Shady Hybrids AU

BOOK 3 CH3: Distinct Instincts

I wake up and it's 12am. Crap. My sleep schedule is gonna be messed up for a while.

(As if I ever had one in the first place.)

Either way, the first thing that registers is my back hurting. It feels horrible, like a spear has gone through there. I immediately try to fall back to sleep but now I've registered the pain, I can't ignore it and it keeps me awake.

Dammit.

I decide to try and get up and make myself a healing potion. That'll help soothe the pain.

In goes the nether wart, in goes the blaze powder. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and my eyes are glowing brighter than ever. I try to ignore it. I go to my communicator to see Dan conversing with Yammy about some soul sand. Remembering the wither comment, I realise that I'm not gonna be able to find a distraction at this hour so I focus on brewing. In goes a glistening melon for healing. I watch as the bubbles sizzle in the bottles as they turn a watery blue to a bright, standing out red. As soon as they're done I pick one up and stand up, trying to ignore the pain shooting up again. It smells like sweet fizzy strawberry, as it always does. It's a comforting smell. The pop of the cork sounds across the room in my silence and I down it in one gulp.

...

I have never regretted anything more in my entire life. life.

Pain. Pain is the first thing I feel. Pain all over my body. It starts throbbing when going down my throat and doesn't stop in my stomach. It's an intense pulsating pain, like I just swallowed lava. It pools in my mouth and my back, and those parts are excruciating. I try to scream but the pain in my mouth makes it unable to even move it. Everything. Everything hurts. I can hear my heartbeat speeding like a car on a racetrack.

It's plain and utter torture.

Why? I drank a healing potion, not a harming one! Why does it hurt? Why does it hurt? And harming potions are nothing compared to this! They're a slight prickling, this, this is- I can barely take it!

It only gets worse. Something bursts out of my back, causing me to collapse onto the ground from the sheer weight and the torment of it all. I can feel my skin bursting, my muscles trying to contain the new weight that is there. It pulls at me, pulls at my bones and nerves, pulls at my chest as I desperately try to soothe the pain. I can't see any blood but that's the least of my worries. I grab another healing potion from the desk and try to drink from it but it falls out of my hands spectacularly and splashes across my stomach, causing it to start burning up. I start clutching at my chest and face, trying anything to stop it, stop it, please god someone stop it! I end up unlocking my jaw and being able to scream out for help, but what am I thinking? No one's around to hear.

My spine feels like it's being stretched as something wraps around my neck and stomach, cutting off my breathing to some extent. It leaves me gasping for air.

"HELP! HELP! PLEASE SOMEONE-GH-HELP ME!'

No one hears.

I've felt pain. That's true. I've felt the feeling of being burned to a crisp with no one to save me. I felt that same pain looped while sitting in limbo until the server freed me. I've felt the feeling of being stabbed in the back multiple times. I've felt a lot of things.

I have never felt any pain like this before.

My vision's already starting to blur and I'm beginning to grey out. As I'm wrestling with the thing around my neck I kick at a block in front of me, causing my communicator to fall off of it. With all the strength I have I grab it and shakily send an SOS message with what I can see on the screen and what my hands can type.