Samantha Young - Blood Will Tell

Eden winced.

What an ode to her mother and father’s parenting skills that she felt nothing at their loss.

Then again, according to Cyrus, Celine wasn’t her mother and her father had raped her real mother just so he…

Eden squeezed her eyes shut. Actually, Cyrus hadn’t gotten around to the reason why Ryan had deliberately raped an Ankh. To be honest, she no longer cared. She flexed the hand that had wounded Noah. She was desensitized to horror.

Limbs shaking, Eden strolled into Charlotte’s and began raking through the racks. Quickly she picked out a t-shirt, sweater, jeans, socks, sneakers and a raincoat. The t-shirt and jeans were kind of cool but everything else was a little blah. Not like it mattered. She hurried over to the counter where Charlotte, a thirty-something single mother sat in a stool reading Stephen King’s Misery .

“That’s my favourite,” Eden told her quietly, pointing at the book as Charlotte glanced up.

Charlotte smiled, putting it down. “Gosh, I didn’t hear anyone come in I was so engrossed.”

“The movie’s good too.”

“Yeah?” Charlotte’s smile grew. “I’ll have to check that out. Well, what have we here?” She began ringing the clothes through and suddenly clocked what Eden was wearing. “Honey, you OK?” she asked quietly, her eyebrows coming together in concern at the sight of Eden in her pyjamas.

“I’m fine,” Eden tried not to snap. “How much?”

“Hmm. OK, that’s thirty eight dollars.”

“Wow.” Eden smirked and handed over forty dollars. Talk about a bargain.

Charlotte’s fingers brushed hers as she took the money, the warmth shooting like an arrowhead of fire into Eden’s chest and setting the hunger ablaze. A growl erupted out of Eden as she snatched mindlessly for Charlotte’s wrist.

“Hey!” The shop owner shouted in fright, trying to tug out of her grasp. “What’s your problem?!”

The struggle only taunted the hunger and Eden laughed; a throaty sick laugh that didn’t seem to belong to her. As her left hand wrapped around Charlotte’s throat and pulled her towards Eden, her torso collapsed over the counter and her face a breath from Eden’s, Eden felt as if she were watching it play out from a great distance. As if she wasn’t really a part of the attack.

Charlotte choked, her face turning a reddish-purple colour, and Eden fought with the hunger to relax its grip on her throat.

“Please,” Charlotte croaked.

Stop it! Eden screamed at herself, struggling with this need that had grown so powerful and out of control.

You’ll feel better. You’ll be stronger. You won’t feel so crazy anymore.

Her eyes focused on Charlotte’s mouth. Maybe just a taste. I wouldn’t have to kill her.

Yeah. That would be OK.

Eden leaned forward, her lips grazing Charlotte’s as this pull ripped apart inside of her, this vortex of power, reaching up through her like fingers of sticky black tar; anything caught in its mass would be pulled back down inside of her.

This was it.

This was it.

The door to the shop chimed and she heard laughter. It took more strength than Eden knew she had to let go of the thing inside of her and shove it back down from whence it came. She shook uncontrollably as she relaxed her hold on Charlotte.

“Nothing happened. I brought clothes over. Paid for them. I told you to keep the change.”

“Nothing happened. You brought clothes over. Paid for them. You told me to keep the change.”

Eden let go just as a voice called behind. “Hey Charlotte, you OK?”

She turned to face the worried young guy and girl, who stood staring at Eden suspiciously. They were dressed in ragged t-shirts and jeans, their hair long and scruffy. Very clichéd thrift store shoppers.

“Of course,” Charlotte replied brightly. “How are you guys?”

“Good,” the guy replied, still eyeing Eden warily.

Eden gave him a blank look that seemed to make him uncomfortable. She turned to Charlotte and grabbed the paper bag of clothes she’d just bought. “Thanks.”

“Oh, you’re welcome, honey.”

In store, all Eden felt was fury that she had been interrupted, that she hadn’t been able to finish what would end this feeling inside her. She was feeling like a frickin’ schizophrenic and was sick of it.

But as soon as she hit the bus depot and was inside the ladies bathroom changing into her clothes, reality came crashing back in. She sagged against the tiled wall and closed her eyes, breathing in and out to control the wave of nausea that hit her. She’d done it again. She had nearly killed someone. She imagined someone finding Charlotte’s dead body, the Stephen King novel she had been reading discarded, never to be finished by her. All the small things in life that made it what it was and Eden had nearly taken that from someone. Horrified, she struggled to breathe. This time it had been close.

Too close.

You’re going to have to do it sometime, Eden. Or you’ll die.

“Then maybe I’ll die,” she said out loud. Like a crazy person.

The hunger laughed at her. Easy to have those kind of convictions when you’re alone with no human soulstempting you.

Ignoring the monster within, Eden finished up in the bathroom and bought a bus ticket to Detroit. It was all she could really afford and at least in the city she could hide.

The bus ride itself was not fun. It wasn’t packed with people, but she ended up curling up into a ball in the back of the bus, taking as few breaths as possible and holding her hands over her ears so she couldn’t hear the humans. So they couldn’t tempt her.

In an effort to control the need, she resorted to masochism, calling on the image of her brother’s death, using the grief to numb her to everything else.

***

It was not like she knew Detroit well. She’d been there shopping with Celine a few times but since Eden didn’t have any friends it wasn’t like she’d had the chance to head into the city with a group of kids and hang out. She had been once with Stellan when he was checking out the University of Detroit. They had taken a walk up E Jefferson Avenue and then took a right to Rivertown, the Warehouse District. They had had lunch at pretty cool café. It had been a good day. Just the two of them hanging out.

The bus had dropped her off near Wayne Community College but she knew that was near Detroit University so she marched towards the University main campus and tried to retrace her steps. The Warehouse District was busier than she remembered, so Eden huddled into her raincoat and ducked her head, trying not to look at anybody or feel the blissful pull of their souls. Instead she kept walking towards the riverside. The wind had been blowing this crisp clean smell of the river over her but that soon began to fade to this metallic, industrial smell the further she walked. As an elderly woman, who smelled of lemons and molasses, passed her, Eden froze at the warm feel of her soul. Deciding it best to tune out her senses, Eden breathed through her mouth and continued on. She gazed around at her. None of this would work. It was too…nice. So she kept walking. She walked for a while, not knowing where she was really. But finally she found it. It stood alone on its block.

The building was perfect. An old red brick abandoned warehouse with broken windows and faded lettering along the top. She could just make out the word Trading .

Breaking in was easy. She snapped the padlock across the double doors near the back and pushed the solid iron door open. Her ears picked up the skittering of rats, as her foots echoed around the shell of a warehouse. Shattered glass, naked steel and waste decorated what was left of the place. It stank of rust and foul garbage… and old smoke. She wandered around it, staring up into the high rafters. There were holes. She’d have to watch when it rained. To her surprise she found a damp and worn sofa tucked behind one of the pillars. There was beer cans and cigarette stubs littered around it. She guessed someone had been using this place as a hangout before it had been locked up.