Chapter XX
Cassandra
Their laughter pierces through the otherwise quiet forest. It’s obnoxious and loud, but at least it makes them easy to find. Bottles clink together as if they’re celebrating, and I grind my teeth in irritation and rage, a growl forming at the base of my throat.
I hate how they think they can waltz in unafraid, how they feel entitled to their every desire. I despise everything about them.
With the dagger in hand, I begin to creep alongside the camp they set up for the night. The fire crackles. The two intoxicated men hunched around it are unaware that death is coming for them, and the smell of their liquor burns my throat.
The trees and thick bushes allow me to hide, invaluable aids since mastering the shadows will take more time than I currently have. Though with both of them being drunk, they wouldn’t see me anyway unless I was standing directly in front of them.
They think they’re untouchable.
I know them well. The sheriff, Nolan, and one of his officers, Myles, had both been good friends with Clayton.
As I get closer, I start to think of all the ways I might kill them, especially Myles.
The past revisits me as I remember a night Clayton and Myles came home, drunk from hours spent in the bar.
They pulled me out of bed by my hair, and Myles held me still so that Clayton could use my body like a punching bag, gleefully laughing at the abuse.
They switched at one point in the night.
His sweaty, too-hard hands had wandered, touching me in ways beyond a beating.
His death I will savor. I will make the bastard hurt.
I enter their campsite and whistle, drawing their attention to me as I wave my dagger in the air.
“Hello, boys,” I purr, grinning like a mad woman. Adrenaline burns in through my veins. “I heard from a certain someone that you were looking for me.”
They curse as they clamber to their feet, bottles dropping to the ground, and sluggishly search for their weapons.
“It’s her,” Myles mutters while Nolan swears loudly.
Seeing Myles up close makes the rage burn hotter and brighter.
Nolan rushes at me with a yell, but since transforming into a monster, I’m stronger and faster than I was before.
I run towards him at blinding speed. With a screech I slap my palm against his chest, and I watch in awe as he slams into a tree. He groans loudly and slides to the ground with a thud.
I look to see Myles standing still, eyes narrowed. He’s a coward, no doubt watching and waiting to see if Nolan can finish me off without having to get his hands dirty.
Prowling forward, I pounce on Nolan, and find little fight.
The alcohol has subdued his senses, and with that hard knock…
well, he would be feeling sleepy. Still, I’m hungry to see him suffer, even if just a little.
He might not have raised a hand to me, but Nolan was complicit in the crimes that everyone else committed.
My blade sinks into his chest, slicing through like butter, the smell of his blood calling to me. A loud growl slips out as I barely resist the urge to sink my teeth into his flesh.
Nolan cries weakly, his hands raising in defense before he passes out.
“God damn it,” I curse in annoyance.
It isn’t satisfying to hurt someone if they can’t feel my anger. Instead, I leave him for animals to devour. I have someone alive and more deserving of my rage to focus on.
Begrudgingly I climb off Nolan, licking the blood from my hands and moaning as I suck. I want more of it, and it almost draws me back before I hear Myles shuffle, reminding me that I have to focus.
Spinning around to face him, I growl and I flash my fangs at him.
He raises his hand and smiles in an attempt to placate me.
“Hey, Cassie. Long time no see, love,” Myles slurs.
My red eyes tighten. I’m going to enjoy playing with my meal.
I throw the blade to the ground as if his charm has won me over, my posture relaxing as I smile brightly at him.
“Myles,” I purr as my eyes trace his form.
It takes everything in me to stop my lip from curling in disgust. He instantly responds, interpreting my attention as interest, which makes me want to gag.
“Were you really going to kill me, Myles?” I ask him, pouting as I creep closer, closing the space between us.
He tsks. “Babygirl, we have to put you down. You did a bad, bad thing.”
My stomach flips at the nickname. He is repulsive, disgusting.
“But,” he begins, and grabs the front of his pants sexually. “We can have some fun first. Maybe I’ll even keep you at my house for a little while,” he laughs as if it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “Dead, of course.”
I can’t stop the snarl from forming, the horror and the disgust at what he’s insinuating nearly overwhelming.
“You’re going to rot. Once I’m through with you, the bugs will have you. They’ll eat through your flesh, crawl into your brain, force your bones to fall apart in this very soil.”
He laughs in disbelief.
“You will know a woman’s fury is the most dangerous thing,” I tell him quietly.
The air leaves his lungs in a whoosh as I dart forward to grab him, tackling him to the ground. Myles wrestles back, trying to punch and grab anything he can, but I’m too strong now. There is nothing he can do.
Pulling my fist back, I slam it into his face, enjoying the crunch of his nose like a foot snapping a twig, and enjoying the scream that follows.
As I straddle him, I drag my talons down the front of his shirt to rip it open, leaving his chest exposed. My nails carve bloody, thin marks into his skin.
“How does this feel, Myles? Does this feel good?”
Myles groans and grunts, writhing underneath me, trying desperately to escape. He wanted to play silly games. Well, this is his grand prize.
“No. Please, don’t.”
I pause. “Oh, what’s the matter? You don’t like being treated like this?” I pout. “Poor, poor Myles.”
“God, please save me,” he cries out, snot bubbling out of his nose.
“There is no god. Only me.”
I sink my teeth into his neck.
He screams as I drink deeply, allowing his warm blood to fill my mouth. I lose myself to thirst and pleasure, and it’s not until he stops fighting that I pull myself away.
Myles is deathly pale from the loss of blood, his cheeks hollowed out like I’ve sucked the soul from him. Slapping his cheek, I rouse him from slipping completely under.
“Come on, Myles, I haven’t finished.”
Bones crack between my hands as I tear his arms apart and they splinter like dry wood.
His body convulses, twitching violently, and I wrench flesh from bone as Myles takes his final breath.
My teeth chew through gristle, shredding muscle into ribbons.
As I go, pulling him apart, I drink in his warm blood, which spills down my throat and chin, coating my chest in rusty slickness.
Deadwood Forest pulses a neon scarlet glow.
An idea starts to form.
Collecting his arms and shoving back organs that have sloshed out onto the soil, I grab his leg and begin to walk in the direction of Rose Falls.
It doesn’t take me long to reach the entrance, even with the moon hidden from sight. I belong to the darkness now.
Laying Myles out, I use my knife to sever his legs, throwing them and his entrails out so that the town can see what has become of him.
I saw through his neck, severing muscle and fat until bone fractures.
His head rolls onto the dirt with a thud.
His congealing blood oozes from the open wound, covering the soil in a deluge of gore.
“I curse you, Rose Falls. Only your sins will keep you company as hunger knocks at your door, and your shadows will haunt you until bones crumble to dust. This crown of wrath will be your undoing.”
I slip off my ruined nightgown, leaving it beside Myles’s remains. With his head in hand, I walk back to the castle, ready to begin my new life. A free woman.