Hot and throbbing, my heart lurches into my throat. Every story I have ever heard of the bloodsucking demons that we call the noctis attacks my fragile mind, sending me into a frenzy of worry. I’ve heard tales of them devouring entire towns, leaving nothing left but skin and bone. There are other legends that say they don’t even leave that much, that the bones they tear from their victims are fashioned into spears or worn as necklaces and earrings to lavish events at the king’s castle in Neveridge. Tales of noctis engorging themselves on human blood until their bellies burst.
“The noctis? Here?” My eyes spill with tears. “My mother—”
“Your mother is gone, child. There will be time for mourning her later. But right now, we—”
When I make the turn and run, it’s not a conscious choice. One second, I’m clutching onto Agnes as if my life depends on it, the next my feet are thump-thump-thumping down the street. It’s the only thing I feel, my feet moving and my heart setting the pace. The rest of my body is just…gone. I hardly see the wooden huts or their thatched roofs that blur by, my mind entirely engulfed repeating thoughts:
Find Mother.
It’s not too late.
Find Mother.
It can’t be too late—
But of course, it is.
By the time I make it back to our neighborhood, the seafoam on the coastline is tinted pink, the sand stained an unnatural shade of red that glistens in the sunlight. It’s not until the road beneath my feet becomes slick, red splashing up my calves, the same color sprayed on every door, every cart, and every barrel, that I realize with sinking dread the reason.
“Mother!”
The word tears from my lips like a colony of bats fleeing a cave at dusk and I burst through our unhinged door.
But then I stop.
Everything is wrong. Chairs thrown across the room. The loom laying on its side. My mother’s basket tossed on the ground and vegetables scattered all over the floor like a game of jacks.
Most upsetting of all is the blood. It covers every inch of our home so thoroughly that it’s even dripping from the ceiling.
“Mother?” My voice warbles, drowning behind a wave of grief that has yet to swell and crash, just waiting for the final proof that my world has unraveled, and I am alone.
It’s not my mother’s relived voice that answers, or even her faint whimpering, or any sign of her at all.
But the monster inside hears me. His neck snaps around, hungry eyes pinning me in place. Red dribbles from his mouth, and it’s then that I finally find her. It’s then that I finally break. A woman with long hair as black as mine. But her skin has gone too pale. The eyes that had been a duller shade of mine just earlier, are almost a void of color now.
My knees give out. I crumple to the floor and land in a pool of blood, blood that I don’t want to think about who it belongs to.
Something thuds on the floor. I can only barely make out my mother's body where she's been dropped, hair splayed over her neck but doing nothing to hide the ghastly, gaping bite mark beneath it. Footsteps hammer against the wooden planks until a shadow looms over me, a blanket of darkness that I know I should run from, but almost feel myself leaning into its embrace. I know it's him. I know it’s the noctis and he’s come to feast upon my blood, but I can't move. I can't stop him.
All of the training, however limited it had been, is gone from my mind because I can’t even fathom a life without my mother. She cared for me. She loved me. She kept me safe and shielded me from this…this nightmare of an existence that we live in.
Instead of running, instead of fighting, I lean forward and sob into my hands.
The noctis stands over me, his shadow cold against my back.
I reach for my mother's hand. I just want to feel her one last time. I want to hold her and have her hold me in return as the life is drained from my small body. But she’s too far out of reach, and before I can even attempt to crawl closer, I'm hoisted off the ground by the back of my neck.
Some primal instinct kicks in, and I thrash in the noctis’ grip.
"Let me go!"
Blood-soaked fangs peek out from his menacing smirk. "Go ahead and squirm. I like knowing you humans fear me."
Without another moment's notice, his jaw widens. He leans over me, fangs bared, tongue salivating, and I brace myself for whatever painful death my dear mother just endured. Perhaps it's best this way. I froze when Rowland ran, after all. I froze when I entered my home. Since the screams began, I’ve been useless. Defenseless. Without my mother or Rowland or Agnes to tell me what to do, I am nothing.
My eyes squeeze tight, and I await the puncture of death.
But it doesn’t come.
