Something Familiar

The wind whispered through the dark, empty trees like a warning in a foreign language. Winter was coming, and with winter comes the monsters; those horrible, retched beasts that threaten my home. Every year on the Winter Solstice they fight to get inside. They want to dismantle everything they see. No one knows why they do it, that's just how they were bred.

As I pull my hoodie over my head, I walk briskly to my house, careful not to make any sudden movements as to tip off the creatures in the woods. I know I shouldn’t risk going into the forest, but it’s the quickest path to town. I’ve been extra careful along that route ever since my run in with a lost monster a few years ago. She was young and helpless, but I was still terrified due to the legacy preceding her. I tried not to see her as a monster just because that’s what she’d been labeled as, so I cautiously tiptoed to her. We were making progress until her pack encroached on us and I made a dash for my house. I’ve never run so fast in my life even though they weren’t chasing me. I didn’t want to risk them gaining on me because I’ve heard stories of what happens when just one adult catches up to you; I did not and do not want to suffer that fate of being ripped apart limb from limb.

Adrenaline brings me back to the present, as my hand hovers over the knob of my front door. I feel the wind pushing against me, telling me to get inside before I meet an unpleasant fate, but it's too late, curiosity and petrification get the best of me. I feel something warmer than wind; I turn around to be greeted by the very creature that I had once bonded with. I try to make slow movements toward her, but I can sense something is different. That vulnerable and hopeful bairn is long gone. She’s been replaced by an animal who was trained to kill and ask no questions.

I stand face to maw as the moonlight reveals her blue, electric eyes, just like mine. I see her pack staring and snarling, waiting for a kill. I have my hand on the door, ready to dash inside, but as she makes a lunge for me, I turn the knob, sending us both inside onto the hardwood floor. No, not the floor, I should've stopped falling by now. I continue falling for what seems like an eternity, and before I know it, I'm in my bed, more sunken than usual, and still in my clothes from my previous night's walk.

I take a moment to catch up to my current situation and walk to the window. I see the snow untouched from last night's events, not including my prints leading from the woods to the house. Did the standoff really happen? Had I really met a young killer all those years ago? It all feels like a dream now that I think hard about it. Alas, I shake the thoughts from my head and saunter to the mirror to get a good look at myself, and it's then that I see her. The monster I've known since childhood; the one who destroys everything in sight; the one who was told she’d never be anything but what was laid out for her; the one who thinks she has no choice in the path of life.

I see her controlling everything I do. I see her taking over. I see her merging with my soul.

I see me.