The Taken

24

Her teeth sank into the gut of her victim, sucking for any juices that would have flowed. She came back up and howled, gurgling the scarlet in her mouth. The taste was euphoric, it seeped deep into her buds and gums while she relished with an animal-like delight. She would hiss at her numbers if they got anywhere near her or the boy. He was hers and hers only. If one attempted to get their grimy hands onto his flesh, she'd swipe them, gashing one's cheek wide with her half-a-meter nails. Her vocal chords hummed and rattled while she ate, picking handfuls of organs and stuffing her throat with innards.

The watchers gazed with jealousy, they were starving and she was hogging the boy to herself. One sent a message and The Witch only glared at him with hateful eyes, skin dangling from her teeth. Her skinny arms were digging through the skeleton, finding the most valuable parts. She brought some blob of flesh, held it to her face like it was a flask of alcohol and threw her head back, drinking and sucking. Her eyes fell shut, relaxed and in a state of calm. She could think now without interruptions. Her mind was silent, and the silence grew.

She felt the liquids and chunks fall deep into her stomach, the bugs that lived within already crawling all over it. Oxygen filled her lungs with ease while she drank and almost sang herself to sleep. The air was cool and the sky was only lit by the distant and mountainous fire, roaring with grace and dominance. The pain and worries of food and devious little demons who fought with sticks held her captive no more. She was free from the troubles of the world and saw a future of only crimson. Shining like a beautiful ruby wall that gleamed and entranced her.

Watcher

The fire cracked like a small grenade, shooting a flurry of embers through its side and ceiling. This lit the surrounding predators, and they now focused on the children next to the car. One child grabbed a shining tube, lacing his fingers around it, the other already walking steadily away. The one carrying the shine caught up to the other with a small jog that diluted to a walk. It spoke in unknown terms while looking inquisitive.

Another shine, faint, streaked both their faces, particularly under their eyes. The one carrying the tube was still crying a little. It walked loosely and solemnly, the other was stiff and on edge.

The grass and leaves crinkle under my feet as I adjust my paining feet. They looked scared which only added to my desire for a meal. They tasted sweet, soft, their skin warm and tender.

I scratch bubbles on my skin and they burst with a sickly yellow and red.

I caught one staring directly at me and I duck. We can't scare them. I'm only supposed to study, not eat.

Eat

I'm so hungry. She won't let me or the others eat.

So hungry

The pain is stabbing, they're tempting but we must stay loyal for her. She worked hard to get here and we needed to respect that.

Jacob

There were so many, at least thirtysomething. They were all just staring and not really attacking. This was especially weird. It felt like birds, some kind of owls watching little mice trying to scurry away.

A bloated father stocked his way onto the children's path, lumbering while shaking the ground. His feet skidded towards them as his pace quickened when he saw his chance for a small buffet.

"Jake," Ramona says, getting his attention.

The foe kept stumbling and was on the verge of tumbling into the kids like a bowling ball. Ramona grabbed her switchblade in a second and ran to the tall father's chest, sending her point deep into his belly, then circling around and behind him, all while slicing him like pork. Jake came and thwacked his arm, crushing it like glass under the cold steel of Janice's bat.

The man was enraged and huffing wildly with an atrocious anger; he swung his limp and broken arm in a circle like a thick sausage. Jake ducked with instinct, but the father socked Ramona on her right temple. Jake was crouched and looking with surprise at the staggering girl who's head seemed almost split open. Her eyes were fluttering as she leaned backwards, her knees weak like noodles. This gave Jake an even bigger reason to hit the man in front of him.

The father's back was faced at Jake, he was too focused on the weakened girl to care about the boy. Jake charged like a bull, holding the bat high above his head. Once he was close enough he swept the father off the floor with one strike to the ankles. The man gave a deep grunt, gurgling phlegm and blood in his throat. He landed on his chest and was breathing heavily with wickedly jagged and loose teeth. The man rolled on his back, albeit unable to get up easily, he was so big.

Jake raised the metal tube above his head again and smashed it down on the oaf's heaving chest. His ribs crunched and cracked like glass panes. The brutality let out a harsh wheeze from the father, winding and deflating his blackened lungs. The man's eyes almost popped out of his skull and his chest squirted a gross rainbow of colors.

Ramona looked in awe seeing doubles of everything, blood painted both their faces. Jake's jaws were clenched and his teeth were grinding furiously. Jake brought down his force again on the moaning father, this time aimed at the head. Jake repeatedly hurled all the weight in his body, to his arms and into the bat. He let out a war cry that strained his voice, making him scream like some Spartan. The father's head caved in from the pressure, then it flattened, then it scattered itself all over the asphalt, on Jake, on himself. Everywhere.

The tiredness introduced itself to Jake's arms; he dropped the bat and it bounced and rang. Jake fell at the dead man's side, scraping his knees ruggedly. He toppled onto his back and stared deeply into the night's sky. Blue and warm, with glimmering stars that shaped themselves into the Big Dipper. All of them were visible, with an ashy tint from the smoking blaze. The stiffness in his body eradicated itself and he was lost within the stars that encapsulated his fear.

He saw his mother. Her short brown locks that hid half her face. Her smile paired with a comforting motherly love that could only be described as everlastingly heavenly. Her lips mouthed I love you and Jake could feel her love radiate from the sky and onto the entirety of him. He let out a slow and breathy sigh that calmed him. The warming fire and his mother watching over soothed him.

"I miss you," he whispered, only letting the stars hear. His mother simply smiled back and she faded into the blue, white-spotted ocean.

The Witch

A panging wave hit like a brick across the face. Sweat broke out in beads all across her body, mixing with the terrible grime released from extricated wounds. Her form shaked and undulated due to the immense spasming.

She felt the pain of every troop around. Feeling the death of one was deeply physical and neverending. She moaned into the stiff air, the others grunted in confusion around her. Her back was arching while she screamed in agony. Boils popped all over, the feel of acid was being showered upon her. Her skin felt as if it could have been bubbling and bursting.

She vomited what looked like tar, but it was just the thing that came out everytime another died. She hurled the projectile across the room, it shot like a cannon almost.

She laid on her side, heaving and twitching violently, the ringing in her ears sang a distorted song.

"Ing... rid," she whispered.

Saying her name was painfully difficult. The word on her tongue felt foreign and old.

Ingrid