Chapter 2 -
The slender shadow glided over the forest floor completely covered in a heavily laced cloak, stopping inches in front of my face in a show of dominance. But I knew exactly who it was.
"Samara I know..." I began weakly.
"Boo!" Samara snapped as she peeled back the hood to reveal a lifeless, bloodied face of an animal.
I stumbled back in shock and fell back to the ground. "Samara! What the hell?"
"Sorry, thought it'd be funny," she started lightly, "besides, I just saved your life, again." She took the dead animal from under her hood and casually flung it at me.
"Samara! Come on!" I shot back as I rolled out of the way of the flying corpse. Hearing Samara chuckle as the dead animal landed with a thud next to me, I stared at the red-stained animal and realized it was a rabbit.
"This is my lesson for you," Samara perked up as she scaled up a nearby tree and crouched on a branch that should've bowed under her weight. "Actually there are two lessons here. Can you guess, Jake?"
"Now you're just showing off..." I said indignantly as I pushed the dead rabbit away using the stick I momentarily forgot I had still clutched in my hand.
"So..." Samara teased.
"Hmm, lessons learned...err, not to be cocky?" As I rose back to my feet I felt an array of warmth around Samara.
"Oh yes, well that is another lesson learned, isn't it?" Samara reached into her cloak, pulled out another rabbit by its feet and threw it towards me. "Here, have this while you listen."
The rabbit fell limply into my arms; its little heart beat rapidly against my torso. I could feel its anxiety, its will to live stripped away by the injuries it had suffered. Shoving any sorry thoughts I had for this animal aside, I raised its body up and hesitantly bit into its neck. The rabbit didn't struggle at all as I drained it of its radiance; its vile-tasting blood entered into my cold shell, barely warming it. It gave up the last of its life to me, to give me a finite strength.
"So, Jake, feeling better?" Samara smirked from above.
A hugely reserved strength had returned to my limbs and after taking the last of the rabbit's blood before its heart stopped, I gazed up at Samara with a hint of emptiness; every feed, every animal I feed on, seemed to take away a fragment of my spirit and it became clearer now that it had in the past how Samara must feel after so many years of killing. "Yup," I gulped somewhat humbled.
"Good. A bear? Really? What were you thinking?" Samara joked.
"I thought I was all...err..." I stuttered.
"All-powerful? Lesson number one: You are not all-powerful. This is not a game Jacob, you cannot just hit the reset button! That bear would have shredded you to pieces. Our kind tends to get big-headed, too confident. This is one advantage we have over the bad ones; we think, we train, we learn. You don't survive on brute strength when you opponent has the same, you win on smarts and skill."
"Um, yeah...sorry," I replied feeling foolish.
"Lesson two: If you can help it, don't hunt alone. You are vulnerable when you feed because you lose your spatial awareness. And another piece of advice Jacob: Smaller animals are easier to kill, and nobody gives a shit about rabbits - they're generally perceived as a pest, but they do taste horrible. Also respect every animal you kill for they have given you life - this is something the world has forgotten.
"What do you do with all the corpses?"
"It's probably easier to show you," Samara said as she jumped down off the branch landing on the forest floor with no more than a rustling of a leaf or two. "Give the rabbit to me."
"Okay, here. Should I be worried?" I asked intrigued.
"You probably want to look away, but I suggest you watch," Samara replied softly as she gripped the rabbit by one leg. I then watched as she proceeded to run her finger nails around three of the feet before gripping the rabbits fur and pulling hard, separating the skin from its muscle. Feeling a wave of sickness in my stomach, I turned away and gagged.
"Here hold this," Samara said as she placed something soft in my hand which appeared to be the rabbit's foot. "And look here, this is what you do."
Apprehensively turning to face Samara, I watched as she reached into the rabbit's torso, removed all its internals and threw them out towards the sea. My stomached dry-heaved again. Samara then folded the skin fur-side up and shoved it in my face.
"Hey! What the fuck are you doing?" I screeched out attempting to swipe Samara's arm away without success.
"There," Samara began as she removed the fur from out of my face looking pleased with herself. "Another thing I'm going to have to teach you is how to feed without getting blood all over your innocent face. It's a dead giveaway."
"Not cool, Samara!" I said hotly, feverishly wiping my face with my sleeve. "Besides, what the hell are you going to do with the fur?"
"Where do you think all my clothes come from, Jacob?" Samara replied stroking the fur in her hand ominously. "Where do you think your cloak came from?"
"But I've never seen you wearing fur? You don't feel the cold right? Why would you need fur coats?"
"The fur from all the animals I feed on Jacob, are woven together by hand; tedious job obviously. I found that I was able to weave a lot tighter than any man-made textile ensuring that my cloak was strong, and most importantly completely lightproof." Samara pulled out a few rabbit hairs and knotted them together almost instantaneously creating a length of string around a foot long. "Being completely wrapped in darkness is good for us Jacob. Trust me, my coats are good."
"Wow, okay that's, well, impressive," I exclaimed feeling my respect for Samara grow. "So what now?"
"We should head back to the manor, we've got to get ready for our trip," Samara softly said as she tied the rabbit skin to her cloak and began walking off. "We need to get you ready."
"Why is it that I can't seem to control my abilities?" I questioned impatiently catching up to Samara who was walking at a heightened, urgent pace towards the cliffside.
"Remember the night you awoke in the cabin Jacob?" Samara said as she raised her hood over her head, concealing her dark lengthy hair.
"Yeah, I don't think I'll ever forget..." I said trailing off with the memory.
"That night you used the sound of the rain on the roof to control your focus, but you need to find another source Jacob, one you can conjure up in your mind, and in an instance, as you found out just before with the bear; it could mean the difference between you getting yourself killed or surviving and I need you with me Jacob. You don't know how long I've waited for someone like you."
