickly covering the rest of my body, burning the rest of my clothes and melting away what was left of my human skin and hair, which were being replaced by the mahogany scales and even armored plates down the front of my torso.

Suddenly my skull cracked. The pain threw me to the ground as my face and four points on the side of my head started pushing out. My teeth were forced out of my gums. They all fell out onto the burning wooden floor as sharp razors replaced them. The four points became thick horns and my face a draconic muzzle.

Then my tailbone snapped. It curved and extended outward, surrounding itself with muscle and nerves until it was several feet long. I could hardly even comprehend such alien sensations.

Then my body surged with heat and power. My bones and muscles elongated and swelled. They twisted and shifted as my entire form grew and reconfigured. My neck stretched out and the nape crackled as it repositioned itself to the back of my skull, forcing my head to face forward.

My limbs continued to swell as my hands contorted and my feet elongated. My fingers and toes fused as they thickened, turning my hands into another pair of feet.

Then two areas of my back started growing outwards like tumors. Developing muscles and nerves surrounded lengthening bones as the growths became a set of arms. Except, they weren't arms. The hands were webbed and the fingers were long and thin. Wings.

I tried to stand up only to slam my head into the ceiling before my feet-hands could leave the floor

I tried to stand up only to slam my head into the ceiling before my feet-hands could leave the floor. I tried to look around but my vision was blurred. It took me a few seconds to focus, but when I did, I could see every detail of the room. Fire had covered the floor around me and was quickly spreading to the walls. Shelves full of boxes and jars lined every side of the room.

But then, over the roaring flames, I heard the floorboards snapping below me. Before I could react, the room gave way, sending me through the burning remains of the cabin floor. After that, it didn't take long for the outer wall to collapse along with it, revealing the dark woods behind it.

Then I heard a muffled shout behind me, somehow causing the flames to die out. I turned around to see Adeline standing in the storage room doorway.

Description
I jolted awake as the plane shook violently. The sudden turbulence sent waves of shock throughout my body. As it passed, I sighed.

Why did Mom have to send me on this "vacation"?

This trip was supposed to get me closer to nature, as my mom put it, and apparently to get my great-aunt Adeline closer to people. I guess it seemed like a good idea to her.

Of course, she hadn't let me bring my laptop. After all, it would just "distract me from the beauty of nature." It's not like I don't like nature. I'm just not very much of an outdoor person.

My thoughts were interrupted by a beeping sound over the intercom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our final descent into Priest River, Idaho. Currently, the weather is clear, so we shouldn't have any issues," the pilot announced.

Finally, we were landing. At least I didn't have to sit in that rigidly uncomfortable seat much longer. I was amazed that I'd even dozed off.

Thankfully, getting off a plane is much easier than getting on. I just had to unbuckle myself and walk out, aside from avoiding bumping into the other passengers. I sighed as I entered the terminal, taking in the sounds and smells of the airport.

There were quite a few people in the reception area, but even then it wasn't very hard to spot Aunt Adeline. I looked to my right and saw a woman in her mid-60s sitting in the corner of the room. She wore a pale green vest over a blood-red flannel shirt, along with a worn pair of jeans. She had wavy but frizzy hair that extended just beyond her shoulders.

I walked over to her nervously. I was never much for meeting new people, even relatives.

Still, I was going to be stuck with her for the next three months and I'd have to get to know her sooner or later. Preferably sooner because I didn't even know what I was going to be doing at her house. The whole thing was all so hastily put together, that we couldn't even plan anything.

She looked at me with analyzing eyes as I approached her. But as creeped out as I was, I needed to at least say something. "Uh... you're... Adeline, right?" I asked.

"Then you must be Devin," she answered, getting up from her seat. "Finally. I've been waiting to get out of this jam-packed airport. C'mon. The luggage conveyor thing should be this way."

I followed her down some escalators into a small area of the airport where I saw a conveyor belt of bags and cases. It was surrounded by several former passengers as they waited for their belongings. There we waited for about a minute before I spotted my luggage. A large, red, rolling case full of clothes, my toothbrush and toothpaste, and more clothes.

I picked up my bag, and soon we were out of the airport and heading for my great-aunt's car. I actually stopped to process what I saw. It was an old sedan, rusty and dirty. It looked as if it hadn't been driven in months. It may have been brown, but there was a red tint to it. I couldn't even make out what was grime and what wasn't.

Once I was done staring at Aunt Adeline's car, I walked around the back to open the trunk, but I was interrupted by a wrinkly hand slapping the rusty metal as I reached for the handle.

"No!" she exclaimed hastily before calming down. "It's broken. Throw it in the back seat."

"Oh... kay," I muttered, startled by the sudden action.

We were both silent for most of the ride. I just stared out the window. I watched as the urban streets became grassy fields in minutes, only to be covered up by forest a few minutes later, all the while Aunt Adeline looked onward, steering us toward her house.

"So... did Mom tell you anything about why she wanted me to come over here besides the getting-closer-to-other-people thing?" I eventually asked.

"No." She sighed. "She hardly explained anything before resorting to begging me to have you over for the summer. It was so out of nowhere that I still don't know the real reason for this, or even why she chose me of all people to send you to."

This sparked my interest. "The real reason?"

"She's hiding something, I know it. I know a thing or two about keeping secrets and she reeks of it."

We then turned onto a dirt road surrounded by what seemed like miles of woods.

"Hiding something?" I asked.

"She was very rushed. She stuttered... again she didn't say much before just begging. I'm actually worried for her."

I sat quietly for a second before responding. "Yeah. To be honest... I'm kinda worried too."

In the distance, I spotted a small, run-down cabin with two floors and a chimney on its left side. "Has Mom even been here before?" I asked.

"Not once," Aunt Adeline replied. "She never cares to visit."

We parked near the right side of the old cabin and got out onto the moist, leafy ground.

"Here we are. My cozy hunk of junk in the middle of the woods," Aunt Adeline said as I took in the cabin. "Go ahead and get your stuff out of the back seat, and I'll give you a tour."

I got my luggage out of the car and walked into the rickety house. The ancient, corroded floorboards creaked under my feet.

The tour was relatively short, as I had expected. She led me through the almost barren living room, which contained an old, torn-up sofa and a dusty tube TV, and then into the kitchen with an old gas stove next to a small fridge topped awkwardly with a microwave oven. A vintage coffee machine sat on the counter beside a partially rusty sink. To the right of the kitchen was the dining room, which contained a splintery wooden table surrounded by four identical chairs. Above the table hung a basic chandelier.

Moving back towards the front of the house, she led me up a staircase to the second floor, which consisted of a hallway with four doors, two on the left and two on the right.

"This is my room," she said pointing to the closer door on the left. "Yours is at the end of the hall on the left, across from the bathroom."

"What about this one?" I asked, gesturing to the door across from her room.

She hesitated. "That's just the storage room," she said, sounding a little nervous.

Without another word, she led me to my room, gestured me inside, and retreated back down the hallway. I stepped in, rolled my luggage to the dresser, and started unpacking my clothes, but I was interrupted by my phone buzzing in my pocket. I took it out and saw that it was a text from my friend Rob.

Hey dude, you there? Your mom said you should be off the plane by now, it read.

Yeah, I'm off. Flying all the way here from Arizona was a complete nightmare, I replied.

Ha, yeah. Flying's a bitch. So how's your great-aunt's house? Is it creepy and rickety? He texted back.

Actually, you're not too far off. She even called it a piece of crap.

There was a fifteen-second pause before Rob texted me back.

Gotta go. Mom's calling me.

Okay. Talk to you later.

I closed my phone and unpacked the rest of my clothes.

We didn't have a whole lot for dinner, though we did have these weird cheese sandwiches. Not even grilled cheese sandwiches; they were just slices of cheese in between two slices of bread.

We sat at the table in awkward silence for several minutes. The only thing filling the room with sound was the low hum of the fridge. "So... um..." I eventually muttered. "What kind of job do you have?"

Aunt Adeline looked up from her half-eaten sandwich with a blank expression, then back down, as if she was thinking. "I'm... retired," she replied.

"Oh," I said in response. "Well, what did you do before you retired?"

"Nothing much. A bit of freelance photography here, a little tinkering there. I did travel a lot, though."

She paused for a second before asking, "How about you? Have any... plans for a future job?"

"Uh... well... I haven't really thought about it."

Out of nowhere, I heard a ringing coming from Aunt Adeline's general direction. Her blank face became one of frustration as she hastily pulled out her phone. "One minute, I need to take this," she said as she got up and walked out the back door.

While Aunt Adeline was on the phone, I took the time to go up to my room and check my phone, which I had accidentally left up there, but as I reached the top of the stairs, I saw something flicker out of the corner of my eye. I looked to my right where I had seen the flicker and realized it came from the storage room. I glanced into the dark, dusty room through its wide-open door. Nothing but boxes. I hesitated before stepping into the room to get a closer look when it suddenly flickered again. For a split second, the dark storage room became something completely different.

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. "What the hell?" I muttered to myself as I rubbed my eyes. It flickered again! I thought I was losing my mind. "Holy shit," I whispered, astounded. Any normal person might've just run, but something in the back of my mind egged me on, and I stepped even deeper into the room.

The flickering continued as I looked around in surprise. But then, in one area of the room, the flickering became fading. On the back wall, a small, ornate cabinet made itself visible. I slowly made my way towards it like an idiot. Maybe it was teenage curiosity, or perhaps the sheer power of whatever this thing was. But one thing was for sure. There was no turning back.

The cabinet was kept closed by two guitar-case locks that looked like they were hastily screwed on. Every instinct in my mind at that point told me to get the hell out of there. I continued nonetheless, drawing closer to the ghastly cabinet. I put my hand on the first lock and undid it with sweaty palms before moving my hand to the second. What the hell was I doing? I had no idea what was in that cabinet. But that was why I needed to find out.

I undid the last lock and the door of the cabinet fell open revealing... an egg. Or rather an egg-shaped stone. A fossil maybe. Two feet in height and about a foot and a half in width. I stared at it in wonder. Wondering just how a fossilized egg could cause so much insanity. I reached into the cabinet to pick up the egg, but as soon as my skin made contact with it, an extreme searing pain shot through my hands as if I'd dipped them in lava.

I ripped my hands away, screaming, but the pain didn't stop. Instead, it started spreading up my arms. I looked at my hands and found... scales, mahogany brown scales under what was once my skin melted away by the liquefying heat. The heat continued up my arms, my skin melting and peeling off to reveal more scales as it spread.

Then a stabbing pain erupted under my fingernails. I whimpered as one by one, my nails fell out to reveal bone-white claws pushing their way through the tips of my fingers. However, it couldn't distract me from the heat as it reached my shirt. I reeled as my melting skin started to burn the fabric. I frantically tried to put it out, only managing to fuel the flames with the added heat of my clawed hand.

The excruciating heat continued past my shoulders and into my chest and neck before quickly covering the rest of my body, burning the rest of my clothes and melting away what was left of my human skin and hair, which were being replaced by the mahogany scales and even armored plates down the front of my torso.

Suddenly my skull cracked. The pain threw me to the ground as my face and four points on the side of my head started pushing out. My teeth were forced out of my gums. They all fell out onto the burning wooden floor as sharp razors replaced them. The four points became thick horns and my face a draconic muzzle.

Then my tailbone snapped. It curved and extended outward, surrounding itself with muscle and nerves until it was several feet long. I could hardly even comprehend such alien sensations.

Then my body surged with heat and power. My bones and muscles elongated and swelled. They twisted and shifted as my entire form grew and reconfigured. My neck stretched out and the nape crackled as it repositioned itself to the back of my skull, forcing my head to face forward.

My limbs continued to swell as my hands contorted and my feet elongated. My fingers and toes fused as they thickened, turning my hands into another pair of feet.

Then two areas of my back started growing outwards like tumors. Developing muscles and nerves surrounded lengthening bones as the growths became a set of arms. Except, they weren't arms. The hands were webbed and the fingers were long and thin. Wings.

I tried to stand up only to slam my head into the ceiling before my feet-hands could leave the floor

I tried to stand up only to slam my head into the ceiling before my feet-hands could leave the floor. I tried to look around but my vision was blurred. It took me a few seconds to focus, but when I did, I could see every detail of the room. Fire had covered the floor around me and was quickly spreading to the walls. Shelves full of boxes and jars lined every side of the room.

But then, over the roaring flames, I heard the floorboards snapping below me. Before I could react, the room gave way, sending me through the burning remains of the cabin floor. After that, it didn't take long for the outer wall to collapse along with it, revealing the dark woods behind it.

Then I heard a muffled shout behind me, somehow causing the flames to die out. I turned around to see Adeline standing in the storage room doorway.