Page 9 of Fallen Thorns
“I should go,” I said, but she had already started moving back towards me with a feline prowl. “You’re not going to walk me home?” she whined, squinting.
I should. That would be the gentlemanly thing to do.But I was admittedly growing a little scared of her. The woman that stood before me was not the same woman I bumped into in the street, nor the one who asked me out and brought me to this bar. No, this woman burned me with her eyes and every place where she had touched me had begun to sting.
“I’m… I’m going to go now.” Despite the pang of guilt I felt for leaving her there, I was too desperate to get away. I backed up slowly, yet Lucy followed me with her eyes until I was around the corner into the city light.
Some people still sat about on benches as artificial heaters flickered around them. I didn’t dare turn back around, though I sensed Lucy wasn’t following me. I fixed my shirt and my pulse had finally begun to slow, my breathing normalising.
I made my way back up the stone steps beside the bridge. My skin stung, guilt haunting me.I should not have left her. I’m overreacting. She had been nice to me all evening.Maybe I embarrassed her. I didn’t know what I was doing.
I reached the top, and immediately, my chest eased. I was surrounded by so much life; bars were still abuzz with customers, and people clattered down the bank in merry pride. I didn’t have far to walk back to my accommodation, so I remained focused on the journey, weaving in and out of drunken couples. I stopped briefly in a narrow alleyway to tie my shoelace. Seconds away from my apartment block. Something so simple and yet who would have known this would have been the beginning of the end? If only I’d just continued walking just those extra few meters…
“Hey kid.”
I stopped short. There was no way this was possible. She had followed me, yet she must have taken a different direction. So she knew where I lived. That was when I really was scared.
“Arlo.”
I turned around to see Lucienne’s silhouette at my side; a frightening smile painted across her face. She’d tied her hair back, but this was only a detail I realised much later.
“I’m sorry,” was all I said. I wasn’t, but I knew I needed to say it. I was in the wrong, or at least I thought I was.
“You embarrassed me,” she said, stepping into the light. The unnatural colour of her eyes forced me to step backwards. From my angle, it looked as if her eyes were bleeding. You couldn’t distinguish where her irises began. I backed away, further into the alley.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, palms sweating.
“Aww.” She threw me a patronising look. “Don’t apologise. You’re only human.”
I thought it was rather an odd thing for someone to say, but shewasseeming less and less human by the second. I can’t blame myself for missing the warning signs though; I’d spent more than my fair share of time reading novels of all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures, but I was sane enough to keep fantasy separate from reality.
In that moment with the two of us in the dimly lit alley, I knew there was nothing she could do to hurt me.
How naïve of me.
“I was starting to like you, boy.” She closed the gap between us, spitting out ‘boy’ as if I were a badly behaved child at school, another warning sign about her age.
She pressed forward, forcing me further into the alley. I noted the number of windows at the side of each building, and I remembered thinking that surely nothing could happen because someone would see us… There were so many windows…
“You know, I was going to leave you be. The day we first met, part of me thought about letting you go, forgetting about those silly little moles and your lanky limbs and cherubic curls. But I gave in to temptation, as we all do, and I made you my business. I made it my mission to seek you out again. To learn more about you. I’ll even go as far as saying I grew fond of you. But I lost my patience.” She was a hair’s breadth away from me, fiery red pulsing around her.
I was frozen to the spot — all other sounds but her voice fizzled away. “You.” She touched my face and I winced. “You are no longer of any use to me.”
I ran. Scrambled for footing, unsure of where the path would lead me as the light faded. I reached a dead end and turned to both sides; each path was blocked by a fence. I eyed the stairs to freedom from behind the bars, but it was no use. She, of course, caught up with me in an instant. Inhumanly fast, she grabbed me by the collar, and I lost all remaining opportunity of escape. My fate was sealed in that moment. Oh, how different things would have been if I had just walked home.
I grabbed her arms as they tightened around my neck, clawing and scraping for release. She was just… so strong. I didn’t stand a chance.
“How old are you, boy?” she growled, inches from my face. White canines protruded onto her lower lip. I might have wet myself, but it is hard to recall those final moments. I was going to die.
“I’m… nineteen.” She released her grip on my throat momentarily for me to answer. I think she knew I was too distracted by fear at that point to even consider getting away.
“Works for me.” She grinned, then kicked my shins. I buckled, and she yanked my head to the side, sinking her teeth deep into my neck.
I had never imagined what it would be like to be bitten, but the pain was fleeting. It was sharp for a second, the same second I tried to pull away, but then a strange numb sensation flooded my veins, and I went limp. Lucy held me up with an iron grip as my vision went blurry and my legs gave way entirely. I didn’t even have the energy to cry out. I tried so desperately to focus on the rusting sign on the slanting brick wall in front of me, if only to keep my brain alive. But before long, I saw nothing. I was losing consciousness fast and nothing would stick in my mind. I wish I could remember what I was thinking in those final moments as she lowered me to the ground, shoes scuffing the pavement. My heart forcing out its final, uneven beats as her laughter echoed around me.
“Imagine what this could have been, my boy,” she whispered, caressing my face. “Sweet dreams, Arlo.” She pressed her bloody fingertips over my eyelids.
I saw a flash of feathers behind her. A cloak of ashy white.
And then I died.
