Phantoms and Fangs

Five

 Flasks and beakers littered the black table top. Reyna was absentmindedly stirring a test tube in boiling water. Every step of the experiment was followed properly, she triple checked. Nothing went wrong but still, the liquid in the test tube remained unchanged. Reyna ran her tongue over the fresh piercings on her lip, the sweet metallic taste of blood blooming over her tongue.

"Is it still not working?" Conner's husky voice was oddly quiet. He sounded far away, like he was standing in an entirely different room despite being right next to Reyna.

"No. I can't figure out why. You didn't touch anything right." Reyna was all too familiar with the chaos Conner caused whenever he decided to interfere with the labs. She sighed he must have messed with something when she wasn't looking.

Conner started drumming his fingers against the table top, each thump felt like a sledgehammer on the inside of Reyna's skull. The test tube she was stirring began to change, the milky white liquid was slowly turning pink. Reyna furrowed her brows, that wasn't right. The light pink hue kept darkening. Conner stopped tapping on the table.

The thudding continued in Reyna's head, drowning out the thoughts trying to surface. Thick, deep crimson liquid filled the glass tube, Reyna's hand was shaking uncontrollably. She froze, the only things she could think about was the drumming in her head and the vial that was quickly filling with more fluid. The smell reached her nose. It was overwhelming. A sickeningly sweet, dry, coppery tang flooded her mouth.

The blood overflowed from the tube coating her hand in wine red rivulets. Every inch of flesh was covered in crimson. Conner's hand snaked around her arm, his skin pale and sloughing off in large flakes. His grip was bone shattering, the clasp of his hand shooting pain through every nerve on Reyna's arm. The flooding test tube shattered on the floor, the sound of breaking glass was drowned out by the shrieks of pain coming from Reyna.

She turned towards Conner in a futile attempt to dislodge his vice grip. His eyes were the first thing she noticed. Dark empty sockets sat where his deep green eyes should have been. The pits stared right through her. Quiet cascaded through her head, the overwhelming pounding finally being silenced.

"Conner?" Reyna's voice quavered. A velvety smooth woman's voice replied.

"You found exactly what you wanted, didn't you?"