I knew something was terribly horribly wrong when I felt something following me. But me being me shrugged it off as just a feeling and continued my walk home, in the dark, at midnight. What was I an idiot or something? Why couldn’t have I just taken my upper classmen’s ride home, why did I insist I was fine on my own, clearly when I wasn’t?
Maybe I should have gone another route, what if I did? Would it have still have found me? I grinded my teeth with anger, my fist curled up into a tiny hard ball. Yeah, it would have, even know I can smell someone from a mile away. I winced in pain and turned my attention to my palm of my hand. Blood seeped out of the tiny wounds my finger nails had made. I cursed under my breath.
Even know it seems like a dream. Like that at any moment I was just going to wake up and see my mom over me like she would always be, smiling over me and telling me to get up so I wouldn’t be late to school again. Or that I might just wake up on the couch, my dad would be probably making fun of me while I was sleeping. But realization had begun to dawn on me slowly as I hit the first month of this nightmare. My mom wasn’t going to smile at me and wake me up anymore, and my dad was never going to get the chance to make fun of me anymore. I wanted to cry.
But know I guess wasn’t the time to be thinking of what I should have done, I should probably thinking about what I should do instead. I felt so weird, so different, and so…thirsty. I shook my head rapidly and held my breath. No, I need to get rid of these thoughts, never let them into my mind like this. My legs staggered along the dark, lonely street, as I wondered what my next action should be.
There it hit me. I smelt someone and they were very close by. I stopped abruptly and held my breath with all my might, it was easier than I expected. I continued to walk towards the source; the temptation in myself was rising higher and higher. I stopped again, knowing I should turn around, leave them alone, and let them have a little more time on them. The beast inside me starting calling out though and that’s when I knew I needed to get away. It was just too tempting.
The second month was rounding around the corner and I found myself in a small forestry of trees, worrying about the next morning that was coming around soon. Fallen leaves snapped loudly under my feet, the cold wind blew onto me. I didn’t shiver, like I would have two months ago. I haven’t had a meal in over the time period this hellish dream had begun; my body was slowly falling apart on me. I needed it; I was probably going to die soon if I didn’t. The thought hit me, could I actually die? He never really did tell me if I could or not, the stupid monster. Shrugging the disturbing thought away I continued my way through the dense place.
After wondering for awhile I stopped and took a look around me. I had nothing to fear even if I was alone, know even at my age of twelve I could probably take on anyone who much older than me.
A sound appeared soon after. I froze and listened to the surrounding area. The leafs crunched just a few feet away from me. I smelt it, the urge wasn’t as strong, but I still smelt it and I wanted it. Turning I faced my new company that had arrived. I frowned. It wasn’t much, but if it would subside the beast in me, I would gladly take it. That night I had my first meal, it was the sweetest, disgusting thing I had ever had.
Two weeks blew by when I finally couldn’t stand it anymore. I shouldn’t be living like this, sleeping under trees, my meals scattered around me, and it was absolutely sickening. My meals I have been living off weren’t enough for me, and certainly not enough for the beast. It filled me up, but it never satisfied me. Growling to myself I dropped my latest meal and headed back into the city I came from, under the dark starry night. As I walked away I heard the loud ‘thump’ of the carcass as it hit the ground. I thought I was going to get sick.
It took me awhile to get back into the city, I had lost all my sense of direction and wasn’t sure where I was going at first. But after a while I had made it back to it, people roamed around the town like there wasn’t a care in the world. I stood in place, trying to get myself under control; there were just too many people. I took in one big breath and held it. It wasn’t necessarily bad, not breathing and all, just uncomfortable for the time being. I headed into the crowd. It was crazy, madness. I tried to focus my attention away from everyone and kept my head low to the ground. Maybe just one person, it wouldn’t be so bad, lead them away somehow and—
No. I wasn’t going to do that, not now, not ever. My struggles continued and continued to grow as they went along with this insane plan of mine. What was I even doing here? There weren’t any places that I could stay and no one sane enough would actually take me in now. I was on my own now. Something caught my eye and I took a quick glance towards the object. A paper, just a regular paper on the lamp post, it wasn’t anything new. What caught my attention was the picture of my face on the regular paper. I paused and stared up at the sign reading it slowly to myself.
Missing. Two months in and now I was a missing person. Knowing my parents they must have done something and put up all the signs. What felt like a sharp knife pound into my mind and I ducked my head again, making sure no one noticed the similarities with the pictures. They were worried about. I started to walk away from the sign, head still down hands in pocket. They were worried and they had a right to be worried, they still didn’t know they were never going to see their son again.
I hurried through the crowd, my breath still stuck in my throat. I wondered in the back of my mind if I did hold it long enough I would eventually die anyways. The thought seemed great at the moment, but I doubt fate would turn just for me.
Eventually I hit the downtown part of the city, and I released whatever air I was holding in my lungs. It still had many houses all over the place, it was dark and everyone who knew me before knew that I hated this place. They would never look here. Although I said this to myself, I wanted them to look, to come and find me and tell me that this was just a bad dream. I continued to walk, knowing that wasn’t going to happen, no matter how hard I wished.
The morning was coming quickly and I needed a place to hide. I couldn’t let anyone see me, that would be horrible, but that wasn’t the only reason I needed to. I began to quicken my pace and look at the houses, seeing if any were abandoned, maybe even just unoccupied at the moment. Glancing across the street I noticed a house. It seemed perfect; I could tell no one lived there. The paint was coming off; the windows were all cracked or broken. I looked at both sides of the street out a habit and walked towards the abandoned house. Now that I looked at it, the roof looked like it had a hole in it, I could probably fix it. Could I fix it? I could figure it out later if I really needed too. I stopped again and looked at the lawn, grimacing with displeasure. A big large sign stood there, laughing at me. I cursed to myself and took the sign with my hands and ripped it out of the ground. I looked around quickly and stuck it on the next door neighbor’s lawn, if there house got torn to pieces, it wasn’t my fault.
I was about to enter into the house when I heard footsteps approaching. Quickly but quietly I jumped into the nearest bush and peeked out. The smell, it came back. I held my nose and my breath, only to see a man walking towards me. The beast inside me growled furiously. I had to choose right here right now, should I take the man, or continue to live off the forest? He was coming closer and closer to me with each passing second.
My mind was in jumbles, confused on what to do or how to react. The man was next to me now, yet he had no idea I was even there. I gave up; I let the beast come out. Quietly as I could I crawled out of the bush and followed my prey. Poor thing I thought to myself, oh the poor thing. Yet as I stalked him with perfect precision, I just couldn’t get myself to just go and get him. At the last moment I just lunged at him with such speed I thought I would run into him. Yet I stopped at the right moment, swung my arm down, hitting him straight in the head.
He gave a short yelp of pain but fell to the ground. I started to panic, did I kill him? I went around to the front and examined him more closely, no, he was I alive, I could hear his gentle heart beat. Looking around quickly, checking to see if anyone had seen the incident. When I saw that no one had, I picked up the guy, with some difficulty and brought him into my new abode. What have I become?