Monster

Eve walked through the empty streets, passing the boarded up windows and doors.

Midday sunlight cast gloomy shadows on the buildings. Shattered glass and old bloodstains littered the road, tell-tale signs of what happened in the night. The tallest of buildings had their signs still standing proudly, remnants of what the city used to be.

Eve could see movement through the split in some of the drawn curtains on the highest floors. Those there were safe for now, because the monsters couldn't climb and the stairways were blocked. But food and water would grow scarce and they'd have to leave their havens or starve to death.

Daytime was safe for the monsters could not survive in the light but no one dared to step outside any longer. Only Eve walked the streets, the turquoise frills of her tattered evening gown flowing as she went.

There was a dull hunger in her stomach but she ignored it. There was nothing she could eat out here.

A clatter of a can in the alley nearby and Eve looked into the shadows. A dirt-covered boy was running, slinking off into an underground hatch and locking the latch shut.

She kept walking, feeling the wind in her hair, tousling her long golden curls. It was okay to walk. For now. So she indulged.

In an abandoned shopping mall, there were quiet shuffles of noise. Eve peered through the tinted glass, squinting to see. There were teenagers her age, all grim faced and dirt smeared, rifling through leftover scraps that other scavengers hadn't taken.

Eve was curious but she kept walking. Nothing was safe in this city. Not shelters, not people. Not monsters. Some people lived in groups to survive, giving each other roles and positions. But when they got desperate, they always turned on each other. Some were sacrificed to the monsters to stall for time.

The monsters themselves were once people too. But something happened, an experiment gone wrong. It was contagious, a sickness as they had once called it. But not in the way most people thought. It didn't spread in the way sicknesses do, but in a more morbid manner. One kill from a monster created another two. All they had to do was rip out your heart.

The monsters did not eat people. They simply used them to thrive. To populate. One human heart made two monsters, just by dripping a drop of their blood on a dead heart.

Eve continued on. Never good to straggle for long. It took many hours until she got to where she had wanted.

Rosehill Corp, a place where business had once bloomed. The tower of stone stood over her, its shadow long and dark. This place had been the heart of industry once.

She entered the building, the glass doors smashed so she needn't push them open. The chairs and desks were upturned, papers scattered and bloodstains old like everywhere else.

Now that people grew accustomed to a broken life like jagged mirror shards, fewer got caught by the monsters. Fewer new bloodstains were left behind.

The stairs in Rosehill Corp were marble, a show of wealth. Eve climbed them. The passage was filled with debris. Some of it blocked her way. She had to climb over or crawl under them.

Her dress snagged on a nail. She took care to undo it. Eve only had one dress.

The business building had hundreds of floors and her breath became ragged as she went. But she did not stop, there was no point to it. Though there was no point to much anymore.

People no longer care for anything more than surviving. Eve cared a little less. She wasn't concerned about surviving. She just wanted to watch and see.