Echo - Awakening
Blurb:
Echo is a regular human in a cyberpunk esque world suffocated by pollution and greed. Perhaps once, thousands of years ago, the world was filled with magic and life.
This story is about coming of age, self discovery, and self acceptance.
TW/ Uncontrolled changes to the body, censored swearing, vague implied abuse
Word count: 2.8k
Echo rushes down the street as holo ads and signs blink their blinding lights above her. The occasional car drives by, splashing her with the slightly acidic rainwater that makes her skin tingle. The silence of the city is deafening, drones whizzing by, advertisements playing out of speakers both near and far, and the occasional plane flying over the city. Saro city is home to a very important large airport, one she has the displeasure of working at. She is going to be late again however, and this time she won’t be able to make an excuse to her boss. Echo can practically hear her boss shouting that she’s fired and see her mom’s disappointed face when she tells her she lost her first real job.
It’s only been Echo and her mom ever since her father left. Echo wasn’t even born when he left, and Mom was always very cagey about any details with Echo’s father. Echo always had the feeling that her father wasn’t a very good person to Mom. Ever since she came to that conclusion, Echo has always tried to support her mother however she can, whether it be doing chores around the house, working to make a little extra credit, or working hard in school, and now she’s going to blow it all because of that stupid nightmare.
Snapping out of her daydreaming, she turns down into the subway stairwell, skipping every other step. She can hear the train pulling up. Hopefully someone else is there to stop it, but knowing her luck and considering it’s 4am no one will be there. Just as she reaches the platform, Echo watches as the doors start to close.
“No- no no!” She shouts, breaking out in a sprint. Indeed no one is on the platform, no one is even on the train. Just as she reaches the doors they shiiiik shut, making her bounce off of them in a tremendous crash.
“S#!%” Echo swears as the train pulls away. She feels like her whole body is tingling from the crash.
She coughs a little as she stands up, not minding the tingling, it’s common to feel tingling from any amount of pollutants or chemicals on the ground or in the rain.
“… f@!%” she swears again, growing hot with anger. That stupid dream! That stupid stupid-
Buzz buzz buzz buzz-
Her H-phone starts rhythmically buzzing, snapping her out of her rage. But she is still feeling hot and tingly, it should’ve worn off by now-
All thoughts stop as she stares at her impossibly bright holo screen, a strange symbol is burned into it, distorting the picture of her and Mom into a glitchy mess. Before Echo can comprehend what she’s seeing, her H-phone becomes scalding hot. She yelps in pain and drops her phone into a puddle on the platform, where the water starts hissing. It boils and steam rises into the air, the lights and holo ads on the platform flickering like they are overcharged and the tripper is about to break.
“What the hell!?” Echo exclaims, eyes scanning the room before they are drawn back to look at the steam.
She gasps, stumbling back as she sees two slitted golden-yellow eyes staring back at her through the steam- or in the steam? The more she looks the more confused she becomes, it looks like a hologram but much too detailed, flickering with the chaotic lights in the subway station implying that these lights are making this illusion. It has to be an illusion. Or a hallucination. There is no other explanation. Maybe the rain had something else in it; it’s not unheard of to get high from chemicals in the rain-
The tingling in Echo’s body intensifies, to the point where it feels like lightning is coursing through her veins. She grabs onto a nearby pillar to steady herself and sparks immediately race from her hands, running up and down the pillar. All the while the eerie glowing eyes watch. Her hand feels glued to the pillar, the energy coursing through her and into the pillar is freezing her body into place. She screams, partially from terror (am I going to die?) and partially from the shear, overwhelming power flooding her senses. Lights explode, circuitry sparks, and-
All at once, everything stops, the lightning in her veins, the flickering lights, and the glowing eyes all disappear. Echo’s legs collapses from underneath her, exhaustion taking the place of the power within moments before. The subway is completely dark now, but Echo can barely register that. The tile is cool and wet beneath her, soothing her still feverish skin. She can hear her H-phone still hissing in the puddle, the sound starting to simmer down as the phone itself cools.
With monumental effort, Echo drags her hands up to her shoulders and pushes herself off of the blissfully cool tiles. It’s not safe to remain in one place too long, especially in this district.
She looks around the pitch black room, spotting her phone in the half-evaporated puddle. She picks it up, feeling that it’s still warm. Limping towards the escalator, she decides that whatever the f%#! just happened, Echo isn’t staying around to experience that again. At least she is alive, that’s all that matters. She couldn’t imagine having to make her mom file a missing person’s report, having to identify her corpse. Echo promised herself she would never make her mother go through that, not ever.
As Echo gets to the top of the escalator and looks up, she is momentarily blinded by the lights.
Is the sun up already!?
A few quick blinks and rubbing her eyes later, her vision goes back to normal. The lights are the correct brightness and the sky is as smoggy and gloomy as ever, if not completely black. Echo is now supremely freaked out, what the f&#@ is happening to me. She breaks out into a limping sprint, turning down the first back alley she can.
The alley is relatively secluded, at least drones aren’t constantly buzzing overhead, and Echo can take a breather. Did she… did she just have nightvision? She never has gotten any body mods other than removable ones for cosplay, nor has she ever woken up in an alley with her organs missing, so what the *hell* was that? Is she still hallucinating? No, that was too real, maybe she’s sick? *Yeah sick, let’s go with that.*
She shakily exhales, not just because she’s scare s#!%less. Echo is feeling ill, she has a fever and her body feels weak.
I need to get home, call in sick. Maybe I won’t lose my job, I should have at least one sick day she thinks with uncharacteristic optimism. Stumbling her way out of the alley, she makes the long trek back home, not bothering to take the bus.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
By the time Echo gets home, she is near delirious from the exhausting heat. The sun isn’t up yet but the early risers are; cars and hover cars fill the roads and skyways, a few people are walking on the streets, and some apartments have lights on.
Echo is barely aware of this however, she is on complete auto pilot. She climbs the stoop to her apartment and fumbles with the doorknob. Once she’s inside she walks past the very concerned looking doorman and up to the elevator. She punches in her floor number, 22, and grabs onto the railing like it’s a lifeline.
Echo might have blacked out because the next thing she knows the elevator doors are opening and she’s stumbling out and down the hallway. She eventually staggers into her house, through the kitchen, and flops into her bed.
She is out before her head touches the pillow.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Ko-ko? Sweetheart are you alright?” Kori, Echo’s mother, asks from the doorway. It’s about midday now, Kori is a late sleeper due to her late night shifts.
Echo groans as they wake up. She rolls over, skin slick with sweat. She leaves a wet spot on the bed where her forehead was pressed into the pillow.
“Oh sweetheart! You’re burning up! Do you want me to call into your work?”
Echo wants to protest, they should do it themselves, but they feel so awful that they just nod weakly.
“Aright, you wait there I’ll make some soup.” Kori rushes off, starting to make some soup as they talk to their home assistant and place a call with Echo’s boss. Echo barely pays attention as they start burrowing into her bedsheets.
Her body feels both hot and cold in alternating patches all over her body. Her muscles are sore, her stomach is in knots, and her brain is sluggish. She tries to think over what happened at the subway but exhaustion drags her mind to a halt.
At some point she must have fallen asleep because next thing she knows a bowl of soup is sitting on the bedside table. Echo is feeling much better, her fever has died down significantly, and she isn’t feeling sick to her stomach anymore. With a start she realizes that the sun is well on its way to setting. How long did she sleep for? She must have gotten over the weakness that overtook her a few hours ago because when she pushes herself up she barely uses any strength. Odd she thinks, but the scent of the special ’organic’ chicken soup wafts through the air making her stomach growl loudly.
Echo obliges her suddenly ferocious hunger, sliding out of bed. She snatches the bowl and quickly drinking the soup directly from it. The soup leaves her completely unsatisfied. She leaves her room and hurries into the kitchen. She puts the bowl and unused spoon into the sink before hungrily opening the fridge. Everything looks tasty. In a hunger induced trance, she pulls out all the deli meats, the pickle jar, the milk, several nutri-bars, a synthetic apple, and a bottle of branded electrolyte water. Arms full, she waddles over to the kitchen table and dumps all the food on it. She runs over to the counter and grabs bread and condiments, stomach growling in anticipation. Going back to the table she hastily assembles a sandwich. Before she can make another the hunger overtakes her and she eats it. Then the nutri-bars, then just the plain deli meats, and the apple, then half of the loaf of bread which makes her thirsty, so she guzzles down the electrolyte water.
Leaning back in the chair finally feeling satisfied, she sighs contentedly.
Then it dawns on her what she just did.
Echo jolts up in her chair and stares in abject horror at the mess she made. Crumbs are everywhere, there are spills of condiments and electrolyte water on the floor and table, the pickle jar is empty (did she drink the pickle brine?!) and there is no sign of the apple other than the seeds.
What. The f@#%. Is happening to me?
Echo can only thank her lucky stars that Mom is working, she has no idea how to explain the rampage she just went on. Not wanting the condiments to dry, she starts hurriedly wiping the spills up with a dishcloth, not bothering to activate the crappy robo-floor cleaner.
As she cleans, Echo is frantically trying to think of some logical explanation as to why they just ate half the food in the fridge. Did she skip breakfast? No, has she been stressed? Well yes but not stressed enough to do this.
She reaches over to scratch her cheek.
Maybe it’s hormones? It could very well be, her period is-
What the f&$#.
She lightly touches her cheek again in disbelief.
That’s not skin she thinks, starting to panic. Where her skin should be, something hard and smooth like glass is on her face.
What the f@%# what the f*%$ what the f%$# she abandons the cleaning cloth and half scrubbed floor and runs to the bathroom. Skidding to a stop in front of the mirror, she gets a glimpse of the hard, iridescent, interlocking *things* on her face before shooting skull pain drops her on the cold tile floor. Once again her skin grows hot, almost scaldingly so. She bites back a scream of agony. Echo clutches her head as her skull starts moving, making way for two bony protrusions that pokes holes in her scalp. Somehow, she manages to stay quiet, she doesn’t want anyone checking on her although she doesn’t think those exact thoughts due to the pain. She *feels* the protrusions branching out like a tree, not having to touch them to feel it. Her thoughts scream for this to stop and shockingly, her body listens. As the things on her head finishes forming, she can feel prickling down near their collarbone. She shakily lower her hand from her head as the pain fades and touches her collarbone, feeling more of the smooth bumps that’s replacing her skin. She still feels feverishly hot and the cold tile floor giving her some relief, but she needs to stand up, just to see what the *hell* has happened to her. Before she could think herself out of it, she grabs the sink and heaves herself up. Her eyes are having trouble focusing on the mirror, all she sees for a few moments is a blurry turquoise shape coming out of her neon teal hair. The blob that is her face is entirely the wrong colour, being a pale iridescent green-blue. Fear rises, she can’t make sense of what is happening.
Echo gasps as her eyes suddenly figure out how to focus, she can’t believe what she is seeing. Two turquoise horns that resemble tree branches are coming out of her skull, and light greenish-blue scales with a rainbow-iridescent shine to them are covering her face and most of her neck. Her eyes have slitted pupils and her irises are a luminescent blue that is what the clear sky looked like in old times. It would be beautiful, if it wasn’t attached to her face.
“F-f$&%” she whispers, panic rising through the shock. Her teeth start aching- this can’t be real, it must be a dream- and the prickling feeling on her skin comes back. She sees her teeth growing sharper and more animal-like.
“No! No no, stop-“ her jaw is aching- but as soon as she says that the changes once again stop.
Her mouth is still sore but it’s not painfully moving anymore, she rubs it trying to sooth the pain.
“Alright, I’m glitching out, it stops when I ask it to” she chortles with disbelief.
“Now how do I hide this before Mom sees…” she starts pacing, the prickling starting up again. She once again tells the prickling to stop and it does. Why does that work?!
“Just stop, stop for good, please.”
Maybe I just need to ask it to go away the ridiculous thought crosses Echo’s mind. It’s insane, but this whole situation is insane, maybe the idea insane enough to work. If anything, it’s worth a shot.
“Uh, could this all… go away?” She says out loud to the air.
Nothing happens.
*Maybe I wasn’t specific enough?*
She tries again “make the horns and s-scales and uh, all the other stuff go back to normal.” Even though she chokes on the words, she believes she sounds more assertive.
There is a sharp sting all over her face and head and wherever the scales covered, making Echo wince and instinctively close her eyes.
Did it work? Echo keeps her eyes shut but slowly and hesitantly reaches up to her face.
The scales are gone.
Her hands dart to the back of her head and it feels normal, smooth as always.
“Oh thank f&%@.” Echo leans to the back wall of the bathroom and slides down it. Was that all a dream? No, it was too real, not like the crazy nightmares she’s been having of late. Yet those nightmares seem too real as well, but usually she would wake up if she realizes this is a dream, and she hasn’t yet. She pinches herself just to be sure.
Ouch, no dice. She opens her eyes with quite a bit of effort and stares at her fingers. She remembers the subway station, how it felt like the entire electric grid was running through her at once. As she imagines the sparks and the sensation, little sparkles of light dance from her tingling fingertips.
Echo quickly grips a towel, holding onto anything to give her comfort. The tingling goes away almost instantly.
What in the holy f&$@ has happened to me?
She slowly stands up, weak and shaky from her experience. She needs rest, but what if it happens again while she sleeps? What reptilian creature would they wake up as? Echo can’t risk it, and goes to her room to do what she always does when she doesn’t want to sleep.
She calls her friends, Ruby and Zack. They’ll know what to do, or at the very least they can comfort her. Either way, this is going to be one hell of a story.