Beauty of The Grotesque

Chapter 2

For long, unnerving centuries you wandered the forest. Over time you learned of your abilities to shape shift to appear more human or more animal. However there were still oddities about you that could point out your differences to anyone who was willing to look close enough.
This led you to find ways to cover your body as much as you could when you shifted into a more human look. You had to hide your thinned body and cover as much of the pink scaring that littered your skin as you could. You kept your head down and never interacted with anyone. You never spoke a word. Over the course of these centuries you adapted carefully to the humans in order to not seem strange or to catch anyones unwanted attention. At least during the day.
But at night.. at night everyone feared you. At night you would shift back into your large, gruesome, deer-like form and terrorize the surrounding village. You could overhear the ushering of mothers urging their kids inside and the fathers who would load their shotguns and ready their poison-coated knives and spears. All of them readying themselves in the case of your much feared arrival. You carefully stalked the outside of the village, overhearing the mothers folktales about you. You had become notorious in the small village over the centuries.
They all knew you most well as a Wendigo.
There were rules set up about you, many of them are what kept everyone alive and well.
You creeped up behind one of the houses, listening in the voices with your exceptional hearing
"Rule 1" You heard the mother start "Don't ever go out after dark, always be indoors by sunset"
"Rule 2" She stated "If you hear anyones voice calling for help from the woods that sounds familiar, ignore it immediately and stay far away from the treeline"
"Rule 3" she continued on "If you see it anywhere near the village, inform an adult immediately"

You nearly chuckled to yourself upon hearing the woman call you 'it'
The people of the village had strictly forbidden anyone from saying the name out loud, less it draws you to them.
You stayed a moment longer when you heard a smaller, more high pitched voice speak up

"But- Can't Mother Miranda protect us from it?"
The child asked.

You didn't stick around to hear the answer before the hunger started up again in your thin body.
'Who is- Mother Miranda? and why do the people speak so much of her..' You wondered, continuing to search and stalk around the village. You hadn't had a fresh meal in many, many years and you silently hoped for something to be in store for you tonight.

Hours went by and the worst thing that happened was a few gunshots when someone thought they saw you. Other then that you continued to wither in your own hunger. You could feel yourself becoming more and more angry by the minute. You had lost all sense of remorse and empathy so very long ago, so you hadn't any problem hunting and eating the people of the village on occasion to keep them on their feet. However, in recent years you've heard them speak broadly of this 'Mother Miranda' figure and it left you to question it.

At once, just before you were ready to give in and either leave or burst in to a house. You saw one, a person, possibly a visitor, wandering outside seemingly in search of something. You're empty stomach gurgled in response and your boney mouth seemed to water at the sight. This couldn't have been someone from the village as everyone knew to stay in after dark.

However you didn't care, you picked the easiest way to the victim and stalked closer and closer. Your eyes narrowed in and eventually the person turned around, hardly having time to scream before they turned and ran as fast as their little legs would carry them. You sprinted after the person, your hunger giving you no choice as it drove you to go faster and faster. Everything blurred as you came upon the victim, knocking them to the side and slowly creeping towards them as they scrambled to crawl away. Low growls erupted from your throat as you were now hovering above the victim, poised to strike and feed the never ending hunger before a loud whooshing sound filled your ears.
A deafening shriek came from your throat as a strong, sudden force had thrown you a few yards to the side. You scrambled to get up as the whooshing continued. That's when you saw her. A being landed in between you and the victim you had been waiting patiently for years to finally feast upon.
You began to become enraged and attempted to charge towards the woman. However, she stood her ground, not showing even the slightest fear of you. With the flap of her wings you were knocked away again, the wind whistling past you and a loud thud sounding as you landed against the dirt and gravel filled roadway.
You were fixing to get up, scrambling and squirming until you made it onto your twisted hooves again. You stared straight into the womans' eyes before letting out a booming roar.
People with shotguns, and poison-coated spears exited their homes and surrounded you, giving room for the woman to step forward. You slowly backed away as the woman raised her arm, keeping your direct eye contact before bringing her hand down with force. Within seconds you could feel yourself becoming weary. The red gleam of your eyes slowly faded as you fought sleep for as long as you could. You didn't know who this woman was or how she was doing any of this, but nonetheless, you collapsed and the last thing you heard before passing out was the sound of clapping hands mixed with hoots and hollers filling your ears. The woman approached you. A stern look on her face, and that was all you saw before everything went dark once more.

You could hear noise around you before you were able to open your eyes and so you focused in on your hearing to help aid you in where you were. You could feel your limbs slowly move bit by bit as you came to your senses again.
Before you knew it you could feel heavy, heavy chains locking around you and holding you down. You didn't have time for this, you had victims and meals to stalk and hunt down. You attempted to shriek or roar but you realized quickly that your jaw had been chained shut.
Long minutes went by as you tried to think of a plan through the sound of metal creaking and the urging hunger deep within your stomach.

Whatever you were in suddenly came to a sharp halt, nearly jolting you forward in the process and you found yourself being dragged out. Finally you could see, you quickly looked around to identify your surroundings and caught sight of what appeared to be people. You recognized the woman from the night before and let out a low growl in her direction before you heard an impressed whistle to your right. You darted your red eyes in the direction of a male, he appeared tall and dressed down with a thick coat and pants along with boots matching with sunglasses and a large hammer that stood to his side. You struggled to stand up but once you managed you were able to get a better look at your surroundings. You could clearly tell you weren't going to be able to go anywhere due to the heavy chains around your body and you huffed as you made eye contact with the woman standing at the front of the room before the male you had seen spoke up

"She's quite a beauty, doesn't appear to be a result of the Cadou though.."
He said, his voice was somewhat smooth yet held a slight gravelly tone to it and your eyes focused back on the woman up front when she started speaking.

"I'm not sure where she.. or 'it' came from but its certainly not a result from the experiments. However according to the townsfolk it appears to have been here very, very long before us. Rampaging the village and feeding off of the flesh and blood of its victims. They call it the "Wendigo"

Upon hearing the word spoken you jolted up and attempted to charge towards the woman but to no avail. That's when you heard a buzzing noise. Slowly it got louder and louder as it rang through your ears and you grumbled, shaking your head in annoyance to try and rid yourself of the sound.

Your eyes focused as a girl appeared to manifest in front of you. What appeared to be a sickle was outstretched in her arm. She wore a pair of black gloves with the dark sleeves tucked inside of them and as you examined the figure you could see a V-neck top with what appeared to be an attached hood with two flower-like symbols on either side of the neckline. You could see her red hair that peeked out from under the hood to match her face. She styled a sharp jawline paired with dark lips and red stains on her chin.

You quickly could identify the red stains as blood by the smell and your stomach gargled in anticipation. The sickle struck out from her figure, her hand tightly grasping the handle. More buzzing followed moments later with another woman appearing next to the redhead. Everything appeared to be the same except for the blonde hair that peeked outfrom under her hood. Even more buzzing went on before yet another woman formed in front of you, standing next to the other two. Also appearing to look the exact same expect for the dark brunette hair that hung out from one side of her hood.
You glanced from each woman to the other as they shared the stare back at you before the redhead spoke
"Ooo! Is it a pet! Can we keep it mother?? Pleeease!"
She begged, turning to another woman who sat rather gracefully in one of the chairs before she stood. You would be lying if you said her height hadn't impressed you at least a bit.
"Now, now daughters, Mother Miranda is to decide the fate of this thing"
She said, her eyes narrowing at you as her long dress swung lightly from side to side with her every step. Her large hat casting a dark shadow over her face.
You looked around the room a bit more, stopping when another figure caught your eye. You couldn't quite tell the gender of them due to the veil and that covered their face but you guessed it to be a female due to the long dress and doll that sat in her lap.
You payed little mind to the strange being that sat a bit more to the right, the identity of them being almost unrecognizable due to the terrible posture and twisted amounts of bubbled flesh. Your eyes found their way back to the veiled woman who sat in the corner and you were surprised when the little doll from her lap got up and started coming towards you.
She approached you and you tilted your skulled head in a bit of confusion before the little doll giggled, expressing a few words of interest and then running back over to the veiled woman and climbing back into her lap.
Your stomach continued to claw at you with every noise. You were rather used to this by now after centuries of it but it still drove you with the need to consume flesh and blood and the blood stained on the three young womens' faces weren't helping the situation in any way.