Crimson

The Almost Cliché Ending

I had no need to shift from the fence wall I perched on, I was back on my game, hunting and stalking easily.  Life was simple again. The girl I followed was the quiet kind, friendless, parentless, and alone. She’d be an easy kill. No one would miss her.

Anna waited ahead, ready. The girl approached the corner she stood behind and turned. I could hear her scream as red flared inside her, consuming her in fear.

I leapt, rolling back up to my feet so not to lose momentum as I ran. I sensed Jeff, his special brand of fear blurring behind him as he darted through trees.

The girl was crying, muffled by the moonlight pale claws around her mouth, digging into her skin. Where the nail touched her face, small drops of blood beaded and ran down her face.

I got their first and, excited, I attacked. I broke her wrist with a sharp blow with the hilt of my knife and Jeff spear tackled her to the ground. He giggled maniacally, twirling the butcher’s knife around with the tips of fingers. His switch blade was buried in the pocket of his jumper, ready to use at a moment’s notice in case the girl somehow got him to drop the butcher’s blade.

I let Jeff do the killing her, leaping easily up onto the wall with one knee forward and the other extended behind me, ready to launch off at a moment’s notice. Anna stood beside me and my mind wondered to her. It was strange the way I felt about her at current time. It was different to how I’d felt for Fred, just as strong but in a different way. Less innocent, less restricting. There was no pretence. Anna made me laugh from time to time, something Frederique had never accomplished. And more importantly, Anna was a killer.

Unfortunately I’d blown my chance with her by marrying a human.

‘Jack, wakey wakey!’ Jeff was in front of me, the manic grin I’d come to love lighting his face and blood dripping from the knife in his hands. ‘I made you dinner, honey.’ He pouted.

I leapt forward, past him and appreciated my food with a newfound fervour that only came from going without.

†             †             †

‘It’s so obvious you like Anna.’ Jeff put on his best imitation of a teenaged girl voice as he said so, hanging from the rafters of the abandoned mansion we’d taken up residence in.

‘Harhar.’ I rolled my eyes at him. ‘You know, the bloods gonna rush to your head and it’ll explode one day.’

‘That’ll be a good day for you! I wonder if demon possessed brain tastes better than normal people brain.’ He mocked. Jeff, nearly six months later, was still laughing at me about Frederique.

‘Hilarious.’ I picked up my book again. ‘Where even is Anna?’

‘Setting out to destroy Chuck, as per usual.’ Jeff muttered. We both grew silence upon the thought of Anna’s apparent death wish. Jeff broke the silence first. ‘No, but really. Maybe if you just told her how you feel she wouldn’t be trying to kill herself.’

‘We’re not fifteen years old, Jeff.’ I mumbled awkwardly, trying to hide myself in my book and ever grateful for the mask.

‘C’mon Jack. We all know it.’

‘Hypothetically, even if I did like Anna—which I don’t—how would that even work?’ I put the book down on the table. ‘She doesn’t have a face, or proper hands, or lips or… or… the other stuff a guy would want in a relationship.’ Again, I was glad I had the mask to hide my growing blush.

‘I could give her one.’ He flicked open the switch blade. His expression changed quickly, blood rushing into his cheeks. ‘The face not the uh… other thing.’