Ultimate Predator

Finders Keepers

Growing up, I was... alone, in a sense. I didn't have any people I could call friends since everyone figured I was weird. Weird that I had such a calm and unnerved tone when around wild animals. Truth be told, I was never scared of them because I could understand them. Better than any and every other person alive. Their thoughts, their feelings, their very lives... I could talk to just about every animal about all of these things and they'd love it. Because they know that no other human would ever be able to understand the way I do. Though I guess it'd be a stretch to call me just a "human". Truth be told I... was different. Ever since I was a little kid, I had known that. Hair grew at an alarmingly fast rate for me so already that was one thing that separated me from other people. And it was a lot rougher, like fur almost. If only the people around me knew the truth... 

Moving on, I often left my home on late nights. The reason being so I could find new animals and talk to them. My family and I lived on a farm, surrounded by a huge forest, so finding new animals to talk to was more or less easy enough. Often I'd visit old friends like wolves and bears. They even let me hold some of their babies, proud and excited to show them off to me. It was adorable. Somehow though... I keep feeling that there's still something new to be found out there. Call me crazy, but it feels like something or someone has been calling out to me for years, waiting for me to find them. 

So as the years passed, I kept up my routine even now at the age of 20. I had just left the house and raise my head to look at the sky. Just like every other night, there was nothing extraordinary to look at. It was nothing but a huge blanket of black. There were no airports near here and you couldn't see any stars which made the sky a boring thing to watch most of the time. I was just about to lower my head before noticing something glow in the distance. Just a tiny speck. 

I squint my eyes to get a better look, focusing on the speck and I quickly realise it's growing larger. The speck was formed of a burning flame colour. My eyes widen as it draws closer and closer. 

Y/n: Uh oh...

I try to move but my feet are planted in place, stunned by the sudden oncoming meteor. My eyes glue to the sight and I watch it crash into the forest, making the earth tremble from the sudden impact. That was enough to get me to finally move as I wobbled. Luckily I manage to fix my footing and rush to the site of impact. 

I shove aside bushes and branches, but a few thorns cut my arms as I did so. I run for a long while before entering a clearing and witnessing the crash site. A giant crater formed in the ground with a lone rock in the center. Curious, I carefully clamber down into the crater and approach the rock. I don't dare to touch it. Not after I saw all the flames that surrounded it while it was crashing. 

Yet something was drawing me to this thing... I couldn't tell what though. I circle around the rock, getting a good look at it. When I reached the back, I see a black essence writhing around inside it. I crouch down to get a better angle and see that whatever it was, it was formless. Just some kind of goopy thick liquid or something else that could flow like it. 

Y/n: What are you...? 

I mutter under my breath. Suddenly, it stops moving as if it heard my voice. I begin to crawl away but the thing leapt on my hand. My curiosity immediately turned to panic as I slapped at the freakish entity, trying to get it off me. My efforts were futile as it stuck to my other hand and spread around my body! 

I jump to my feet and grab at whatever I can in an attempt to tear it off. But no matter how I tried, the goo just latched back onto me! Then... It just stopped... It vanished. It was no longer visible on my body or my clothes or anything. But I felt... wrong. Something was different. 

I shake my head and run back home, not wanting to stick around any longer. Visiting the animals would have to wait until I could figure out what the hell was going on. 

From that night onward... I could never have known just how bizarre my life would turn out to be...