The same

This is not happening… This is not happening!  It’s all a dream! David kept chanting in his head.
The warm water ran down his scales and he shivered.

Again he got the urge to scratch an itch with his foot.  Instead he scratched with his clawed fingers, managing to keep a hold of himself.

“David!  Come on!  Talk to me!” Ellie shouted from outside the bathroom door.

David glared at the broken lock that his mother had not gotten around to fixing.
“Go away!”

The doorknob turned and the door inched open.  “I’m coming in!  You better grab a towel”

David had all of three seconds to turn the water off and wrap a towel around his waist before Ellie slid inside the room against his wishes.

“I told you to go home Ellie – I’m a freak and it’s only a matter of time before I-I-I…”

“Dave, I’ve been your best friend for like, ever.  Don’t think even for a second, that I would run away because of a rough patch.  As scary as this is for you, you need to remember that I’m here to help you and even if I’m worried for my own safety, at least I haven’t shrugged you off”

David felt ashamed of himself.  Here he was, whining about a small habit that was growing on him, when his best friend was having to readjust and support him through this.

He pushed past Ellie and went to his room, this time he allowed Ellie to follow him.
Picking out a pair of shorts that Ellie had prepared for him the day before; David pulled them on and coiled his tail slightly.

Just then, there was a crashing sound from the front of the house and Ellie whispered, “Stay here” before closing the door behind her as she moved on to the front of the house.

David waited, his muscles all tensed and ready for him to spring into action.  He waited for Ellie to return.

But instead, she screamed.

“ELLIE!” David threw the door open and bolted out to the front of the house where a man lay unconscious on the floor with a gun nearby and the same Dinosaur that had attacked David in the reserve, just standing over Ellie with it’s teeth inches away from her leg.

“Get away from her, you bastard!” he hissed at it.

However, it ignored him and lunged forward.  It’s jaws clamped down on Ellie’s ankle and it started to drag her towards the ruined front door.

David intercepted it and punched it in the chest; forcing it to release it’s grasp on Ellie.
It snarled and bit David’s forearm, but he didn’t care in the slightest.  Instead he complied by biting its neck and shaking his head back and forth to tear the muscles.

Relinquishing its grip on his arm, it started to hiss and spit, trying to stop his attack.
Bringing his clawed foot up, he gashed it’s soft under-belly and felt the blood spatter on his foot and felt it on the carpet as they wrestled.

Finally, David released it and it backed away.  It’s head lowered in a sign of submission before it high-tailed it out of the house and down the street.

Quickly forgetting the vicious monster, David turned to his friend.

“Did it break the skin?” He asked in a panic as she clutched her ankle.

Ellie was silent for a moment before she removed her hand and revealed that it was soaked in blood.

No!  Not her too… It was hard enough for me… but now her…

“David… I’m scared”

David looked at the ankle and saw that it needed to be cleaned.  His first reaction was to start licking it, but he was repulsed by the idea and instead rushed to the kitchen and retrieved a roll of paper-towel.

Returning to Ellie, he started to mop up the blood and then rushed into the bathroom and grabbed the first-aid kit.  He wrapped her ankle up in bandages and ensured that it was firmly bound before he picked her up and ran into the garage, leaving everything behind.

I hope Mum still has the spare car.

As he flicked the lights on, he was relieved to see the beat up and under-serviced spare, that his mother kept for emergencies.

He helped Ellie into the back seat and then rushed back inside to get the keys before jumping into the drivers seat and organizing himself so that he could drive comfortably.

The car rumbled to life and he threw it into gear before flooring it out of the driveway and onto the street, scraping a parked car before swerving onto the right side of the road and once more pressing his foot down on the accelerator.

The engine roared as he sped down the street and onto a main road, the tires squealed and he had to slow down so he wouldn't end up in a chase with the police.

They swerved another corner and he had to swerve abruptly to avoid a truck as he raced for the private hospital.

The traffic lights blinked yellow and then red.  David slammed his foot on the brakes, the car seemed to lean forward and he held on for dear life as it started to slide before coming to a stop at an angle in the lane.

People shouted from their cars and he turned to look at Ellie who's face was scrunched up in pain as she held her knees to her chest.

The light flashed green and David floored it once more, making his way out of the corner of the city and back out into the housing estates where he was sure a hospital was situated.

He slowed down and tried to find it, all the while, Ellie groaned in pain and shock.

“Grah!  Where is the bloody hospital?!” he cried in frustration, punching the horn which blared obnoxiously.

Deep gouges were left in the soft material and he once again was reminded of what he wasn't anymore.  He turned and looked at his best friend, his only friend in the world to see her in pain still.

I can't let her suffer... there has to be a way to stop it... There has to!

He was about to get the car rolling again just as the driver window shattered into millions of shards and sharp pain erupted in his arm.  He bunched his claws up into a fist and swung it at the raptor's head.  It released it's hold on him and he hit the accelerator with his foot, the car shot from it's previous spot leaving the raptor behind in a cloud of burning rubber and smoke.

“David...” Ellie moaned from the back seat.

“Hangon Ellie!  Almost at a hospital.”

She fell silent as he pulled hard on the steering wheel and swerved around a corner, narrowly missing an elderly couple on a stroll.

He let out a sigh of relief and felt his spirits lift as a sign became visible indicating that the he was only a block away from the hospital.

“Just one more block Ellie!” he cried, barely able to keep his relief under check.

She shook her head and managed to grab his arm.

“No... they can't do anything for us Dave... I don't want to be dragged away... or you be dragged away.  We need to hide away from everyone... and stay away for everyones sake... our families too.” she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.

David felt his hopes shatter like the glass window had.  He slowed the car to a stop and turned to her.

“I... I don't want you to suffer like me Ellie...”

“Hey, we'll be freaks together... what could be better than that eh?” she said, trying to sound cheerful despite the fact she smelt of fear and it reflected in her eyes.

Reluctantly, David turned the car around and started to drive back down the road.  This time he was strangely calm, he felt like nothing mattered anymore because nothing was normal, nothing was what it seemed and he no longer cared.

“We'll hide in the reserve, it's big enough and there's all kinds of food growing in there.”

David didn't answer, he just parked the car in a random street and helped Ellie out.

“Why are we getting out here?” Ellie asked as she hopped on one leg.

“That man back at mum's house was from Biotek... I bet they're looking for us, better to not leave a huge trail of bread crumbs...”

David supported her as they moved down the path and through a gap in the fence that lead to the reserve.  He stopped to check Ellie's bandage before moving on again, the trees welcomed him with their silent swaying in the gentle breeze and the cool shadows they produced.


Ellie unwrapped her bandages and winced at the wound.  It was swelling and looked like someone had decided to scrape it with glass pasted onto sandpaper.

David watched her carefully, no longer controlling the instinctual urges to scratch or sniff the air.

“How long now?” she asked him, tying the ruined bandage back up again.

“Any moment...”

They waited in silence.  David felt sick, he wanted to throw up.  Ellie just felt emotionless, defeated.

Then she groaned as her hands started to throb, she watched as the fingers melded into three claws like David's.  Green and cream scales spread across her hands and up her arms as she stood.

She leaned forward as a tail burst from her spine and out of her pants, not stiff like David's but thick and flexible.  She looked at it in amazement as it moved about and all the while David watched her, seeing a mirror image of himself.

She felt her spine lengthen and her neck along with it as her face seemed to grow out in front of her.  The bulk of her teeth fell out and littered the forest floor as a hard beak like snout formed and only her grinding teeth remained.  Her sides ached as they too seemed to catch up with the proportion change and she watched as her ribs rearranged themselves.

She now stood slightly hunched over as her feet burst from her shoes, small claws jutting out of her three toes as she whimpered.  Her pants ripped as her thighs bulked up, muscles rippled over her body as her spine realigned itself and she winced as a hollow horn burst from her skull and jutted out behind her head, a small sail of leather between it and her skull.

David was shocked.  What was standing before him, still changing was nothing like him at all.  Ellie was becoming something else all together.  A complete dinosuar and not a freak like himself.  He watched, curious yet horrified for her.

Ellie Whined as the last changes occurred, and then she stood there in the forest with the tattered shirt hanging loosely over her back and her 'pants' which had become shorts after her legs had doubled in length.

She looked back at her body and hooted in alarm before collapsing into the dirt and leaves with her head tucked under her fore-arms.

David stepped forward cautiously, he put a hand on her arm and whispered, “I'm here Ellie... just like you were there for me.”

She recoiled and looked at him as if he was a monster, fear controlled her movements and expression as she leaped up and stepped aside.

David felt as if someone had scooped his inside out and collapsed in a heap, sobbing as he started to truly hate life.

“She's... a mindless animal...”

Ellie watched him, confused that a predator was lying before her.  She leaned forward and sniffed, she smelt fear, sorrow and pity.

Suddenly it all rushed back to her and she found herself trying to hug David.

“I-I-I... I'm sorry David... I don't know what happened and... I'm here too... it's me...” she cried.

Despite the lack of spoken English, David understood what she said which confused him since he hadn't understood the raptor when he fought it off before.

Ellie nuzzled him, trying to make him calm down.

“I'm sorry... we're still friends despite the species and predator status you have.” she whispered into his ear before embracing him as best she could.

David finally managed to hug back and he felt like a little bit of his inside was returning at a time.

“We can do this.” he said calmly and determined.