He Thought Himself the Predator

The door had been left unlocked. It was a foolish move on her part, as anyone could have entered into her home while she was gone. And someone did – slipped through the front room door while the occupant was away, made his way through the home and found himself standing in the quiet bedroom of his prey.

It was a rather unremarkable bedroom – most single women’s spaces looked the same, with their multicolored bedspreads, thick blackout curtains, beauty and health products overflowing on their vanity/bathroom sink, and collections of shoes and clothes scattered about. This was, he noted as he opened a draw and began to riff through the collection of lace panties, a rather organized bedroom. With the hint of cleaning products in the air, it gave the feeling of an almost staged space.

The sound of a car pulling into the drive drew his attention from the panties he’d place under his nose. Sliding the draw shut, the intruder moved quickly to turn the light back off. He slide himself into the closet, finding that familiar comfort within the folds of hanging clothing.

He waited, breathes buried deep within his chest as the click of the front door was heard. Her heels were tapping against the floor before it sounded as if she’d taken them off and left them in the entry. She was being rather noisy as she moved around her home, almost as if she was teasing him with how close she was. Light shown down the hall, bringing the slightest illumination to the now darkened bedroom.

“-a glass of wine sounds -”

He leaned forward, pressing his gaze to the slates in the door. It was hard to tell what was happening outside of the bedroom, but he knew the voice he heard did not belong to his prey. He’d heard her voice many times – checking him out in the grocery line, answering questions in their calculus class, moaning as she writhed under her own fingers while he perched outside her open window. Luna Whittier's voice was one he knew intimately.

A series of giggles followed a slight crashing sound. He continued to press his face against the door, straining to see through the thin slates. There was movement outside of the bedroom, and judging from the moaning he was hearing, the two women were engaging in an activity that spiked his interest.

Their footfalls were getting closer. As the lights turned on, he was given a clear view of the two women. His prey was dressed in a rather tight short skirt, with a floral top that clung to her torso. Luna’s hair was flowing in heavy curls down the length of her back. There was so much of her soft olive skin on display that it made the man’s palms turn sweaty.

Her companion was dressed in a similar manner, and as she dropped onto the bed and had her jacket taken off, he couldn’t help but stare at the pert breasts that resided under her cropped top. Luna carded her finger’s through the woman’s shoulder length black hair as she straddled her.

The intruder’s body was pressed against the closet door as the display continued. His vantage point was hindered by the thin slates he peered through, but it would be enough for him.

The women’s carnal desires were not hindered by the clothing they began to remove. He longed to remove his own trousers as the pressure in his pants grew. Patience was a skill he’d developed well over so many nights, but this was testing his restraint. He was a man after all, and a man had needs the needed to be handled.

As his hand moved lower to his crotch, he knocked his elbow against the wall.

His lungs burned as he inhaled the air around him. Despite the noise, the women hadn’t broken from their engagement. They were more focused on undoing the buttons of their skirts and pressing lipstick marks across the other’s neck. He continued to watch through the slates in the door as the pair rolled around on the bed.

How lucky he’d gotten, for his prey to have brought him a snack and to provide such a show. He’d intended tonight to be like any other; slip into the unsuspecting home and make a meal of the women who resided inside. Oh how often he’d find himself in this position, planted behind a door and awaiting his moment to strike. As his vision cut through the slates, he yearned to slide the knife from his pocket and slide it into the women’s throats.

CRACK CRACK CRACK

Luna was straddling the woman who lay on her back. Her curly hair was parted, showing the soft curve of spine – the spine that began to extend from her skin. The vertebra was sharp against the olive flesh as they parted and began to arch upwards. Tanned skin began to drain of color until it was overtaken by a sickly gray sheen. Her flowing hair began to shrivel, as if someone had placed it over a fire and it began to burn.

He was routed in his place behind the door, breathes coming back hot against his face. His vision was distorted by the wooden slates, but the scene before him was clear enough to see. The woman lying on the bed was frozen as Luna continued to transform.

She was towering over the bed, and it was a wonder that the mattress hadn’t caved by the enormous form. The skin of her back had split, with dirty white bones and dribbles of thick red blood seeping from the wound. Her shiny hair was little more than a cobweb upon the back of her skull.

The woman was screaming now, struggling to escape from under the beast. Luna’s arm was raised – an arm that had extended into a thin withered branch. The curve of her elbow was sharp and as her arm extended, each joint popped with a sickeningly wet noise. He could not see the front of Luna’s transformation but judging from the expression he could catch on the other woman’s face as she struggled to sit up, it was just as horrifying.

He wanted to step back into the closet, to disappear behind the wall of clothes and pretend that this scene was just a nightmare. He wanted to rush from the room, tear out the front door that was so often left unlocked and never face this woman again. He wanted to escape from the grasp of his prey who’d turned out to be a far more intense predator than he’d ever aspire to be. He could do none of those things. All he could do was stare through the door and pull out his knife – as if the knife could do anything should she turn her attention towards him.

The other woman was kicking wildly, and those kicks turned into a blinding spasm. A convulsion overtook her as her screams bounced through the walls. Luna’s back arched and rippled.

The woman went silent and she went still, as if the life had been sapped from her body. The screams were replaced by the creaking of Luna’s joints as she moved to the head of the bed. It was animalistic, the way she lumbered over the now still body.

Luna perked at the head of the bed, her cobweb hair hanging like string around her face. The front view was even more horrifying than the back. The man in the closet felt the very breathes be ripped from his lungs at the sight.

She was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen, but this beast – this creature, this demon, this… thing– was a far cry from the beauty he’d set his sights upon. Her skin had dried, that once pretty face now nothing more than gray leather stretched across jagged cheek bones. Her eyes had sunk into her skull deep enough that there was just a dark void where those glistening blue once sat. Her hair was stringy and clumped together like wet spiderwebs.

The women had slid their clothes from their body while they’d been rolling around, and the work of art that was a women’s naked body was a sick distortion now. Her lithe body was dried out, with withered skin pulled taunt across her bones. Her hips jutted out in sharp angles, her perky breasts now dangled like limp sacks and her torso was elongated to the size of a man.

Her jaw lowered and continued to lower until the very skin around her lips began to peel away. A row of jagged teeth curled around her dripping twisted tongue.

The closet wasn’t big enough. No matter how far back the man tried to step, he could always see the monstrous form moving like a shower under the fluorescent lighting. As much as he yearned to turn around and hide his vision from the scene, he dreaded what could happen should his back be turned. It was a sick and morbid fascination that had him stepping to the door again. His face pressed against the wood, and he stared in twisted horror.

Luna’s jaw was fully unhinged. Her elongated hands wrapped around the shoulders of the dead women. She moved slowly, joints continuing to pop as she dragged the form towards her mouth. Her body was pulsating as the woman’s head was brought into her mouth.

He’d had a snake as a child. It had been a large twisting creature, spotted scales and flickering tongue being an early fascination of his. The way the creature had eaten had been more fascinating. His father would put a dead rat in the cage, and he’d crouch with his face pressed against the glass, watching the way the snake’s body would pulse as it swallowed the flesh.

He remembered the first time he’d given the snake a fresh kill. His sister had been devastated when her precious hamster had vanished one weekend. He’d always remember the way the little creature had cowered, had screamed and fought as the snake as wrapped its mouth around its trembling form. He’d fed the snake often, fascinated each time as it devoured larger and larger prey. His parents had been mortified, deciding to merely remove the snake from the home, opposed to handling his demented intentions.

The memory made him nearly vomit as Luna’s twisted form simulated the snake’s methods. The corpse provided no fight as it was brought into the monster’s mouth. Her jagged teeth snagged the naked form and brought it deeper down the gullet. Her body pulsed, each movement working to drag the corpse further down its throat.

He could only continue to stare as the woman disappeared into Luna’s form. Her torso was engorged, the corpse settling deep within her stomach. Luna stood, her height now scrapping her withered head against the ceiling. The bed creaked as she shifted, popping her joints as she stretched. There was nothing left of the unnamed woman, but her clothes left scattered on the floor.

“Enjoy the show?” Even her voice sounded like leather.

As the monster turned its gaze towards the closet, he realized with an immense amount of dread that she knew he was there. She was crouched forward, clawed hand grasping at the mattress to drag herself forward. Despite the knobby extensions of its limbs, the demon moved like a snake as her limbs made contact with the floor.

Her saliva drenched tongue hung from her mouth and dragged across the wood. The cracking and popping of her movement were louder than the sound of blood rushing through her ears. The intruder took a step back, praying but knowing that the hanging clothes would not protect him. Still, he sunk down to the floor, and tried to melt into the closet.

The doorknob began to twist slowly.

He muttered the Lord’s name, and closed his eyes as the light from the bedroom crossed his trembling form. He held his knife as if it would provide any protection from the sopping tongue that wrapped around his ankle.