experience.
I would get flashes of other feelings, smells would assault me that were more vivid and complex than I have ever experienced, sounds that seemed to hold more depth than I have ever known. I would have momentary bouts of pain as a sense of my bones being broken and remade came to me in waves of agony that would peak, then wash away. I could hear screaming and smell a deep scent that I could only describe as terror.
I sat and endured this strange state of being for what seemed like hours. Time was unknowable in this place and I had no idea if the span of events had taken days or seconds.
Out of the vast darkness a feeling of something coming from the same door that was unlocked after the wolf’s bite rushed over me.
I felt another presence among the emptiness. It sent off waves of unbridled aggression. A wild energy radiated from it that beat at me like waves on a shore. I felt it as it stalked the vastness in search of prey. It was hunting, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was hunting for me.
I tried to keep small. I did everything I could to reduce my presence from the Beast. I crouched into a ball and slowed my breathing. I was aware of my heartbeat as it blasted a rhythm against my ears. I was afraid the Beast could easily find me from my thumping heart as it threatened to burst from my chest.
I felt when the Beast stalked near. It searched everywhere, looking for me. It reached out with its senses to locate me. A mind-splitting howl of frustration erupted from the Beast as its anger at not finding me boiled over.
Finally, a bestial voice, filled with a deep primordial energy growled, “I know you are here pup. I will find you. It is rare that one of your youth has been able to hide from me, but you will fall eventually. Soon, you will be found and I will take you. It is inevitable.”
I stayed in a crouch and tried to keep invisible.
“I have time, more time than you can imagine. I have been with you since creation and have eternity to hunt. I will draw you out as sure as a rabbit is drawn from the brush. Although I may not be able to find you for now, you will see. You will see what happens when you deny your nature and reject your true self.” The Beast finished.
Among the inky blackness, two bright orbs erupted. Deep yellow, they encompassed what would be considered the sky in this realm.
They became the sure, piercing eyes of a wolf and through them I began to see an image, just one at first, Sara sat in the passenger’s seat of my mom’s car and was screaming. She seemed to be in slow motion. Her movements were sluggish, almost so slow as to be unmoving.
I began to be drawn into the eyes and other feelings and senses returned to me. I could feel my arms and legs; they felt different, longer, stronger and covered in deep brown fur. I could smell her; in this tiny space, her scent was maddening.
Fear radiated off her, under I could discern her perfume and her natural body odor. Her screaming was harsh to my sensitive ears, but they signaled a feeling of rightness. She should be afraid of me. I am the Beast unchained, the Hunter unleashed, let her be afraid.
I realized I was riding shotgun to the Beast. I was in my body, but it wasn’t the same.
I had been transformed into a savage creature, whose form and spirit was pure animal. There was little left of the civilized human. All that was here was a desire for the hunt and the kill. This woman-child would have to be a good start.
I could do nothing to stop this, if I exposed myself I knew the Beast would turn on me. Its raw strength would devour me. It would consume me.
I felt like a coward. I watched in abject horror as Sara got her door open and fled out of the car and into the tree line that followed the road.
If she would only have ran the other way she would have went towards the party and maybe people who could help. In her panic she just wanted to get as far away from this monster as fast as possible. She ran blindly
David Rohde, Kristen Mulvihill