Transformations by Rose

The humiliation still burned like acid in your chest three months later, every word Thompson had spoken etched into your memory with surgical precision. "I need someone intellectually stimulating, not just..." His dismissive glance at your breasts, the way his lips curled with disgust. "You're beautiful, don't get me wrong, but I need more than a pretty face and a nice rack." Standing in your grandmother's attic, sorting through dusty boxes and papers, you let the rage fuel your focus. The old woman had tried to warn you about the bloodline gift before she died. "Power always comes with a price, little witch", but she'd also made sure you knew how to use it. Thompson didn't know what ran in your family. Didn't know that your great-grandmother had made the Salem witch trials look like amateur hour, or that your bloodline carried magic that could reshape reality itself with the right components and sufficient motivation. And watching ...

The blizzard came out of nowhere, visibility dropping to nothing as snow whipped across the mountain trail in blinding sheets. You'd been hiking alone (stupid, you knew that now) and when the temperature plummeted and your fingers went numb even inside your gloves, panic set in. The ice cave appeared like a miracle, a dark mouth in the white chaos, and you stumbled inside without hesitation, desperate for shelter from the screaming wind. The walls were wrong. Too smooth, too perfectly crystalline, like they'd been carved by something intelligent rather than formed by nature. Ancient runes glowed faintly in the frost, pulsing with a blue light that should have warned you, but you were shivering so violently you could barely think. When you pressed your hand against the wall to steady yourself, your palm landed directly on one of the symbols. And the cold rushed IN.  Not the normal cold of winter, but something ancient and malevolent, flooding your veins like liquid nitrogen. You...

CONTAINMENT: BUILDING 9 FIRST CONTACT **2:47 PM - Apartment 2B** Sophie Park had always loved lazy Sunday afternoons, but none had ever felt quite as perfect as this one. She stepped out of the shower, steam curling around her petite frame like silk scarves as she wrapped herself in a plush white towel. At twenty-six, she'd finally found the kind of life she'd always dreamed of: a job she loved as a freelance graphic designer, a girlfriend who made her laugh until her sides hurt, and a cozy apartment in a building that was just cheap enough to be affordable but nice enough to feel like home. The afternoon sun streamed through their gauzy curtains, casting everything in a golden glow that made even their secondhand furniture look expensive. "Babe?" she called to Maya, who was sprawled on their weathered leather couch, laptop balanced on her knees. "The water pressure's being weird again. Felt almost... tingly?" Maya Torres looked up from her c...

CONTAINMENT: BUILDING 9  PROLOGUE: THE LEAK Deep beneath the bustling streets of downtown, in the bowels of HelixChem's primary research facility, something had gone catastrophically wrong. Dr. Ethan Cross hunched over his monitoring station, the blue glow of dozens of screens reflecting off his wire-rimmed glasses like accusatory eyes. Tank 47-X was showing anomalous readings again: temperature fluctuations that shouldn't be possible with their military-grade containment protocols. The readings pulsed with an ominous rhythm that made his stomach clench. "System, run diagnostics on Tank 47-X," he muttered, fingers dancing across holographic interfaces with practised precision. DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE. NO ERRORS DETECTED. But the temperature kept climbing. 2.3 degrees above normal. Then 2.7. The compound inside, 47X2-C, their experimental neural-hormonal realignment serum, was designed for battlefield applications. Psychological warfare through biochemical manipulation. Ma...