The first couple pages of my new book Memoirs of a Monster.

METAMORPHOSIS

Well... I guess if you're asking me to start at the beginning, then I should take you back. The year was 1556 and I was not but twenty-eight years old. We had ported in London before the Sun's arrival, we had spent the day unloading and uploading the ship with supplies, we were all exhausted, and in need of more than a bit of rest.

We had been at sea and away for a long time, Europe, Africa and Europe again. One of our crew members had been injured along our journey home to England. One of the crates had given way while he was below deck, and his screams led us to his unfortunate disposition. His wounds quickened with infection and turned black. We hadn't the medical tools needed for an injury as such and the medic on board (also our cook) was no surgeon, or he would have made it I suppose. We were all mourning his loss. He was a wonderful fellow, always a bright word or a smile, you know the type. And so we headed to the inn for some mead and good cheer, and then rest before we set sail for my beloved Scotland.

I hadn't set foot on her shores in nearly six years since I boarded in Edinburgh and kissed my family and my beautiful Emily goodbye.

I had hoped to make enough for a small piece of land to call my own, buy some livestock and marry her. She promised she would wait… and I promised I'd return.

The inn was bursting with noise and I remember a fiddler was playing a song I hadn't heard in as long, it made my heart ache. The inn reeked of mead and fish and the sea, and the air was poisoned with stories so tall that there was barely enough air to breathe. I almost feared the ceiling would fall upon us.

We pushed our way back to the bar and after a while we had our drinks in hand and raised our glasses to Thomas.

May his soul rise high and never a rough wind blow!

I took another sip and felt something beyond my shipmate’s hand on my back. You know that strange feeling when someone is watching you. I turned and found what it was that was pulling me that way. Her eyes locked with mine and quickly turned and then disappeared into the sea of people and their tall stories.

We stayed there for what seemed hours talking and dreaming of what we would do when we reached home. A tap on my back broke me away from conversation. She was standing in front of me. She didn't say a word, just looked at me with big blue eyes and a soft comfortable smile. She was beautiful! hypnotizing. I felt her hand in mine as she pulled me away from the bar and through the crowd, stopping only once to my surprise, to slap a man in the face that I imagined had wronged her, before we reached our unknown to me destination. We were outside quicker then it took me to reach the bar upon entry.

She pulled me round the side of the inn and under a torch. She pushed me up against the wall and pressed her full breasts against me. I remember the weight of her and how warm she felt, and then she kissed me. I remember it clearly as if it just happened only moments ago. She kissed me. She tasted of mead and vanilla… All at once I felt a guilt come over me. I had stayed true to my promise to my beautiful Emily. I pushed her away, well I attempted to and then found myself completely not myself, and a bit lost in this magnificent creature that had stolen me from the bar without a word. I was…well it was if I were hypnotized. Something in me gave way and I turned her quite aggressively and put her up against the wall where I had once been. My hand finding her thigh as I pulled her dress up along her hip and kissed her, I felt as if I were on fire.

It was strange when I think of it now, when I recall it out loud. I had always been a bit of a shy lad, not really a ladies’ man. Oh! I had the looks, but never the confidence. I was on fire! I wanted her, I had to have her, it was like… It was hunger! Yes, that’s it! I was possessed with a new hunger that had never been stirred in me till then. I felt strong and my hands held her hip and hair firm, and I kissed her, I ate at her mouth as if she were life’s nourishment. She sighed as I made my way to her neck. She returned the kiss as passionately and made her way to mine…

The pain I felt next was unimaginable, and I remember… Well it doesn't make sense in memory, not now, not after knowing what I know now, not after what I've experienced since. No matter, it adds no flavor to this recount of events. There was pain and when I opened my eyes, three months had passed. My body felt as a ship that has wrapped itself around an unseen rock must feel, broken, weak, and hungry. My God! The hunger was insatiable.

I looked around, trying to make heads or tails of what might have happened, not knowing anything of the time that had passed. Was the girl a dream? Where was I? Had I had more mead then I remembered, or was it a more potent brew? I was in a bed, in a room that was strange to me. It smelled of field flowers and beeswax and coffee, and light was coming in through the snow covered window.

Snow? I thought. But it’s August I thought to myself, how could this be?

I heard a noise and then foot steps. She walked into the room not knowing I was awake, she startled when I called out to her.

So you weren't a dream!

She turned and looked at me, and then I remembered the pain.