Blue-eyed girl

CHAPTER ONE: A NEW BEGINNING

NOTE TO READER: BLUE-EYED GIRL IS THE THIRD BOOK IN A SERIES. THIS IS AN UNEDITED VERSION, WHICH MIGHT LEAD TO A TERRIBLE READER EXPERIENCE. AN UPDATED VERSION WOULD BE NOTE TO READER: BLUE-EYED GIRL IS THE THIRD BOOK IN A SERIES. THIS IS AN UNEDITED VERSION, WHICH MIGHT LEAD TO A TERRIBLE READER EXPERIENCE. AN UPDATED VERSION WOULD BE UPLOADED ON THE 1ST OF JANUARY, 2021. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE FIRST TWO BOOKS IN THE SERIES, IF NOT GO NOTE TO READER: BLUE-EYED GIRL IS THE THIRD BOOK IN A SERIES. THIS IS AN UNEDITED VERSION, WHICH MIGHT LEAD TO A TERRIBLE READER EXPERIENCE. AN UPDATED VERSION WOULD BE UPLOADED ON THE 1ST OF JANUARY, 2022. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE FIRST TWO BOOKS IN THE SERIES, IF NOT GO CHECK IT OUT. 

MARKED MASK (Shifter Series – Book One)

WATCH HER DIE (Shifter Series – Book Two)

BLUE-EYED GIRL (Shifter Series – Book Three)

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Natasha groaned softly, opening her eyes to the bright light shining above. She contorted her face as she rolled over, glancing around the room. Her pupils started adjusting to the bright light piercing her eyelids.

Natasha heard continuous beeping and turned to her left. Her eyes fell on the beat-up desk beside her; a heart meter sat atop, along with several medical devices.

She observed a surgical needle and some blades scattered on the table. Her wandering gaze finally rested on the dress she was wearing –a white overall reaching up to her neck.

That was when Natasha realized she was in a hospital. A pungent scent hung in the air and she turned to look around, taking in sight of some test tubes which were neatly arranged on a rack.

Wrinkles egressed her forehead.

This isn’t a hospital.

She heard the door open and someone walked in. she tried to steal a peek to see who it is, but she couldn’t move a muscle. Her muscles felt stiffened. She rolled her eyes to the corner as the footstep approached.

“Miss Natasha, you’re finally awake.” came a familiar voice.

She rested her head onto the pillow, forcing her arms to relax when she realized whose voice it is. “Dr. Frank,” she uttered weakly, eyeing the ceiling. “Where am I?”

“You are in my laboratory.” Frank revealed, inching closer until her came into her line of sight. “You were injured pretty badly. They were going to amputated both your arms and feet, but your father had you brought here.”

Natasha struggled to sit up, but only her eyes had the ability to move. “What have you done to me?” she said, leaning back onto the pillow. “Why can’t I feel my legs?”

“That is the muscle-blocker taking effect in your body.” Frank explained, taking up an injection from the table. He raised it up against the light as he glanced through. “You should feel better after this.”

Frank lowered the syringe to her arm, pushing the plunger and forcing the fluid into her body. Natasha felt a burning sensation coursing through her veins. Every muscle in her body relaxed, and she regain control of her arms.

Suddenly and totally unexpected, she felt sharp pains ripping through her. Hairs sprouted from her skin and veins ran along her arms.

She let out a shrill, squeezing the bed sheet. Her shoulder became broad and her body started expanding. “What is happening to me?” She grunted, her voice sounding raspy and almost inhuman.

Her eyes were deeply colored and her pupils were heavily dilated. Her nails became claws and she tore the bed sheet. She let out a horrifying cry as long, white fangs protruded from both her upper and lower jaw.

Frank quickly moved to restrain her, pressing down a handcuff onto her wrist and bounding her to the arm of the bed. He tried to calm her but she went wild. She let out an inhuman roar which frightened Frank.

Frank scrambled away, eyes fixed on Natasha as he moved backward. Without taking his eyes off her, he searched the table for a syringe and found it. Grabbing the needle, he ran to Natasha and plunged it into her arm.

Natasha shrieked as the needle pierced her skin, her yellow rimmed eyes narrowing. Her head fell back on the pillow after she lost consciousness.

Frank moved forward and dragged the bed sheet to cover her body, his chest heaving rapidly. And moving to the switch on the wall, he turned off the light.

He opened the door and walked up to William who was waiting in the main hallway. Standing in front of William, his shoulder slumped. “Sir, we have a bit of a problem.” He breathed, rubbing his fingers across his sweaty face.

“What do you mean we have a problem?” William declaimed, his brows snapping together. “Is my daughter ok?”

“Honestly, I can’t say for sure what is happening to her.” Frank answered, disappointedly.

“You assured me nothing would go wrong.” William hissed, sounding terribly upset. “You said this experiment had been performed twice without any hinges.”

“The genetic transmutation has been successfully conducted on both of them. They seem to be healing just fine, but---“ Frank sighed heavily, turning to look away.

William lifted an eyebrow. “But what…” He grunted, raising his voice.

“She doesn’t have control over the new reality.” Frank answered, staring into William’s eyes, his chest heaving rapidly.

William looked at him with scorn. “I need to see my daughter right now.” He muttered under his breath.

“Right this way, sir.” Frank consented, escorting William through the door.

William stood motionless at the entrance as he took in sight of Natasha lying unconscious on the hospital bed. Her snores were inhuman, loud, disturbing. William walked towards her, his pace slow and steady.

Her entire body was covered in animal fur. Sharp fangs hung from her lips, and a tail suspended behind her back. Natasha’s shirt was slightly torn to fit her large body size.

Short of breath, William slowly turned to face Frank, his head vibrating. “You have to fix my daughter.” He muttered, not taking his eyes off him. “You have to.”

“There is simply nothing I can do, sir. Your daughter is in perfect health. She just doesn’t have control over this new reality. Let’s give her some time, I’m sure she would adjust.”

“No!” he cried, his voices expressing his fears. “There has to be a way. Lawrence had a laboratory where he drains these shifters of their powers. Could you not do same to my daughter?”

“That’ll be very dangerous. Your daughter is still healing from her injuries and broken bones. Turning her back at this point is not a good idea. It would be like we never performed the experiment on her. Let’s give her time.”

Climbing out of his truck, Steven observed a small crowd that had gathered around the corner between Bridgton and Fenton Street.

He caught a glimpse of a naked body lying still beside an overhead drainage pipe, a wrinkle creased his brow. The body seemed to be devoid of life.

“Hey Bill, I think you should come see this.” He called to his partner, tapping the van.

Another police officer, a tall male with heavy boot, came out through the door, into the hot afternoon air. “What is wrong?” he asked.

“Look at this,” Steven gestured towards the crowd that had gathered. He hurried down the road, towards the intersection where they had gathered, and reaching them, he took out his batch.

“Police!” Steven hollered, showing his batch to the crowd that had gathered, and they parted. Steven’s eyes fell on the body lying on the tarmac, its bruised body covered in the dirt.

“What the hell happened here?” He turned to an older man standing beside him.

The elderly man trembled at the gruesome sight, his face was drained of blood as he focused on the body. “I heard his body was dumped here early hours of the morning.”

He paused, holding his breath, before looking up at Steven with frightened eyes. “I thought this nightmare died along with that ghoul. What’s his name again? T-Rex.”

“I guess you can’t stop evil by killing just one man.” Steven sighed heavily.

Bill stood beside Steven, his face frozen in horror, as if he was going to puke. “Holy Molly!” he exclaimed, quickly turning away in revulsion. “I swear if I keep seeing bodies like this I’m going to retire before I’m thirty.”

Steven bent his knee to examine the body up-close. “Victim is a tall, heavy-body size male, age sixty to seventy, with multiple bruise across his body as a result of severe torture.” He paused, sliding the tip of his fingers across the corpse. “He died from a bullet to the head?”

Officer Bill shook his head and said. “It looks like we have a new killer on the loose. This killer finishes off his victims with a gun.” he observed.

Taking out a glove and putting them on, Steven bent to carry the body. “Give me a hand here, Bill.” He grunted, trying to move the body by himself. “Let’s move the body to the truck.”

“Where are we taking it?” Bill asked, grabbing the arm, and together they carried the body to the truck.

“Frank’s lab, he’ll run some test on the body to see if we can find some identity.

The heat from the bright red lamp scourged Kevin’s skin. He woke to the antiseptic smell of a hospital. The bright light hanging from the ceiling penetrated his eyes.

Kevin shielded his eyes from the light. His face twisted when he caught a glimpse of something –or someone, standing beside his bed.

He lowered his arm to stare at the shadow looking down on him. The bright light shining behind made it impossible for Kevin to see his face clearly. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he tried to focus his gaze.

“Who are you?” He mumbled.

“The man who saved your life.” A deep, raspy voice sounded.

Everything came into focus, and Kevin turned to look at Frank. His forehead creased as he tried to recognize him. “Have we met before?”

“I’m sure I would remember.” Frank smiled, “My name is Frank Mottek, a laboratory specialist and lead forensic scientist for TCU.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “TCU –you mean the guys that chase after animal-human hybrids -threat control unit?”

Frank smiled, walking to a table at the corner. “I see you are aware of the existence of the taskforces, impressive!”

Kevin sat up straight on the bed with a hunched back, covered in sweat, his arms wrapped around his knees. He stared with mouth agape at the animal fur that covered his skin.

“My shifter gene is back.” He mouthed, glancing at his arms, his eyes widening.

“I ran the genetic process to recreate the shifter gene that had once resided in you.” Frank explained, scooping up a book from the table. “It was necessary to save your life--- the both of you.”

“William saved my life?” Kevin uttered in disbelieve.

Frank carried the book to Kevin. “To be honest, William had no desire in saving you. I was only following direct order from a higher authority. The only reason you’re still alive is because the man at the top needs you to stay alive.”

“The man at the top?” Kevin mumbled, confusion showed plainly on his face as he turned to look at Frank. “Who is this man you speak of?”

“That’s all you need to know for now. More will be revealed to you pretty soon -when you’re finally ready.” Frank said, stretching his arm to hand him the book. “He wants you to have this.”

Kevin took the book from him and turned to it cover page. “Faceless men.” The title read.

Frank watched as the hairs slowly disappeared from Kevin’s skin. The long, sharp finger nails vanished. The white, pointy fang slowly changed back to canine. In a moment, Kevin was back to human.

“Damn it!” Frank cursed beneath his breath. “I wish things were a lot easier with William’s daughter.”

“What’s wrong?” Kevin’s brows knitted together. “Is Natasha ok?” He questioned, putting the book away.

“Just like you, Natasha was also subjected to a genetic transmutation process which uttered her normal DNA and transformed her into a shifter. But there is only one problem now,” He grimaced, “She can’t control it.”

“You turned her?” Kevin said with a slight tone of rage.

“That was the only way to restore her broken bones and accelerate her healing abilities –else she would have been amputated.”

Natasha laid her head on the pillow, facing the ceiling, her eyes streaming with tears and her vision was blurred as she stared at the light bulb hanging above.

Her body felt different, like she was a completely different person. She felt stronger, faster and hairier. The door fell opened and she bent to see who it is. Her face dimmed at the sight of her friends. They froze at the entrance when they saw Natasha.

“Oh my God,” Madelia mouthed, moving her hands to cover her mouth. “What have they done to you?” She stared in utter disbelief.

A flush crept up Natasha’s face and she turned to look away. Tears trickled from her bright yellow eyes, down her hairy cheek. She whimpered as she tried to cover the fangs that protruded her lip with her hands.

Madelia slowly circled the bed and came to a stop in front of Natasha, gazing at her with fixed, wild eyes. Natasha whimpered, quickly turning away and looking down at the foot of the bed. She sobbed.

Madelia moved to comfort her, lifting her head slowly to gaze upon her face. Madelia tried to steady her face but Natasha couldn’t look straight at her. “Look at me Natasha. You are going to be ok.” she assured.

“I don’t think I am ever going to be…” Natasha’s voice trailed off as Madelia wrapped her arms around her. Natasha buried her face on her shoulder, the tears fell freely.

Madelia ran her hand through Natasha’s hair. “Just have some faith, Tasha. Everything will be ok.”

“Where is my dad?” Natasha asked, breaking the hug. “I haven’t seen him in like three days.”

“It’s either you’re sleeping or unconscious each time he visits.” Dreda cut in, leaning against the wall and folding her arms.

Natasha’s eyes flickered past Madelia at Dreda. “Nice of you to come.” She gave what she hoped was a convincing half-smile.

“What reason would I have not to come visit my best friend who is in the hospital?” Dreda chuckled, making funny gestures with her fingers. “You look terrible by the way. You know that, right?” She lifted an eyebrow.

“Dreda?” Madelia frowned, eyeing her. “Really bad time to make sarcastic comments.”

Natasha forced a laughed. “It’s ok, Madelia.”

She suddenly took notice of a guy standing beside Dreda. Nets of wrinkles gathered around the corners of her eyes as she tried to recognize him. “Who is that?”

“Dreda got herself a new boyfriend. His name is Eric.” Madelia revealed, turning to him. “Hey Eric, come say hi to Natasha.”

The tall teenager left Dreda’s side and sauntered towards Natasha in a steady pace. Holding Natasha’s hand, he cracked a radiant smile at her. “How is the wrist?” Eric asked.

Natasha smiled, flexing her wrist. “At least it feels like my bones are back together now. Dr. Frank did quite a number on me.” Turning to him, her eyes narrowed. “So, how did you two met?”

“We met during volley ball practice.” He turned to Derik and gave a lopsided grin. “She couldn’t stop staring at me.”

“Always so full of himself,” Dreda remarked with a scoff, turning away in slight annoyance.

Erik returned to Dreda, wrapping his arms around her. “This is what I love the most about you, this naughty behavior. Makes you resemble a little devil.” He teased.

Madelia shook her head, retuning her gaze to Natasha. “A lot of wired stuff has happened these past few days after you were kidnapped. Do you know I was almost eaten half-alive by some wired guy I saw on the street few nights back?”

“Half-alive”

“Madelia was anything, but alive when she came running to me that night, claiming some guy tried to eat her, trust me.” Dreda cuts in. There was a silent laughter in her voice.

Natasha picked up a note of sarcasm in her voice. “You should have heard the preposterous and almost unbelievable description Madelia gave of this guy who supposedly tried to eat her.”

The door creaked open and they saw, sauntering into the room, Dr. Frank wearing white overall. “You girls would have to excuse us for a moment.” He requested, “I want to be alone with Natasha. I need to run some test on her.”

“Will she be ok?” Madelia looked up at him with dazzling eyes.

“Hopefully, this will all be behind us soon.” He heaved, and with a smile.

Madelia turned to hug Natasha. “Return to normal, ok?”

“I will.”

Dreda moved to hug her, her body shuddering against the tingling sensation of Natasha’s fur -but she choked in her comments about it. “We need you back in school. Everything feels completely differently without you around.”

Natasha smiled, “I never knew you cared so much.”

“Trust me, I don’t.” She chuckled, gently pecking her forehead. “But seriously though, get better soon.”

Turning to eye Madelia, Dreda headed for the door then she stopped. “I’ll call you tomorrow before we come to visit.” She said before she finally left the room.

Frank sat on the bed, leaning forward to closely examine her. Natasha whimpered, eyeing Dr. Frank nervously. “Everything would be back to normal soon, right?”

Frank sighed heavily, and his shoulder slumped. “You want me to be honest with you?”

Natasha nodded, looking up at him with hopeful eyes.

“The experiment I performed on you… went terribly wrong.” He stuttered, trying to avoid looking straight into her eyes. “You were supposed to have red eyes when you transform, but instead yours are yellow. It’s just like the last failed experiment with Mr. Shade, his eyes were yellow instead of…”

“I don’t understand a single word you are spitting right now, doc.” She bawled, grabbing his neck, her claws dug into his skin. Tears escaped her eyelid, trickling slowly down her cheek. “Are you saying am going to turn out exactly like the asshole that r***d me?”

“All I’m saying is that you’re never going to be normal –or have a normal life ever again.” He gurgled, “…unless, you learn to control the animal inside of you.”

She slowly let go of his neck. “How---“ Her lips trembled against her fangs and a sob threatened to choke off her voice. “How do I control it?”

Frank breathed heavily, holding his neck and moving away from her as soon as he found freedom, his chest heaving. He turned to look at his fingers, they were stained in his blood.

Natasha looked at him in regret, her eyes widening. “I’m sorry.”

Fear changed his face. “This was exactly how Mr. Shade started out.”

“Did you really have to be cruel in there? You were literary making fun of her situation.” Madelia complained.

“C’mon, don’t get too serious with me now. You know I didn’t mean anything I said.” Dreda sassed, rolling her eyes. She grunted after searching her bag for something and couldn’t find it.

“What are you looking for?” Eric asked.

“It’s the car key, I can’t find It.” She sighed heavily, walking back into the lab. “I must have dropped it on my way out.”

“I’m coming with you.” Eric quickly followed her, barely able to keep up with her swift strides.

Madelia remained still as she waited with her arms crossed. A black Porsche drove past and came to a screeching halt few meters away from where she stood, then, it reversed. A horn beeped and Madelia glanced down at the window.

“Are you coming or what?” Dreda hissed.

“That was fast.” Madelia opened the door and entered.

“I don’t have all day you know.” Dreda rolled up the windows and drove away.

Few seconds after the car drove off, Dreda raced out of the hospital with the key in her hand. “Hey, wait up! Where are going with my dad’s…” her voice trailed off as she watched the car disappear into the next street.

Eric ran and stood beside her. “What happened? Why did she leave us?” he breathed.

Dreda stared at the vehicle long after it was gone, her eyes widening. “It wasn’t Madelia driving.” She revealed, eyeing the keys in her hand.

“A girl that looks exactly like me was driving.”