Sweat dripping down my forehead as I pushed myself even more against the firm wall at the corner of the dark room. Not caring if I break my bones from the force I'm exerting just to stay put in one place, and certainly not caring if the wall shatters from my new found impossible strength.
It was the middle of December and the beginning of my kind's hunting season, winter. Ice-cold air hovering through the entire room yet it failed to subdue the strange itchy feeling burning inside me. My body craved something and I couldn't pin point it, or simply, I couldn't bring myself to believe that I had changed.
Three days have passed since Jennie forced me to eat human flesh and I know that my transition into becoming a wendigo has ended. Now, I am a full-fledged human-killing machine with an insatiable hunger for the living. I haven't eaten anything, haven't spoken to anyone in my family since that traumatic moment.
That daft bitch ruined the life I could have had, the moments I could have enjoyed without the dark thoughts clouding my mind. I could've went on with my curse-dormant existence and meet people and have fun with them without wanting to lash out and tear their throats out for my own amusement and satisfaction. All those things my own family has taken from me.
A familiar mouthwatering scent wafted from somewhere, making my muscles move on its own will. My mind went black, everything in me drifted into oblivion and all there's left was desire. Desire to possess whatever that heavenly aroma was. Desire to chomp on something. Desire to devour the very thing that brings me nothing but fear and nausea, the very thing I swore I will never consume and spent my entire life away from. Human flesh.
My body finally came into a halt and with it my mind awakening from what felt like a deep slumber. I stood there, at the dark alley, feet glued on the wet asphalt, eyes never leaving the thing producing the luscious smell that makes me lose my mind.
I couldn't tell if it was a girl or the opposite, but one thing I was sure of, it's a tot. Definitely one of those street urchins, but I didn't care. I wanted its blood in my tongue. I wanted its freshly tore off flesh in my mouth. I wanted to eat it, and so I did.
Every bite, every chew, every swallow was pure heaven. And by the time my hunger abated and my head cleared, there was nothing left of the poor child. If it wasn't for the ragged clothes that had scattered everywhere, the little bones and the blood in my hands, I would've thought I hallucinated from starvation but thing is, I didn't. It was all real. I tore and ate every part of it in bliss. I killed it without feeling remorse.
"I told you, you'd love it the second time around." A voice of a woman mumbled from behind.
I tilted my head, smiling with the thought of discovering a new taste and blood oozing from my mouth as I faced the person that brought me in this misery.
Jennie.
"You son of a bitch!" I cursed, running straight to her as I jolted myself awake.
A fucking nightmare, again. That little urchin never let me have a dreamless, sound sleep.
"Blast from the past?" She asked, standing at the door of my bedroom, grinning like a fucking asshole that she is. "Mom and dad wants to talk to you. Get the fuck up, pull your shits together and get your ass at home by 10."
And just as annoying as she appeared in my recent nightmare and in my fucking face the moment I woke up, just like that, she was gone, in an instant.
———
"What do you want, Chaerin?" I demanded, walking into the living room of the house I swore I'll never set foot again. But then after being summoned like a fucking stray dog, here I am, standing once more on the ground of the place I hated and where I got my curse triggered.
"Hanging around with that human toy of yours for so long you're forgetting your manners." She greeted, chest puffed out all proud like as she sat with legs crossed on the red sofa.
"You of all people don't get to lecture me about manners and shit when we both know you're the nastiest of us all." Thereupon hearing the offensive words from my mouth, she stood up right off, vamped her way onto my face then slapped the ever loving shit out of me. Note the sarcasm.
"You dare speak to your mother like that." She spat with poison on her tone.
I chuckled as I threw my head back to her direction. The rancid bitch almost dislocated my fucking neck. I took a step forward, looked her dead in the eyes as I let the words roll off my tongue. "No. You're not. Not for me because I never considered you as one. You're just a mere object for breeding vicious, putrid creature like you are."
I took another step. "Mothers don't condemn their children into a faith worse than hell itself."
Another slap flew straight to my cheek. This time it wasn't from the woman who always insists I call her mom, but from the man I sincerely accepted as my dad despite the fact that he completely ignored Jennie's brainsick actions.
He did nothing in attempt to straighten her clearly deranged daughter. He did nothing for me and as sick as it sounds, it was fine. I was fine with it. I let it go, or so I thought.
I was blinded by the love I had for my family that I failed to see them as the monster that they are. I thought I had let it go; the anger, vehement, disgust. But I was wrong, and that night I feasted on the little urchin with them shoving the unspeakable crime in my face, telling me it's what I get for starving myself and refusing to accept what I've become, I retaliated into something much worse. A soulless monster and a daughter full of hatred. Because that night.. that night I finally saw them for what they truly are.
They are the monsters on the stories they used to read to me as a child every night before I go to sleep. And it fucking sucks that I'm a part of what they disgustingly call family.
"This woman you're disrespecting brought you into this world, nurtured you, gave you everything you desire and you dare talk to her like that!" He blatted, making me and Jennie, who I hadn't noticed is already standing at the door, snort in derision.
"Now this is what I inherited from you, Ji-yong." I said, emphasizing sarcasm by calling him with his first name. "You make everything sound beautiful like a fucking lyrical poem. Even Chaerin's name sounds like one of those goddamn shit saints. Although you really are the reason why she's a walking funeral dirge and a rancid bitch all at once."
"Enough!" She exclaimed, pointing a finger at me. "I have tolerated your presence in this house and your clearly stated hate for this family long enough, but we're not here to dig up and bicker about some puerile history with unresolved issues and deep vengeance forsooth. We are here to discuss family matters which are way more important that your childish concerns." She chattered, glacing back and forth to my direction and to her sinister daughter.
"Fine. It's not like you're all worth the argue anyway. Let bygones be bygones, right?" I simplered, tugging a fake smile on my lips as I slouched on the sofa. "So? What is it this time?"
"You'll blow your top when you hear this one, sis." Jennie butted in.
I shot her a look. "You really love showing off how insolent and proud you are as a person, don't you? You're one sick failure."
"And you're a domineering, in denial, soggy pile of regret." She retorted savagely. I grabbed the first thing my hand touched, which was probably a thousands worth vase, and threw it straight to her direction that she easily dodged.
"Stop it. Both of you." Ji-yong ordered, authority all over his voice. I rolled my eyes.
"Just fucking get on with it so I don't have to bear looking at all your faces a second longer." I mumbled, crossing my arms to my chest.
"That sycophant human toy of yours turned to be someone you loathe." Jennie spoke. Conviction and repugnance in her voice never missed my ear.
"Lisa belongs to a family of nimrod. She's a wendigo hunter." Chaerin added, making me turn to her direction.
