Zenobia's Tale [Undergoing rewrite]

Part 14

Moving around the island she looked around for a safe place for her to hide from the sun, she stumbled upon an abandoned cottage not far from a razed fort and slipped inside to look it over. A few holes were in the roof, but it was otherwise sturdy enough to hide her from the sun's horrible light. She found a few old tattered blankets and piled them in a corner of the building just in case her chosen place was not safe enough. Moving back outside she smiled and looked up at the stars. As the small twinkling lights started to fade and the sky started to grow pink, Zenobia stood and moved into the old fort hoping that the others would not find it or bother her if they did. Slipping over to her corner she pulled up the blankets and waited. Soon enough, she hid under the blankets wrapping herself in like a cocoon and fell asleep. Her breathing so shallow she would be mistaken for dead if one had found her. 

Time passed and buildings were restored, and everyone seemed to settle. A ship had left the island for England once more to gather more supplies. Zenobia managed to keep her hunger under control for the whole of a year, but small animals were not keeping her sated she found herself ripping into a child the first time she slipped up. She had done well at the birth of the child Virginia Dare but now she was slipping and her control slipping scared her. She didn't want them to chase her, she was after all only a child and had nowhere else to go. She dragged his body over to the water nearby and holding him underwater she attempted to make it look as if he had drowned. Her fear of being chased away was stifled at first when the boy's body was found and she waited in fear for them to come for her. The whispers about her strangeness had often reached her ears when they thought them to be hushed. She nearly ran when she was approached but remained as calm as possible small body shaking, dark green eyes big and wide with fear. The male who approached wrapped her in a blanket and carried her to the hut she had been staying in with a woman and her family. After a hushed conversation outside the man and woman came back inside and sat next to her.

"Child, can you tell us how the boy drowned?" The male asked. When she shook her head he nodded "The other children seen you with him moments before it happened." He pressed. Zenobia bit her lip and spoke softly.

"I-I came home...It was getting late and I told him to go home before we got in trouble." She looked down at her knees as she lied knowing better than to make eye contact. They would just take her not looking at them as a mix of sadness and guilt that she hadn't stayed with him. The male seemed to accept this explanation and left soon after. The only looks she got were ones of sorrow, the adults assumed her innocent and knew as a child she would feel bad for the loss of a friend when she had been with the child moments before. What Zenobia couldn't shake however were the puncture marks on his neck. What had they assumed caused such brutal marks on his neck? Perhaps they blamed the rocks under the water and the current, or perhaps they still suspected someone of murder and did not have the heart to admit it. Months past and a new whisper floated around the air of the colony, she wasn't aging. The natives claimed she was special and should be loved as such, she would be short and her age would catch up in time. The colonists, however, claimed her to be something else, a freak. The words met her ears with a stinging that could only match that of her hidden Dirk. Sven had always told her never to stay too long in one place but on an island she was not sure she could make it to another land safely. Nor did she have a place to hide until they left. It would be far too long a wait when supplies came back they intended to stay.

The early morning is when it happened; the woman and her family had left as was usual leaving her alone to sleep in the dark. However this morning they had set a fire to the hut. Zenobia had failed to notice the missing personal effects. Everything had been packed up and moved from the hut, but the girl was too tired to notice. She crawled under her blankets and soon feel asleep, a large flame licked her arm causing her to rouse and look around. A scream escaped her lips as she tried to find a way out to no avail. She was fast, but the fire was consuming everything in its path. She had no way out and no way to know if the flames would catch her if she ran. Crouching in a corner she screamed for help when none would come. Yells reached her, cheers of excitement and praise the demon child was gone. That term, demon child had been uttered about her before and the woman did not survive. was that what she was? A demon child. She was born to a man and a woman of the flesh, her father loved going to church. Loved her village as much as she had. Had the man who hurt her been a demon and somehow turned her away from God? Another scream escaped as the fire drew closer, beams falling in front of her. A hatchet broke through the wall next to her causing her to scream once more and inch away. A few more strikes and the wall was pulled away to make a hole big enough for her to fit. A native stood reaching for her yelling for her to crawl. She did as told and found herself being pulled into the males arms just as the building collapsed behind her with a crash. The natives had rushed the others and surround them to stop them from harming the child further, the colonists thought this to be an attack and fought back causing the issue to turn into a blood bath. After a long fight the male who had helped her was killed.

Zenobia at that point lost any semblance of control and blacked out, her face twisting into that of something demonic. Her teeth went from a normal flat looking thing to sharp deadly points. She rushed the others and drained them leaving their bodies where they dropped and chasing down the next. Natives and colonists alike. In her rage, she could not tell who was a friend and who was not. Everyone was an enemy the moment they saw her approaching. The deaths were quick, and painful, but she couldn't stop. She no longer ingested the blood that flooded into her mouth after each bite. The crimson liquid ran down her chin soaking her ash covered clothes. The sun had broken the horizon burning her skin forcing her to stop her attack and take shelter elsewhere. Finding a hut still standing she dove in and listened to the panic outside, others near the walls of her cover gurgled in their own blood as they struggled to breathe only to fall silent in death. Screams sounded most of the day until they died down. She was unsure what was going on outside of the hut she slipped into until she smelled smoke. A scream nearly slipped from her lips before the scent of the air hit her. They were not burning the hut, survivors were burning the remains of those fallen. She hunkered down the rest of the day in the hut and waited for the sun to go down.

Her massive intake of blood during the attack was enough to heal her swiftly, so when the sun dropped below the horizon she could walk from the hut and look as normal as one could while covered with the blood of the slaughtered. Making her way towards the survivors she watched from the other side of the fire, the glow would distort their vision and make it difficult to make her form out from the shadows on the other side.

"We should leave, go to the Croatan islands. They do not know what has happened here we can take refuge there until it starves." A male murmured to the others in the group. "Leave it behind.."

"She was one of us. She never hurt anyone until this morning when you set the hut on fire. She is unnatural yes, but she was scared." A woman spoke softly eyeing the men around her. An argument started and Zenobia took this chance while they were unarmed and distracted to approach.

"I-If you are leaving, please take me with you." She started making them scramble to find firearms. "You don't have to keep me with you, take me to another island, the mainland. Just don't leave me, please." She begged nearly bursting into tears. "I will be good and I won't hurt anyone as long as you don't hurt me. You can't leave me here, take me to the mainland and I will disappear. You will never again look upon my face. Please." She fell to her knees and folded her hands under her chin begging. After some discussion, they nodded and agreed to take her with them but only to the mainland then they would go their own way until they deemed it safe.