by K.E. Rodgers
****
The river lapped at the edge of the concrete wall as she walked along the sidewalk. Lifting her head to the sky she could just make out the edge of the moon hiding behind the grey clouds making an eerie smear of light across the otherwise black, inky sky. There were no stars out tonight, too cloudy. A cold front was blowing in, heralding the smell of a new season. Fall was still a bit away, but already you could smell that the summer heat was dissipating, chocked out by the threat of a winters icy breath.
Boats bobbed in the waters along the docks, and up ahead, Kasa could make out the concrete pilings of the bridge. The Bridge of Lions was labeled a historical landmark and could never be torn down. She had read about it in the travel brochures she had gone through when choosing to move to this city. It had recently gone under extensive repair and it gleamed with a freshness that belied its age. She had yet to see Anastasia Island and the beach side of the old city.
Natalie, her roommate, loved going to the beach with her friends on the weekends, though Kasa thought it was more so she could show off her body in those tiny bikinis. That was something Kasa could appreciate in her human roommate, she was not shy about her physical appearance.
It wouldn’t be too much longer and the sky would change yet again, the pink light of morning pushing the dark night away. Kasa could only hope for a short run along the sandy beaches before she had to return to her dorm room. She knew she couldn’t be found wandering around in this form by the humans. They’d lock her away in a protective sanctuary. But if she was quick enough she could make it back before anyone in the college awoke.
Making up her mind Kasa made her way closer to the ancient bridge. Her paws barely made a sound as she picked up speed. The night air was colder than usual and she had great fun blowing puffs of hot air out of her open mouth. Her cat had needed the exercise.
It was only when she was running along the shadow walking path of the bridge that she noticed something out of place up ahead. There were no cars going over the bridge and most of the city’s residents had gone home for the night. No one should be on the bridge.
A figure, tall, definitely human in shape, was leaning against the side of the bridge, its face turned to the water below. Kasa slowed down, careful to keep her breathing minimal so that it wouldn’t notice her coming up on it. Her head low, she took a hesitant sniff of the air, pausing to see if it noticed the noise. It didn’t appear to.
Her head crouched low to the ground Kasa slowly advanced. It was male, at least six feet in height with a slender but sturdy build. His clothing matched the shadows around him as if he intended to slip into them and never emerge.
Kasa wondered why she thought this. But there was a strange quality surrounding his figure that made her believe he wished simply to disappear into the night. It made her sad for him, a stranger, and a human. But she could empathize with his sadness. Sometimes she wanted to slip away too, let the dark shadows envelope her, comforting her in their quiet nothingness.
She was close now. It, he, had blonde hair, similar in color to her own; golden wheat that was slightly ruffled by the wind blowing over the bridge. She had yet to see his face, turned as it was to the inky waters below. Kasa wondered if he would jump. She had heard that some humans were prone to jumping from high perches, sometimes to feel the rush of falling, others to make themselves feel nothing.
The wind changed then, a sudden turn, quick, toward her. Kasa took the scent of him into her nose and mouth and almost coughed because of it. She had smelled that scent only once before. Her father had been murdered and He had come. His cologne had lingered in the air around her shaking body as she had huddled like a baby in the shadows, feet away from her father’s dying body. She hadn’t been brave enough to go to him and instead had let Death take him away from her.
The figure on the bridge smelled of death, but it wasn’t Him. No, it was a thing he had touched. It was one of them, the dead ones. She heard of their existence, but had never met any. The dead did not usually socialize with the livings and she did not have any wish to make friends with any of them. Kasa knew that the city was haunted by things that most of the living feared, but she had never expected to see any.
She had never expected to see one of ‘them’. Not only was he one of the dead, he was the very monster that had taken her father, murdered him, leaving him in the open and so very far from his home. They had traveled for hours on foot because her father believed there was a cure for him up here. He had been tired and angry. Kasa had had to keep a safe distance when his moods changed, and they changed so suddenly. She had only to be swiped at once before she realized that his mental functions weren’t right. Her father had never tried to strike her, even at his angriest.
He had seen the monsters and thought only to protect her from them. Kasa hadn’t a chance to get a good look at them. But she knew that there had been three of them, all male. Her father had hidden her in the dense foliage while he engaged the dead creatures. He hadn’t come back for hours and she had grown more worried. But she’d remained hidden, too fearful to go after him. All the while she could smell them, not Death, but the things that he let exist in this world.
It was wrong that they should smell so good, a perfect concoction of flavor notes, when she knew that they were evil soulless beasts that preyed on innocent livings. They were aberrations of nature that should be put down. They were the worst qualities of human nature, destructive and without conscious.
Her anger fully engaged she crouched low, eyeing the flesh-eater, making ready to take it down. With a yelp torn from the depths of her animal’s soul she flung herself at the creature.