Dead or Alive?

The Village chief's eyes widened. Had he been too slow? Several emotions coursed through his body as the scene played in his head again. His shoulders dropped, as he resigned to his fate. His second son was dead, there was no hope now. The other men around were still dazed by what just happened. They were certain the beast was dead… so how? They had played the fool once again. It had caught them off-guard once more. There was no stopping it now. In the midst of their joy, they had let their guard down, thinking the creature was dead. The boy, limping, slowly progressed toward his father, until suddenly, out of nowhere, and when they least expected, the beast sprang and charged toward the kid. His father had reacted on impulse, snatching a gun from someone nearby, he fired it toward their direction. Was he too slow? No one could tell, but he was sure he hit the beast right in the middle of its head. The boy screamed in pain, and fell to the ground, while the beast escaped, badly injured. It was almost morning, they had lost another opportunity to put an end to this terror, and they were so close. His father dashed out of hiding, his mind preoccupied with getting his son to safety. "He isn't dead yet" he tried reassuring himself, holding on to the last trace of hope that stemmed from his uncertainty. He got to the boy and knelt down beside his still, motionless body, placing his head on his lap. Seeing their village head come out, the people began coming out of their hiding in ones and twos. Still in tears, the village head felt something move suddenly. His hopes, his wishes, they came through. He knew his son wasn't dead. But something else was wrong, something he couldn't bear other villagers to see. 

"Don't come any close!!" he yelled on top of his voice, battling desperately to quench the emotions within him. What happened when the kid son fell? Apparently he hadn't been shocked into unconsciousness by the sudden gun fire. It wasn't the bullets that injured him either… It was the beast!!! He yelled out loud much to the confusion of the people standing some meters away. This was more than death… he thought, sobbing. This was pure torture. The beast had done something to his son, and he didn't know what it was. All he was certain of, was that his son wasn't the same. It was probably the creature's nails that had dug into his skin. Those marks… They didn't look like bullets at all. Suddenly, much to his awe, the wound on the boy's neck began to seal, as he struggled to move his eyelids. Instinctively grabbing the gun he dropped when he knelt down, he waited cautiously for the boy to fully awaken. Opening his eyes slowly, he woke up to the frightened sight of his dad, kneeling with his head on his leg.

"What… What's wrong dad? Did… Did we win?" he said, mustering all the strength within him. He found it very difficult to talk, like something was blocking his mouth, but he didn't know what it was. Still shocked, his father didn't respond for a while, just staring with a piercing gaze. "Where is everybody? Where is the beast?" he retorted again, each words becoming much more easy to pronounce.  "Do you feel any unusual?" his father finally responded, unsure of whether to scream, or tell the boy what was going on. As if the sealing wasn't bizarre enough, when the kid had struggled to speak at first, his two incisors were much longer than the rest of his teeth, and his eyes were green.

As the morning sun rose across the horizon, shining in all its glory and splendor, signifying the end of the full moon. The boy's eyes swiftly changed back to its original dark coloring, and his incisors retracted as fast as they grew.

"Uhmmm… No dad, just a little light in the head… why?" he retorted, wondering why his dad asked that question.  

"Oh, great. It's nothing, just the impact from the fall made me wonder how you were doing. You know, you were kind of knocked down twice by that thing… " He answered, trailing off from what he was saying as he ruminated on what he just saw. 

Remembering people were still behind them, he turned and announced, "He is Alive!!! We lost no one to that thing today!" Though still unsure of what had become of the beast, and what it had done to his son, and what was going on with him, he helped the boy up, and they headed toward their home. The villagers slowly dispersed, everyone going to get some rest. It was a long night after all.

Soon it was night fall again, and the village was quiet. The birds chirping in the darkness and the sounds of crickets coming from the walls were the only recognizable sounds that could be heard. The village head whom had successfully pushed the events of the day out of his mind to get some sleep was woken up suddenly by a loud noise that sounded like a crashing.

Waking up with a start, he instinctively looked up, heaving a sigh of relief as there was no full moon outside. Getting up slowly, he proceeded to check where the noise had come from. Pushing the door as gently as he could to avoid making creaking sounds that could awake anyone. His fear and curiosity heightened as he heard murmurs coming from the dimly litted passage. At least he was certain that whoever the intruder was, they were humans, because of the voices he heard. He paused in his tracks, trying to make sense of what they were saying. Sighing in frustration, he gently lifted his gun from the wall it was hanged on, in case self-defense was needed. He followed the voice he heard, carefully tracing his path to where the invaders where. "What!!!" he screamed, his eyes widening in disbelief as his eyes met with the people who had broken into his house.