The Haunted Traveler Vol 1 Issue 2

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came off in thick, hot layers, peeling, and I helped it,
digging my fingers into it and pulling. It didn’t hurt,
not much, when my wings came out of my back,
erupting, smacking off waves of blood as I straightened
them out, and flapping them around. My claws
and teeth came in quickly, inches long, sharp, and jagged.
I think one of the men realized what I was doing,
transforming, and he turned to stop me, but by then it
was too late.
I flew on top of him, and my teeth did their
work. His nose came off with ease, and I shredded
his throat with my talons, digging in, spreading his
thin flesh with ease, ripping and tearing. The others
came, one with the knife, and he may have cut me,
but my exo-skeleton was so thick at this point, they
didn’t stand a chance. I got another down, going for
his eyes, just like they had done with Stephanie, and
they popped when my talons struck them. I was coated
with blood, my own, theirs, so hot, so sticky. They
were screaming now, and one managed to run away. If
there was more than the two, they must have run.
By the time my Daddy got home, it all seemed
a blur. Susan was scared of me, but I don’t blame her.
What I began that night, a thing of claws, wings and
fangs, wasn’t natural. She screamed after I untied her,
and refused to come near to me. That night, I ran into
the dark, and slept in the fields, the dirt sticking to
the blood. The transformation reversed that night as
I slept, and I awoke the next morning, once again a
girl, once again a human. He came in, and I met him
in the drive. He seemed confused, but once I showed
him the inside, what had happened, what I had done to