Death to Bumble Bees

20: bee vs home

TW: blood and gore

Listen to Bad Guy by Billie Eilish

Chapter Twenty: Bee VS. Home

There was a loud buzzing inside of Bee's blood. A pull in her bones as she succumbed to the need—her fingers clutching into the warmth until her fingernails bit into it.

Gods, she was so... what was she? So hungry? She didn't know what it was—like an insatiable emptiness gnawing at her insides. She needed whatever it was that was clenched in her hands. Her nails sliced in deeper, and her body seemed to pull the electricity into her bloodstream. Her veins hummed as she shivered—the numbing discomfort easing more. But not enough. She needed more. This time she drew blood with her sharp nails—the delicious wetness dripping down her skin as she breathed in.

"Ow." A familiar sound grunted softly. The arms around her tugged her closer, as if helping her consume the dizzying power inside of them. "Guess I sorta owe you. If it's blood you want, take it, queen bee..." he muttered with a shrug. "Homun, stay next to me. You're like a late-night snack to them and I feel them coming." He said a little more loudly, still muffled in the still air around them. "I've got your little queen, boys." He purred as wind began to blow around them, "You know, the one you've hurt?" There was a hardness to his voice as he spoke bluntly.

Bee could hear them now: the cold, eerie, hushed whispers. Not a whisper that you could hear, rather a whisper that spoke to her blood. To whatever it was inside of her that was starving.

One of ours, they called, desperation and a need matching hers in the sound. Our missing piece.

"I'll take your silence as you understanding the situation." Rath continued, his chest rumbling against Bee as she struggled to open her eyes. "Here's what we're going to do: I'm going to lay her down right here, and you're going to heal her in front of me. And if you try to hurt her again, I'll end you."

Flickers of images seemed to flash through Bee's eyelids, making her gasp. Colours of red and orange, flowers, and structures of large overgrown victorian buildings seemed to flash without rhyme or reason.

One of ours. Take care of ours. Take ours home.

Their voices were like ghosts possessing her mind as she shook her head, as if to exorcise herself, "Can't do it here." She translated the images and voices in a weak exhale.

Rath stiffened, "They're communicating with you." He stated, not asking, as he already knew.

Paths of trees and barriers came to fill in the missing pieces in her head, "They want you to..." she moaned uncomfortably as everything hurt—her fingers splayed against Rath's skin, stealing whatever it was that was inside of it. Relief filled her for a moment as he staggered back. "—leave me with them." She finished, still unable to open her eyes.

"...Leave you?" His voice was dark, unhappy.

Bee nodded, speaking for the Shadow people, "It's the only way. You can't enter the sacred grounds."

"Sacred grounds." He scoffed now.

Bee felt a heavy darkness pulling her down, her fingers slipped from Rath's chest—her arm falling limply to her side.

Rath's whole body clenched, "Okay, fine! Just promise you'll fix her," He demanded, his voice strangled as she felt herself being placed on the ground, "If you even try to hurt her again, I will come back and destroy this whole realm." He threatened.

The Shadow people were not phased as they noticed only Bee. Every thought seemed to consist of long lost memories only now coming back to them. And Bee's mind seemed to be linked to them all. A never ending whisper filling her head.