Infidelity

The DVD of children’s rhymes was playing on the screen as the woman picked up her towel and walked into the living room where her daughter was sat singing along with the telly. “Stephy, sweetheart I’m going to have a shower okay?”

            “Kay.” The seven year old girl said sweetly, not taking her eyes off of the TV.

“Good girl.” The mother said absentmindedly as she left the living room and walked up the stairs to the bathroom. She turned the taps on full blast and the sounds of the water hitting the plastic floor echoed around the room.

The rhyme currently on screen reached its finale as the key sounded in the front door. A tall man with dirty blond hair stepped into the house and locked the door behind him. He walked through the kitchen, his heavy boots thudding rhythmically against the wooden floor. “Hey Stephy.” he said as he affectionately ruffled her hair.

“Hello Daddy.” She replied turning to look at him before the next rhyme started.

“Can you do me a favour?” He asked and the little girl nodded enthusiastically, proud to be treated like a big girl. “Can you vacuum the living room for me please darling? The Hoover’s not too big for you is it?”

The small girl shook her head, “Of course not.” She said slightly offended that he might consider her too little to handle the vacuum cleaner.

“Good girl.” He said unconsciously repeating what her mother had said earlier. The girl glanced briefly at the screen as ‘Nelly the Elephant’ began playing. She rushed off to the cupboard where the Hoover was kept as her father climbed the stairs and entered his bedroom.

The girl plugged the Hoover in and turned it on. Its droning rhythm filled the house, easily drowning out the sound of the shower. The little girl began moving the Hoover backwards and forwards over the carpet as she sang along to the words onscreen. “Nelly the elephant packed her trunk...”

The man removed his shoes and his coat in the bedroom before pulling a length of wire out of his pocket. His footsteps were masked by the sounds of the shower and the Hoover as he crept towards the bathroom.

The woman was shampooing her hair when she thought she heard the bathroom door open and close. She stepped away from the water and wiped the glass of the shower door, struggling to see through the steam. “Stephy? Is that you?” She stood waiting for an answer for a couple of seconds before deciding that it was her imagination and stepping back under the water to rinse out her hair.

The girl downstairs was still singing, oblivious to the events upstairs as the man closed in on the shower. He opened the door startling the woman inside as she turned around. A smile lit up her face as she realised who it was, “Oh it’s you. I wasn’t expecting you home for a couple of hours yet.” She stopped smiling when she saw the expression on his face.

“Honey?” She said as she backed up to the wall of the shower. He said nothing as he followed her, completely blocking the exit with the wire stretched between his hands. “What are you doing?” She asked shakily as he moved purposefully towards her. He remained silent as he reached out, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her close.

The girl downstairs was still singing along merrily as she pushed the Hoover under the table. “Off she went with a trumpety-trump”

The man wrapped the wire around his wife’s throat as the rhyme on the telly started again. “Nelly the elephant...” The girl sang as the woman clawed at the wire around her neck.

“Stephy!” She croaked out, unaware that that the Hoover was drowning out her pathetic cries.

“And said goodbye to the circus...”

The wire cut into the woman’s skin as blood, water and soap suds pooled on the plastic floor and ran into the drain. “Stephy!”

The girl never remembered the next bit of the song and always resorted to humming.

“Dum  dum dumm!”

On the last note a loud thump sounded from above and the little girl glanced upwards before continuing her task. She wasn’t surprised – her mummy always made loud thumps upstairs, although they were usually earlier and before daddy got home.

“Stephy.” The woman called out one last time as she lost the fight for air and curled up in a pool of her own blood. The man let the shower run for a couple of minutes, washing away the blood before he turned it off and once again pocketed the wire.

He moved back into the bedroom and changed his clothes before picking up the sock and the belt that he had found under the bed the other day. The sock and the belt that weren’t his and had no purpose being in his room under his bed.

He looked at the picture of Stephy on the bedside table. The picture that showed off her dark brown hair and his and his wife’s blond hair.

He took the sock the sock and the belt and placed them next to his wife’s clothing in the bathroom. Then he went back down the stairs and walked into the living room just as his daughter, who looked nothing like him, turned the Hoover off.

“You’ve done a wonderful job.” He said as he turned the TV off. “Now how’s about we go out for a meal to celebrate?” He said as he picked up her shoes and handed them to her.

“What about Mummy?” She asked innocently as she pulled her shoes on.

“Mummy’s not feeling very well at the moment, sweetie, so it’s just you and me.”

“Okay,” the little girl answered brightly as she pulled her coat on and slipped her hand trustingly into his.

Hunting

I ran through the trees, feeling the coarse grass beneath my bare feet. I could hear the wind whispering through the trees and the repeated pounding of my feet on the hard, dry ground. All I could see was the moon above, its light filtering through the leaves of the trees as I weaved in between them. I could smell the fresh scents of the forest as I brushed against the bushes and the shrubs. I could feel the hard wood of my bow against my back and the much more fragile arrow I held in my hand. I only had one arrow so I had to make it count.

I paused, listening to the sounds of the forest. Even the animals avoided this particular forest. I closed my eyes to listen harder, not that it made much difference in the meagre light. I stood frozen for an agonisingly long time as I waited to hear something. I clutched my solitary arrow tightly in my hand as I turned around slowly. Kill or be killed. That’s what they had told us when they had pushed us out into the night. Kill or be killed.

Then I heard it, an almost imperceptible noise to my right. I opened my eyes slowly and turned, careful not to make a single sound. I crouched as I stared into the darkness. I couldn’t see him but that didn’t mean anything, he and I were two of the best. And to be the best you had to be able to blend into your surroundings almost perfectly.

I didn’t know if he had seen me yet so I didn’t move, not wanting to give away my position before I was staring at him down the shaft of my arrow. I didn’t see anything but I heard a rustle from directly in front of me. I had long ago learnt to concentrate on where the sounds came from so I knew that the rustle came from close to the ground. This meant that it couldn’t possibly be the wind in this dense wood. I crept stealthily forward, not even blinking. Closing my eyes for even a second could be the difference between life and death. I moved from tree to tree like a ghost, hiding behind the thick trunks as I planned each move carefully. I stepped on a sharp stone and gasped almost inaudibly, but it was loud enough to give away my position.

I dived to the left as an arrow shot through the trees towards me. It missed me by millimetres and if I hadn’t moved, it would have gone straight through my heart. I crouched down behind the tree as I pulled my bow off of my back and notched my arrow. I waited to see if he knew that his arrow had missed. I waited patiently knowing that he was waiting to see if I was still alive or not. My legs were beginning to cramp but I knew that to move could prove fatal.

I heard a twig snap and realised that he thought that his arrow had hit its target, dead on. I smiled to myself as I heard him slowly approach, his eagerness making him slightly careless. I slowly straightened as he moved towards me. I pulled my arm back, drawing the string of my bow tight and ready. I raised the arrow level with my eyes and waited. The sounds in front of me stopped as he searched for my body. I took a couple of deep, calming breaths as I listened intently. I heard him take another step forward as he began to get suspicious. I couldn’t afford to make a mistake now: there was a reason he was one of the best.

I inched slowly around the tree I was hidden behind, my eyes searching for him in the gloom. I took a single step forward as I moved out from behind the tree. He was stood in front of me, his dark eyes glued to the ground as he searched for me. My heart panged painfully as I stared at his dark brown hair in the moonlight. Our captors had a horrible sense of humour. They had caught and trained me years ago for their sick games but he was new. They had only caught him a year ago but he was a fast learner so they had made me train him and teach him how to survive. He had learnt quickly and had rapidly become one of the best warriors here. And I had fallen in love with him.

They knew. That’s why they had pitched us against each other. It wasn’t just because we were two of the best which made it one of the most exciting games they had ever watched. It was also because they wanted to see if we could really kill each other and because they got a perverse sense of pleasure from the thought of us being forced to fight.

But what they didn’t know was that while they were placing bets and watching our fights, we were learning and creating plans. They were too stupid to realise that the longer we were there; the more were going to learn about our surroundings. And the more we fought against each other and trained, the stronger and faster we became. What they didn’t realise was that we were all talking to each other and that we weren’t playing by the rules anymore.

They rarely spoke to each other unless they were placing bets or comparing new captives. They don’t always notice when someone new turns up or when someone else disappears. They never noticed when someone was replaced. They didn’t care – as long as a person had money they were welcome. They didn’t even worry about where the money came from, they wouldn’t care if had be taken from the dead body of one of their comrades. That’s why they didn’t know what was happening right under their sadistic, perverted noses. But that would soon change. They would soon find out just what we were capable of.

But for now I had to give them a show. For now I had to play along with their games, I had to entertain them and continue as usual. But now, staring down the arrow at my soulmate, I wanted to kill them all.

I watched him as he bent and picked up his arrow. He knew he had missed but he didn’t seem worried. I glanced around quickly, trying to catch sight of one of their cameras. They had cameras everywhere to make sure that we didn’t cheat or refuse to fight. They were supposed to be hidden but when you’d been here for as long as I had, you learnt to recognise them. I saw one now, high in one of the trees. We weren’t in its direct line of sight but it was still pointing in our direction.

As the boy in front of me rose slowly and glanced around slowly. When his eyes passed over me, one of his eyelids fluttered down slightly in a barely perceptible wink. I felt relief wash over me as I realised he had done it. Neither of us would die tonight. I saw him rub his mouth with his hand as if nervous. I saw him swallow and I counted to five in my head as I waited for his signal. He continued to search the forest as if looking for me. Just as I reached five I saw his minute nod and I stretched the arrow back as far as I could. I aimed the tip of the arrow at his wonderfully well defined chest and took three slow breaths. My aim was deadly accurate and I never missed, I had to rely on that small fact to save my boyfriend’s life. On the third breath I fired.

The arrow sliced through the crisp night air, encountering no resistance as it flew towards its target. It hit him just as he began to turn to face me again. It pierced the left side of his chest in what looked like a fatal shot. I felt tears pouring down my cheeks as I watched his body jolt with the force of the arrow and fall in slow motion.

It seemed to me like he took an impossibly long time to hit the ground. I slid the bow back onto my back and walked slowly towards him. I wanted to run over to him and fall down beside him but that was what they wanted. They had advertised this match as an epic battle to end all battles. A fight between lovers, to the death. They wanted me to betray my emotions – it would make them laugh. They wanted to gain entertainment from my pain, from my suffering. I crouched beside him with my back to the camera as I took his hand to check his pulse. I almost jumped when I felt his close his fingers around mine. His eyes opened slightly and he looked up into my face.

“Don’t worry,” he breathed, his lips barely moving, “I’m fine. You missed my heart and hit the padding, just play along and make sure that the others are ready in time.”

“I will.” I whispered as I kissed him gently and slid his arrow down the front of my tight black jumpsuit. We had been gathering arrows like this for months. They never noticed that only one of the two arrows was ever found. They also never noticed that the ‘dead’ bodies no longer made it the whole way to the incinerators.

“Remember,” he whispered bringing my attention back to him, “kill or be killed.” That phrase, the phrase they said to us every time they set us against each other was the phrase that I had drilled into his head when he had first come here. Kill or be killed. If you showed mercy to your opponent, either your opponent would kill you or they would kill you.

“Kill or be killed.” I repeated as I felt his pulse slow beneath my fingertips. The drug did that – it gave you all the symptoms of being dead without actually being dead. We had found a supply of it about four months ago and that’s when we had started planning. I watched as his eyelids fluttered shut and his hand relaxed in mine. His pulse stuttered one last time before fading away. I placed my hand on his chest as I lowered my head and let the tears fall onto his unmoving body. His blood felt hot and sticky under my fingers. Although the padding had prevented the blow being fatal, if he didn’t have a real wound they would get suspicious. I snapped the arrow still sticking out of his chest and tossed the wood aside. The flint was still buried in his chest, but they wouldn’t bother pulling it out and he would need it when he woke up. Also, it was preventing too much of his blood from leaking out of his body.

I knew that they were watching me and that it wouldn’t be long before they came to collect his body and take me back to my cell. It didn’t matter – we were nearly ready and I would go gladly. I kissed him on the lips once more before I touched my lips to his forehead and stood up. There was a time when I’d had no choice but to kill my rivals. Even the sweet boy in front of me had gained his reputation by killing. It was only recently that we had secretly managed to change things.

I heard them coming long before I saw them. They were crashing through the trees noisily. They never had to be quiet and so they had never developed the skill to move soundlessly through the dense trees. I smiled to myself slightly as I realised that this would make things so much easier for us. I stood with my head held high as they approached, tears were still gently sliding down my cheeks but they were just for show now. They had to believe that I had just destroyed my heart by killing the man I loved. They had to believe that they were still in control and had made me do the unthinkable. But not for much longer.

“The reigning champion wins again.” The dark haired one said roughly as he grabbed hold of my hand and raised it into the air. My expression remained emotionless as he shook my fist in the air. It didn’t matter; I was notorious for never celebrating my wins. It was one of the things they found amusing about me. One of the things they found interesting about me. The dark haired one snapped the metal bracelet back onto my left wrist as they led me back through the trees. I heard the cheers and the hollers as we passed the door to the betting room. We were two of the best so they had been betting high on both of us.

They led me back to the cellblock and opened the door to my cell. I obediently walked in and held my arm out for them to take the chain off of my bracelet. Then they shut and locked the door before heading back to the betting room for drinks and celebration. I just turned my back on their retreating figures and walked over to my bed. I pulled the mattress up and there, hidden in the soft material were the arrows we had been collecting for months. I pulled the arrow out of my jumpsuit and added it to the pile before replacing the mattress and sinking onto it.

I pulled the bow off of my back and stoked the wood lovingly. They never took our bows off of us – they were our trophies, our prized possessions and it was part of the game. The better you were the better weapon you had. When you killed an opponent you had the option of keeping their weapon. I had won my bow about a year ago and I had treasured it ever since. It never failed me.

I sighed as I hung it on its peg on the wall. Not long now, I thought to myself as I drank from the bottle of water next to my bed. I stood up, stretched and walked to the bars of my cell. I took no precautions to be quiet and the blond girl in the cell next to mine heard me and followed. We reached the bars at the same time and a small folded piece of paper fluttered to the ground in front of me. I stepped on it and carried on walking as if I was only stretching my legs. I subtly dragged the paper with me until I reached my bed. I sat down again and discreetly picked the note up. We’re ready and waiting for your signal. It read. I tapped the hard heel of my boot against the floor three times and the sound echoed around the cellblock. It meant ‘read and understood’, a code we had come up with so long ago.

There were only around twenty of us here and I had been here the longest. They were always bringing in new ones to replace the dead but they had no idea that the ‘dead’ had stopped dying months ago. Now we just had to wait for them to get drunk. They always drank lots after every game, either celebrating their win or trying to forget their loss. They had a game about once a fortnight and in between games we were all expected to train. But to train, we had to interact with each other and that had given us ample opportunity to plan ahead. Now everything was falling into place and we just had to wait.

We estimated that it took only a mere hour for them all to have drunk a significant amount of alcohol and so I counted. After an hour I tapped my heel five times against the floor and as one, we stood. We hooked our bows onto our shoulders and filled our makeshift quivers with our collected arrows.

A long time ago I had discovered that the cell doors had a design flaw – if you kicked them in a certain place the metal buckled and the door would cave under the pressure. It was then just a simple process of kicking the door until it fell out of the frame. Nobody had bothered to replace or reinforce the doors because they had made an example out of the poor girl who had tried to escape this way. She had been brutally murdered in front of us all as a warning. But they had never even considered that we could all work together to come up with a plan. A plan that would turn the tables on them.

As one we kicked the doors to our cells until they fell with a crash to the floor. There were no guards in here the night after a game – they were all too busy celebrating. I took the lead as we crept silently towards the door leading outside. We didn’t know if anyone had heard the sounds of the cells doors crashing off so we had to move fast. We crept towards the betting room slowly, looking out for the others.

A hand grabbed my elbow as my boyfriend materialised next to me leading the warriors who had lost their fights and so supposedly died. They were all carrying their bows but none of them had arrows. We quickly split the arrows with machine-like precision before falling into position and striding confidently towards the building in front of us.

We burst through the door with our bows drawn and pointing into every corner of the room. The ruddy laughter and chat died as they caught sight of us stood in the doorway.

“All of you outside, now!” I called into the silent room.

“What are you going to do about it?” The old white haired one called out angrily from his position in the middle of the room as he took a couple of steps towards us. I smiled to myself – they were so used to being in charge that they couldn’t even comprehend a situation where they weren’t. I just smiled serenely at him as I fired an arrow straight into his heart. He stopped shocked as he began to fall. He was dead long before he hit the ground.

“Did you forget what you trained us to be?” I asked into the shocked silence as I smoothly loaded another arrow into my bow. “Did you forget that we are the best of the best? Did you forget that you made us kill the weaker ones so that only the strong remained?” I could see the truth dawning on their stupid faces as they realised all the mistakes they had made over the past few horror-filled years.

“Now,” I said slightly calmer as I met the eyes of everyone in the room in turn. “Everybody out.” They stared at me dumbly, trying to come up with a way to regain control of the situation. I sighed as I raised my bow once more. I aimed at the dark haired one, the most sadistic and cruel of the gathered monsters. I let loose another arrow and he fell dead.

Finally the rest of them got the message and began filing out of the room. They gathered in a protective circle outside, surrounded by all of us. “We are going to give you a ten second head start before we chase after you.” I said calmly as I stood next to my partner and surveyed the group. “Run!” I shouted as I waved my arms at them for emphasis. They all scattered like frightened rabbits as they took off into the forest. I could clearly hear every movement they made as they crashed through the undergrowth. I laughed – they didn’t stand a chance.

I counted to ten in my head before raising the arm holding my bow into the air. Every single warrior was watching me as I spoke. “Kill or be killed.” They all echoed what had become our war cry before running almost silently into the trees as I moved my arm quickly downward.

I grabbed hold of my love’s hand as we walked after them. We were in charge here; we didn’t have to run into the trees chasing after them. We were there to oversee everything and to make sure that nobody got away. They all had to die because that was how things worked here. Kill or be killed.

The Performance

The drums beat out their eerie rhythm as I stood motionless just behind the huge, ornately carved wooden doors. The cheers and shouts from the gathered crowd in the stands were so loud that they could be heard from where I stood, a hundred meters below. I waited patiently for my cue to go up onto the stage. It would be my finest performance yet and I knew that it would be completely unforgettable.

Strangely, I didn’t feel nervous at all – instead I felt quite the opposite – calm and prepared: I knew what I had to do and I was ready. My co-performer stood just behind me, as still as I was whilst the stage hands ran around nervously making sure that everything was ready and in place. I smiled to myself as I imagined the faces of the crowd when my performance began, their shock and wonder as I went through my routine.

My sleeveless black satin ball gown contrasted beautifully against my pale skin and the tight corset pressed against my chest slightly every time I breathed in. I caught me reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall to my left and I marvelled at the way that my long, ebony hair tumbled in waves across my shoulders, framing my round childlike face. My eyes glittered like freshly cut emeralds, impossibly bright, inhumanly bright, surrounded by my long, ashy lashes. My eyebrows were like brushstrokes perfectly arched over my eyes and my full lips were the breath taking colour of a freshly blossomed pink rose and stood out beautifully against my flawless, marble skin.

I smiled at my reflection, giving it a knowing glance as my pearly white teeth flashed at me from in between my lips. Anybody else would guess my age to be around late teens, possibly early twenties but I knew better – only I knew precisely how long I had looked into mirrors to see that exact same reflection gazing back at me. Only I knew that I hadn’t aged a day or seen sunlight in well over two hundred years and that I could hear a cat sneeze from over a hundred metres away. Only I knew that I wasn’t completely human… but they were all soon going to find out.

I could hear my companion shifting impatiently behind me, eager for the show to begin, but I remained quiet and unmoving, as still as a statue. I could hear his laboured breathing from his lung condition and I could smell his fear and his anger at being scared when he had done this so many times before. I smiled to myself as I heard a hush fall over the crowd and the drums halt for a few minutes whilst I imagined that the Compere stepped up onto the raised podium to give a speech. I listened to his footsteps as they made their way up the wooden stairs just in front of the doors I was currently staring at. I heard a few murmurs of excitement in the crowd as they waited impatiently and shifted in their seats.

“Welcome all,” I heard the voice of the Compere loudly and clearly, as though I was stood right next to him, “before we begin, I would like to hold a minutes silence for all those we have lost in the recent massacre.” Everyone immediately obeyed and all of the whispers that had been passing from person to person immediately ceased. Even the edgy stage hands stopped what they were doing and stood silently.

I counted to thirty in my head before letting a high pitched tinkling laugh escape from my mouth and echo all around the stadium outside, I knew that most people had heard it through the thin walls that surrounded me as they all fidgeted uneasily in their seats. They all however, stayed silent so I let out another girlish giggle as I imagined the Compere up on stage trying to ignore me and mentally urging everyone else in the stands to do the same. I saw the shocked faces of the stage hands as they glanced at me before looking away, scared of what they might see in my both deadly and entrancing eyes.

The attendant behind me place a warning hand on my shoulder briefly before taking it away so fast it almost seemed like he had been electrocuted just from touching me. I laughed again as the smell of fear in the room became much stronger. I chose to stare at the small fifteen year old stage hand in front of me, grinning widely as he glanced at me a couple of times with pure terror written all over his face. When he realised that I wasn’t looking away, he backed away from me slowly before turning and running as fast as he could into the room behind me.

As the respectful silence outside finished, I heard the crowd break out into an uneasy chatter. I concentrated on different conversations in turn and was delighted to hear that most people were talking about me. Rumours were flying around the stands about what I had done and whether or not the sound of laughter had come from where I was hidden underneath the stands.

I tuned out the rest of the Compere’s speech as I waited for the doors in front of me to open. The longer we waited to leave, the more uncomfortable everyone in the room with me became. They were desperate for the show to be over, however, if they knew the changes I had made to the performance they would be cherishing their time cooped up in this small room. I took a deep breath in as I heard the Compere finish his monotonous speech and signal for the stage hands to open the huge doors in front of me.

As the doors were opened, the guard behind me tightened the shackles on my wrists and release the ones that held me to the floor. He gave me a shove as I started walking through the doors and towards the wooden stairs. My black heels echoed against the wood in time to the drums as they began beating once more. The drums sounded like a heartbeat as they echoed around the arena and I could almost hear the spectators’ hearts beating in time with it.

My heart had stopped beaten in the very same moment that I had stopped ageing. I walked proudly up the steps, almost arrogantly as I smiled at the gathered audience and tried to resist the urge to wave, after all – it was unprofessional.

I paused for affect when I reached the top of the stairs before slowly walking towards the Compere who stood centre stage. I stopped directly in front of him and smiled confidently as he took a nervous step backwards, before catching himself and standing up slightly straighter. He took a deep breath to compose himself before speaking authoritatively. “You are charged with the murders of two women and six children, the sentence for these heinous crimes is death by hanging. Do you accept these charges and the respective punishment?” I smiled at him condescendingly as I spoke in my high girlish tone

“Why, of course I do.” I said in a clear, unwavering voice filled with contempt, “What’s the fun of killing them if you’re not going to take the credit for it afterwards?” I heard the shocked gasps and whispers from the crowd as my words sunk in.

“Very well.” The Compere said to me before nodding to the guard behind me. I felt him shift uneasily from one foot to the other as he pulled a long piece of black silk from his belt and tied it over my eyes. I could still see perfectly well through it and I shocked them all by walking straight up to the gallows and standing in front of the noose. I smiled to myself again when the executioner put the noose over my head and tightened it so that it was digging into my neck slightly.

I listened carefully to the sounds of the executioner’s footsteps as he walked towards the lever that would open the trapdoor below me. I heard the wood creak and groan as he stopped next to the handle to wait for the Compere’s signal. I waited, slightly excitedly until the executioner grabbed hold of the lever with both hands and pulled it towards him in one swift motion.

The ground fell out from underneath me and I fell with it, changing as I did so. As I fell my body twisted and shrunk as the bones realigned themselves, transforming into a new shape. My head fell out of the noose that was, by now, larger than my whole body. A tail sprouted from my lower back and my ears slid up to the top of my head, Whiskers grew from my cheeks and fur the same colour as my hair sprouted up all over my body. My fingers shortened and my nails grew into sharp points capable of tearing skin with just a single swipe and I landed on the floor underneath the gallows on all four paws, as a cat.

The shackles landed next me and I swivelled my ears as I heard the shocked, scared and even outraged cries from the stand as I jumped back through the trapdoor and walked towards the middle of the stage with my tail high in the air. I stopped in the middle of the stage and pulled myself up onto my hind legs before transforming back into my human like guise.

I laughed at the shocked expressions on the faces of the audience as I looked up into the stands and smiled at them. “Did you really think that I could be killed so easily?” I asked patronisingly as I met the eyes of everyone in the crowd in turn. “How did you fool yourselves into believing that you could kill me when I have already lived longer than any of you ever will?” I laughed mockingly as every single person seemed to change expression at the same time. They went from shocked and angry to the expression I recognised above all others, my favourite expression, the one I see every time I hunt – fear.

I stood tall, elegant and striking in the middle of the stage as I waited for someone to move or say something, but everyone was frozen like a rabbit which has seen and recognised its predator and yet cannot move for fear of provoking it. I knew that they were all wondering what I was because by now they had all realised that I wasn’t completely human. I laughed again before leaping on top of the gallows in one smooth elegant motion, just to exaggerate how different to them I was.

I crouched on the wood, like a cat that is waiting to pounce as I slowly looked at everyone in the stands, daring them to move or to make a sound. I giggled internally; this was always the most exciting part of the performance – the wait. I waited to see how long it would take someone to move or make a noise and when they did, I would pounce. I extended my sense in all directions as I counted in my head – it never took longer than five minutes for someone to slip up.

Just as I was getting close to four minutes, the Compere took a step towards me angrily, “Just what do you think…” he began before  I pounced, cutting him off mid-sentence as I pushed him over and landed on his chest. “What are you?” he gasped out as I lifted my head back, giving him an almost perfect view of my teeth, or more specifically of my incisors as they grew and sharpened. “What am I?” I asked mockingly as I lowered my face to his neck, “Haven’t you guessed yet?” I paused for dramatic affect. “I am a vampire.” I said slowly, emphasising each word as I leaned down and sank my teeth into his neck. He screamed and tried to throw me off, but I just giggled with my mouth over his neck knowing that I was far too strong for him to be able to move me.

I drank deeply as his struggles got weaker and eventually stopped altogether. I felt the very instant when all life left his body and at that point I stopped drinking, looked up at the crowd who were still too shocked to move and smiled giving them all a good look at my ivory fangs that were dripping with blood. I met the eyes of my guard behind his executioners mask and licked my lips seductively, wiping away all the traces of the Compere’s blood.

I could see the pure terror in his eyes as he took a cautious step backwards. I took a step forward and he took another back, afraid of being too close to me. It became a game to me, a dance with partners in perfect synchrony as I mimicked his steps and he kept retreating. I continued to follow him until his back hit the wall and he dropped into a fighting stance, prepared to go out fighting.

I admired this and decided that instead of killing him, I would change him; I flitted across to him showing off my speed as I moved. I stopped dead in front of him and stared directly into his eyes, knowing that my irises were glowing when I saw the green lights dancing across his face. When his expression went calm, I knew that I had succeeded in hypnotising him, “Sleep.” I whispered in his ear as I caught him and lowered him to the floor.

Finally, I turned my attention back to the crowd who were all watching me in both horror and fascination. I flew back to the centre of the podium and bowed deeply, grinning in anticipation of my show’s finale. “You have all seen what I can do and how fast I can move,” I called addressing the shocked crowd, “I am feeling generous and so have decided to give you a ten second head start to attempt to escape. Run rabbits run!” I shouted the last bit and started laughing as everyone stood up at the same time and began screaming and crying and climbing over each other in an attempt to escape.

“Ten,” I said, beginning the countdown as I watched the chaos erupt around me.

“Nine,” A couple of small children got trampled underfoot as all the adults surged towards the exits.

“Eight,” The screaming got louder as bodies hit the doors I had blocked earlier in the day.

“Seven,” Some people had jumped out of the stands and onto the ground in front of me and were running to try and escape through the doors I had come out of not too long ago.

“Six,” A few people had given up on escape and were instead breaking apart their wooden seats in an attempt to create weapons.

“Five,” I could smell a cocktail of fear, sweat and blood as people got scratched on the wooden doors and on the floor.

“Four,” The people with the crudely made weapons started towards me as a group, intent on stopping me before I finished counting.

“Three,” I could feel my fangs extending and getting even sharper at the thought of all of the fresh blood that was on offer.

“Two,” They were really panicking now and many of the women were hysterical, one woman had curled up on her side in a corner and was crying silently.

“One,” I swept aside the people who were coming towards me with one hand as soon as they got close enough to actually be able to hurt me.

“Zero.” I leapt into the fray and started biting necks and drinking blood as I danced through the crowd as light as air and as deadly as a snake. Nobody would survive. Not even the guard who was going to have to die in order to become like me.

I laughed out loud as I pirouetted through bodies both alive and dead. I had put months of planning into this routine, going through every tiny detail to make sure that it would all be perfect.

It truly was my greatest performance ever.

The Day My Life Changed Forever

Let me tell you about the day that my life changed forever.

Now, most people will tell you that their lives changed forever when they met their future spouse or when they won the lottery or maybe even when they had a near death experience. My life changed forever the day (or more accurately, the night) that I met my father. It wasn’t because he was rich, and it wasn’t because I had been searching for him for the whole seventeen years of my life, no. It was because he was a werewolf, and I met him during a full moon.

Don’t believe me? Well, here’s three facts for you – one, werewolves really and truly exist. Two, they only turn in to wolves during the full moon, but they do change and three; they have an inbuilt urge to bite and change other people. The most vicious wolves even have an insatiable urge to kill.

I guess I should have been warned when the full moon coincided with the 31^st of October but I have always loved Halloween – it’s my favourite holiday. Vampires, witches, and monsters – what’s not to love? My half-brothers love it too; I lived with them, my mum and my step-father before all of this: I had never met my real father because he had apparently walked out on my mum shortly after I was born. I didn’t care much for him and it wouldn’t have worried me if I had never met him. In fact I wish I had never met him because then none of this would have happened and I would still be snuggled up in between my soft cotton sheets right this minute instead of lurking, hidden on a random roof waiting for the moon to rise.

I’m not making much sense at the moment so I suppose I should start at the beginning – as I already said – it all began on the 31^st of October. It all began on Halloween. I had volunteered to take my half-brothers, Josh and Carl trick or treating as my mum and Steve (my step-father) wanted some “alone time” and, as I said before, I love Halloween.

Anyway we had visited about thirty houses, most of which had given us sweets and my brothers were getting tired – after all, they were only seven and five, when I suddenly got a strange feeling in my head. It wasn’t quite a headache but it felt...different. Just as soon as it had come, it was gone and everything was back to normal.

We visited a couple more houses before turning back to go home, we were just walking down the garden path when I got that strange feeling again – it was an irresistible urge to go down a nearby alley. I tried to ignore it but it was impossible, eventually after struggling with my own mind, I gave in and pushed my brothers towards the door before walking in the other direction and going into the alley.

The first thing I noticed was that it was dark. There were no nearby lights and the huge; full moon above me was hidden behind dark, grey clouds. However, I still couldn’t bring myself to leave and go into the safety of the house, less than a hundred meters away. Instead I walked deeper into the darkness until I was completely blind. That’s when I noticed that there was no sound, not even the noises of the cars on the road or the owls in the trees, just silence. Complete silence.

I walked further still into the alley until something told me to stop. I froze, motionless, trying to extend all of my senses to try and figure out why I had been drawn here. I still couldn’t see nor hear anything. I couldn’t feel anything and I defiantly couldn’t taste anything, but...I could smell something. It was quite subtle but I was sure that I recognised it. It was musky somehow and it reminded me of farms. I was still trying to figure out what the smell was of when the clouds drifted away from the moon, filling the alley with beautiful silvery light. I saw movement up ahead just as I realised what the smell was – wet dog.

A dark shape walked towards me out of the shadows, stopping just before it reached the moonlight. “Hello, Louise,” it said calmly, I realised that it was a man’s voice and that he sounded almost...amused.

“Who are you?” I finally managed to force out, “and how do you know my name?”

“Don’t you recognise me?” was all he said as he took another step closer to the moonlight. I struggled to understand who he was but I was sure that I had never seen him before in my life. He took another step forward and I saw his eyes, and gasped. He had unusual eyes, amber eyes but what shocked me was that I see those very same eyes every time I look in the mirror. They were my eyes, or as my mother always told me – my father’s eyes, one of the reasons she fell for him because they were so beautiful and unique. I took a step back because now that I knew who he was, I felt terrified. I don’t know why but I just felt like I shouldn’t be there anymore.

“Going so soon?” He asked as he took one more step forward. A step that brought him directly into the path of the moonlight. At once he began to change – his nose and mouth lengthened into a snout, he fell onto his hands and knees, his legs and arms becoming thinner and turned into a wolf’s strong sinewy legs. His ears grew, pointing upwards, a tail appeared between his back legs and finally his eyes changed, they stayed the same colour but the pupils changed, thin as a knife edge before they dilated, allowing him to see clearly in the dark.

I stood frozen during his transformation, both terrified and completely transfixed, but as he turned his new wolfish face to me I felt the adrenaline pumping through me veins, and I turned and ran. I ran as fast as I could back through the alley. The only thing running through my mind was to get away and fast. Even as I ran, I knew it was hopeless: he was much faster than me and a lot stronger. My suspicions were confirmed when I felt something jump onto my back and knock me over. I felt his warm breath on my neck as he lent over me and then I felt his sharp teeth bite into my shoulder.

Heat and pain. That was all I could feel now. My body felt like it was at that extreme temperature where you can’t tell whether you’re freezing cold or burning hot, that temperature where they both feel the same. I don’t know how long I endured this for before I blacked out, but the last thing I remember was hearing an eerie, animalistic howl from somewhere close by.

***

I woke up in my soft bed and couldn’t remember anything that had happened last night after I had dropped my brothers off at home and, according to my mum, I had come home shortly after them and gone straight to bed. The next three weeks past uneventfully and everything carried on as usual, but then, at the beginning of the fourth week I began to get sick. At first I just got a fever but as the days progressed I got sicker and sicker, my mum called the doctor out but he could find no reason for my illness other than “a bug” as he put it. Then on the next full moon, about four days later I felt better, in fact I felt pumped. I was both stronger and fitter than I could remember ever being before. However, by the time the sun set I was beginning to feel a bit ill again, I originally just passed it off as the after effects of the bug. But then the moon rose.

I was in my bedroom, looking out the window when the moon rose and filled my room with its silver light. In that split second, I remembered everything. I remembered last month when I had met my father and I remembered when I had been bitten by a werewolf. I remembered all this in horror as I stared at the full moon and felt a shiver run through my body. I hesitated just a single second before I jumped out of my window.

I didn’t know how well I would be able to control the wolf, if at all so I wanted to make sure that my family would be safe. I changed in mid air and strangely it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be – it felt right somehow. First I felt warm and then my body started changing, I instinctively knew how to position my limbs as they twisted and changed and it was all over in a matter of seconds. I landed gracefully on the floor, panting as if I had run a marathon.

That’s when the wolf took charge. I was just a passenger in its body as it flew through the streets hunting, looking for something, or rather someone to eat. I was helpless as it pounced on a middle aged man and sank its long elegant teeth into his leg. I mentally closed my eyes at this point, not wanting to see what was happening anymore.

***

After that, I never went home again instead I took to hiding out with other werewolves, and learning how to control the wolf. Now, three years later, I have a lot more control and a lot of the time I can force the wolf into hunting animals rather than humans but occasionally, just occasionally, I lose control and someone, wandering the street at night disappears. So if you’re out on a full moon, be careful where you go and if possible, don’t go out alone at all.

You have been warned.