Page 6 of Bitten

Reggie stared at her. “None of them made it?”

“They were gone when I got there. Long past any help I could give. You were the only one still breathing.” She cocked her head to the side. “And not under their influence, either.” She lifted his chin with one hand and peered into his eyes.

It felt as if she could see all the way to his soul.

“You got a touch of somethin’ in you,” she murmured. “What, I can’t rightly tell. Not yet…” She pursed her weathered lips and eyed him even closer. “The darkness has touched you, hasn’t it?”

Reggie frowned at her. Crazy witch.

She turned her gaze away, and he took a breath. It all hit him then. He lowered his aching head. He closed his eyes and could still see his family and their end in his mind. A nightmare, he couldn’t awaken from. Reaching out, held onto the bare wooden wall, trying to prevent himself from falling over. “Police… we need to go to the police.”

The witch laughed. “You really think they gon’ believe us? The witch and the boy they huntin’.”

“Huntin’? Why they huntin’ me?”

“Your fingerprints were on the knife they found at the scene, covered in blood,” the witch said. “They got you pegged for this, Reginald. Four grizzly murders. It’s been a big ol’ manhunt going on. Ain’t one of ‘em crazy enough to come on my prop-er-ty.”

He frowned, feeling even sicker. “I have to let them know I’m innocent. I didn’t do this.”

“Like I said…ain’t no one gon’ believe us.”

Reggie looked down at his hands, his chest aching. “You should’ve taken me to the hospital. They would’ve known I was innocent had they seen me.”

“Taken you up to that hospital? Boy, they would’ve assumed you were dead, too.Right ‘bout now, you’d be screaming from your grave, trying to claw your way out. You gon’ tell me that’s better?”

A shiver raced down his spine. He couldn’t imagine waking up in a tomb.

“Why would they assume I was dead? Why would they have buried me?” He wasn’t sure he wanted that answer. He knew it in his gut… but to hear it? “What am I?”

The witch’s smile faded, and she rose to her feet. After ambling over to a small sink, she washed her hands before resting them on the edge of the white porcelain.

“What am I?” he repeated.

She slowly turned to face him. “You’re someone stuck between this world an’ that.”

Reggie frowned. “Stop with the nonsense.”

Lub-dub, lub-dub.

He screamed, tired of the sound of her beating heart reverberating in his mind.

“Ain’t no nonsense, boy. You got the bite and survived it. Now you’re at the crossroads. Bite me… an’ you become one like them. You’ll bring death an’ destruction in your wake, walkin’ this earth with evil inside you.” She paused, eyeing him. “Fight it… an’ you can destroy those like the ones who destroyed your family. I can show you how.”

Lub-dub, lub-dub.

The need to sink his teeth into her neck and sample some of her blood was overpowering. “How can I fight this?”

The witch moved closer, her eye on him. He held tight, trying to ignore the sound. It was impossible. It grew louder with every second.

Lub-dub, lub-dub.

He closed his eyes, sinking his fingertips into the cot on either side of his legs—trying to prevent himself from leaping forward and pinning her under him. And draining her dry. Reggie felt her come ever closer, inching until he could smell her stale breath before his nose.

“You wanna bite me?” she asked, her voice raw and thready.

He opened his eyes. Her face was cloaked in a red haze, and it took him a moment before he realized what it was. He knew his eyes glowed that terrible red, just like he’d seen the others. The ones who’d killed his family.

He was becoming them.

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