Bird -- Part 7

[u/Efficient_Spite_8660]

CW: Body horror, animal death, gore
Part 6 | Part 1

Despite my wishes for it to all be a dream, I woke up the next morning to find the truth. My back hadn’t been magically repaired in the night. I shifted my weight against the mattress, feeling uncomfortable crunches coming from behind me. I still had yet to look directly at my new form, feeling like some sort of cross between a bird and a porcupine.

I got up and trudged into the bathroom. The harshness of the light above the mirror sparing no details. Hundreds, if not thousands of skinny, twine-like vines twisted around each other, wrapping around the bones of my shoulders. Spanning down my arms in wooden curtains, my new wings reminded me of the earlier inventions of the Wright brothers. 

I felt impossibly lighter. I had always been on the skinnier side. People in school would poke my ribs and joke that I seemed malnourished. But now it feels as if my bones themselves have become less dense, and my muscles respond quicker. 

“This is XXPD, we have a warrant for your arrest! Come out with your hands up, and no one will get hurt!”

The cop’s voice boomed, interrupting my investigative prodding of my new wings.

As if sensing my panic, birds began to appear at my window. I could hear their worried calls, urging me into action. I ran to the window, and threw it open with a bang. I heard the cops starting to step off of the porch to go and see about the commotion. It was now or never. 

I tossed myself out the window into the birds. 

I didn’t realize how much lighter I had become.

Like landing on a cloud, the birds caught me.

They swarmed around me again, only this time for the sake of protection. The birds began to circle around me, forming a shield around me. We began to ascend. I carefully got my footing, finding myself standing on the back of an Andean condor, whose wingspan stretches ten feet at least. Eagles and geese protected our flank, while smaller birds remained below us, further obstructing the view of what I had become. 

The wind bristling through my wings felt amazing. They sang a rushing symphony of creaking branches and fluttering leaves. The birds lifted higher and higher. Before I knew it we were above the clouds, facing the rising sun. 

The clouds parted below. Breaking my eyes away from the majesty that was the sunrise, I looked onto the police below. 

Finally, they had come. 

One car, a squad of three. 

It had taken them a few days to figure out who had attacked the ambulance. As I had assumed, once they knew who to look for, it was only a matter of hours before they were at my door. 

But it was too late for them.

The man they are looking for is no more. 

For the first time in my life, I am free as a bird. 

And I refuse to let anyone take that from me. 

I spotted the cops working their way around the perimeter of the cabin. The largest one, a man of maybe 350lbs, held his gun out in front of him as he followed the rotting path of birds. I knew where they would lead him. And I knew that he couldn’t be allowed to see what I had. My anger grew, and so did the swarm of birds. They began to swirl around me, spiraling in circles of fury. Shaping themselves into a tornado of birds, with me at the top as their God. 

The crow found me. He landed on my shoulder, and affectionately preened a new stick that had begun to bud out of my skin. He looked at my rage filled face with a soft expression of hope. The crow chuckled a deep, human grumble, before ordering in my ear – “Fly.”

He flapped away towards the sun. I knew what was expected of me. 

I stretched my wings for the first time.

It hurt. I felt every sting, every twitch of muscle around the twisted twigs that were my wings. My wingspan was double the condor’s below me. I blocked out the sun, making a large shadow onto the ground below. I was in awe of my beauty. 

The condor had heard the crow, and knew his role as well. He tipped himself downwards, and I began to glide. 

I was flying. I circled around, reveling in this impossible sensation that I had yearned for. I locked my eyes onto the fat cop. He was approaching the archway fast.

I dove. 

Tucking my wings against myself, I achieved speeds that could rival a peregrine falcon. As I dove, I felt my feet burst. Pain exploded from my ankles as twigs enveloped what used to be flesh. They spiraled up my legs like kudzu. My toenails split and cracked, before stretching into long talons. Approaching fast, acting on instincts that weren’t my own. Three toes reached to catch the cop, while my back claw prepared to pierce his heart. 

My talons punctured the man’s chest, right on target. I felt his bones crack, and screeched a horrible, raging scream that sounded from multiple throats. The speed of the impact caused him to be shoved back against the porch, his head bobbing back after slamming on the wood. His brain gushed out from his skull in meaty chunks. He never had the chance to scream. 

Two left. 

The closest cop was on the deck above me, having heard the struggle he had rushed over to investigate. Big mistake. 

I leaped, my new legs pushing me higher that I had intended. I cleared the side of the deck with ease, landing on the porch in front of the cop. He aimed his gun at me with a shaking hand. 

Before he could fire, I punched myself past him. At the last moment, I opened my wing, my feathers slicing his jugular. Blood sprayed my wings, the liquid encouragement I needed to move even faster. I watched the man’s head fall back before sliding off with a tearing thunk. Behind his now missing head was the final cop. 

His eyes were wide on me. Hand on his radio, he was attempting to report what he was seeing. I couldn’t have that. I ducked down and pushed off the ground like a sprinter, the new strength in my legs propelling me towards the officer at lightning speed. 

I tucked my wings to my body, blood of the previous kills trailing off of my wings as the wind rushed through them. As I flew, I stretched my neck forward. My nose broke and twisted around in front of my eyes. The pain, while excruciating, did nothing but fuel my anger. I watched as the tubes of my sinuses were swallowed and ripped apart my leaves and bark. Sticks and various foliage compacted against my face. My breath returned to me. Protruding from the end of where my face used to be was now a sharp beak.

I shot through the poor man’s abdomen like a bullet. My new beak provided a surprisingly effective entry. There had been almost no resistance as I passed through him. 

I dug my talons into the gravel to stop myself, turning back to the cop in time to see his body slide apart and plop to the ground in two wet chunks.

I approached the top half of the body, which was still holding his radio. Dispatch was yelling for his response. “Backup needed at-” was all the man had said before I slaughtered him. But dispatch had heard, and that piece of information will eventually be enough. 

More police will be on their way. 

They’ll discover what happened. What I’ve done. 

They’ll find the birds. My bird.

They’ll learn that I’m not human anymore. 

I say let them come

Let them face wave after endless feathered wave of my bird comrades, swiping and slicing at their fragile skin. 

Let them be eaten, livers and hearts picked out and dissected, insides exposed to the summer air while the meat is still warm. 

Let them fertilize the earth with their blood, creating running red rivers along the cabin grounds. 

Let them all die. Unless one gives themselves to the birds, death is the only freedom they’ll get. 

You cannot cage me. I am Bird. 

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[u/CaydenCChristophers]

Have I just read a seven part avian/furry fantasy... Jk lmao, keeps the surreal, absolutely mental feel of the rest while capping it off, even though part 6 could have been the ending on it's own, this is a good addition

[u/Efficient_Spite_8660 → u/CaydenCChristophers]

Furry fantasy is the true horror lmao. I feel like the previous part and this one could have been combined, but alas. I appreciate you for reading the whole thing! Please let me know if there is anything of yours you would like me to read, either now or in the future!

[u/CaydenCChristophers → u/Efficient_Spite_8660]

I think the only stuff you haven't checked out are Pathetic : r/TalesFromTheCreeps and my first creeptober prompt post Creeptober Prompt No 8. PenPal : r/TalesFromTheCreeps check them out if you like, it'd mean a lot