Don’t Call Me a Kid

As I bask in the feeling, I notice that the world around me is somewhat smaller and much smellier. The vast majority of the smells are a bit like raw meat, a few dozen are like cooked meat, and two smell like strawberries. Remembering my past encounters, I ignore my instincts and start to head away from the strawberries. They may be appetizing, but my nose tells me that they are far more dangerous than what I can handle. As I scamper along the rough concrete of the road, I notice that the sun is rising.

*Crash*

Suddenly, I am launched through the air at a decent speed. As I turn around, I see a man getting out of his now ruined car, and he seems to be somewhat stressed. I land with a thud, when a sudden shock flashes through my mind.

-I've been here before.

I try to hold onto the feeling of familiarity, but it is quickly overwhelmed by my hunger. I stare at the man and I realize that he smells...

Delicious.

Drooling I continue to stare at the man, but for some reason, I hesitate to attack.

-Logically, there is no reason not to attack the man; he doesn't even have a weapon. However, somewhere deep inside, there is a voice telling me to stop. Why? Why can't I? Why shouldn't I? Why are you getting in my way? Stop!!

Somehow, without my noticing, my claws jump up towards my mask. I try to resist, to force my claws back onto the ground, but they refuse to let go.

*Crack*

Suddenly, I can see again. Suddenly, I can remember.

Suddenly, I am me again.

-My name..... it was Tom. I was hit by a car after heading back from a failed job interview. A feeling of nausea flowed over me as I realized what I was about to do, what I had done like a rabid animal. As I lay in the grass besides the road and tried to vomit, I failed, but at least pretending to do some of the actions I could do in life calmed me down a bit. I wanted to take some time to think about all that has happened, but time wasn't something I had a lot of. While the outpouring of essence was far more tame than compared to the first time, I was still dying. Whether I liked it or not, as I was now, I couldn't survive without the mask. As my memories began to fade, I desperately sprinted away, hoping to at least maintain some semblance of my prior humanity.

The feeling of my life draining away stops as the mask regenerates, leaving behind a web of small cracks. How did I get here? Well regardless I'm still hungry, so I guess I'll follow the trail that smells of cooked meat, I do have some standards after all. I skitter and scamper my way under various dumpsters and through various side alleys until I come upon my prize. This one smells a bit weaker than the last one, but quantity will have to make up for quality. As I sneak up on this humanoid giant, I notice that it seems to be searching for something.

'Are you seriously looking for raw meat? You're pathetic!'

I shout, ruining my prior attempt at subtlety. The hollow turns around in surprise, but upon seeing a dog-sized rodent, it snorts and continues its search. In a completely calm and collected manner I lunge onto the back of this arrogant beast and begin to gnaw away at it. The enraged hollow tries to grab me with its hands, but this time I am prepared for a counter attack and use my small body to scamper up and down the hollow while digging in with my claws. The creature screams in anger and desperation, but I continue to wear it down until it slumps down as a tattered rag. As I begin to devour the hollow piece by piece, it begins to dissolve into particles which fly away into the air. This time a few more particles flow towards me, and I feel noticeably stronger. Suddenly, I am assaulted by the scent of strawberries, and as I look up, I see an unfamiliar man staring at me.

"When I got a report of a strange rat hollow, I didn't expect to see a hollow eating another hollow. While I could let you go for cleaning up the community, it's clear that you're growing far too fast to be ignored. "

Before I can even think of a response, the man jumps at me with his sword drawn, and with a soft swish, one of my legs is severed from my body. I scream in pain and jump back, but he refuses to give any distance and slices towards me again. This time I spread my legs, flattening my body underneath his blade, but he quickly adjusts the angle of his swing and grazes one of my shoulders. I lunge forward, but the man is prepared for this, and he blocks my teeth with his sword. I try to gnaw my way through, but his sword is hard and I make little progress. The man swings his sword and launches me into the wall of a nearby building. As I attempt to stand back up, I pretend to stumble a little, and the man leaps towards me. I slide under his slash and slice into his chest with my remaining claw. Blood pours out and the man swears, but I don't let up my attack. In an instant, my leg had finished healing, and I lunged towards his throat. The man slams the hilt of his sword into my head, destroying my mask, but I don't let go. Blood spurts out as I gnaw on the man, and soon I taste the delicious flavor of strawberries. Much like the hollows I had fought earlier, the man and even his blood began to break down into particles and float away into the air. With my mask broken, my essence begins to leak out as it never had before, and I fall to the ground. As I start to lose consciousness, I see the particles leaking out of me intermingle with the particles of the man and float back towards me and his sword.

As I lay down in a familiar landscape, I see it, but for the first time, rather than chasing me, it seems to be calmly resting. "So you're here again, huh kid." I jumped in surprise as for the first time it spoke to me. As I stare, unsure of how to respond, the creature continues

"Honestly, I'm not sure if your luck is great or terrible. It'd arguably be luckier to be dead, but I'd say you're pretty lucky to be alive. "

'Wait, why would I be dead?'

"Oh come on, you should know that answer just as well as I do since you went and got your heart shattered like that. You do know that's supposed to be fatal, right? "

'My heart?'

"Yes your heart, you wanted to show it to the world so it's only fitting that it ended up on your face right? Honestly if you weren't such a lonely weirdo who sucked the life out of people, I'd have devoured you years ago. "

'Weirdo?! Who do you think you are?'

"I'm _________."

'What? Speak up, I can't hear you.'

"Sorry kid, but if you want to boss me around, you're going to have to get a lot stronger and maybe a little taller."

'Why do you keep calling me a kid?'

As I say this, I look down and see that my body is no longer the sleek, glorious thing it was. Instead, my body was that of a boy, wrapped in what seemed to be a fur cloak. My sharp, beautiful claws were gone, and my pristine teeth, which I had used to gnaw through my foes, had turned into dainty little crowns.

"Anyway, I'll be going back to sleep now. Try not to die kiddo."

'Don't call me a ki-'

As I yelled out, I awoke to find myself laying on the ground, holding onto the sword of the man I had just killed...

-Oh, that's right. I just killed a man