Sanctuary's Fiend

I felt myself thrown onto something soft.

I was on a couch again, but this time I really couldn’t move.

My eyes refused to open. I couldn’t feel my legs.

But I could smell my desire. Blood.

My eyes opened, not on my command, but to better locate that which I hungered for. And this was definitely a hunger.

Mr. Anderton’s face came into sharp focus. He was leaning over me, saying something I couldn’t hear.

His face was streaked with his own blood. A cut on his cheek openly flowed with the sweet red fluid. I tried to move to taste it, but I couldn’t. Nothing worked.

I panicked. Why couldn’t I move? What had happened to me?

The last thing I could remember was… the monster. It had become faster than me. I’d been fighting it, but… How had Mr. Anderton found me? Why hadn’t the monster killed me?

A voice finally broke through my deafness. It was panicked. It was prey.

“Dad?! What’s happened?”

Rick.

“Nothing,” Mr. Anderton said, still leaning over me. “Stay here and talk to her.”

“What?! It’s not ‘nothing’! Shouldn’t we call an ambulance? She’s bleeding!”

“I can handle this. I just need something from upstairs.”

As he stood up, a single drop was pulled from his cheek, and I watched the glistening fluid fall to my own face, splashing on my pale lips.

He rushed away, but it didn’t matter. My tongue slithered out of my mouth, and probed around until I found it. I gasped.

Rick replaced his father and leaned over me, whispering panicked reassurances that he obviously didn’t believe.

He faded away. The room I was in faded away.

I tasted water after a thousand years of drought. It was the first gasp of air after almost drowning. It was the birth of a child, and the death of an enemy. It was the most honest thing I’d ever experienced in this life. I was so weak, and I hurt so much, and this would make me strong again.

It was all I knew, and suddenly my mouth was filling with it. More and more until I choked on it. There was so much! It couldn’t fit in my mouth, but it still wasn’t enough!

Something from the real world came to me. The pulse of life pressed against my mouth, beginning to fade.

Suddenly it was ripped from my grasp.

Reality flooded back in, and I saw the room again. I saw Mr. Anderton looking at me in horror. He held a shotgun pointed at my face.

What had happened?!

My hands were covered in blood. But it wasn’t mine.

I saw his body lying on the floor.

Oh God. Had I…?

No. No, I wouldn’t have done that! No way!

I heard the click of the shotgun’s hammer as it hit the shell.

I saw myself moving in a room, frozen still, as the power of a freshly fed Draugr spilled out of me.

I looked at Rick, lying on the floor. He was so pale. I didn’t think anyone could live looking like that.

But I realized I didn’t care. I didn’t care because all I could see was the blood on his neck.

With the shotgun pellets half way between Mr. Anderton and the window, I was in no danger and no rush.

I forced my legs to take me away. I needed to hide.

Not from them, but from myself.