THEM

Chapter 5

I had no time to prepare myself as the full weight of my mother's body slammed against mine and sent us both crashing to the ground. I barely even registered the pain of the rocks and sticks digging into my back as I landed. I was too busy trying to keep my mom from sinking her teeth into my neck.

Now, there's a sentence I never thought I'd say.

But that's exactly what she was trying to do. She had her teeth bared, saliva dripping from her open mouth, a low growl coming from her throat as she tried with all her might to take a chunk out of my flesh.

The gun had fallen from my hands the minute she launched herself at me and what good would it do me now anyway? All my concentration and strength was now being used on both my hands to keep my mother from doing what she seemed so desperately to want to.

"Mom! It's me!" I cried as my arms began to shake from exertion under her weight. But even as the words left my mouth I knew they were pointless. Whatever had happened to her, this wasn't my mother.

Not anymore.

I was probably only on the ground for a few seconds, but those few seconds felt like an eternity as I stared up into the blank stare of what used to be my mother's eyes, before I heard my dad's voice.

"Eve!"

The sound of my dad's voice paused my mother's actions as she snapped her head up and turned to look in the direction of his voice.

Another low growl came from her throat as she snapped her teeth and cocked her head to the side, the action almost bird like.

I watched in horrified curiosity as she lifted her head to the sky and sniffed loudly before letting loose a guttural moan, the noise grating on my ears.

"Eve?" My dad tried again.

It was like the sound of his voice triggered something within her because one minute she was on top of me and the next she was hurling herself at him.

"No!" I screamed as I watched her launch herself at him and they both fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

Fortunately, he had more luck dealing with her than I had. He was able to throw her off him and flipped them both so she was pinned underneath him.

"Eve, please! Calm down!" My dad struggled to keep her arms pinned at her sides while also trying to stay out of reach of her snapping teeth.

"Dad... I-I don't think she can hear you." I slowly stood from my place on the ground and watched as my mom continued to try and sink her teeth into any piece of exposed flesh she could find. "Or at least she's not listening."

My dad's brows pinched together as he stared down at his wife. At her slowly decaying skin. At her now yellowing and jagged teeth. At her blank and cloudy eyes.

"What do I do?"

The question was barely a whisper, obviously not intended for me to truly answer but my eyes found their way to the gun that still lay on the ground a few feet away from me.

Could I really do that?

I glanced back at my dad, the pain on his face clearer than the moon that shone overhead, as he continued to restrain my mom.

Could he?

My hands shook as I reached down for the gun.

Turning towards them I slowly took aim and drew in a deep breath.

"Dad, let her go."

My dad, who hadn't looked away from her face until that point, finally looked up at me and his eyes widened as they traveled up the length of the barrel before finally resting on my face.