Thunder rumbles and lightning crashes.
The powerful flickers of light
piercing the darkness outside the window.
A window covered with wetness, swimming down its glass.
The creatures desperately seeking solitude.
Shelter from the elements and noise above.
A brief silence ensues
before a guttural growling is heard.
The trees and bushes sway to and fro
as if deciding which way to go.
The invisibility of cold isn't evident
until the goose bumps and hair stand on end.
Two ca-9 like cries are muted in the air.
Near a puddle of murky
mud and water a pile of torn and
tattered clothing were strewn about.
Agonizing pain, fear, and disorientation
racket the body. Tremors mixed
with unnaturally quickened movements.
A lone naked foot steps into the
puddle. The cries come again but
appear to be closer than before.
At the edge of the grotesque wood
my body begins moving forward,
as if being pulled by an unseen
magnet. The smell of tainted iron
wafts its presence--
a morbid fragrance. A recognition
not of iron but of blood--still hot
to the touch, as the fingers smear
a wipe away from the nude, muscular
chest.
Again the cries ripped through the air.
Only this time they appear to be
surrounding. Intervals of brief
flashing--heat lightning--gave
quickened glances to a clearing up
ahead.
Two pairs of glistening yellow
eyes stared in confusion at
me as I came closer.
Repetitions of snapping
began, increasing more rapidly
nearing the clearing.
The ca-9 pair, with no sense of
fear crouched on their haunches--
ready to pounce and devour the
intruder.
The pull only gained
in magnitude. The growls
became ever growing in anger. Almost
rabid in tone and pitch. Moonlight
shone down in the small clearing.
My body began to shift just
as the ca-9s leapt at me.
Yelping in pain, they were flung backwards.
It was as if they encountered a
shield of some sorts.
The pain I felt before
was nothing like what I felt now.
Only as my human body
morphed into a hairy four legged
mess did it dawn on me what I
was—what I had become!