By the time I got back to the dorm, my head was still spinning.
The project was finally done thank God but I couldn't shake the feeling that something about Kaelen wasn't… normal. Not in the "mysterious quiet guy" way everyone jokes about, but in the something's off and I can't explain it kind of way.
Mira was sitting cross-legged on her bed, scrolling through her phone when I came in. She looked up, grinning.
"Finally! The lab zombie returns."
I dropped my bag onto the floor and collapsed on my mattress. "Today was weird"
"Weird?"mira asked.
"Yeah with kaelen "today… something felt different. I touched his arm by accident, and his pulse it was fast, Mira. Like, not normal fast. And his eyes— I swear they looked gold for a second."
Mira lowered her phone. "Gold?"
"Yeah," I said, sitting up. "And when I looked again, they were normal. Like I imagined it."
Mira burst out laughing. "Serenya, please. You've been running on caffeine and stress for days. Maybe the fluorescent lights in the lab were messing with you."
I smiled weakly, but my chest still felt tight. "Maybe
Mira shrugged, tossing her phone aside. "Look, if it makes you feel better, maybe he's just one of those moody types with weird contacts and too much brooding energy. College is full of them."
I tried to laugh, but the sound came out thin. "Yeah. Maybe that's all."
But later, when the lights were out and Mira's breathing had evened into sleep, I stared at the ceiling, replaying every second of the afternoon.
The way Kaelen had flinched when the sunlight hit his face.
How his hand trembled just slightly when he passed me the notes.
How the air around him always felt… colder.
It wasn't my imagination.
Something about him wasn't human.
And the scariest part?
Somewhere deep down, I didn't want to stay away.
The storm started just after midnight.
Rain pounded against the dorm windows, wind howling through the trees beyond campus. Mira was asleep headphones in, one leg dangling off the bed but I couldn't rest.
Something about the night felt… wrong.
Maybe it was the way the power kept flickering, shadows twitching across the ceiling. Or maybe it was that same, restless unease I'd been carrying since the project ended, since Kaelen.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw flashes: his sharp gaze in the lab light, the way he always seemed half-there, half-somewhere else. The way the air around him felt charged like static before lightning.
I gave up on sleep. Grabbing my hoodie, I slipped on my shoes and stepped into the hallway.
The dorm was quiet except for the hum of rain. I told myself I just needed air, that I wasn't being paranoid that it had nothing to do with him.
Outside, the storm had swallowed the campus whole. The lamps cast small circles of light that barely touched the path. I pulled the hood tighter around my face and walked toward the trees behind the science building the same path Mira and I sometimes took when we needed to think.
That's when I heard it.
A sound between a growl and a scream, carried on the wind.
I froze. It came again distant, raw, something animal in it but not quite. It prickled every hair on my arms.
"Probably a dog," I whispered to myself. "Or a coyote. Or"
Lightning split the sky.
For a second, in the white flash, I saw movement between the trees tall, too tall. And eyes. Not glowing like in horror movies but catching the light, gold for a heartbeat, then gone.
My pulse stuttered. I stepped back, breath shallow.
"Who's there"?
No one answered. Just the rain.
I turned and ran all the way back to the dorm, soaked, heart slamming.
When I reached my room, I slammed the door and pressed my back to it, gasping. Mira stirred, mumbling something in her sleep, but I couldn't speak.
I just stood there, dripping on the floor, staring at the window waiting for those eyes to appear again.
They never did.
But I didn't sleep that night.
Because somewhere deep down, I knew I hadn't imagined it.
The rain was a roar relentless, cleansing, cruel.
By the time I reached the edge of the forest, my clothes were soaked through, my pulse pounding like the sky itself was trying to shake me apart. I could feel it rising again the thing beneath my skin.
The curse.
It had been quiet for weeks. Silent even during the full moon. But lately, every time I got close to her, it stirred whispering, hungry, awake.
Tonight, it wasn't whispering anymore.
I dropped to my knees, fingers digging into the wet soil. My veins burned, my breath came in sharp bursts, and my vision blurred as gold flickered at the edges.
Not now.
The rain hissed, and I felt it that voice inside, crawling up my spine like smoke.
"You can't keep pretending."
It wasn't words exactly, more like thoughts bleeding into my own.
"She's waking something in you. You can't hide what you are from her forever."
Shut up," I hissed, gripping my head.
But the voice laughed cold, ancient, familiar.
"You can feel it, can't you? The way your heart races when she looks at you? That's not love, Kaelen. That's hunger."
A violent shudder ran through me. My teeth ached. My claws pushed against my skin, threatening to break through.
And then
Her voice.
Faint, cutting through the rain.
"Who's there"
My head snapped up. Through the trees, I saw her drenched, standing just beyond the light, her hoodie clinging to her, eyes wide with confusion and fear.
For one second, I forgot how to breathe.
For one second, the curse went still.
Then lightning flashed and my reflection caught in her eyes: gold irises, claws half-formed, veins burning with that same cursed fire.
"I didn't answer"
I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.
Every instinct screamed to run… but the curse froze me in place.
The beast inside stirred, hungry.
"She's looking for you."
"Show her what you are."
No.
My hand dug into the earth until blood mixed with mud. My bones trembled, skin rippling as the change threatened to break free. I could feel the claws pressing beneath the surface, the gold flickering in my eyes.
She took another step forward.
"who's there?"
Still, I didn't answer.
Couldn't.
One sound one look and she'd see the monster hiding in plain sight.
I turned and bolted into the dark before I lost what little control I had left. Branches tore at my clothes, rain stung my face, and the voice in my head laughed all the way down.
By the time I stopped, miles from campus, I collapsed to my knees shaking, half-shifted, half-human.
The curse quieted again, leaving only the echo of her voice ringing through my skull.