Blacken

  “Would you like to again?” she whispered, her breath hitting his lips just inches from hers.

  He crooned, a whisper barely funneling out, “Yes.”

  The pair talked about complicated feelings that built in between them both, kissing into late hours all the while. He spoke about reciprocating the same affection Avie had, unsure how to break the barrier that separated the two physically, or whether it was proper of him to even dare try. Thankful that she took the initiative after sending so many signals to her that he wanted more, but too afraid to try anything else.

  His species moved faster, falling in love was easy once compatibility was established, then when a couple was declared vovii, his word for partners, a ceremony was held shortly after to solidify their union, not too unlike a marriage. But marriage often took years to get to, theirs took a matter of weeks. Rhulle expressed that once two are together, they typically are for life, whereas Avie explained humans come and go sometimes in a relationship.

  She fell asleep in Rhulle’s nest, awaking with a start only hours later while the night still loomed. The thrumming feeling washed over her, budding and building as she came to her senses.

  The woman sat up, clutching at the waves inside her head, growing stronger with each pulse. Looking over to see Rhulle stir where he lay beside her, he awoke, seeing her sitting and staring back down at him. Nervous, she was not entirely sure what was going to happen next. She felt it even before he did—the hunger to be fed.

  The chestnut truxen simply smiled, “It woke you up, did it?”

  She sighed in relief, happy to hear that he was, indeed, in control as he had said, “Yes, is it still alright if you see it?”

  He sat up as well, those eyes so blood red, essentially symbolizing the need, “It will be okay, you can show me whenever you are comfortable.”

  She nodded. “It’s probably better to show you as soon as possible, I mean before someone wanders in,” she laughed awkwardly. Grabbing a penknife from her bag nearby, she hesitated upon sitting back down. “Should there be better light?”

  “I am still able to see it no problem.”

  With a prick, the droplets rose from her skin, rising into the air between them and floating idly. Rhulle looked at them in fascination. “Incredible. I have never seen this before.”

  “It—uh—didn’t do this last time; it flew so fast I almost couldn’t track it. Any idea on what it means?”

  He started to move around, finding that it followed him wherever he tread, even as new blood steadily dripped out to join the others, “Your blood is drawn to me, but others must also have the same attraction if it brings them here, yet I have never seen this happen with them. Perhaps yours is just a stronger case?”

  “It explains why it’s more intense for me, I wish I knew why no one else had it this bad. Why just me?”

  Rhulle played with the stream of droplets in and around the talons, thinking it over, “May I?”

  “What, taste it?” His expression was still soft, reassuring her, “I-I… Yes, that’s fine.”

  Avie watched Rhulle gather the blood on his fingertips, smearing some of the liquid on the pads before leading the puddle to his mouth, licking and tasting her blood. His face scrunched up, before eyes snapped open, a small gasp leaving him.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” She was concerned, his eyes connected with hers still in surprise. Then she felt it.

  “I no longer need to feed.”

  His eyes receded the dark shade, revealing his natural tawnier colour, Avie looked on just as in shock as he was.

  “Just from that? That was a spoonful at most!”

  “Whatever is in your blood, it has given me everything that I need in that small dose. I have needed liters just to get by every other time.”

  The words he stated beforehand raked through her.

  “A stronger case...” She started to laugh, Avie laughed before it transitioned into a cry, “We can make it stop almost as suddenly as it comes… Rhulle, I’m so happy! People will live—you will live! Now, we only have to figure out what’s in my blood.”

  She tucked into his arms. “You have a result on the way, yes?”

  “It’s been taking a very long time, but it should be soon. I hope they found something. It feels amazing to at least have an answer after so long.”

  The pair retreated back to the nest, Rhulle more or less pulling her half slumbering body with him, ready to sleep soundly for the rest of the evening.

  Sweat dripped from his body in a cold flash.

  That thing’s eyes were filled with pure evil—red as the fires of Hell. Owen stumbled back, unable to break away from its vision, finding the strength thanks to adrenaline to leave the confined space. He ran home, a difficult feat with how much the snow had piled up onto the ground; the cold embrace helping itself to the inside of his boots.

  Finally falling into his own doorstep, the librarian thought of Avie. She rejected him. Her face blanketed with repulsion once his own emotions flew off the deep end—kissing her in the heat of the moment rather than passion.

  He only went out there to find her as she was not home, panicked at the thought of her becoming another one of the thing’s meals, Owen set off trying to stop the feeding. Finding her perfectly fine and even stating that Rhulle would feed soon sent him into a frenzy of worry, yet Avie took the monster’s side.

  Owen shed his outerwear, heaving heavy breaths as he began to sob. The love of his life had feelings for that demon! The thing in the woods that lured people to kill them, and Avie kissed it? He should have gotten to her first, she was supposed to be his.

  Nobody else in town was able to look past his odd energy and obsessive personality, Owen had no friends besides her, yet here he was alone again! He was lost. The entire time he had been swept up in solving what could have been the biggest discovery of humankind to really stop and think of the effect it truly had on her.

  He made a mistake. But that creature… He would continue killing the people it brought into Blacken, it was only a matter of time before it got to Avie. Something was wrong with her; she was normally very thoughtful in scenarios. The blond thought for sure she was under its influence of some sort.

  This problem had to stop. People needed to stop dying. Owen was the only one who knew the truth, the only one not brainwashed to be able to do the right thing—the heroic thing.

  Avie couldn’t stop him anymore.

  A soft caress roused Avie from a dream, the feather light touch fluttering her consciousness towards the sunlight streaming across her eyelids, drawing her awake. A padded thumb drew across her cheek, her vision focusing on Rhulle as he lay there beside her, smiling at her slumbering figure.

  “I did not mean to wake you, you just looked so serene.”

  She mirrored the smile, realizing that she was curled into him and had been sleeping in the nest, so to speak, along with him throughout the night. It didn’t even register when she woke up in the middle of the night that she returned to slumber there alongside him.

  “Don’t worry, you didn’t. Did I really fall asleep here?” she asked, a little embarrassed.

  “Twice in the same night. Though, I do not mind, did you sleep alright?”

  Avie laughed once, her mind still foggy with sleep, a hand that was placed on his chest lifted to rub at her eyes. “Very well. Did you?”

  “The best in ages,” Rhulle’s hand moved from her face to brush red curls back, dipping in to place a small kiss on her morning glow, “I like having you sleep next to me, it is very comforting.”

  She stared into the amber eyes, Rhulle was very romantic, whether he realized it or not. He was comparative to the moon, mysterious, always under the guise of dusk yet beautiful in its glow. Illuminating through the dark, creating a path with iridescent silver rays.

  Perhaps the comfort of having the truxen beside her while sleeping mingled with the ease of knowing how to fix her painful afflictions led to the restful sleep. Either way, Avie felt
peaceful for the first time in years.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever fallen asleep that fast before, what time is it?”

  Looking around, eyes scanned over the familiar setting, attempting to locate her watch. Memories of shy touching, gentle kissing, and confessions to feelings more complex than that of just friendship caught up in her mind.

  It also brought forward the events with Owen prior.

  Dare Avie share the news of what they discovered with her blood that night?

  “It is still early, were you needing to go?”

  She turned back into him after checking the time, “I can stay for a little while longer still. I really like this.”

  Her arms wrapped around the long neck as he smiled, returning the hold, “You do, do you? Care to show, dear Avie?”

  The rest of the morning and well into the afternoon was indeed spent showing.

  Returning to her abode after time spent with the incredible truxen, she dropped her keys next to the blinking answering machine, pressing play on the recorded message. Avie started on a pot of coffee as she listened, humming out a cheerful tune.

  “Good morning, Miss. Conrad. This is Dr. Monroe’s office calling about your blood test results, we have them ready for collection if you want to book an appointment. Please call us back at your earliest convenience—”

  The woman rushed over to listen intently, hovering over the machine as soon as her blood test was mentioned. She could wait for coffee, jolting down the phone number, she called back immediately, able to get in straight away if she hurried.

  Clutching the keys once more, Avie ran out, excited for even more answers. It was a short distance away, scarcely a 20-minute walk, but the excitement squirmed in her abdomen with every step.

  Finally, she was seated in the patient’s room, “Hello, Miss. Conrad! How are you? You’ve got something remarkable here, would you like me to go over from the start?” Dr. Monroe greeted her, handing her a manila envelope filled with doctor script, confusing terminology and charts.

  “I’m fine today, thank you. I was hoping to get my blood type for right now.”

  “Ahh, yes, exactly what I was eager to discuss. You see, your blood is quite rare. The test came back saying out of the sixty-one Rh antigens in blood, you are missing all of them. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, you still have the other makeups of blood that allow you to function with no problems, but because of the rarity, I highly urge you to donate blood just as a precaution. If an emergency does arise, there’s only a handful of other documented cases, you may not get an organ donor if it ever came to that situation. I don’t mean to sound scary, it’s just a serious scenario should it come down to it. You’re healthy now, so keep up the good habits.”

  “Is that why the home test wouldn’t show me what blood type I was?”

  He laughed, “That’s a possibility, they’re done wrong all the time, the important thing is that now you know.”

  “And there’s nothing wrong with me? I don’t need anything like supplements?”

  “Your blood type was with you since before you were born, there’s nothing wrong with you. It’s unfortunate that it’s so rare, it could be dangerous if you needed an abundance of blood or a new liver!” he chuckled.

  She dismissed the comment, “I couldn’t just get another blood type if that happens?”

  “It’s very unlikely that it would ever come to that, I’m just being precautionary as doctors should be. Good to have your bases covered, Miss. Conrad. Your blood type wouldn’t accept any others, only the same one, and out of about forty ever reported, it’s just good practice to donate to yourself. You were in a car accident a few months back, right? I’d say you’ve already had the worst of it, it’s lucky that it wasn’t serious enough to warrant any of that.”

  The woman nodded, “Right, yes I should do that. Thank you, that pretty much answers what I had wanted.”

  Avie shook his calloused hand and left, setting up an appointment to donate blood on her way out, the envelope tucked firmly in her grasp.

  Reading through the test results as soon as she arrived back home, a cup of coffee clutched in her grasp, her mind spun over the rare blood and how it fit in with everything. This must be it… The reason so much had been happening to her…

  She looked over the results again, finding that there were other blood types that fell into the category of being rare and having Rh antigens missing, a handy chart thrown into the printed documents showing the list. It helped explain how other groups classified the missing factors and what the rhesus element was; drawing conclusions that the ones who had most of the missing Rh antigens were the ones following the call to Blacken.

  But how did it line up with the truxen who fed on the liquid?

  She tried not to think into the schematics of something beyond her knowledge, but her blood lacked other components that more prevalent blood possessed. Maybe that was what made it taste so wrong to him; the antigens filled out the liquid more so he couldn’t absorb what he needed in small doses. It was just filler for Rhulle, and he needed more blood in order to get the proper nutrients that were required. He only needed a small quantity of her, in his terms, purer blood to feed properly.

  She was ecstatic at a revelation of sorts, but then a wave of sadness came over her. Avie should tell Owen about what happened… about what she found out and discovered earlier with Rhulle.

  Showing up at his doorstep, nervous and hesitant, knuckles knocked with heavy raps on the wood. She stood there, waiting for some time before he answered, opening the door to reveal him looking more disheveled and worse for wear. Meeting her in the doorway, Owen’s eyes were puffy and red, supporting an old house robe.

  “I thought for sure I had lost you forever,” he sighed in a small relief.

  “I only wanted to tell you what I’ve found out,” Avie flashed the envelope full of her bloodwork, “about my results, and what Rhulle discovered.”

  He visibly stiffened upon hearing that name, the small smile that graced him, slipping into nothing.

  She continued; “I figured you deserved to know, I mean, after everything.”

  He nodded, before moving, “Come inside?”

  They sat in an awkward tension in the living room, she fiddled with her ring on her pinky, staring at the manila envelope while he stared at her. She didn’t really want to meet his eyes. It felt so weird now.

  Why did it have to get so weird?

  Avie stood to spill open the contents onto the coffee table, the papers forming a messy stack in front of them both, Owen taking initiative to pick up a few papers to thumb through.

  “I have a rare blood type. I’m missing all of my antigens in the Rh system. When I was in my car accident, I think the medication they gave me affected my blood enough that I couldn’t register this whole thing. When it started to leave my system, that’s when I felt the vibration more and more intensely each time. Rhulle needed a filtered form of blood in order to feed. Only people who have an absence of those factors may be the ones who are lured. But mine is unlike anything he has ever seen, it’s in its strongest form for what he needs, it only took a little bit—no more than a spoonful! It’s incredible. No more people have to die, Owen.”

  She paced as she spoke while he just stared at her, in disbelief.

  “... You let that thing feed on you?”

  “Did you not listen to anything else I said?” She felt anger pulse through her. Avie never imagined she would still be so angry with Owen, but even yesterday, his behavior… Her fists curled, thinking over his reluctant need for people to stop dying, but was only ever outraged when she was in the center of the topic of feeding. Her mind constructed the building blocks together.

  “You were never worried about the people in this town…” Avie laughed sombrely. “Of course, you weren’t… You never cared for them because they never cared about you. You just wanted to control me. To stop me from interacting with someone else I consider close.”

&nb
sp; “Avie, that’s not true, and you know it. I’ve only ever tried to protect you.”

  “I didn’t need you to protect me, I needed a friend. I needed support. I was in pain every few weeks, but you just wanted to solve a mystery at my expense.”

  “Don’t you dare say that!” He stood to match her height, “I am in love with you; I want everything for us. It was supposed to be me, you were supposed to be mine!”

  Avie shook her head, tears filling her eyes before she laughed coldly, “I don’t know how you don’t hear yourself, Owen. This isn’t you. I don’t know who this is, right here, right in front of me. I used to like a version of you, but now I see he’s gone. I thought maybe if I shared these results with you, or even saw you again, then the old Owen would show himself. He might apologize. He may want to still be friends. But I don’t think that could ever happen.”

  He said nothing, a stunned silence occupied him while the redhead gathered her things—stopping in the doorway one last time, she turned to take in his figure.

  “Goodbye, Owen.”

  She left him standing in his living room with a distressed look. Avie would no longer contact him, unless he could prove he changed, but she still would not want to see him for a fair amount of time.

  Her first friend in this town. Her comfort. A home was made with him, but he was not that anymore. The cold wind freezing at her eyes, she wiped at them with the dry side of her scarf. She just had to get home, then she could let her emotions out…

  CHAPTER 16

  Avie felt as though she lost him forever.

  She really thought that everything that they worked through, all the mysteries they were trying to unravel, how close they were because of it all… She believed Owen would keep his word to try because it was important to her. Yes, it was important to him too, but Avie was dead center in it all.

  The woman walked into her apartment, throwing the stack of papers onto the floor, a loud sob following while she bent over at the waist. She cried distressed, never imagining Owen to react in such a way, changing as a person in what felt like the flip of a coin. Avie lied to him about part of the mystery in the past, she knew it had been wrong, but she apologized for it and never denied anything else. It was to protect Owen, and to protect Rhulle.