Goodnight

15

"What the hell are you!" Bea stumbles back, dropping the blade and landing in a strange sitting position. All the playfulness has vanished from her voice, replaced by mild fear.

A sudden cocky arrogance fills me, pushing aside any fear and supporting me with confidence. "Different, delicious different" I smile at her, which makes the fear roll off of her skin, a sickly sweet scent that clings to the air. That's what she saw. I feel it now, the way my eyes are not human, the way my senses have been heightened. I am partially changed. I allow myself to change a little more, canines lengthening into a fearsome bite. The sluggish thump of her heart, even soaked in fear, suggests that Bea is no more human than I am. Bea leans a little closer, her outstretched hand just centimetres from my cheek. I snap at her, my teeth closing around thin air but making a loud clap. She jerks back in surprise, soon turning again to that fear when I smile sweetly at her. "Don't get too close, you never know what you might lose." Then I laugh, manically, insanely, as if my mind is a mere puddle of mush.

"I..you can leave. I won't look for you." Bea is almost pleading with me but I find too much joy in her discomfort.

"I'm having a good time" I wink at Bea as I pull the ropes apart, ripping them with new found strength. She looks horrified and scrambles backward, pressing her back against the shiny kitchen cabinets. Once free of my chair, I crouch on all fours and let the change happen. There is no pain, just the snap, cracking sound of my body as it reshapes. Then, after, there is only hunger. It gnaws at me, as the smell of Bea fills my nose. She smells of spices, fresh oranges, stale blood, she smells delicious.

I don't think about it, about what it means. I leap at her, pinning the small creature underneath me, she thrashes, claws, screams but non of it works. I lick her shoulder, a faint taste of heaven lingering on my tongue, then tear into her. The taste of her flesh is sweet, coppery and wrong but so right. Her screams grow louder, they are a reflex, uncontrolled. I continue to eat, gorging myself on this sweet substance and eventually Bea grows still, a warm lump beneath me and still I eat, teeth ripping through skin, muscle, bone, until I can eat no more and step back.

What have I done? I did that, the mangled pile of red and pink that was once a girl, I made her look like that. Worse, I ate her. This isn't normal, we don't do this, we don't eat people, human or not. Ash does this, Berry does this. What am I becoming? I stumble around the small room unsure of what to do, where to go. I have to escape this. No one can ever know. I'll be killed for this, I can't be, not before I get home like I promised.

I don't remember what happened after that, only the crushing sense of dread at what I had done and what I was becoming was clear in my mind. That and the familiar smell, of what or who I don't know but it smelled like woods, mossy and damp, crunching leaves underfoot and the scratchy bark of trees.