Ela: Forever (Waking Forever)

by Heather McVea

  “Help with wh–” Thought was cut off as Ela took in a long breath through her nose. A thirst and craving ran through her, one feeding into the other. In seconds, a ravenous hunger pulsated through her in unison with the distant thunder. She was drowning in it.

  Without consideration, Ela launched herself forward and landed in a crouched position fifty feet down the hill. She immediately sprang to her feet and ran at full speed toward the irresistible smell and sound. Coleen and Ivan followed closely behind.

  Within a minute, Ela was tackling a large male elk. She effortlessly knocked the four hundred pound animal to the ground. She ripped into the animal’s throat with razor sharp teeth and nails. She tore through hide, muscle, and bone, swallowing the blood greedily as it gushed into her mouth. The thunder began to fade, and Ela realized it was the animal's heartbeat slowing.

  Ela felt the silver cord digging into her throat as Coleen pulled her back. “Can you hear the heart, Ela? Listen. It’s getting too slow. Once it stops, you must stop or you’ll poison yourself.” Coleen tightened her grip on the cord and pulled Ela off the dead animal.

  Ela rose from her haunches and turned to face Coleen. Her iridescent blue and lavender eyes were accented by the blood that covered her face. Ela lifted her head toward the night sky and marveled at the unimaginable power coursing through her. It flowed between every particle of her flesh, and she felt boundless.

  Then Ela’s rage flared again and her face distorted into a horrific snarl. She grabbed the silver cord around her neck as she glared at Coleen. “You say this is for my own good? Where was your concern for my own good when you let Rachel snap my back?” Ela, using the slack in the silver cord, flicked her wrist, lassoed the cord around Coleen’s throat, and pulled the woman to the ground. Ela felt a vise-like pressure around her torso as Ivan bore down on her.

  Ela threw her head back and made contact with Ivan’s face, causing him to stumble back several feet. Ela shrieked as she ripped the cord from around her neck with such force that chunks of skin and muscle tore from her throat. She flung the cord over a low hanging tree branch and pulled hard, launching Coleen several feet off the ground. Ela then ran toward Ivan, lowering her shoulder she tackled him to the ground. A split second later, she sprang off Ivan and was running through the dense forest.

  Ela moved with tremendous speed through the closely clustered trees, her senses processing the granular details of her surroundings and guiding through even the narrowest gap with ease. She didn’t need exceptional ears to hear the rage in Coleen’s voice filling the miles behind her.

  “Ela!”

  ***

  Several hours before dawn, Ela approached the edge of the tree line near the southern point of the Krakow camp, She had been aware of the low murmur of human heartbeats for the last five miles. The burning in her throat and stomach had grown exponentially as she neared the camp. Now, standing only yards from the fifteen foot wire fence, the anticipation of what awaited her left her feeling euphoric.

  She had spent her human life being defined by the world she lived in and the people who inhabited that world. Her mother had been cruel and a burden that had kept Ela in her place. Delia had defined whether Ela was good or bad, their past deciding their future. Ela had come to Rachel only half-alive. This made Rachel’s betrayal sharper than any other in her life. Rachel had, in every way possible, extinguished the last of Ela’s humanity.

  Now, Ela crouched, surveying the guard tower and the perimeter of the Nazi camp. For the first time, her fate was wholly her own to make. She was motionless as her future emerged, and then she lunged toward it.

  Scaling the thirty foot guard tower, Ela landed on the concrete platform without making a sound. She seized a lone guard from behind, pushed him to the floor, and, twisting his head to the side, sank her teeth into his neck. The gush of warm, minerally blood tasted of licorice and salt as it poured into her mouth and down her throat. Ela stood and walked to the railing of the tower, a wet gurgling sound coming from the dying man behind her.

  Ela took a deep breath in through her nose. The smell of human flesh and blood blanketed her as she leapt from the tower, silently landing on the snow packed ground behind three guards. Ela intentionally cleared her throat. The three Nazis turned, and immediately charged at her. Before they could sound their warning whistles or raise their rifles, Ela had ripped viciously into their throats, snapping their necks effortlessly. Grabbing a hand full of snow, she wiped at her face, removing the blood.

  Ela stacked the bodies between the guard tower and fence, where they would be least visible. She then wound her way through the maze of buildings and barracks. Though it had only been a few weeks, her time in the Krakow camp seemed like a century ago. The smell of human sweat and blood was no longer vile. The hum of thousands of human heartbeats coursed through Ela and left her feeling light-headed.

  At the entrance of one of the smaller barracks, Ela quietly opened the flimsy wooden door. Inside were fifteen sleeping guards. Ela prowled down the length of the room, her boot-clad feet silent on the floor. After a moment, she came to the bunk of Heinrich Genter.

  Heinrich had taken liberties with several of the female prisoners. He hadn’t gone as far as raping Ela, but he had watched her in the laundry, and whenever the opportunity presented itself, he would brush up against her and grab at her breasts. The constant threat of being raped had hung over her every day, made worse by the knowledge he had raped several of her fellow inmates.

  The boorish looking man slept with his right arm resting above his head, and the other hand tucked in the waistband of his underpants. Ela could see his pulse points. His hot breath condensing in the cold room looked like small crystals to her vampire eyes.

  Crouching next to Heinrich’s bunk, Ela slid her hand over his mouth. A second later, preceded by a deep snoring sound, Heinrich’s eyes flew open. Ela clamped her hand down harder and brought her index finger to her lips. “Shhh.”

  In spite of the warning, the man attempted to sit up and found Ela’s other hand pressing down on his groin with such force that tears came to his eyes. In a series of quick and precise movements, Ela lifted the man off his bunk and crushed him to her as she covered the five feet between his bed and the second door in the barracks. She then stood in the crisp night air with Heinrich.

  “Do you know who I am?” Ela had the man by his throat and held him several inches off the ground.

  “Yes, and you’re dea–” Heinrich’s strangled voice was cut off by Ela slamming him to the ground.

  “Wrong answer, pig!” Ela bared her teeth and straddled the man. She rapidly pummeled him about the chest and midsection until blood shot from his mouth. Ela reached down and smeared the blood over the man’s face and neck, then wiped her hand on her pant leg. “I wouldn’t feed from you if my life depended on it.”

  Ela ripped open the man’s shirt and, using the tips of her razor-like nails, made a shallow incision down the length of his sternum. Deep red blood ran down the man’s sides and onto the white snow. Ela grabbed the man’s face with her bloodstained hands. “Don’t die yet, Herr Genter. I mean to make a memory of this.”

  Ela picked him up and carried him toward the backside of the barracks. “We need privacy for this.” Leaning the semi-conscious man against the building, Ela knelt in front of him and ran the tips of her fingers from his temple down his cheek.

  Heinrich opened his eyes and spat blood onto Ela’s face. “Your kind is dead anyway. We’ve killed you!”

  Ela smirked as she slowly wiped the blood from her face, her incisors extending further beyond her upper lip. “My kind? Do you know what I am, Heinrich?” Her right hand clenched into a fist, and she placed it over the man’s heart. “I am the monster you hope, and try so desperately, to be. I have been unburdened from the repressive weight of morality.” Ela flicked her tongue across her left incisor. “Do you know what that means, Herr Genter?”

  Before the man could respond, Ela thrust her clenched fist thr
ough his sternum. Clutching his heart, she twisted her hand and ripped it from the man’s chest. She held the lifeless organ in front of him. His eyes were wide and bulging from their sockets. “It means you’ve died badly.” Ela forced the organ into Heinrich’s open mouth. Then she wiped her bloody hands on the dead man’s pant leg, and walked back into the barracks.

  ***

  Ela moved through the barracks. Going from bed to bed in a blur, she forced her fist into the sleeping men’s mouths to minimize the noise of them struggling. She pulled their heads back to expose the front of their throats as she ripped into them.

  The blood began to pool in Ela’s boots, so she took them off before exiting the barracks. By her estimate, she had an hour before the first roll call of the morning took place, when her presence would be detected. She made her way through the camp in her bare feet, amazed at how the cold of the snow did not cause her discomfort as she neared her intended destination.

  She came to the small house Rachel had occupied with her father, brother, and sister. There was a low light coming through a draped window. Ela closed her eyes and focused her attention on the house, drowning out the rest of the sounds in the camp; she could hear three distinct heart beats coming from inside the wooden building.

  Walking up the three steps, Ela gently pushed on the front door to dislodge the latch, but leave the door intact. The latch gave immediately, and she silently entered the small living room. Ela stood in the center of the room. The texture of the shabby rug under her bare feet felt like coarse sandpaper. The ceiling, with its peeling white paint, was so vivid to her it looked like bands of clouds stretching the length of the small space.

  Ela took a deep breath through her nose. Even after several weeks, Rachel’s lavender and vanilla scent lingered. The smell permeated Ela’s nostrils, and Rachel became a savory taste in her mouth. Ela crossed the room to the tattered couch she and Rachel had spent so much time on: reading, talking, and eventually kissing.

  Dragging her index finger along the back of the sofa, Ela remembered a passage from a Melville book Rachel had read to her while sitting in this room: He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate he felt, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it. Ela’s nail pierced the dense fabric of the sofa and with her other hand she ripped the back cushion of the sofa apart. The stuffing of the couch spilled to the floor, bits of it flying around the living room.

  Stepping back from the tattered sofa, Ela turned her head slightly to the right. The even breathing of the three inhabitants of the house assured her they were still asleep. Following the stale scent she interpreted as age, Ela found her way to Rachel’s father’s room. Iwan was asleep on his side, facing the door.

  Ela knelt next to the bed and lightly touched the old man’s cheek with the back of her hand. His skin was so thin Ela could clearly see the network of blood vessels that wound through his body. Iwan was still a handsome man. He reminded Ela of Rachel with his angular jaw and high cheekbones. Ela stood up, hovering over the sleeping man. “Iwan.”

  The man stirred and slowly opened his eyes. He looked up at Ela, a combination of confusion and fatigue on his face. “Ela? What are you doing here?” Iwan moved to sit up, but Ela placed her hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back down on to the bed. “Rachel? Where’s Rachel?”

  Ela smiled and gently patted the man’s shoulder. “She’s dead, Iwan.”

  The old man’s face distorted in pain, and he bit his trembling lower lip. Before he could speak, Ela lunged toward him, sank her teeth into the paper thin skin of his neck and within seconds had drained the blood from his frail body.

  Ela dropped the limp corpse onto the bed, wiped her mouth, and walked toward the strongest heart beat in the house.

  Ela had loathed Rachel’s brother Jacob. He pretended he was outside the horrors of the camp, that because of his privileged upbringing, he was above the humiliation and degradation that were daily occurrences. He had thought Ela was trash because she was raised in the slums of Krakow. Because of that, he believed she wasn’t good enough to be friends with his dear sister. Ela quietly pushed the door to Jacob’s bedroom open and smiled, wondering how he would feel about his precious Rachel bedding the trash – repeatedly.

  Ela was pulled from her reverie as Jacob’s scent wafted over her. Like Rachel, he smelled of lavender, but with hints of cumin and hay. As she entered the room, her mouth began to water and anticipation coursed through her like fine threads of electricity. She crossed the cramped space and stood over Jacob. He slept on his back with both his arms over his head. In spite of the cold, the blankets were pooled around his knees.

  Without a sound, Ela slung one leg over Jacob’s waist, then brought her other leg onto the bed. Jacob didn’t stir as Ela straddled him. She ran the tip of her nail down the sleeping man’s strong jaw and along his neck. He and Rachel looked so similar that they could pass for fraternal twins. Ela exhaled his name, “Jacob.”

  Jacob’s breathing faltered and his eyes slowly opened. He looked up at Ela and attempted to sit up. “Ela? What are you doing here? Your eyes, what’s hap–” Ela placed her hand over his mouth, pinning him to the bed.

  “Bear with me, Jacob.” Ela ran her other hand down Jacob’s exposed stomach and plucked at the drawstring of his pajama bottoms. “I’m going to take from you something irreplaceable.” Jacob’s breathing became labored as his eyes darted back and forth from Ela’s iridescent eyes to his groin.

  Ela furrowed her brows, considering Jacob’s wide-eyed expression for several seconds before breaking into a full, throaty laugh. “You stupid boy. I have absolutely no use for that.”

  Ela leaned down, and pressed her lips to Jacob’s ear. “I’m going to take your life, Jacob.” Ela’s whisper came as a hiss of cold breath against the terrified man’s face. “Having seen what’s on the other side of death, I assure you the void will force its way into you.” Ela leaned back slightly, her face only an inch from Jacob’s. “It will beat hard at your heart until you are nothing.”

  Jacob struggled against Ela, trying to sit up, his cries muffled against her cold hand. Ela sat back, quickly removed her hand from Jacob’s mouth, and, before he could catch his breath to scream, she punched him across the left cheek.

  Jacob fell limp on the bed and let out a low moan, his cheek already swelling where Ela had struck him. Ela leaned over the half conscious man, her blood stirred expectantly as she sank her teeth into the warm flesh where Jacob’s neck and shoulder joined. Pulling the metallic tasting blood from his body in gulps, Jacob’s heart stopped within minutes.

  Ela sprung from the bed and landed silently on the cold wood floor next to Jacob’s bed. She left the small room, and walked to the door across the narrow hallway, and tapped on it. A moment later, she heard a girl’s voice coming from the other side. “Hello?”

  “Michelle, it’s Ela. Rachel’s friend. Open the door.” Ela felt the urgency to get inside and feed growing. The burning in her throat and stomach was causing an uncomfortable pressure in her chest, but she wanted to be invited in. That way, Michelle was choosing her fate.

  After a few seconds a girl no older than twelve, with dark brown hair and a pale face, opened the door. “Ela, is Rachel with you?” Michelle’s voice was a whisper.

  Ela extended her hand toward the girl. “No, but I can take you to her if you would like.” When the girl hesitated, Ela knelt in front of her. “She’s hiding near the guard tower on the south corner of the camp, and she’s hurt.”

  Michelle looked alarmed. “Let me get my brother Jacob. He can help.”

  Ela placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “No. We can’t wait. And besides, it’s risky enough just with you and me trying to sneak over there.” Ela stood and again extended her hand toward the hesitant girl. “Now, hurry, before it’s too late.”

  Michelle chewed nervously at the inside of her cheek as she considered her options. “Okay.” Ela smiled as the girl took her hand, closing the
door behind her. Michelle frowned. “Your hand is cold.”

  Ela didn’t look down as she pulled the girl down the hall beside her. “Rachel and I have been hiding outside for a long time, and it’s made her ill and me cold as ice.”

  As Ela and Michelle exited the house, it was difficult for Ela to gauge the time. The fact she never tired rendered an internal clock useless, but she could see the early light of dawn and knew she had very little time before the roll calls began. She led the girl back toward the guard tower along the same path she had followed earlier. As they moved into the small opening between the last barracks and the tower, Ela could hear the crunching of snow as a guard approached from behind the tower.

  Ela knelt down next to Michelle and looked intently at the small girl. “Stay here.” Not waiting for the girl’s response, Ela walked toward the sound of the footsteps. The steady thud of the man’s heart assured her he had no idea anything was amiss. As she rounded the corner of the tower, the approaching guard stopped and raised his rifle. Ela crossed the twenty feet of space between her and the Nazi in a single step and grabbed the barrel of the rifle.

  The man’s eyes were large, and Ela could see the fear in them as she spoke in a low growl. “No.” She pulled the rifle free from the guard’s hands and threw it over the fence. At the same time, her right hand seized the man’s throat and she pulled him toward her, sinking her teeth into the front of his neck.

  Drinking from the guard until the last possible second, Ela didn’t hear Michelle approaching. Hunched over the now dead body, Ela looked up to see the young girl peering, her eyes wide with fear, from around the corner of the tower. Ela nonchalantly dropped the corpse to the ground and wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand. She extended her arm toward the terrified girl and gestured with her finger. “Come here.”

  Michelle began to back away, tears now streaming down her face. “I said come here. If I have to ask you again –” Ela stopped, cocked her head to the side. “Never mind. You were dead as soon as you opened the door.”