Heroes of Phenomena

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  THE FIRST time it happened, I was too young to understand what was real and what was wrong.

  Shadows took me prisoner each night, showing me monsters with sharp teeth and mangled faces. I trembled in the grip of fear, feeling a cold ache paint over my bones as my body began to shrink. Patches of fur sprang to life, spreading from my head to my toes. Tiny claws creeped from the ends of my fury fingers.

  I screamed in horror at my beastly appearance.

  Floorboards creaked as the enemy approached me, the once human boy. So I lifted my layers of sheets and let them swallow me whole. As I lay there, no longer a boy but a monster, I knew that my life would never be the same.

  How will I keep this a secret? I asked myself as a tail wound its way from my lower back, completing my monstrous transformation.