Chapter 4

Nathan saw his next meal rush by. The grown man walked by the alleyway Nathan lurked in as he checked his watch. He had a briefcase in hand that swung slightly from side to side as he looked down to check the time. He was maybe thirty years old and his skin was a delicious pale with little to no body hair. Or at least the skin not covered by his black business suit was smooth and blemishless.

But before he came into view, Nathan could feel his warmth. There were many patches of warmth that moved about out of view. The pedestrians of the street that he only knew as small flames passing in front of him were tempting to the creature. However, Nathan was aware that the more his prey knew of him, the less likely he would have to capture them. And the warmth of each invigorated him.

Ohhhhhh. He groaned hungrily. So many morsels.

Just as he passed the open space between the two buildings Nathan hid between, he snatched at him. The young man let out a confused “huh?” before being dragged into the darkness by his right arm. Just as he continued to scream, Nathan slapped his hand on the passerby’s mouth.

The feeling of pressing against the mouth was a unique one as only about half his hand had flesh on it. The bare bone of his fingers slamming on the man’s lips felt like a pillow squeezing a log of dried wood. The hand he carried the human’s arm in was fully covered in skin but the arm itself was half-formed with only various blood veins and bare, red muscle grown atop the bone.

The sharply dressed man was dragged up the side of the ceiling now that he was grabbed with both Nathan’s arms. The former human was stationed on the brick of the building by hooking his sharpened, claw-like legs into red stone. Just as he kicked and struggled for freedom, Nathan chomped down onto his neck. Gripping his mouth even tighter as he shouted more loudly in shock, he relished the taste of human flesh and blood.

There was something almost wonderous about the taste of human meat. It was different from how any roasted flesh Nathan had consumed in his former life tasted. It was somehow cathartic and energizing in comparison to how animals tasted. The meat of wild game or cattle was so dull when he remembered how eating with a fork and knife felt. It was taking the passion, the lust, out of devouring. This, this was returning the zest of passion back to the act of eating.

He climbed across the wall with his feet alone, scaling the layer of bricking as he continued devouring the hapless victim. The man began weeping intense passion to live as Nathan ripped his right arm off with a jerk of his jaw. He swallowed the limb whole, shoulder first before taking a bite out of the man’s face. Once half his head was crushed and swallowed, Nathan could feel the flesh seeping into his body. This was his sixth and final victim and once the last of his latest victim was being digested, there was no more bare bone on his body.

The flesh and bone he consumed was mixing with his own physical being, like two colors of paint being swirled to form another color. The strengthening of his body was a wondrous feeling as the reaction transpired. But it was only the beginning of the wonder of this new power. Nathan had learned a special trick to help with his body’s growth.

I want more mouths. He thought.

As the last of the flesh covered his body, sprouting from each side of his back was a snake, the creatures as wide as tree trunks. They hissed as they bared their fangs. The snakes were the color of his flesh, an odd light brown from eating so many different humans.

Their skin mixed together into a perfectly homogenous meat that he could turn into anything. The two snakes that grew from Nathan’s back were similar to the one that sprouted from his back like a tail. It stared at the newly grown reptiles and hissed at its siblings, examining the other without eyes.

Nathan jumped down from the wall he scaled and walked along the stone of the alleyway. He had eaten anything he could find lurking in it. Once entering the city he was careful to slip into the lesser paved roads of the city and lurk in the dark places. Nathan was afraid of meeting people as in a state like his he would be vulnerable and not strong enough to chase prey.

However, after the second of his victims he became strong enough to drag humans into dark places and eat them. It became easier once he discovered he could manipulate his flesh at will as he ate them. Now Nathan’s new body was wondrous and beyond anything a human could naturally attain.

That was precisely why he walked to the back of the alleyway to look at himself. There was a large puddle of water that the sun had not dried up on account of the overhead ledges of the roof blocking its light. However, there was enough moonlight casting into the alleyway he could see himself.

Nathan found his reflection awe inspiring. His unblemished flesh was light brown and his toes and fingers were clawed like a feline’s. He had willed the digits on his hand to grow into claws to make it easier navigating dark alleyways and walls of the city to make catching prey easier.

Nathan’s limbs were thicker than telephone poles, wide with muscle and sinew. He stood taller than seven feet. His white eyes were very round but his pupils slitted and black as night. His jaw was human-like but far wider than the average man’s. And it was filled with teeth far sharper than a wolf’s.

The snakes sprouting from his body had mouths almost as wide as car tires with fangs twice as long as human fingers. Their length may have been six feet in total. The skin was not scaly but leathery, a distorted version of his own flesh covering their bodies.

And finally his hair. It was a long silky black. It came down his back like a dark curtain and gave him a certain regality. Nathan smiled into the reflection to find his glistening white teeth shining in the moonlight.

“I’m beautiful,” he said.

He looked up to the moon and began laughing to himself. Nathan was glad of what had transpired. At first when he was a stumbling skeleton he thought his existence was a cruel joke and would forever be painful. Now, he was glad his brother had killed him. There was nothing about this Nathan would change. To think that death would be the greatest thing to happen to him. He sighed in relief at the full moon.

“What do I do now?” he asked himself. “I’ve regained my body and more…”

He looked at his hand, admiring the part of his body that looked so strong and well-crafted, like a statue hewn expertly from marble rock. Nathan liked that he was the author of his own creation. The idea that he made himself felt powerful in a way beyond explanation. To be one’s own creator…that thought gave him so much autonomy.

“What should a creator such as me gift to the world with my immense power?” Nathan asked. “How can I more perfectly satisfy it, as it has me?”

Out of the corner of his eye, slithering across the wall of brick beside him, was a snake so shiny that it gleamed in the moonlight. It turned its arrow-shaped head towards him and slithered its forked tongue at him. Its eyes were full of a lust Nathan could not quite understand.

“Reproduce,” it whispered. “Create more of your own kind…”

Its voice sounded as smooth as silent water to Nathan.

“This world…” it said. “It needs a new species…of those like you.”

It then slithered back into the shadows of the alleyway. Nathan pondered the words of the serpent, looking back up at the moon. He smiled a little.

“Yes…” he said.

He looked back down at his hand to admire it some more.

“A new species of those like me,” Nathan thought. “To spread my greatness. But in order to do so…”

He turned to the opening of the alley. Nathan walked towards it to approach the street outside. When the pedestrians around him saw the strange, inhuman creature they gasped in fear at the sight. Nathan smiled, knowing that such puny cretins couldn’t grasp the power or might of a being like himself. Prey like them were not meant to understand beings such as him, only for him to devour to maintain his existence.

“I must continue to feed,” he finished.

Nathan raced towards the first two sources of living heat he could feel, a young couple. He pounced on the man first, pinning him to the ground as he struggled underneath Nathan’s grip and weight. He then began feasting on the human’s body, starting by crushing half his head with one bite of his jaw. He swallowed, willing the flesh to be stored in his stomach rather than seeping into the rest of his body.

It will serve a special purpose. He thought.

The mate of that human ran in fear of Nathan before he stretched his snake of a tail at him. While Nathan used the jaws of his face to devour the man, the snake bit into the side of the woman. A chunk of flesh and rib was ripped out of her body before the snake swallowed. After she fell over, instantly dying, as he finished the last of her mate.

While the snake swallowed bit off and devoured whole chunks of the woman, Nathan looked around to find the humans around him screaming in panic. He smiled before stretching the snakes growing from his back as long as they could possibly stretch. The two snakes caught two women by the shoulders and swallowed them whole. Nathan willed all the flesh he was consuming to be gathered in the pit of his stomach for the formation of his new creations.

After those four victims were taken care of, he raced at full speed toward more victims. The snakes growing from his body bit into or swallowed whole more prey before Nathan himself would grab another human. He took hold of a fleeing man by the ribcage and lifted him to his face. In one bite he tore off most of the man’s torso and swallowed with a bit of wincing, finding it more than he normally could ingest. Afterwards he took slightly smaller bites to more quickly finish the meal.

The invigoration he once felt for eating was gone as the meat no longer seeped into his body. It was being gathered in his belly, Nathan willing the creations to form from the ingested meat. As he did so, he transferred his mental will and thoughts into the developing mind of the new creatures.

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Be powerful. Nathan thought. Be great. Accomplish amazing things. Be above that of an average man. Do not be idle as they are. Have desires that would never occur to them. Do not conform to their standards and transcend the stars themselves. When you are released into this vast, open world as the mighty lion that roams the savannas and the great eagle that flies overhead to capture the world from such a privileged viewpoint. Be greater than the material that brought you into this world so that I may be glad that I procreated your existence.

However, realizing what he was saying caused Nathan to reconsider his choice of words.

But obey me. He thought. Be willing to obey me.

Now he was ready to give birth. A cavity in his back opened for the first of the creatures. The hole in his back was nothing but a deep gash in his body at first before widening into something as large as a manhole. Nathan could feel hands grip the sides of his open body as it pulled itself out. He could feel something slimy and wet slithering out of him, like a mucus covered worm crawling out of a hole. It plopped down on the concrete with a wet plop as a guttural cry could be heard.

For the next creature Nathan had to apply more pressure on his back. He squeezed as hard as possible as he attempted to help the next creature be born. Another squishing sound followed as the newly consecrated being hit the pavement. Nathan turned to examine his new spawn.

One staggered from the pile of saliva-looking liquid that covered it and formed a pool at its feet. As it raised itself, Nathan found the creature to be very thin and long-limbed. It was even taller than Nathan was but so slender it looked as if it had no muscle. Its limbs were less like arms and legs and more like ropes attached with wispy, willowy fingers so stretchy and pliable they looked like you could tie them in knots. It had toeless feet and cracks in its skin like it had been whipped repeatedly.

Its skin was extremely pale and its eyes were not at all round and looked more like thin slits carved into wood. Its pupils were bright green enough to look like emerald colored flashlights that shone in the dark of the night. Its bald head was oval-shaped with holes for ears and no visible mouth. The thing’s entire torso was less than half as narrow as a normal human’s but body length was twice as tall.

A unique specimen. Nathan thought. Certainly would not be mistaken for a normal human.

“I shall call you Reacher,” he said. “On account of your height.”

It looked down at him with its narrowly visible eyes, its entire body bending as easily as a palm tree in a tropical storm.

“Thank you, father,” it said. “I shall serve you well and with all my heart.”

Nathan was shocked to find that when it talked, the entire half of its face opened. He could see the entire interior of his jaws, from the small baby-like teeth to its wine colored mouth. When it closed its mouth its face returned to the bald, egg shape it had once been. Nathan was surprised to find it looked as if it had no visible mouth, its lips just that thin and neatly hidden.

He then turned to his other creation. He examined the creature to find it slowly rising from the saliva-like liquid just as the first one. Only he could tell it was female by its figure.

It had something of a mature, feminine body with long flowing hair and pitch black eyes with red irises. Her hair was as long as Nathan's and golden in color. Her skin was a dark brown, far darker than Nathan’s and she was covered in bright red stripes save for her face. She looked human save for the pairs of eyes covering her hands and feet with irises as bright red as the ones in her face. She may have not been uniquely inhuman but she was beautiful.

“You shall be Iris,” he said. “On account of your many eyes.”

She looked up at Nathan with curiosity. She began examining her body and then looked back to her brother and progenitor. The woman shook her head.

“What if I wanted to choose my own name?” she asked. “A name that will last throughout history and mark me as someone great? What shall that be?”

Nathan leered at her, finding the inquiry annoying.

“It is not names that matter,” he said. “But the accomplishments of the individual. So Iris is as befitting a name as any.”

The newly birthed creature did not look comforted.

“If I do not have a name that will make me great,” Iris said. “Then I have less of a chance of being great. So what must I do to be great and secure my reign as a conqueror in this world?”

“Conqueror?” Nathan asked.

“Yes,” Iris said. “When I think of the term great…I think of someone who has crushed all opposition and defeated any challenge that came their way.”

Nathan frowned at her.

I want to be the only conqueror of this world. He thought. And I do not want anyone to be a rival in that regard. Where did she get the word conqueror?

He mulled over the possibility before realizing that when he was creating the will and personality of his creations, Nathan had the same definition in his mind. When issuing a command that his children be great specimens that rose above the normal man, they conquer and defeat their problems. That they be competitive in nature and find ways to win. Nathan himself wished to be a conqueror in life.

“One does not have to be a conqueror of this world,” Nathan said. “All have different roles and places in which they can carve out greatness for themselves…you should not place all your trust in wishing to conquer the world. Be great in different ways.”

The confusion in her expression cleared, the woman nodding her head.

“Yes…” she said. “Strive to be unique and great…without attempting to conquer the world…I shall do that. But…what purpose can I take on in order to be great?”

“Serve the master,” Reacher said.

He bent down toward her and looked at her through tight eyeholes.

“Be a gracious protector of our master’s wishes and desires,” he said. “Fulfill them and we will become great by proxy. He is our progenitor after all.”

Iris nodded before turning back to Nathan.

“Yes,” she said. “Serve him…and we will be great by proxy. But…what if I could be greater by not serving our father? Then…wouldn’t I be serving our master better?”

Nathan leered at them, realizing a mistake he made when he issued his will into them while they were developing.

It seems I was too binary in my desire. He thought. I wanted them to become great. As my children, I wished for them to be powerful and rise above others to prove my greatness. But I also wanted them to be obedient to me. It seems I added my last request too late and only one of them gained it while the other doesn’t have much of that desire. However, the other doesn’t have that great a desire to serve me and is more concerned with being great. How can I convince the second creation to become great and obey me?

He then looked back up to Reacher with intense suspicion.

And a toady who is so willing to jump at every one of my commands will never amount to much. Nathan realized. I must try to blend them better.

“Reacher,” he said. “You must decide for yourself how to be great, so long as it does not contradict my intention. Commit yourself to a path of success that you can be sure of you will achieve. Think hard about what life you can live to show you are better than all other creations.”

“Yes, master and father,” the thin creature said with a bow.

He then turned to Iris who held a more skeptical gaze.

“And you,” Nathan said. “Commit yourself to something great as well. Try and achieve something that will make me proud–make yourself proud. Become a great artist, if you must. Artists have their valued works praised for centuries if they are good enough. Commit yourself to that.”

Iris looked down, the eyes not on her face looking around wildly.

“Yes,” she said. “Art…art. I…I believe I would…like to make paintings…that represent…”

She then looked down at the eyes on her own hands.

“The emotions I feel deep within me,” Iris thought.

Nathan smiled. He then thought that it was probably a leftover memory of Yui that was sent into her. It was an ambition that would never interfere with whatever schemes Nathan had.

“Yes,” he said. “The emotions you feel within you. Make art that brings that out.”

She then looked back at him and glared.

“No,” she said.

Nathan was astounded by his spawn’s blunt answer.

“What?!” he shouted.

“No,” Iris said. “I do not wish to make art that represents feelings or desires. It’s useless.”

“B-But why?!” Nathan asked. “It-It allows one to–to be remembered for ages to come! The feelings imbued within art resonate for generations when portrayed well enough!”

“Yes,” she said. “It does allow one to rippled their emotions across time. And the emotions I have are ambition and the desire to stand above all others. To rise taller than any other living creature–to do something to make others jealous of me. Then I shall be worthy of such titles.”

Nathan glared at her, baring his fangs and claws. He was angry enough to kill the girl, regretting he had used up the flash he’d consumed to bring into this world. Just as Nathan thought of killing her, Reacher bent down to look directly into her stoic and haughty expression.

“You should obey the master,” he said. “If he were not here, we would not be either.”

“I don’t care,” Iris replied. “I shall abandon his desire to use me as a pawn and to live through me.”

“Treacherous wench,” Nathan said.

He extended all three snakes growing from his body forward to eat her.

“I’ll take back the flesh used to make you for a more loyal creation,” he said.

He willed the snakes to open wide and attack. The girl groaned in pain as the snakes ripped her skin from her bone and swallowed. Iris fell to the ground, crying in pain before her body was gone and all that remained was a pool of blood. Reacher looked down curiously, shaking his head in disappointment. Nathan glared in frustration, letting the flesh sink back into the pit of his stomach.

Next time I will make my creations less patronizing to me. He thought. And make a race that is the spitting image of me, that can capture my glory. As befitting a creature who has crossed over death’s boundary.