Red

05. Unsteady

     It was at least five nauseating and torturous hours until the 'venom', or whatever Rome had injected me with, finally ebbed away into nothing. My body had trembled for at least half the time with cravings I could not comprehend, until finally, it had become manageable enough that I could get up and enter the attached bathroom to drench myself in hot water.

I sat in the large bath in the center of the room for a good while, calming my body with the steaming hot water. It soothed my skin and relaxed my muscles that had been taut with a frenzied panic for what felt like forever. My hair was a long and tangled mess around me, spilling over my shoulders and soaking in the soaps of the hot water.

     The water almost seemed to glow along the top like iridescent lights filtering in through the bath. It puzzled my brain and my eyes. Everything, now that I noticed, was seeming to be too colorful, too bright, too unnatural.

Rome's words came back to me like a brush to the skin. You're in the Underworld.

I hadn't noticed beneath my rage that even my body felt different than before, and my physique had changed slightly. As if I was stronger, more agile and confident. My muscle tone was leaner, although my curvaceous figure stayed. The expensive vase I had thrown had to have been at least fifteen pounds, and I had been able to toss it as if it was nothing but a feather. What exactly has this new world changed about me? I didn't know if I liked it or not. It made me feel as if I was a whole different person physically.

I look at my right bicep and grasp it with my fingers, feeling the defined muscles beneath my skin. My hand travels down my arm, my fingertips finding muscle corded and taut just under the surface. What caused my body to morph into this... Warrior-toned figure? I withdraw my fingers from my arm and sink down into the water, leveling just beneath my eyes. For a long while I sat there, almost floating from my body's buoyancy. Sweat began to drip down from my forehead as I let my mind seek faraway thoughts. The temperature of the water seemed to rise, and rise, and rise, causing me to get light headed. It was time for me to get out.

Getting up from the bath, I grab a warm, soft towel from the counter and look into the mirror before me. I couldn't hide my shock, and my mouth fell open. My face was even different.

My heart-shaped face had a slenderer appearance, with a strong jaw and more defined and prominent cheekbones. My freckles, which danced across my cheeks and nose, had softened and were thicker in numbers. My pouty lips which had been a soft pink were a deeper shade now, almost a flushed rosy color. Thick, dark eyebrows and lashes, and everything. Even my ears had a sharpened appearance at the top, like the once fairytale fae I had read about in storybooks. Everything was completely different, and yet the same. I still looked like me, but I felt sexier, more alluring, more inhuman. It made me nauseous.

With my towel wrapped around my body, I make my way to the toilet as bile bubbles up my throat and lean over the bowl, my forehead now utterly drenched in hot beads of sweat. The room was already steamy from the hot water and it made my hair stick to my back uncomfortably. Bile comes up into my throat and I retch into the toilet as a wave of nausea rolls over me with tremendous force. My hands felt slick against the lid as my arms began to shake violently. This room was too hot. Too, too hot.

I manage to get myself up off of the ground and slowly make my way back into the bedroom as my body sways with each step. I tumble onto the bed in a heap as the door clicks open and two young women enter the room. They look at my disheveled state with wide, curious eyes, but quickly bow when I frown at them.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty." The taller one says as they stand. "Do you need help getting into clothes?"

     My eyes fall to the soft white towel wrapped loosely around my body and slowly shake my head. "I think I'm okay, but thank you." I didn't want them to think I wasn't feeling well, so I get back up on my feet and grab some clothes from the dresser.