Is This the End?

Chapter Eleven

Nate

The sun blazes overhead as Nessa, and I walk down a dusty trail, and I'm trying my hardest to keep calm. We had another run-in with the NTSCU. It wouldn't be so bad, but she had gotten some superficial cuts. Really they're nothing, but for a Bobby who hasn't eaten in a couple of weeks, it's torturous. I know she is unaware, but I really need to get away. Still.

My gaze wanders to her delicate throat. I can see her vein pumping without care. Enticing me as it flows her bright red lifeblood throughout her body. A drop of sweat slowly falls and comes to rest on her collarbone. I can just imagine taking a piece out of her shoulder. It would be a little one. I'm sure she wouldn't even notice.

My teeth are sharp as razors. It'll be like cutting through butter on a hot day. She swings her bright red hair in front of her neck, but somehow it just adds to the appeal. I lean over. Just a bite. She won't even notice.

"Nate, is something the matter?" Vanessa gazes up with her doe-like eyes. I jerk myself away and hastily shake my head.

"Nah it's nothing" I close my eyes, and soon enough, the moon is shining high in the sky. I look around, but Nessa is nowhere to be seen. Something runs past me, and like a switch, my control is gone. All I can focus on is their sweet iron scent that tells me all I need to know. Blood. Where there's blood, there's flesh. I lick my lips, and with a tremendous lunge, my meal is knocked to the ground.

I take a second a take in the smell of flesh. I dive in, the drool dripping from my fangs in little gloops. I sink my teeth through their layers of clothes. I don't stop even once the coppery taste floods my mouth. Red waterfalls spill out everywhere as I give one more bite and get to the bone. I tear my prize clean off and swallow it whole.

I grab them by the hood of their sweater and am about to go for the neck when I see strands of bright red hair resting on the shoulders. I rock back on my heels, and my breath comes out in ragged huffs. I pull on my locs and try to think when's the last time I saw Nessa. I turn the body over and am greeted by the sight of Nessa unseeing cloudy green gems gazing up into nothing.

"Oh Goddess no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not again, please not again." I pull her onto my lap and clutch my hand over the wound. It doesn't help a bit. The blood is still gushing out as I had bitten into the artery that I knew lay there. "Please Nessa, come on, wake up, please wake up." I shake her with my free hand brush her hair away from her face. I lean over her body and try to drag air in my lung between gasping for breath. Goddess, why can't I breathe.

"See Nate, this is why you have no friends." I look up, and Jeff's figure looms over us. He looks as pale as the last time I saw him, and small dark droplets are gravitating down his face.

"What?"

"Hush, it'll be okay. I know how to help abominations. You remember, don't you?" He heaves a sigh and kneels down next to me. "I wish you'd stop making friends, Nate. It always ends with you making a meal out of them."

"No, I didn't mean to."

"You never mean to Nate. That's your problem," he sneers. He jerks up and with a wrench of his hand slashes at my throat. I hold a hand to my throat as a gooey-like substance spills out of my body. I look up, and Nessa is standing there. The knife is still dripping with my blood and staining the ground.

"Abominations should all die. Don't you agree, Nate?" She tilts her head, and all I see is the sharp blade coming down again straight for my head.