Chapter Text
You weren't sure where you were now after death, but it was certainly not in the time period you had come from.
You blinked at the leaves, rising from the ground to sit up and scan your surroundings. Only to be befuddled by the extra height you gained. You brought a hand to your sight and realized that your hand was larger than it had been, the skin colour paler than it had been before. Your fingers were long and elegant, but the pointed tips meant that they were claws. Scanning your whole arm before the rest of your body, you realized how…inhumane your body was. Were you taller?
You brought your hands to your face, getting a feel of any new features you might have gained. You felt the shape of your eyes to your nose, which was still somewhat human, to your mouth. Feeling the lips before prodding inside, you found that your teeth were sharper than they were. More for the carnivorous types than the omnivores. And your tongue…was it longer?
Pulling your hands from your mouth, you looked around; trees that surrounded you, sunlight dappling through the leaves and branches, and you heard the patter of critters and larger animals moving about their lives. You were in a forest…you needed food.
As you rose to stand, you really got an idea of how tall you were. You could reach the tree branches! But that also means stumbling around like a newborn fawn as you get used to your new legs. The legs themselves were inhuman as well; instead of a human shape, they reminded you of the hind legs of mammals that curve back. As you shakily wander around the forest, looking for any berries or perhaps a rabbit at least, your luck had you stumbling upon a lake instead. It was clean, with a crystal-like reflection, and as you got closer, you could see the bottom of the depths.
No pollution had contaminated it.
'How lucky,' you thought to yourself as you kneeled at the edge and took a handful of water to your mouth, gulping it with relief. When you had taken a moment to hydrate, you then took the chance to look at your reflection. Your eyes are…larger than normal, with three pupils and irises that seem to blend at the edges but never fully merging as one, and the corneas are pitch black. It doesn't help that you had more than two, maybe six, with three on each side? You counted again before nodding. Yup, six.
And your face was more…angular? Sharper in an elegant way than humans with a sharp jaw or cheekbones are. Your mouth is wider, more maw than lips, and your skin was pale as bone. And on the sides of your head, a bit behind your pointy ears, were two wings. How did you not notice them? They flap at your confusion, seeming to react according to your feelings or instincts. You weren't human, not anymore. You were…something else.
After checking yourself out, you were about to head out to hunt when a rustling noise caught your attention. You had stayed still, watching, waiting for them to reveal themselves. There were footsteps, murmurs that were becoming louder, then your nose caught a whiff os something that was musky and had a hint of blood. You waited a few more seconds before two men came out of the trees, stumbling over their boots. The clothes they wore weren't the hunter attire you were aware of; this style seemed older. And the weapons they carried appeared to be an older model of the rifle…were you in the past?
You weren't able to ponder further when one of the men screamed, "What is that!?"
"It's one of them monsters!" the second one cried out, immediately hearing the clicking of the gun.
You didn't know when your gaze had drifted to the floor, so when you raised it to look at them directly, you saw the terror in their eyes before they both went rigid and fell to the ground. The weapons they were holding slipped from their grasp as they fell, and after ten seconds, you realized they weren't getting up.
More like they can't get up. You can see the way their eyes twitch and how erratic their eyes move from the trees to you before anywhere else, but their limbs aren't moving as if something was preventing them. And they had just looked at you…wait.
Were you like Medusa? Able to paralyze anyone who looks into her gaze? That sounds like a good theory, but it doesn't explain the wings on your head.
You walked towards the fallen humans, kneeling to their frozen forms. You rifled through their pockets and packs, taking out knives, pistols, and some miscellaneous things they had on their person. As you went through the humans' things, a crumpled paper fell from one of their pockets, catching your attention.
Perhaps it's something that'll give you some info about this world.
Moving the things you had taken out, you placed the crumpled paper down and began to smooth it out. When it was unfolded and spread, you realized it was a poster. A poster for a circus.
Circus of Freaks!
With real freaks and monsters ready for your entertainment!
And below the title and subtitle, the illustrations showcased a red tent with a proud man of plump stature beside it. And below the tent and man, at the bottom, were six coloured eyes: yellow, green, pink, purple, cyan, and blue.
A sinking feeling washed over you as you stared at the poster before looking back on the humans you had paralyzed. You were in the Freak Circus visual novel. And not in the era where the game starts. Oh no, you were way back in the past of it. During the era when Columbina was alive.
How perfect for you.
You have a chance to save them. To save them from the torture and from eating her. But first…
Dropping the poster, you kneeled over one of the men and dragged one of your claws across his neck, making sure to plunge and cut it deep. The man died silently. You did the same towards the second man, watching the terrified eyes lose light. You then gently took off their clothes and gently folded them to the side, so you have options when you shift to your more human form. Once they were naked, you dug in.
You were never a cannibal till now, and the idea of eating a human had made you uneasy. But knowing your situation, you had sucked up any discomfort and took the first bite. You expected bile running up your throat, for your mind to be so repulsed you would stop and spit it out, any normal reaction. But what you didn't expect was the moment blood and flesh hit your tongue, your stomach churned in hunger, and your mouth wanted more. Soon, you find yourself gobbling down the first man, tearing and chewing away his flesh.
Perhaps it's the monster side of you taking over, biology overriding the brain and logic. Yes, the way you're reacting to your situation wasn't normal. You were supposed to have a panic attack or an existential crisis or something upon learning of the new world, being in a new body, or eating a human. But you felt any rising panic be pushed to the back and locked in a room in your mind, something to visit for another day. Right now, you're busy eating.
Soon, you find yourself finishing the first human till he was bones before moving on to the next one. The blood was salty, and the raw flesh reminded you of….pork? Like some raw parts of pork, but the texture was akin to beef. Perhaps this is what humans taste to animals. Humans are so weird.
Once you finished, you licked the blood off your claws and wiped the excess off your lips and face. You brought yourself to the lake to properly clean yourself, washing your hands before your face till no blood or fleshy bits were left. You felt a bit bad for contaminating the lake, but it was needed.
Now clean, you just have to figure out how to change to a human form. Can you do that? You thought to yourself for a moment, thinking. Perhaps you have to imagine being a human to change? Maybe try to feel the change?
'Kinda wish there was a manual for this body. Would make this a lot easier.'
Huffing, you closed your eyes and imagined yourself as a human. You remembered the way you looked, from the shape of your eyes to the colour of your skin, your body shape, and how tall you were, and down to the minuscule details. Old scars, freckles, or birthmarks. You imagined your wings tucking themselves in to you, hiding themselves. You imagined feeling yourself shrink to a height humans wouldn't be scared of. You imagine yourself feeling the changes to your body, trying to connect your thoughts to your body…
You felt your wings folding themselves against yourself, slowly melding against the skin of your head. Your bones creaked and cracked as you felt it shift and adjust, feeling your limbs shrink and your spine smaller. It hurts. It's weird. It's so fascinating.
Your teeth grit as you endured the change, claws digging into the Earth as you shrank and changed. When the pain waned, and all you felt was an ache, you slowly opened your eyes to look down. Your limbs were still long, but not as long as you originally were. The claws were now akin to hands with pointy fingers, or nails if the human brain can comprehend it. They crawled to the end of the lake and took a look at your face. It was rounder than before, a familiar human shape with human-like cheeks and a human jaw. Your extra eyes hid themselves as tiny freckles under your two main eyes, and your eyes themselves were still triple irises and pupils with inky black corneas, giving you the horror look.
You'll have to close your eyes when with humans, for their safety and for yours.
You took the clothes you got from your two meals and started putting them on. They were tight, with the tunic fitting them tightly while the pants of their second meal reached to their mid legs. And mind you, your meals were for two large men with a bulk build. Very filling. But it seems that despite shrinking, you were still a good 6'5 to 7 feet tall. At least the first man's boots fit you.
Once you fixed the clothes on you, took a few knives and shoved them in the packs, before grabbing a branch and walking into the woods. Now that your sense of smell was enhanced, you could smell where your meals came from, weaving through the forest as you followed the lingering scent that wafted. You took the time to practice speaking, realizing that your speech had more growls and an echoing effect when you speak. You adjusted your voice and speech patterns to something humans were familiar with and more comfortable with.
By the time you managed to fix your speech and voice, you found colorful tents set up not far from you. Tall with flags at the top, and when you got closer, you heard men talking and running around to man the area. And a bit within one of the tents, with your enhanced hearing, you could hear the hints of growls, whinings, and exhausted voices.
You found them.