Sweet Dreams

Prologue

'Only fools strike first.'

I knew it was bad when I started doing my rounds for the heck of it. Most of the time I hated the newspaper round. It was boring, useless and never really did anything except let me fit in with the humans. Bruce gave me the money whether I delivered his damn paper or not, so I never saw the point.

But now it was fun. When the paper round started getting fun, I knew I was in trouble. I was starting to get the itchings, almost cravings, deep in the middle of my stomach, a sign of the beginning of All Hallow's Eve. The newspaper rounds were mind-numbing enough to distract me from the craving deep in my stomach by requiring me to engage my brain in the activity of thought. It was really the only thing which stopped me from pouncing on a passer-by and devouring them right in the middle of the road; the school was delusional if it possibly thought that the work given was possibly scintillating enough to prevent us from carrying out our desires.

The thing was that on my paper rounds, I often found myself concerned with Hera, the only human in my entire school - a rabbit among the wolves. She was tantalisingly delicious, the very thought of her making the craving in my stomach spike in ways that weren't entirely dissatisfying. As much as it prevented me from attacking those we were told were "innocent beings", it made it all the more difficult to stop myself when I saw her at school. Although she was there for the purpose of satisfying our desires, it was stupid for anyone to think of trying to get her at school. Everyone who was aware of her species would try to get a piece, and no self-respecting Horror enjoyed sharing.

With Hera, it was a race to the finish, and I was determined to win.

Act 1

'Salute and bow to the fortunate.'

It was a well-known fact that, although they were meant to be impartial, every teacher in the school favoured those who were more intelligent in the chase for our resident rabbit, Hera. They would purposefully create more openings for those who managed to figure out what Hera was than they would for those who did not. As a result, the rabbit was usually placed in a class with the most intelligent Horror. Unusually, this year, she was placed in mine. This, although it made it easier for me to win the right to her, also made me incredibly confused. After all, as of five weeks with her, I was the only one who had noticed her status. It made me wonder just how inordinately stupid my classmates could manage to be.

I was, however, suspicious of this new approach. It seemed to make it entirely too easy for me to get to her. What made me even more suspicious was the cleaning rota. Every single person had been assigned a day to clean the classroom, three people each day. However, instead of it being three people that day, it was two. One of them was Hera. The other was me. And it was All Hallow's Eve.

There was only one of two conclusions to make. Either I had been specifically chosen as the hunter for the rabbit. Or, more ominously, I was being led down a road which was far too easy, simply to fall into a trap. It was only natural that I would be tense by the end of the day.

The feeling of a hand slapping my back broke me from my thoughts. As the Horror's claws dug into me, I let out a low, warning growl. Although the action itself was friendly among Horrors, we were in school for a reason - they didn't just teach us how to employ our brains. After all, if we didn't fit in with the humans, how else would we survive?

I turned around lazily, hopping off my position on the desk. Blonde hair and guilty blue eyes met mine, offset with a grin which was anything but ashamed. I vaguely recognised him as David, one of the slightly less idiotic members of my class, although still nowhere near interesting enough to be able to engage me in anything but crushingly soulless conversations.