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Quotes and meanings below.
"Speaking aloud"
'Speaking telepathically'
Subconscious thoughts, deep in the mind and cannot be heard by others at all.
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My fanfiction & Wattpad: VivicaNight
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Chapter 4: Close Call
The next morning, I wake up to the crow sitting on the blanket before me, holding some meat in its mouth.
Smiling at it I slowly sit up and take the meat from it, the meat not tasting as good as human, but is still pretty good.
"Good morning little buddy." I say cheerfully to the crow, smiling.
The bird watches me, opening its beak before flying a few feet away from me, landing and slowly walking toward the entrance of the cavern, looking back at me as it does.
Thinking the crow wants me to follow it, I quickly rise to my feet and follow it to the entrance. My eyes widen at the sight of something in the opening of the cavern, a giant dead deer.
The deer's shoulder and chest have been torn into by something, the meat exposed. A few bugs land on it occasionally before flying off in random directions, my face distorts in disgust.
"Ew..the bugs already found it."
The crow flies over to the deer and lands on its shoulder, moving its head down before yanking a piece of its muscle off and tossing it into the back of its throat.
"So, you eat from a deer, but not a human? That makes no sense to me..."
The crow continues to feed off the deer while I slowly approach the carcass.
Kneeling down I investigate the wounds, none of them look pretty. The chest wound grabs most of my attention, as it seems like something went straight through its body, cracking and breaking the ribs in the process.
The crow suddenly jumps in front of my vision, blocking my view of the opening to offer me another piece of deer in its beak.
"Wait, hold on buddy." I say, picking it up and placing it back on the body's shoulder.
Looking into the wound again, I realize whatever went into the deer went directly to where its heart would be. The heart is missing.
The crow then jumps back into my view, pointing the meat directly in my face, the tip of its beak touching my lips.
Looking at the bird, my suspicion about it grows, it seems like the bird doesn't want me to see that the heart is missing.
Standing up, I watch the bird before backing away a few steps. Narrowing my eyes at the bird, I quickly grip onto the deer's antlers before dragging the deer and flipping it over onto its other side.
The crow flies off the carcass as I flip it, quickly swallowing the meat in its beak before flying in front of my face and landing on the deer, its fur soaked in blood underneath the bird.
Roughly I swat the bird away, it flies off and lands on the ground away from me. My eyes widen at what the bird was hiding.
Five giant, deep slices that look as if they were made by claws of some kind are drawn out along the side of the deer. The deer's neck has also been torn into, its neck broken as well.
Slowly backing away from the deer, my eyes lock onto the bird.
"You are too intelligent to be just a crow. Corvids are smart, but not as smart as what you have been slowly revealing to me. Are you a creature like I am? Able to turn into familiars?" I interrogate the bird, anger and impatience in my face and voice.
The bird stares at me before cawing at me, making me begin to growl, knowing it is faking.
"I will kill you if you don't present yourself to me right now!" I shout at it, growling.
The crow quickly flies off and out of the cavern before I could try and grab it, a loud growl erupts from me.
"Don't come back then! I promise if you do you will never leave this cave again!" I yell out, my attention goes back to the deer.
I'm starving, but there is no way to know whether or not the deer's blood has been tainted in some way to harm me.
Quickly walking away from it and deeper into the cave, a thought stops me in my tracks.
I have been eating from that creature for three days now, plus it already ate some meat from the deer right in front of me. If the meat was tainted to kill me, wouldn't it kill it as well?
A groan of frustration comes from me, moving my attention back to the deer again.
Sighing, I walk over to the deer before grabbing its antlers and slowly dragging it deeper into the cave.
Once deeper inside the cave, I flip the deer over again to have access to the shoulder and chest.
Sitting down my nails extend into claws again, using them to dig into the shoulder of the deer, slicing through its tough hide from the outside while slowly peeling the skin off around the area.
Next I rip off the exposed flesh that the flies have touched, throwing that aside so I feel comfortable enough to eat.
Once finished my nails dull themselves again and my teeth turn back to normal, no longer needing them right now.
Moments pass, I decided to remove my dirty, blood-caked clothing. The dead human bodies have begun to stink badly, the skin beginning to look squishy and nasty from the warm humidity inside the cave.
Searching through the bag the woman was carrying with her, I retrieve a few water bottles and lay them on the ground beside me, also finding some snack bars as well.
A sudden muffled noise grabs my attention from deep inside the bag, making me jump from the sudden sound.
The sound seems to be a ringtone of some kind, snaking my hand around inside the bag my hand eventually finds the source of the sound, a flip phone.
The ringtone stops and the small screen on the lid of the phone shows many, many missed calls from lots of random names.
Slowly picking up the lid I flip it open, the bright light from the phone's screen causing me to wince and squint my eyes.
The screen shows the current date, April 5th, 2001. The time is 6:21pm, to no surprise my sleep schedule is off big time due to sleeping in a dark cave whenever I feel tired.
A red blinking icon in the upper right corner grabs my attention, the phone alerting me of the low battery.
Closing the phone and resuming my search through the bag, I find mostly hunting gear, to no surprise. Once the bag is pretty much empty, a small square item touches my fingers in the bottom of the bag.
Picking up the item, my eyes immediately identify it as a small jewelry box. My eyes widen in curiosity, quickly I open it to find a ring inside.
The ring has a few diamonds on it, and a decently sized one in the middle. The band seems to be made of gold.
By the look of the diamonds, they are indeed real. Gasping, I realize the man was probably going to propose to the woman soon.
I look over at the decaying woman, "Hey, you're boyfriend was going to propose to you! Well, of course you won't ever know because you are dead." Silence flows through the air, I speak up again, "What? Oh you want me to have it? No I can't, it's too much. Really? Wow thank you so much!" I gloat, gesturing with my hands while talking to the corpse, slowly I put on the ring.
"Oh it's so gorgeous, Karen!" I burst out, looking at the ring with my hand outstretched, not really knowing the woman's name.
I look down at the water bottle, quickly opening it before chugging the whole thing, not having drank clean water in a long time.
Dropping the bottle on the ground, I fetch the other one and drink it as well, using the last bit of it to splash onto my face to clean up the blood.
Quickly I look over at the man's corpse as if it spoke, "Oh you wanted some? I'm so sorry Frank. You should have said something earlier!"
Once everything gets quiet, the next few hours are spent weeping, still mourning Emma's death, that was entirely my fault.
I continue sobbing, praying through my tears and deep breaths that she was able to find peace and is in a better place. Apologies also run from my mouth through my sobs, wishing she would forgive me for what I put her through and got her involved with.
A sudden sound from the entrance of the cave makes me go silent, tears still falling.
Fear grabs hold of me, I begin to think it is more people, or that crow. But it sounded more like a person.
Slowly looking toward the entrance, I'm not seeing anything within the darkness. The sun has also fallen about an hour ago it looks like, a shiver runs up my spine. My skin slightly blue from the cold, but the blankets have been helping to keep me warm for a few hours, especially because I'm nude. My wings have also been helping keep me warm as well, having them out doesn't weaken me at all, since they are part of my body. If they were to absorb into my back like I tend to make them do, it also doesn't weaken me in the slightest.
Slowly I look around for the source of the sound, a small rock catches my eye as it falls from above and onto the ground a distance in front of me.
My heart drops, my mind beginning to panic, knowing exactly where the source of the sound is now.
Holding my breath, I make my claws extend and my teeth sharpen to prepare myself for anything that may hurt me.
Slowly I trail my eyes up the wall across from me, slowly reaching the source of the sound.
A scream of fear erupts from my lungs, seeing the creature that killed Emma crouched upside down on the ceiling staring at me. Quickly rising to my feet I begin to run.
The creature jumps off the ceiling and lands on the ground in front of me before grabbing me by the neck, its grip much tighter than last time.
Immediately I realize this time the creature is looking to kill, no longer curious.
I cry out, only for my windpipe to be closed, also making it so I can't breathe.
Staring into the creature's eyes, to my shock they no longer look like they are dying. They look familiar, images flash through my head, quickly coming to the awful realization.
A tear runs down my cheek. Its eyes used to be Emma's, her beautiful, crystal blue eyes.
My lips curl into a vicious snarl, exposing my sharp teeth before a deep purple fog seeps from my skin, my eyes turn a bright, glowing lavender color.
The creature seems to become surprised, its grip on my neck loosening slightly. Using all my built up anger I let out a loud, ear-piercing inhuman screech from my mouth as a sudden force seeming to come from the fog sends the creature flying away from me, making it crash into a nearby wall of the cavern.
The force from the crash causes the cavern to begin rumbling and collapsing all around us, tears continue to fall from my eyes out of sadness and pain.
Quickly I fly out of the cave entrance, narrowly escaping the collapsing rocks around me. The fog escaping from me continues to flow from me, fading away slowly into the air once the whispy ends of the fog get a few feet away from me.
To my shock, the creature is already out of the cavern and following me. Putting more force into my wings, I carry myself as far and fast as possible.
The creature behind me has a number of tricks of its own, being able to quickly close in on me despite using everything I can to get away.
The creature gets close, before it can grab me, my wings swiftly bend to rotate my body and send me flying toward the ground, the creature taking a few calculated maneuvers to keep up.
Beginning to panic, my energy begins to run out, looking over my shoulder I stretch my arm out toward the creature closing in behind me.
Purple fog that only I can see flies in its direction, coming from my hand quickly into its eyes.
Immediately the creature outstretches its wings to quickly slow it down, in a flash the creature takes off in a different direction, the illusion making it see me flying away from it in a different direction as if making a swift maneuver to change my direction.
Sighing sharply in relief I catch myself before I hit the ground, bending my wings to send me in the opposite direction the creature went.
The illusion will fade quickly, as I do not have enough energy to keep it up for long.