Nightfall
Chapter 28

I awoke to delicious roast beef being broiled and the warmth of several down blankets encapsulating me from the frigid night air. It was dark as always, but I could see everything as if in daylight. Someone had taken my night vision and amplified it a thousandfold! There were large footprints on the muddy ground beside me. Someone was responsible for my rescue from the Houls. I heard distant whistling and my sense of sight sharpened. A big shape could be made in this foggy nightscape. A head of dark hair, dark eyes, and familiar overalls. They were coming back but there was nothing I could do. I shuffled slightly and found that my burn was less prominent. Had it healed? I touched the edges. They were no longer inflamed. Exactly how many days was I laying here?”

“One day,” came Greg’s low tenor.

My eyes widened. “What are you a mind reader?” I muttered shifting some more into the blankets.

“It was all over your face,” he said as he sat down beside me with a bowl of roast beef stew in front of him. I eagerly reached for it and he slapped my hands away. “Don’t you need blood?”

I paused. I wasn’t thirsty for once but I better not risk it. I nodded and Greg got up and handed me a Maddot. I sunk my fangs in and he made a disgruntled face.

“Next time go somewhere else!”

I was too busy drinking. The blood tasted spicy and watery. It was ok but it tasted different than before and I didn’t choke it down this time. I finished and wiped my mouth with the rag Greg gave me. There was a teeny bit of blood in the corner of my mouth still. Then I scooped up the spork I was handed. I ate the stew savoring the meaty flavors and eating the small, green, potatoes. All it needed was some rice but I doubted rice was cultivated out here.

The stew was nice and thick and filling. I placed my empty bowl down and patted my stomach.

“That was good,” I said.

“It’s my specialty,” said Greg picking up the bowls and setting both aside to be washed later. I lingered between sleep and wakefulness for a few hours before succumbing to sleep, burrowing in my blankets. I awoke with the urge to pee. Greg showed me where to go and left me alone. I went at it and when I was returning I heard a sniffle through a bush. I peeled a few branches back to reveal a little girl sniffing.

Not to seem like an ass, but I didn’t feel like helping her. I was cautious of everything in this forest. After having a run-in with Houls that looked like swimsuit models, I was wary of anything out of place in this forest. This kid was definitely out of place. Still, I’d be cordial to her in case she was just a lost kid in the woods. Highly doubtful, however.

She glanced at me with big dark eyes. Whether they were black or brown I couldn’t ascertain. Night vision couldn’t account for color only light.

She sniffed again. “Can you help me? Mommy left me here and I’m hungry.”

“I can bring you some stew. Would you like that?” I asked watching her nod.

“Okay, but can you free me from this first?” she said pointing to the trap she was in. Warning bells rang in my head, and I stepped away as she smiled. I’m not dangerous,” she cooed then frowned when I stepped backward.

She straightened and her form shifted to that of a pretty maiden. She snapped the cuffs holding her to the tree and smiled. “I see my voice lure does not affect you.” She floated up to me and I froze. “You aren’t immune to our other tricks tho,” she said breathing on my neck.

I shivered. I should have run when my instincts told me the little girl was something else. I felt my blood boil and something take over. Some buried instinct. Just as she buried her incisors into my neck, I rose my hand up and slashed her face. She howled as I jumped away.

“You son of a bitch, that was my face!” She roared as she covered her face with her hands. I glanced at my fingernails and noticed the bits of paper-like skin in them, with a few drops of blood. I looked back at her; my stomach nearly turned as the scratch marks on her face revealed a mottled green skin beneath her paper mask. As she heaved and growled, her hand glowed. She lightly rubbed her face with her glowing hand, and soon what would have been scratch marks on anyone else had quickly disappeared.

She turned to me, dark eyes beaming with light. “I was going to go soft on you, but now I am going to eat you!”

I stepped back as she grew closer smiling. “Oh, I do so LOVE it when my dinner tries running away! Watching the light of hope slowly die out from their eyes is just so... what’s the word? Ah, cathartic!”

I glanced around me for a weapon and found Greg’s shotgun a few feet away to my left. What was he doing without it? I ran for the shotgun. The Houl only laughed. I snatched the gun up and turned it on, wiping my sweat with my arm and wincing when my burn ached slightly. I wasn’t a hundred percent yet, something I had to remember. I held my side, took a deep breath, and aimed the shotgun.

The Houl wasn’t moving. It was waiting for me to shoot.

Though the trigger felt heavy to pull, I still somehow managed to do so. BANG! The gun’s recoil nearly caused me to drop it; it was strong enough to twist my wrist slightly! The shotgun’s beam went straight to the Houl, but as I expected a loud explosion and a torrent of body parts and blood, all I got was the destruction of a tree ten yards away. As I covered my face from the torrent of splinters and cinders, I felt a cold hand grab me by the throat and lift me over the ground.

“Wow, dinner and a light show,” she said, licking her lips with anticipation. My back burned from the cinders that fell onto it; or perhaps that was the splinters, slowly peeling away my skin. A splinter flew right past my right cheek, scratching it, letting a trickle of blood out. The Houl wiped it with her free hand and tasted the blood. “Oh, your blood has just the right amount of bitter flavoring to it! Truly a meal to be savored!”

“You…are…not…eating…me!” I yelled as I grabbed her fingers with my hands, the adrenaline rushing through my veins and giving me the strength to slowly pry her off of me! With a primal scream, I wrestled myself off her grip and even tore her fingers off! As she screamed bloody murder and reeled back, holding her bleeding stump of a hand, I buried my fangs into her neck. She gasped and struggled but I held tight, feeling her blood trickle onto my tongue and down my throat.

It was delicious: her blood had an acidic texture to it, like orange juice, but it tasted more like a cocktail of tangerine and pomelo with a hint of copper. She dug her claws into my back, but by then I could barely feel it. As I drank more and more, her strength sapped away, and all too soon she was as thin as an emaciated senior. I let go of her neck and held her face to my own. The eyes that but ten minutes ago were as focused as a hawk eyeing a mouse, were now pleading for mercy.

“Huh, you were right,” I said as I tossed her to the ground and watched her helplessly try to crawl away before I smashed her head in. “That was pretty cathartic.”

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