Disarmed
It doesn't take you long to realize that most of your bones aren't just shifting - they're disappearing. Your arms and legs go limp within seconds, squishy and boneless, then start to dwindle like deflating balloons. Somehow, the energy cuffs manage to stay attached. The two tentacle-like things that used to be your legs melt together into a single fleshy strip.
That's when your remaining bones take over. Like a stampede of vertebrae, your spine shoots out into your former legs, sprouting dozens of brand new ribs and joining itself to muscles you didn't know you had. It ought to hurt, but instead, it feels exhilarating - the strength of an entire body, condensed into a single sinuous limb. You can feel yourself filling with grace and power. Who needs arms?
As if to answer that question, your scalp itches. Of course, you think - after the way the rest of today has gone, it makes perfect sense that your head should start itching as soon as you no longer have hands to scratch it. The sad little blobs at your shoulders hardly deserve to even be called appendages. Your head flattens out, nose spreading, ears vanishing, your face becoming more snakelike to match your body. Rows of fangs sharpen themselves to needle points. Your tongue splits into a flickering fork - but the itch still won't go away.
It's only when the itching spreads down your neck and chest that you realize it's your scales growing.
They spread quickly down your body, a gleaming sheath of living snakeskin, white on your belly and olive-green on your back. As they go, they smooth out the last hints of humanity - your hair, your shoulders, your hips, your navel, your breasts. The energy cuffs slide off as the remains of your arms disappear; they lie sputtering on the floor, unable to get a grip on limbs that are no longer there. Without a conscious thought from you, your body has picked the perfect shape for escape.
You rise up, a complete and elegant snake, free of your restraints. You can't hold a prisoner who has nothing to hold onto. Your streamlined shape slides easily between the bars. Impossible to escape, eh? Apparently, these scientists have forgotten that they're giving their victims impossible abilities. You hiss contemptuously at your empty cell and slither out into the lab.
Written by Chrysalis on 31 December 2009
The end (for now)