The Replacements

3. Seeing double

                                                                                 Picture of Kayla.    

                                                                                         Chapter 3

                                                                                     Seeing Double 

"Hallo?" the blonde called as he stepped into the alley, the sobbing got more anguished and he could her young girl's voice call out.  

"Please... please help us he's h-hurt, s-somebody help us," Her voice trailed off into an anguished scream before fading to loud sobs again. Nadia could see her now, body wracked with sobs, sat at the other end of the alley curled up in a ball. Her arms were deathly thin and a pale greyish colour, her dark hair resembled a rat's nest. She couldn't have been more than ten years old.

Nadia kneeled down speaking softly "Who's hurt?" She did her best to make her voice as soothing and non-threatening as possible. 

"The... the b-boy," she whimpered gesturing towards a dark figure on the ground Nadia hadn't noticed. It was closer than the girl, only about 5 feet away. How she hadn't noticed it before she did not know, the stench was that of rotting meat and disease, fly's buzzed around the body. 

She and Adler both looked at the body horrified, large swollen lumps were on the neck and blisters covered the body, some were slowly oozing blood and a black pus. The boys fingers and face where the colour of charred skin, what wasn't the unnatural black colour was a sickly ashen colour with purple splotches. A pool of bloody vomit surrounded the small corpse, his bloodshot eyes stared at nothingness, his mouth hanging open to reveal black rotted teeth. The boy couldn't have been older than 6. 

Nadia's usually tan skin paled at the sight, her hazel eyes watering from the stench. Adler wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close.

 "What happened to you guys?" Adler asked the girl unable to tear his eyes away from the body. 

"Th- the kids and I were p-playing in the woods one day, getting firewood when a tic b-bit us. F-few days later we s-started getting sick. Then our armpits started swelling and it really hurt. The next day we started getting sick all over ourselves and Maman said we had fevers. They said we had the sickness that wiped out the neighbouring village. They took us to the barn and left us there that night, they left me and little Amelie alone in the barn with nothing but a loaf of bread. A LOAF OF BREAD, SHE WAS ONLY 5," The girl's voice had gone from sobbing to furious and she was looking up now, her eyes going from a light green to red around the edges. 

Adler and Nadia were staring at the girl now, frightened and confused.

 "We started getting purple blotches under our skin the third day. Amelie was always a small child but now I could've lifted her with one arm. And it hurt, oh mon Dieux it hurt like nothing I'd ever felt before, we couldn't even keep down the bread," She laughed a bitter laugh, curling and uncurling her fingers which were growing into long claw-like fingers. Adler and Nadia stared with wide eyes and started backing away down the alley slowly. 

"I prayed and prayed, nobody answered, of course, nobody answered. We started having fits, I remember holding her in my arms as she spasmed, and, if possible, that's what hurt the most. The fit's were unbearable in themselves but they weren't the worst thing. The worst thing was having my beautiful baby sister die beside me in a pool of her own vomit and I was TO WEAK TO HELP HER." The girl stood up with supernatural speed and was only five feet from them now, looking down at the boy's corpse.