The next night I was at the appointed place almost directly after sunset. I was anxious, as I stood there, arms crossed. Soon enough, he was there. I was no longer anxious. Now I was angry.

"Hey, you're not the guy we needed…" He said. "If he couldn't come, he could've just said that… Jackass." He glanced at me. "Did we meet before? I can't help but feel you're familiar…" My jaw dropped.

"You don't remember who I am?!"

"Not really, did we meet before or…?" He took a closer look at me. "Oh shit! It's you! Didn't we kill you?"

"You did… You took away my life!"

"Dude, we didn't mean to. We didn't expect people to be there and we freaked…" He said, backing away with his hands in front of himself. "So could you just…. chill?"

Chill?

CHILL?!

Just talking to him filled me with red-hot rage. This murderer…. This… Monster just didn't care... I didn't think as I charged forward, feeling my hands twist into claws that dug in him. Flesh was tearing. Blood was pooling. Screams were filling the night sky. It felt good... It felt so good.

Once the red haze lifted, there was nothing but a large pool of blood on the boardwalk. Must've tossed him into the ocean... I looked at my hands, also covered in crimson. Still twisted into large, inhuman claws. This should scare me, according to some fleeting rationality in my mind. Yet it didn't. At all.

I started laughing.

I felt so good. So satisfied.

So alive.

For the first time after that… that tragedy, I felt alive.

And I knew what I had to do. My existence had meaning again.

Vengeance