This

I Don't Like What I See

"Why is it?" I thought to myself, "Why is it that I can hear my own heartbeat? Why can I hear people talking about my appearance?" I
couldn't see anything and I think someone had tied weights to my limbs because I couldn't move them. I could feel myself trying to move them but they wouldn't budge.

Then, I heard someone open a door that desperately needed to be
greased based on the ear piercing creaking sound it made as it was
being moved. I could hear footsteps clacking on the floor coming
towards me. I could even smell what I presumed to be a mix of cherry and lime scented perfume. "They were right. You're tiny!" I heard a voice say. I then felt something moving towards my mouth. I let out a deep breath and I heard the same voice screaming as loud as it could repeating the phrase, "Oh my god! Put it out! Put it out! Please help!" I heard the voice growing more quiet as it ran out of the room and made its way down the hallway.

At that moment, my breathing became faster and louder and my heartbeat was increasing so much, it was practically vibrating. A few moments later, my eyes had burst wide open and I sprang out of the bed. I dashed out of the room as fast as I could. However, I noticed that my legs seemed rather stubby and door handles seemed to be out of my reach. I also had a hard time keeping my balance as the vanilla white linoleum floors seemed like they were covered in layers of wax. On top of that, my nostrils were assaulted by the overwhelming stench of sanitizer. Sure, there were hints of lavender in that scent, but it still made me cough loudly and felt like a two pronged fork had been thrusted into the inside of my nose. I had no choice but to put my hands over my mouth and nose if I didn't want to collapse to the ground.

As I made my way down the hallway, a thought had suddenly popped into my head. In this thought, there were two women and one man surrounding a peach coloured steel table with wheels that was placed in front of what looked like an ivory doughnut with beige colouring around the middle of it. The women that surrounded the table were wearing paper white lab coats that went down to their knees. One of the women had brown hair and the other had blonde hair. They each held a clipboard in their hand and they seemed to be jotting something down. The man that surrounded the table wore a Red Sox T-shirt and black jeans and seemed to be looking down at the table. On the table, I saw a little girl who had casts covering both her arms and legs. Her eyes were light green with a little bit of brown in the middle and they stared upward at the ceiling. "Are you sure this is going to help me daddy?" The girl said. "I hope so, sweetie. Otherwise, I don't know what else to do." Said her father as he gently clenched her hand.

Before I was able to figure out what happened next, I suddenly found myself inches away from a dark blue door with a black bar running through the middle of it. I leaped up and hit the black bar with all of my might. To my surprise, I had enough strength to open the door just wide enough for me to get through. The door lead to a room with dark blue walls where the paint had seemed to be chipped away in certain spots. The floor was made of solid grey concrete and unlike the linoleum floors in the hallway, I was no longer having trouble keeping my balance. However, the sound of my footsteps seemed to be amplified as they echoed throughout the barren room.

A few moments later, I made my way towards a small staircase and grabbed the thin wooden handrail beside it. I slid down the rail like a penguin with my arms and hands loosely gripping it. It didn't take me long before I landed on all fours on the front, nearly smashing my head against the wall. Fortunately, I regained my footing and continued on my way down another flight of stairs. I soon came face to face with a set of bright pink double doors. As soon as I got close to them, I jumped up and slammed my whole body against the black bars that ran across them. However, the doors didn't seem to move an inch. I tried slamming into the bars once again but just like before, the doors didn't seem to move. I kept slamming into the bars, hoping that the doors would eventually budge but unfortunately, it seemed that no amount of slamming would open the doors.

I noticed that my breathing began to gradually speed up as I tightly clenched my teeth together. My face had tightened up as well and  the speed of my breathing continued to increase. I eventually took a deep breath and let out an ear piercing scream. As I screamed, an enormous and intense stream of fire spewed out. Once I stopped screaming, the fire had disappeared and I stood there panting heavily and hastily with my mouth wide open. "What in the worl--- No... That didn't just happen!" I said to myself frantically. In the aftermath, I noticed that the fire left a hole in one of the doors that was big enough for me to go through. It took a minute for my whole body to simmer down but once it did, I made my way through the hole.

On the other side of the hole was another hallway but unlike the previous hallway, this one seemed to be more decrepit. The lights were dimmer and the floors were cracked and even missing tiles in some spots. The paint on the walls was peeling and chipped and the pipes on the ceiling were extremely rusted. To top it all off, the hallway smelled like a mix of rotten cabbage and char, which made me gag profusely. Not only that, but my stomach felt heavier the more I was exposed to the smell and I covered my mouth once again. I decided to walk down the hallway since that was honestly the fastest I could go given how I was feeling at that moment.

As I walked down the hallway, another thought had popped into my head. This one had the man in the Red Sox shirt yelling at the woman with brown hair. "Listen lady!" The man screeched, "I've searched all over this god damn state and none of these 'medical professionals' want to help my daughter! They say it's because my insurance won't cover the treatment she needs! I mean... Why do you think I came to this god forsaken place, huh?" The woman had stood there shaking with tears running down her face. "Sir... I understand how you feel. But...the procedure you're asking us to perform... is just too dangerous for a kid her age." The woman stuttered with her clipboard pressed against her chest. The man's breathing began to speed up as he clenched his fists. His face tightened and turned red. "Too dangerous? Too dange... God dammit! I don't care! If it's going to help my daughter then you give it to her! She can't live her whole life like... like that, right?" The man screamed as he pointed to his daughter.

Tears ran down his face and the woman walked over to him and rubbed his back gently. "Look sir. Your daughter obviously means a lot to you and you want her to be happy. But let's say I do go through with this and... well... your daughter... um... dies? How would you even deal with that?" The woman said softly. The man began to sob quietly and hugged the woman. "I... I don't know. But I'm willing to make a deal with you." The man replied in a shaky voice. He reached into his pocket and briefly rifled through it. He took out a black leather wallet and opened it up. He removed a thick stack of of green and white paper from its large top pocket and held it in front of him. "This is all the money I got on me. You can have it if you help my daughter. Agreed?" The man said. The woman pushed the money away and the man began to sob even louder.

Meanwhile, the blonde woman was near the machine where the man's daughter was. She watched the man sob and her heart grew heavy but her attention had soon shifted to the daughter tugging on her lab coat. The woman stared at the girl and gently stroked her arm. "You know what, sweetie?" The woman whispered, "I don't care what my boss says. I'm doing the procedure. I mean... you're a strong kid, right?" The daughter nodded and the blonde woman pushed the table into the machine and closed the door. She then stood on the left side of the machine and starting inputting a code as a beeping noise followed each button press. Once the beeping stopped, the machine began to make a low muffled humming sound followed by a whirring sound.

The blonde woman began screaming as the brown haired woman charged at her like a bull and tackled her to the ground. The machine began to emit sparks and the whirring sound grew louder and louder. The daughter screamed at the top her lungs and kicked the door as hard as she could. All of a sudden, a blinding flash illuminated the inside of the machine. Before the thought could continue...

I eventually found myself in what appeared to be a bathroom. Immediately upon entering, I knew something else was off. That chrome sink, how was I shorter than the sink? Sure, I wasn't the tallest person, but its angle for me was like the perspective from a dog or cat. I knocked over a grey plastic trash bin and jumped on top of it to reach the counter. When I looked into the mirror, my heart had instantly sunk and it seemed as though time had stopped.

There, in the mirror, I noticed that my skin was orange and my ears along with my hair were gone. My clothes were missing and I noticed that my stomach was a cream colour and it came up to my neck and acted as a border between my arms and legs. My fingers and toes were replaced with sharp, light grey claws and I had two little fangs that were visible, even when my mouth was closed. My eyes were a sea green type of colour and the shape of these eyes only formed half a circle. I still couldn't believe the sight before my eyes, even though it was staring me in the face. As I leaned closer into the mirror, I caught sight of something bright glowing behind me. The sight startled me, almost costing my balance on the sink. I fell back against the mirror. To my surprise, I realized the light was coming from a tail - my tail. I had a tail?

At the sight of my appearance, I curled up into a ball and started
sobbing loudly. The only question I had about the whole situation was "What went wrong?"

Written by Hailey Sawyer