Misfits

Hi, I'm Loui! I'm your average blond dude, trying to live a normal life. Wait.. did I say normal? Sorry, I don't mean your normal. I am a zombie. But not the type to walk around like a decaying corpse. No, we Zombies are way different. We are living together with other creatures in our hidden city Atlantis. That's right: the sunken city, except it's not really sunken. We are hiding from human eyes in order to go about our normal lives. We have a school, markets, and basically everything a city needs.

„Hey, Loui! Think fast!" a red haired boy calls to me. That's Alex, one of my friends. „WOW, hey, careful!" I managed to avoid what he threw at me at the very last second. Alex, or rather Alexander, is a Wendigo. And what he threw at me was a piece of raw meat. „What was that for?!" „Thought you might appreciate breakfast" Alex chuckled, taking a bite of his food: a raw liver. As a Wendigo, Alex has sharp teeth and antlers, and he is constantly hungry. He also has a feral transformation, and it's scary. He pulled it on me once, and I had a very vivid and very convincing nightmare the next night. How would you react if a huge mummy with dear skull as head and oversized but slim limbs is staring at you with dead eyes?

„Really, Alex? You're tossing away meat again?" and that would be my other friend: Jake. Jake is a ghost. No, he didn't die, ghosts are a little different. What humans consider ghosts, like poltergeists, are souls. Souls of the diseased. Ghosts are living, near immortal beings. (All of us are nearly immortal, so that part don't matter) Their feral transformation allowed them to take on a nightmarish appearance, but otherwise they're pretty chill. Jake had the meat floating in the air, guiding it back to me. „Thanks, man" I said, taking the meat. All of us needed proper nourishment to keep us sane.

As zombie I could technically eat rotten flesh too. Like scavengers. But I gotta admit, rotten flesh could be a delicacy for us zombies. „Dude, what's that smell?" Alex complained. Wendigou had sensitive noses, much like us Zombies. „I don't smell anything?" „Jake, you can't even smell, so shut up." „Rude" Jake crossed his arms, he was floating, his feet phasing in and out of the ground as Alex and I walked to school. „That might be my lunch" I said, loving the sickly sweet smell. „Are you serious?!" „what? Dad found a dead rabbit the other day" I defended myself.

School here was not as nightmarish as human school, or rather, as the descriptions of human schools I had heard about. Some of us actually go on vacation amongst humans. It's not forbidden, it's just that we have to be careful. The council says that humans attack what they don't understand, but honestly, I couldn't care less. „Aw, fuck...Amira" Alex said suddenly. Amira is the popular girl. I think she's Naga district. Would definitely fit her personality. Somehow avoiding her, we managed to get to class. When I entered the classroom, my eyes immediately zoomed into my desk, where a couple was standing. Penelope and Sean. They were the couple of the school, mostly because Penelope was a cute vampire and Sean the hot werewolf.

Penelope, or Penny, was drinking blood through a straw out of her plastic cup. Like the ones you'd get a a coffee shop, or these fancy to go cups you can by in any supermarket in the human world. And her ass was on my desk. „Really?" I muttered, and Jake chuckled. I shot him a glare, I couldn't use that right now. Things like that disgust me, and it got even worse when Sean leaned down to whisper into Penelope's ear, whatever he whispered, it made her laugh and push her ass further onto my desk. „Uhmmm... Loui?" Alex voice sounded muffled through the loudening sound of my heart beating in my ears. My blood rushed through my veins, boiling with anger. I don't even know if a growl escaped me or not, but I felt my own sharp teeth growing. As zombie, my feral transformation included sharp teeth, white eyes and claws. It wasn't much of a change, but a dangerous change. Because we zombies were fast, about as fast as a transformed vampire. About as strong as a werewolf, but our regeneration was quicker then other monsters or creatures.

And our claws and teeth were sharper.

The familiar tickling in my eyes returned as my vision changed. I didn't perceive my surroundings fully anymore, plus I saw the warmth of different objects. My fingers itched and I felt my claws forming slowly. I was trying to reason with myself, trying to keep my cool. But it didn't work. It only delayed the full transformation. I couldn't hear what Alex and Jake tried to say, I'm not even sure if they said anything at all. My last coherent thought was something about Penelope needing to get her ass off of my table and take her lapdog with her. And then I blacked out. I didn't go unconscious, I just couldn't remember what I did. And my brain refused to remember. When I regained my vision and my correct state of mind, Martin, one of my classmates, had transformed as well. He was a troll, and trolls were physically stronger than zombies. As you probably guessed by now, Martin held me back.

Martin was the quiet dude, always hanging out with his twin sister Lily, and their best friend Cora, who ironically was a mermaid. „You okay?" Martin asked, seeing my sharp teeth retracting and my eyes return to normal. I couldn't talk over the adrenaline rush, so I, barely comprehending what he said, nodded. I felt a cold hand on my shoulder, realizing that it was from Leila, a yeti girl. Martin had the fattest crush on that girl, and everyone knew that. Except apparently Leila. „Bro, get yourself together" Alex said, smacking my cheek. „S-Sorry" I finally managed to choke out, trying to stand up. Martin stabilized me, while Leila kept her hand on my shoulder. Which was probably the reason why Martin wasn't really gentle. „Warn us before you loose control like that" Jake said, he had stopped floating to the the rule „powers in school". Which meant that me, Martin and Leila had broken the rule. Our teacher is chill though. „Loui, you need to learn how to manage your transformation" he just said. „Sorry teach" I mumbled, going over to my desk, shooting a glare at Sean who pulled his lips back into a growl. That boy has the teeth of a wolf. „Baby, don't growl at the less fortunate. They already have it bad enough" Penny said with a disgusting, sweet sugary voice. The fuck did she mean „less fortunate"?!

I am guessing that that's the vampiric pride in all its glory. Vampires are known to be prideful, especially since their feral forms are often described as pretty. All they really do is grow wings when they transform, it's really nothing special. But vampires have a natural allure. It helped them to hunt their prey during the time before Atlantis was founded. Atlantis was created so that creatures like us could live in peace and coexist with humans without the fear of being hunted. Sometimes, we creatures do dare to go outside the city walls, but we mostly keep ourselves hidden. Penny finally managed to get her ass down from my desk, and just seeing the way she swayed her hips while walking made me wanna vomit. I don't know what it is, I just find her disgusting.

I unpacked my back, the memory of the deliciously rotten piece of rabbit in my lunchbox made the start of the school day just a tad bit sweeter. Imagining how the flesh was all laid bare, gooey in some places, and falling of the bone already almost made me drool. And the scent... this deliciously, sickly-sweet smell was just too good. Swallowing down my drool, I tried to focus back on class.