Page 82 of Vervain

Saya Claymore

Lights flash red, blinking on and off, and I stare down an empty hallway. My hands close into fists, tensing at the mirrors surrounding me.

I stare back at myself, the image distorted. A nightmare, but I am aware again. This seems to be a recurring thing, and something I can’t ignore anymore.

Making my way down the corridor, the red light saturates my pale skin, becoming a sickly purple as it blends with my natural ice-blue tone. My footsteps are light, and my reflections move forwards with me, eyes ahead on the distorted one looking back at us.

The light blinks out again, and the hallway plunges into darkness. My throat tightens, heart clenching at the memory of watching Manni on the other side of the door. With each flash of light, the creature from the airshaft had crawled down towards her…

I reach up to clutch my pendant, only to grab air. My breath hitches, and I look down to find I’m wearing a Feeder gown. Shakier breaths come at the rising screams behind me. “Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!”

“Don’t look,” I whisper. “It’s not real.”

I keep moving across the white tiles, tears slipping down my cheeks, tasting the thick wetness that sticks to the soles of my feet. Then the insect calls come into focus.

Manni’s screams. Emily’s panic. The scent of urine from Cole. Jax holding onto me as I tried to reach the door to save my friend. It all floods back until I am wading through a river of red.

It gets harder to keep moving, the blood rising higher, now covering my waist. Bodies float past. Lifeless eyes. Chunks of flesh. A massacre I’ve pushed down and tried to forget for my sanity, and now I am swimming in it, desperate to keep afloat.

“It’s not real!”

“Can you braid my hair again, Saya? It reminds me of when Nora used to do it,” Manni says.

It’s not real, I think to myself.

“Do you reckon my grandma is still okay?” Emily says. “Do you think she is still alive?”

My lips tremble, nostrils flaring as more bodies float by, and now my head is only just above the surface as the bloody water keeps rising, and those left behind sink. Ahead is my distorted reflection, and I reach for it, desperate to leave this room before I drown.

“Saya…can you tell me another story? The daywalker one. It’s my favourite.”

It’s not real.

As my head goes under and thick sludge encases me, my fingertips graze the mirror, and it shatters. The blood flows, surging forwards, and I hit the ground, covered head to toe. Dollops of gore sluice down my body as I retch and cough out the slop that got into my mouth. The metallic taste fills me, and my gums swell, saliva pooling in my mouth.

Pushing up to my knees, I wipe the blood from my eyes until I can see. My body jolts at the sight of the tanks in front of me. My breath hitches as I examine the creatures floating inside. Wires hook to their bodies, their skins shimmering and translucent.

Above the tanks are familiar numbered Feeder labels.

Manni.

Emily.

Cole.

Julien.

Monsters float inside each tank.

“What?”

I stand, but as I step forwards on the tiles, they collapse underneath me, and I fall into the black.

I wake on a chilled surface, my cheek icy—wrapped in cold. Brows furrowed in confusion, I open my eyes to darkness and push myself up.

Walls surround me, and my back hits something.

Caged? Trapped? Serun fucking trapped me? Is this punishment? Throw me in a coffin to tell me what I did was wrong?