Unquenchable Thirst: The Awakening

The burning of my throat was consuming my every thought. My body reacting to new sensations, new hungers, new feelings. I rose from the desert floor, shaking, thirsty and miserable. I wondered if I was suffering from heat exposure, or lack of water. I turned towards the oasis and stepped towards it, hoping to quench my thirst with the water. In that simple movement, I moved forward instantly to the side of the water, tripping as my back foot was dragged along. I turned and looked, realizing I had covered a great distance in a small amount of time, apparently in a single movement.

My insides began to shake, my knees failed to support me anymore. I fell down in the water, lapping it up with my tongue like an animal, and the thirst increased instead of decreasing. I screamed my pain at the sky and the moon, howling in pain and terror. The scream came out high pitched, and horrifying. The desert became completely quiet, not an animal moved or made a sound.

I lay there prostrate on the ground when I heard the sand shifting behind me. I rolled over on my back, and attempted to sit up, looking around with sharp eyes, my senses becoming more and more sensitive. The redhead who came out of my wife’s body stood before me, seductive, powerful, and intriguing.

“What…what happened to me”, I stammered. “What is wrong with me, my eyes, my throat, this pain, this agony.” I all but howled the last few words at her.

Smiling, she glided towards me, her eyes locked into mine, and all will to move or look away had vanished. She placed her hands on my chest, and ripped my tunic apart, so I could feel the palms of her cold hands. She whispered words in my ear, ancient words, I could not understand them. I fell to my knees, but she caught me with one hand, grasping under my chin, and raised me back to my feet.

“All will become clear soon, my willing servant,” she whispered. “But for now, you must depart before morning. There is a cave a ways further into the desert, against the cliffs. There you must wait for nightfall.”

Turning away, she glided off. Without any will of my own left, I turned and began to move in the direction she pointed, moving faster then I ever had, faster then I had ever seen an animal move. I began to become more familiar, tripping only a handful of times.

I reached the cave and stumbled inside, wondering what the rush was, why on some instinctive level I was driven to obey, to hurry into the darkness. Looking around I noticed several things, with my new sharper eyesight. I noticed several piles of bones first. They were scattered in and out of the main entrance, as if they had been casually pulled apart and disregarded.

The second thing I noticed, was scrawling on the wall. Various markings, which I could not make out, nor understand. I moved further back to the cave, and lay down to rest. Still thirsty, but no hunger pains yet. It had been some time since I ate, but I assume my thirst was overpowering my hunger. I closed my eyes to rest, and replayed the events of the night before.

I awoke later, and the evening sun was setting. In the dusk, she came to me, carrying a bundle over her shoulder. She dropped the bundle to the floor, and a muffled sound came from it. I glanced at her, and felt my thirst get more intense, my heart pounding in my veins, time slowing down. She glanced at me approvingly, and jerked the robe off the bundle. The body of the high priest himself lay at my feet, and I felt a rage I have never felt. And with this rage came a pain in my mouth, like the top of my jaw was splitting.

I fell to the ground, my hands in my mouth, and felt my teeth growing, getting sharper, more pointed. Gasping I looked at the red head, who called herself Lilith.

“Follow your instinct”, she said, turning away from me.

I looked down at the body in the ground. The man who demanded too much money to cure my child, who drove me to where I am now, and a red rage blinded my vision. He scampered back in terror, but was as if he was slowed in quicksand. I was on him in an instant, lifting him up effortlessly in the air. Squirming he tried to get away and I tightened my grip, crushing his arm and removing his hand at the wrist. Screaming he flailed his arm in the air, and his blood splashed against my lips. In the instant blood touched my lips, my thirst began to finally quench. I removed both his arms from his body, lapping up the squirting blood. His screams rent the air, but nobody could hear him. Snarling, I pulled him up by his head, ripped his throat out with my teeth, and quenched my thirst.

Rationality returned in an instant, and I shook at what I had done, what I had become. I turned, looking at Lilith, and she smiled, and bade me bow to her.