The Unknown
The moonlight streamed through the trees, creating broken light, shattered on the ground. Time dripped. Minutes turned into hours. Hours into days. The sound of the night was entwined with the witching hour with all the animals deep in slumber. Here in the forest, I offer you eternal sleep. A muted blanket covered the woods, smothering all signs of life. The smell of the land had been eradicated and a dark had settled among the intimacy of the surroundings. All that resembled naturalism ceased to exist. All but one creature stirred. When the world is dormant, I take up my rightful throne, and those who are bold, or just plain stupid to wander among my kingdom, are met with a fate worse than death some say. I feed upon the sickly and fearful, deliberately fabricate the chosen moment of attack.
I hide in the bracken. Watching. Waiting. My breath silent. Heart still. I slowly trace my tongue around my lips, tasting the blood, fresh from the vein. My eyes are pools of a perpetually swirling void. This is my true form. I am awake and I will feed tonight. Rain pattered among the undergrowth, sending an earthy scent drifting through the forest. I turn my head up to the heavens and open my mouth. A few drops fall on my waiting tongue allowing me to taste the precipitation. The water drips down my face and I touch my fingers lightly to the droplet, pulling them away and watching the delicate silvery orb fall slowly, pulled by gravity.
The insignificance of the singular globule of liquid as it falls from the sky, makes me wonder. Wonder just how petty humanity is, thinking they're strong and so momentous, yet they cower before me, fear reeking off them. The stench potently poisonous, evoking the hunger inside. I am the predator and you are the prey.
My world is shattered by the snapping of twigs underfoot. The footsteps stop; a silence follows. I chuckle darkly under my breath. Checking to see if anyone heard, I see. Oh how human. I turn to my left and it's there. My shadow. His movements replicate mine in such precision, you might have thought we were one. The dark matter that makes up his existence mirror my features to perfection. I incline my head towards it and it scampers through the darkened trees with a silent lucidity. My crimson mouth turns up with a hellish smile, teeth glistening pure white. I wait, my patience an ever flowing river.
I see out of the corner of my eye, a creature. Oh a naive pathetic creature. Scared of the dark, but I admire the brazen move. If only they knew what lurked in the shadows, their blood would curdle. Its eyes are wide with fear of the unknown, body tense, fear radiating off their cold sweat covered body. I can almost see the brain trying to process the limitless void of the shadows and what dangers could be out there; if only they could comprehend such danger. Once the seeming danger has passed, the creature moves cautiously forward, ever mindful of the terrors of the night. Zipping past it, leaving a trail of ice cold wind, is the shadow. Its eyes are the only thing that can be seen, and only by me. The abomination shivers a deep shiver, unnerved by the bitterness of the shadows embrace. The silent watchfulness overcomes me as I relish in the unsettlement that we have caused this damned creation. Nearly time to act. I sit back on my haunches and I lift my head to the sky and let out an ungodly howl. A sound so demonic, it reverberates through every bone and nerve in the body, piercing the soul. This startles the beast and it visibly shrinks back into itself and the eyes widen with fear. I begin to shift to behind the thing, running my elongated skeletal fingers through the clean strands of hair, causing them to spin around in panic. They freeze, the terror pouring out of them; raining from them in thick sheets. Oh how I pity the arrogance of humanity, fearful fearless beings, my prey. The creature, coming to its senses, begins to run, playing into my game of cat and mouse. It runs at a reasonably quick pace, but it is nothing in comparison to me. I give a good thirty seconds before I begin. I run. My feet beat the ground sound that reverberates through the earth. Breath, misty and cold, rises up into the cool night air. The stench of dread fills my nose as I gain on the runaway. Its feet slap the ground in a song of panic, voicing the desperation.
Shadow me, stepping in their path, causes the animal to stumble and lose their footing, feet skating over the sodden ground. Scrambling away from me with eyes widened at the impending doom, I slow down to a crawl, my feet and hands, padding softly.
Lighting the tarmac, a street lamp stands, old, twisted and rusty with age, the light cracked and filthy. An orange glow settles over the deserted road, and I step into it.
Almost audible, I hear an exclamation come from my feet as I draw upright. I suppose its because of my form. Paper skin hangs off my bones, contorted from being bound by rope and chain. Claws extend out of elongated fingers, crooked and stained with blood or mud I cannot say. Vertebrae protrude in prominent definition along my back, but that is nothing. Nothing compared to my finest feature I must say. Teeth are one of the strongest parts of any creature, and mine are taken good care of. Jagged rocky peninsulas jut out of my crimson mouth, great pillars of death. Some black, some a pearly white, but all razor sharp.
Staring down at the quivering pile of meat before me, I smile, a gesture that released a rather repugnant odour from the scum. In realisation, I noted the damned creature had unwillingly and much to their horror, wet themselves . This fact made me smile even wider, a gravelly laugh echoed inside me. How joyously fun this was. With spine cracking, I bent over and grasped the urine stained maggot by its flimsy neck and crouched over my food, emitting a strangled whimpery scream from it
Blood weld up from the long cut I created with my nail, and bending to its neck, I put my lips to the red ambrosia, lapping it up. I snap. The blood from this creature is like an awakening and I cannot hold myself back. Reaching to the arm, into the arm, my nails find what I am looking for and I rip it out. An animalistic sound is wrenched from deep inside the thing I am feeding off of as I tear out the tendons and nerves. Glistening in the amber light, I tip my head up and slowly feed the meat into my hungry waiting jaws.
Tears form on the foods face, and I eagerly put my lips to them, devouring the bitter sweet salty water caused by my inflicted pain, I hanker for more. The moonlight streamed through the trees, creating broken light, shattered on the ground. Time dripped. Minutes turned into hours. Hours into days. The sound of the night was entwined with the witching hour with all the animals deep in slumber. Here in the forest, I offer you eternal sleep.
Minutes turned into hours. Hours into days.
Minutes turned into hours. Hours into days.
Pain. Anguish. Through the fiery pits of hell, I took this thing. In the end, it barely resembled what it had formerly been.
I thought it best to introduce myself to you. You look up at me through half dead eyes. Body, mind and soul had been torn from you, unceremoniously ripped from your existence. Eyes blink in response as your voice is only in your head.
I am the dark side to life. I am hell. I am all demons embodied in one entity. I am what frightens small children late, late at night. I am the power the glory. I am an abomination of life. I am the unknown. I am a monster.
I am man.