I recently ran away to visit some of my family and friends and while on this trip one of my longest friendships sat me down and basically slapped the shit out of me for quitting these stories. So in the hopes of ever being invited back into her household, I'm updating.
Thank you to the people that still encouraged me even when they were disappointed.
Chapter 32: Lost Little Mare
Branches tore at my thin shirt, tugging at me from every direction, the grass soft and slightly wet beneath my bare feet. I didn' particularly know when I had slid out of my shoes - of if I had even been the one to do it. My skin felt oddly worn, dirty in a way that wasn't entirely visible to the human eye. But I felt it. I felt the grease of human hands on my cheeks, circling my arms, sliding beneath the hem of my shirt. I felt their breath like my skin was glass and they had gotten close enough to fog my surface over. I felt...used.
"Oh for fuck's sake," a low voice hissed in the distance and I paused, stilling in the afternoon heat of Lousiana. We were close to the bog here, barely 5 miles from the nearest swamp and everything seemed to thicken with the proximity. A twig snapped to my right, sending a wild leap of joy through me. I had known that the mare was close. My lips curled. Just not how close. "Fucking dumpster fire of a bum-fuck, flea-ridden-"
She broke through the last bramble of bushes, the low hanging moss from the trees above slithering through her tangle of ebony hair. The mare was pretty - her lips pulled into a pout that would have made anyone think of low whispers and candlelight. There was a pinched cast to her eyes that seemed almost secretive, the button nose an afterthought in her otherwise sharp features. Her new Louis Vuittons sank dangerously in the muck.
She was a city girl. I could taste it in the air, an altogether overpowering whiff of designer cologne assaulting me before I could even see the tailored skirt and expensive manicure. People like her got lost in areas like Bon Temp. In terms of prey...she was lackluster to say the least. The excited buzz running through my veins fizzled a bit.
Her eyes finally flicked up from the mess of her heels, a scowl firmly attached to those pouty lips. "Oh… did you hear that?"
I didn't answer.
It was disconcerting seeing someone so decidedly out of their depths stumble from the darkness of the city's remote swamp. It was even more disconcerting to realize that I didn't particularly want to kill her. There was something so completely innocent about her entrance that it made me feel slightly predatory, definitely treacherous. Like a gator watching a young gazelle step foot in the shallows - too young to know better and too weak to be a challenge.
Louis Vuitton blinked, her bottom lip pressing out a bit more as she scanned me. The first sign of apprehension slipped across her face. "You're the mare, right? I was sent-."
I didn't wait for her to finish, stepping forward and slamming a fist into her nose. Bone crunched, breaking apart beneath the jagged hills of my knuckles and sending the first spray of blood down my arm. I didn't want to hurt her. I didn't even particularly want to spend that much more time with her either. But that didn't mean I was going to let her go. Maryann wanted me to kill her and I didn't care either way if I did or not so that probably meant I should get on with things. Quickly.
Blood splattered across the ground, a feeble squawk leaving Louis Vuitton like the last call of a wounded swan. "What the literal fuck, bumpkin?!"
Bumpkin? My smile slipped. "That's not nice."
Tears streamed down her face, that manicured hand getting more and more bloody as her body finally caught up to her injuries, red dribbling out and through her fingers. The whole effect was a snotty, scarlet mess, a snail trail of damage as her eyes darted unsteadily around me. I knew what that look was. She couldn't even properly see me right now through all of the trauma issued so close to her eyes. A prickle of annoyance spiked through me.
No fun.
Everyone was so boring.
Maryann would probably be fun. My mouth filled with saliva. I knew Maryann would be fun. She wouldn't let me win this easily. She would at least do more than bleed all over the ground after I broke her nose. Especially if i got her to go into that delicious beast form that she had been hiding away...
"God, I knew that she was fucking me over when she told me to go to Louisiana," the mare hissed, gulping down a breath of uneven air. Her side hit the base of a tree hard, the hand not clutching at her nose going to steady her weight. "You whip one guy into a killing spree and all of a sudden you're in time out."
I wasn't listening anymore, taking the short space between us in a long leap. Maybe I should have waited a bit to let her recover. My mind recoiled at the idea, the thought bringing forward images of a child playing with their food. Iron coated my stomach, making the last step toward the now screaming mare steady.
"W-wait!" Her attempts to bat me away made my heart ache, an odd distant scream bubbling up in my gut. I don't want to hurt you. "I came to - to he - help-"
I ducked to the side, sliding behind her. I was a little bit taller than her even in heels - a stroke of luck as I wrapped a forearm around her throat, choking up on my arm for more pressure. An odd sob convulsed my throat at her low whimper, the way her body struggled against my front. I didn't want to hurt her but I knew I had to. My arm was already crushing down on her throat but the shake in my muscles wasn't from the strain. I want to run away but my body was almost lax as it held her under control. Those two opposing parts of me battled, screaming out like two opposing instruments trying to sync.
It takes a long time for someone to pass out from strangulation - an even longer time for someone who's fighting for their life. Her elbows battered my ribs, her head jerking back and catching my jaw and then my lip. The heel of her foot slammed into my own so many times that my soles started to sink into the wet ground. I didn't fight her. Maybe I should have slammed her head against a tree real quick to knock her out but I didn't.
Screams eventually became whimpers and then gasps and then soft, barely-there pants. My skin crawled. I hated this. The muscles in my biceps burned as I tightened up even more, sinking to the ground with her as her body gave out, her arms falling limply to the ground.
This wasn't right, a small voice whimpered inside of me. None of this felt right.
Our bodies sank smoothly to the jungle of the swamps, dirt and damp caking our knees. Some part of me expanded on a scream, something deep in the back of my mind ripping itself to shreds. I didn't look at the girl who had used to be a mare, my head instead tipping back to the full face of the moon peeking through the Louisiana cypress. The swamps had been silent for the last few nights, the crickets running away from whatever hell hole I had fallen into.
I blinked. Hell? I wasn't...
My hand bumped into the lifeless body of the girl who had wandered too close to my home. If she had just-
I pushed the thought away, forcing another smile to my face. I was just getting bored. I had been doing this whole killing thing for a while after all. A challenge was honestly in order, I thought glumly, keeping my eyes trained to the treetops. If I looked down and saw… Well, I didn't particularly know what would happen but I could feel the tight fist squeezing my spleen. Whatever happened would be bad. If I looked at that poor girl that I had just -
Poor girl? My brows furrowed, an irritated breath leaving me as I forced myself to my feet. People like me didn't feel sympathy for people like her. People like her were weak. They were prey. People like me-
Monster, a voice hissed, echoing along the broken edges of my insides. My shoulders stiffened.
Pain ripped through my middle, cutting me open until I let out a strangled gasp. I wasn't -
Snap!
My skin crawled as I whirled, the falling darkness making the gnarled limbs of the trees seem like an infinite number of intruders. I might have imagined… For a moment, breath sawing from my lunges, I thought that maybe I had misheard. Maybe some animal had wandered from their hiding space. I would have lulled myself if it hadn't been for the shift in the shadows, the sudden glow of twin blue flames catching the moonlight. The glint of fangs.
"Oh, little mare," a voice made of gravel and sin murmured. "What has she done to you?"
