Prompt: Skin (I come to realize all of the prompts really help me brainstorm ideas for the stories)

Final Word Count: 907

Dermogenesis

Colin groaned, his body ached and he was unable to get out of bed. Curling up, he clenched his stomach; the pain forced a curse from his lips.

“F-fucking s-s-stone- da-damned hole!” Colin stammered, the words sputtering from his quivering jaw.

 He hadn’t been feeling well for a few days, the symptoms only recently erupted in stabbing sensations across his body. The violent feeling brewing within his abdomen was unfathomable. Colin gave a ragged cough, and with it relief came to the suffering in his chest. He took a fleeting moment to relax, before his eyes rested upon the pale glob of sputum that evacuated his throat. His heart sank at the sight of a large red spot in the mucus. With a sudden burst of energy, Colin forced himself to stand. Atrophied knees sent him against the wall of his bedroom with a thud. Using the wall for support Colin coasted toward the door to the hallway, shoulder crumpling and ripping posters he had taped along it, inevitably pushing himself out the door.

Stumbling through the hallway, Colin passed by the landline, reluctant to call a doctor. Thoughts buzzed inside his head like an agitated hive. “It had to be pneumonia. No way it could be anything worse.” Recollecting from a few days ago, that peculiar hole which swallowed an old potters field along his bike route.

 “I’m a fucking idiot fo-” Colin was interrupted by a sharp pain shooting up his right leg. He shouted and crumpled to the floor, leg ceasing to function.

Dragging himself now, Colin saw his goal ahead; the bathroom. His clearest thought was wanting a bottle of aspirin to set his pain at ease.

“SNAP!” The left arm had gone limp.

“POP, CRAAACK!” His left hand stood up on its digits and gripped at the floor on its own.

Pulling himself along, Colin had to contend with his rebelling left hand, clawing its now discolored extremities into the hard wood. Colin heaved, lunging toward the bathroom entrance,  he felt the snaps and pops spread across his back. The left arm twisted against his force, he felt the agony of every angle his arm had bent. Lurching and slamming against the bathroom floor, the left leg too had lost its function. Colin screamed, the discoloration in his left hand inched its way up to his body.

Memories of the cold water in the pit bubbled up in Colin’s mind, the feeling did little to ease the pain of metamorphosis. Muscle fibers grew dense forcing through dermis, the sound of rending flesh echoed throughout his home. Bones crunching, disassembling and reshaping under a stretching dark hide. Tissue splitting in a mist of blood, as arrays of spines and fins grew into place. Colin bellowed, the sound gurgled from a changing gnashing maw. Teeth now sharp and predatory, the head cracked itself open.

“SQUELCH!”

The mass of the head peeled away, and like a newborn from an egg a grotesque snout snapped through rancid fluids to catch its first breath. Rippling with a delicate growl the new creature ventilated. Six eyes opened unblinking, yet strained by the intensity of the house’s lights. It unleashed a hushed screech, and in one motion clawed, webbed hands tore down the offending fixture; the room fell into blanch shadow.

As the night progressed Colin’s lonely home cried out in echoed groans, as the former owner rampaged through its flimsy posts. The light in each window blinked out as if dead, interior blanketed in pitch black. Unhindered by the gloom the creature's eyes shimmered a dim hue, not dissimilar to the radiant stone Colin found in the drowned depths.

Teething on the pulverized remains of its progenitor's bike, the creature could feel a pull in the back of its mottled head. The compulsion wormed through the brain, suckling at the tender neurons within. Relinquishing the grip its jaws had on the ramshackle bicycle, spines and fins erect before it stomped towards the front door. Bashing through with little effort, the night air agitating freshly exposed gills. It marched into the fields which surrounded the house.

Following the gentle cull, the creature felt a slip roll down its spine. Exposed flesh wrapped in fragmented scales forging a finned tail, which balanced the creature's bipedal gait. Corn stalks fell along the path it chased, to Colin the road nearby was well versed, traveled on frequently toward a former potter’s field. As dawn peaked over the horizon the creature let out a horrid cry; eyes ablaze from the sun’s flare. Coming to rest upon the surface of a placid pool, spurred by the sun it dove.

The light ceased to exist within the dark water. Gills throbbed to life filtering, the creature drifted aimless. Catching itself arm before leg, tail thrashing hard behind; swimming in a rhythmic dance. Deeper into the pit beyond the luminous stone, which rose from the depths on an emaciated stalk. Ivory spires enveloped the surrounding walls glistening like stars in the light of the creature's eyes. It could sense others ahead, and multitudes of shining orbs revealed shoals of beasts diving towards a bright glow in the abyss. Inching toward a nearby school, the creature met bliss with others of its kind. The deeper they traveled, the aperture far above would seal; securing the aquatic realm that beckoned them. In time they basked deep in the glow from beneath, twirling away in the currents of oblivion.