6 Smiling

I needed to reign in whatever was inside me. I wanted to be home, for all its problems, all its issues, it was home. If I wanted to have a shot at returning, I couldn't let it win. It wanted flesh, luckily there were goblins. What if I had found something stronger, something faster. I could've died without knowing how. I could've become someone else's snack.

I wanted to leave this village behind, no I needed to. The smell of blood... the corpses, they called out to whatever was inside me.

If it had a face, it was smiling.

No... I was, smiling...

I forced my way back to the cave. I wasn't going to let the monster within me win.

As I angrily marched my way back up to my cave... I mean, 'the cave'... I found myself still grabbing onto the severed leg of whichever poor goblin had taken my fancy.

Unwilling to submit, I pried my fingers off of the leg, my hand unwilling to release the disfigured leg. Through sheer force of will and strength, I freed the leg from my grasp.

--=o-o=--

It didn't take long before I arrived at the cave. Although I was repulsed by the heinous acts I had committed, the sheer amount of flesh I had consumed drove away my rationality and ushered in the instinctual desire for sleep.

I no longer longed for the comfort of a bed or sheets. The cave brought me an unnatural comfort. The cold cave floor soothed me...

Before I had even noticed, sleep had claimed me.

In the darkness of sleep, which soon overwhelmed me, I could feel the other me. I could feel the monster.

"I am you, and you are me..." the doppelganger spoke in an unknown language, yet somehow I understood it.

"What are you!?!!" my pent up frustration yelled, unchained in my subconscious. "What do you want from me!!!" my question losing its tone in through my frustrated yelling.

"I am nothing, I am no one. You are no one. You are nothing..."

I was not going to take this, I had a life, I had a home. Whatever this was had taken me from the few things I had. I hated this thing, I detested this thing. I couldn't hold myself back, "You're wrong! My name is..."

Wait, why... why can't I remember, "My name is..."

'Why can't I remember my name!'

"You are no one. I am nothing", Whatever this thing was, it wasn't playing fair.

"I can give you a chance. I can make you someone. I can give you power..."

"AT WHAT COST? MY HUMANITY!"

With a freakish smile, the monster replied, "No need to get all riled up. You are but a new wyrmling. In due time you'll learn to curve your impulses."

"I ATE RAW FLESH!"

"Believe me, raw flesh is better than cooked flesh... far more chewy" a sly grin continued to grow on its face. Displaying sharp jagged teeth.

"If you ever want to leave, we must become one. You must learn. You must adapt. You must overcome"