10:25 PM

Wally, 2h ago
Hey where r u? back from ur run?

Wally, 1h ago
Are you mad at me or something?
was it because i destroyed you in smash bros? lol

Wally, 1h ago
Missed call

Wally, 30m ago
Are you ok???? pls answer

Wally, 2m ago
Missed call

Wally, now
seriously Anna PICK UP

***

While still in my hand, the phone buzzed once more, lighting up a display filled with glyphs and icons I couldn’t yet comprehend. I turned my attention to studying the object itself. Placing a finger on the circular impression at its bottom, I unlocked Anna’s phone, and with it, a vast world of knowledge opened up to me. The display on the screen changed, showing a collection of panels filled with images of people, places, and things. Below these were more undecipherable glyphs. I hesitantly poked the screen, unintentionally selecting a video to play. At first, the sudden outburst of noise from the device startled me. But as it continued, the excited warbling of human speech intrigued me.

Having assimilated with a human brain, language and expression came easily to me. Using Anna’s phone, I taught myself to how to read, write, and speak, how to smile and laugh, frown and cry. What human infants take months to acquire, I learned in several hours. Although I didn’t inherit any of Anna’s knowledge or memories, I quickly learned the basics of communication, of social interaction, of being human. Or at least putting on a good act. However, the many nuances of humanity would take more time.

Now able to read, I changed course to study the sciences. I learned everything I could about the human body: what nourished it, what harmed it, and what made it tick—literally. Armed with a detailed diagram of the vascular system, I directed my cells in repair the skin on my neck. I watched in amazement and delight as the marks around my throat slowly vanished.

Soon, I moved on from humans to the rest of the animal kingdom. The myriad of different forms life on this planet could take amazed me. I was distracted from a nature documentary about large predatory cats by a rustling in the bushes nearby. I hastily put the phone, now very precious to me, back in my pocket and turned to face the sound. Admittedly, I was a bit paranoid that I was being stalked by a big cat myself. Instead, a light brown quadruped with an ornate decoration on its head emerged, unaware of my presence. I knew the word for it now: a buck.

My stomach groaned and my mouth filled with drool as seeing the creature triggered another new instinct: hunger. Automatically, as if I’d done it many times before, I morphed my arms into three pairs of fleshy spears, with form and color not unlike the appendages of my original body. Then, in an inhuman burst of speed, I impaled the unwitting creature in the chest and flank. It barely had time to register its own death.

I leaned over the carcass. A seam opened down my face, and another split appeared perpendicular to the first. Then, the four sections of my face unfurled like the petals of a blossoming flower, revealing rows of serrated teeth lining the edges. At the center was my mouth, filled with larger pointed spikes. Above it to either side were my eyes: gleaming red rings surrounded by black sclerae. The sudden change to my anatomy didn’t concern me as I buried my face into the creature’s flank and devoured it, leaving only the bones behind. It seemed that, despite my human facade, I was a creature built to rend flesh.