The darkness is coming. This will be the last time my mind is clear for what will seem like an eternity. The sunlight is the only beauty keeping my thoughts from screaming at each other like wounded banshees hopped up on Hiss. Already I am shivering from the coldness gripping at my heart…thank all that is decent I never have any memories when the sunlight returns. I must finish my task now before the night creatures stake their claim and undo all the good this dual existence of mine can possibly accomplish.“Sssands are dissssapearing, Life Sssnatcher,” whispers my paid tracker. “Keep your dissstance!”
Trackers are cautious by nature, too cautious. They bordered paranoia at times. “We have an hour yet. Keep your eyes on the prize.” I tap my cash changer for emphasis.
“I’ve ssseen Life Sssnatchersss turn very quickly…Keep your dissstance!”
I ignore the overgrown slug as my left temple throbs with pain. Their infernal S’s grate on my ears like an outlawed form of Chinese Torture. All I want is to find the herb. Nothing else matters. I have less than an hour, though I can feel the swelling in my brain as many of my synapses begin firing haphazardly, the UV rays dwindling down to nothing. Soon my battery pack will be spent and the only thing keeping me sane will be sheer stubbornness.
Thank God I have plenty of that.
“Don’t misssunderssstand me boy. I don’t care how nicccey you ssseem now…”
I cut him off. “Would you shut up? I don’t pay you to talk, Slug. Your forked tongue is making it that much harder for me to stay solid. If you can keep your slime in your mouth for the rest of the walk, I might even throw in something extra.” And once I turn, I might bother to drag my ravenous soul away from you before I rip you to shreds.
I might.
My comment seems to irritate the Tracker, because immediately the entire gray-metallic surface of his body shivers in a way I've only seen once before. The oozing black slime his body slides along on increases in volume. By chance I notice my comm. is lit up.
“What?” I don’t even bother to look who it is. Mistake.
“Don? Don? Where are you? Why haven’t you checked in?”
I curse my boiling brain for not thinking clearly. This is the last person I need to have a conversation with. “Sorry, boss. Just doing a personal errand. You can dock my pay, I’ll be back in two hours.”
“Two hours! That’s an hour an half too long, what are you thinking? You can’t be outside when you morph! Have you forgotten? What’s going on with you?”
My breathing is labored now, and my fingers are tingling. Every word I speak is excruciatingly painful as I almost choke on the increased saliva. “I can’t explain, now. I’ll be back soon. No worries.”
“No worries? Don, listen to me, man…you aren’t right. You have to come back now! Now! I’ve invested too much in you to have you…”
I don’t hear the rest. I bite down so hard on the comm., it chips one of my teeth. Somewhere in the back of my head, alarms and whistles are going off…but I am past the point of caring. I can feel the emptiness and hollowness in my soul. Soon I won’t even know what it is like to feel human.
My tracker is moving faster, now. He is probably terrified. Doesn’t matter, trackers never bail. Their word is more precious to them than money. And money was all they ever thought about.
“We are here,” whispers the tracker. I peer cautiously down the dark alley we arrived at, staring at a large graffiti covered dumpster. There is one large chunk of it missing, as if something larger than an elephant had taken a bite out of it. I can hear slithering and slimy creatures inside busily working. A while ago the sound may have frightened me or disgusted me or filled me with some other appropriate emotion…exactly what I can’t recall. All that matters is the herb. I need that herb.
I turn my attention to where the Tracker beckons; a small opening appears behind the putrid smelling rottenness of decay and filth. Life is found here? A life giving plant that will save? Maybe it takes so much death to bring about life, I don’t know. No matter. I squat down behind the canister and find the space a very tight fit. That means I am already growing.
The passage leads me to the inside of a building that is dimly lit and full of creeping sounds. Some part of my still human mind thanks myself that I hadn’t come earlier. The anxiety would have tortured me. Instead, I feel nothing, only the memory of should having felt something.
I walk down a dark corridor and can smell the dark humidity filled with foul odors and putrefying flesh. My eyes are digressing and I can now discern some infrared movement. The walls are teaming with red heat, creatures I can’t identify or have only seen in the lab. I wonder why none are attacking me or trying to sting or eat me? A distant memory of chemicals and pest repellant seared into my skin…but my memories don’t seem like mine anymore.
At the end of the corridor my eyes discover that which I so adamantly seek. My herb! My salvation. My, my, my joy? What is joy again? Some sort of emotion, though it is all fading so fast. I didn’t expect to come so far down into the darkness. The sun hasn’t set yet, but I am being deprived much too early. My time table hadn’t counted on that. Too late now. Maybe I should feel panicked, but I can’t feel anything.
Just continue.
Continue.
I reach out for the plant, eager to get out of here. I know I have to leave quickly. Why, I can’t remember. As my grotesquely shaped hand oozing pus reaches out, it is struck away quickly.
“Payment! Payment now!”
I squint my eyes in frustration. I can’t decide whether to view my assailant with visible light or infrared. The darkness is playing tricks on me. I’m examining a creature standing about three meters high, almost completely round attached to quite a number of appendages. The creature bounces around so much I can’t discern the location of it’s head. “Now?” I ask aloud, futilely trying to remember how to pay.
“Now! Now, you are almost spent! Payment now, or death for you!”
Am I supposed to pay now? I can see the hybrid Macrantherum Zedoaria, though how do I remember that? It is okay. I hand him the precious metals that I've concealed tightly inside my powerbelt.
A tentacle stretches out and removes the pieces one by one. I then reach out for the plant, and notice the creature blocking me again. Counting it twice? I don’t have time for such delays! I knock the creature away and grab my precious plant. I start running back the way I came. Suddenly, the wall crawlers begin jumping onto my body. I can feel them biting and clawing and digging at my skin. But, my skin has grown callous. My metamorphosis physically is almost complete. My brain is still hanging on, though. But, only for moments. I quicken my pace and can hear the crunching and spurting of bugs and worms and all sorts of genetically engineered mishaps screaming for their share of the world. Too bad, I am stronger and faster!
I made a wrong turn somewhere. No matter, my body mass has quadrupled by now. I can't slow down and slam through the door I originally entered colliding with the dumpster, sending it skidding across the alley.
My brain is yelling at me. What? What? Oh, the plant! I look down and fortunately I had instinctively cradled it beneath my wing that had grown between my arms and back. Can I fly? I can never remember, once I turn the memories are gone. All this will be gone.
I can see the tip of the sun about to plunge us into darkness. The hissing sound of the violent, out of control world is pulsating a melodramatic sound into my ears, inviting me out to play. My salivary glands are uncontrolled as I can anticipate the taste of meat in my mouth.
Suddenly, I feel a presence above me. Instinctively, I jump backward and fling my right manus into the air. I come close to killing the giant bird-like animal that is trying to steal my plant. You can’t have it! I try to scream but the only sounds I hear are grunts and growls. My eyesight is sharp now, I can clearly see the face of the bird creature. It is staring at me intensely. Too intense. It’s intelligence is equal to mine. A Smartbird… what is it doing out here? It is no match for the night world.
It dives again for my plant. What could it possibly be thinking? I can eat it with one half of my mouth and still have room for the rest of it‘s family. As it swoops, I decide to devour it, after all it is time to feast. The hunger of my churning acid is burning through the pit of my enlarged stomach. I can feel the intensity and excitement of my soon to be meal.
As my forearm shoots out, a blast of energy emerges from the bird’s collar. It slams about 200 amps of energy through my body. I nearly drop to the ground, except I have to save my plant. My herb. My, my…
What is the plant for again? Why is this thing so important? I stare at the small, pathetically fragile green leafy plant. No flower, just a few leaves. This plant means something. It is important. I have to get it somewhere.
The bird is hovering in front of my face. Stupid bird! Get out of here, this is my plant!
And somehow, somewhere deep inside the dark recesses of my mind, I remember. Maybe it was the electric charge. Maybe the bird is sending me my memories. I am not sure. But, now I recall. It is all becoming clear, just for a moment.
I have to give the plant to the bird. The bird is going to bring it to her. It is for my wife. She is dying. She is going to die without it. She needs it tonight, and it cannot possibly wait another day. She is unconscious. She would never have allowed me to do this if she were awake. To risk my life. To experience my metamorphosis in the outside world within the darkness and amongst the creatures. Vulnerable and exposed. And by no means the strongest or most ferocious creature that roamed the Earth.
I lift the plant upward, and the bird grasps the pot ever so delicately; it almost appears relieved. I smile. At least, my yellowish teeth bare through my grotesque and misshapen mouth.
I fall to the ground, a mixture of swirling sadness that my mind is in turmoil over. I can hear my wife’s moans, her tender kisses, and her angry tone. “Why did you do it? You shouldn’t have done it! You will die out there!”
I claw the ground with my razor sharp nails and can smell her hypnotic fragrance as if she is standing right next to me. I have one last emotion to experience before my metamorphosis is complete, and the night world consumes me. Will I survive? When the sun rises the next morning, will the creatures ten times my size have devoured me without so much a second thought?
It doesn’t matter. I have saved her life. Beautiful Layna would breathe another day. I have done my job. No emotion for regret or sorrow or pain. I have one last feeling to undergo, before I am gone.
The sun is gone. My human body is gone. My mind, is almost, almost gone.
I love you Layna. I love you so much, my sweet Layna.
And I am gone.
