Costly Obsession: Animalize
Page 48
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“Jeremy?” The name slipped out, and before he knew it, Aaron, was face to face with the demonic creature that was his son. He stared deep into its yellow, black eyes, desperate to recognize any sign of his child’s existence, but all he saw was a monster. No evidence of his boy was anywhere to be had within its matted fur and putrid breath, but in his heart, Aaron knew that it was true; this was his Jeremy; his son, his boy.
There they stood; mortal and monster, father and son, drinking each other in. Sadness overwhelmed him, he was no longer afraid of the beast, but for his child trapped deep inside it. Almost unconsciously, Aaron’s hand began to stretch closer and closer to the demon’s weathered face. Desperately reaching out to his son, until he was inches from its blood stained teeth when a cry pierced the silent doom. Michael had sprinted from his sanctuary, vaulting from a boulder onto the back of the beast holding on as best he could with one hand, strapping the hidden treasure he had so tightly held onto, around the massive neck of his best friend.
The creature began flailing in its rage, sinking its claws into Michael’s shoulder, flinging him across the cave like a rag doll into Aaron’s chest, sending them both tumbling in the dust. The thing fell to the ground, writhing as if in great agony. Howls and cries erupted throughout the cave, before morphing to screams of unearthly torment unlike any of them had ever heard before, then bursting forth into the night. Parents and children throughout town shivered in their beds.