Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight Pup
Blood dribbled down. Hands groped at the drops, rushing. The limbs quivered, skin of the wound gulping desperately to suck the blood back into the bitten body. Skin tremendously itchy and hairs stood on end, frantic foreign hands tried to help the flesh to drink the substance. They rubbed at the layers, trying to bring warmth back to the cooling casing of the person. His attempts failed. Blood burst. Her flesh opened up and she cried out hoarsely. Derek whined, tone high and words incoherent.
His mind was taken back - back to the last girl he had killed.
Salty tears tickled the hairs on his arms as they fell from her chin. Her soft skin was sleek with her blood, as red as his new eyes.
"You sai-said," the young girl gasped, eyes brightening to vibrant amber. As the colour waned, a pained yelp escaped her gaping mouth. She shouted out to him, clinging to the lapels of his jacket, "You promised... Said - I was strong enough."
Derek drew in a harrowing breath that rattled the marrow in her shaking bones. "Seemed," he lowly told her, "I was wrong." His voice cracked and they both sank into one another's embrace, as reality solidified itself. His arms were warm. She snuggled into his grasp with trouble, as pain shot through her every nerve. The poison was quick to cause pain, but slow to actually kill. She closed her teary eyes, trying to suck in another yelp. Grasp tightening, muscles complaining greatly as she did so, the young girl rested upon his lap. Derek tugged her body closer, feeling her flesh as she grew colder.
"I'm going to die." The student stammered. Her bloody hands anxiously twisted themselves into Derek's jacket, coating him. She insisted, "I just wan – want – wanted… I just wanted to be-"
"I know." He replied, grip tightening round her as her lungs stumbled. She flinched, as her joints clicked uncomfortably. He pulled her close regardless, listening with haggard breaths as her heart fluttered unevenly. Her eyes shifted again, the inner werewolf trying to push through her humanity. "Your body is trying," Derek wildly insisted, rocking her gently, "Just give it time."
She shook her head, staring up at his sweating visage. His dark brows were furrowed and nose crinkled with concern. Sight unseeing, as her pupils clouded over with drowsiness, her grip on him began to loosen.
Derek grasped at her cheeks, shook her arms and pinched at her bloodied body.
Eyes widening, he loudly pursued, "Just a little more time!"
"Please." she slowly begged, word slurring as her blood drained down into the soil of the wood. The roots of the trees soaked up the sticky substance, which browned like bark as it dried.
Derek hastily spat, "Don't ask that of me!" As he gazed down at her, crumbling into his chest upon his lap, Derek almost wailed, "You're going to be fine... You'll make it, you'll see!"
"Aye," she whispered weakly, eyes closed and dry pink lips slightly parted. Breathing was becoming too difficult for her. The burning in her lungs, as she drew in each breath was replaced. It felt like a heavy slab of concrete had been placed atop her chest.
Derek rocked her from side to side, eyes scanning the foliage round them for potential predators. The young lass heaved, coughing out with a weak smile, "I'll go to sleep and wake up tomorrow like nothing bad happened at all, right?"
Derek's lips pursed, as he watched the character on her visage fade. She was giving in to unconsciousness. He murmured softly, leaning to down to kiss her dirtied cheek, "Yes, that is exactly what's going to happen..."
From within his grasp, she rose up her arm and clutched her raw bloody fingers round his jaw. Eyes too heavy to open a last time and voice straining, the young lass expressed with what affection was left for him, "We tried."
Tears meandered over his pores, as he felt her tense limbs involuntarily relax. He gently laid her out on the forest floor, stroking her cheeks and memorising her face.
Derek eventually rose from the ground. Staring round him, as the moon dissipated in the sunrise above the upper canopy that cloaked the pair of them in a dull shade, Derek stuffed his shaking hands into the pockets of his stained leather jacket. He gulped, turning away from the body splayed on the tarnished sodden soil. It was caking over with frosty dew. The bite continued to drip and from the wound dribbled a black substance much more similar to tar rather than the deep maroon colour of blood.
As he walked, footsteps heavy and legs feeling somewhat numb, his eyes glistened. Coughing, attempting to choke down the sore ache from his heart, Derek meandered away from the site.
He did not look back, but could not stop himself from saying something - anything.
Eyes red, Derek spluttered, "Goodnight pup."
He had lost one... his first.
Together they could have...