Fangs

By Ava Lauren Grayson

I wake to vertical metal bars rising like walls all around me and a thick chain acting like a piece of jewelry around my neck.

I am right where I am supposed to be.

As I rise on all fours and stretch out my back, I can barely move a few inches before the chain chokes me. I manage to look to the side. There are more animal cages boxing me in. A bobcat tries to sleep to my right and a wolf paces the cell to my left.

My plan worked. The doctor found me.

I knew it was a risk coming here like this. Dr. Fang could have figured out that I’m a Morphie. But I knew Claudia’s only chance for freedom was for me to get inside. Fortunately, it appears the doctor didn’t suspect anything.

Dr. Fang has been wanting to experiment on Morphies as long as I can remember. That’s why I came to The Future. On its face, it’s a zoo in the middle of a Florida forest with the purpose of rescuing injured animals, healing them, and releasing them back into the wild. But my kind know that this is just a front. Once Dr. Fang discovered us, he wouldn’t stop until he captured and tested a Morphie. And he finally caught one.

I came here to help her escape.

Disguised as an injured puma, I calm my nerves and focus on my transformation. I imagine my paws turning back into feet and my fingers reaching out on the cold, metal floor. My ears morph back into bare cartilage, and my nose turns a gentle shade of sand. Dark, untamed hair falls over my shoulders and down my back. I know that my transformation works as soon as the chains drop to my shoulders, allowing me to slip out of them. Grabbing the blanket on the ground, I tie it around myself until I can get to the veterinary ward. Now much smaller, I slide between two bars and sniff out the most concentrated scent of human flesh. Sprinting with my remaining puma speed to the nearest door, I stop to listen until my fine-tuned ears hear silence. I shove the door open and sneak into the crisp white hallway. Using my enhanced vision to scan down the hallway, I catch sight of veterinary uniforms hanging on a wall. Slipping into one of them and stealing a pair of flats from a locker, I tie my hair back into a ponytail and pray that no one smells the earthy cat perfume on my skin.

Stalking through the facility, I scan the signs above each room while my nose works overtime to find Claudia. But so far, my nose is full of rubbing alcohol and animal feces.

A scream echoes down the corridor, and the hair on my knuckles rises. Claudia.

Her scream reverberates in my ears. I sprint towards the cry and stop at a steel door with a sign reading “Future Labs.” This door is all that separates me from my little sister. Closing my eyes, I project my consciousness into the room and feel what lies within.

Claudia is strapped to the table, half in her red fox form and half in her human form. Her face is currently morphing back into human features, but her bushy tail and paws are still visible. A man stands over her, watching. Dr. Fang.

A snarl builds up in my throat. I wondered in the weeks after she was captured why she didn’t morph into anything else—a fly, a bee, an ant—just to escape. Now I know. Fang is testing her, drawing blood, dissecting her. Just a newly transformed Morphie, she doesn’t have the strength to fight his human drugs.

I cannot wait any longer. I open the door.

“Roe!” Claudia croaks.

Dr. Fang turns and studies me. I try to hold it together but when I catch sight of Claudia’s blood on his hands, I cannot contain the animal inside of me. My body sheds the uniform and grows the hair and muscles of a wolf.

Baring my fangs, I growl at the doctor who now grabs a syringe and lunges towards me. I snap at his arm as he tries to inject me, but he pulls it away just in time and knocks over the metal tray table. Test tubes and tools clank on the marble floor.

As I pursue my prey, Dr. Fang scrambles toward the emergency button on the wall. Click. An alarm sounds. I’m out of time. More zoologists will arrive any second with tranquilizers. Without hesitating, I launch forward and shove him against the wall. The animal inside of me wants to sink my fangs deep into the doctor’s neck. He tortured my little sister; made an experiment out of her. Yet my human conscience prevents me from doing so. I take a breath and decide to show him mercy. But I can’t free him yet or else there is no chance we will escape. With my paws on his chest, I jerk Dr. Fang to the side. His head collides with a metal cabinet, and he slumps to the floor unconscious.

Striding over to Claudia and gnawing through the leather straps, I nudge her with my nose. She barely moves. Her weakness has left her unable to morph.

Transferring some of my power to her, I urge Claudia’s body to morph into a rabbit as I transform into a hawk. Wrapping my talons around her ribs just as the door jerks open, I tuck Claudia beneath my wings and fly straight over the armed doctors and out of the room.

Soaring down the hallway, my heart thuds heavily, uncertain I’ll make it through the closing door in time. At the last moment, I turn sideways and slip through by a feather’s breadth. Catching the freedom of the wind, I breathe in relief as I spread my wings and head for the safety of home.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A. L. Grayson is a UCLA Undergraduate student in the Theater, Film, and Television department. She has written a collection of works including two YA fantasy novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. If Grayson is not reading, painting, or out filming something, you can probably find her scribbling in a notebook or on the couch deciding whether to rewatch The Princess Bride or The Empire Strikes Back.

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