“Oh my…” a maid said, stepping back when she
saw the girl’s face.
“Don’t move!” I said with steel in my voice. I was
waiting for the girl to pounce. She had transformed into a
fiend – a creature of prey, and fiends attacked
indiscriminately without provocation, making them
unpredictable. The only thing I knew for certain was that
the girl would attack anything that moved out of hunger
and lust for blood.
“Sara,” the mother began but paused, her eyes
trembling. “Darling?”
The girl quickly drew her feet under and heaved
herself forward, pointed fingernails outstretched straight
for her mother’s throat, jaw opening to sink her fangs into
the woman’s soft flesh. I instantly grabbed the girl’s foot –
mere centimeters from her prey, pulled her back, and
slammed her into the oak headboard. My hand landed at
her throat and I squeezed her jugular like a vice-grip. The
girl’s limbs twitched as I incapacitated her. A tear rolled
down her pointy, disfigured cheek.
“What’s going on? I thought you were going to
cure her!” the girl’s father said.
“She was too far gone. I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?!”
“David, please!” the girl’s mother interrupted.
“You just had to deny the symptoms. ‘She’ll be OK,’ you
said. Now look.”
“Julia!”
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