Creatures of Darkness—Short Story

 It was pitch black as Gregory watched from his perch in the tree as Timothy raced through the forest, his mother holding his hand as she did so as well.

“Mommy?” Timothy asked. “Are we really going to be…be…?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “We won’t be eaten if we get to the village in—”

And that’s when Gregory from the trees above swooped down and chomped down on his mother’s neck. The four-legged beast started whirling around the woman like a ragdoll, shaking her as blood spilled from her. Timothy screamed aloud as he ran away in panic. Gregory felt the urge to go after him but with the new kill already in his maw he felt satisfied. He chomped her down to the last bone and swallowed her quickly, filling his appetite.

After his belly had been full, Gregory followed Timothy’s tracks he made in the dirt. When he saw light up ahead from the village that Timothy lived in, he saw a familiar face. With his advanced vision, he could see Sarah in the darkness, but she could not see him. Sarah looked into the approaching darkness, causing Gregory to transform. His white fur shrunk back into his body, his back legs stood upright and his tiger-like face morphed into a human’s with blond hair and blue eyes. After morphing back into a human, he felt his armor clinging to his body and his sword at his left side. He felt disgusted from eating Timothy’s mother after his bloodlust wore off, but he knew he couldn’t help it now. What was done was done.

As he reached the village Sarah looked at him angrily with Timothy clinging to her left leg, sobbing. She wore her silver armor and sword at her side which she hung onto by the handle. In response to her angry look, Gregory held his hands up in protest.

“Where were you?!” Sarah demanded. “Timothy…he just lost his mother to a beast and you’re right behind him just fine! Were you too cowardly to fight and hid in the shadows so she could be eaten instead of you?!”

“How would that work?!” Gregory asked. “There are hundreds of beasts out there, so hiding from one only meant I might have been eaten by another! I was too late to save Timothy’s mother, that’s it as I was right behind her!”

“Apologize to him right now!” Sarah exclaimed.

Gregory shook his head in protest.

“Nothing can bring her back,” he said. “Not even the sincerest of apologies.”

Sarah’s hand whipped across his face so fast he barely had time to see it, the slap knocking him onto his back. Timothy ran from Sarah’s side, crying as he entered deeper into the village. Gregory stood up, wiping the struck cheek.

“You could have saved her,” she said. “If only you’d tried!”

She walked away as Gregory looked down at the ground, sighing.

I’ve been trying. He thought. Just not the way I wanted to but needed to.

As Gregory walked through the village, he sensed something. He turned around to find what he thought was the wisp of something dark nearing him, like a tail or tentacle approaching his feet. However, it returned into the darkness from whence it came and vanished. He rolled his eyes moved on.

{}

Gregory and Sarah patrolled the circle shaped village, each on opposite sides to best guard against attacking beasts. As the firelight in the center of the village extended the shadows into the forest around them, Gregory sensed the presence of a beast near him, a skill he gained after eating beast flesh. He turned to see a wolf standing almost twice the size of a man staring him down, its fangs bared and drooling at the scent of human flesh. At first Gregory worried for the villagers seeing such a thing but he remembered incase of a beast attack they were supposed to stay in their tents while Sarah and Gregory handled it.

Gregory immediately went for his sword, but the wolf was faster. It pounced upon him jumping atop his chest and legs with all four of its paws. It attempted to bite his face, but Gregory had already grabbed its large maw with his hands. He bent his knees back and forced himself upward, the weight of the wolf pushing against him as he did so.

However, his strength proved greater over the animal’s weight as Gregory held the wolf by both sides of its mouth. With the canine still glaring at him, Gregory ripped apart the animal by both sides of its mouth, the carcass falling to the ground. Quickly, Gregory cut up some of the wolf’s flesh with his sword and began eating the carcass, shoving the flesh of the beast down as fast as possible to avoid the awful stench and taste of such a delicacy.

After eating he sighed in relief before hearing a cry of help. Gregory rushed through to the other side of the village to see the battle being engaged. What looked like a bipedal crocodile was at the edge of the village, being warded off by Sarah.

She took her sword at the creature and started swinging at it with her lightning-fast slashes. The crocodile, however, was a smart fighter. It knew when to avoid her swipes and when to make one of its own attacks. It stepped back every time Sarah attempted to cut into it before the beast swiped at her with its own claws. Sarah parried its sharp claws with its sword, cutting it a little each time.

As Gregory raced over to the crocodile, Sarah got a good slash in the into its thick, armor-like scale only to have it not even draw blood. Sarah stepped back in surprise, amazed how little damage her attack did. The crocodile then swiped its claw at her to hit her sword with such force it knocked her to the ground. It was about to pounce on her before Gregory tackled the monster, shoving his right shoulder into its side.

The reptilian creature was shoved to the ground before standing back up and roaring, causing spit to fly at both Sarah and Gregory. Gregory wiped the spit away before readying his sword at the creature. They both stared down each other as Gregory gritted his teeth.

It’s going to eat this whole village if I don’t kill it now. He thought. It’s now or never.

The reptile beast ran at him, charging claw first as Gregory swung at him with his full might at his outstretched arms. They were cut away like a scythe cutting wheat. The reptile tried to stop in mid-charge as it realized its main weapons were both gone before Gregory drove his sword through its belly. While the blade running through his stomach stopped its charge, the crocodile-thing kept chomping at him, intent on having one last kill before going down. With his bare hand, Gregory slammed its jaws shut with such strength that they cracked like sticks beneath a man’s foot. Its whole body went limp after Gregory withdrew his sword from its body as it fell.

Gregory sighed as he picked up a wounded Sarah, bleeding from many places where she had been scratched by the beast.

“You okay?” he asked.

Sarah looked at him like he was crazy.

“I…I don’t get it,” she said. “I…just don’t get how you’re so much stronger than me.”

She breathed heavily, sighing repeatedly as Gregory began to grow worried.

Could she find out? He thought. Please don’t let her put two and two together.

“We served under the same sword master for at the same age for the same years,” she said. “You shouldn’t be this much stronger than me. You’re even stronger than these beasts we fight…even without your sword.”

She seemed to stop breathing.

“And how close you were to Timothy when his mother got killed,” Sarah said.

Her eyes widened in realization.

“No…” she said. “No…not you…you hate beasts!”

“Sarah,” Gregory said, gesturing toward her softly, as if trying to get her to hug him. “It’s not what it seems like. I had no choice.”

“Your mother was killed by a beast,” Sarah said. “You’re the last person I would think who’d want to be a…a…a—”

“A devourer, yes,” Gregory said. “Someone who gains strength by eating the meat of beasts.”

“But that’s dangerous!” she yelled.

“Shh!” he yelled. “Keep your voice down! Don’t let everybody know!”

“You know that devourers of beasts are known to spontaneously transform when they least expect it!” Sarah yelled. “They carry the bloodlust of beasts in them and, as a result, become a beast themselves for a period of time before transforming back into a human! Do you realize what this means, Gregory?! Do you know what it means for me?!”

Gregory sighed.

“Look,” he said. “What was I supposed to do? When our master, Ronald, died as well as the other village defenders, what was I supposed to do? We couldn’t defend this village without some increase in strength. So, I…I did what had to be done.”

“What had to be done,” Sarah said, sickened. “As if it wasn’t just some ploy to gain power for yourself to make you be…be stronger for the sake of it. You’re a danger now. If you suddenly transform in the middle of the day, I won’t have the strength to conquer you. Nothing will.”

“That’s why when I feel the transformation coming on,” Gregory said. “I leave this village and head into the woods and feed on beasts to satiate my bloodlust. It’s better than nothing.”

“You’re still…you’re still barely human,” Sarah said.

“Then good,” Gregory said. “Think of it this way. I just saved you from a monster you couldn’t yourself kill. If I didn’t have the strength, I did then our whole village would be gone this instant. One of us had to make the choice to become a devourer or we would have lost everyone. Be glad I made the decision that you couldn’t.”

Sarah looked so angry she looked ready to kill him, raising her sword at him aggressively.

“You…you…” she seethed. “As if I should thank you for what you did? Good night, you monster.”

She walked away, sheathing her sword as she went back to her other end of the camp. Gregory sighed to himself, sheathing his sword as well as he walked back to his post. However, as he neared the tree line he sensed something again. It seemed familiar, as if he had felt it before numerous times but had never encountered it before. Gregory glared into the darkness ahead glared and unsheathed his sword.

“Whoever you are, come out now!” he said. “I can sense you! You’re…you’re definitely there.”

No answer.

Gregory shook his head, sighing as sheathed his sword again.

“That familiar presence has been increasing more and more all the time,” he said. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

{}

Sarah sat down by Gregory as he enjoyed a pot of stew to himself at a table in the middle of the village. Children played, women gardened and men hammered nail into wood as beasts usually only struck night rather than day, something having to do with them being at their peak power outside the sun. Gregory turned to Sarah who had a plate food in front of her that she took a bit of. Her expression was still one of anger but it was contained and veiled beneath one of diplomacy and respect.

“I thought you didn’t want to see me again,” Gregory said. “Thought I was too much a monster.”

Sarah gave a dry smile.

“I thought it over a bit and…” her smile disappeared. “I still don’t like what you did. It’s far too dangerous but…I guess I’m forced to accept it.”

She took another bit of her meat, something that grossed Gregory out. He visibly pulled back at her making that action. She turned to shoot him a confused expression.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Gregory sighed.

“After eating all that…” he gulped. “You know. I can’t eat meat anymore. I prefer vegetable broth more than anything. Whenever I eat meat anymore that’s cooked it…it reminds me of what I am.”

Sarah nodded.

“How does it taste?” she asked.

Gregory froze.

“What did you just ask?” he said.

Sarah looked at her plate like she would a dead dog.

“What does raw meat taste like?” she asked. “I mean, I might as well ask.”

He glared at her.

“It tastes disgusting,” he said. “At first I couldn’t eat but a little bit of it at a time. Now that I’m more desensitized to it I can…handle it a bit better.”

“But you eat it anyway,” she said. “Guess there’s a lot of things you have to do for others.”

She smiled again, but this time it looked like an expression of real pleasantness.

“Listen, I’ve been talking to some of the defenders in other villagers,” Sarah said. “Last week in fact. They say they’ve begun training up a few recruits who could take over our shifts.”

“Hmm, is that right?” Gregory asked. “So, does that mean we’ll get more defenders?”

“Yeah,” she said. “But I thought about…leaving.”

He turned to her with a perplexed expression.

“Leaving?” Gregory asked. “You mean here as in…this village?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I have nothing keeping me here. My family’s like yours is, killed by beasts. So, I thought about quitting being a defender and just give up. You’re the only friend I have left.”

“Huh,” Gregory said. “Last night you made it sound like it was disgraceful what I did and now you’re just going to abandon these people?”

“It’s not like I’m leaving them defenseless,” she said. “Just when the other villages have their defenders properly trained up and become capable warriors, I was thinking about…about going out of business. Gregory, there’s such a big world out there and if we stay here, we’ll eventually be killed by beasts, like most defenders do at an early age.”

Gregory sighed.

“I don’t think I could do that,” he said.

“Well I’ve thought about it,” she said. “To live a full life instead of my time on Earth being cut short by a random beast attack. So, what do you want to come with me?”

He glared at her.

“That’s cowardly of you,” Gregory said. “I did what I did because I had to. I became a devourer because I’m not a coward who’s going to bail out on innocent people when the going gets tough. And neither should you. If my sacrifice is having to eat beast flesh and not know when it will backfire and I’ll revert to a beast, then yours is staying at your post and defending the innocent.”

Sarah lowered her head in shame.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I guess I was just…getting sick of beast attacks. I guess I’m worse than a monster for wanting to abandon these people for my own selfish purposes.”

“No, no your not,” Gregory said. “You’re just human, like me. Not knowing what to do and having to shoulder others’ burdens for their sake. It tires you and wears on you.”

“Thanks,” she said.

She began crying, the tears wetting the meat in her plate. Gregory turned to her and shook his head.

“Sarah…I…I…I didn’t mean to—”

“No,” Sarah said. “It’s okay. I’m…I’m in the wrong here. I just wanted to travel and…and be with you.”

Be with me? Gregory thought. Does she really care about me that much? Or maybe I’m just reading a bit too much into that statement.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up.

“I think I’ll go eat somewhere else, okay?” she asked.

“No, no, you don’t have to go,” Gregory said. “I’ll—”

“No,” she said. “I want to be alone. Excuse me so I can be.”

She walked away with Gregory feeling empty inside but not in his stomach. Angry and resentful he poured the rest of his soup onto the ground and tossed the bowl to the ground. He got up started walking away from the table. As soon as he walked to his house in the village he could sense that same thing again. His house was near the edge of the forest in the village, which made Gregory look there give a strange expression.

What is it? He thought. Could it…could it really be following me?

{}

Watch that night was peaceful. Gregory and Sarah were patrolling opposite parts of the village. Gregory was thinking about what Sarah said.

Travel the world with her. He thought. I…I didn’t know Sarah ever had that dream, especially with me. How long has she been thinking about this? And why with me? I mean, we are comrades after all but…does that imply a deeper feeling for me.

He sighed, shaking his head. Defenders were one beast attack away from being killed so forming attachments for them was generally a bad thing. However, Gregory couldn’t help but feel that that was part of the reason Sarah was so angry with him when she discovered he was a devourer. Maybe she planned out a future the two of them could have together and it was now put into jeopardy now that he could transform into a beast randomly.

His thoughts were cut short by a huge scream. Gregory raced through the village to find the source of the scream at the end of border of the village. Sarah was wrapped in whip-like structures of blackness, like what he had seen last night disappear into the darkness. The source of the whips was obscured by the darkness of the forest as they began dragging Sarah into the underbrush of the village by her arms and legs. It was at that moment that Gregory felt the same presence that had been so familiar to him.

“Leave me!” Sarah said. “Without you, the village will be defenseless!”

After she completely disappeared into the forest, he heard another voice.

“Come at me,” he said. “Brother.”

“Brother?!” Gregory yelled.

After he disappeared, Gregory knew he had approximately two seconds to make the decision of whether to chase whatever took Sarah or defend the village from any possible beast attack. Gregory gritted his teeth as he drew his sword and ran into the forest, cutting away any and all underbrush that got in his way, making it faster for him to approach the thing that had taken away Sarah.

He could still make out Sarah’s form being dragged through the woods, entangled in the dark whips, as he ran faster than he ever could. As soon as they entered a grove, the creature abducting Sarah stopped and so did Gregory. He then began to see the entire picture, something that almost knocked him to his knees, his entire body shaking as a result.

Sarah was wrapped in black whips that sprang from the back of a man who looked the brother of Gregory. Both had blond hair, blue eyes pale skin and similar features. Gregory was far more muscular, and the other person was far older by maybe ten years but other than that they held so many similarities it was uncanny. Not only that but in the village he lived in, Gregory’s family was the only one with blond hair.

“Finally,” the imposter said. “All this time, I’ve been waiting.”

“What…hey…?” Gregory said. “What is this all about? Who are you? What do you want with me and Sarah?”

“I’ve chosen a name for myself,” he said. “Jason. And this is all about how your mother—sorry, our mother—killed me.”

“What?” Gregory asked. “How could she kill her own son?”

He grimaced.

“Do you know how beasts are created?” Jason asked.

“I refuse to do anything until you release Sarah!” he said.

The whips around Sara tightened, causing her to scream in pain.

“Of course, I do,” Gregory admitted. “Regular creatures gain super strength and a little bit of intelligence once they enter yellow water but poisonous to humans, which is common in this area. Because of the abundance of yellow water defenders must be trained to protect innocents against them. Now…are you saying you were dropped into yellow water?”

“I fell there by accident,” Jason said. “Our mother was raped by a man and became pregnant as a result. Because she didn’t want to carry the baby of her rapist, she ate herbs that were intended to induce a miscarriage. However, the herbs didn’t kill me in the womb so much as gave her a premature birth of a severely deformed baby.”

Jason began crying as he continued his story.

“She threw that baby, me, into the forest,” he said. “But instead of being eaten by a beast I somehow managed to fall into a pool of yellow water. The yellow water gave me a certain strength and intelligence most babies. As a result, I started eating human flesh that I craved to grow stronger.”

“But that’s impossible!” Gregory said. “Yellow water is dangerous to humans! It kills them if they drink it!”

Jason shrugged.

“Well,” he said. “It is. In ninety-nine percent of cases. I was one of those cases. After eating enough human flesh either killed by beasts they’d left behind or killing and eating humans traversing through the forest I began to grow stronger. I managed to survive in a forest of beasts by being beastly myself. I became a devourer, but an almost purely human devourer. As a result of almost never touching beast flesh, I don’t have the same problem that you have of transforming into a beast unwillingly. However, the flesh I’ve eaten has given me a little bit of inhuman abilities like these whips you see here, super strength as well as a little something else.”

Gregory froze, his expression one of pure terror. This only encouraged Jason’s wicked smile.

“Oh, yes,” he said. “I know your dirty little secret. You see, after devouring enough humans I searched for my mother. I searched for her when I was only about eleven until I found a woman who looked just like me. Not hard as she was the only woman with blond hair in the village. However, when I introduced myself to her and told her she was my mother she screamed. She told me she wanted nothing to do with me as not only was I a devourer but the product of an abortion from her being violated. She told me the whole story of how I was an unwanted pregnancy and fell into the yellow water by chance. Enraged of her not accepting me, I killed her and her husband but didn’t eat her, leaving the corpse behind. Even as angry as I was, I couldn’t bear to eat my own mother or her husband.”

Gregory scowled at him.

“So that’s why they weren’t eaten by beasts,” he said. “You killed her as well as my dad.”

“I was glad to get rid of the old man that was her husband,” Jason said. “But killing my mother…that was harsh. I cried for many days after doing that. I spied on the village some more, not knowing what else to do, and then I saw you. You were also upset about your mother’s death, just like me.”

He then began laughing.

“I hated you,” Jason said. “I hated you with a passion. After all, why did you deserve to live with a loving mother while I was aborted and thrown into garbage like spoiled food. However, it pained me to kill you because I knew doing that would be something our mother would disapprove of and, yes, I still loved my mother, even if I killed her.”

“It took me years to do decide what to do with you as I observed from afar. However, once I saw how you became a devourer of beasts I decided I would redeem myself for killing my own mother.”

Jason held out a hand almost pleasantly, almost like he wanted to shake Gregory’s hand.

“I decided you would be my last victim,” he said. “You would be the last human I devoured ever. And then I would lead a normal life. Except instead of devouring I would fusion with you. In that way neither of us will be the child our mother rejected, will be the child she wanted. Both of us. And I promise to never eat fuse with human flesh again.”

“Fusion?” Gregory asked.

“Yes, fusion,” he said. “It’s how I devoured my human victims I would fusion their bodies with mine in order to make mine more complete. I haven’t devoured or fused with anyone in years so I may be a little bit rusty at it. So, the question, brother is…will you fusion with me?”

Gregory put down his sword and walked toward Jason with outstretched hands.

“I…I’ll agree so long as you let Sarah go,” he said.

“What?!” Sarah yelled.

The black whips around her released her and she plopped onto the ground. She stood up and took Gregory by the shoulders, shaking him which caused Gregory to stop walking forward.

“No!” she shouted. “You—you can’t!”

“Sarah,” Gregory said. “You were right. What you said last night was right. I’m a danger to everyone because I’ll transform into a beast randomly, unexpectedly even. There’s no telling when I’ll do it again. If I fuse with him, that may never happen again. Right?”

“Of course,” Jason said. “I’ve eaten almost primarily human flesh, so it’ll balance out the beast in Gregory. It’ll mean that I can reign in the monster flesh and prevent it from breaking out.”

Gregory nodded.

“Sounds good to me,” he said.

“What?!” Sarah said. “No! This is crazy! Crazy! Gregory, listen to me—”

He pushed her away and touched Jason’s arm with both his hands. Immediately both of Gregory’s arms turned to liquid as well his chest. Jason’s arms also liquefied but not as much as Gregory’s was. With his neck becoming clay-like in substance and his body assimilating into Jason’s, Greg new what his final words to be.

“Never do this to another human being again,” Gregory said. “Defend the villagers and take care of Sarah.”

“The first two I’ll do but the second’s a bit of a stretch,” Jason said dryly.

“NO!” Sarah cried.

With her sword drawn Sarah rushed forward and chopped in half the liquefied parts of their body that had merged. The clay-like substance was cut in half and drooped the forest floor in a pile of what could only be described as flesh colored mesh. Gregory looked at her in shock while Jason looked at her in anger.

“Sarah?” Gregory asked.

“I can’t lose you,” Sarah stated. “I can’t live without you!”

“No!” Jason said.

Immediately, Jason and Gregory’s bodies began transforming again. The liquefied flesh on the ground then withdrew back into their bodies and then Gregory’s face began to melt. His arms did as well but his legs began to bulk up with muscle. Yet, throughout it he felt no pain. Everything beneath Jason’s neck turned to a lump of flesh as his bones began visibly rearranging themselves. Sarah began to scream as she fell backward and let loose her sword.

“You stupid girl!” Jason said with only his head still intact. “You messed up the fusion…now…now…it’s alllllll…alllllll…”

His head turned into a lump of flesh as his skull began to be restructured. That was about the point when Gregory’s hearing and vision turned off for the time being.

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When he awoke the first thing that Gregory noticed was that he had claws. Silver claws that were almost as long as a person’s forearms. His skin was silvery white, and his body was made of entirely solid muscle. As he stood up he found he stood a good eight feet tall. However, most surprised what he saw were the wings he had. He had a wingspan at least twelve feet long of cape-like wings that were wide enough to wrap a person in.

Gregory looked over to see that Jason had also changed. His being was more so like that of a tiger with fur as black as the nighttime that surrounded him. In Jason’s translucent eyes, Gregory could see his own red eyes and horns that stood atop his head. Jason stood on all fours at height almost as tall as Gregory’s height with a maw at least two feet wide. He roared at him before turning to Sarah who lay helpless and awestruck by this.

“This is what you did, girl!” he yelled. “Now that you stopped the transformation halfway, we didn’t fuse properly and now this happened! We not one being but instead shared different physical properties!”

He roared at her.

“You will pay for this!”

Jason leapt at her, only for Gregory to fly over on his newly acquired wings and slash into the side of his chest. Red blood colored his black fur before Gregory screamed in pain. He doubled over, grasping his side in pain. Jason jumped over at him, grabbing Gregory’s long arm in his mouth and squeezing with his teeth. Jason yelled in pain almost as soon as Gregory did. The two then stepped away from each other as they stared the other down.

“And we feel each other’s pain as a result,” Gregory said. “When one of us gets hurt—”

“So does the other,” Jason finished. “That means only one of us can live if we plan to go our own way. I don’t want you to bump your foot on a rock and me feel the pain a hundred miles away.”

He launched himself at Gregory again, but Gregory dodged the attack, slashing Jason’s face with his silver claws. Both roared in pain before Jason jumped onto his opponent and bit into Gregory’s shoulder, bringing them both to the ground. Gregory stood up, swiping his wing at the tiger’s neck which caused a red line of blood to appear in the side of his neck. Gregory then gripped his own neck in pain, surprised at the damage he inflicted.

Didn’t know these things were sharp. He thought.

Gregory then charged slashed at Jason while Jason stood up on his hind legs and bit into Gregory. It was nothing but a furry of slashing, clawing, biting and even tackling before each of them yelled in pain as Gregory felt like something sharp had been shoved into his back. He looked to see Jason fell forward, a sword protruding from his back. Sarah stood over him looking worried. Gregory fell into Sarah’s arms as the world once again blacked out to him, to tired and exhausted to continue going on.

{}

This is all I ever wanted. Jason said.

What is that? Gregory asked.

To be the son that my mother wanted me to be. He replied. And even though we didn’t completely merge, we partially did. So, you’re with me and I’m with you. And that makes me happy that I’m in the body of the person my mother chose me. So…so thank you. And as thanks for allowing our bodies to become one, I’ll make sure you have full control of your newly acquired beast form.

Gregory woke up in what he recognized as Sarah’s house, bandaged all around in the cot that she slept in. He looked down to see she had a bowl of water with a rag she squeezed into. Sarah looked up at him and smiled.

“What…what happened?” Gregory asked.

“Soon after collapsing you morphed back into a human,” she said. “I dragged you back to the village which wasn’t a very long way. How are you feeling?”

Gregory looked down at his hand, knowing it was now both Jason’s hand as well as his.

“Jason,” he said.

“What about him?” Sarah asked.

“We now share this body,” he said. “We share it. We share it. And because of that, I can become a beast whenever I want. He keeps me in control from becoming one whenever I want.”

“Oh, that’s good—” Sarah said.

“Like right now,” Gregory said.

Immediately, at his command, silver wings sprouted from his back and his body turned silvery white with his hands growing into claws. His eyes turned red as he could see in the reflection of the bowl of water beside his cot as well as have horns growing from his head. With his incredibly bulky arms, Gregory wrapped Sarah in them.

“Gregory,” she said. “What—what are you—”

Gregory flew upward, crashing through the ceiling above and flew up into the night sky. He flew into the stars and upper darkness, with the full moon behind him as he flapped his wings in midair. He looked down at Sarah as she was cradled in his arms. She smiled back at him as he did the same.

“I think we may be able to travel after all,” he said.

“Forget it,” Sarah said. “As long as I have you, I’ll be okay.”