There was once a boy who lived an average life. He had a happy family without any actual problem. His family consist of his father, mother, an elder sister, and a younger brother. His father was a typical office worker who would be welcomed back home by the whole family every weekday. His mother was a normal housewife other than the fact that she could be considered a professional chef within the district that they lived in. His sister was a year older than him and would sometimes annoy the hell out of himself, but whenever he needs help, she would no doubt do her part as an elder sister. His younger brother was four years younger and was fairly naughty, but it couldn’t be helped as the whole family doted on him since young.

The family lived in an apartment building near the town central. It was a place that was filled with whatever needs they could think of, schools, train stations, shopping centre and many more. The boy’s studies wasn’t exceptional but it was above average. He also had many friends in which some of them often visited his house in order to play together. They came so often that all of his family members knew each of their names. He lived a simple but enjoyable life till he reached the age of twelve, with nothing abnormal happening.

On his twelfth birthday, his family set up a birthday party for him. He had invited three of his closest friend to celebrate the occasion with him. The party was to started in the early afternoon and last till the early evening. They would have fun and enjoy their games and snack till early evening, where they cut the cake and eat it before going back to their respective homes. The birthday song had been sung and the birthday boy was going to blow out the flames on the candles of the birthday cake. It was at this point in time that the abnormality started.

One of his friend, a boy which was on the short side, started making grunts of pain. Everyone heard it and each of the participators of the party showed concern for him and asked him what was wrong. He told them that his head hurts, it hurts so much that he felt like it was going to explode. He fell down on the floor before anyone could react. Soon after, another of the boy’s friend complained about her aching stomach and collapsed too. One by one, each of the participators of the party fell, becoming more rapid each time. The boy was afraid and confused. Why did they collapsed? What should he be doing? His mind was blank and he couldn’t make up his mind. It took him a while before deciding to call for ambulance.

While the call was connecting, he was thinking in his mind on what he should tell them. They had a birthday party and everyone collapsed except for himself? The voice from the other side of the call interrupted his thoughts. His mind became blank once more and a shriek on his side made him dropped the phone. The friend who had first fell was the one making the noise. He rushed over to him and discovered that he was holding his head with both hands while curled in a fetal position. He tried to calm his friend down but the boy fell on his back instead.

He saw something sharp protruding out of his friend’s head. Blood rushed out at the same time as the object continued it’s growth. Soon, a single horn had grew out of his friend’s head and the blood had stop flowing out. By that point in time, the blood puddle on the floor was enough to drenched the carpeted floor. He was no longer feeling worried for his friend. All of his emotions had changed to that of fear. What was the creature in front of himself? What would it do to him and his family? He asked himself many questions which were not answered. More screams and shrieks erupted around him as the other collapsed people experienced a similar pain to the first changed. Some grew tail, some wings, others even had scales. The boy could no longer stay in place. His fear of the unknown had long covered over his concern for those who he cared about. He ran out of his house.

Shouts, screams and shrieks was ranging up everywhere he ran. He just wanted to run away from those noise that reminded him of his changed friends and family, but he couldn’t escape from them. Noise of different type erupted all around him, car crashed into crowds, people collapsed everywhere, he even saw a plane dropping down into the horizon. All of these were things that a twelve year old couldn’t understand. Even if he was older, he probably wouldn’t be able to make any sense of anything that was going on. He came to a stop from his run at a road junction. He had ran for so long that his heart was beating rapidly within his chest, threatening to stop suddenly if he would continued his run. He looked up and saw a picture of hell.

Some people died when they first experienced the pain and fell unconscious. Those unlucky enough to get past the pain was changed. Each and every one of them. They had became creatures and things that the boy couldn’t describe. The best he could think of them would be the horrors from some of the storybooks that he had read. He felt joy when he noticed that there were still some unchanged. His joy was turned into despair immediately as he saw them being slaughtered by the changed. He knew then that he had nowhere to run, those things would hunt him down even if he tried to escape. His knees dropped on to the ground and he knelt there crying.

He stayed in that position crying for such a long time that the sun had set. There were still some of those monsters around, but somehow they didn’t acknowledged his existence. He was curious on the reasons behind it, but the despair within him prevented him from gathering enough energy to find out. He just couldn’t find a reason to live anymore. Not when he had already abandoned his friends and family. Not when the world had probably already fell into control of the changed. He then heard the sound of gunshots. He had never heard them before, other than on television, but it sounded near. The thought that there could be other survivors, that the world might not totally be gone, gave him the push he needed to sprung into action. He ran towards the gunshots.

What he found was a group of people that were gathered. They were holed up in the shopping mall that he often went to with his family. There seemed to be the military protecting the civilians there. He needs the presences and comfort of people after what he had been through, so he ran towards them. Some of the soldiers took aim at him, but after noticing that he was just a child, one of them rushed over to hug him and brought him to safety, into the presence of the other survivals. They were surprised at how a child like him could’ve survived for the few hours since the change happened, but they didn’t question his humanity. That was the wrong choice.

Within minutes of his arrival, people within the mall started collapsing. Each of them changed so fast that the soldiers protecting them couldn’t react and were all slaughtered. The boy knew then that he had changed. He was no longer human. Or at least he was the one who caused the changed. He despaired. Even more than he could previously. He was the one that caused the tragedy. He thought of suiciding, to disappeared into the wind, so that no one could be changed by him anymore. He reached for one of the broken piece of glass on the floor near him. He stabbed himself, only to found out that there was nothing where he had stabbed.

“Ahh, my wish came through. I’m disappearing into the wind-”

And just like that, the boy was no more.

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Author’s Notes: Cliffhangers are fun! Though I do understand the pain of them :3 So, here is the next chapter which seemed vastly different, enough that it looked like a different story.