No Longer Human

Damian lays in a hammock. He examines the Oni's eye he had picked up a week ago.

"Soon you'll be in my head, and then I'll become something different from a human." He lowers the eye and stairs at the ceiling above him. "I'm almost becoming one of them. No I shouldn't think like that, I'm still human on the inside, that's what matters." He turns away to face the box underneath himself.

"Damian, today will be your last day of training." Natalie enters his room and leans against the door frame.

"Alright." He gets off his hammock and proceeds to get ready as if going on a mission.

"What're we doing today?" Damian follows besides Natalie as they walk through a dirt road.

"This test will be the most important and the longest to achieve." She steps over a trap laid out for the monsters.

"I thought you said this was my last day, what's up with that?" Damian mimics her movements.

"This will be the last day I help you train, as I can't do anything but show you how to start this process." Natilie takes a hard left turn into the forest.

"What kind of test is this?" He continues to follow her exact movements.

"This test will determine if you'll maintain your humanity when you graft." She stops suddenly.

Damian had even more questions, but they were overpowered by the sound of rushing water. Entering a clearing the pair find a beautiful, crystal clear waterfall.

"This is where you'll be staying until you manage to hone your mind." Natalie begins moving towards the water.

As she steps on the shore, the water freezes over, allowing her to easily walk to the waterfall.

"H-hey wait a minute!" Damian proceeds to strip down and swim after her.

"Rarely has any human set foot here. Perfect for keeping away distractions. The occasional monster will wander by but you can deal with that no problem, and this waterfall will provide the rest of your needs." Natalie gazes at the waterfall.

"What exactly am I gonna be doing?" Damian sits on a rock as he attempts to sun dry himself.

"Pretty much what you are currently doing, except without talking. You'll be delving into your mind feeling all of your energy flow and you will fight against your inner monsters." She takes a serious tone towards the end.

"My inner monsters?" He is in the purest form of confusion.

"I can't explain what exactly it is. Just know if you fail, you will never be able to graft and you may even die." She turns away from Damian. "Jason would be very upset if something like that were to happen, so stay focused." She walks back into the forest, completely disappearing from Damian's vision.

"Shit." He realizes the severity of her words.

Damian stares up at the starry sky. Three nights have passed since Natalie left him, and nothing of note has happened since.

"What am I doing wrong? She said sit here and fight my inner monsters. Where are they?" His eyes stay locked on the sky as he begins drifting off to sleep.

A horror exuding clicking sound causes Damian to jolt up. Clouds cover the stars, the only light is from the moon beaming behind a veil of fog. His pounding heart overshadows all other sounds. Time passes and he calms down, strangely the air is silent, off putting. He looks towards the waterfall, peering over he notices it is frozen in time. He glances to the lake itself, there replacing his reflection, a grotesque monstrous figure stares at him.

He falls backwards finding himself now under water, the feeling of being unable to move overwhelms him as he sinks deeper into the freezing abyss. He starts to choke as the monstrous face appears in front of him. His vision begins to fade.

"I can't die here, not after all I've gone through." He remembers Natalie's words.

A warm feeling comes from his pocket. He sees a small orange glowing sphere. He clutches it in his hand, and the darkness around him disappears as he's back above the waterfall. He turns to see the monstrous figure cowering in fear, he clenches his fist and the monster begins choking.

Damian wakes up with the sun in his eyes. He covers his face as he sits up.

"What kind of dream was that?" He rubs the sleep out of his eyes.

He halts suddenly, jolting to attention, eyes. Rushing to the river he gazes at his reflection, two eyes, one from an Oni. He stared at the water in disbelief, he was grafted. Something other than just his new eye and wicked scar caught him by surprise, he now had a pair of small horns protruding from his forehead.

"Well, it's better than what Henry got." Damian rubs the tip of one horn. "I suppose my task here is done." Damian stands up and starts towards the forest.

He comes across a corpse of one monster ensnared in a trap, his Oni eye begins to twitch.

"Not fresh but it'll do." He takes his syringe and begins siphoning the corpses blood.

He makes it back to the gang's main base, a cluster of shipping containers decorated with allsorts of lavish lights and objects.

Henry is the first to notice Damian stumbling up to their gate. He rushes forward after calling for the others to be on guard, then to realize it was Damian.

"Damian? What happened to you?" Henry halts suddenly.

"I finished my training and well, grafted." Damian looks after if he's about to drop from exsaustion.

The rest of the gang finally reach the gate just as Damian drops.

"Is he okay!?" Jason immediately questions Henry.

"I think it may have been the trip back here, he's dehydrated." Henry crouches over Damian.

"Grant, Alex, Natalie you all hurry and fix him up." Jason folds his arms as he watches them leave. "How did he graft?" Jason leans over to Henry.

"He said it just happened."Henry crains his neck to look in Jason's eyes.

"We've got quite the special one on our hands." Jason itches his chin as he gazes off into nothing.