Predator in the skin of Prey!!

**Natasha’s POV**

I crossed my arms, clutching tight the sleeves of my t-shirt as if that would help me deal with the monstrous scene in front of me. The moonlight gives a bluish tinge to our surroundings. Although the temperature was freezing cold, but the pain and anger triggered by the scene burned my insides as if exposed to the hellfire. The blood in my veins turned into molten lava, causing my heart to erupt like a volcano. It brings forth the primal fear, which has fossilized in the shadowed darkness of my heart since I was young. Precisely, the day when my father started locking me in the damn basement. I wanted to scream out, but for some reason, the voice choked in my throat. My shivering hands went out to one of my mates who was standing close by, and my fingers curled tightly around his biceps. I pulled him closer, looking for an anchor to support as the pain was too much for me to deal with. It reminded me of my mom when she was assaulted.

A group of men were dragging a screaming woman. She was squirming and thrashing against them to get free from their clutches, but it was in vain as she was no match to them in size and strength. Their spice blue eyes and waxy skin mark them out as flesh-eaters. A single horn perched from the centre of their forehead and coiled around. The rotten fangs, dripping with blood, protruded from between their black, glossy lips as if someone had painted them with demonic blood. Their naked body was brimming with layers of muscles with the branches of black veins spreading like the vines underneath their skin. Some kind of a ritual was going on around a huge fire. One of the creatures hold the woman by her hair with his decomposed limb, and dragged her to the fireplace, for the sacrificial ritual.

The moment their faces were illuminated by the luminescence of fire, a soft whimper escaped my lips.

“MOM!”

The shocking and confusing glare of my mates fell on me.

“Natasha! NO!” Lukas called out when I released my hold on him to move ahead towards the fire. I ignored him and proceeded with the muffled steps, with my breath caught inside my chest, as I feared that those monsters may sense my presence and attack my mom. Still, they sensed me, and twisted their elongated neck like a snake and snarled at me, exposing their filthy fangs as if warning me to stay away. Suddenly, the scene around me changed, and I was teleported to my past. I was at my childhood home, with my mom being ravaged by the beasts who were my father’s friends. My mom was crying, screaming and jerking in pain, and all I could do was just watch her helplessly, with the reins of my hair in the fingers of my father, clutching painfully till they broke out from their roots. He always used to lock me in the basement when they molested my mom, but this time I disobeyed, and so was punished. My punishment was to watch her as she was subjected to inhumane tortures by those monsters.

“Natasha, don’t go near. She is not your mom. Open your senses. You are hallucinating. This forest is playing tricks on you.” Damon tried to wake me up from my trance-like state. Deep down, I also knew that I should turn back, but it was as if something powerful wanted me to go there, pushing me forward. My fear and anger slowly replaced the need and want so great that I couldn’t stop myself. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood, my heart rate jumped over the roof, and all my ears could hear was the screaming of my mom. And there was no way I was letting these monsters harm her. I tasted the acid, that my nervous stomach produced and swallowed hard when I crossed the threshold of the sacrificial ritual.

“Come here…baby girl…come here…touch us!” Whispers of the rotting flesh-eaters beckoned my ears.

“I smell fresh and juicy flesh,” One of the gargled voices spoke.

“She is mine to devour,” another voice with a demonic edge cut through.

“I would gladly tear her apart, skin from flesh, flesh from bone!” the third voice spoke, followed by a slurping motion of its thick, black rubbery tongue onto his rotten lips.

“Natasha, don’t move, they are luring you,” Rhaegar’s warning came from behind, but the pleading face of my mom was enough for me to ignore him.

“Help me, please,” her voice sounded strained from screaming, and the memories of the past hit me harder.

“Save me from these monsters!” Her voice floated over me like a warm blanket, like a Siren luring the sailors.

“*The obvious resides in the darkness, while the clue hides under the moonlight. Don’t get tempted by the obvious, for the truth is what follows the obvious everywhere*.” Lukas spoke, looking over at Damon and Rhaegar to solve this riddle.

“The obvious resides in the darkness, which means what we are seeing now is obvious, ‘A group of the man attacking a woman’,” Damon said, looking over at the sky, as the moon was behind the dark thunderous clouds, drowning the whole forest in the darkness.

“The clue lies in the moonlight. This means that the moonlight will reveal something,” Rhaegar spoke, looking over at the sky as the moon was just about to peek out from behind the clouds to ornate the forest in its glowing aura, “The moon-light, dudes, the moon-light is here! Look carefully if you can find some clues.”

“Shadow! Shadow! Look at the damn shadow!” Lukas screamed, holding tightly to my hand to stop me from reaching over to those monsters.

“Yes, that’s it! Shadow is the thing that follows any entity everywhere. The truth lies in the shadow!” Rhaegar pointed out.

“What the fuck!? Look what that fucking shadow is revealing,” Damon growled.

“Natasha! Look at the shadow!” Lukas shouted at me, shaking me violently, but all I can see ahead was my mom, going to be eaten by those flesh-mongers.

“Natasha, save me!” The voice of my mom becomes more eager and pleading, with a hint of urgency. I extended my arms, with the sharp death-like rays of my energy swirling around my fingers, and almost ready to strike the monsters.

“*Wait! Wait! Wait! Little baby girl!

Hold on tight to the handsome male!

The death of the accused may wake up the dead,

While the end of the victim will take you to the lair*!”

The warning voices of the invisible folks boomed in my ears. I halted a bit as something caught my attention. I strained my eyes half expecting to see hundreds of decomposed bodies, splayed in strange positions behind the big fire. The dead bodies resembled the monsters which were attacking my mom. And then I wondered who killed them or should I say sacrificed them, if they are the predators?

“Keep moving! Please keep moving!” The softness of my mom’s voice drew my attention towards her, and once again my body was in control of some superior power, and even though I knew that it was messing my mind, but the urge to go and save her triumph over my sanity. I was ready to attack those deadly monsters.

“‘Wait, wait, wait! Little baby girl! Hold on tight to the handsome male.’ This means your voices are warning you to wait and listen to us.” Damon’s voice filtered through my ears.

“The death of the accused will wake up the dead! Here, the accused means these flesh-eaters. Their death will raise the dead corpses!” Lukas warned.

“Kill that woman who is impersonating to be your mom. She is the victim whose death will lead you to some fucking goddamned lair!” Rhaegar shouted.

“No!” The shrilling voice of my mom echoed over. My eyes ignited with sparks.

“Look at the fucking shadow Natasha! The. Fucking. Shadow!” Lukas shouted, jumping on me to prevent me from unleashing my energy rays. But he was too late, as, despite his attempt of diverting my rays away from the monsters, one of the sparks hit one of them. It spread some kind of a chain reaction in its body, causing it to shudder violently, as if that monster was possessed by some another superior monster. I was not sure if my rays were killing it or making it more powerful? Blame it on my forever bad luck, it seemed that my rays unlocked some hidden power in it, and now the simple zombie turned into zombie-2, a genetically altered form which was more deadly and demonic, which generally happens in all the second seasons of the zombie apocalypse sci-fi series. An already devil villain is turned into something nastier.

My eyes fell on the shadows of my mom and the monster who held her by the hair. I was free from the influence of the power which was luring me, and my mind was completely my own again. “The clue hides in the moonlight,” I muttered shockingly under my breath, staggering back, looking over at the shadow. The shadow brings forth the truth of the scene; the truth which was another way around. The monster who appeared to be attacking my mom was in fact a victim, a victim of a sixth-grade siren, whose power lies in luring the souls and sacrificing them in the great fire to gain powers. The sixth-grade siren was none other than the woman who was pretending to be the victim, but her fatal mistake was to impersonate my mom, and she is going to pay for it. The dead bodies of the creatures splayed throughout the forest were in fact the victims of that deadly siren. And now to my horror, the ground started to vibrate as though something was trying to crawl its way to us. There were hundreds of monsters scratching their way to us, grinding the rocks underneath their claws. They were dead bodies of those monsters, who were arisen from the dead because of my mistake of striking one of them. My energy barrier fueled life in them, and they were moving towards us like the hordes of zombies singling out their preys, who were unfortunately; my three mates and me.

Well, it’s unfortunate for them for they chose us for their prey.

These demons didn’t scare me, but the sound made by them definitely irritated me, which was an amplified version of high-pitched shrieking. Their skin was black like volcanic rock, with wide cracks in them through which tar-like black mucus oozed out. Their eyes glowed red like embers. Their fangs and claws grow like the suckers of the poisonous jellyfish, with razor-sharp edges glinting under the moonlight. They emerged near us like a swarm of broken bodies. Their bodies or whatever was left of them was in the same state when they were sacrificed by that fucking Siren. One of their eyes was torn out, with a jaw of huge teeth and a big-sticky tongue slurping over them like Tom Hardy of venom. Of course, he was the Greek God as compared to these ugly bastards. Their heads rotated in all directions like a demonic owl, and they made the disturbing sound like crickets.

One of them reached Rhaegar, trying to touch his face, but Rhaegar was quick enough to dodge and in one swirling motion grasped its rotten limb, tearing it from the body, and with the other hand grabbed the loose fold of its skin, ripping off the flesh and snapping its bone by hitting its knee joint by an elbow. I felt sick at the sight of Rhaegar’s hands, which were dripping with that black-mucus thingy.

“You’re not touching me with those filthy hands.” I hissed at Rhaegar, scrunching my nose and lifting my hands, warning him to stay away. He rolled his eyes as a response before shifting to his chimera form, ready for attacking the hordes of monsters closing on him. Damon and Lukas took over the attacking position. My wolves erupted out, clearly not wanting to miss the fun. All six formed an attacking circle to send these monsters back to the state from which they arose.

Their Death!!

“You are not going back inside me if that damn blood of these fucking monsters touches you,” I warned my wolves before turning to my mates, “And the same goes for you all,” I said, looking at their crotches.

“Dare to stop it!” Damon retorted, pointing at his length, which had made a tent in whatever was left of his trouser.

“Sex is off-limits,” I spoke, making them chuckle.

And now, I turned my focus on the sixth-grade siren, who was now in her demonic form snarling me, showing her true face.

She was a winged creature, all bent and scrunched up on the floor. She reminded me of Aurora in her monstrous form. The obvious difference was the lack of wings. That, and fucking Aurora still managed to look somewhat scary, but the siren ahead of me bring out the humour in me. She reminded me of my friend, Ella. She was a doll, whom I painted to look like a scary doll and was in turn got scolded by my mom. Her skin was like a rough stone and greyish. She definitely needs some anti-ageing cream, maybe tons of it. Her wings were the combination of an ugly bat and a filthy cockroach, with the long sharp razor-like bones protruding from them. They need to be ripped off if she wants to look a Lil' bit pretty. Her face was no better, and snarling made it worse, as her elongated jaw was showing the crooked, rotten, big teeth, which can be a nightmare for the most qualified dentist in the history of Earth to work upon, whereas her skin treatment cost can cause Elon Musk a run for the money. Her hair needs--

“If you are done fixing her body, then it’s time to kill her if we want to proceed ahead,” Came the taunt of my one and only Damon, interrupting me from my thoughts of giving that siren a makeover. I wonder how can these sirens lure those sex-hungry sailors with these looks? But, then of course anyone with a pair of boobs and tight pussy can lure a sex-thirsty man, no offences to my mates, who already fucked Anna and Kara. And what can be worse that can happen to them, as they are still crying and needs counselling for getting involved with those damned bitches.

“Focus Natasha!!” Rhaegar screamed by shifting back into his human form to warn me.

I ignored him and gave a yawning look at Siren. Since childhood, I have read about Sirens and how their looks are to die for, but by looking at this woman, it can be the other way around. One look at her can surely kill a person from a heart attack. If we compare those undead zombies with her, then those fucking zombies are the clear winners in the beauty contest pageant ever held by these supernaturals.

“For fuck’s sake Natasha,” Lukas lost his temper, which was a rarity like the ugliness of this woman. But this was my cue to get back on track, or my mates are surely teaming up with my enemies.

“If you had impersonated into any other fucking being, I would have taken pity on you, but you messed up my mind by bringing forth the painful memories of my childhood and my mom, which I prefer to keep to myself, not even involving my mates. And. You. Will. Be. Fucking. Dead. For. This! For. You. Will. Be. A. Prey. And. I. Will. Be. A. Predator!!” I snarled, bringing out the demonic edge in my voice. My eyes sparkled with rays, fueled by my anger, as I froze her on her feet.

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