Thirst

2.

After what felt like years of walking through the dense woods, I finally heard it. Running water. It sounded like it was close, but apparently it wasn't. It took me about ten more minutes to reach the creek.

"Thank god," I said to myself.

I placed my bloody hands into the cold water and started scrubbing. Although I still had no clue what happened back at the house, I knew I had to get rid of all this blood.

The water was freezing. Blood flowed from my hands into the creek, washing away evidence of my crime. I worked on my face next. The blood stains would never come out of my white shirt, so I didn't bother trying.

Drying my hands on my dirty jeans, I stood up and looked around me. There were no houses or roads nearby. No trails. Just trees. I didn't know if this was a good thing or not. I definitely would never be able retrace my steps back to the house, and that probably wouldn't be very wise. So I listened.

At first, I could only hear the water running. I focused and tried to tone out the creek. Then I heard it. Cars. A lot of them. It was a highway. Weighing my options, I knew that getting help would probably be the better than wandering around in the woods, especially since I had no clue who I was or where to go. So I started walking.

It took thirty minutes to get to the highway.

"But, it sounded so close?" I muttered.

I fell about five times on my way there. My feet were aching, and I was covered in dirt. Thankfully, there was a diner close to where I walked out of the woods. Pushing aside all doubts and worries aside, I opened the door.

Everyone stared at me as I walked to the counter. I could also hear their whispers as if they were standing right beside me.

"What happened to her?"

"She's been through it."

"Who the hell let that thing in?"

"I wonder if that Vampire guy did that to her."

I stared at the guy who said that last thing. He looked away, but kept glancing over at me. Vampire guy...?

The woman at the counter stared as I walked towards her. She had dark brown hair that was up in a bun, and her full cheeks were a bright red. She did her best to hide her shock at seeing me. I didn't think I looked that bad.

"Hi. I need some help."

"I'll call the p-police. Don't w-worry honey." Her whole body trembled as the reached for the phone and dialed 911.

"Y-yes. I'm at Sandra's Diner. There's a g-girl here. She's covered in blood and dirt. I- I think she may be another victim of The Vampire. Yes. Thank you." She hung the phone up and turned back to me.

"They're on the way honey. Don't worry. Please sit, I'll g-get you something to eat."

"Thank you." I sat in the stool in front of her.

A minute later she returned with a plate of pancakes.

"Here you go honey. Eat up."

I nodded to her as she sat the plate down. She lingered for a minute, then returned to her customers.

The pancakes smelled awful. I'm not sure how you could mess up pancakes, but apparently the cook knew. But I was insanely hungry, so I cut off a piece and took a bite. The minute it hit my tongue, I started gagging. As I spit it out, the woman ran over to me.

"Oh, honey, are you okay? Do you want me to get you something else?"

"N-no thanks. I'm just nauseous."

Pushing the plate aside, I stared at my hands. Images of them covered in blood kept popping up in my mind. I rubbed my eyes and looked at them again. Instead, they were just cracked and bruised. I had no clue how they got that bad.

A few minutes later the door opened again. A police officer walked in.

"Sorry, Mae. You know how far away the station is," he smiled at the woman behind the counter before turning to me.

"I guess you're the one she was talking about. Can you come with me?" He held out a hand for me to take.

Instead, I stood and stared at him.

"Okay then."

The man let me in front of him, leading me out the door and to his police car. He opened the passenger's side door, waiting me for to sit before closing it behind me.

I watched as he walked around the front of the car and got into the driver's side. The man was extremely tall, and seemed to walk with a limp.

On the way there, he tried multiple times to start a conversation with me, but it just ended up with him blabbering about himself. I found out his name was Kenny, and he had been a part of the police department for five years. Last year, he was shot in the knee, explaining his limp. While he never really looked at me, he didn't seem nearly as disturbed by me as the lady at the diner did.

Finally, we reached the station. I was met by nearly every officer there. They had called in EMS, but apparently the nearest hospital was 30 minutes away, so it would take a while for them to get there. Kenny ended up sitting me down in a chair next to his desk.

"I want to ask you a few questions, if that's alright with you."

"Sure."

He pulled out a pen and notebook, which surprised me since there was a computer on his desk.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Emelyn."

"Your full name?"

"I-I don't know."

"Okay. What's your age?"

"Nineteen. I'm pretty sure."

He jotted down the information on his notebook. I noticed he was also taking notes on how I looked.

"Is there anyone I can contact to tell them you're here?"

"Uhm, I don't know. I don't remember anyone."

"No parents, sibling maybe?"

"I don't know."

"Okay. One last thing. Do you know if someone attacked you?"

"I have no clue. I don't remember anything from before I woke up."

Before he could say anything else, another cop burst into the room.

"Kenny, it's Bill. He's dead. Just like the others."

"Damn. I'll be right there. Emelyn, can you wait here a second? I'll send in a paramedic as soon as they get here. Just rest."

He ran out of the room following the other cop. I noticed he left his notebook, so I grabbed it. There was a description of me at the bottom of the page.

"White female. White hair. Blue eyes. 5'4. Approx. 130 lbs. Wearing white blood soaked shirt and blue jeans. No shoes. No obvious injuries other than bruising."

White hair? That didn't seem right. I pulled a piece of hair to my face. Sure enough, it was white. I'm not sure why I hadn't noticed it before. It doesn't seem familiar though.

A paramedic came into the room and led me out to the rescue squad. I noticed most of the officers that had met me when I arrived were gone. There was a man sitting on a bench close to the door. The man felt familiar. He looked up as I walked past him.

"Emelyn?"