I had removed the lamp shade, gripping the solid stand to my side like a club. The smell did not relent, hitting me with both foulness and a sense of endearing familiarity.

Sarah's smooth form in the crumpled bed sheet was frozen in place.

A droplet of sweat ran down my cheek and down the side of my neck. I closed my eyes and listened. The crickets have ceased.

This silence was very familiar.

-

As I lay down on that dingy motel bed for the night, I had hoped for Kevin to be a thing of the past by morning. Unfortunately it did not take that long for me to receive my answer.

I remembered being jolted awake by something just two hours into my slumber. I remember opening my eyes to a blanket of darkness. I hadn't switched off the lights when I had gone to sleep. I also hadn't opened the window.

Something was in the room with me.

I could hear him. His rasped breathing and his claws scratching against the floorboards. He was very near. It took me awhile to ascertain where it was actually coming from, glancing at the cupboard and the hallway obstructed from view, but Kevin was, in fact, underneath the bed. I didn't dare move, afraid of waking him up from his dormant state. I even recall being afraid of him realizing I was awake, shutting my eyes and regulating my breathing to feign slumber.

The creature beneath however, never stirred, and I eventually drifted back into darkness.

As I awoke to the light of the morning sun, Kevin had moved - his breathing now considerably amplified..... his cold skin wet against the back of my shirt.

I didn't open my eyes.

-

As I carefully took one step after another to the far end of the bed, I maintained my death grip on the lamp. Shadows shifted in the distance to my right and I spun around, realizing it to be the shade cast by the trees outside.

There was a rustling sound and I spun back, watching Sarah pull the blanket tighter around her...... she looked so beautiful in the light.

-

Kevin sat on the side of the motel room bed, his back facing me. Human skin draped over him, a rippling spinal cord running down the middle. He turned and I looked away. To say he looked human was putting it lightly. He looked hollow.

In animal form, it was a subtle aspect, but in human form, it was clear and cut. The difference was too bare, too off-putting. Maybe it was because humans are more used to seeing and discerning the facial features of their own kind, and not too much dogs and cats. It was like a new born baby with a full set of teeth. There was something not right about it.

And as Kevin shuffled about with his deeply sunken eyes and lip-less gums, I think it was safe enough to inquire that he did not pull it off.

-

I stood adjacent to Sarah and raised the handle over my head, praying silently.

-

The cold metal surface of the sidearm pressed against the skin of my waistband. I had checked numerous times at the gun store, making sure it was perfectly concealed by my pants and shirt. If he were to discover it - given his evolving intelligence, things may take a turn for the worse.

I can't go home. No matter how badly I wanted to ditch everything and run, there was no way in hell I would bring harm to Sarah. Not until it was done for good. I paused just outside the motel, leaning against the swinging door to take a breather.

This wasn't easy for me. I never thought I would be using a firearm, much less at a life I intended to kill. But it had to be done for her sake. Our sake.

Pushing the door open, I was greeted with not the manager, but a young lady in an orange floral dress. Her light auburn hair was oily and matted in a dirty, unkempt manner, but her skin was pale and smooth. She stood awkwardly beside the counter with her knees clicking against each other, her blue eyes slowly turning to meet mine.

Vacant. Hollow.

Her mouth opened with a croaky whisper, "Daniel."

She looked like the dead child's mother.

-

I sobbed, taking a step back. I could never harm her willingly - and was I actually expecting this ceramic tool to leave a scratch on Kevin? Why did I not run? Why did I not go to retrieve the axe in the tool shed?

I just needed to know. I needed to know if he did it.

My back bumped against the wall and I slid against it, slumping onto the ground like a rag doll. My weapon had rolled off into the shadows, but I no longer cared. I wiped the tears that brimmed my eyes and exhaled deeply.

You fucking idiot.

-

I've been living with Kevin in this old motel for two weeks now. I laid on my side, trying desperately to fall asleep as the smooth fingers glided against my hair. The creature lay behind me, its body heat radiating against my back and its breath blowing against my neck. I brought her out into the woods. I brought her away from the city and to the edge of the abandoned pier. I shot her until the gun clicked empty.

It didn't kill her.

I could feel her body press up against mine, her wet clothes dampening the sheets beneath us.

Her fingers caressed my face and curled gently around my lips.

"Don't shoot me again, Daniel."

What I would give to fall asleep.

She remained in that female body for the remainder that my memory served. I knew she had been feeding, from the blood on her teeth and the climbing number of disappearances in the city, but it was as though she could retain and perfect her form by will. Instead of altering form, she improved on her current one. Glimmering eyes. Skin blemishes. Smiles.

It brought me comfort though, to not have to face a different form every day, but it meant nothing. I knew she was getting smarter by the minute, and the way she looked at me, scrutinized my movements, I knew she was learning.

-

The bedroom walls were closing in, the ceiling spinning.

Something clicked in me, a switch of some sort. It snapped me out of my emotional daze and brought me back to my senses. I stood up and took a step forward, eyes transfixed on Sarah. Somehow I knew what had happened to Milo, picturing him in the bathroom tub, his head twisted too far back. Somehow, images of the train incident from an undefined point of view became known, the dark canine leaping out from the shadows with glinting teeth.

I remember flames that licked at the cushioned seats and tires of the car I burnt down with Kevin inside. I remember walking into these flames....

What?

No. This wasn't the car. This was the motel room. Why am I stumbling through it as it burns? I look down at the male form that lay limp on the flaming bed, tracing the features on its face with my eyes. It was mutilated, a hole where his left eye should have been. And yet, it was all too familiar.

It was me.