First Fire

Chapter 4

I turned around quickly.

"What do you want, bitch?!" I screamed.

Then, I saw her, cradling on the ground, sobbing.

"Libitina?"

"H-h-help...m-me." her voice was small and gentle, until she stood up.

She screamed a bloodcurdling scream. She was in agony and I was paralysed I'm fear.

"I have suffered for you! Every bad thought, every bad thing you did comes to me! I am the one of us who hates, who's angry! Now, it's your turn!" she screamed, her voice demonic.

Her skin was peeling off, replaced by a thicker, green and grey skin. Her eyes were turning milky white. Her teeth could tear flesh off with ease. She ripped off her clothes with her razor sharp nails, exposing her skeletal figure of literally skin and bone. Her hair fell to the ground, every black strand dying on it's way.

Wendigo.

She walked towards me and reached behind me, where her hand found Gina.

No! She must've followed me!

Libitina smiled at me.

"We've always hated how effortlessly beautiful she is, haven't we?" she laughed.

Gina was screaming, but I couldn't move. I just stood there and sobbed.

Libitina looked at Gina with hungry eyes. Her teeth sunk deep into her flesh. Warm crimson splattered everywhere. She ripped the meat from the bone. The image was so clear and vivid. It felt like I was the one doing the damage.

"Stop crying! You know this is what you've always wanted to do! You can't run away from this! This is how you really feel!"

She devoured my best friend, and I did nothing about it, because she wasn't wrong.

Gina was selfish. She had all that beauty and she could never share it with me!

"And what about that Jeremy? The boy who broke your fragile little heart?" Libitina teased.

She pulled out the handsome boy. He screamed the loudest I had heard a man scream.

She cut down his chest with her nail and the blood poured onto the dead dry leaves.

Dry leaves...

I dropped the paraffin lamp and fire spread quickly across the land.

Gina's body burned and the stench made me gag.

Libitina screamed as the flames singed her skin to a crisp. Jeremy was on the ground, slowly dying. I left him there. The fire would kill him. I made a run for it.

***

The dawn sky lit and showed me the way to camp.

I was covered in blood and crimson trickled down the side of my mouth. Gina's taste was still fresh on my tongue.

"Help!" I screamed.

People started groggily getting out of their tents. At the sight of me, three boys grabbed knives and ran into the woods to investigate.

The fire was gone.

It just... stopped. Disappeared.

"Libitina... She's a Wendigo!" I cried.

Mr Roberts ran towards me worried.

"Who's Libitina?"