Also called the “master species,” “these unknown superiors” are highly evolved primates which play a central role in the fantasy horror novella The Cannibal Within, written by the American historian and novelist Mark Mirabello. They stand above the human race as “we stand above apes."
Location
Transhumans nest in a complex network of tunnels and caverns that have been deliberately carved into the earth over the millennia.
At night, however, some walk among us in disguise. Masters of illusion, the disguise is generated by their powerful telepathic minds. They plunder our thoughts and memories, and then, like sinister changelings, they take the places of ordinary humans.
Cannibalism
"The monsters eat only meat. Not dead meat--not freshly killed meat--but “raw flesh, quivering with life."
Brain tissue is their favorite food. When pinkish-gray in color, it is considered especially delicious. The liver--which they consider poisonous--is always extracted and discarded.
The transhumans are cannibals, and they devour members of their own zoological species, but human flesh is their staple diet. "In particular, they like the soft, white, hairless bodies of young girls."
Appearance
A transhuman is roughly hominid in shape. When encountered in their true form, they appear to be hairless humans with enlarged heads and hypertrophied sexual organs.
Their bald heads are bulbous, with a large protuberance to accommodate a massive brain. They have small noses, small ears, and small mouths equipped with thin lips and small, pointed teeth. Their almond-shaped eyes, which have the oriental epicanthic fold, appear large and soulful and are perversely enchanting. Their eyes, which are sensitive to light, are entirely pink, without irises or pupils.
Their hands and feet appear human, except the nails are long and hard. Like wolves, they typically walk on the tips of their feet.
Their skin, the largest of their sense organs, is yellowish in color, like the wax of an old candle. Completely hairless, it is hypersensitive to ultraviolet radiation, and a few hours in sunlight makes it crack and bleed. Wrinkled from birth, their skin hangs loosely on their bodies.
Vulnerabilities
For all of their power, the monsters can be killed. The best method is to stab the brain, the eyes, the genitalia, or the area between the chest and the belly.
The eyes, which expose the soul, are especially vulnerable. Attacks to this region are usually lethal.
When slaying the creatures, the hunter must remember to taste the creature's flesh before they die. That is the legend.
References
- Mirabello, Mark The Cannibal Within (Oxford, England, 2001) ISBN 1-8699-2827-X