Chapter 12: Bleed for It

Etienne felt the stupor of dejection and misery settle over him like a heavy cloak. In a way, it was almost comforting to hit absolute rock bottom, to no longer have anything to care about anymore. There was a black peace to be found in it. There was no more hope, no thought that things could ever get any better, but at the same time there was no fear of things getting worse. Here, down in the muck and rotting filth that remained of his life, there was the security that he was as low as he could get.

Around him the world moved, his monstrous form carrying him along once more. He had no input in what was happening, no control over its actions, the hunger was in control. However, it wasn’t acting as it normally did, relentlessly pursuing the object of its appetite until it could be devoured. Never had it acted with anything approaching intelligence or planning, only with violent relentlessness. To see it doing something new might have been of interest to him before, but now he simply could not bring himself to care. He’d simply watched, his eyes feeling as dull as his soul, as the monster born of his flesh devoured the corpses it carried, even as it made its way deeper into the forest.

It wasn’t returning to the ruins that had served as his home for the last months, of that he was peripherally aware. Instead, it was going to the heart of the woods where the oldest trees were. He’d been there before, having explored the forest back when he’d been more in control of himself. He’d wanted to know the area if only so he knew where he could flee if people found him. He remembered feeling . . . something there, something old and dark. The monster that was a part of him had felt a resonance to the place, and that alone had been enough to scare him.

The area he eventually came to rest in was a small clearing, barely large enough to fit his bulk. About him were old trees, the great ones that reached high into the sky, the ones that had centuries of growth behind them. Beneath him, the tentacles that moved his form relaxed settling his body onto the grass that filled the clearing. Soon the corpses it had been carrying were being consumed one after another, adding to the ones that had already been gorged upon.

Etienne felt it then, the familiar splitting as his skin grew too tight and the flesh beneath it bulged and swelled. Even in his pit of depression he couldn’t help but take some pleasure in the sensation, his body forcing him to feel satisfaction and even a sort of hollow joy at the experience. He supposed that it was a basic biological reaction, one meant to motivate him to grow larger on his own as if what was happening to him was in any way natural.

It was odd though, this time the ‘moulting’ felt different. For a moment he felt just the slightest stirring of curiosity, but it was quickly smothered beneath apathy and despair.

Like someone in the audience of a cinema, he watched with only vague attention as the last of the corpses was consumed. His body then slithered over to the largest of the trees that surrounded the clearing, a huge oak that must have been centuries old. His body was enormous now, akin to some multilimbed sea monster that dragged itself out of the waves, but even so the tree dwarfed him. His limbs reached out, to do what he wasn’t sure, but there was a sense of anticipation, as though something important was going to happen. Even the hunger seemed to feel it, an eagerness that Etienne had never felt from it starting to build.

Depression started to fade away, replaced by trepidation and growing fear. He wasn’t sure what this was, but he didn’t like it. It felt as though his body, his monstrous body, was getting ready for something. Something that would make it stronger, make it grow. And something in the remnants of the young man told him that if it did grow then it would grow right over him, sealing him in, digesting him, until there was nothing left of Etienne, only the monster would remain. Only the hunger.

So, when the fireball exploded in his face, some part of him was almost relieved.

Most of him was shocked though, especially the monstrous part of him. The fireball, even though he’d only gotten a glimpse of it, had been about the size of a large watermelon, but when it hit the earth it had gone up in the sort of explosion that one normally only saw from detonating cars in action films. There was a rush of scalding air, a thunderous roar, and a shockwave that actually pushed him back, the combination momentarily stunning him.

As he tried to regain his senses his monstrous form reared back, shying away from the flames. The motion caused the world to shake and shudder about Etienne as he was thrown around. All the sudden movements, the attack, the sound, all of it was enough to jar him from his depression, ancient instincts momentarily trumping emotional exhaustion.

What was happening? What had-

A second fireball came down like a meteor, slamming into the ground to his left with enough force to crater the earth as it sent up another explosion of fire and force. This impact had been closer than the first, and Etienne felt the flesh of a tentacle sizzle as it burnt. There was pain, but it was a distant pain, not really his own.

Underneath him the maw of the monster opened, and a shrieking roar echoed forth, a cry of anger, pain and . . . fear?

That, more than anything else, made the young man gather his thoughts once more. Fear? He honestly hadn’t even believed the monster growing from him was capable of the emotion, but here it was. It wasn’t overwhelming, but it was there. A hint of a smirk touched his lips as Etienne made the connection. Fire, that was what had it scared, this was the first time the monstrous part of him had encountered fire.

It made sense. He’d fled from his home as soon as the first hints of the hunger had begun to show themselves, terrified of what it might mean for his friends and family. By the time it had started to grow into a being of its own, he’d already been living out in the woods for more than a week. Since he’d felt no cold and had been afraid of attracting any attention, he’d not used fire in those early days. Afterwards, when the monster began to take over, he no longer had the freedom to even try it.

So . . . it didn’t like fire. Well, he had no idea how he could use it, but it was at least worth knowing.

A third fireball came down, this one even larger than the previous two, and struck the tail of the monster. Another shriek of surprise and pain split the silence of the forest as his body spun around, instinctively seeking an attacker that wasn’t there, only to be struck again, this time in the side.

Dozens of the smaller tendrils were seared off now, and even some of the larger tentacles had been crippled. He could feel their pain, though it was far-off, as though he were looking at something through dirty glass. He could also feel the growing confusion and frustration of the hunger, strange as it was. It was as though with every moment that passed, what had once just been an overwhelming impulse was growing more complex, more aware.

And right now, it was getting angry.

Another fireball came down, but this time the monster wasn’t taken by surprise. Instead, it twisted, swatting at the projectile with one tentacle, sacrificing the limb to send the attack off course. As it turned it let him see where the assault was coming from.

Truthfully, he wasn’t sure how he had missed it until now. He supposed that his earlier stupor of depression might have had something to do with it, but even so . . .

Hovering in the sky was the winged figure from before, but he wasn’t up there on his own. Floating above him was a huge sphere of fire, one so large it could have easily held a pair of cars inside it. Seeing it Etienne couldn’t help but blink in surprise, wondering how the winged man could be so close to it and not burn.

*Just hold on, Etienne! I think I can do this!*

The message in his mind came as a surprise since he really hadn’t been expecting to experience it again. But his thoughts on that were scattered as another fireball came down. Then another, and another.

As the area around him seemed to explode with all the force of a small war Etienne felt his body moving, each sinuous motion so swift he could barely keep track. Some part of him noticed that the huge globe of fire was shrinking with each shot, but that was a distant concern. Instead, the young Frenchman was consumed by the rush of motion as his monster dragged him along.

Despite the veritable rain of fireballs, he was somehow managing to avoid direct hits. Skin was seared and limbs were lost, but it wasn’t enough! The monster he was a part of would not stop, would not let itself be stopped! He could feel skin regrowing, and limbs starting to regenerate. He didn’t know the limits of his monstrous form’s ability to heal, since it had never been truly tested before, but he was willing to bet that the winged figure would run out of fire before his body ran out of regeneration.

Not that it would make much difference. So long as the winged man stayed up there, out of reach, there was nothing that his monster could do to reach him. Idly Etienne noted that if his warped monster body really wanted to attack the far-off foe then it should try throwing some rocks or trees at him. Not that such was likely, the creature that had grown out of him was far too-

The young man’s thoughts were cut off as a tentacle shot out, curled around a rock as large as a man’s torso, and with a whip-like snap of the flexible limb sent it careening through the air with all the force of a cannonball freshly fired! The figure was able to dodge it, but only narrowly. Any hesitation, any mistake, would have left him shot from the sky since the figure didn’t seem to have had one of his protective shields up.

For Etienne, it was enough of a shock that his still sluggish mind finally snapped back into focus. For a moment all he could do was stare as more tendrils seized debris and hurled it upwards, rocks, wooden logs, even clumps of dirt, anything they could grab. Then reality slammed back into him.

Had . . . had the monstrous part of him . . . taken his idea? Had it heard what he was thinking and somehow learned from it? even though his heart was more than half sunken into the mass of flesh beneath him he still felt it skip a beat. That thought was terrifying to him, the idea that this thing growing from him was not only swallowing up his body but also his thoughts . . . Somehow it was even worse than the idea of his flesh being absorbed. It was like this thing didn’t just want to kill him, it wanted to take everything from him, his body, his mind, even his soul!

Then another thought occurred to him, one that was chilling in its own way. The monster that had grown from him had been horrifying when it had simply been a veritable incarnation of hunger. It hadn’t thought, it hadn’t relented, and it hadn’t shown mercy. All it had done was satiate its appetite in the simplest and most brutal way available to it. But . . . just now, it had used his thought to overcome a problem. Had it been able to think? Or had it just taken his thought once he came up with a basic solution? Either was frightening, but not as much so as the notion of that remorseless devourer managing to actually think in the pursuit of its next meal.

Further contemplation of the kind of horror the hunger could do with the ability to plan and improvise was cut off as the winged figure retaliated, launching another fireball. This one was larger than any of the previous ones, nearly cutting the size of the floating flame sphere in half to make it. Again, his body was able to avoid it, but the blast of heat and force was enormous, enough to throw his monstrous from through the air and send it crashing to the ground.

Again, there was pain, but it was dull and distant still, the pain of his monster, not of himself. Even so, Etienne once again found himself marvelling at the sheer resilience and tenacity of the beast that he was a part of. The force of that impact would have reduced any normal being of flesh and blood to a broken pulp. The heat of it was enough to strip away skin and lay bone and muscle burnt and bare to the air. But despite horrific wounds, the monster still rose again, flesh wriggling and seething as it repaired and regenerated.

Then the second huge fireball slammed into him.

For the first time, Etienne felt the impact. He, himself, felt it. It wasn’t the monster. It wasn’t some distant sensation filtered through the blurred connection with the beast consuming him. He felt it in the remains of his own bones, felt his eyes water and his ears ring. His thoughts were scattered as he felt something impact the side of his head. He tasted blood in his mouth, and the world swam around him, a confused jumble of sights and sounds that he couldn’t comprehend.

*Okay, this might hurt, but . . . but trust me, okay?*

He vaguely understood the message being sent to him, but his mind wasn’t able to grasp it,

There was a flash of white, and then the world dissolved into searing hot lines of pain, and all he could do was scream.

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I did all I could to ignore the throbbing pain in my temples, but it was no easy task.

I’d pushed myself harder than I ever had before! It was something to be proud of, breaking a limit, and improving myself, but it hadn’t been safe either. This was something that I’d been planning to work on before this whole ‘quest’ thing was dropped on me, back when I thought I still had just under a week to practice with. I’d known I was going to need some tricks that had more raw power than what my arcana telekinesis could bring to bear. It had the advantage of control and flexibility, but my sparring sessions with my guardians had shown me that sometimes pure destructive power was what was called for.

That had been where this idea came from, the notion of raw firepower.

At first, I’d thought of using lightning, but I soon realised I wasn’t ready for that yet. Electricity was too wild, too volatile. It wanted release, it wanted to touch and flow and spread, and it wanted to do it in an instant. I’d taken several nasty shocks before I accepted that with my current level of control it wasn’t a viable option.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

So, after accepting my limitations with lightning I turned to fire.

Fire was just as dangerous, but its nature felt a bit more obedient. It was biddable, but not slavish. It felt old, and it made me think of humanity's ancient ancestors hiding in caves and huddling around small campfires. As far as the more ethereal elements went, like electricity, light and shadow, fire was the very first that mankind was able to truly harness. It had been the very basis for all technological development, the companion that lifted humanity out of the mud and into the future rulers of the world, so it made sense that there was some sort of connection there.

That was probably why I’d thought that I could pull this off, even though I felt I lacked the experience to control so much of an element. Fire was responsive, enough for my purposes.

I’d first thought to use it directly, but the time it took to build it up was impractical. Both Hadriel and Joan had taught me that in a fight slowness or predictability were liabilities.

So, I’d come up with the idea of it being more useful if I prepped before the fight. I could store fire in a sphere and make it refined and concentrated so I had a ready reserve of potent power. I hoped that eventually I could create a huge reserve, bring it into battle, and then freely unleash bursts of its power as a sort of magical artillery piece.

I just hadn’t actually tried it yet.

I hadn’t really planned to make the one I had so huge, when I’d started I’d only intended to get it to the size of a basketball, maybe a beachball, if I thought I could handle it. But as I’d made it, I kept on thinking about the way I’d been all but helpless when Etienne attacked me. Of how the most damage I’d been able to inflict had been by pure accident.

So, I kept up the flow of fire, and the globe was already larger than I’d planned, larger than any of my previous attempts! And as it grew I realized that a sharp pain was starting to grow behind my eyes along with it.

At that point, I should probably have stopped, since pains in the brain are a good hint that something isn’t right. However, I could feel the power I had collected in the globe, and it was huge! It was more powerful than anything I’d ever used.

Below me, Etienne had been moving through the trees swiftly and smoothy, despite being so huge. The way he moved reminded me of some sort of sea creature, one that moved over the sands of the sea bottom with liquid grace. Following him wasn’t a problem though, even if I was building the sphere up, I just flew along in the correct general direction.

That was why I decided to do something . . . risky.

I didn’t stop the flow of energy, instead I increased it! I felt the pain in my head spike, but at the same time, I felt the power in the globe grow, even as the sphere itself grew in size.

I just kept going, even as my target moved beneath me, even as my pain grew, I kept on empowering the globe, feeling a mad grin spread across my face as it swelled in power. By the time Etienne came to a stop the sphere of flame had grown large enough to swallow up a small car, and I could feel the power within. As he started to swallow the corpses he’d been carrying I continued to feed more burning red into the globe. More. More! MORE!

The pain in my skull was intense but just manageable. Sure, I felt as though a dull ice-pick was being slowly driven into my skull, but at the same time, it felt . . . unimportant, as though it was a dull and irritating complaint rather than the screaming warning it should have been. I’d fallen into a sort of semi-trance, so focused on my efforts that I was watching the twisted demigod beneath me without really seeing him anymore.

Then I saw something happen that forced my attention back to the monster below.

After it had finished consuming the corpses it had dragged here, the serpentine length of its body, which was bloated and taunt, began to heave and contort, the muscles beneath its hide jumping and warping. I’d seen it without really registering it, without caring, but then the back of the creature split open, just behind where Etienne was fused to its body.

Wings, that was what was emerging from the monster’s back. They weren’t feathered, like my own, rather they were a strange combination of those of a dragonfly and those of a dragon. Bones and muscle seemed to make up the framework of the wing, but where the leather-like membrane would have been for a dragon there was instead the fine and translucent film of a dragonfly. The film was still limp, crumpled from where it had emerged from the split flesh. But even as I watched I could see them gaining colour as blood flowed into them, I could see them straightening as their internal pressure rose.

It was right then and there that I realized waiting was no longer an option. If I gave the monster growing from Etienne’s flesh even a few more minutes, then that was all it would need to be able to take to the skies. It shouldn’t be able to, even wings that big shouldn’t have let such a huge bulk fly. However, its flesh shouldn’t be able to heal as fast as it did, it should not be able to regenerate lost limbs like it did, but it didn’t care. It gaining flight and me losing my greatest advantage looked all too possible.

Waiting wasn’t an option, I had to act fast! I sent a message along the link without really thinking about it, some sort of assurance that I’d do the best I could to help him, but I wasn’t really paying it too much mind. Instead, I was focused on what I had to do.

The first wave of attacks was done using the condensed fireball. First, I used multiple smaller attacks to inflict burns and injuries to hurt those wings and tie up its healing. Then, I moved onto larger attacks to wreck the wings, sever larger limbs and disorient the creature. After that, I dumped the remaining energy into a final series of big blasts, ones that I’d hoped would manage to immobilize it, either through damage or simply by stunning it.

Things had gone well, despite having stuff thrown at me like missiles. That had been a shock but I kept going. By then I’d used up enough of the globes fire that the pressure on me had been reduced enough that I could dodge the first volley. Then I’d retaliated, this time with a single larger fireball. It drained the globe to nearly half its remaining size, but the impact on the monster was brutal. It was a miss, but the explosion sent it skidding backwards, limbs flailing as it tried to find purchase.

That in itself was daunting, a reminder of the kind of power I was throwing around. Etienne’s monstrous form was huge, bigger than two or three elephants combined, but the force of the blast had still sent him careening across the clearing. I paused for a moment, trying to make sure that Etienne wasn’t severely hurt. However, the burnt flesh was already wriggling, regrowing, filling the burns like water flowing into an empty vessel.

That was all I needed to convince me to go through with my plan. It wasn’t going to be pleasant for him, but I hoped that his regeneration meant that he could take it.

So, I released all the remaining fire in one attack!

It seemed to be the first time that I’d actually managed to hurt the huge creature. The blast caught the monster on its side and hit with enough force to blast a crater into its flesh, bones and innards being revealed through the charred meat even as its back was slammed into the trees that grew at the edge of the clearing. For a moment it just hung there, then gravity reclaimed its hold, and the colossal form fell onto its belly, the underbrush being crushed by its weight.

I saw it trying to move, but its movements were sluggish and uncoordinated. It was hurt, hurt enough to be stunned, hurt enough to be vulnerable!

I dove, pushing myself to move as fast as I could! The sudden shift from having been held in place by the flame globe to suddenly darting down like a hunting hawk was almost disorienting, but I remained fixed on my target, the human form now more than half-submerged in the creature’s flesh. I landed, my shoes denting the flesh beneath me, almost slipping, then rising as I decided to hover just above the back of the monster rather than trust to keep my balance on it if it moved. I took a moment to orient myself, getting just behind the sinking figure of Etienne, and sent a message along the link, feeling he should have at least some reassurances about what I was going to try.

*Okay, this might hurt, but . . . but trust me, okay?*

Bile rose up in my throat as my feathers cut into the flesh around the half-submerged figure.

This . . . this was more than I could ever have imagined. So far, I’d used them in my spars with Joan and Hadriel. I’d used them to cut wood and stones, I’d even tested them out against metal, just to see how they compared. The sensations had always been strange, hard to get a grip on. My wings had plenty of nerves in them, enough that I could feel the wind moving through them, and know how to shift them about to be more comfortable. I felt it when the sword-like feathers hit something, or cut something. And this . . .

“YYYGGGHHHHAAAAAAA!!”

The scream didn’t sound human, even though it came from Etienne’s human mouth. It echoed through the trees, reverberating around the clearing, somehow managing to rise above the earth-shaking roar that came from the maw beneath him.

Gritting my teeth against both the deafening sounds and the thick warm sensation of my feathers slicing through flesh I pressed on.

The first cuts went down and under, moving diagonally so they’d meet up beneath him. At its most basic it was similar to how one would cut a chunk of bad flesh out of an otherwise good fruit. It was something I’d done hundreds of times over the years, the action simply vastly scaled up. I kept telling myself that as I pressed on, it was just a bigger version of something familiar. That was all, I mustn’t think of it as anything else.

My wings drew back, the white feathers stained with the dark red blood and gore now dripping from them. For just a moment I hesitated, then thrust them down again as I shifted position.

Another scream rent the air, but I closed myself to it! This . . . I knew it was cruel, I knew that it hurt, but I couldn’t think of anything else that might have a chance to work! Underneath me, I could feel the monster trying to move, to fight back, to dislodge me, but the last attack had been severe enough that it had yet to recover.

More blood gushed oy, a tide of it. For a moment I flinched back as it washed over my shoes, but I pressed on. I focused on keeping myself locked in place as the muscles in my wings strained, driving the bladed feathers in deeper, then cutting sideways, struggling to meet up with the other cuts.

*Just a bit more! Just a bit more and I can save you! Please, just hold on, Etienne!*

I sent the thought out along the link, speaking to both the demigod beneath me and to myself. I had to believe it, it had to be right. Just a bit more, that was all, just a bit more and-

I felt it as flesh gave! YES! One of the cuts had met up with another, forming three sides of a square. All I needed was one more! My right wing flexed as I dragged it sideways, redoubling my efforts! Just a bit more! Just a bit more! Just a bit-

The last corner connected, and both Etienne and his monster let out shrieks of pain. For a moment the world seemed to swim, and I swore I could feel a tiny trickle of something making its way from my ear, but I refused to allow it to distract me!

My head still hurt, it hurt a lot! But I wasn’t letting it stop me, not now! Reaching out, I wrapped my telekinesis around Etienne and the mass of flesh he was attached to and pulled. There was the resistance to my magic again, but this time I wasn’t trying to cut through it. The flesh had been severed already, all I was trying to do was pull it free.

Those cuts had been diagonal, making a sort of upside-down pyramid into the flesh, but even as large as the bladed feathers on my wings had been they weren’t long enough to reach all the way through. The ‘pyramid’ I’d been carving was incomplete, the third of its length reaching for the ‘tip’ remaining uncut. The rest was complete, but the mass of flesh to which the demigod was fused could not be removed without dealing with that last connection.

So, I was going with the most expedient approach and just trying to rip it out with pure brute force.

It wasn’t quite as reckless as I may sound. My earlier slashes had already severed the great majority of the connections keeping the flesh in place, leaving only a minor portion uncut. I had leverage on my side, and a far larger surface area to grip. Add in the raw strength of my TK, and I felt I had a pretty good chance at pulling this off.

It had literally only been a few seconds since I landed on the monster’s back, even though it had felt like an eternity. The first cuts had taken a second or two, and even the more resistant flesh had given after only a few moments. As my telekinesis got its grip, I was counting off the seconds in my head, trying to figure out how much longer I had. I’d done a lot of damage, but the monster born of the demigod’s flesh healed absurdly fast. How long would it remain stunned, especially with the pain I was inflicting upon it?

I pulled, and I could feel the great chunk of muscle and blood shift. There was resistance, but I could feel something starting to tear, starting to give! Etienne moaned, and for a moment I wondered if this was going to kill him. Cutting him out of the beast like this . . . could he survive it? was I going to pull him out only for him to bleed to death on me? The only reason I thought that this might work was that I’d already seen his human body display a similar healing ability to his monstrous self. During the first fight, I saw a flying bit of wood cut into his cheek, a deep cut that had drawn blood, yet only a few seconds later the cut was gone and I’d taken note of it.

He could survive, that was what I kept telling myself. He’d survive long enough for me to get him to Joan or Hadriel, and then . . . then I wasn’t too sure what could happen, but it had to be better than leaving him here! Maybe they could heal him, maybe they’d say he had to die, either way, it was better than letting him just get swallowed up by that thing that had been growing out of him.

More, MORE!

I kept pulling, feeling flesh at the base starting to give. It was tough, very tough, and it felt as though there were dozens of different connections that each had to be individually broken before they would tear, but it was giving way to my TK. I felt another break, then another, and another. There weren’t many left! Just a bit more! Just a bit-

The blow came out of nowhere! Fortunately, even as focused as I was on tearing the flesh free, I’d still kept a shield up, but it wasn’t enough. One second, I was standing there, my halo humming with power as I did my best to pull Etienne free, the next I was flying through the air, my head ringing and my shield cracked. I ploughed into the ground in a way that was all too familiar from my training. The difference was that they’d never hit me this hard, not even Hadriel, and she tended to hold back as little as possible. That blow . . . if I hadn’t had my defence up . . .

My disordered thoughts suddenly sprang back to full alertness as I saw the massive form before me move, the action almost fluid as dozens of limbs great and small moved together to aid the motion. Above it I could see the chunk of flesh that I’d been trying to pull free, sticking out above it like some sort of cancerous growth. There was a silent moment, as the monster turned to face me and then paused, confusing me. Then I saw what was happening.

Vein-like threads burst out of its skin around the area I had sliced up, dozens, then hundreds of tiny tendrils shooting up, digging into the severed meat and finding purchase. As I watched the veins drew tight, and pulled the mass of flesh back into place, the wounds closing up as though they were being zipped closed by an impatient hand.

“Hah . . . hah hah . . .” The voice came from Etienne himself, though this time it lacked the inhuman volume it had used before, though it still carried regardless. “Hah, hah ha . . . hah hah ha ha ha haaa!”

He broke down into hysterical laughter, and ‘broken’ was the only word I could think to describe it. This wasn’t the mirth of joy or humour, rather it was brittle as broken glass, the laughter of someone standing on the edge of madness and getting ready to fall. In a way, it was even worse than the near-incoherent words he’d howled at me when he first attacked me in his berserk state.

“That . . . heh heh . . . that was close,” The words dripped with something, something both ugly and pitiful. “I . . . you know . . . for a moment there I really thought . . . I really thought that you might do it. Free me, kill me, either one . . .”

He was speaking in French, but I could still understand him. Maybe it was because of the earlier link, maybe it was because the link was still working even if I wasn’t paying it any attention. Whatever it was, I could understand him, but in a way, I wished I couldn’t. If I couldn’t make out his words it would have been easier, I wouldn’t have felt guilt at failing him. I wouldn’t have had to hear him and understand.

“I . . . I guess I’m stuck like this, right? I . . . I’m not going to get out of this, I’m just going to be stuck here until . . . until this thing eats me!”

Despite the distance separating us, I could still see it as his head, which had been bowed before, came up and his eyes met mine. I found myself startled by those eyes, even as far away as they were I could see they were almost startlingly green, though the whites were so shot through with livid red that it made a sharp contrast.

“It’s hungry, you know? So hungry . . . I . . . I don’t think it can be satisfied, not really. It just wants to eat, and eat, and eat until there’s nothing left, and then it’ll just go somewhere else and eat what’s there!”

Those eyes were getting wild now, both anger and despair bleeding into them as they stared down at me.

“Why?! Why’d you have to come?! I . . . I could have slept, kept it quiet, kept it hidden! But . . . but then you had to come, and . . . and you smelt so good that you made me hungry! Why?! Why’d you make me hungry?! Why’d you have to come?! Why couldn’t you leave me alone?!?!?!”

I noted how his voice was changing, growing louder and more inhuman as he went on. More than that, I noted how partway through he stopped referring to ‘it’ and began to talk about ‘me’ being hungry. That was bad, I might not know too much about the situation, but I knew that it was bad news!

Then he was charging at me, and I didn’t have time to think of anything!