The Transformation

Monday. 11:00 p.m.

A strange scent lingered in the air. It was alien to her, she hadn't smelt anything like that before. And it made her stomach churn. Her senses registered that danger was near.

She turned around to find a lanky figure of a  girl standing a distance away. She stared at her unblinkingly, as her nostrils flared in response to a very rich scent----that of blood. She knew the taste of blood, relished it in fact. It was her subsistence. But The scent of the girl's blood wasn't appetizing. Rather, it made her gag. And before she knew, the girl had disappeared into thin air.

Simhika ran for her life.

**********

Friday. 00:00 a.m.

He trusted his claws as much as the others boasted about their fangs. Finesse was not in his vocabulary, and he believed that only fools failed to understand the thrill that came with victory. He loved the raw aggression pulsating down his veins as he ripped his victims apart, watch life ebb out of their bodies, and waited for them to die. Then, he would let out a howl, and hurriedly gorge on the raw flesh the raw flesh smeared with prodigious amount of blood.

He was there at the southern fringes of the town, with his latest kill. He looked up a the sky, inhaled deeply to let the smell of blood and gore soothe him. But it was different that night. The air smelt different, and the scent was stronger than the putridity before him. It was the smell that alerted his senses. Danger was near.

He turned around to find a girl standing next to the lamppost, staring at him. Contempt filled her eyes, and her face appeared crimson against the paleness of the light. She opened her mouth and let out a deafening shriek, the intensity of which tore through the silence f the night...........

The next morning the inhabitants found the dreaded leader of the pack dead, right beside the torn corpse of his victim.

**********

They set Simhika's body on fire, after she had developed peculiar symptoms the Book claimed were incurable. Her parents had remained tight-lipped about the whole affair, until news of similar cases began circulating around the town. That of vampires developing peculiar symptoms that made them suffer in agony for three days, after which they perished.

It was same in the werewolf colony. Despite the differences in their genetic framework, both the kinds had developed the same symptoms that had claimed their lives. According to the Book of Lost Myths and Legends, only a human could wreck such a havoc.

But how could that be? Humans didn't exist, the debated. Except only in the tales of fantasy. But the Book had made it clear. A human was at work.

They had never seen a human before. But had conjured up an image from the sketches found in the Book as well as from the  description given by the victims on their deathbed.

The vampires fed on the young ones of the werewolves, and the werewolves preyed on the vampires. Each were aware of the other's weaknesses, and it had taken them phenomenal practice to locate the other's Achilles heel. They didn't vote to form the government. Either the vampire or the werewolf faction got to rule, their superiority affirmed by the maximum number of victims preyed upon by the members of the other kind. So, it had been the vampires who had been ruling over the werewolves for over a decade. They had preyed upon the maximum number of werewolves in those years, thereby proving themselves superior and thus fitter to rule. The vampires had efficiently managed to squelch rebellions by guaranteeing them a regular supply of food by disposing off some of the extra members from the unusually large vampire families.  The vampire rules made it mandatory for them to procreate as many members of their kind as possible, so as to maintain their authority over the werewolves. And it was from each family that some of the members would be dropped off at the werewolf colony to make it appear that the ruling kind was looking after them. All was going on well until the werewolf leader, Vihan, began to emerge.

But he was dead now. Killed by a human.

According to the Book of Lost Myths and Legends, vampires and werewolves had emerged a long time ago when humanity began fading away from the humans. They had become greedy beyond measure, their greed manifesting in the most heinous outcomes : siblings turned against each other, the old were neglected and forsaken, animals were harmed and mutilated for demands that superseded purposes of subsistence. And there was child labour, where children were made to work for extra hours in abhorrent conditions and with minimal pay, until death saved them from their state. There were those who sold children for extra income. There was discrimination over trivial and superficial concerns like skin colour, creed and gender that robbed the humans off their humanity. Little did they realize that a dreadful transformation was well under way, with the devil pulling the strings.

He had presented the humans with an offer whereby they were asked to trade their humanity for powers that would take care of all their miseries. They would be granted an ever-youthful life free of sickness, coupled with power they hadn't experienced before. And to get all that, all they had to do was give away their virtues. Thus, the transformation had taken place all those years ago when the humans made a pact with the devil.

But there were a few who chose to stick by humanity, no matter how difficult it seemed initially. They hated the idea of making a pact with the devil. And those few people came to be known as the Humans.

And that's how the transformation had taken place. With most of them wilfully bartering their humanity with the devil, they had risen to the ranks of the supernatural. Their vices had determined the kind into which they will evolve. Thus, people with a murderous rage, proclivity for violence, insatiable aggression coupled with greed and a blunt disposition, turned into vampires. And those who were cold-blooded, cruel, menacing, crafty and experts at ruthless scheming, saw themselves transforming into vampires.

But those who swore by humanity were saved. The were transported to a place where the damned beings could never reach. The story of The Transformation was codified in the Book of Lost Myths and Legends, where it was revealed that a time will come when humanity will win over vices.

With time, the story of The transformation as forgotten. And so were the humans, who came to exist only n the fragments of imagination. Until, all those years later, a young human girl came to be spotted in that realm. After that continuous deaths followed that made the vampire and werewolf kinds dwindle rapidly. They sensed that doomsday was near and thus pleaded with the devil to save them. But he didn't come to their rescue...............

**********

"So, Dida, what happened to those bad monsters ?"asked the seven year old, puckering her lips. Her grandmother smiled, " They vanished into thin air, never to be found again."

The little girl grinned, revealing a missing tooth. "And now, my dear, you should go to sleep. And always be a good girl, that will only see you through all your life."

She kissed her grand daughter, chanted a prayer, and switched off the lights. She felt a smile bloom inside her , and she tucked the Book of Lost Myths and Legends in the farthest corner of the shelf. All those years ago, her parents, descended from the lineage of the few remaining Humans, had sent her to the realm of the damned. She reminisced them beaming with pride as the Elders praised her for accomplishing her task. It all seemed like a tale now.

Her family was waiting for her. They never ate without her joining them at the table.

"So, let's say our prayers, shall we?"

________________________________________________