sCene 35 - ꜱaᴛiꜱꜰaCᴛioɴ

Unlike the feeling of fullness most people get when they eat a nice meal, fullness lasted only a short while for me. This was because my gut, even when presenting as human, acted like an efficient blackhole that quickly compressed and converted all matter into something useful. Normally, this is easy to forget. But when the alien parts of your brain have heightened your senses, and you can now detect everything happening inside of you in terms of basic functions, what could have been pretending the full feeling in my gut wasn’t from eating my girlfriend, turned into knowing the exact moment she was crushed like a car that had been scrapped.

While I hoped I could sit there in shock, as my body licked up what was left of Nai-bu’s blood, I was interrupted by my eyes locking onto Jason. As my claws reached for him, I felt an energy from my gut flow throughout my body. It made me feel like I was being sewn back to my body, and could take control once again. I desperately tried to pull my arm back, and was successful in stopping myself.

“What? Having second thoughts?” My mouth said toward my hand.

I balled up my claw into a fist, which quickly reshaped into a hand, and punched myself in the face. My snout began to retract, and my posture began to change back to that of a human. Soon my tail was gone, my skin was fleshy instead of scaly, and I felt like I had full control again. I was also still oversized, but the details were less important than the fact that I could talk again.

Jason started to get back up and glanced at me before turning his face away from my naked body. “I’m guessing this means you’re better now.”

Immediately I grabbed Jason in my fist and squeezed him tightly.

“Better now? Really? You’re going to say that after you failed to protect Nai-bu?” My voice was booming. Did I have to relearn volume control or did the house echo like this the whole time?

“Okay, I get that you’re confused, but this all makes sense! Nai-bu is going to be fine! You’ve eaten her before!”

I’VE WHAT?

Jason wriggled in my hand. “Look, you used to eat people, your mom used magic to bring people back to life afterwards, and everything was fine then.”

“Those were always strangers! Not someone I knew! Not Nai-bu!”

His face became more serious. “Your mom. She tampered with your memories before she left. She wanted to protect you, I guess.”

I let go of Jason and covered my face with my hands. I began to shrink to my normal size.

“Look, as far as I can tell, when you ate people, they never remembered it, probably because of magic. But sometimes they would be different, and have nightmares about you. Thinking about you would hurt them, so they would distance themselves.” Jason sounded so matter-of-fact, like he had seen it happen over and over.

Why is he telling me this? Does he just want me to feel worse?

“But Nai-bu always came back. So that has to mean something, right? We just need to jog your memory or som–”

“Please don’t do your stupid alien fighting bullshit right now!” I had enough. I don’t want to think about any of this.

“That’s not what I’m doing! I’m trying to help!”

“Mama is gone, Jason! Mama could have helped! You let me kill Nai-bu! You’re useless!”

I ran into my room and slammed the door behind me. I could feel the whole house shake, but I didn’t care. Let it all come crumbling down on me. This is why I kept people out. This is why I chose to cut ties with my friends from high school. Don’t tell me they hated me for being a monster. They don’t even know how horrible I really am.