Chapter Four

     Once again I was swamped with memories that weren't mine, this time they were the memories of a poor Ethiopian migrant who had come to America in the hopes of chasing the American dream but had instead settled for providing for his family by working as a taxi driver. Abebe, as the poor man was known, was surprisingly well educated with degrees in multiple fields related to engineering but he had come to america illegally after believing the false promises of a smuggler and as such couldn't really find work in his chosen field of study since he lacked the proper documents.

     As the collective life experience of this rather unfortunate man filled my mind, my body started to transform as well. In just a few seconds I turned into a slightly short middle aged man with a slight bulge on his stomach. I didn't have time to properly digest all of the man's memories before exiting the alleyway from the opposite side that I entered it and lost myself amidst the constant stream of pedestrians where I became just another face in a sea of faces.

               *     *     *

     After hours of walking without any rest, I was relatively sure that I wouldn't be found anytime soon so I slowed down a little and started to actually pay attention to where I was going. Apparently I had wandered into a rather seedy part of town and I could feel unfriendly gazes land on me. I looked around and saw that more than a few muscular men with multiple tattoos and matching blue bandanas on their heads that were looking at me like it was thanksgiving and I was the turkey. 

     *sigh*...I really didn't have time for this. I knew that I could probably get rid of these assholes without breaking a sweat now that I was some sort of genetically altered super Frankenstein monster but I didn't want to draw anymore attention to myself than the amount I had drawn already. I quickened my pace again and entered another alleyway only to see that it was a dead end. I started to look for another way out but the raucous laughter that I heard behind me told me that it was all in vain.

     I turned around just as the thugs with the blue bandanas that had been eyeing me earlier turned a corner and appeared before me still laughing like hyenas. 

     I looked at the impetuous young people in front of me as they spread out methodically and sealed what they perceived was my only escape route, all the while laughing like they had heard the funniest joke. 

     I sighed again and tried to talk with the bunch of hooligans in front of all the while knowing that it was futile but trying anyways. I didn't exactly feel guilty when I killed the innocent taxi driver and even less so when I killed the doctor but some part of me, a part that was so small that it was almost nonexistent, was still somewhat human and that part kept telling me killing was wrong. It wasn't exactly a conscience, no it was more like a habit from my previous life that I hadn't yet shaken off. Any how, some part of me still felt uncomfortable killing people so I tried to diffuse the situation. I raised my hands up to show that I wasn't a threat and tried to seem as meek and helpless as possible before saying in a frightened voice, "Please don't hurt me."

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     I thought that maybe if I was meek and cooperative, I wouldn't have to get my hands bloody but my plan backfired, it only made the bastards more violent and they started to laugh even harder. I was suddenly surrounded by catcalls, hooting, hissing, and taunts.

      "...don't worry old man, we're just going to have some fun with you and then let you pay us for our troubles..he he he...."

      "....Look he is going to piss himself! Are you going to piss yourself grandpa, go ahead piss yourself!"

      ".....old geezer, don't even think of trying to escape. You are in our territory and there is nowhere for you to run."

     They were like a pack of wolves that had smelled blood, I could almost see them salivate as they prepared to attack me. I sighed again as I saw that fighting these hooligans was inevitable.

      "I asked you politely. Please back away before it is too late."

      "It is already too late for you old man."

      They were still staring at me with eyes glimmering like predators and seeing that made a primal part of me rise up. That little human part of me still protested but the newer more primal part of me told it to shut the fuck up. In the end I was now more monster than man and with that realization I felt more free. I stopped trying to hold myself back and instead I followed the impulses that I had been subconsciously trying to suppress.

      I calmly started walking towards the bunch of hooligans in front of me ,some of whom weren't even old enough to properly have hair on their balls. Most of them probably had a difficult life, some of them probably weren't even thinking properly and were only doing this out of peer pressure, some of them probably didn't deserve to die. But here is the thing, I no longer gave a fuck. In my eyes they were no longer fellow humans. No, they were now just convenient targets that I could try my new powers on.