#FallWritingFrenzy Contest Entry: METAMORPHOSIS

01 Oct #FallWritingFrenzy Contest Entry: METAMORPHOSIS

METAMORPHOSIS

By

Shelly Mack

The hunter waited.

The scent of his prey wafted toward where he crouched in the shadows. His nostrils tingled and only well practiced control kept him rooted.

A combination of the bright church and autumn leaves made her vermillion hair shimmer with gentle perfection as it bounced over her school backpack.

He licked his lips, then let his tongue travel over his needle-sharp incisors.

In his three hundred years, he had never witnessed such beauty. Six months in the making and now was the time.

Avoiding the natural light, he crept in the murk to fall in behind her as she entered the woods, then watched in curiosity as she bent down. He zoomed in on her slim porcelain fingers. In her palm was a butterfly. Her cheeks pinked in the breeze of the night air, and the expression of joy on her face stalled him.

‘Fly free,’ she said.

He stood immobilised, as if chained under water. Her eyes—the love, the contentment.

Something stirred within. Something new.

She left and he stared as her frame diminished before him. Her lyrical voice continued to sing in his ears as he strode through the graveyard to his crypt. Tomorrow.