Out of time

I was running out of time. I was at the end of my rope, and while a doctor would disagree with me, I would still stubbornly proclaim that I was dying. I was depressed, and my strategy of ignoring it had just about reached it's limit. Personally I'd say it was impressive, to be able to hide my suffering from everyone who ever knew or loved me, but as I was monologuing in my head, I failed to look both ways while crossing the street. I shouldn't have worn all black, I shouldn't have been so lost in thought, I should have....

Wait... Is that.... My body?

As I look down I see a body crumpled into a mess in front of the car that had struck it. My legs are facing the wrong way, my arms are bent in places that they shouldn't be able to bend and my chest is pierced by a chain. As I follow the chain with my eyes I see that it is broken in two. One end is impaled in my presumably dead body, and the other is sticking out of me. A man jumps out of the car and starts yelling, I couldn't quite hear him, but I could tell he was stressed. I try to calm him down by joking "Congratulations by killing me you have gained my powers of being very good at Tetris, may you use them well."', but he either doesn't hear me or doesn't appreciate my stellar sense of humor. I mean of course he wouldn't hear me, I'm dea....

Oh that's right, I'm dead aren't I.

I'm not too sure about the whole chain thing, but I'm pretty sure I'm some sort of vengeful spirit with unfinished business. I'm not too sure who I am supposed to venge, but I guess I'll figure it out sooner or later. I try to follow as my body is brought to the hospital, but apparently vengeful spirits can't outrun a speeding ambulance. I'm sure my parents are being notified of my departure, and for the first time in a while I feel the urge to cry.

I know I've been distant, I know I've not been the greatest son, but I sincerely wish I could have told my family that I loved them one last time. As I lay there, miming some facsimile of weeping I hear a loud roar in the distance. For the first time since I was a kid I felt that familiar fear, the fear that something was

Hunting me.

I run, faster than I had ever ran in my death, and fortunately the sounds start to fade into the distance. However, before the roars fade completely I hear a scream. Logically I know I should keep running, even my gut is telling me to run, but I am curious. It's childish, but I want to at least know what it is I was so afraid of. As I round the corner of the street I see it. A masked giant with a hole in its chest chasing after a grown man bawling in fear. I'm terrified and I consider using this chance to run, but as the man runs with his back to me I can just briefly see a broken chain swinging out from his chest. As I start to hesitate, the beast turns around and faces me. For a second I consider punching it, but my gut tells me to run and for once I comply, or at least try to.

The monster's jaw lunges forward and bites off my arm, turning my vision white with pain. In shock I fall back on my butt and I hear the sickening crunch as the jaws slam together for a second time just above my head. As I struggle to get up and run without my right arm I hear a plink as a stone slams into the back of the creature. Annoyed, the creature pauses for a moment before deciding to ignore it and continue its hunt. In this brief window, I manage to get my feet underneath me and I proceed to run.

I run and I don't stop to look at the thing behind me, just endlessly running until I can no longer move. I push myself to crawl a little bit beyond that point, but when I gain the clarity of mind to look, the giant that was chasing me is nowhere to be found. I lay there, exhausted, in pain, and hungry.

I look for something to bandage my wound, but as I rub the stump I see there is no blood and I quickly drop the idea. I laugh, partially in jest of myself and partially at the idea that it was even possible for me to die twice. As if joining in on this mockery, the chain at my chest begins to rattle. As I take a look I see something ridiculous before I am entirely blinded by pain. Mouths grow on my chain like a mold and begin to take bites out of each other. The pain is like a series of electric shocks flowing through my body, causing my nonexistent muscles to clench and release in waves and my eyes to roll into the back of my transparent head. The chain grows shorter and shorter as I fight to maintain some semblance of control over my body, and it feels as if I am literally going to fall apart. I refuse to die a second time without letting anyone else know who I am. I want to change, to be a human, and if I can't do that in life, I want to at least do it in death. Suddenly the clattering stops, and for a brief, peaceful moment it is as if all of the suffering was a lie, then something comes out of my eyes. Flowing like water it forced itself down my throat as I try to scream.

It's a lovely day, I'm at a party and all of my friends and family are here. I turn around, and when I look back there are fewer people, at first it's just one or two, but as I glance away more and more people are disappearing. I try to lock eyes with my mother to stop her from disappearing, but eventually I have to blink. When my eyes open she's gone and It is in her place. I try to run away, desperately trying to prolong the inevitable, but it grows closer and closer until eventually it reaches out to touch me.

I've had this dream night after night after night, but this is the first time I didn't find myself awake after it reached me. It pulls me into its arms, embraces me, and starts to devour me. I try to fight, but it's too strong, and I disappear chunk by chunk. Soon the only thing left is my mouth, there is no thought, no desire, just my mouth, and that old insatiable hunger. I bite back into my attacker, chewing away chunk after chunk as I feel myself growing stronger and more complete. When it is completely gone I awake to find that I have changed.

The world around me is larger, and my hands are gone, replaced by the paws of a rodent. I feel for the chain on my chest, but there's nothing to feel, even the chest that anchored it was gone. All that remains is a small hole on my slim body. I feel my face and it is as if I'm touching a fine piece of china. I try to pull the offending object away, but what follows is a severe pain and a feeling of wrongness. However I can't accept this. I had just made up my mind to show people the real me, how can I do that if I can't even show my face? I pull harder and harder, trying to at least maintain the last shred of pride I had, and I eventually succeed. With a crunch a piece of the mask is torn off and I feel wrong. Something akin to my life force leaks out through the hole and I panic. I hold my paws against the hole to try and cover it. The fact that I can actually feel my paws against my face now is little consultation as I try to hold whatever it is I'm made of in. More and more energy slips through my fingers, but eventually the hole begins to close. I sigh in relief, not noticing the miniscule hairline crack left behind.

As I check my surroundings for the first time I see that I am in an abandoned construction site, and laying chained to a pile of rubble is a man. He stares at me, and when I meet his gaze all I can think is that I'm hungry. I rush forwards, jumping over pipes, pieces of concrete and abandoned construction equipment as the man bolts up. I lunge forwards and try to bite the man, but he kicks me away like a piece of trash. Oddly enough just being close to the man is assuaging some of my hunger and I start to think more clearly.

I try to apologize to the man, and somehow that freaks him out even more than when I tried to attack him. "What are you." he screams, and the only thing that I can respond with is "I'm me." Wait, who is me? Me is I, but who am I? A name, I have a name right? Why can't I remember something so simple? Is there something wrong with- "Whatever you are, get off my turf. This is my stuff and I'll be damned if I let a rodent take it from me." The man yells at me, threatening to kick me a second time. Being the brave man that I am, I literally tuck tail and run. As I scamper off I take one last look at the man who had assaulted me, and I notice that he looks somewhat fainter than before.

As I walk I try to sort out my memories when a strange smell distracts me. It smells like.... Strawberries? Curious, I attempt to follow the smell, but it's coming from somewhere up high, and I was never a great climber even before.... Before.. what exactly? My memories are scattered, but I'm pretty sure that it had something to do with a broken chain and a monster... Did a chained up gorilla cast black magic on me? Something tells me that is unlikely, but as I ponder odd things my body seems to have already started its ascent. As I poke my head over the tiling of the roof, I can just vaguely make out the shape of a foot wearing sandals. "According to the detector a hollow should be in this area, but I can't feel anything, is this machine broken?" The strange man stomps in frustration, causing me to lose my footing and slip off the roof. As I fall my life slips before my eyes and I land in a dumpster. I hear a faint woosh, and suddenly the smell of the man is coming from a roof a couple houses away. As I sit in the trash pondering my life decisions, I realize something. Either this "Hollow" is really good at hiding, or this hollow is actually me. Not that I'm not good at hiding, bu- the very moment that thought attempted to form the sound of metal being slashed apart filled the air. Suddenly finding myself falling alongside an avalanche of trash, I look up and see the man looking incredulously at me.

"Is that puny thing seriously a hollow? I didn't even know that rats had souls, let alone that they could form hollows. Ah alright, a job's a job, but this thing better not pee on my- Hey get back here!" As the rude man was slandering me, my reason won over my sense of hunger and I began to run as fast as my tiny body could.

I skittered under dumpsters over cans and alongside various pieces of garbage as I heard an intermittent swooshing and cursing. I came upon a chain link fence and managed to squeeze myself through one of the links without too much issue. Basking in my superiority I turn around only to see the man sheathing a sword in front of the now unlinked chain fence. With a newfound burst of speed I launch myself across the alley and dive into a storm drain. As I dive deeper into the pits of the city I hear, "Alright whatever, I'm too tired to deal with this pest right now, maybe it'll get stuck in a rat trap."

As my feet patter along the concrete tunnels, I smell something else, something a little less appetizing, but somehow more familiar. Having nothing better to do I follow this scent and I come across a legendary sewer crocodile. A crocodile wearing a mask, and with a hole on its chest..... Well regardless of what it is, it smells tasty, and before I know it my body is lunging towards its throat. The hollow rolls in an attempt to throw me off, but I dig in with my jaws deeper and deeper until a sweet taste fills my mouth. Eventually it stops moving, and the majority of whatever it was made out of begins to dissipate into the air. Before too much of this sweet nectar can dissipate, I frantically claw and chew my way through the creature's body. Once my feeding frenzy has ended I sit there, shocked and in horror at what I had done. Not only had I just taken a life, but I had also eaten something I found in the sewer. The horror didn't last long as I reasoned to myself "Well technically water drainage systems are separate from sewers, and I was pretty hungry". Wait, why was I hungry, I'm dead aren't I? Wait, when did I die? Who am I? As my thoughts begin to grow out of control, I fail to notice as the crack on my mask begins to grow. Eventually I manage to calm myself down by reminding myself to focus on the present, and that means finding more food.

I crawl along in the darkness until eventually I reach an outlet where rainwater is directed into a small stream alongside some houses. I pull myself out, wet and haggard, and I sniff the air to find more food. I have the feeling that there was something else that I should be doing, but not dying is a good stopgap as far as goals go. As my puny body scampers along the damp grass, I notice that the ground beneath me seems to be moving away a little bit faster, but as I ponder this mystery I smell that smelly smell once again. This time the smell is a lot thicker, and I swear my nose is trying to tell me that it's dangerous. Ignoring my misgivings, I forge onwards in search of a meal, and I succeed. I end up in front of a creature much larger than the sewer monster. However this time, my body doesn't lunge into action, and I have to do things myself. I push myself to lunge at the carapace of this beetle shaped creature, but my claws fail to scramble a foothold and I slide off. The hollow turns around in confusion, and I launch myself forwards once again. The creature seems surprised as I clamp my jaws shut and use my front claws to dig into it. Enraged, the beetle strikes me with its legs, but I refuse to let go. I hear a loud buzzing and soon the ground begins to get further and further. Feeling something leaking out of me from the strikes, I claw deeper and harder until the agitated roaring begins to weaken. That familiar flavor fills my mouth, but this time it's much stronger. As the creature begins to dissipate we fall back down to the ground with a loud slam. Most of the particles of the creature fade into the air, but unlike last time a few of them seem to fly towards me. As I finish my meal I notice that while I don't feel any fuller, I feel more complete. I feel sharper, more aware, more Me.