The pain had been so intense. I had never felt anything like this since I had broken five of my ribs in a car accident. My sight had abandoned me, as my life was. Draining from me and into Him. I did not know who this man was, but I knew one thing for sure: He was not human. He had so many animalistic features about him. I did not see them, but sensed them.
Then, just as I felt life fleeing my body, I felt Him pull away and put his arm to my mouth. I knew only one thing: I must drink to live. I drank, then fell back screaming. This pain was completely different from what I had felt before, but excruciating none the less. It was sharper, more spread out than before. Luckily (or not, depending on your point of view) I was not at home to wake anyone up. My sight had returned to some extent, and I saw Him leave, walking at a hurried pace.
I laid there, trying to hold back from screaming. Trying to control the pain. then, all of a sudden, it stopped. I stood up, and tried to understand what had just happened. I felt very odd. Actually, to tell you the truth, I felt good. For the first time I could remember, I actually felt good. But there was something knawing at the back of my mind; something like when your hungry, and it was just before lunch or dinner or whatever. No. This was more than hunger, it was starvation. I had to eat something, but I didn't know what. I found my way to one of my friends named Droz's house (his name is actually David, but that was what everybody called him).
"Hey Droz, lemme in. You gotta help me." I said, catching my breath, though I wasn't sure why, since I had not been running.
"Yeah, sure. What happened? You look all pale, and messed up. You get hurt or something?"
"I...was mugged. 'Bout two blocks down," I said, not really sure what happened myself.
"Well, come on in and siddown, you look pretty bad."
"That�s alright, I feel fine. No broken bones or anythin'. Just hungry I guess," I said, which was actually the truth.
"All I got are some left-over hamburgers from dinner. If you want em' they're in the fridge."
"OK," I said, again in my life ignoring his rudeness. That's just the way he is, though. I went into the kitchen, found the hamburgers, and took one. I came back into his living room and started to eat it.
"Aww, man that�s sick! Your joking, right?" He said.
"Whadaya mean?"
"That�s raw, and your eating it?"
"It tastes fine to me."
"Man, hamburgers are brown, that�s bright red!" He said, his eyes widening a little. "What's wrong with you?" I looked down at it and realized he was right. Why had I taken the raw one? I knew that cooked ones were brown, but I had just seemed to grab this one. What made me feel worse is that I ate it and liked it. I felt even better than before! Just than he noticed the dried blood on my neck (he's not an idiot, I was wearing a jacket which hid my neck from plain view). "What happened to your neck, anyway?"
"I, uh....think I cut myself shaving." I said, knowing that he would believe me since I was the only 15 year old in the school that had to shave.
"Twice?" he asked.
"I guess so"
He came over and looked at the marks, then backed off, slowly and wide eyed.
"What?" I asked him, a little confused.
"Man, those are teeth marks. I swear they are. These aren�t cuts, they're holes. Are you sure you were mugged?"
"I...I don't know. I don't remember much. I think I might have been bitten by a dog or something."
"Yeah...maybe," he said, the thought seeming to satisfy him.
"Yeah, probably. That would explain why you still have your watch. Go see a doctor, you could have rabies or something."
"Maybe, I'll see you later. I have to go anyway." I said, while I was walking out the door. The raw meat seemed more appetizing that the cooked for some reason, and I thought that I might regret it at the time, but I ate it anyway. I felt better, and started running home. I couldn't really run that fast, as I remember it, but when I started, I just kept going faster and faster, until I could saw that I was going faster than some of the cars going by. I ran into a residential street and stopped,wondering in awe and frightened at the same time. I walked the rest of the way.
After about 3 blocks, I thought I heard something following me. Being a little paranoid from the experience before, I turned around quickly and found three dogs, a pitbull, Labrador, and a Rotweiler, were following me. About a minute after I turned around, the three sat down, oddly at the same time. I thought I felt respect from them, but then dismissed the notion as soon as it came. I didn't like animal much, let alone knew what they were thinking. But then, I thought, I didn't really hate animals as much as I thought, and that they were being friendly to me. I also found this thought odd coming from my head, and started again on my way. Again, about five minutes later, I turned and found that three others had joined the first (these being a terrier, chuwahwa, and another black lab). I thought I heard the notion of respect again, and thought something along the lines of "go away!" without really knowing what I was doing. Again, to my amazement, the dogs started splitting up, going in they're separate directions.
"This is too weird for me," I said to myself, as I finally reached my house. I turned on the lights and almost went blind. I was so used to the darkness that my eyes had no time to adjust. At least, that was all I thought it was at the time.
After answering nine thousand questions my parents asked, telling as much truth as I could, but lying on most about the blood, I went upstairs and tried to sleep, but oddly couldn't.
I went out after about 3 hours of lying and doing nothing, and tried to work out what I thought was a little extra energy. I started to run, which lead to my amazement again on how fast I was. I was so confused at the time I remember hitting my head against the a brick wall a couple of times, thought I was crazy. I kept walking and found myself in an unfamiliar alley in an unfamiliar area, which are a bad combination in Chicago. I started back the other way when I was pulled back through a door.
The Change Part II