Soaring above the birds, through the clouds, is an activity that appeals to both my monstrous instincts and my human feelings. Spinning my body in the air, mimicking a fighter pilot maneuver I have a vague recollection of. He's been quiet since I threatened him. I may not have any idea how old I am, but I'm not naive enough to think that means he's gone for good. The man in the darkness, the man in my head, the man who made me this beast. Five months of silence, and instead of feeling better, I feel worse than I did before. The beastial hunger has only grown over time, forcing me to avoid populated settlements just to prevent me from eating people. But that's what he wants me to do. Give in and accept that I'm nothing more than a monster. That's when he'll strike.

I drop down through the clouds like a rainstorm. Below me is the intense blue of the Atlantic Ocean. There isn't a single person or man-made structure in any direction that I can see. It's better that way. It isn't the vivid images and visceral sensations of hunting, killing, and eating people that disturb me the most. It's the satisfaction I feel, the excitement of the hunt, and the alluring taste that's damning. Speaking of. The gnawing ache of my vacant stomach is getting harder and harder to deal with. No matter how often or how much I consume, it never stops. I'm never satisfied.

I dive into the water, plunging deeper and deeper. The crystal clear blue water sparkles from the sun's rays penetrating its surface. The ocean's inhabitants flee from me, from the smallest plankton to the largest sharks. Deeper I go, to the sandy ocean floor and settle against it. There are deeper places still in this ocean, large ravines that reach thousands of feet deeper than where I am. Even here, the aquatic life scurries away, leaving me alone. There is a certain itch in my brain that gets scratched when I'm underwater, some primal urge being fulfilled. I'm unable to rest, to sleep, to relax, but submerged thousands of feet, I feel the most steady. I need to get these urges under control if I'm going to be able to find and kill him.

The rocky protrusions on my back burst open as my spawnlings are born. Quickly, they pull themselves free, instantly adapting to both the pressure of the depth and the watery surroundings. But like me, the insects are perfectly equipped to swim down here, zipping around with their wings sheathed and their tails being used to steer. Spawnlings isn't right; they aren't real. They aren't even simple beasts; they're merely an extension of myself. I send them off to hunt with commands to bring back more. I can't keep living like this, isolating myself away from humanity out of a fear of hurting them. Something needs to change.

Through the eyes of my horde, I see something I haven't seen in a while: a mature blue whale all alone. I'm moving before I even finish deciding on whether to hunt it. Zooming through the ocean like a targeted torpedo, I leave currents in my wake. I'm not sure how, but the whale is aware of me and begins calling out. The noise is one I'm familiar with, and I hate it. I see it above me, and my two tails are working overtime to speed me along. I open my mouth as wide as it can go and snap down on the belly of the beast, ripping a chunk out of it. MORE! Red begins filling my vision as blood sprays into my face and mouth. The whale's whine is painful to my ears, and I latch on to it with my claws as I swallow the piece whole. HUNT! FEED! PERISH! GROW!

There's not a trace of the whale to be found, beyond the thick red mist that is around me. Not a piece of blubber or a shard of bone remains. No other predators have come to contest my kill, well aware they would only join the whale. The swarm has grown, circling me like a hungry pack of piranhas. With a single thought, they all cease moving and float there frozen. My physiology is so alien, my body unlike any other living creature out there, but where there should be a disconnect or weirdness between my body and my mind, there isn't. Every inch of my form, every additional sense, every ability comes naturally to me. Was I ever human? Or did he do something to make me think that I was? What if I am just a monster, and all he did was make me smarter? What if he made me the same way I create the swarm? Is that all I am? Just a creation of someone else and without my own free will or identity. This is the problem with staying in one place for too long; my thoughts start to eat at me. I swim away with my swarm in tow, banishing all thoughts and focusing on the exhilaration of moving through the ocean.

Weeks pass as I do nothing but hunt, kill, and feed on sea creatures. If I stop for even a minute, memories of the people I've killed and eaten fill my head. I don't know who I was before this, but I know that I wasn't a killer. The revulsion I feel for the act is too intense for any other possibility. I'm a murderer. There is no way for me to repent or undo the harm I have caused. The man has cursed me to live a never-ending life of regret. If I'm living, I will cause harm. The only reprieve I've found since waking up as this beast is when I am dead. Only then do the thoughts and memories stop. Only then does the hunger cease. I know what I need to do.

Making my way back toward the cracks I had seen all those weeks ago is an easy task. Navigating through a silent graveyard, picked clean of all organisms, an ecosystem destroyed by a violent hunting spree. He said I was meant to be a harbinger of the end, a beast of the apocalypse. It's obvious he was right. I know what I must do. Every time I've died, I've come back, even when I was completely evaporated. So I have to put my body somewhere that it won't be able to regenerate.

Like fanged mouths of great beasts, the ravines stretch for miles, the darkness down there so overwhelmingly potent that no light has or ever will touch down there. An area of immense pressure so powerful that only creatures born there can survive. That will be my resting spot. I refuse to play into his plans. I won't give in to the beast. I swim down into the pitch black abyss, aiming for the very bottom of the ocean. The swarm stays behind. I command them to start webbing up the entrance. Somehow, I know that the webbing will work underwater. With a single goal in mind, I swim further and further, plunging into the cold, murky waters below.

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The pain I feel only worsens as I descend. The pressure is growing, and each breath I take is harder. My bones ache, my insides feel empty, and I feel like a sea serpent is squeezing me. Still, I made up my mind, so down I go. I have no idea how deep I am, and I can't see a thing in the void down here, but I've kept my face pointed down and haven't stopped. I push on, ignoring the pain. Every minute that passes, the crushing feeling grows stronger as my body struggles against the forces surrounding me. My insectoid limbs are pushed up against my torso as the chitin composing them cracks. My tendrils of flesh are pressed down tightly, and my eyes are on the verge of bursting. Eventually, I can't even get my tails to move and I'm trapped. Not for long. I turn intangible, my form becoming ghostly, and the pressure instantly disappears. I fly down, the water and pressure forgotten until I reach the very bottom of the ocean floor. It's for the best. I deactivate the ability, and everything goes blank as my body is pulverized to paste. Free at last.

No. It didn't work. It wasn't enough; my plan failed. I can't see a thing; the area is as dark as I remember it. The pressure isn't even noticeable now. I shake off the sand and sediment that was covering me. I must have been out for a while. My thinking is clearer, and I feel much stronger. How many times did I die? Standing isn't an issue, my limbs' movement is unrestricted, and I can breathe fine. None of my bones or organs hurt, but I am ravenous. I'm a failure. The hunt must resume. My hunger must be satiated. Pushing off the ocean floor, I swim toward my dormant swarm. I'm using them as a point of reference so I know which way I'm meant to go. Without any resistance holding me down, I race through the water effortlessly, leaving the zone of darkness I was stuck in.

I breach through the web wall that the spawnlings had built and continue until I burst out of the water like a dolphin. If the pressurized ocean depths weren't enough to kill me, then I just need to find something that can. Or someone who can. Rather than trying and failing to fight against my beastial instincts and the words that echo in my head, I will use them to my advantage. My desire to atone for my sins with my life doesn't have to go against what the beast wants. If the monster wants to hunt, to feed, to perish, to grow, then I just have to make sure that I perish to something that can keep me dead. There are those out there who have hurt me before—The Worthy. There must be more out there who will grant my wish. I won't hunt the weak or cull the population like he wanted. I will hunt those who are worthy, and either they will die or I will. Floating over the ocean, the sun high above me, I fly forward. My swarm follows suit as they explode out of the water, their buzzing filling the air. As always, my powers are better and easier to control after dying, so my flight is faster than before. The blue sea blurs by below me. Out there is the one who can deliver me to my death.

White sand glitters on the horizon, the sun just starting to rise. There's an island ahead, a vibrant jungle full of curving trees at the center of it. Twelve gigantic white metal spikes, four times taller than I am long surround the island, emerging from below the water. Floating on top of the tip of the spike are black spheres. The only reason you'd have structures like that would be to keep someone or something out, which means there are people ahead. An alarm begins blaring the closer I get to the landmass, and the black spheres begin to spin up, red cracks spreading across their surface.

I curve up so that I'm above the spikes, and that's when the spheres attack. The two closest ones blast me with a gray beam that encircles my entire body. But nothing happens, then they fire again, and this time I feel something happening. I feel heavier and heavier, my body becoming unresponsive as my flight slows. This is it. The towers blast me again, and I notice my limbs are starting to turn gray. The grayness is spreading, with all sensation being lost to any of the colored portions of myself. My head pounds, not in pain but in excitement. The thrill of battle is getting to me. My swarm falls into the water as I force them to stay behind. I let out a guttural roar as more blasts hit me. The gray portions start to crack as they turn to stone. Petrifying rays continue hitting me until they reach my brain, and I drop out of the sky, plummeting toward the island.

"Fascinating creature you are. I might not have believed immortality was possible had I not witnessed your shattered remains reforming before my very eyes. Can you understand me?" An odd-looking woman asked me.

"Worthy," I said, my throat rumbling.

"You can talk? How wonderful."

I'm in a lab again, trapped by another scientist. Flashes of that town and the Worthy battle fill my mind—all those people I killed and ate. Mistakes. I'm suspended in a green transparent bubble, and I can't move at all. My powers aren't working. I'm trapped, unable to escape. Something inside me rebels at the idea of being a prisoner, a shattered memory broken until it's unrecognizable. The feeling of being stuck in one place as I'm watched. Thrashing inside the bubble, I claw and bite at it to no avail. My tails smash against the bubble harmlessly. It doesn't hurt, but I'm beginning to panic. I snarl and snap my jaws, glaring hatefully at the woman. I study her as I continue my rampage, trying to figure out what's so odd about her appearance. She isn't blinking, and her hair doesn't move when she moves. Part of me says she can't be Worthy, she's too weak for the title. The other part says that she has a way to incapacitate me, so she must be Worthy.

"If you are willing to engage in good faith and promise not to destroy any of my property, I would love to have a conversation with you. If you can't, then I have no problem giving you space and time to reconsider."

"Free me, and your death will be quick."

"Looks like someone needs some alone time. The good news is, time is something I have a lot of," she said, walking out of the room.

The door shuts behind her, and the lights shut off, leaving me in the dark. You think you have time? She has given me my wish without realizing it. I can't hurt anyone now, and being alone doesn't bother me.

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