• CHAPTER 50 - DEVOUR

    Two situations that couldn't be any less alike could result in the same reactions. Almost like going mad for two completely different reasons.

    .:{{Kai's Perspective}}:.

    There was a subtle snow drizzle in the February air that wandered around the city. It was pretty close to one in the morning, maybe one-thirty. I stalked close behind my next prey, my first customary human I would masticate. A young woman, around nineteen or twenty years old, sandy blonde hair, and a light denim jacket despite the light snow. I had a sick feeling in my stomach; I didn't want to hurt anybody innocent anymore. I had no choice, though; if I abstain from blood for a long period, there's a possibility that I could perish.

    I kept a safe fifty to sixty feet away from her and sped up a little as she rounded a corner. I kept my hands stowed away in my pockets to avoid accidental damage to a building in case I wanted to knock one down from self-loathing. She couldn't even hear me behind her; how naive. I had never apprehended my own stealth since I had been so accustomed to it. She probably wouldn't notice me anyways since her two and a half-inch heels thumped on the damp ground. Her clothes didn't coordinate much with the weather; a light denim jacket that hung mid-torso, a pink camisole underneath that, and a light denim skirt that hung to the middle of her knees. To look as casual and human as I could, I donned my heavy black jacket over me and the collar was hugged with black and white faux fur.

    I lengthened my distance to about a hundred feet and continued to stalk her. My thirst was increasing and the burn was metamorphosing to unbearable. I could percieve the monster in me desiring to penetrate her neck more and more. I was even obtaining ways I could possibly kill her if she were to see my face. Snapping her neck, sucking her dry, penetrating her torso--

    I gridlocked myself where I was, not moving forward another inch. I attempted to push away my homicidal alternative and went back to thinking about only taking blood. I glided a little closer to her, about eighty feet away, as she entered a parking ramp. Perfect place. She walked up the twisting and inclining ramp for a long distance until she turned to an empty space between two vehicles. I stood behind the vehicle that was next to her jet-black 2007 Caddillac Escalade. My thirst inclined still and my mouth was drying and the burn continued to corrode my throat. It hurt, almost like jostling a piping-hot, white-fired metal stick down my throat. That was my punishment for not feeding for days, almost a week.

    I caught the sound of her key dragging into the lock of the car door. Time to attack. I rounded the end of the vehicle I was waiting idly behind and with a thud, I held her against the Escalade. She instantly started trembling and hyperventilating. I grasped her wrists and was thankful enough that she had already swept her hair to one side while she was unlocking her vehicle, giving me less of a fuss to worry about. She clenched her fragile hands into fists and struggled underneath me.

    "Wha-what are you doing?! Get off!" her mind going to the extremes. Most girls, like this one, have a tendancy to assume I'm going to rape them. I'm a monster, but not like that.

    "If you want out alive, then you'll hush," I hissed in her left ear. I wasn't going to kill her...maybe. It's all depenent on my thirst.

    "No! Get off!" she belted on my right foot with the heel of her shoe but my foot was absent to the pain that it would cause a normal human.

    I didn't want to wait anymore. I dove at her thin neck and penetrated through her skin and the blood cascaded down my throat. She shrieked and continued her struggling. I concentrated for a moment until she went silent, confirming that I had activated the typical Vampire charm. The only thing she was capable of accomplishing was deep breathing. For once in a long time, the blood of a neutral human was good. I drank heavier. The blood was rushing down my throat and sped up with every expiring second. Her mind was going crazy, reminiscing.

    Her mind was rushing with images of her and her boyfriend. Their first date, first kiss, first Valentines Day, meeting the families, and their engagement. Engagement? I felt self-loathing heat up all throughout me as I continued to feed off of her blood even more. Of course, I had to choose that one person who had to remind me of Arisa. I was becoming angrier, becoming more of a monster as I continued to bid on blood. I was oblivious to the fact that this girl could die within a minute or more now. The monster was taking over me more and more. I tore away from her neck just as she fell unconscious and I laid her on the ground. Her wound was still bleeding mildly and I took off in a sprint away from her.

    That girl, if she lives, will only believe what happened was a dream. With the condition I left her in, she'd be up in a few days and the bite wound would be vanquished by then. The monster was growing rapidly, hiding behind it all traces of the façade I was dwelling in. The human I appeared to be was dormant now; I was now the Vampire I loathed. I was the one element I hated most and I disoriented all self-control. Arisa's face clouded my mind but only to fade away as the monster fed off of me.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~

    Leaning against a banking bulding, I removed the blood from around my mouth and chizled off the dried blood. A spree. A goddamn spree was what I just finished. I stalked throughout the city, attacking almost any female I ran across. I counted to around six and I deserted them after they caved into unconsciousness. The monster was now dormant but its crimson eyes still dwelled. The only thing I was fuled off of was anger, hate, self-loathing. If that first woman wouldn't have reminisced about her and her boyfriend's engagement then I wouldn't have brought Arisa to mind and escaped on this spree.

    There was one thing startling me. I escaped on a spree similar to this when Ayame confirmed her affairs and left. I just left and attacked people and went mad, but why am I reacting the same way with Arisa? She's still alive, she never had a true affair, I don't hate her. If I don't hate her, then why the same spree? Probably because of the reality that she's gone, gone to live her life as she had before me. Another factor would be that I can't undergo living without her now. She suppressed the monster in me, despite her irresistible blood. And now that she was no longer with me, the monster wants out.

    "Get a hold of yourself, Kai," I hissed to myself, allowing my fist to meet the brick wall, "You can't lose your sanity now." although it was already too late a moment ago.

    I clenched my fist harder until my talons burrowed in my palm and the blood oozed out. Even though my thirst had been suppressed, I drank my blood fervently from my palm until the wound healed after a minute. If Arisa were to see me now, she'd be ashamed, heartbroken. It had been a week and a half already since I departed her at the orphanage. But I still remember it as if it took place just within the last hour. I had to burrow out of this contract before the time comes to bring her to the Vampires, but nobody could find a way out of it for me. We can't murder him because he's much too powerful for an immortal. Matsuda was still searching for an alternative to Arisa's safety so she could stay with us. It's selfish of me to ask that of Matsuda, but I could'nt retain my sanity without Arisa and I worry about her frequently.

    My cell phone's ring knocked me out of my train of thought. After seeing it was Kira, I answered it harshly, "What?"

    "Um..." he was aware of my monsterous side, "Where did you go?"

    "I was feeding," I sighed.

    "Maybe you should come back," Kira suggested, "before things get out of hand."

    "Fine," I snapped back and snapped my phone shut.

    It was already too late to hold myself back. I had already had my spree and infiltrated six innocent human girls. I didn't even know if all of them had survived or not. Only time would tell. I had to get back home before missing Arisa would get the best of me again. My car was in the same parking ramp as my first victim. I couldn't undergo walking by her with the condition she was in, and the ambulance could be there by now if anybody found her. I'd take my chances with running. I opted against teleporting so I could get a breath of fresh air and hopefully disentangle my mind.

    I rushed my way to the outskirts of the city and took off in a full sprint before I had the homicidal thought of attacking any more humans.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~

    Kira stopped me short after I entered the house abruptly. He gripped my shirt and turned me towards him with concern etched on his face. He sensed something was wrong, despite that he couldn't crawl into my head like I could his.

    "How many people did you attack? his eyebrows burrowed together in concern.

    "It's none of your business," I whispered, jerking his arm away from me.

    I glided into the downstairs bathroom and chizled off the rest of the dried blood that I had missed earlier. Some of my talons were also coated in dried blood. My shirt was spotted as was my jacket. I stared into the mirror and the crimson eyes of the monster looked back at me. I gritted my teeth and hissed out a growl before I belted the mirror. The shards merely bounced off of my fist and a few medicine bottles fell out. I never fully comprehended why we held medicine if we never needed it...unless it was mine and Kira's sun suppressent pills.

    There was one bottle in particular that caught my attention. I examined it only to note that they were Arisa's vegetarian pills. I had forgotten to pack them when I packed the rest of her things, s**t. I couldn't just find her and tell her she forgot her pills and I'll see her later. None of us could just up and give it to her. And she couldn't fend long without them. I'd have to sneak them to her somehow. But there is the chance that if I see her, I'd carry her back here. I couldn't do that until I either break the contract or we find a safety alternative.

    s**t, I was starting to delve too deep into giving Arisa these pills. She'd be asleep by now, probably, so why not go for it? But I couldn't just find her and expect to suppress the desire to take her back with me. Just to touch her again would suppress the monster in me for only a small period of time. Another kiss would drive me insane, make me lust for her furthermore. But there is also that risk that I could bite her, despite the fact that my appetite has been suppressed. I had gone without her blood for nearly two weeks. The last time I bit her was only a couple of days before I abandoned her.

    I had to...I had to give her the pills...I had to see her again.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~

    Another day, another death in the news. I nearly drove into insanity again when I saw it was one of my victims from last night. Two of the six died from blood loss. And one of them was the girl who was engaged. My first victim of the night. Everybody else heard my teeth grind together and I swung my fist to the right, shattering the lamp on the end table. I stood up abruptly and paced around the living room in frustration. Nobody bore their eyes on me and nobody asked me anything in their heads but I knew they were curious or already knew that those girls who died were my victims.

    "It's your nature, Kai, you can't help it," Matsuda pointed out.

    "Shut up," I hissed while interlocking my fingers together behind my head. I seemed to only respond by hissing recently.

    I wasn't used to dying victims, not since Arisa came. The deaths on the news had declined since Arisa resided here except for the duration of Kira's craving spree. Killing victims by accident only bothered me when I was used to being a Vampire because I knew it was something I would eventually become accustomed to. But now when a victim perishes, it's unbearable. Arisa was my only source of blood for the past eight months. I'll only have to accustom myself to being a true Vampire once more...a true Vampire with sprees where victims die.

    "You're an Angel. You save people, so you wouldn't comprehend." I whispered at Matsuda.

    "Kai, you need to comprehend that you're not human anymore," he pointed out again, "so this is only natural for you. I know it's also unbearable, but think about how Kira feels when he's killed twice as many people as you."

    I didn't care what Kira thought, even in knowing it was selfish to think that. I stormed out of the living room and into the bathroom downstairs. I searched through the medicine cabinet, cleaning out any of the remaining shards from the shattered mirror and found Arisa's pills. I teleported up to my bedroom and placed myself on the bed. Tonight. Tonight I would bring the pills to her, but come back emptyhanded.

    So I waited, with the pills and her engagement ring in hand, for night to creep up. And when it finally did I rushed out of the window and stalked into the city in another full-grunted sprint, tracing Arisa down by her faint, lustful scent.