AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She bares her teeth in defiance but doesn’t say a word. Good. Maybe we’ll get somewhere with this one today.
“Tell me about your parents. What were they like?”
She barks out a throaty laugh. “I killed them. Ate their insides.” She licks her lips, slurping all the while.
She didn’t. She hasn’t been anywhere near her home since she was turned. This is all part of the reconstruction. Similar to what you see in the apocalyptic zombie movies, new bites’ brains are switched, turning them abhorrent and murderous. But it can be reversed by helping them remember life before.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Your parents are out with a search party looking for you. You disappeared and they’re very worried. Your friends are worried too.”
She continues baring her teeth, not giving a shit about the parents she’s forgotten, and I’m running out of patience for the day. I’m tired and I need to get back home.
“I’ll be back soon, Anderson. If you need me, call,” I say, walking toward the exit.
“Where you headed?” he calls at my back.
“Home,” I respond, turning one last time to see the girl in cell six. “To Marina.”
She squints as if trying to determine why that name sounds familiar.
“Marina,” she says, testing the name out.
“Yes. Marina,” I repeat the name.
Her eyes widen and a glimmer of hope rises to the surface.
“Do you remember Marina?” I ask.
Her face contorts and her body jerks in slight convulsions. I wait, hopeful for the first time since I brought her here. She continues to twitch, not saying anything, so I press.
“Marina. Say her name.”
The trembling intensifies and froth seeps from the corners of her mouth. Her head falls back onto her shoulders and she screams out, rattling the bars with the intensity. She rushes the bars with her shoulder, trying and failing to knock them down to get to me, cursing me all the while. All hope drains from me. She’s not ready.
Anderson hands me a vial and I slip it between the bars, taking my chances that she won’t rip off my arm to get to it. She grabs the blood, twisting the top without preamble, and sucks the entire thing down within seconds, licking her lips of every drop.
“Better?” I ask, watching as the whites of her eyes turn a bright red, the blood seeping into her system. She doesn’t answer, but collapses onto the mattress.
I turn to leave, ready to get home. “I’ll be back soon, Shannon.”
Chapter Five
The days locked away in this cabin have been long and downright boring. Law holes himself up in his office all day, doing God knows what, while I read or nap. Today, I chose a nap. At some point during my peaceful slumber, I hear shouting and pop my eyes open.
I spring from the bed, running to the door, ear pressed against the wood. “Who’s out there?” I say to myself. It’s a habit I’ve picked up, due to loneliness.It’s been a thing for a while.
The voices are muffled, but it doesn’t take me long to make out the owners.
Julian.
I take off through the door, winding down the one small hall before coming to the open area. My head swivels back and forth while I try to locate where their raised voices are coming from.
Straight across from me is another hallway. I dash in that direction, and Julian’s deep timbre wafts out from under the closed door.
“You have to tell her, Julian. It’s not fair to spring it on her.” Law’s frustrated voice rises, which is so out of character for the laidback brother I’ve come to know.
“You think I don’t know this? It’skillingme, Lawrence. I don’t have a fucking choice.”
“We all have choices, brother. You just keep making the wrong ones.”
