One tranquil night with friends, walking the streets of New York, bumping into the one and only Zendaya has an unexpected turn when you fortuitously discover a huge secret of hers which you must choose to embrace....
Darnell takes us down a deserted wooded trail then parks in the grass.
"Where are we?" I ask. "The Inwood Forest. Or maybe an all you can eat buffet." Darnell said. "This is where you will make your first hunt." "How do I do that?" I said.
I search around the darkness that rules over the forest for a sign of life. I spin back around to find Darnell motionless directly in front of me in full transformation.
"Use your senses." He opens his glowing abyssal eyes. "View what Zendaya gave you as a gift, otherwise you would've been dead. Not one of us."
I took what he said to heart. It made me think would she have really killed me, had I not stopped her?
Darnell suddenly disappears into the trees leaving nothing but a short breeze behind, gently tugging my hair along with him.
"Hey." Zendaya said. "Hey..." "You good?" "Yea, I just..don't know how to turn as easily as he did." I look down at my feet. "How do you do it?" I look back up at her and her eyes close. She breathes in.
"Just close your eyes and do as I say." I close my eyes. "Focus on your senses." She takes my hand.
"Hearing." I focus on my hearing. To my left I could hear young birds hearts, beating rapidly before they could even hatch, from a mile away and a family of chipmunks snug asleep. To my right I could hear a group of young people cheering, clanking their glasses, partying I assume, and fire crackling. I heard a stream, water gliding over rocks, and fish diving into the deep end.
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"Smell." I open my nostrils and smell the smoke of the fire, and the salt from the stream. I could smell the blood of a deer and the hunger shocked me into transformation. I open my eyes to see Zendaya with her black abyssal eyes staring at me.
"Sight." She says. My sight was improved tenfold and the darkness was no longer overwhelming, I could see everything. The forest pulsing with life.
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I ran off towards the smell of the deer blood. I couldn't believe how fast my reflexes were, almost as if the world became delayed. I was dodging the upcoming trees while Zendaya kept up with me, watching above us while zipping through the tree lines.
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As we came up on the smell, we found Darnell standing there with the deer hanging from his neck by the grip of his hand.
"Next time you'll be on your own. I won't be here to guide you towards your next meal." He chunks the deer corpse to my feet. The deer tumbled towards me, head coming to rest facing me, it's eyes strung open as the last thing it felt was detrimental fear. "Eat."
As disgusting as it looked. My stomach felt otherwise. The hunger built, my guts burning and churning, and as the pain in my stomach set in eagerness, finally—Eat.
