Blood and Dishonor

A trembling hand brings a black Nightmare Before Christmas thermos to chapped lips, inwardly hoping that the shaking will stabilize enough to tip the edge against those lips to capture the hot coffee from within without scolding the tender flesh. Careful movements deem successful as a wave of hat travels from a parched mouth and leaves a trail of warmth into the stomach. A small comfort after a restless night of painful dreams.

There was a dark energy in the dreamscape, a living thing that seemed to follow my every move. No matter how pleasant my surroundings, when I'd find myself peering off behind me; the places that were absent of light, which should have been nothing more than innocent shadow... There was something malevolent in their place. As if they were too dark, a blackness that held its own intelligence. A terrible shapeless mass that was simply lying in wait...

As I traveled the inner catacombs of my sleep, I could feel it just behind me. Its rancid breath fanning against the back of my heels; hot and sickly sweet. A torment I knew that if I didn't wake soon, I wouldn't be able to escape. 

I tried to out maneuver this terrible unseen presence, forcing myself to focus on the positive aspects of the dream even though the delicate hair that encompasses my flesh continued to bristle and rise in waves of anxiety induced goosebumps. A terrible knowing filled me even as I fought to ignore it... It's only a matter of time. 

The scenes blended into each other, as my dreams so often do, but with my last crossing the elements shifted and I was overwhelmed in darkness. A deep night had fallen and I found myself in nothing more than jeans and a T-shirt standing on a cracked sidewalk. The streets were empty; an old leviathan of pavement that slithered off into the distance with sporadic streets lamps glowing softly against an intense black. My footsteps left a soft echo of my journey; cold cement shocking my nerves with every step I took. As I walked, feeling less afraid as before, there was still an unease pressing against my ribcage when a wordless voice danced behind my eyes, 'You're not going to like what you see.'

Without warning… I stopped. 

There, not five feet ahead of me, under the eerie glow of a lone street light stood two figures. I strained at first to understand the oddness of the shapes; two twisting shadows that seemed to curl into each other. Yet as I watched, patient and motionless as a cool breeze whispered against the exposed flesh of my face, neck and arms...the vision before me began to manifest.

I felt my stomach twist and my chest tighten as the breath halted at my lips.

I could feel the inner scar of a painful memory tear open and began to bleed out in front of me. Forced to watch a terrible thing replay before my eyes, draining the very life from my face.

A pulsing ache tightened my ribcage and I found myself grabbing the thin material of my shirt; small knuckles showing bone white from the strain. I tried to take a calming breath against the feeling of my intestines becoming a nest of angry vipers; hissing and writhing in outrage.

Tears pooled, hot and immediate at my lashline...only to fall in streams of emotion down the bloodless pale skin of my face.

I wanted to scream, to let out a all the resentment and betrayal into that cold darkness above me... But no sound came. Instead I merely stood there, trapped inside my useless body and watched as those two shadows had become flesh...

A sharp wave of energy tore through my broken spirit and I suddenly found myself able to breathe again. You think I would've taken the opportunity to turn tail and run, to get away from the writhing movements and the intimate sounds they were making...but the presence within me had something far different in mind.

My teeth began to crack and fall from my bleeding mouth as my jaw jutted outward, filling itself with rows of razor sharp teeth. Tiny drops of red met my sight against the aged sidewalk when I was forced onto my hands and knees. Terrible quakes of agony surged through my body as I watched, helplessly, as the person I had been...was suddenly shredded from my flesh.

Talons curved out from my fingertips as the sound of my bones cracked within my skull. Skin and tissue slapped wetly against the cement beneath me as I clenched my aching eyes shut, to block out the sting of blood and thicker things invading my sight. 

As quickly as the horror took hold of me, I was suddenly very still… It was over. 

Panting, I felt a rush of calm weave through me as a cool breeze danced through the fine, thick fur along my body. As if the night had outstretched an unseen hand and soothed my heated form. Eyes closed, I took a deep needed breath and held it. Stretching my newly formed lungs within a powerful chest, thinking it would calm me further...when a scent hit the back of my tongue, bringing a terrible rage to the surface.

Glowing eyes snapped open; a veil of red shrouded the tunnel vision that encased the two naked, hairless apes before me. I felt the growl begin within my depths before it rumbled throughout my entire being and reverberated past my jaws; lips pulled upward and back to reveal curved canines pointed like eight inch daggers as saliva trickled from their tips and fell away. The rage inside of me thundered, an ancient storm bursting forth from the depths of a long forgotten tomb. There was only one thing this living rage demanded… A disturbingly welcome yearning that tickled every tendon and every vein, filling my muscles with a strength I never had.

Revenge.

The whites of their eyes shown wildly beneath the golden hue of the lamp above them. Terrified of the thing they saw emerge from the void.

They never had a chance…

One moment my head is lowered, ears laid flat against my skull as my shoulders tensed, muscles taught along my spine and deep into my arms and legs. I felt the tension show somewhere within my spine as something long whipped back and forth behind me. I splayed my padded hands and feet and dug into the sidewalk beneath me, only to find the hard surface part like warm butter as silver edged talons tore effortlessly into the old concrete.

Suddenly I was moving and the world slowed into blurry shadows. I was struck by an overwhelming wave of white noise as blood rushed through my ears. Coffee hot, wet copper splashed against my tongue and as that taste ghosted my senses something inside me snapped and the world and everything in it…went black.

Time seemed to warp and twist in those lost moments of pure darkness. There were no screams, not even a whisper of breath to keep me company. Just an all consuming silence keeping me still.

Then it was over.

Covered from head to tail in pieces of flesh and thicker things, small streams of heat rose into the cold darkness above me as the soft sound of dripping caught my ears. Something warm and wet drenched my thick fur and as I rolled my gaze toward the earth I found myself standing in a pool of blood.

Those naked shapes had become nothing more than the shredded, rotting remains of painful yesterdays. Even though the scent of death clung to the back of my throat like a bad memory, I shook the bloody pieces from my flesh, cleansing myself beneath the ever watchful gaze of my lunar mother hidden within the black.

My world had found peace within that terrible chaos. The wrongs having been devoured by a vengeful beast that took no pity. It had done its duty; ravaging the living disgrace that had dishonored an innocent. No more would the wounded heart have to suffer the forked tongue hidden behind an honest face.

The air was cool and welcoming as my body moved on its own accord. Taking me on a new journey…

Destination, unknown.

-Fades to Black-