Lycan

The clouds were a thick blanket, covering the midnight sky. Not a single star could be seen, they all hid behind fluffy white blankets; all scared of the big bad wolf. On nights like these, she would gaze out the window in awe of the universe. She looked up at the night with so much love and tenderness. She did not fear the darkness as the others did, she embraced it and saw the beauty in the pain. So much pain, I wanted to take it all away.

But there was nothing I could do because of the simple fact that: she wasn’t meant to walk on two feet, but instead to explore the skies. But, she was only human, if not a little more and though I was a fearsome beast that left children shaking in their beds, not even I could change what God had ordained.

But did God really want this for her?

Every night, her screams echoed through the still air. Time and time again, she called out for help but none came. The other villages lay asleep in their beds or gone working, struggling to provide for children they could not afford or out having more children they could not feed.

The smell of blood struck me. I could almost taste the metallic tinge on my lips. I felt the thrill of the hunt surging through my veins, the lust for blood slowly consuming me.

“Miguel.” A soft voice whispered. The little humanity I had left was holding on, grappling with the beast that controlled me, waiting for the day someone would say my name with enough love and tenderness to remind me of what it’s like to be human.

My eyes perked up in an instant at the sound of bones breaking one after the other. The instinct to kill was overwhelming. It was more than a want or a trivial desire, it was a need. Every fibre of my being ached to feel the warm blood running down my face, the feel of muscle and bone slowly being ripped apart by my own teeth and the satisfaction as the last breath of life leaves a mortal body and my victim dies at my hand.

I’m condemned, seen as a monster for what I do, but who stops to notice what has been done to me. I live a fate worse than death so is it not fair that I am avenged.

She cries out once more and the soft cries of “Miguel,” fade away and instead give way to a snarl. And from the depths within me, I howl…

I am no longer a man, only a beast.

Until she said it, “Miguel.”

I hadn’t heard it in so long. “Miguel.” The name rolled off her tongue like the sweetest music. That was the sweet melody that set me free. For I was no longer a beast, just a man but which is worse – man or beast for beast acts on instinct alone but man, a man knows exactly what he does and that is what makes all the difference.

But at that moment, all those thoughts simply wafted away with the breeze. Nothing else was important now… I needed her, all of her I needed to feel her smooth, unblemished skin on my rough marred body, to hold her in my arms, to taste her. I wanted her, I wanted to hurt her. I wanted her to scream my name.

“Sister.”

And for the first time in years, she slipped her soft lips onto mine once again. How I had longed for her all these years, I could never forget the sweet taste of her…

I was ravenous like a man wandering the desert for years. I was desperate for a bite of her forbidden fruit. I mounted her like a dog mounts its bitch. I satisfied my urges right there and savoured every moment.

After all these years she still tasted like strawberries.