Leo thrashed around like a wild beast, unable to contain the sheer number of things assaulting his senses all at once. He wanted to tear his ears out and break his own nose just to make it stop, but his mind was already slipping, slowly being dragged toward insanity by the overwhelming flood.
"Make it stop… somebody make it stop," he screamed-- or at least he tried to. What came out instead was a low, guttural roar that vibrated through his chest.
"Curses… it's happening again."
At the very least, there was no one around. He had no idea what he would be capable of doing if someone were nearby, and the thought alone made his trembling worsen.
Just then, he heard a sound or more intently, a voice.
It was uncharacteristic and unmistakably masculine.
"Excuse me, sir… are you alright?"
"Curses!" Leo wanted to curse, but the pain tearing through his body was becoming harder to contain, and he feared what would happen if he truly broke free with someone around.
'Focus, you idiot. It's just one lunatic. You can stay in control.'
A second later, his body calmed not because of his words, but due to a very different reason.
Leo shuddered as all the pain abruptly stopped the moment he heard a simple sound. It wasn't his inner voice or years of logic that steadied him. What he heard instead was the sound of a low beating heart.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
His own heart picked up the rhythm so clearly that he could perfectly visualise every vein and artery connected to it, pumping red-hot liquid through fragile flesh. The image burned itself into his mind, vivid and intoxicating.
The young man before him was dressed in a very peculiar way, like an adventurer pulled straight out of a 1900s exploration show made for toddlers. He looked to be in his late teens, wearing a simple green vest over a white shirt and short trousers. A round white cap sat crookedly on his head, and his face was frozen into the most petrified expression any man could possibly make.
"Dear God, it's demon-possessed!" the boy screamed.
What he saw standing in the mud was a boy around his own age, eyes glowing an unnatural shade of purple, huge sharp fangs growing out of his mouth at an alarming speed. His jaw hung open as a thick stream of drool poured down, splashing into the mud below.
The boy wasted no time. He turned and ran for his life.
Leo could have told him to do that much earlier, but he knew within himself that he didn't want to. What he truly wanted-- what surged violently to the forefront of his thoughts was to rip that young man apart limb by limb. He would dig his claws into his chest, crush his ribs in his maw, then tear out his heart and savour its fleshy juiciness.
Those thoughts directed his every action.
He darted after the fleeing figure, chasing him with relentless effort. Despite the small gap he intentionally gave the young man to make the chase more satisfying, it didn't take more than three seconds to catch up to him. When he did, the first thing he did was rake his claws across the back of the boy's legs, this sent thick streams of blood flying into the air between them. He watched with grim satisfaction as the young man crashed face-first into the ground.
His eyes settled on the man feeding on the gruesome image of his prey struggling to escape from him. He drew in a deep breath of air breathing in the terror like a fragrance that sweetened the meal.
"God no! I don't want to die like this!" the young man cried, desperately rummaging through his bag for anything-- literally anything that might save him. He could already see the shadow of a claw looming over his face.
The smell of blood hit Leo's nose like a wave of pure euphoria. It was so strong that he completely lost sight of whatever little restraint he had left. He dove down, and sunk his fangs into the young man's flesh, feeling the sweet metallic taste of blood coat his tongue and run down to the back of his throat.
His euphoria surged to an all-time high.
Blood slid down his throat, hot and thick, while his ears tingled from the helpless cries of his prey. Was there any better feeling in the world?
The young man, however, was not enjoying the experience nearly as much as his unwanted partner. With shaking hands, he pulled out a can of bug spray from his bag, popped off the cap, and aimed it directly at the demon-possessed figure above him, unloading the contents straight into its face.
With Leo's senses cracked to their absolute limit, the assault hit him from every direction. Overwhelming him with an unnatural pressure.
The first was his eyes, which burned so fiercely it almost convinced him to stop his brutal attack altogether. The second was his sense of smell, the chemical stench searing his lungs and irritating his nose to the point he could no longer breath. The third was his skin, which felt as though a hundred thousand fire ants were crawling beneath it, biting and tearing at his nerves.
The fourth-- was what finally forced him to pull back-- was the taste.
The poisonous spray coating his tongue was utterly revolting. It practically poisoned the sweet taste of blood he had been enjoying seconds earlier.
Leo reeled back and shrieked with feral fury, the sound more painful to his own ears than anything else he had experienced. All of it combined-- pain, shock, revulsion snapped his mind back into place.
He staggered backwards and stumbled into a nearby tree, gasping, his thoughts suddenly becomingcrystal clear.
'What the hell have I become?'
Fear coiled tightly around his heart. He feared that he was becoming a monster or worse, that he had found the taste of human flesh edible.
'Have I really become a beast?' he asked himself.