She felt the downpour before it came. That subtle cold prickling at her skin, the slight drop of temperature that made the tiny hair on her arms stand up, and the increase of humidity against her nostrils.

She didn't mind the rain. Sometimes she enjoyed it. Just not when she was wounded. The cold that always came with it was most uncomfortable when she had open injuries on her body. It hurt the new, tender flesh and numbed the nerves surrounding the wound to the point that healing became painful. If she wanted to heal faster, she needed a warm and safe place which, unfortunately for her, was something Zoey's car couldn't provide.

"Are we there yet?" Liliana asked the question that had been dominating Callynthera's thoughts for the past hour, before finishing up her chocolate-chipped biscuit under the envious gaze of her aunt. There were few things that appealed to the redhead's tastes, biscuits not being one of them, but the mere sight of the girl hungrily munching on her snack, reminded her how empty her stomach had been for months now. She had never been so hungry in her life.

Her eyes shifted to the girl's arm, its muscles flexing and moving under the flesh, and she felt herself salivating. The pain of her empty, protesting stomach, started growing more and more intense, to the point where she didn't hear Zoey giving an affirmative answer to her daughter as she parked the car on the side of the road. All she could focus on was the small, tanned limb less than a foot away from her.

It must be soft...

And juicy...

Delicious

The slamming of the car door shut snapped her out of her hunger, her head turning this way and that in surprise to understand what was happening. Through the slightly foggy window, she spotted Zoey walking towards the door of the house they had parked in front of, her hand rising to ring the bell as the first droplets of rain hit the ground. The redhead blinked a few times in confusion, turning to acknowledge the girl across from her when it called to her.

"Would you like a cookie, aunt?" Liliana smiled, offering her the open pack. Callynthera stared at her for a few moments before closing her mouth, a feeling of dread pooling in the pit of her stomach when she felt her bottom lip graze against her suddenly very sharp teeth.

She forced her mouth to form a tight-lipped smile and slowly shook her head. "No, Lily. I'm okay, thank you...Um, where did your mom go?" she asked, looking out of the window once more, at the now empty doorstep.

The girl looked at her with a baffled expression, as if the answer was something she should already know. "She went to take the key to our new house from a man."

As if on cue, the driver's door opened and Zoey hopped into the seat with a smile and a key in her hand. "Got it, girls! In a few minutes, we'll be in a nice, cozy, warm house."

Callynthera's shoulders slumped at the forced cheerfulness of her friend, turning her head to the side when she sensed the same hidden sorrow coming from the woman's child. As the car engine came back to life and the car moved forward, the redhead glanced at the newly formed scars her wounds had become, blaming herself for hurting her family.

Her eyes glanced out of the car window, observing the clouded landscape and wishing it would prove to be a good place for them to live in. She wouldn't live with herself knowing her family was miserable staying here. Thankfully, her hopes got up when she spotted a small figure in a yellow raincoat step out of a house.

At least Lily will make some friends... she thought as they passed by the child with a paper boat in its hand.

It didn't take long for them to find the house. Just like Zoey had said, based on her landlord's instructions, after a five-minute drive and a couple of turns, their vehicle was parked in front of a lovely, two-story building with a wooden porch and a small garden in the back. The sight of it, however, didn't make Callynthera feel any safer than before.

Zoey turned off the engine and moved in her seat to look back at the two passengers. "Well, this is it. I'm quickly going to put our luggage inside, so I want you two to stay here until I come to get you. Our umbrellas are in the bags, so you'll have to wait for me to find them. Cally, will you keep Lily warm for me, please?"

The woman in question nodded with no hesitation, wrapping an arm around the child and bringing it close to her side. "Yes, of course."

Zoey smiled thankfully and got out of the car, exposing herself to the now heavily pouring rain. "I won't be long!"

Callynthera felt Liliana shiver the slightest bit, a movement that would normally go unnoticed by an ordinary human, and reached to wrap her in her blanket, pressing her a bit more against her side. "Are you okay, Lily?"

"I want to go home." the girl murmured, snuggling close to her aunt both for warmth and comfort. The woman wrapped her other hand around the girl in response, hugging her softly, while making sure her blood-stained clothes didn't come into contact with the girl's skin. "I know, little one... But, if we go back, I might not be able to stay with you. I will have to hide."

"No!" Liliana grabbed onto her arm, looking up at the woman in alarm. "I want you to stay with me and mommy!"

Callynthera gave her an apologetic look, stopping herself from staring too long at the girl's pulsing neck. "I can't do that if we go back... But here, I will be safe and free to be with you, all the time."

The brunette lowered her head, trying to hide her pout. "Mom said that too..."

"Because she wants us to be okay. She knows how hard it is to change home, it's hard for her too. And I'm sorry you had to do that because of me." Callynthera rubbed Liliana's back soothingly, letting her know how it hurt her to deracinate their family and force them to an unknown, uncertain future. "But, I promise you, I will make sure you are happy here. You'll see, you will come to love... this..."

Her voice slowly faded to silence, her eyes watching intensely her hand moving over the girl's back. Feeling the tender flesh through the blanket and the clothing. The tightness of her stomach intensified. She could almost hear the blood coursing through the child's veins and feel its warmth brush against her fingertips.

Something wet run down her chin. She was drooling.

"Aunt Cally?"

The voice was blurry when it reached her ears. Through her vision, focused on the girl's back, she managed to make out the blurry shape of her hand, resting still on the blue blanket. Confused by how unusually long it looked, she forced herself to blink a few times, clearing her vision.

Claws had come out, making her fingers two times longer. Her stomach growled and her breath came out faster, heart pumping with fear.

Hungry...

"Auntie?"

No... Not Lily

As the girl raised her head to meet the woman's gaze, Callynthera's head snapped to the side, and her elongated teeth sank into her bottom lip, snapping her out of her daze.

"Are you okay?" The redhead pulled her hands away from the concerned girl hurriedly and used them to cover the blood running down her chin from the numerous punctures her teeth had left. Had she bitten any harder, she would be missing a lip.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Uh, can you give me some napkins, please?" she asked, frantically trying to stop the excessive bleeding running down her chin and onto her blouse.

"Uhh yes, ju-"

Just then, Lilian's door opened, the soaking figure of her mother bending down at them with an open umbrella above the car hood.

"All done! Come on, get out and hurry up inside!" she urged, reaching out to her daughter when a familiar scent reached Callynthera's nostrils.

"You new here?"

Zoey stood up straight and looked over her car to the other side of the road, at the end of the river bridge, spotting a man in a dark raincoat. She hesitated before raising her voice over the sound of the rain. "Excuse me?"

"I haven't seen you around here before. Are you new in town?" the man asked again with a raspy voice that placed him somewhere around his late fifties to early sixties. No matter the age, though, he was standing tall and intimidating.

Zoey got an uneasy feeling that made her mindful of her next words. "Yes... we just moved in."

The man didn't say anything more after that, only stood there. Observing from across the road through the harsh downpour. Zoey's grip on her umbrella tightened. Without taking her eyes off of the man, she reached down and helped Liliana out of the car. Passing her the umbrella, she quickly instructed her to get in the house and stay inside.

"This is a peaceful neighborhood, ma'am." the guy spoke up, just when the child's figure emerged from the side of the car. His tone attracted both mother and daughter's gazes to him, Liliana's feet pausing a few steps away from the doorstep. "And we don't want any dark fellows causing trouble."

Zoey's breath caught in her throat, her initial fears confirmed. "Liliana, go inside, now."

The girl looked at her without moving, getting nervous at the urgency in her mother's voice. Only when Zoey fully turned to her and firmly ordered her to get in the house, did she comply. As she rushed inside and shut the door behind her, the man started crossing the road, approaching the car. "You won't cause trouble, will you ma'am?"

"Stay the fuck back!" she yelled, her words being carried by the strong wind over the sound of the raging rain. The man stopped in his tracks, not used to this kind of aggressive behavior.

"I won't tolerate a racist pig like you threatening my family! Unless you have a valid accusation towards me, leave me and my family alone!" she barked, pushing some wet locks off of her face.

Her statement was followed by silence from the man as if processing her words in his mind. Zoey guessed he had threatened others before, but it appeared he hadn't encountered anyone bold enough to defy him. She doubted it was a good thing she had. She didn't want to make enemies on her very first night in a new place, plus it was never a good thing to challenge a racist. But Zoey wasn't someone who handled unfairness easily.

"And here I thought we could come to an understanding..." the man said, his tone becoming concerningly dark. "You, woman, need to be taught some respect... Holy shit!"

To Zoey's surprise, the man took a startled step back, staring at her in an almost frightened manner. She frowned in confusion, her focus on the man diminishing enough to make her more aware of her surroundings.

And the person the guy was staring at, behind her.

The moment she turned, she had the same reaction as the man. She couldn't help it. The sight of her friend just standing there in the rain, shoulders hunched and hair covering almost her whole face, wet to the bone, was disturbingly unsettling. The clothes sticking to her body were covered in a vibrant blue substance, staining most of her bosom, belly, and legs, a miniature waterfall of it running down her chin. Zoey's knowledge that this substance was her friend's blood, made the sight all the more terrifying to her.

Just then, the man seemed to awaken from his startled state. "What the hell is-!"

The woman charged at him before he could finish.

The wind filled with monstrous growls as she closed the distance between them, the man crying out in alarm and slipping back on the wet road, barely missing a deep graze from her claws. Landing hard on his back, his limbs frantically pushed against the concrete, away from the beast attacking him. To his horror, he spotted bared, sharp teeth and a pair of glowing white eyes with slitted pupils trained on him through the darkness of the stormy evening.

The woman attacked him again, digging her claws into his thigh to stop him. He cried out in pain, instinctively punching the creature across the face and using its momentary disorientation to kick it away with his other leg. To his luck, it was weak enough for his assaults to actually hurt.

"Cally!" Zoey cried in concern when she heard her friend let out pained growls that had her standing there, at a loss of what to do. She watched as the woman lunged fully on the fallen man with a roar, her brown eyes widening when the guy's hand found a short tree branch on the ground and used it to block the attack. Her friend was so frenzied that she didn't bother to push the wood away but rather allowed it to press against her collarbone and keep her a small distance away from the man's face while she bit and snapped and growled above him, not reaching close enough to take a bite.

The man grunted against her weight, feeling his arms weakening steadily. Seeing those deadly teeth get closer to his face, he brought his good leg close and kicked her on the scar of her stomach. The beast cried out and got off of him, hunching over her assaulted skin while her friend rushed to the side of the car.

Clutching his injured leg, the guy hissed as he got up with the help of the wood, using it to swing at the monster when it tried to stand back up. Raising his weapon for another hit, he didn't see the beast's next attack before it was too late. From kneeling on the concrete, it sprung up and grabbed the wood, pushing him against the railing of the bridge. As the two struggled with the wood, his back bending over the railing, he got an idea and fell to his knees.

"CALLY!" Zoey's cry echoed in the darkness as gravity pulled at the beast's weight and Callynthera howled as she plummeted to the icy waters of the inflated river.

The man struggled to calm his volatile breathing, grabbing the rail to pull himself to his feet, being mindful as to not stand on his bleeding leg. "What the fuck was that... that monster..."

A clicking sound attracted his attention to the other woman on the road. Who was now holding a shotgun and aiming straight at him. "Get lost!" she yelled in rage, underlining tremble coloring her voice.

The man stood bewildered, staring at her as if she were crazy. "What the hell is wrong with you?! I fought a fucking monster, my leg is bleeding and you're going to shoot me?!"

"Get away from my house!" she screamed, walking steadily towards him with the weapon firmly held in her grasp. "I swear I'll blow your ugly head off if you don't get out of my sight this instant!"

"Are you out of your mi-" the wood of the rail beside him exploded with a bang, making him shrink to himself. Eyes wide and jaw dropped, he watched with dread as she loaded the shotgun again and aimed it at him. "Beat it!"

This time, he hurried away from her, limping and hissing at the pain from his injury. Zoey didn't wait for him to disappear from her sight before she rushed to the railing and frantically searched the raging waters for her friend. After a few desperate seconds, she spotted red hair in the distance, floating down the length of the river and her heart sank. "Cally!"


Callynthera was experiencing what the fear of drowning felt like for the first time in her life. Never before had she trouble with the water, calm or raging. At that moment, though, as her weak body struggled to breach the surface for breath, only for her to get submerged again, she truly believed she could drown. And it terrified her.

Every few seconds she would breach the surface, gasping and coughing, letting out a cry or two before the turbulence of the waters pushed her head underwater once more. Her body was too tired, too starved to resist the violent current that dragged her down the stream, and whatever remnants of energy she had left were just enough for her head to emerge from the depths of the stream, even for just a few seconds. She was so desperate and uncertain of her survival, that her cries didn't resemble a woman's ones. They were an awful combination of human and animal sounds, like a personified monster calling for help.

As she floated further down the stream, her resurfacing decreased, her mouth now filling with water with each breath, making her cough and gargle. Her hands blindly tried to grab onto the rocks and roots that constantly crashed against her body, but her fingers kept slipping and bruising from the harsh impact. Feeling her throat burning, she pushed her feet against the wet soil of the stream and bolted to the surface, her hands rushing to dig into the closest bank. Her grip on the wet grass seemed to work, until the current pulled her away, making her lose her grip.

Having no strength to swim toward the bank anymore, she tilted her head back to try and keep it above the water as she reached out for anything solid she could grab on to. Many times her hands found a stray root or a large rock by the edge of the bank, and many times her grip was lost, water replacing the precious air in her mouth.

When her head suddenly sank below, her monstrous survival instincts took over completely.

She planted her feet deep into the stream's ground, fingers grabbing a loose root so hard her claws pierced her palms. Her descent down the stream stopped momentarily, allowing her to pull her body closer to the bank. The moment she raised one hand to grasp the edge, the root snapped.

Dread squeezed her heart as her body was violently pushed by the current.

And then, her chest collided with an enormous rock, stopping her body on the spot. The impact pushed the breath she had been holding out of her lungs and made her blurry vision fill with stars. She laid limp against the rock with the waters pressing her back as she struggled to not give in to the darkness that was consuming her. If she blacked out, she was dead.

Feeling her body beginning to slip away from the rock due to the strong current, she weakly wrapped her limbs around her last hope and abruptly pushed her head to the surface just as she breathed in water.

Her shoulders shook from a violent coughing fit, water and saliva spilling out of her burning throat. She gasped, filling her aching lungs with oxygen while letting her head rest atop the rock she was hugging. Her ragged breaths turned into panting shortly after and she felt her eyelids grow heavier. The harsh waters were still crashing against her back, reminding her that she wasn't entirely safe unless she reached the bank.

Feeling her body beg for rest, among other things, she made one last effort to get to the bank by pushing against the rock with her legs, her arms stretching out to the soil closest to her. Digging her claws into the bank, she put all the strength she had left into her arms, holding herself against the current that was pushing her whole body away. Slowly, she managed to drag herself onto the bank, her fingers disappearing deep into the wet soil. Her stomach had barely gotten out of the water before the strength left her, her arms falling limp on the grass.

She was exhausted, beaten, shaken, and starved. She could only cast a glance at the sky between the leaves of the branches above, the rain's last drops landing softly on her cheek before her eyes slid shut and her senses numbed. She entered a state between consciousness and darkness, where everything around her was a blurry, confusing image. A dream.

Besides the current's sound, the nature around her was silent, calming. The cool water pushing against her legs felt soothing for the first time since she fell into the river, running over her in an almost apologetic way for the near-death experience it had given her. She laid there, her breathing so faint you'd think she didn't have any.

She felt like she was all alone... Until she wasn't.

She thought she heard a muffled, drawn-out jingle. Like little bells. Her ears caught the distant sound of crunching soil and then the skin on the back of her neck numbed as if a strange presence was looming over her.

She caught another sound, possibly the rustling of cloth, and then a crack only joints could make, before the mystery presence came so close she started doubting this was a dream. The long waves of wet hair were heavy on her back, which is how she knew when she didn't feel them pressing down on her, that someone had lifted them. There were...short, rapid sounds like air being blown out. Not exactly breathing but...more like sniffing.

Hazy her mind as it was, it attempted to identify whatever was inspecting her by taking a sniff of her own. It didn't do any good, the only thing she could smell in her near unconscious state was the earth her face was pressed on. Instead of giving her some answers, the action made her aware of the remaining water in her lungs and sent her into another coughing fit.

A hand grabbed her shoulder, the skin covered by a smooth cloth, and turned her on her back in a way most careless. In that brief contact, a new scent infiltrated her nostrils, a mixture of familiarity and uncharted territory. The heavy aroma of dried blood, an odor of rot and waste, with a hint of something sweet. She had neither the time nor the clarity to try identifying the latter as the new position forced her head to fall to the side, the last remnants of water slipping out of her parted lips to the wet soil, allowing her to breathe normally, albeit faintly, once more.

The presence over her form got so close to her that she could sense them breathing against her wet skin, sending goosebumps all over her. As they sniffed more of her, moving to smell different parts of her body, she pushed her eyelids to crack open a tiny fraction. With her clouded, blurry vision, there was little she could make out. There was something big and white, its round shape giving her a wild guess of it being a head, moving erratically about, an orange crown that reminded her of fire surrounding it yet not flickering like flames were supposed to do. The sound of those little bells she had briefly heard previously was dominating her ears with every movement of that fiery head, blocking out all other sounds.

She felt too tired to even open her eyes fully but to be inspected like that, as if she were a carcass ready to be consumed by a scavenger, made her so uncomfortable she couldn't allow her body to get the rest it begged for. She had to remain conscious, even as little as she already was, to do something, anything to get that creature away from her. It was still unclear if it posed a threat or was simply curious of her but nevertheless, she needed it out of her personal space and that need only intensified tenfold when the grey light of the sky was obscured by that white head as it got right to her face and sniffed beneath the side of her jawline.

She let out a whimper that caused the head to jerk up to look at her, a series of moans, groans, and other unearthly, throaty sounds spilling from her mouth. An alien, animalistic language she had grown to call her own, coming forward to the tip of her tongue after decades of disuse. She asked who was there with her, she asked to be left alone.

No answer came, no sound either. Whoever, or rather whatever was there, paused all movement and went still as a statue.

Confusion was added to the mixture of emotions swirling inside her core and with how everything around her felt as if they had frozen in time, she flared her nostrils to get a faint idea of her surroundings. With her nose so close to the soil, though, she couldn't smell anything but that and so she was forced to try something she didn't feel she had the energy for. Regardless, she did it.

Callynthera turned her head to face upward and raised her nose up in the air at the exact moment the creature moved.

Her nose came in contact with something. The feeling of the foreign object against her skin stopped her from sniffing, as she had intended. She didn't know what it was but from what little she could make out, the head was only a few inches away from her face. There was another pregnant pause before air was blown right into her nostrils. Too light to have originated from a mouth.

Another tiny breeze of warm air followed.

And then another.

And all the while, she could hear sniffing sounds above her.

So, she did the same. Sniffed whatever was touching her, inspecting her, once and then twice. The smells emitting from the thing were the same as before, only clearer. Clear enough for her clouded senses to put a name on what that sweetness was. Among all of that blood and dead flesh, the rot, and dirt clinging on cloth, she made out...

Cotton candy.

Memories rushed into her mind, of her watching humans bring their offspring to those colorful, bright places filled with screams and laughter. Then, her being taken to one such place by a younger, pregnant Zoey. She remembered being introduced to that peculiar, pink cloud and refusing to taste it out of suspicion. And later having it forced into her mouth by the chubby hand of a 5-month-old Liliana.

The smell was so comforting in those moments of fear and vulnerability that she took a bigger inhale of it. Craving for anything that would take her mind off of the horrible ordeal she had been through.

Whatever was touching her nose up to that point jerked away from her. Τhe sweet smell moved along with it, much to her disappointment. But she had no strength or willpower left to chase after it. Her eyelids fell completely, as well, shunning away from the remnants of the blurry vision of reality she had been holding onto until then.

Her head fell to the side, defeated.

Her slow breathing was the only sound she could hear in the moments that followed, with the surrounding nature staying silent as if time itself had stopped. Everything seemed to stop a lot these days.

She would have assumed the thing had left, had it not been for the hand that wrapped around her throat.

Whatever air had been slipping in her lungs was cut off as her body was lifted off the ground. Her fingers twitched spasmodically at the lack of oxygen and her consciousness began slipping away so quickly that she barely registered the arm that pressed behind her back. And then, just as suddenly as it had come, the hand left her throat and pressed at the back of her knees. As her lungs greedily filled with air once more, she felt herself being pressed against a clothed, solid something and raised with a jiggling sound.

The thing, the person, started walking. Taking her with them somewhere. She was too exhausted, too hungry to care where. Her hands were hanging from her body. Her head was too. Backward. It was uncomfortable. It made her moan faintly in protest.

"Shhhh..." the person hushed her from above. Yet they made no move to support her head, only kept walking.

Giving up altogether, she just allowed herself to be carried wherever the person pleased, not even bothering to feel her surroundings anymore. The sweet smell was still there, among the blood and dirt, and it was soothing enough to make her give in to a state between sleep and unconsciousness.

"CALLY!"

All movement came to an abrupt stop and a sharp jingle rang in her ear. Slowly, the familiar voice forced a crack between her eyelids, bringing back the blurry vision of the woods. Only, this time, there was a big, curved, concrete wall among the different plantations. And everything was upside down.

"Cally, where are you?!" the voice echoed again, the arms holding her shifting slightly.

Zoey...

Callynthera squirmed faintly in the person's grip, making the arms tighten around her. Tighten in a way that was trapping, not protective. But her mind didn't interpret it, because it had zeroed in on Zoey's voice, even through all of the haziness around it. When she caught the sound of distant footsteps and felt the person holding her begin to move again, she squirmed even more.

Zoey... I need to... Zoey...

"Cally!" She was closer now, her footsteps were clearer, her voice wasn't bouncing around the trees anymore.

The thing that had been pressing against her side vibrated and a growl rumbled in her ear before her body fell harshly on the forest ground. Her skull, already heavy from exhaustion and starvation, shook from the impact, forcing a strangled cry out of her throat.

"Callynthera!" hurried footsteps filled her ears and then a round, blurred face entered her vision. "Oh god, Cally." The woman kneeled beside her, dropping the shotgun in the process, and cradled Callynthera's face in her hands. Thumbs rubbed against her cheekbones soothingly, sparking warmth in her pores. She wanted to get lost in the feeling and sleep under that touch.

"Cally...?" A hand reached back to support her head and the other moved frantically around her face, unsure of where to linger. Fingers brushed against her cheek, pushed locks of wet hair off her forehead, poked at the corner of her eye for a reaction... "Cally, talk to me. Talk to me, look at me, growl at me, anything. Just...just let me know you're alive."

Why was Zoey trying to sound calm...? She wasn't calm. She was worried and afraid, she feel it, smell it. She could hear it under the fake calmness in her voice.

"You're alive... you must be alive..." she whispered, her hand finally coming to rest on her cheek. Her voice broke. "Please."

Come on...do something...you're worrying her...

Zoey's head snapped up when she finally managed to draw in a sharp breath. "...Zo...ey..."

"Oh, thank you." Zoey sighed in relief, hugging Callynthera's face close. "Thank you..."

The redhead could only muster up a small whimper, snuggling her face in her friend's wet blouse.

"It's okay, sweetie. We'll get you home." Zoey mumbled in her hair, giving her a reassuring squeeze before she got a more steady grip on the woman and pulled. "How did you even get here...?" she wondered, glancing at the gaping sewer tunnel on her right.

Callynthera whined and moaned in protest, but made an effort to push herself on her legs nonetheless. Admittedly, Zoey was holding up most of her weight, even with Callynthera using the shotgun as a walking cane. Her legs were of little help, but after a long walk filled with grunts and moans, the two women made it to their new home before sunrise.

Callynthera was laid down on a torn couch with Zoey's coat to keep her warm. Liliana had been tucked in bed (if a single mattress could be called that) after receiving the most comforting words her mother could muster up in her shaken state. As for Zoey, she found herself over the kitchen sink, only in her underwear, squeezing the water out of her and Cally's clothes.

Blouse, pants, socks. Blouse, skirt-

The clothing fell in the sink, spraying waterdrops around it. Zoey's hands gripped the counter, trying to stop her shaking and keep herself from collapsing at the same time. Standing in the darkness of the kitchen, alone... was something she was both grateful and sad for.

Alone, in the dark, till the early hours of the morning, she cried her worry away.


I would like to thank The Lost Atelier, Aviantei, and WolveslovingBatman for reviewing and giving me the motivation to write! Hope you like the new chapter and I'll see you in the next one!