Chapter Text
Emma knew she wasn't normal. She knew from the moment she and Ray were in the kitchen, and Ray cut his finger on a knife. Emma, noticing Ray's face scrunch up in tears tried to help him by kissing it better. It was a small scrape, barely even cutting the flesh. It bled only a few drops, but when she tried to kiss it better like Mom would have done, she got some blood on her lips. She licked it away, everything was as it should be.
Emma and Ray decided to go find Norman so they could play, and Emma felt a little... off. She brushed it away, deciding to just try to enjoy the game they were playing. At dinner that night, Emma found herself only wanting to eat the brisket Mom had prepared. She still piled everything up onto her plate. After all, they were having sweet potato that night, and it was her favorite! After she finished eating, she felt somewhat nauseated, so she excused herself to the bathroom.
When she got there, there was suddenly just a wave of pain, making her hunch over the toilet as she vomited everything she had eaten. She started getting up, getting prepared to tell Mom when she felt something burst in her mouth. Her gag reflex kicked in, knocking her down and making the blood that had pooled in her mouth splash into the toilet bowl. She looked down, seeing something solid in the vomit. She tried to see what the object was, only for another wave of pain to enter her mouth. She saw in time, that it was a tooth. She tried to get up, to go get help, but she stayed rooted in place on the cold ceramic tiles of the floor as one by one, her teeth fell out. She tried to scream as she felt her jaw dislocating for larger teeth to fit in her mouth, when she felt her finger nails being pushed out for sharper, sturdier ones. She fully collapsed onto the floor when the pain of new teeth growing into her mouth at a viciously fast pace, ripping her gums apart.
She lay there shivering on those cold tiles as she felt her irises sharpening, when she felt her leg bones dislocating and cracking, forming new structures made for agility and power. She lay there silently crying as she heard her shoes ripping as her feet rearranged to something like that of a dog's that she had seen in story books. She lay there crying without sound even as the pain stopped. She didn't know how long she was laying there like that. It could've been days, hours, or minutes, but nonetheless, she had to move. She grabbed the side of the sick, pulling herself. She almost fell once when her legs felt unnatural to her and a second time when she saw what she looked like. Her pupils were slits, her teeth looked fit for a carnivore, meant for tearing ripping meat. Her hands looked akin to claws, and her legs were bent in a way that should be impossible for a human.
But underneath the pain, it felt right. Like a veil had suddenly been lifted from her eyes, and it was if a sudden clarity had been added to everything. She flushed the toilet and tried to take a step on her new legs. She wobbled and nearly fell, but caught herself on the wall. She tried again, and again, and again, until she could walk without stumbling. She then remembered that she had to explain this to Mom, and her face scrunched with horror. Deciding instead to try and find Ray and Norman for comfort, she swiftly exited the bathroom, trying to be as quiet as possible with her new legs, she clumsily wandered to the library, knowing at least Ray would be there.
As she approached the library, she felt someone behind her. Slowly turning around, hoping that it wasn't who she thought it was, she was dismayed at seeing Mom behind her. Even worse was Mom's face. Emma knew that Mom liked her less than other kids for some reason, but didn't know the reason. But looking now into her eyes, the unfiltered disgust in her eyes, she could take a pretty good guess. And before she could more, before she could even try to speak she felt it. That she was in danger with this person. Feeling the disgust and anger radiating off of her, Emma knew in her soul that she was utterly and completely trapped. So when she saw Mo-her hand raising and going toward her face, her new instincts told her to hut her, bite, to fight, and that she was the superior being. But she was only a child after all, and she stayed frozen in place even as the person she once thought of as her mother slapped her harshly across the face, the pain in her jaw and her new teeth making her bite down, drawing blood from her lip. The woman hit her again, and she fell to the floor. The woman she thought cared for her hit her again and again, and the next thing she knew, Ray and Norman were above her, barricaded in the library when the woman she once loved left her battered on the floor.