Without even taking the time to kick off her shoes, Laina flopped face-first onto the bed, still incredibly tense. She had never felt so tired in her entire goddamn life. What had the hooded figure done to her? Had they stolen her life force? Her soul?
That would be ridiculous. She was probably just sick. It was probably nothing more than a coincidence.
Almost as if to confirm that theory, her stomach gurgled. Laina found that very unfair - she’d spent ten bucks on that revolting con cheeseburger and not half an hour later she was already hungry again? She groaned and pushed herself up off the bed. The horrible tenseness had gone away, only to be replaced with an omnipresent ache. Everything ached. Everything. She felt like she’d been hit by a truck. But she was also starving. She had a couple bucks for food left in her wallet. There was a vending machine down the hall. She grabbed her room key and the meager food budget and set off.
Walking hurt. Her feet were killing her, and her shoes were feeling a little tighter than normal. She was feeling VERY off, but Laina couldn’t figure out what it could possibly be.
She stood in front of the vending machine and pondered snacks. She raised a finger to type in a number and froze. Her fingernails were looking weird - the little white crescent at the base of her nail had turned a dark purple. She watched in horror as the color spread slowly across the rest of the nail. Were her nails painting themselves? She looked a little closer - there was no paint. The nail itself was just… purple. It grew longer before her eyes - narrowing into a short but wickedly sharp point. The rest of the nails followed suit. It was kind of a neat look, but Laina was a little too freaked out by it to think so. She finished typing the code, grabbed her snacks, and rushed back to the room. After plunking herself down on the bed, she yanked off her shoes to find that her toenails had done the same thing. And did her feet look a little bigger? That was not normal. That was beyond weird. Before she could really get too worried about it, her stomach growled again and she remembered the snacks. She was starving.
Laina tore open the granola bar’s wrapper and took a bite. And winced. She hadn’t expected that to hurt so much. Had she chipped a tooth? She felt around with her tongue and couldn’t quite pinpoint what was wrong. So she stood and made her way over to the bathroom to take a look in the mirror. Fangs. She had fangs.
Staring at herself in the mirror, Laina realized that …