The monster screamed and stumbled toward us, but I stood guard in front of Kalki. I got on my haunches, spread my front legs apart, nails out, head low, eyes forward, and gave out a low growl of absolute intensity. The growl echoed in street; any normal hu-man would have been scared shitless, but the screamer screamed back as if antagonized that I had tried to scare it.

Cob never taught me how to antagonize the hu-mans. He believed if we stayed on our side of the road, they would simply pass us by, but Rusty thought differently. He had spent a long time in the neighborhood and knew how selfish hu-mans could be.

You shouldn’t antagonize the hu-mans, but don’t hold back when the day comes. Never hold back.

I clearly remembered his words.

The screamer came at me swinging its arms without any rhyme or reason. Kalki ran for her life while I met it with a lunge. I planned to push it to the ground and then make away with kalki, but it wound an arm around my head and pulled me atop of fits chest.

Anger spilled into my veins when it tried to bite me. I changed around my jaw and nails, bit on its lower jaw, and pulled, breaking it. It felt that. It let me go, and I tore open its chest instead of running away. I wanted to devour it bone to bone; my anger was rising without a ceiling.

Its heart was still inside and the blood that drooled out of the opening was dark and thick. It was rotting, filled with maggots, yet moving about and screaming in anger. It felt no pain, no regret, only hunger.

JOIN ME!

The voice jolted me back to sanity. I was starting to change, but I repressed it.

Kalki was already scared of the screamers; I didn’t want her to fear me too. I left the screamer fidgeting near the house and ran back to Kalki’s side.

The screamer tried to get up after me, but it was the end of the road for it. Another screamer dropped jumped from the roof, exactly atop of it back, shattering its spine and ribs into pieces. Unable to move, it squirmed on the road in anger and irritation.

Following it a wave of sweetness spilled onto the street, forcing me to look back over my shoulder. What I saw sent a shiver down my spine. There were screamers on the roofs of the houses, around the street, and they wanted blood. They screamed upon seeing us and acted without delay. I let out a whine as my small transformation became undone. One after another they came over the roofs like water spilling over the levees and dropped around onto the street like lightning shocked birds, piling one on top of each other.

Kalki stopped a scream by covering her mouth with a hand and sped up.

The screamers most of them landed on their knees, someone even banged their heads, other… well, I pulled Kalki along and we were sprinting for our lives before I could clearly see. At least a fourth of them chased us from the roof since the houses were all connected and single-storied.

Worst thing was the road itself; It was long and straight. The nearest corner was more than a hundred steps away. We had a head start, but Kalki was burning stamina faster than I eat. She was breathing laboriously. There was no way she was going to keep at the pace, which was not much faster than a jog. The screamers, on the other hand, were faster than us; and as could be understood, it t didn’t take long to shrink the gap.

Kalki screamed when one of them got a hold of her backpack. I jumped at the screamer, making him let go, and she continued running. I didn’t stay there for long and pulled back to her before the others could catch me. I only wanted to get them off her.

We had only passed a few houses before Kalki slowed to a crawl. We didn’t have time for it, but she had run out of stamina. She tightly clamped her fingers around the straps of the bag, as if that was going to help. I don’t know what was in that backpack but she was going to die at this rate. Or I was going to die protecting her.

Then a screamer jumped upon her from the roof. It held onto her bag and pulled her to the ground. They rolled. She screamed. It tried to bite her, but I bit first and scraped its jaw.

She squirmed out of the straps and away from the bag as the screamers hot on our tail jumped atop of me. We had barely any head start and now they had caught up to us. Perhaps, if we hadn’t left the house we wouldn’t need scamper around to save our lives?

It was a shitty thought that passed through my mind at a shitty time. I saw her face turn pale before they piled atop of me. I didn’t panic. I knew I had a way out. I had my hesitations, but when you are on the verge of being crushed and suffocated, you kind to let go.

That’s what I did.

I let go.

I let the heat flow from my heart, let it empower me, strengthen my joints, enlargen my muscles, and disfigure me.

I charged out of the pile a changed being, holding a screamer by the head between my menacingly sharp fangs. Kalki was scared, but that could not be helped. On the other hand, the screamers were over joyous of my transformation, and that would have been a scary sight if I was paying attention.

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I stopped in front of Kalki and fell down. I flung the dead screamer to one side and turned around to face the wave of death.

JOIN ME! The voice called in my head.

I didn’t think we would survive. There were close to a hundred of them, black screaming dots, carrying a rotting sweet stench of death. The screams alone were heart nerving, but the roar that echoed somewhere in the distance, from the park’s direction was far-far menacing that any of them.

I believed they would be feasting upon our flesh in the end, but then the screamers stopped where they stood, all of them. And they turned silent, quiet as a corpse. They had frozen still just inches from me. I could see past their broken teeth and down their rotting, maggot eaten throats; that’s how close we were. The stayed frozen with their hands stretched and mouths open for an agonizingly long and torturous moment before they stood up straight and looked back to where the roar had come from.

I felt a pulse next time. Come to me. It called, and the screamers turned around and started walking away. And for some unknown reason, I was following right behind them.

My mind had blanked even though my sight hadn’t reddened. It was not the same voice that I usually heard in my head after transforming. The source of that one was far away, very very far away, and faint enough that I could ignore it. This call, however, had come from somewhere nearby and I was unable to do anything about it. I followed the screamers as they streamed toward the source, unable to stop.

I don’t think I would have stopped if it wasn’t for Kalki. She hugged my back, crying out loud enough to make the screamers fidget, but they were similarly bound by the spell and couldn’t act on their instinct.

Don’t go. Don’t go. Don’t go, please. Stop! Stop! I was wrong! I’m sorry. Don’t leave me alone! SPRING!

My eyes opened wide when I heard my name. A stream of memories passed through my head, cutting away the string that was away from her.

I remembered the first time I had met Kanti; when he saved me from the homeowners; the evening he took me inside him home, the promise he made, and the name he gave me.

Spring, I heard him call. How do you like that name, boy?

I barked loudly, happily, and then the dream broke. I was out on the street again, watching the screamers walking up the street and away from us. My transformation had become undone, and Kalki hugged me tightly. I barked at her three times and she slowly raised her head from my back. My tail started swaying when I saw her face. Tears hung at the corners of her eyes, a few of them had also caressed her cheeks and fallen into oblivion. I looked over my shoulder and licked her face, causing a smile to grow wide on her face.

Boy—

I started licking her face before she could continue and she giggled in pure euphoria. However, she was hurt, and I was sad to see the blood trickling down one of her arms.

Turns out she hadn’t realized the injury. She noticed it when I sniffed and licked it. The blood tasted… like nothing I wanted to taste.

It’s nothing. She said pulling the arm away from me. It’s just a cut. But you’ll need to bathe again.

I stopped and stared at her. I knew that word! She wasn’t deceiving me anymore. I growled and struggled out of her bind, turned around, and barked at her. No more bathing.

She understood but shook her head. It can’t be helped, boy. You are filthy. She sniffed and rubbed the tip of her nose with a finger. I was indeed filthy, but that didn’t mean I was going to let her wet me again.

A scream from nearby settled it for us.

Any idea what just happened?

I had no idea what she said, but I barked like a good boy.

That’s what I think. She brought a hand to rub my head, but made a face and pulled it back. Maybe I’d let her bathe me one more time, but only because I was filthy and not because of her disgusting reaction.

Alright, She said getting on her feet. Let’s get away from here before they come back. We need to find someplace safe.

She dusted her dry skin and picked up her bag as I thought of ways to help her arm. Then I remembered: the sweet things inside the screamers were great at healing injuries. Coincidently, there was a screamer lying nearby whom I had killed but not yet eaten. He still faintly smelled of sweetness and most likely had a shard in his brain.

She yelled when I rushed away to find the corpse and held her breath when I tore its skull and gutted its brain to find the small thing. I returned to her side not even a minute later and dropped that small shard in front of her feet. She was surprised by it and so was I. It was not bigger than my nail and shimmered brightly in the evening light.

What is that? She asked me confused and disgusted, yet also mildly interested.

I nuzzled it toward her. She first backed away from me in fear, and then decided to check it out when I sat back with my tongue lolling out. My mouth watered from its sweet odor, but I held myself back and licked my face. The rotting blood and brain matter covering my face didn’t taste so good with the sweet injection of scent.

You want me to have this? She pointed at the crystal shard and I barked at her. She hesitated at first, and then pocketed it, but only after cleaning it first.

I tilted my head in confusion. Now that was a problem. I was hoping she’d eat it. And her mouth wasn’t watering either. Could she maybe not smell its sweet invitation? It certainly looked as such to me.

Can we go now? She asked after rubbing her hands together as if feeling cold. I understood ‘Go’.

I took charge.