We Are Monsters | The Curse of Lykaon

Chapter 34 - Hail Hekate

Stars burned my vision against the endless black, and they expanded like a paint splatter and joined one another until I woke up in agony and screamed myself awake. I squirmed against the concrete road, my hand reaching for my aching skull. Someone in the distance cried out and it rang against my recently deceased and now resurrected ears. I didn't think I'd ever get used to dying, now it had happened twice in a week and really, it's not something to write home about. My skin tingled and burned to life like acid was swashing its way through my bloodstream, pins and needles erupted in my right leg and with an effort I pushed myself up causing something else to shriek somewhere. Distorted voices called in from everywhere some sounding more static than others. I rolled onto my back and held myself up by my elbows to take in my surroundings. The sky was ebony, and the town was wide awake and crowding around me. How did I get here? It was dark but there were people everywhere being held back by police tape and the officers themselves. There was a siren going off nearby that I wished would stop. Why was I in the middle of a crime scene?

Then I saw the bodies and wept. I crawled to the body of a young boy no older than sixteen. An officer turned around and jumped in fright, but I grabbed the head of the young boy and cried harder as I recognised his eyes to be Humphrey's.

'Oh, my gods...' I whispered. I rolled my head to another fresh corpse lying a distance away branded in pink and red. 'No!'

'Miss, are you alright?' the officer, a woman knelt down a little far from me like she was afraid I was going to lash out at her. I couldn't process how paranormal this must have looked because all I could feel was death.

I stared between Humphrey and Martha my face crumbling into despair. 'NO.'

Magic roared in my blood and something else, something foreign and ran around my bloodstream and spoke softly in my head. It was a cool voice trying to dull me, but it could not rip me away from their bodies. The veil slipped over my eyes, and I died again on the inside when I saw no light emitting from my best friend or from the boy. They had moved on to Hades. The voice whispered names and my upper lip curled into a sneer. I didn't realise the officer was still speaking and I didn't care. The voices of the crowd were drowned out by the temptations whispered in my head and I felt the shadows unfurl from my body before I'd worded a command. My whole body shuddered with each breath as my skin darkened to a starry night and my shadows encircled my body to lift me above the ground. Humphrey's head fell with a gross thud on the concrete. I saw the world from three perspectives the shadows grew a new body, large new legs, and four long sinewy arms. The crowd screamed below me as I shifted and grew twenty feet past them into a creature of the night. I slid my tongue over newly sharpened teeth and flexed my arms to admire their strength and their colours.

The sky was littered with stars only I could see, and the dust wove amongst them in a beautiful display. I didn't have time for the distraction, and I crawled across town, through the wilderness, weaving trees like a serpent towards Mavros Manor. The mantra of "blood must be paid" was on repeat in my head.