Chris ran.

Branches slapped his face, twigs snapped underfoot, his chest pounded like a drum. The morning mist was just starting to lift, but inside him, panic was rising fast.

He didn’t know what he was. What he had become.

His body had changed — morphed. And now he was… back? Back to normal? Back to weak, skinny, helpless Chris?

He dropped to his knees near the edge of the forest, heart racing.

Was it a dream? A hallucination?

No. He remembered everything — the strength, the speed, the power surging through his veins. The way he had accidentally backhanded a full tree and watched it snap and crash to the ground like it was made of paper.

That moment had changed everything.

At first, he had screamed in fear. But when the fear faded, he had jumped, laughed, sprinted through the trees. He had never felt so alive.

Then, as quickly as it came… it ended.

His body returned to its regular form — short, skinny, and familiar in all the wrong ways.

Now, sitting in the dirt, he felt like two different people — the one he had always been, and the one he could become.

But for now, he still had to deal with being the same old Chris.

When he got back to the campsite, the teachers were furious. He tried to explain, but they wouldn’t listen. One teacher made him carry logs and clean up after breakfast as punishment for “wandering off.”

Victor found him dragging a pile of damp firewood.

“Dude, what happened?” Victor whispered.

Chris leaned in. “You won’t believe it,” he said, eyes wide. “I touched the meteor. It changed me. I had super strength and speed. I think I transformed or something.”

Victor blinked, then laughed nervously. “You serious?”

“I’m serious!” Chris insisted. “You have to come see it. Tonight.”

That night, when the others were asleep, Chris and Victor snuck out into the woods. Chris was eager — desperate to prove he wasn’t crazy.

But when they arrived at the spot…

Nothing.

No crater. No glow. No meteor.

Just plain forest.

“No… no, it was right here,” Chris said, spinning in circles. “It was right here!”

Victor crossed his arms. “Chris… are you okay?”

“I swear I’m not lying!”

Victor didn’t say anything. But his silence said enough.

Things only got worse.

Later that night, John — the biggest, meanest bully in school — somehow caught wind of Chris sneaking out.

At midnight, he woke everyone up by shouting. “Hey! Hey! Chris and his boyfriend were sneaking out last night!”

The teachers didn’t ask questions. They just told Chris he was going to be “dealt with privately.”

That “punishment” came when Chris was fast asleep.

Ice-cold water splashed across his blanket and face. Chris gasped, jolting upright, drenched and shivering.

In the darkness, John stood there with the empty bucket, smirking.

Some kids giggled under their breath. One teacher said, “Maybe next time you’ll follow the rules.”

Chris just sat there, soaked and silent.

Then John walked away, laughing quietly to himself.

Chris curled up and cried — quietly, so no one could hear.

But not everyone missed it.

From the shadows, a figure watched the camp from the treeline. A woman — tall, lean, and confident — around twenty years old. She wore black tactical gear, her face mostly hidden under a dark hood.

She had been watching ever since the meteor landed.

“Interesting,” she murmured. “Very interesting.”