Renegade

- Chapter I -

- Chapter I -

The woods are lovely, dark and deep...

The words roll over and over in my head, like a smooth stone toppling down a stream.

The forest around me seemed to breathe with summer life. It was near dusk, and the sky was streaked with shades of pink and orange. Crickets played in a symphony as a cool breeze blew by, hinting that Autumn was coming. The wind rustled crisp green leaves on the oaks that stood not too far above my head, which joined together with the sound of the crickets' song. Inhale, exhale.

I stopped for a moment to drink in the beauty. Closing my eyes, the scent of fresh air and something else filled my nose. Deer.

My eyes snapped open as the itching sensation of something all too familiar filled my stomach. The human eyes, body and face that I stood in were only a façade to what lie underneath. And what lies underneath is where our story begins.

The pain of switching forms had been excruciating at first, but after years of practicing what remained of it was merely a dull roar in the back of my head. Trying to fight it when prey was so near was, regrettably, impossible, so I let my body change.

My eyes shut and I felt them roll back into my head. My face contorted and contracted and my legs and arms stretched until all fell silent.

I opened my eyes and sniffed the air again. The small clearing in the forest wooshed away as I led myself to an even larger clearing. One plus side of this form: I could move in complete silence.

The deer stood oblivious to my presence as they grazed in the field, and I regretted what was about to happen.

It's better them than the humans, I remind myself. It had become my mantra, something I would say to reassure myself before making a kill.

My brain pushed away any conscious thought once another breeze carrying the scent of the deer blew past my face. I narrowed my eyes and zoned in on one deer, a doe, who seemed to be lagging behind from the rest of the herd. Just before I attacked, however, I saw the head of a fawn poke out from the tall grass as it pranced around it's injured mother.

Do it, I heard in my head. Sometimes I could have sworn this form came with it's own mind, It's worthless, and if you don't do it, so are you.

I shook my head in frustration as I attacked the doe, effectively slicing its throat. It crumbled to the ground and the scent of it's irony blood filled my nose. That had always been the worst part, the blood. Half of me wanted to revel in the scent and drink it in, and yet the other half wanted to cringe away.

I turned away as the fawn circled the body.

In the woods again, all had fallen silent. I had grown used to the silence that accompanied this form, but even now it brought on an air of loneliness. As if the world, both living and non living parts of it, knew that a monster lived within a human skin.

I crouched by a stream. The quiet babbling of water moving past rocks was the only sound.

In the water I saw him. He stood there looking back at me, mocking me it seemed. His blank white face bore into my eyes, and I knew that the reflection had no eyes to bore into. This was me.

I looked to the sky to see that the sun had set. Mom would have dinner ready soon.

As I stood to Slenderwalk home, the words continued in my head:

And I have promises to keep

And I have promises to keep...