I opened my eyes to a scarred face framed by layered strands of honey blonde hair. And though the jaw was strongly set, the features tensed and the face basically frowning; I was able to find more to the stranger's scowl as I looked on.
There was subtle sadness in the otherwise glaring downcast eyes. Hints of conflicted uncertainty were traceable along the once seemingly unwavering grimace. The lightly knit brows appeared more pleading than frowning.
And the features in all grew more familiar than foreign.
The sadness intrigued, the hesitancy tugged at the heart, the pleas urged, and the unreasonable familiarity thankfully reassured.
However, as I wondered at my nameless friend, he all but disappeared. Leaving me to a burning thirst that swallowed my whole body in flames. I had no idea when it had crept up.. What it even exactly was.. But it dominated my every thought. Sparing none to question where the curious face had gone to, and where I myself was going at the moment.
I was running. shuffling past trees I barely noticed. Perhaps heading to wherever this conquering thirst might be satiated. I joined my independent body in its instinctive flight as I yearned more and more to stop the devil gnawing at my throat. Completely overpowered, I didn't get a chance to bear my surroundings. However, just as a staggering scent knocked out my breath and froze me in place, a surfacing scene drowned all around me, demanding my attention.
It was a girl.
A tiny girl with cropped hair flashing through the woods.
Her red eyes were horrifying and her bared teeth even more so. It was coal black with only the moon to reflect weakly off the trees and her frighteningly pale skin. Yet she carried herself with natural assertiveness, evidently at home with the nocturnal wild setting. She could just as easily have been a slick wolf or a charging mountain lion for all it seemed.
Three stray campers came in view, and on sighting them she grew impossibly even faster. A low grumble worked its way up her throat as she ran straight for the first one. A boy, who couldn't have been over fifteen, had a fraction of a minute to make her out. And only seconds to widen his eyes in horror as she sank her teeth in his throat, before they dimmed as she sucked his life out.
His companion, a slightly older boy, fell to the ground as screams broke out. He scrambled backwards frantically. Wanting to bolt away but unable to tear his eyes from the bloody scene. Only managing a few feet before cutting his hands on the sharp twigs that littered what was soon to be his grave. The girl whipped her head to the direction of the dripping blood and darted for it. She crushed her teeth to the wounds before moving to the neck. The second carcass was dropped, and the first picked up, apparently not drained enough for her liking.
It was a disgusting thing to behold.
After the body had been completely dried and cast aside, she finally turned to the third camper. The middle aged man had not moved one step backwards, had not raised a shaky voice with one cry of terror. Had not even glanced at the predator charging at him. He had only eyes for the tossed bodies. The murdered boys.
And all was soon over.
The woods materialized before me once again. The scent that had frozen me in my tracks sprang me to life. And I darted to where a man was comically fumbling with a broken torch to the entertainment of two laughing kids.
I knew what I had to do.
It ended quickly. I saw no horrified eyes, only luring blood flowing through inviting veins. I heard no astounded cries, only rhythmic thudding of circulating liquid. I felt no disgust, only the most gratifying satisfaction. The greatest of all reliefs quenching the greatest of all pains. I threw my head back in thankful solace. But in between that delicious moment of savoring satisfaction and that inevitable moment of craving more, I had a moment of clearance. A moment of total self possession. Just the smallest of moments to take it all in as it truly was. And in that moment I found myself crouching over a dried body. Hastily straightening up only to find two more staring me down. I knew what I've done. I'd seen it. But I couldn't draw anything else. I tried to establish what I was, who I was, why I'd done this, how I'd done this, what brought me here.. Where was here?
Nothing.
Panic-stricken, i helplessly turned my eyes either and every side, seeking answers from whatever provides, but only finding death blankly looking back, raising more panic and asking more questions.
I closed my eyes, in a desperate attempt to concentrate, willing anything to come to mind.
Then I remembered a face.
A scarred face framed by layered strands of honey blonde hair. Holding a strange look that became somewhat clearer now, somehow more relatable. I held on to the only relatively familiar thing I knew. Before it slipped away.
As did my short moment of clearance.
Before the thirst conquered yet again.
Before the craving dominated yet again.
And a tiny girl with cropped hair visited me once more.
Inviting me to follow suit as she flashed through the woods, to where a flaunting scent was beckoning.
