The Metamorphosis: Revelation

When Gregor awakened from his forced slumber due to his deliberate starvation, he couldn’t help but to mentally smile. A deep and rewarding feeling completely engulfed his internal organs and deeply massaged every square of his exoskeleton. He felt liberated, almost as if a giant weight has finally been removed from his thorax.

“Why do I feel so energetic and happy?” he thought.

 “I must be hallucinating! No, this is real! This feeling is just to elaborate for words! I can finally think clearly without the burdens of my pessimistic life intruding my very soul. “

He rolled back and forth on his back moving both his front and hind legs in the air like a kid giving a tantrum. However, this feeling of pure ecstasy was dramatically interrupted by the thoughts of pure anger concerning how he was used and simply disposed of by his family at the first sign of uselessness. If this emotional sensation wasn’t punishment enough it was then followed by an unforgiving, excruciating and far beyond unimaginable lust for food.  Without a second thought he wastes no time channeling all of his bittersweet emotions in to raw energy for this quest for nourishment. He races through blades of grass dodging thick stocks of weeds and following his innate sense of direction. After running for what seems to be miles his senses brings him to a tree. As he positions himself to climb the bark he is interrupted by faint but steady conversation coming from the branches. He could only pick up few words at a time due to the ruckus of everyday human traffic behind him.

“Wow! This is a really tall tree for someone to be climbing. I wish I had the moxie to do something like that when I was a human.” He thought.

“Well better now than never!”

 He races up the tree with all of the energy his little body can excrete until he finally comes across his desire. Lying in a nest a few branches away was the decaying carcass of a bird with an obvious broken neck. Ironically he took a rather nonchalant note towards this tragic sight; almost with disregard for the unfortunate death of the bird.  The thought of this bothered him deeply.

“I must be losing my humanity” He questionably said to himself out loud.

“Humanity!?” responded a muffled voice followed by embarrassing laughter from a group.

“This one claims he has humanity!” says the voice.

Gregor turns around only to find that he is surrounded at the edge of the branch by a community of like-vermin.

 “Um, uh, you can hear me? He stammers.

 “I me-me-mean, uh, I can talk to other b-b-bugs?”

Their response was quite embarrassing. As if rehearsed the group simultaneously indulged with the urge to hysterically laugh at Gregor’s ignorant revelation. Despite the obvious situation he has caused, the owner of the muffled voice takes no part in the ridicule. He steps out of the crowd and approaches Gregor.

 “Oh no” were the only thoughts passing through Gregor’s mind.

All he can see is his one and a half inch long, stout black body with pretentious dark eyes staring deeply in to his. Mostly scared but partly intrigued he studied the physique of the leader. He was mostly interested by his clear, membranous wings with reddish orange veins that extended well beyond his figure 

 “Silence!” The leader yelled towards the laughter.

He then turns to Gregor and tells him to explain the reason behind his embarrassing confusion.

 Gregor looks over the shoulders of the leader and sees that the crowd was tuned to what he was about to say.

Gregor pauses in order to give his response a great amount of thought.

“If I tell you my story, will you promise to take every work to be the undoubtable truth or at least keep an open mind?’
Followed with an inquisitive look the leader agrees to the terms and nods his head to symbolize that he was ready for Gregor to begin his story.

Gregor looks over the shoulders of the leader and sees that the crowd was tuned to what he was about to say.

 For once in his life he feels as if he is given a soapbox to finally expose how he really feels. After realizing this he wastes no time explaining his transformation. He explained how taxing and undervalued his life as human was. How he was disposed of by the people that he not only gave his happiness for and but unconditionally love. How he became so used to the aches, pains, and lethargic feeling along with emotional depressions such as loneliness and isolation that was caused by being used for monetary gains. Tears flowed like a river through the ballpoint eyes of Gregor. He then explained how before the transformation was complete he made the decision to rid his family of the burden he has caused through starvation.

“After I woke from days of slumber, I feel refreshed. Almost as if I have a new meaning in life. This transformation showed me how worthless my life was. And gives me a second chance at actually enjoying the little time I have left.”

Gregor then looks at the sea of faces and nods his head to symbolize the end of his story. But instead of the thunder of applaud another fit of laughter fills the air. Deeper and more painful than before. Gregor than turns around, walks to the end of the branch and jumps to his death. On his way down he experiences another revelation.

“Why do I always allow other beings to dictate my happiness?

Splat!

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Gregor wakes. With a slight pain in his neck.