Alice's Asylum

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I looked over at Mar... Alice and back at the group of teenagers in the children's play area of the park.

"Are you sure?" I felt slightly disgusted. The smell was fresh, close but foul.

"Trust me, please." I had no choice but to follow Alice past the park and to the woodland beyond. We got to the edges of the woodland. The smells were even stronger now.

"What is that?" I asked her.

"Elk." I groaned at her reply.

"Oh I don't care. Let's hunt." Mind over matter right? I shot off into the woods. It felt oddly nice to run. I was running faster than I had ever before. I must have been a blur to the human eye. I was running faster than any human but Alice was hot on my heels. She gave a soft, tinkling laugh. I couldn't help smiling too. I just felt so free...

I then stopped in my tracks. Alice rushed past me, stopped then skipped over to where I was. And it grew stronger. Something that I could only just concentrate on over the scorching thirst building in my throat.

"What's wrong?" Alice asked. My face must have explained what I was feeling because he own smile dropped and something changed.

"You're worried." It was a statement and not a question. It was like her emotions were waves that entered me. I couldn't explain it properly... I thought for a second then sent those feelings back. Worry... So I imagined those sparkling black waves of worry and sent them back to her. She gasped as they hit.

"What was that?" She whispered.

"I don't know... I can feel your emotions."

"And control them..." Alice suddenly brightened and those black waves of worry changed to a bright sunny yellow of happiness. "At least I'm not the only one who is a bit of a weirdo!" She said it so cheerfully that it was impossible to not smile too. My mind was divided into sections so I still had room to worry over what had happened during the confusing transformation from human to vampire. However I was more focused on how thirst I felt.

"Come on Jazz." Alice took my hand and another part of my mind took in the soft, warm, tingly touch.

We ran again side by side. Soon we hit the trail and we went to hunting mode. We split off to tackle the one big group of elk in a clearing. I took the left side and Alice took the right. We pounced at the same time and the elk panicked but they were too slow and we were much quicker with our reactions. I grabbed one of the elk and snapped the neck quick and effectively. The elk flopped in my hands and I could bite and drain it quickly. The blood soothed my aching throat but it still ached. I dropped the elk's body and was about to pounce on another when something else registered in my mind. A scent which was much more appealing.

"Jasper, no!" Alice cried out but I was already gone.

I pounced on the buff, bulky male who was clearly the leader. It was automatic to pick out the leader and take him down first as the threat. I needed someone to watch my back but I didn't have time for that. I sunk my teeth into the bloke's throat. There was a soft scream and several cries as the rest of the teenagers from the park came out of the bushes. I took no notice of them as they tried to run away, panicking just like the elk. I took no notice of THEM but their emotions were impossible to miss. Their fear of myself was tainted with orange but my monster instincts did not leave me alone until the boy was drained of his blood. By that point, the other teenagers had long gone and the boy was dead. I dropped him and backed away. Alice had been watching the whole time.

"I'm sorry..." I whispered to her. She shook her head.

"They shouldn't have followed us. It's not your fault." The tone of her voice was flat. I felt slight disappointment washing off her body and to mine. I closed my eyes in pain. I opened them again when I heard the gentle noise of soft footsteps leaving my side. The leaves on the bushes and trees fluttered in the breeze that Alice had left behind.

I could had followed her but I felt so guilty for the loss of life before me that I fell to my knees, overwhelmed by grief.

When I heard the footsteps coming back, it was accompanied by soft weeping and scuffling. I groaned.

"Alice..."

"They can't survive Jasper! Humans can't know that we exist!" All four teenagers were with Alice. They weren't there willingly as she held one in a head lock, two girls were holding each other as they wept and a young boy of twelve was in an arm lock.

We had to drain them all. It made us both feel awful as the twelve year old was drained by myself but what choice did we have? We were monsters. It was the only world that we would ever know.