Moon Child

I see it through the trees, shining bright. Beneath its looming face my skin is burning. For me alone its brighter than the sun.

It's silver light reaches into my chest. Like greedy fingers it pulls at the beast beneath the human flesh. I can feel it splitting me. It forces my blood to rush and my heart to sing.

I'm running now, stumbling and sprinting forward. I push through the forest. I don't know if I'm running away from the force that grips my heart or towards it. My lungs are burning as they pump the night air but there's never enough.

I gasp and fall. On my knees. Filling my lungs with air I throw my head back and scream. Another soul inside my shaking form is baying loud. The pitch dropping, a hollow cry. I'm howling at the moon.

Blood is pouring from my eyes. The colors of the forest already paled by the night start to drain away. My hands tremble as my nails turn blue and black before dropping from my fingers.

The pain is nearly blinding now, my howl is choked by the thick metallic liquid pooling in my throat. I spit the blood and see my teeth in the gleaming puddle, my gums weeping a veil of crimson over my chin.

I'm melting... I'm crying...and... I'm laughing. At my finger tips there's nothing but bloody bone. The pain is pleasure, my masochism igniting a passion.

I'm digging into the flesh of my chest with the exposed phalanges. All this skin was constraining, itching and burning. I had to tear away the filth, shed the useless bleeding husk. The fur beneath is growing thick, my bones growing soft and breaking deeper in.

The beast is rising from my core. Thick skin ripping down my back with the audible crash of lightning fracturing an oak. My scalp splits and slides off peeling my human face down my chest along with it. A ruined bloody mask plopping to the ground.

Rising on fresh paws from my discarded humanity. I shake the blood from my black coat. My hair sticks in clumps and spikes. A new born wolf standing amongst the gore of what was once my human chrysalis

Flattening my ears and closing my eyes I cry for my new mother, I howl at the moon.