Love Bites *Sequel to Insanity Bites*

Z

I bent down and turned one over and my breath caught in my throat as I stared at a lifeless person with a black nose and a blood stained face. I released him and rushed to the nearby bars. As I looked into each one I saw heaps of bodies, piled next to each other in corners. 

It slowly began to sink in that almost everyone had been affected with the same thing as my mother. 

Suddenly my nerve endings ignited sending a frenzy of electricity up my limbs.

Where was Arabella?

I rushed to her milk stall only to find it empty. I was only mildly relieved when I found the sidewalk behind her stall empty. But still, where was she? Were her sisters and her, okay?

I didn't care about the rough stones digging into my bare feet, or the freezing cold slicing like knives across my skin. 

I ran with all the energy I had towards her small cottage beyond our quarters. While I ran I bent down and checked every body I passed on the way. 

My heart thumped with fear, realizing I was the only one left standing.

When I reached Arabella's cottage, I rushed to the door and pushed it open. A gust of cold wind hit my face and my chest felt heavy with dread. The lights were off, there was no fire in the fire place and the air was cold and stagnant, dead.

I rushed in, turning over furniture and looking at all the corners. As I walked to the kitchen I saw a dark leg sticking out from the inside. 

I walked into the kitchen and clasped my hand over my mouth to stifle the cry that escaped my lips. 

There by the wall, lay Arabella's two younger sisters. Their eyes were wide open and they had the same features of all the dead bodies I had seen outside.

Bloodshot eyes, black noses, fingers and legs, blood stained faces and necks.

I knelt down and shook their shoulders hoping they would stir awake but they remained expressionless and still. 

I turned to my right to see a man and woman, holding hands in unconsciousness. Their eyes were closed and their chests were not moving either. 

I got up and looked around for Arabella but did not find her. The back door that lead to the garden was ajar and I walked towards it, hoping to see her outside alive.

My heart beat incessantly, getting more frantic the nearer I got. Maybe she survived, like me?

When I walked into the garden I saw a black foot lying across the grass. I ran around the house to the other side and collapsed onto the floor when I saw Arabella leaning by the wall.

There was a man next to her, whom I presumed was her fiancee. 

They lay there in silence, no movement in their chests, no breaths escaping their lips. Arabella's fingers were curled around a cat, who seemed to have suffered the same fate. 

A loud cry escaped my lips and bile rose up my throat. I wretched onto the floor before me but my stomach was empty and only saliva came out. With a heaving chest I crawled towards her and held her in my arms. 

Her limp body sunk against my chest and my tears drenched her hair. I stayed like that for a few minutes, wanting to fall asleep permanently and join everyone else in their stupor but then I thought of my mother who was still alive.

It took all my energy to leave Arabella but I finally released her and ran back to my house. When I walked in the room was deadly silent and my mother lay huddled in the same place. Only this time she was silent.