✧ 53 ✧
The woman smiled wider, her upper teeth parting slightly from her lower ones as she opened her mouth a little more with each passing second.
Ilya felt uneasy because the woman hadn't spoken a single word—just creepy stares and unsettling smiles.
Everything about this place gave him the creeps, sending chills down his spine.
He sensed that something was about to happen, but he couldn't tell what it was. Was it Billy? Was it this eerie woman? Or was it the moaning creatures he could hear outside?
"Ready?"
"Wait!" Ilya suddenly said.
That wasn't the sound of zombies.
"I can smell him," a whisper came from the small bathroom window.
"Delicious," another voice said from behind him.
Ilya turned left and right, searching for the source of the faint conversations. He then focused on the mouths of Billy and that drooling woman; they hadn't moved, yet the voices kept on talking.
"I can't wait to taste his blood."
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Billy asked.
"The people. They're all around the house." Ilya paused, cautiously rolling his dilated green irises left to right. Then he added in a whisper, "Talking."
"Mmh," a woman moaned. "I bet it's as sweet as it smells."
"There it is again!"
Billy's ears twitched, yet they did not register any foreign sounds other than the absurd conversation he was having with the kid right now.
A concerned look drew Billy's bushy brows together. He stared at the kid who was slowly losing his mind, frightened and confused, shivering in the freezing bath. His innocent eyes wavered, his weak body flinching at nonexistent sounds.
Billy knew it was time to do the dirty deed.
"Elliot, listen to me." He held him still. "No one's here but us."
Ilya flinched again. His eyes roamed until they settled at the window where the voices came from. He didn't pay attention to the scary lady anymore, nor the towering man clutching his shoulders.
Amid Ilya's haze, the woman's eyes shone. And with a flick of Billy's fingers, she lunged at the kid, digging her nails into his shoulders and sinking her teeth into his flesh.
Just as his mother did in his feverish dream.
Ilya screamed and kicked, forcing both adults to grab his arms to hold him in place.
"It's gonna be over in a jiffy," Billy tried to comfort the boy.
But it didn't make any sense to Ilya. Why would Billy do this to him? Why would he serve him to a vampire? Ilya kept fighting for dear life. This woman was sucking his blood, trying to kill him... and Billy gladly let her.
Unless it wasn't Billy. It was Beast.
Pupils dilated. Heart started beating viciously inside his chest, as if it would rip out of him any second now. Suffocating panic and a sense of death coming closer to get him—a feeling that wasn't new to him since he stepped foot into this damn town.
If only he'd finally feel safe... If only Charly, or even Maggie, were here. At times, he also thought of Pig. Anyone's better than this unpredictable, unstable being.
Panic surged through what remained of his blood as he writhed, kicking and screaming in vain. The pain was unbearable—the crushing grip of hands, and the teeth tearing into his flesh, gnawing down to the bone.
"It'll all be over soon."
Ilya steadily stopped fighting it. His body was too weak to defend itself against the two monsters hovering over him, and the icy bath was almost paralyzing. His colorful eyes slowly drained of blood.
Dehydrated. Dizzy... Slipping away.
It's gonna be over soon, Ilya repeated in his mind. So that's what he meant. A wave of tears twinkled in his eyes as he realized, He's getting rid of me. They all don't want me here. They don't want another zombie roaming this town.
"That's enough," Beast sternly said to the woman.
The woman kept sucking Ilya's blood. Her eyes were moving like crazy, wide open, and then they moved to the back of her head.
"Mmmm," she moaned.
"I SAID THAT'S ENOUGH."
Billy pulled the woman by her arm, but she bounced back, biting more harshly and humming a sound of satisfaction with her meal.
"Yummy."
Despite losing a limb, and blood spraying out of her ripped arm, she kept doing what vampires do best—consuming blood, sucking the life out of a human being. The taste of Ilya's violet blood was unlike anything she'd ever had before. Like a drug, she couldn't get enough of.
"RAAAWR."
The beast let out a threatening growl, displaying his claws and canines. He managed to yank the woman's head away from his boy, but it looked like it was too late.
Ilya was hanging between life and death by a thread. He was out of this world for a moment, an awfully long moment to the beast standing in front of him, shaking him, begging him to come back.
"No, no, no, no," the beast uttered from behind his sharp teeth. "Don't you dare die on me now. Wake up! Wake up, goddamnit!"
Purple blood kept oozing out of Ilya's wounds as the beast shook him. His eyes were glossy, unblinking, staring at a face that held back tears.
The beast slowly turned into a man, pulling the boy out of the freezing water and laying him on the cold white floor. He crumbled to his knees, pressing on the bite wound with a big spread palm. His other hand trembled as it reached out to swipe wet strands of hair away from Ilya's face.
As their skin touched, he noticed how cold the boy was, how pale his cheeks were, and how blue his lips. No breath. No movement.
"No... This can't be happening." He leaned closer to Ilya's face, staring with a pair of panicking brown irises. "Not again."
Even in his illness, the boy looked like a porcelain doll—so beautiful, with thick lashes hanging down on his big dreamy eyes. Yet so lifeless.
Suddenly, a rush of determination flowed through Billy's veins. He straightened up, mopping the blood from his hands, and placed them on Ilya's chest. He had seen this type of maneuver in several movies. It was the only way he could think of to bring the kid back.
He gently pushed on Ilya's chest, too afraid of his own strength not to break human ribs. He did it again. And again. Three times, then he took a deep breath and locked lips, breathing air into Ilya's lungs.
Nothing changed.
"Why isn't it working?"
Billy threw his hands in despair. Then he leaned, watching that beautiful resting face one more time. He cupped that face with both hands, smearing the white canvas with purple streaks.
"I-I wanted to save you," Billy started with a quivering voice. "Ever since that day in the forest. I knew we were screwed..." A gasp slipped his lips, aching at a memory so vivid in his mind. "But still... I wanted to do something so we could be safe... together."
It was getting harder to breathe. A familiar pain in Billy's chest returned, right where his heart was. He squeezed his eyes shut until a couple of tears dripped on Ilya's cheeks.
"I got no one... Please don't leave me." With a farewell hug that lifted the still body off the ground, Billy said, "Ned."