Page 10 of No One’s Daughter

​I wasn’t sure how, but I knew right away that it wasn’t mine.

​This wasn’t a dream.

​My hands were shaking as I became aware of my surroundings.

​The last thing I remembered was standing in my bathroom and seeing fangs in my reflection.

​Fangs.

​I quickly ran my tongue over my teeth, but nothing. Everything felt normal and the pain was certainly gone. But, it was replaced with a new type of torture.

My senses were on fire.

Heightened. Unnatural.

My ears were ringing. Sounds penetrated my brain from every direction and I shook my head to rid me of them to no avail. I felt as though I could hear the entire fucking city.

And my eyes. I could see everything, every detail in every shadow I shouldn’t have been able to make out. I was in an alley a stone's throw away from the bookstore. I definitely shouldn't have been able to see anything here. I'd always avoided this alley, particularly in the dark because of how dangerous it appeared.

Then it hit me.

The smell encased me. Filling my nostrils, suffocating me with every breath. There was no mistaking it.

Blood.

That's when I noticed him.

He was on the ground beneath me, a foot or so away. Still.

Deathly still.

​I looked towards the lit street and instantly cowered back, blinded by the headlights of a passing car. At that moment, I had flashes of memories.

​Memories of that damn insatiable hunger, of me staggering down the narrow flight of stairs. Timothy's face glaring at mine like he'd seen a ghost.

Of him running in fear.

From me.

Of me sinking my teeth into his neck.

Of me drawing his life from him in its entirety.

Him collapsing, lifeless in my arms. I glanced down at my hands again, the evidence of what I’d done staring me in the face. My normally pale skin was unrecognisable in the grotesque cover of human blood. The blood was all around us. His blood.

I froze.

Unable to process, my whole body broke out in uncontrollable shakes.

And then it dawned on me.

No.

No.

No.

I had killed him.