The Beast Within

Reborn

That's the best way I can describe it.

I couldn't move. I couldn't open my eyes. I struggled to steal sips of air.

I don't think I need to explain how scared I was.

My hearing began to fade until all I was left with was the beating of my heart.

I counted the rhythm of it—

1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4.

—and despaired when it changed.

1-2...3-4. 1-2-3...4.

1...2...

I was so cold, Credence. I felt my body tense to shudder but did not stay awake long enough to finish it. You might imagine someone came for me. Some divine being, an angel perhaps, or maybe even our parents.

You would be disappointed.

The next thing I was aware of was standing—standing!—over my own body.

Or what was left of it.

I don't want to frighten you, but to tell the truth, what I saw was a pile of flesh and bones. The body of a child, as you and I had known it. 

Wafting from it was the smell of blood, more pungent than any animal carcass Pa butchered, and what I understood, with great horror, was that whatever I was now—it had come from the body left behind. 

I had burst from my own ribs. Around me were...pieces. Some hair. A finger. Bits of skin and the small bone of an arm.

I was overcome with hunger at the sight of it.

And I began to eat.

Ma used to give me the legs of chickens when we had them for dinner, because she knew they were my favorite. I've never been the sort of person to stray from comfort, so, as with the chickens, I started on the legs. It wasn't very chickenlike, but I was in no mood to be discerning. Every drop of blood, every scrap I could find of that old body—I feasted.

I made a gorgeous meal of myself.

And was so satisfied! Every bone was full of tasty marrow. I chomped and slurped and listened as they splintered with the most satisfying crunch under my teeth—

"Josiah," Credence interrupted. "Let's...I mean...you've painted the picture clear enough, haven't you?"

Josiah's eyes had glazed over as he relived the memory, but her voice pulled him from his reverie and back into the present. He looked at her and saw the nauseated pain on his sister's face.

Sorry, 'Crence. Sometimes food has a way of making me...

Anyway, when there was nothing left I pulled my head up to look at the world around me. It took me a moment to realize it was night, for I could see in the dark, almost as clear as day.

And oh, how beautiful the woods were!

I felt no fear in that moment, but a strange joy, as if I was exactly where I belonged. And the wind, which had been so biting, cooled the fire in my skin as it blew over my fur.

Fur!

It covered my body, sensitive to any little movement, like a thousand little fingers tickling me as the breeze moved through it. 

I could hear everything. Birds and mice and the rustling of every last leaf on the trees. I looked at my hands and saw gray paws, and I watched in fascination as I flexed them and grew claws.

What was I? What had become of the boy who died in the woods—and why did I feel stronger than ever before? I feared I must have been cursed and transformed into a monster, but I didn't feel like a one. I knew who I was, and I remembered the faces of you and Pa and Ma. I remembered what happened to us in the woods, and that you left to find help.