One Of A Kind

Chapter 2: Catching A Scent

That night, I slept awful. I kept tossing and turning, too many things on my mind. It was frustrating, the thing keeping me up. 

At 3:00 AM I said to hell with it, and slipped on some sweats, threw up the window and climbed down. I wasn't getting back to sleep anyways. 

I needed to think and the only way I knew how to was to run under the moon.

Make fun of me all you want, but it really is calming. Besides, no one is out here at this time in the woods. It's quiet, peaceful. The only noise is the sounds of the trees blowing in the wind, the crickets chirping. Sometimes I'll just climb on my roof and close my eyes, breathing it all in.

Not tonight though, tonight I needed to run.

I glanced back at the house to make sure my dad wasn't chasing me across the lawn, before ducking through the edge of the woods. I started off just walking, listening to see if I was being followed, and after I was far out enough I began my run.

I focused on the sounds of my breathing, the steady sound of my heart, and I slowly began to slip from my human form.

My dad kept telling me how dangerous it was, to never, ever change from my human form unless I was in my bedroom with the windows and doors shut, curtains drawn.

But out here, I felt peaceful, I felt free. I felt alive. 

I didn't go too far, just let my eyes turn red and my fangs slip down.

I ran like this for a while, just allowing myself to be. I was becoming full relaxed, too relaxed, when I heard a snap of a branch too close for comfort. I halted immediately, and grew completely still. I listened harder, and was soon able to identify that this wasn't a human. Whatever it was was on four legs. I closed my eyes and breathed in, and smelled the blood of a mountain lion.

I relaxed then, before my throat clinched. I was hungry. I hadn't realized I hadn't fed recently. No wonder I had been in such a sour mood towards my dad tonight.

I took a deep breath again and followed the scent, tracking it, listening to its heart beat, to its labored breathing. I got closer, making myself silent. When I was close enough, I climbed up a tree, eyes on the creature. She was large, sniffing the air. 

When she began to relax, to lower her head, I pounced, landing on her back and snapping her neck immediately. I may be a killer, but I didn't want the animal to suffer.

Instantly I began to drink. Truthfully the taste was absolutely awful, but it lessened the burn. Killing two birds with one stone, I ripped open her side, pulling off a piece of flesh and tossing it into my mouth.

I dove down and grabbed another drink from the neck, too far gone in my animalistic side to pay attention to anything other than the feeling of flesh in my hands, of thick warm blood coating my throat. Too far gone to hear footsteps, until they were too close. 

My ears perked at the sound of crunching leaves under a foot, but I didn't even have time for my stomach to sink, to realize what I had done, the slip up. Without thinking, I turned around quickly, glaring with my red eyes at the person who came out from the trees. A threat. That's all I could sense, could feel, I hadn't had time to process what I had just done, what was happening, but it only took a moment for me to remember. 

My face turned pale once I registered what I saw and on instinct I immediately ran.

This couldn't be happening. After all my dad's lectures, after he had stocked up on blood and meat and everything else I needed, I still managed to lose control, and on an attack that wasn't even necessary. I should have stayed home. I should have listened.