The sound of heart beats had returned, it wasn`t as unbearable as when it first started, but it still put me on edge. The nonsensical chatter happening all around me served to both dull and exacerbate my nerves. I tried with all my might to block it all out but it was useless.

  I sat at the dinner table, the same food I had stomached for years now seeming repulsive to me. Fortunately I wasn`t feeling hungry, so I didn`t have to stomach the steamy mush and over cooked veggies. Come to think of it, I hadn`t felt particurly hungry for a while now. Little thought was given to my loss of appetite, I was too preoccupied with trying to keep myself together.

  I take a deep breath and a pungent scent fills my lung and nostrils. It overwhelms my senses and shocks me into a state of hyper awareness. My eyes dart from person to person until I find the source of the smell. My mouth is salivating and a strange hunger begins to burn in the pit of my stomach.

  I find the source. One of the orphan boy’s noses has started bleeding half way across the dining hall. After everything else I have experienced recently, being able to smell a bloody nose does not fill me with as much dread as I thought it would. What does disturb me however is my reaction to the scent of his blood.

  Something tugs at my sleeve, pulling me into a semi state of lucidity. I look down to my right at the small face of a messy orphan girl. She must be 7 or 8 years old, I can`t pce her name. I never did much care for the other children here. I felt it best to keep to myself. She tugs at my sleeve again thinking I hadn’t noticed the first time.

  “Yes?”, I ask softly.

  She looks down not making eye contact, “Are you gonna eat your foods?”

  She sniffs between her words, a runny nose interrupting her line of dialogue. I look at my pte feeling nothing for the food upon it. I slide it over to her, relieving myself of the burden of having to clean it up ter.

  “Thank you”, she snorts, hungrily consuming the meal I had, in her mind, graciously presented. I think nothing of it.

  My thoughts get lost in the maze of my new found senses, a thump here, a strong smell of blood there. I can feel them flooding back to me now, I ready myself to push them back when a hand falls upon my shoulder grabbing my attention.

  My mind goes bnk and I look back behind me to see a stern faced Nun peering back.

  “Raven, you have a visitor”, she speaks with a soft yet firm tone.

  “A visitor?”, I am filled with confusion and curiosity. Who could possibly want to visit me, who even knew I lived here. A thought occurred, it couldn’t be, could it?

  “Don`t back chat child, I see you have finished your dinner now move along”, I take my leave moving with curiosity and a strange hint of excitement.

  I exit the dining hall and make my way to the dormitories where I am surprised to see Alice. She stands near one of the beds appearing very uncomfortable, however I can tell she is feeling a lot better than the st time I saw her. Her hair is done up neatly and her clothes are expensive and respectable. In a pce like this, where everything is old or untidy, she stands out like a diamond in the mud.

  “It’s about time, I was almost ready to leave”, an obvious lie I am surprised to pick-up.

  I approach her, now noticing that while physically she appears perfectly fine her body nguage tells a different much more emotional story. Her arms are crossed and her left foot taps away irritably. There is a sense of unease about her that is not caused by her unfamiliar surroundings.

  “What are you doing here?”, my tone is surprisingly aggressive.

  I can see Alice pick up on it, her demeanour growing tense as she realises I have more control here than she does. She shuffles her hands about, unsure how to come at me with whatever questions she clearly itches to ask.

  “What’s happening to me?”, she blurts out almost desperately.

  “One day I can’t sleep, I can’t eat or drink. The next I feel like I’m walking on sunshine and as strong as an ox.”, she speaks with mixed emotions, unsure how to feel about everything.

  She shifts her weight back and forth crossing and uncrossing her arms, her composure ever changing.

  I don`t know what to say, “I`m sorry”, an apology? A needless apology? I hadn’t even figured out yet if she was upset or confused, if she was questioning or accusing.

  “I don’t understand what’s going on with me, all I know is that you are the cause.”, her eyes squint, looking at me suspiciously. “Ever since you bit me I haven’t felt right, sure it was only a day. But when you can’t keep a coherent thought for more than a minute, time moves very slowly. Minutes feel like hours and hours feel like days.”, she is rambling now growing slightly hysteric. “Then I feel wonderful again amazing really, but even now I can feel it fading”.

  I take a step towards her, “I don’t understand what’s going on either”.

  She raises an eyebrow at me, “What do you mean? Have you been feeling things as well?”

  I nod my head silently.

  “What kind of things?”, she asks sternly, looking at me suspiciously.

  “I hear things”, I mutter, “I smell things I shouldn’t be able to smell”.

  Frustration sweeps across her face, “You hear and smell things? We all hear and smell things, that’s normal. What’s not normal is feeling like you have ants in your brain and craving the blood of some bitch that bit you!”

  Shock grips me as the words leave her mouth and make their way into my mind.

  “What did you say?”, I ask with a terrified stutter.

  Her frustration turns sinister, her face warps into an expression of pent up anger.

  “I said, I crave your blood. Do you understand that?”, she takes a step towards me and I take a step back. “Ever since yesterday I haven’t been able to get you or the taste of your blood out of my head.”, she takes another step, her body tensing up. “I have never felt better in my life but even now I can feel the ants coming back. There is something about you and I cannot pce it but all I know is that I want more”.

  I turn to run, fully aware that the situation is growing dangerous for me. I feel her hand grab my hair and pull me back towards her. Then came a fsh of pain as she strikes me across in the face with her fist, knocking me to the ground.

  She stands over me, a tower of savage intent.

  “I want your blood you hear me”, her eyes are glossed over, insanity taking hold.

  I want to fight back, to escape but my fear holds me in pce.

  “Now you can give it to me, or I can take it. Either way I will get what I want.”, she tells me coldly.

  Her words strike me along with her tone. She doesn`t sound desperate anymore, just entitled.

  “What about what I want”, the words leave my mouth but I don`t think to speak them.

  Alice raises an eyebrow, feeling a chill run through her body.

  “Who cares about what you want”, her tone changes. She is unsure now of how to proceed. I`ve somehow struck her off bance.

  “Don’t the things I want matter to you”, I sit up, feeling a strange power come over me, my body feels less like my own and I like it.

  She moves away from me, “Why would I care about what you want?” She tries to appear brave but I can see straight through her. She is afraid of me now, so quickly I can feel the tables turning. I rise to my feet and look at her through messy curls my eyes piercing right through her.

  “What’s happening?”, she asks me, confused and humbled.

  “I`m getting what I want, just like you said.”, this isn`t me, but it feels so good to say.

  I take a step forward and Alice a step back, “I`m sorry okay, I didn’t mean to hit you”.

  “But you did hit me. It hurt. I can`t let that go unpunished.”, I can see the fear in her eyes and feel the power behind mine.

  Alice backs herself against the wall frozen by my gaze, bound by my desire to take what is mine.

  “I need you to hear me when I speak to you Alice”, I speak down to her. I feel like a passenger in my own body, but I don`t mind. I like where things are going.

  “I’ll listen I promise”, she is shaking now, desperate to be anywhere other than here, under my will.

  I take my final step forward forcing myself against her. My hand moves up and wipes the hair from her left ear. I lean in closely.

  I whisper, “You don’t need to listen, just learn.”

  I strike in a fsh, grabbing her hands and pinning her to the wall, lowering my jaw and driving my teeth into her neck. She doesn`t scream or cry, just lets out a small whimper. My will eclipses her and I can feel myself dominating every aspect of her. As I drink I take more than just her blood, I take her skills and her memories. I gain a true and real insight as to who she is as a person.

  Her arms go limp as I feed and soon after I let them go holding her body close to me as I drink from her.

  I feel powerful feeding upon her, holding her body firm finding it weightless. A whimper leaves her lips again and she mutters a single word, “Please.”

  Instantly I snap myself out of this delirium and withdraw my teeth from her neck letting her colpse to the floor. The moment I release her life returns to her body and she gasps for air.

  I feel like myself once more slowly realising what I have done. I look at Alice who sits in silence with an expression of numbness. Thump-Thump.

  Heart beats approaching, thump-thump, thump-thump, dinner time is over.

  I begin to panic my mind racing with thoughts and feelings I have no time to understand. I look again at Alice whose dazed expression starts to fade as her senses return to her. She shakes her head her pupils diting, retaking in her surroundings.

  “You need to leave.”, I blurt out in a panic.

  She can hear them too now, not the beats but the ughter and chatter of the kids.

  “Come home with me.”, she blurts out with a mumble.

  “What? No, you have to leave!”, I protest her absurd suggestion. Something is wrong with me I had nearly killed Alice and if given the chance again I was afraid I would succeed.

  She reaches for my hand and grips it tight, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on but we need to figure this out. We are both involved here.”

  Both of us? It only hit me now that before I went crazy Alice was going crazy too. Maybe this did involve both of us. Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump, the beating grows louder and I know I won`t be able to make it go away, not now.

  I look into her eyes running entirely on adrenaline and anxiety, “Let`s go.”

  [---]

  I sit silently in the st pce I ever thought I would end up. Across from me sits a rather uncomfortable Alice, who I’m sure also comprehends the bizarreness of the situation.

  I break the silence, “Will your parents mind me being here?”.

  “My parents are away for the week, some wedding thing I think. It’s just me till they get back so don’t worry”, she answers me casually.

  Ever since the incident in the dorms she seems almost kinder, I mean she was still Alice but every word seemed to have a little more thought to it.

  “I’m not worried, just don’t want to be a bother”, I add, fiddling with my hair nervously.

  Alice raises an eyebrow, “I don’t get you. All these years in school you barely say or do anything. Now in only a couple of days you assault me, scream at nothing and develop a spine.”

  I close up, hiding behind my hair my previous strength having faded away. The person who towered over Alice feels like a distant memory.

  Alice, who was sitting on her bed, lowers herself to the floor closer to me, “I’m not trying to upset you, I’m just trying to understand what the hell is going on.”

  “I don`t know what’s going on, honestly. Back in the dorms I don’t know what got a hold of me, I wasn’t myself.”, I confessed. I don’t know what I expect Alice to say but I am ready for any insult or accusation. I deserved it after I nearly bled her dry.

  “I believe you.”, she sighs, sitting back leaving me in a stunned silence.

  “You believe me?”, I am caught off guard, “Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?”

  My question seems to catch her off guard in return, “What do you mean?”

  I could tell she was genuinely confused by the question.

  “None of this makes sense, you being nice to me, wanting to help me figure any of this out. As long as I have known you all you have done is torment me.”, my words leave my lips quickly. A weight lifts off my shoulders as I confront her on all of her past misdeeds against me.

  Her expression falls low as she seems to recall all the things she has done to me while we were at school together not so long ago.

  “You have really nice hair”, she mutters.

  “I know you think so”, I blurt out, “Only a few days ago you tried to cut it all off”.

  “No, I mean you have really nice hair. It’s so alive and vibrant with such character. It’s nothing like mine.”, Alice`s voice lowers in tone.

  I look up at her baffled by her confession, it was only now that I notice how different her hair is from mine. Thin and wiry barely touching her shoulders with ends that split off in every direction. From a distance her hair looks normal but now, close up, I can see that she struggles to keep it healthy.

  “That’s no excuse”, I excim, “You made three years of my life hell, why? Because you were jealous of me? You had no right!”, I yell at her.

  “I know! But what do you do when you see someone who has something you want. Especially something you know you will never have. It makes you angry”, Alice`s words are heart felt, I feel her pain.

  She is truly jealousy of my hair. I certainly wasn’t going to forgive her so easily for all she had done, but for once I am able to see her as something other than a monster.

  “I`m sorry I’ve been so mean to you, I really am”, she says softly, her words having a tone of genuine regret in them.

  “I`m sorry I bit you”, I hadn`t properly apologised for that.

  “Twice!”, she replies quickly, “But I didn’t really mind the second time”.

  “You didn`t?”, a revetion such as this should shock me, but it doesn`t.

  “The second time felt good. It didn’t hurt at all. Sure I was scared but once you sunk your teeth into me I felt relief. I can`t really expin it but all my stress and tension seemed to fade away like you were draining it out of me”, Alice looks to be reliving the moment almost pleasurably.

  “It made me feel powerful”, I share, feeling it is appropriate in the moment.

  Alice doesn`t reply, she just looks at me with a soft tired smile.

  “Are you okay”, I ask, getting a sense she is tired.

  “I`m fine, I just feel rather, excuse the pun, drained”, she giggles slightly as do I at the clever word py.

  It feels weird being here like this with her.

  “Can I?”, Alice begins, her question stopping right in the middle appearing almost shameful.

  “Can you what?”, I ask back, inviting her to finish.

  “Can I please have some of your blood.”, she whispers, her gaze averted from mine, embarrassed to ask such a thing.

  While our situation is highly irregur it seems almost normal given everything else we have been through so far. Besides it is just a little bit of blood, I took some of hers so it is only fair I give some back.

  Before I can reply she adds, “I can feel it going away. The high I felt from the st time. I don’t want to go back to what I felt before then”.

  I look at her sympathetically, understanding that she too is feeling strange terrible things much like I am. I feel almost responsible now for her well-being.

  I bit down hard on my wrist drawing blood, “Okay, just be gentle. You kind of chewed on me a little st time”.

  Alice blushes a deep red, being of a better state of mind since the st time. We are both aware of how intimate this act of giving blood is. She leans forward; I hesitate, but present my wrist to her.

  I close my eyes and feel her warm lips upon my wrist her tongue poking at the wet blood that drips from my self-inflicted wound. She gets a taste of my blood and her mouth presses down harder, sucking and moaning ever so slightly at the rush my blood must be giving her.

  Her lips feel soft on my skin and she feeds on me greedily. For a brief moment I wonder what her lips would feel like on mine.