Zenobia's Tale [Undergoing rewrite]

Part 3

Her heart if it wasn't so frozen soared with joy and she fell into a deep sleep, only to awaken in the dark hidden within a box. She became hysteric believing the man had found her once again and taken her back. She screamed and clawed at the box ignoring the dirt that poured in. She would not die, she would find her way back to her papa. She continued her clawing and punched through the frozen earth above her. It was dark, but the town looked the same, it was only a matter of looking around for her papa. What if he moved houses like he said they did after her mother died? She began to panic and sob when a familiar voice sounded off to her left.

"Zenobia?" He opened his arms for her and smiled as she rushed to him, ignoring the fact that she nearly knocked him over with the strength of an adult man. "Zenobia, how I have missed you!" He muttered into her ear, hugging her close. She hid her face in his neck like she did hundreds of times before and caught his scent. He smelled amazingly good and it drove her crazy; she was starving. Before she could answer her friend her mind went completely blank as she hugged him tighter. Her features changed from the Serene child she had been to something more monstrous. Her teeth turned to razor sharp points, her face looked angry almost like a snarling wolf before the attack. He let out a scream of fear before her teeth sank onto his neck cutting him off as she drained him dry. When he fell to the ground she simply walked away unaware of what she had done. She was starving and her new instincts had taken over. Sounds from the barn where she used to play drew her attention, so she made her way silently over to it slipping inside silently. The other children followed her inside and shut the door.

"Zenobia!" One shouted trying to draw her out. "Zeno?" Another chimed in "Whats wrong" Zenobia remained hidden in the shadows as blood ran down her chin dripping onto the fabric of the white dress her father had gotten her for the funeral she had come to realize was her own. She hid out of fear of the other children oblivious to the blood that dripped. "Zenobia. talk to us, we are your friends."

"My family! My friends! they all buried me ALIVE!" She screamed tears straining her voice. "I thought you liked me! I loved all of you!" She let out a sob as the others fell silent.

"Zeno we do love you. You WERE dead. You did not breath for hours we watched over all of us hoping and praying you would breath again. Your Pa couldn't take it anymore." A boy explained waiting for her to come from the shadows.

"If I was dead, I would be in the ground! Not here. I am ALIVE!" She screamed again and moved from the shadows into the light just enough for her dress to show but not her strangely twisted face. As the children moved closer she picked them off draining some and simply killing others, her anger and hurt overpowering the need to survive. Some tried to run and managed to escape the barn, Zenobia however simply gave chase and ripped the lives from their bodies. She moved towards her father's cabin away from town and walked in.

"Papa?" She called out looking at the dolls he carved to look exactly how she looked. "Papa? I am home. Where are you?" She called again feeling a bit off put surrounded by all the dolls.

"GO away Zenobia, you are just a doll and therefore not real." He muttered in a drunken stupor.

"Papa! I am real! I am home!" She screamed.

"YOU ARE DEAD!" He yelled at her throwing the mug of ale at her. When it hit her she let out an injured scream and sobbed.

"Papa.." She whimpered and when he turned his back instead of holding her close as he often did she lost her temper and stomped over to him to tug on his arm. Once she tugged she ripped his arm right off his body. The smell of the blood sent her into another frenzy, her mind going blank as she moved through the village picking off everyone she crossed. Screams echoed through the cold winter air as the snow turned red from the blood of those who failed to escape Zenobia's grasp. Sometime during the night a fire started and spread through the village engulfing everything in its path. Standing on a hill just inside the treeline, Zenobia realized what she had done and nearly threw up. She didn't understand why she had done what she had done. The fear of being punished for what she had done built up so much she ran away from the village and into the forest away from where the stranger had taken her.

As dawn drew closer Zenobia calmed, hoping the sunlight would hide away the dark things just as her father taught her would happen. Only What Zenobia didn't know, was that she had become the very dark thing she had been taught to fear. As she looked around the forest she found a small shallow cave and moved to sit inside the opening to watch the sunrise she had missed dearly for the past year. When the sun rose Zenobia realized the sun hurt her, her skin blistered and burned. She let out a scream of pain and dove into the cave hiding from the sun's rays, whimpering and holding her arm that had gotten the most of the damage. She leaned against the wall and fell asleep not noticing her burned arm falling to the dirt piled against the cave. The soil seemed to heal her arm while she slept. The winter passed and Zenobia barely even noticed, she had remained near the cave she had found that first night refusing to go anywhere near anything living. Animals would roam past her at night and she would once more lose her control and take them down draining them dry.

After the first incident she learned she could move large animals with minimal effort. So when she noticed what she had done she would move the bodies away from her cave so the bigger animals wouldn't come by and harm her. This had been her routine for months, one day she went to sleep and when she awoke two days later the cave had caved in and trapped her under the earth once again. Her screamed were muffled as she blindly clawed her way out just as the sun dropped below the horizon. She ran scared of what had caused her cave to collapse. As she ran she stumbled upon a battlefield, remaining within the trees she watched as the battle progressed the blood driving her mad with the need to have it. She remained none the less and watched as men ran away only to have the other guys chase them, and be chased by men on horses and chopped down. She soon found herself inching towards the battlefield and nearly screamed as a man grabbed her ankle.

"Help me..." He begged and before Zenobia could respond her mind once more went blank. She moved from man to man draining the wounded and freshly dead as she did so. She had no idea what she was doing but didn't rightly care at the moment. They human blood was sweeter than the animals she had been picking off. It wasn't long after the battle that she had learned it was May of the year 1434. She had thought it was later than it truly was, she didn't feel the warm air around her, she was always cold always felt the snow that surrounded her.

After the battle was over and moved on she began to roam around the countryside avoiding humans more for fear of herself then the fear of them. She would catch the scent of a village or town not far down the road and change course. Sometimes she would break out into tears on the side of the road for the life she had lost and an unlucky traveler would stop to help her. The blank mind would take over the small girl, and her features would change from Serene to monstrous and the travelers blood would be on the wrong side of their body. One unlucky traveler had come in a carriage and invited the girl in, not wanting to seem rude she climbed in and sat on the seat next to him and waited until he looked at the window away from her. She could control when to let the mind blank take over to an extent. Holding it back only for a few minutes, the moment he looked away was her moment to strike. She launched herself towards the man. Her once white dress stained in the blood of old victims, her white blonde hair wild and curly around her face. The man never made a sound as she ripped into the vein at his neck taking long even pulls, he was not afraid and this somehow angered the child. She liked the rush she got when they were afraid. On this realization she bit down again ripping into his neck more, the man, on the other hand, was too far gone to feel the pain and scream like she wanted. She continued to rip at his flesh until the inside of the carriage was covered and dripping in his blood. She then let out a scream causing the coach driver to stop the carriage and jump out to make sure she was alright. When he opened the door she sprang onto the male and ri[[ed into his throat as he screamed, cutting the sound short. She smiled as she watched the dead body fall to the ground. A scream escaped her lips moments later at the realization of what she had done. She had KILLED two innocent men trying to help her.