It was morning, and I knew what to do. I could feel where to go. I saw the place inside of my mind, and I felt the push from the cloaked being directing me there.
My old human mind tried and failed to understand. My primal side accepted it and pushed me forward. Deep in the recesses of my subconscious, where the old me lingered, I tried to process how it was happening. Ultimately, I just started moving.
I wanted to stay there with Autumn, Carter, and Eleanor. I wanted to spend the day with them again, but I couldn’t. That wasn’t even an option anymore. I had a force inside of me that was literally pushing my mind to where I needed to go. All I had to do was start walking. It was like every cell in my body was moving towards the kill.
I had forced myself back to sleep after the visions. I had to wait until morning so I could leave without raising suspicion. If I just left in the middle of the night, they’d start asking questions that I didn’t have the answers to. When I woke up, I noticed two things; a faint hint of sunlight crept through the blinds, and Autumn was gone. She had snuck out, back to her side of the house before her parents woke up. I was glad she did, because I couldn’t have left as quickly as I needed to if she was still beside me. Plus, her family might not like the fact that we were sleeping in the same bed under their roof.
I got my clothes back on and tried to sneak out of the house. The sun had already begun glimmering over the horizon. The world was coming back to life. As I made my way out into the living room, I saw Carter on the couch with a cup of coffee in his hands. The steam visibly rising to his face as he lightly read through a black bound bestiary.
“Morning. You’re up early,” Carter said, surprised. He looked like he had already been up for a while. He was fully dressed.
“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep anymore…,” I said, still processing the images I saw of the mass killing.
“You sound like me,” he chuckled.
“I think I’m actually going to head out. I figure I should go back to my place, clean up and get a new change of clothes,” I lied as I made my way to the front door, never slowing from my mission. “Can you tell Autumn and Eleanor that I’ll try to be back later?”
“Yeah, I’ll let them know,” he could see the fast pace in my movements. He stood quickly to see me out of the house. “Well, I’m glad you came last night, and we’re glad you could stay with us. If you ever need to crash here again, our home is your home.”
I couldn’t take the time to really think about what that meant to me. I kept moving, “Thanks, Carter, I’ll remember that.”
“Is everything okay?” He noticed the haste.
“I forgot that I had some shit I needed to do this morning, so I’m kind of in a hurry. I’ll be back by later, though.” I hoped he wouldn’t question my story.
“Okay,” he barely got out before I stepped out of one of the front doors. “Be safe.”
“Will do,” I said just as I shut the door.
I forced myself to slow down, each step a battle against the primal urge clawing at my insides. Carter’s eyes bored into me from behind the front windows, a reminder that I couldn’t afford to draw suspicion. But the beast inside was restless, thrashing, demanding I move faster. I reached the motorcycle, hands trembling as I twisted the key, the engine roaring to life with a ferocity that mirrored the creature within. My pulse quickened, matching the rhythm of the engine as I yanked the throttle, tires screeching against the pavement in a desperate attempt to unleash the pent-up energy.
The road blurred beneath me as I sped away, the distance between me and their house a fleeting memory. I could feel the monster’s impatience gnawing at my resolve, pushing me to go faster, to reach my target before it was too late. When I saw the break in the trees, I didn’t hesitate, jerking the handlebars to swerve off the road and into the woods. The bike tore through the underbrush, branches snapping like bones as I killed the engine, letting gravity pull me deeper into the darkness of the early morning forest.
I was barely in control as I zigzagged between trees, the forest closing in around me like the jaws of a predator. There was no time to think, no room for error. I had to move. The moment the bike slowed, I bailed, feet hitting the ground in a dead sprint. The motorcycle toppled over somewhere behind me, but I didn’t care. I didn’t need it. I couldn’t stop, couldn’t slow down. The beast inside was relentless, driving me forward with a single, all-consuming need.
It didn’t take long until I was in the dark caverns below the city. I had to stay underground as much as possible since it was early morning and broad daylight. I had on my old jacket and hood that would now reek of the city’s underbelly. However, a part of my mind knew they might not make it out of where I was going. They’d probably be covered in blood.
The timing of it all wasn’t ideal, but it was doable. I never had a single doubt about what I was doing or walking into. I was on the hunt.
I didn’t need directions. I could feel where they were. The force that sent me the vision pushed me to where I needed to go. I ripped through the jagged tunnels, never stopping as I made turns, scaled sheer rock, or dropped into other parts of the subterranean voids. I could feel the pressure in my ears as I descended beneath the city. I stayed in human form for mobility, I didn’t need to get hung up because of my size. I needed speed.
About fifteen minutes below the city was all it took, and then I was out of the caverns. I crawled through a storm drain and was back in the world above. I stood about a hundred yards away from a large house. It looked like a house you saw in movies or very, very rich neighborhoods. Whoever paid for it must have spent a fortune. They were hiding in plain sight. At the top of society. There were other houses around, but this one sat apart from the rest. It was nestled in a stand of trees that was backed up to the property.
I could feel my urges pushing me to bust in. I wanted to let the monster rip out and tear through any and every one of the witches inside. I kept getting flashes of Charlotte as she paced through the thrusting and writhing bodies on the floor, blood painting the soles of her bare feet. This only fueled the fire that drove me now. I wanted to kill.
I stalked the perimeter, glancing through the towering walls of windows from a safe vantage point. I couldn’t reveal myself until I was ready. I couldn’t let any of them escape. Yet, I saw no one. I wondered how, since the house was basically made of glass. I couldn’t see them.
I found a door that was unlocked at the backside of the house. It led to a stairwell to the second level of windows that faced the trees. I guess witches didn’t need to lock doors. They probably had few things to fear. I stepped in, but I didn’t unleash it. I just got ready. Let my urges surface. I needed the kill more than breath itself. I could almost feel her presence. I could feel her heart beating in my mind, just waiting to be snuffed out. The deeper I went into the house, the louder it got. My ear pounding in deafening thuds as the monster beat on its cage.
I pushed through a door on the second floor of the stairwell. I came into a long hall stretched with hardwood floors. All the lights were off except the one at the far end of the passageway. Someone was standing down there near a broad set of wooden doors. A woman. She glanced my way but saw nothing in the shadows. She stepped through the door, seemingly unalerted or scared of my presence. I could feel that it was where I needed to go. I continued down the hall slowly. The pressure of my other side built and expanded beneath the surface. All it needed was the command to break free and kill. I pulled open one of the doors and stepped into the room. There were no windows in this room. It was cut off from view, unlike the rest of the modern house. This room had secrets, and it was supposed to stay that way. Once inside, I realized it was the room from my vision. It was precisely the same.
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Men laid motionless in pools of blood. Nude women lay all around them, licking blood from each other’s bodies while having sex in the sea of red. There were nine of them. They were all covered in crimson stain, writhing together in pleasure. They looked young, like they were in their late twenties or early thirties. They looked healthy from afar, but all shared the same twisted face upon closer examination. It was… evil. It was corruption.
No one noticed me. They were too drunk from whatever was happening in that room. I saw quickly that I was too late to do anything about the men they butchered. But I would make sure they never did it again.
It was only seconds that I stood there before one of them looked up and noticed the large, out of place, figure. Once they saw me, watching from behind my dark hood, they knew I didn’t belong. The women all looked to me with angry distorted faces. They hissed between their teeth like cats. It was unnatural. One of them, a blonde, was cursing me from the ground. She laid between two dead men, screaming at me in a language that I didn’t recognize. They didn’t know who was intruding on their coven, but they didn’t waste any time dealing with me.
One of them leaped from a body and flew towards me from across the room. She rushed through the air like a ghost before she appeared in front of me, ready to strike with a wickedly curved blade. Her eyes were wild and confident. It seemed like the same blade they used in the slaughter all around as it was coated in blood already.
A guttural, inhuman roar tore from my throat as my newly sprouted talons slashed through the air, tearing into her flesh. The sound of rending skin and shattering bone filled the room as my claws ripped across her face, the force of the blow twisting her mid-air. Her scream was cut short as her body veered off course, the raw power of the strike sending her careening into the wall with a sickening crunch. She hit the ground in a twisted heap, the remnants of her face a gory mess of blood, muscle, and shattered bone. Her hands clawed desperately at the ruined remains, her screams now a high-pitched wail of agony that echoed off the walls, mingling with the scent of copper and fear.
Everything blurred into chaos. The change ripped through me like a wildfire, bones snapping, muscles tearing, skin stretching as I transformed into something monstrous, towering over the witches. I was an unstoppable force, driven by a singular, savage desire… to destroy.
I lunged at them, a blur of feral speed and brutal strength. My claws sliced through flesh and bone with terrifying ease, the sound of snapping spines and tearing sinew filling the air. Bodies crumpled beneath my onslaught, limbs torn free from their sockets, torsos ripped open to expose the raw, glistening organs within. I moved through them like a hurricane of death, each strike more vicious than the last. Bones shattered like glass, jagged shards piercing through skin as I carved my way through the coven. Blood sprayed in thick, hot jets, splattering across my darkened, transformed skin. Crimson painted the walls and floor in a grotesque canvas of carnage.
The room became a slaughterhouse, every surface slick with blood that pooled and rose with each life I extinguished. The air was hot, stifling, thick with the metallic tang of blood and the raw stench of death. Limbs, heads, and jagged chunks of flesh were flung in every direction, the walls painted with the splatter of their obliteration. It wasn’t just a massacre… it was brutal, total annihilation.
The bloodlust consumed me, searing through my veins like fire, driving me to greater heights of savagery. My skin buzzed with a fevered heat, electrified by the carnage as I tore through the last of them, my body drenched in the blood of my victims. But even as the final witch fell, her body crumpling in a heap of torn flesh and shattered bones, the hunger inside me roared. The destruction wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. Not until I ended her… Charlotte Gunderson.
When there were no more beating hearts around me, I heard fleeting footsteps racing down an exterior passageway. My inhuman ears traced their movements in my mind. I could feel the beating of their steps in my skin. I knew… Charlotte was running.
I felt her heart beating, frantic and terrified, as I turned and barreled through the building, ripping through walls and furniture like they were nothing. The door splintered into pieces as I crashed through it, my massive body colliding with the wood and sending it flying off its hinges. There she was, just down the hall, running for her life. Her scream echoed through the narrow space, a cry of pure, unfiltered terror. I could almost taste her fear, the same paralyzing dread she had inflicted on so many others. I wanted her to feel every ounce of it. To know what it was to be helpless, to know she was going to die.
I charged down the darkened hallway like a beast unchained, my bulk carving deep gouges into the walls as I tore through the narrow space. Plaster and wood exploded in my wake, debris raining down as I closed the distance between us. She was so close to the exit, fingertips brushing the doorframe, but it didn’t matter. I was on her in an instant, my inhuman hand closing around her with a crushing grip that sent bones splintering beneath my fingers.
The metal door ahead of us didn’t stand a chance. I slammed through it with her in tow, the frame screeching as it was torn from the wall, twisted and mangled in my wake. There was no pause, no hesitation. I leaped from the balcony access, dragging her with me, her body whipping through the air like a ragdoll as we crashed into the sparse trees below. Branches snapped and shattered under our weight, the ground quaking as we landed in a tangle of broken limbs and crushed foliage.
Her struggles were pitiful against the raw power coursing through me, her screams strangled by the monstrous grip around her. I dragged her deeper into the shadows. There was no escape, no salvation. Only the brutal, unrelenting destruction that awaited her at my hands.
I wasn’t too concerned about seclusion, but I still went for any cover I could find since it was daylight. The thicker trees I made it too didn’t give me any worries. At the moment, I wasn’t actively thinking, I was just moving, running on instinct and rage.
I threw her scared, limp body down at the base of a tree. She smacked the protruding roots that crawled away from the trunk. She lifted her forearms in front of her like a shield, “Please… no. Don’t kill me. Whoever sent you… I can give you more… I can do things… I’ll do anything you want.” Even though she didn’t know what I was, she was no stranger to the monsters of this dark world. She thought she could stop the assault. She could save herself if she just gave me something I wanted.
The beating got louder. The pounding of her heartbeat was blasting through my body like constant explosions. It was all I could feel. At that moment, I knew what I was. I knew what I wanted. I wanted to kill. It was all I could think about. I had to make the beating STOP!
I lunged at her with savage fury, crashing into her with bone-shattering force. Her body crumpled beneath me, the few remaining solid bones snapping like twigs under my weight. There was no mercy, no restraint. I drove my fangs into her neck, sinking them deep as I plunged my talons into her back and sides, burying them. Her flesh gave way, the wet, sickening sound of muscle and sinew tearing as I crushed her body against mine. I could feel my claws puncturing her lungs, slicing through her insides until they pierced her heart. The rhythmic pounding in my head, the relentless drumbeat of my bloodlust, reached a fever pitch.
I closed my fists around her heart, feeling its final, desperate contractions, and with a primal roar, I ripped my hands free from her chest. Blood and viscera exploded outward, the beating that had consumed me coming to an abrupt, eerie silence. She was dead, her life extinguished in my grip.
I let the mangled corpse drop to the ground, a lifeless heap of broken bones and shredded flesh. It was over. Blood oozed and dripped from my claws, pooling at my feet as I tilted my head to the sky. The morning light barely pierced the haze of violence that surrounded me, but I forced a breath out, trying to expel the rage that had fueled the monster inside. It was done, and I desperately wanted to shed the beast, to reclaim my humanity.
As the transformation slowly receded and my own form returned, a strange sense of completion settled over me. But there was something else, something darker, pulsing in the air around me. The same malevolent force that had driven me to Charlotte and her witches lingered, invisible yet palpable, a presence that radiated in the area for only a moment. I couldn’t see it, but I knew it was there, watching.
I stood still and basked in the power of the mysterious force. I thought I was strong, but this… this was something else. It filled my whole world; it was everywhere, almost suffocating. I still didn’t know what or who it was. I didn’t know what I was or why I was turned into this monster. Yet, I came to a disturbing realization in those trees. Whatever was there that night, when I was killed, was the one calling the shots. The thing that gave me the name and the visions was in control. In that moment I knew… when it called… I had to answer.
A shiver of fear and unease came over me. Realizations that my life was not in my own control started to crop up. What did this mean for me… for the Chasse family… for Autumn?
The force faded away after a few moments. Back to whatever hidden place it came from. Then, I decided to do the same. Someone was bound to have been on the way after all the destructive crashes and chaos. It was time to go.
I sank back into the shadows beneath the city. I walked in silence and darkness as I replayed everything in my head. I tried to understand more of what I had felt. I wanted to know more about what called out to me in the night and gave me the name. Who was it… What was it?