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Re-Awakened
The
clouds rolled and pitched in the black abyss that the sky had become,
inviting the deafening crack of loud thunder to shake the ground
below. Flashes of lightning were all that illuminated the otherwise
oppressive darkness that enveloped the land. Winds of tremendous
speed ripped trees from the ground and screamed through the valley,
it’s howling the clearest sound for many miles. This is what I
called home. The familiar feel of the dirt beneath my feet was
comforting, my toes digging into the rich earth while I let the wind
fly around my slender figure. I had been under for far too long, the
hunger gnawing at my insides like the slice of a sharp blade while my
insides cramped and contracted. It was a hunger that could raise the
dead.
The
damp smell of rain-soaked wood and rotting moss assailed my senses,
the biting chill of the night raising goose bumps on my cold skin. My
hair was plastered to my face in long purple
strands as I balanced on the precipice, sensing rather than seeing
the wolves circling at the base of the cliff, waiting in eager
anticipation of my fall. The wildness of the night called to them as
well, it made them restless, excited, and edgy. Like me. The blood
rushed through my veins as I stood, smiling to myself; a simple quirk
at the edge of my mouth as I considered the likelihood of walking
away after a fall from this height. For a human? Not very likely.
Yet, the thought still twitched in the back of my mind, the night an
irresistible draw, especially with the life pulsing through the
storm. It was enticing, like an irresistible siren song, tempting me,
and calling me to come live, if just for a little while. I stared
down, all the way down to where the wolves snarled and pawed the
ground in agitation, every single glistening wet hair of their coats
moving in smooth synchronicity. Their yellow eyes searched the night,
seeking out prey, feeling the very essence of the earth, just as I
did; their animal instincts in perfect accord with the pure, raw
nature that surrounds them. However, unlike the wolves, I drew power
from the night. It was this very power that shivered and pulsated
around me, causing the wind currents to deflect and scatter in
disarray around my form. The animals howled in triumph as I ran
forward, pitching myself through the air as graceful as a dancer in
mid-leap, arms spread wide as the air flew past my face and I
plummeted towards the earth. It pulled at my clothes, pressing on my
skin, the only barrier between me and certain death. The call had
been too strong, my restraint and self-control too weak…
Good
thing I wasn’t human.
This
was it, the emotion that had been eluding my grasp, the feeling of
being alive, truly unleashed. I glided through
the dense forest, sweeping between bolts of lightning that drove into
the earth in powerful surges of unrestrained energy, sure that this
was where I belonged. A monster, moving in the dead of night along an
unseen path, free of the curse of humanity, that was my destiny. My
eyes, now a deep, bloody red, saw what human eyes could not, scanning
the trees and knowing each and every creature, their blood flowing
through their soft bodies as they clung to their fragile lives in the
midst of the raging storm. Their frantic heartbeats a symphony to my
sensitive hearing….
But they weren’t what made my
mouth water. Animal blood was lacking in vibrancy, in emotion. It
couldn’t sustain me; however, the humans that populated this world
were
another story. Filled with the thrill of the night, I hunted my prey.
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