Fill the Hunger

She got home at eleven. I was there waiting for her. The tree in the yard gave me perfect purchase. I watched her bathe and dress for bed. She had an absolutely divine skin regimen. The moisturizers alone must have cost her a week's pay. I had perfect position to watch her in both lavatory and bedroom. Tonight was the night. My hunger could hold out no longer.

I scurried down the tree. The bark felt harsh on my hands and knees. Skin was scraped raw by the friction. My enthusiasm for what was to come blocked the pain from my mind. The ground came too quickly and my knees buckled slightly. I was overwhelmed with excitement. She was exquisite and I would have her.

The trellis was shaky as I climbed. Her light had been out for ten minutes, give or take. She would be too groggy to see me enter, but would be awake for the main event. I liked them to be awake when I took them. It made it all the sweeter. This one was truly going to be memorable. I had scouted her for months. Shadowing her in stores and on errands was electrifying. There were numerous times I swear she almost caught me. I had watched her through this window for the last two weeks. My needs were almost art as well as visceral. I had narrowed my hunt down to maybe twice a year. The system worked as long as the prey was of the best quality. She was worth twenty lesser catches taken weekly.

I slinked through the window silently. I was standing upright and halfway to the bed before she sat up. She had a serious look on her face as she focused on me in the dark.

"Who is there?"

"It is your dinner date, my darling!" I changed as I spoke. My limbs grew long and hair sprouted from my pores. The pain of the change was hardly distracting. I could do it on the move; I wasn't a pup. I had been on the hunt for over a century. Bones in my face cracked as my jaw reformed itself to prepare for dining. Talons sprouted from my fingertips as flesh ripped to make way. I was mostly quadruped by the time I covered the ten feet to her bed. I wanted to taste the soft flesh and warm blood of my anxiously awaited victim. I leaped to pin her to the bed so I could properly savage her. She smiled while I was midair.

"Beautiful. Come to me you great, magnificent beast." She changed faster than I could believe possible. I was the greatest shape-changer in my knowledge. There was no other who I had ever encountered who even came close. I had been honing my craft for over one hundred and fifty years. She was something born out of the myths of mythical creatures. I watched a cautionary tale told to nightmares themselves develop in front of my eyes. She stretched in length and width. Her skin became even more glamorous and dazzling. If I could have turned at the last moment and diverted myself away I would not have chosen to. Teeth became daggers as a small pouty mouth became an abyss. Limbs became muscular sinews which reached outward to accept me. Eyes became pools of flame looking into my soul. I leaped for prey and landed in my end. She spoke to me as I landed.

"I have watched you for so long. I had almost given up hope that you would come to me. Oh how I hungered. Thank you, my beautiful morsel."

I whimpered like a pup for the first time in over a century. It was not I who dined tonight!

THE END

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