A Call From the Wild

‘You must listen to me; hear my words and remember and when I tell you – leave! Run like your life depends on it; because it does.
I don’t have much time… Its power is growing with each passing moment. I can’t think how long it’s been… The calendar says only two weeks; it feels like, like years; like forever. I am telling you this because I know it will take me again; I hardly have the strength to fight it any more and this time I don’t know if I’ll come back… I don’t think I will. I feel it inside me even now; prowling through my mind, firing my blood; a rabid animal searching for a way out of this weakening cage that is my will.’
‘The thing is there’s part of me that wants to release it; to embrace the raw, savage power; the freedom… It whispers to me when I sleep; promises me that it can lift me above the rest of humanity; that it can strike fear into those that have ridiculed me; that have done me harm. It vows that their terror will be a sweet wine, that their blood will taste warm and rich…’

‘I must… I have to keep my mind from such thoughts; they give it power.’
‘I know you think me a mad-man; a raving lunatic lost in delusions. The funny thing is four weeks ago you would’ve gotten no argument from me. That was the first time I listened to the promises and gave myself too it. I felt the pain; muscles stretching and deforming, bones breaking a resetting themselves in a new, powerful shape… then there was no thought there was only primal instinct; the need to hunt and feed; to taste warm, quivering flesh…’

‘I… The pain!’

‘Not. Much. Time… I thought it was just… a dog. But the bite… it wouldn’t heal. Then came the fever. The antibiotics, they did nothing but the fever, it passed and I grew strong. Stronger than I had been before, faster, surer. At first I thought, thought it was my imagination but I seemed to grow stronger with each passing day… No. With each passing night. That’s when the dreams started. Her violet eyes, her pale skin and midnight hair. She called to me, kept calling…’

‘It was, let me think, it was the third night after the dreams had started; the night of the full moon. I awoke in my bed as dawn touched the sky, naked; my body filthy, covered in half healed scratches; and the dried remnants of my own ejaculate; the stench of sex filling my nostrils… But there was no memory, nothing… The wounds healed quickly; too quickly. Gone in a day all except the bite on my shoulder…’

‘Something changed then. In the day I, I seemed to weaken. The sunlight hurt my eyes; the urge to sleep was overwhelming. I quit my job. All I could do was stay inside. I kept the curtains drawn against the burning sun… I had to sleep through the day… but at night! I was more powerful than ever; I could run. Run for miles without becoming breathless; the darkness was no impediment to my eyes… I could hear things… Smell things… But I found that I, that I could no longer stomach cooked food. The first raw steak I ate… I was sick after the first swallow, but the taste… It filled me with such strength!’

‘It wasn’t long after that I saw her again; not in my dreams but out in the darkness her violet eyes watching me… She would never come close, would disappear if I tried…’

‘Ahhh, my skin is on fire! It is a prison! But I must finish; I have too, I must leave something of myself…’

‘She started to join me on my runs as the next full moon drew close. She never spoke but kept pace… mile after mile. She was mine. I knew it, without knowing why. The same way I knew, I knew I was hers…’

‘Four weeks ago the full moon came again. I didn’t, I couldn’t sleep that day; I could feel it inside… waiting… it whispered such. Sweet. things… And then the moon rose and I, I could not resist any longer. The pain… it was too much to bear… but it was gone in seconds… She was there, outside, waiting for me. But she looked as I did. Even so, I knew it was her… I could smell her; could smell my own mark on her… We ran then. For mile after mile… to the forest. We… we rutted! Like the wild, animals we had become… Again and again I took her. Such pleasure… You cannot imagine… Then our lust was sated. Replaced by a different kind…’

‘God forgive me but I… I killed and ate the flesh of another human!’
‘But then I am no longer human. I am a child of the night and the forest; blessed of the moon… Moon-kin they call… We call ourselves. But you have a different name… A word whispered around camp fires. Murmured in darkened rooms…’
‘Ahhh, it begins!’
‘Listen to me! Listen well! Bar. Your. Doors. in the night… when, when the sun dips… below the horizon! Stay inside till the dawn returns. For we are… we are not creatures of… of legend! We. Are. Out. There. In the night… hunting. And. You. Are. Our Prey!’
‘Run! now! Begone from me… She calls… My mate bids me… bids me to. To take. My. Place. Beside. Her. and I can. No longer. Resist! Ru-u-u-u-n-n-n!!!’