Intro to Caligo

There I was getting hungry again and I could not control my actions or thoughts. It was just a hunter and hunted. Lucky for me it was night, unlucky for that short man that he was being stalked by a monster now. I could smell everything in this body, not just what was in the area near me but I could smell the ocean that was miles away and the farms that were far enough in the other direction. When I got hungry these senses multiplied I learned. Only a few days as a monster and I was not getting the hang of it. In fact, I was still convinced this was some sort of nightmare but each day I woke up ( I didn't really sleep, it was more of meditation to conserve energy) and the reality became clearer. I would be a monster forever, or at least something in between. My brief moments as a human between painful transformations were a blur. Once I became any sort of threatened or starved I was forced to rearrange my bones to become a ghoul.

Back to my prey. Small, short, balding, hurrying to some crappy apartment. I didn't want to kill him and eat him. But my wants were not driving me. It was this ghoul body's needs. The man started to panic and made three turns in a row. That's where I got him. I jumped on him and my claws were slashing like crazy. It was a blood frenzy. At some point, his arm was ripped off. I just needed him dead to eat his soul but my body enjoyed the blood, it enjoyed the sounds of death.

Then slowly a faded white soul floated out. I held myself back for a second to look at it. Just a week ago I didn't even believe in souls and monsters and now. I was a monster that ate human souls. My mouth widened to an impossible size and the soul was no more. The short man tasted like dust and dirt. He was lonely and had no flavor. I guess I should choose better tasting prey but he was full of energy. My whole body was buzzing with strength. I let out a dark crazed laugh.

In one millisecond there was a person in front of me. This should not be possible because I could hear a party going on on the third floor of an apartment 2 blocks away. I could hear someone on the phone in an alley somewhere else, but I could not hear the person in front of me. This person took my hands, the ones that I barely recognized, and dragged me out of the street, and covered my eyes and mouth with a prickly leaf. I didn't know him then, at all. My senses were tingling down my hunched spine. I calmed down he ripped off the mask of leaves and my eyes adjusted like they never had before. I could see his skin was poreless, his eyelashes were a tinge of green not black and his heart was beating fast. I could hear the thump, thump, thump and I craved the blood in his veins.

"Who are you? Get off of me." My voice was still different from what I was used to. I tried to squirm and twist out of his arms but they weren't arms. Something was holding me down that wasn't alive like him. I remember thinking that my heart would be pounding, but it was slow almost silent as if timid in my new skin. My human body had skin that was pale and pretty, but when I scarfed down the ghost that was attached to my mother my bones changed and took a new shape. My skin stretched over the bones pulling it tight and translucent. My clothes were tight on me before, but now the tank top hung loosely on my shoulders and somewhere I had lost my jacket earlier. I felt new and exposed to this pristine boy in front of me. He didn't speak for a while and just stared at me with these silver eyes that seemed to churn like waves of mercury.

"I am Caligo, I am supposed to deliver you to your father alive." His voice was like brushing your hands against silk. He had an accent, something northern, but English was definitely not his first language. He spoke something more fluid and sappy before. I studied languages when I was younger and human, just for the fun of it. Now nothing seemed fun. Joy was sapped out of my life just like how I sapped the life from my mother, and that man, and the souls.

Wait.

I was so focused on the voice of the stranger I just noticed two things, one is that he was not human either since my desire to kill him was low. Second, he mentioned my father. A father is a thing I have never known. My mother despised whoever it was enough that she hated me as a substitute as well. I had not seen him once and didn't know what he looked like, or his name. I looked like my mother except for the eyes and hair but that doesn't mean that I look like him either… My face scrunched up. The only reason I mention this is because I felt the loose skin on my face shift and my vision got blurry.

He started again interrupting my thoughts. "But you seem rather peculiar to me, I think we must make a detour for some time and figure out what makes you desirable to him." I didn't want to go with him but there were vines imprisoning me. In the back of my ghoul mind, I was wanting to prove my strength, fight, and kill. My human mind was near the front now, I just ate you see, and this Tristina was hoping that Caligo could give her answers to all the questions that had been pushed down for days.

It wasn't a question, he was just straight upfront with me, and in my beginnings, as I discovered I was half-ghoul it was comforting for a little while.