Horrors of the Edge: New Blood

Chapter 2: Cut Part 1

(CW: disordered eating)

In trying to course correct from the impact she steered too hard the other way, cutting across another lane, and all too suddenly she had lost control of the vehicle. All that was able to go through her head alongside this realization was "oh shit", as the vehicle's center of gravity left the pavement.

...

Lily did not expect to be spending Valentine's Day evening alone, let alone in an alleyway behind her favorite Chinese restaurant, and certainly not bleeding out from a gut wound caused by forces she had no hope of explaining. As her life continued to ooze out of her abdomen Lily attempted once more to piece together events to figure out just what was actually happening.

It was that man... the one who killed that homeless guy from all those weeks ago... he must have tracked her down after all. But how? Lily hadn't seen him again until tonight, and he just appeared out of nowhere. What happened after she ran away back then? It must be some ability of his... or something she did that allowed him to find her. Lily couldn't have answered these questions for herself with the amount of blood she had lost, but instead of blacking out like most humans would in such a circumstance, she began remembering events that had transpired over the last few weeks.

...

After looking away from the mirror Lily gathered the cleaning supplies and brought them back to the kitchen. While putting up the bleach, the door to the apartment opened. Ash was somewhat shorter than Lily, about 5'7" or so, but built with muscle that he had been working on for the past few years, when she first met him he was almost as twiggy as Olive. His black hair was cut short and dyed red at the tips, styled to stick somewhat up and right now he was wearing one of his leather jackets he liked so much. Under the jacket was a red t-shirt with some graphic on it she couldn't quite make out, probably a band logo or old movie reference knowing Ash. Olive looked up from her book as Ash set down his bag.

"How's the new century treating you ladies?"

"Well my student loans didn't magically disappear, so I'd say just about the same as the last one"

While her roommates bantered Lily took advantage of their distraction to throw away the pieces of disposable rubber glove shards and then some inconspicuous paper scraps to cover them.

...

Lily's blood felt cold in her veins, it was even colder on her hands pressed against her abdomen.

...

About a month ago Lily got a job working at a movie theater, it was a bit far for her to go on bike everyday but the pay was decent and after realizing just how out of shape she was the exercise didn't seem like a bad idea. The job kept her busy enough, especially when she was working concessions, but when she was working floor she found that there was plenty of time to herself where she could even leave the building and everyone would just assume she was in another theater room doing her job of cleaning spilled popcorn and candy wrappers.

Lily had chosen the job for more than just the pay and relatively easy workload though, when looking for jobs she had biked around the city while paying keen attention to her senses, on the lookout for that sickly sweet smell she experienced when she following those two men only to find out they were... different like her. The trick being that now since she started actually searching for it the smell was everywhere, faintly permeating all of Oakland and probably the rest of the Bay Area she was willing to bet. Whatever that smell was, it was no longer focusing her like it had before, at least not until she went past a few places where it really grew in intensity. One of those was an abandoned firehouse on Montclair, an old building that looked like the sort kids would dare one another to sneak inside since it would probably be haunted. Since the other notable locations consisted of warehouses, alleyways, hospitals and people's personal homes she decided this would be the best option to try actually investigating, it certainly creeped her out less than the alternatives. Turns out a movie theater wasn't all that far from it so next thing she knew, Lily had herself a job.

...