Chapter 1 â The Morning Everything Changed (Part 1)
by The Metamorphosis · 2026-04-05
Gregor Samsa woke from uneasy dreams and immediately knew something was wrong.
This wasnât the lingering discomfort of a bad nightâs sleep.
This wasnât the dull confusion that fades after a few seconds.
This was different.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on his backâand it felt hard. Too hard.
Like his body had turned into some kind of rigid shell.
Slowly, carefully, he lifted his head.
And then he saw it.
His stomach.
It was swollen, brown, and segmentedâdivided into stiff, arched sections like plates of armor.
It rose up beneath him in an unnatural curve.
The blanket barely covered it, clinging awkwardly as if it might slide off at any moment.
And belowâ
His legs.
There were too many of them.
Thin. Fragile. Twitching without control.
They moved constantly, helplessly, as if they didnât belong to him at all.
âWhat⊠happened to me?â
The thought came slowly.
Heavy.
Unreal.
This couldnât be real.
This had to be a dream.
But it wasnât.
Gregor forced himself to look around.
His room was exactly the same.
A normal human roomâjust a little too small, as always.
Four familiar walls enclosing him.
On the table, textile samples were spread out in careful disorderâreminders of his work as a traveling salesman.
Above it hung a picture he had cut out not long ago from a magazine.
He had placed it in a simple, gilded frame.
It showed a woman dressed in fur.
She wore a fur hat and a fur stole, sitting upright with elegance.
One arm was raised toward the viewer, wrapped in a large fur muff that covered her entire forearm.
Everything was exactly where it should be.
Nothing had changed.
Except him.
Gregor turned his head toward the window.
The weather outside was dull.
Gray.
Rain tapped softly against the glass.
The sound was steady, almost hypnotic.
And strangelyâ
It made him feel sad.
A deep, quiet sadness.
âWhat if I just⊠go back to sleep?â
The thought came naturally.
âWhat if I sleep a little longer⊠and forget all of this?â
Yes.
That might work.
That had to work.
But there was a problem.
Gregor was used to sleeping on his side.
It was instinctive.
Natural.
And nowâ
He couldnât do it.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldnât turn over.
He threw his body to the rightâ
And immediately rolled back onto his back again.
He tried again.
And again.
And again.
It must have been a hundred times.
At some point, he shut his eyes.
He didnât want to see his legs anymoreâthe way they flailed uselessly in the air.
But even with his eyes closedâ
Nothing changed.
Finally, he stopped.
A dull, unfamiliar pain had begun to spread through his body.
It was faint.
But it was real.
And it was new.
Gregor lay there, breathing slowly.
Trying to think.
Trying to understand.