Crimson

Frederique

The next morning was a strange affair. Only Jeff actually had to sleep. My version of sleeping consisted of deep meditation and as for Anna I had no idea. At breakfast I devoured the heart I had taken from that boy. It was cold and clotted but I was too hungry to care. The only thing that made me refrain from eating the entire thing in one bite was Anna watching me.

She did not eat anything, just stood in the corner of the room observing Jeff eat cereal and me eating bodies.

I finished the heart and spent five minutes trying to get the clotted scab out of my back teeth with my tongue. Alas, it did not work and I tried with my thumbnail.

The kitchen was silent besides the hollow click of my nail against teeth and suddenly there was a loud bang.

I looked up, startled. Jeff crouched low on the table and stared at me intently.

‘Will you stop it?’

I looked at him blankly and if only just to aggravate him I did it once more. Jeff let out an enraged scream and leapt at me, knocking the table over as he did so and making both of us fall to the floor.

Jeff pulled his knife and stabbed me in the stomach repeatedly. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. I reached for my knife and Jeff knocked me to the ground, stepping on my wrists and pinning me down with his hands. How he held this position was beyond me.

‘Do you feel pain?’ Jeff asked me, leaning forward to put more pressure on my wrists. I tried to stop myself from wincing. I really tried. But it showed and Jeff laughed. ‘So you can! I can’t.’

I glared at him from the floor. ‘I’m going to destroy you.’ I informed him. ‘I’m going to slit you open in the middle of the night and eat you. I will crush your brain and take your house.’

‘Oh really?’ Jeff sneered. ‘What if I kill you now?’

‘I’ve already tried. Doesn’t work. I ripped out my own heart and it didn’t kill me.’

Jeff glared at me and opened his mouth widely. I looked at him, puzzled. Then the half chewed cornflake and half a litre of spit fell onto my face. I didn’t react until Jeff stuck his finger through my eyehole.

With my own furious scream I bucked Jeff off and came at him with my knife. Anna decided now was the time to intervene. Suddenly I was off the ground and across the room from Jeff. Thick tentacles wrapped around my waist and constricted my breathing. Jeff was in the same position as me.

‘Stop it.’ Anna looked down and still I couldn’t see her mouth though I could see the blood spewing onto the floor in time to her breathing.

‘He started it.’ Jeff whined and wriggled, attempting to free himself from her grip. While this occurred I studied the tentacle. It was the same black the lining of her dress was made of, the black that seemed to absorb the light around it and reflected nothing. These came from ridges on her back, four others were moving too, as if ready to intervene. They dripped with black goo that seemed to become shadow when it hit the floor, moving across the floor to already existing shadow. The process fascinated me and I found myself no longer paying attention to the conversation around me.

What was she? Was this some form of necromancy?

Suddenly I was shaken viciously out of my reverie. I looked up at Anna. Her dark hair covered her face and seemed to be made of the same material as the tentacles.

‘Do you accept Jeff’s apology?’ She asked sternly.

‘Uh… Yeah.’

‘Do you apologise to Jeff for being annoying?’