Page 23 of Their Darkest Needs

I look over to the side where Taylor is sleeping soundlessly. How she sleeps through these noises is beyond me.

I slowly get up, taking the gun I’ve been hiding underneath my pillow—no way I’m going to let it get the jump on me—and walk to where the sounds are coming from.

It’s dark in the house, and I don’t dare put the lights on because who knows what is going on down there. Slowly, I push the living room door open, but the room seems empty so far.

TAPTAPTAP

There are footsteps behind me, making me turn around instantly,, but once I do, it’s empty here. What the hell is going on? My heart is racing and every sound I hear is making mejump out of my skin. There’s anger rising too, because what’s it playing at?

CLINK

I turn around again, holding my hand over my heart, trying to make the beating go slower, but it’s nearly impossible. I slowly walk over to the kitchen door since that’s where the latest noise came from. Taking a deep breath, I push the door open.

It’s hard to see inside, but I swear I think I just saw a shadow move behind the table below.

I click on the light button, holding the gun, expecting something to jump at me. But once it lights the room, there’s nothing there.Is it fucking with me?

I walk inside, looking around, and then some random grey cat comes jumping out from behind a closet, scaring the shit out of me. Where the hell did it even come from? I’ve never seen this cat before, and the doors and windows are locked.

“What are you doing here, buddy?” I ask the cat, knowing damn well it can't answer me. I put my gun next to me on the floor and lean down to pick it up, but all it does is hiss at me, showing its sharp teeth, and then runs from me. I crouch on the floor, rubbing my face with my hands, and look up to see two dirty pale feet with blue veins standing there.

Gulping slowly, I move my eyes up and see Mara standing there, her skin a pale-ish blue. Her eyes are pure black, her hair is all messy and dark, and her mouth seems bigger somehow.

Frozen in fear, I stare up at it, and then it moves.

“HOLY SHIIIT!” I grab the gun next to me and—BANG BANG—I can smell the smoke from the gun, which means that it really did go off, but I can’t fully remember doing it. What I do know now is that shooting it does not work.

It’s right there before me, face covered in pieces of raw meat and something reddish, which I guess is the juice from it,staring up at me. It looks down to where I shot it, but there’s no blood coming out.

“What the hell are you?” I whisper to it. It looks back up to me and smiles, it actually freaking smiles up at me. Like some psychopath.

“What the hell, Ryan? What happened?” Taylor is running down the stairs, almost losing her footing, but then picking herself back up again.

“Taylor, get back! Don’t come closer!” I yell at her, hoping she’ll listen, but of course, she doesn’t and runs up to that thing, checking for injuries.

“Mara? Are you okay??” I scoff at her question, making her turn back at me, her face contorted in anger.

“You could’ve killed her! What were you thinking?” she yells. There’s a vein pumping on her forehead, making me worried it might pop open soon.

“What was I thinking? Oh yeah, I was trying not to die, Taylor! Look at it! There’s not even blood anywhere!”

“Luckily for you, there isn’t!” she snaps back at me. What is that supposed to mean? It’s allowed to kill me, but oh no, if something happens to that demon!

“You are being ridiculous! It is clearly not your friend, Taylor. This thing, whatever it is, just took her fucking body and is lying to you!” Hurt flashes over her beautiful face. Her pupils turn smaller, and I swear I just saw the colours in her eyes change for a second before they settled back again.

“You’re saying I’m being ridiculous, but do you hear yourself even speak?” She crosses her arms and stares me down with a look that tells me my next words might be my last.

“Baby, what did it do to you?” I cry out, holding her head in between my hands.

“It gave me my life back,” she seethes, pulling back away from me. She grabs Mara by the hand and guides her upstairs, while she talks to it like nothing happened.

Am I seriously losing my wife over a walking-dead person?

I hear the door closing, and I shake my head and grab a bottle of whiskey from the drawer.

Shooting it is out of the question, since it doesn’t even bleed, so I guess stabbing it will be the same thing. What if I strangle it? But does it even breathe?

I have too many questions and absolutely zero answers. So, I do the only thing I do know how to do, and that is drink.

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