The System gave me the skill at three in the morning.
I was in the motel room Darius had found for me, a place on West Flagler that smelled like mildew and old cigarettes, cheap and anonymous, nobody asked for ID if you paid in cash. I'd been there four days. Four days of staring at the ceiling and thinking about Camila Rodriguez and the year the System had given me and the death it had promised if I failed. Four days of calling Darius and hearing his voice get tighter with each call.
I was lying on the bed when it happened. Not sleeping. Just lying there in the dark, existing in the space between who I was and who I was about to become, and the System spoke.
[Skill Unlocked: Shapeshift]
