by F. Bradshaw
I stood. They tried to knock me down again. They rushed their bodies against mine trying to stop me. I kicked them away. I turned to go to Brennus, but they already had him. The rage pooled in me and was released with my scream. I wanted to tear them all in two. I wanted to break their little bodies. I reached for the wolf. They had him half way out the door. I dug my nails into his flesh pulling them in down to the bone.
They would not take my dog. The blond again ran for me, jumping over the others, for my neck. She tore at me, and her body forced mine to the floor. I did not let go of him. I tried to elbow her off, but she bit down on it. I tried to right myself with my other arm, but I could not with the blood and torn flesh making it slippery. I had to make a choice… wolf or her. He was already going to die. She was going to be fresh meat. I let go grabbing on to her throat. I made an unbreakable lock on her. A voice from the hallway called to her.
“Come on. They are out. Heidi, come on!”
They did not realize I already had her, and she was going nowhere. They moved out of the room quickly shutting the door before I could make it out. I threw her against the far wall. Her body fell limply down, splashing up blood. I stood, letting the blood drip from me. Her little heart still beat quickly as she lay there broken waiting for me to come for her.
I was hungry, and she was going to be fun. I looked at the gurney and its broken straps. She was not stronger than I was. They wanted to see what was in me. They wanted to know the monster that was me. All the things I could make out from her came to my mind. When one dies, do they revert to their human form? I would have a lot of time to figure it out. The corners of my mouth turned up pulling back my cheeks in a smile. I had a dog as a play toy. Although it was weaker and broken a bit, it would still be fun.
Chapter 38
How much could I make it scream? How much fur could I rip off before the skin would come with it? I walked over to it. Her body was laying in Brennus’ blood and torn flesh. I reached for her crumpled body, neck first. My hand easily reached around her throat. The pulse, although weak, was still there. I contemplated dragging her by her tail around the room to mop around to cover the offensive white. I could paint a lot with her.
I dug her body by the neck. Her legs limply went along. I picked her up to look at her. Her body dripped blood and darkness to the floor. Flesh disintegrated off her legs to smack the ground with a thud then a plop. Dripping blood ticked away from her tail. Her eyes rolled around and opened. A spraying cough of blood stung my face. I quickly punched her in the mouth. How dare she spit on me. I picked her head up and slammed it back to the gurney. I quickly tied her down like the dog she was.
I reached my fingers first then my hand over my face wiping down the bloody spit. I pulled, half scraping down my face. The darkness pooled behind the healing cuts. Her body was weak and unmoving, except for gasps of air moving through her body. I looked around the room forgetting there was light. It was in a black tone, and then I noticed it.
A small two-way glass window I could easily break through now, but it was time for a show. As I focused on the window, I could hear the rapid heartbeats. They were waiting. What would I do with her? The question they should have been asking was what I wouldn’t do to her.
“You wanted to know what was in me. You pushed me to this. Now everything I do is on you. You created this monster, and you served her up to me.” My voice was cold and full of darkness. It was flat and devoid of something. Something was missing.
She twitched on the table. Pain had renewed in her. Where to start? I moved my hand slowly up her body listening to their hearts beat louder and quicker. As I passed my hand over her rib cage, her heartbeat too loud to ignore. They knew what I would do. Two of them had already felt it. I slowly, teasingly tore up and down each rib, cutting deeper with each pass.
She awoke but could not break free. Half howling and screaming she cried out. Would they come for her? I felt the smile again stretch over my face. Each movement by my hand she cried out more. I started tearing into her flesh pulling it back toward the outside. I could glide my finger just on the outside of the ribs. Mmmm, feels like chicken. I wondered would she taste like chicken.
I bent over her and licked across her rib taking in her blood and flesh. Coldness was over taking her. I could feel her heartbeat pressing against the rib. A smell washed over me. Something long forgotten but so familiar, so faded, but there. A voice seemed to say something, but under the screaming howls, I could not hear it.
Rage filled me again. She was messing things up. She was with them. She needed to die. They would want it quick, but I was not going to satisfy them. Could I break her ribs so it would be like a wishbone? What would my wish be?
The blood swelled around her ribs and felt like warm oil licking at my lips as I moved. I licked it in greedily. It cooled before my tongue could taste it. Torn flesh smeared over my mouth. It felt like eating ribs. The kind that fall off the bone and the sauce covers your cheeks with flecks of rib meat. I could really go for some. I could not stop myself from the exposed rib to bite down on its neighbor taking in flesh and bone. Its smoothness tore into me more.
I was not hungry for the flesh just stirring up the memories. She screamed out in pain. I could hear them press forward to the glass. Her cries were not unheard but just not acted upon. Her heartbeat raced forward trying to cover the damage I was doing. I let go of the rib and spit the flesh out of my mouth. It felt more like tender red meat than chicken or pork. I liked the screaming now. It was going to end soon enough, and they would let me.
I tore my nail down the inside of her paw, then down her leg and back to her chest. Shallow cuts did not bleed enough for me. So I kept cutting deeper pulling the flesh and fur back with each movement. I shook my hand to remove the loose flesh. It splattered her and the room. If only I had something to cut the tail off with. I could really paint this place red. Her heartbeat was crawling to a stop. The fun would end soon. I needed someone new to play with. I bent down to her ear.
“This all could have been avoided. You should have left me as I was. Now you will find out what it is like to die. You are already feeling the pain and your life slipping away.” I grabbed one of her paws and put it over her heart with my hand. “You feel that? That is your heartbeat. It is almost done now. The end is near for you. Know this. You are going to Hell, and when they figure out how to kill me, I will be there with you and this will continue.” Her eyes widened with fear.
She knew that if there were a Hell, I would follow. I would be welcomed without hesitation. She was going to be the first of many. I smashed my hand hard enough on top of her paw resting on her ribs that it broke through, smashing to her heart. “I heard once that if your heart is damaged you only have a few moments to live. Here is the last thought for you to keep.” I pulled her paw back and wrapped my hand around her heart and bone squeezing down. “You will always be mine.” It stopped cold and lifeless in my hand.
Chapter 39
I could hear them rush to the window and door. They wanted in. They knew what I did. My smile grew on my face, and a little laugh escaped. Their heartbeats racing, I was sure they were trying to figure out what I had just done. They would want revenge. That is how little dogs work. If one is hurt then they all get hurt. I unstrapped her body from the gurney. She had not reverted to a human. I guess that answers that question. If you’re a dog, you stay a dog.
I wanted someone new. I needed someone new. The blood covered the floor. If I were not careful, I would slip in it. Mmm, a bath of blood… I could remember my last one. The warm coolness enveloped my body pulling me into it. The darkness dripping from my body pulled me out of the warmth. I could hear the drops as though it were happening right then. Her dripping body came close. The memory of the night with Ash tried to break free. Was it the hair? I could hear a muffled voice again.
Her screams were gone. They were not coming in here. I think it was time I got out of this box and found a new toy. I picked up her body and
threw it against the window. It did not break. This was not very fair. Well, I guess batters up. I picked her up by her back legs, and continued to swing her against the glass until the glass broke. I could hear it then. Heavy breathing and a low growl came from the room. Which big bad wolf would this be?
I dropped the body to the ground. It splattered and thudded against the blood. My arms and body dripped with the blood. The now ice-cold spatters clung to my face. I grabbed for the window seat cutting my hand on the broken glass. A shard happily embedded itself in my hand. I was not going to let anything stop me. They could not lock that room from the outside.
I pulled myself up kicking the wall trying to get leverage. As I put my head up over the glass, I felt a crushing blow to my head. Instinctively, my head jerked to the side moving with it. What was this, a whack a mole game for them? I was not going to take a second hit. I quickly pulled myself onto the window seat scraping my legs against the broken glass. Glass tore into my jeans and made shallow cuts.
Darkness escaped from me. The low growl came once again. I looked to it. It was a young were. Did I kill his sister or mom? Well, this family should be reunited. I jumped down from the window seat pounding the floor with dripping blood and darkness. I could hear as the others were trying to hold the door closed before they could make it permanent. I had things to destroy. They were whom I came for.
“Emily, you need to stop. I order you to!” The voice so calm almost excepting of the situation, yet commanding me to obey, only enraged me further. Who was she to tell me to stop? Why would I stop? There are no limits to what I can do.
“You are either with me or you are against me.” My voice was filled with darkness.
“Emily, I can offer you a true immortal life. Not this existence in between. I will make the sacrifice for you. I will finish what Dr. Heart started. You just have to stop. I can see true talent for bloodlust, and I want you. I won’t throw you away like all the others. It is a rare thing in these times for a vampire to make an offer of immortality to you. Do you not understand? We just need little cows to feed the newbies off, and then we have a whole army. I won’t make you drink one of the cows. I will give you source life from me like the old days. That way we will be truly bonded.”
“Right, truly bonded? Why would I want that?”
“Because you are with us or you’re dead. I see now that I should have given more thought before I left you with Bren.”
“Well, then I guess you’re next on my menu.”
“Come and find me then, Bitch! I will kill you just the same!”
That was her choice. The boy could wait. I wanted Brennus first. I wanted to end this hold he thinks he has. I stomped toward the door flinging blood and darkness against the floors cleanliness. The boy turned, flinging himself against me. Did he think he would stop me? He hit my side with all his force as if he could take me down. I elbowed him into the chest before he could get his arms around me. His body fell backwards.
I grabbed for the knob. I pulled, but it would not move. They were trying to hold me in. This was not going to work. I cared not for what would happen, and I started hitting the door trying to break through. I was not going to give up easily. The metal bent slowly cutting into me with the movement. Blackness ran down the door covering it. I could feel as I was half way through the heartbeats on the other side calling to me begging me to come and take them. I would be there soon.
The boy was quicker to move than I thought. He jumped on my back. I spun around slamming him against the door. Hmmm, a battering ram? He would not budge. I kept slamming him until he let go. His body collapsed. I picked up the boy and threw him against the far wall. No one was going to stop me. Humanity, werewolves, vampires needed to be exterminated. I would wash this world clean. Only those like me deserved to live.
I pulled on the door from the darkened hole I had made ripping it back and cutting my hands. This place would burn and everything in it. The door grudgingly moved against my force trying to hold me in. The blood and darkness streaked back with the door as it moved to open. The other side held werewolves waiting to take me. I came for them. It was time to end them. I took in a lungful of them wanting to know them.
The heat of their bodies felt like fire licking at me as I opened it up. Oh, I would be warm again. Today was judgment day. I ripped it back flinging it hard against the wall. It hit the wall with a shuttering sound. Wolves half changed leapt for me. I tore from one to the next, cutting and clawing at them. No time to savor the kills. Brennus was the top one on my list. Their flesh and fur cut easily as I dug my nails in. I bit into one and then the next. It became a blur of fur, blood, and flesh. The world was black to me. No color to wash it.
Chapter 40
I moved over the bodies as they piled in my wake. I stopped hard down trying to break and crush as many as I could. Cricking and cracking filled the halls as I moved through them. The tearing of the flesh was a soft and subtle sound that was undisturbed. The cooling blood rushed into me, but did not warm me as Brennus once had. Everything was left undone in them. Their faces melted into the next. The smells clumped together, and nothing pulled me toward them.
I was not attracted to them as a whole. Together in this mass, they were wet, bloody, mottled dogs. Nothing was going to satisfy me. Blood filled the walls and dripped down with the bodies. This place would become a place of death. There were no shadows on the walls, just stains of blood. No mercy. Nothing would be left of this world. Destruction was the only thing I craved. They were a never-ending sea of dead who thought they would win. Nothing was going to live. I was dead so they would be. Pain did not register as they attempted to take me down. They clawed and bit into me as I tore and ripped at them. This is what the universe wanted. This is what was always going to happen. This was going to be the end.
I smiled as I found a vampire rushing into help the dogs. I grabbed for its neck forcing it against the wall. The dogs tore at me as I ripped into its flesh. The white flesh was cold and felt like a wet fish. I bit into it tearing and pulling. The vampire tried to fight back. Its movements only pushed me to go farther. I tore open the shirt and tore open his chest. Bones and organs were not as expected. They were lively and still juicy. I broke the bones easily. The heart lay lifeless in his chest. I pulled it out tearing the flesh and muscle trying to protect it. It squished in my hand as I moved it between my fingers. I shoved it in a dog’s mouth as it lunged for me.
The vampire tried to free itself, but it was not going anywhere. As soon as the dog bit down on the heart, the vampire had a face of pain. It tried to drop to its knees, but I would not let go of my hold. I was not sure how to kill it, but tearing it apart would be fun. The smell came to me. Brennus. The dog was going to try to stop me? Foolish of him to think he would win. I had almost killed him, and now I would finish him off. I let go of the vampire and swatted away the dogs slamming them against the hallway walls with a yelping cry. The vampire crumpled to the ground grasping at the air toward me unable to move.
Pieces of my flesh clung to me, half holding in darkness and half being overrun with it. I could feel the wounds, but the pain was not the same. It was there but left, unfeeling. I was not slow or feeble. Tatters of my clothing clung to the blood and darkness. Fur clumped in patches against me. The floor was becoming slick from the blood and darkness that was draining on to it. I shook my hands free from torn flesh that encapsulated my fingers. Brennus was going to be mine. I wanted to see the light leave his eyes. I wanted him to feel the cold, painful death he once had thought about me.
Rage renewed, I moved quicker following the scent. This was fate. This was going to be their Armageddon. I could feel the dogs trying to grab on to me to make me stay, but they were helpless against my will. I rounded a corner and there he was. He was human with his leg torn open and blood washing down his leg from the bandages. His eyes were of tired anger.
“This could have gone so differently for you. You could have just given in. Now they will suffer for
you. This was not only about you. As I said, there are more.” Brennus clumped the words together between breaths.
More? I then knew what he was talking about. The more would be my downfall, he thought. He thought wrong. The scent of him came to me as he stood next to Brennus. He was my kind. The black darkness of his eyes was unchanging and unmoving. No breath escaped him. His body,a cold grey white mass,stood still awaiting instruction. Blood dripped from his lips. He had freshly fed. The smell of it was so familiar. The smell brought back the memory of her.
The dead dog laying in pieces of her insides and blood drained on the floor. He had fed from her. The toxic smell wrapped around him enveloping him. He had given in. He chose to take her, as Brennus had wanted me to take him. Giving in was never going to be an option. If he stood in my way, he would die, too. No matter if he was like me or not. I would tear through him to get to Brennus. I wanted Brennus’ heart in my hand. I wanted to rip it out and squeeze it dry. This snow white was not looking for a new prince charming.
His hands were open and tensed as though waiting just for a blink to move. His body was defined and cold. The cold stillness licked at me even from here with the fire of the dead dogs behind me still smoldering as their bodies cooled like embers of a fire. Thump. His heartbeat, a movement I was not expecting. My own mimicked the expression. Shadows seemed to fill the empty space between us.
My focus split between the two. Who to take first? Who to kill first? Who would make the first move? Standing there, we both were waiting for a movement, something to give the other the upper hand, something that would show weakness. I could feel the heat of a dog as it neared my back. Who would take me first? The flesh clung loosely to my arms. I pulled the shards of the shirt around me. It was a standoff between them and me. I was not going to give into them, their wants, and their desires. I was done with this game and the pieces. I was a king, and I would take down this pawn.
