COLD BLOOD

Wait! No! That’s not me, I thought to myself.  It wasn’t me.  I took a step back, releasing the woman, and started running, as fast and far away as possible.  After a few moments I heard a scream in the distance.  For how long have I been running?  Not more than a couple of seconds, but I kept running, and running.  I finally stopped, alone and in the middle of a wooden area.  I looked around, and there were no paths, no people, no sounds.  Silence.  I waited for heavy breathing, my heart beat, panting. There was no nothing.  I realized I was not taking a breath, and as I touched my chest there was nothing there either.  How long have I been standing here?  Why do I not hear my heart beating?  Where was I?  Suddenly another scent, not as strong, not as appealing, but my throat was burning again.  What was this feeling?  I turned around and a little critter came around a bush… no more hunger… no more thirst… at least for now.

Pain.  All I felt was pain.  Darkness.  It surrounded me.  I didn’t know whether my eyes were open or closed.  Burning.  Like flames blazing down my throat, up my nose, inside my chest.  It was like a need for something I didn’t know. A hunger. A thirst.

Finally, the pain started to subside.  But the thirst was still there.  My eyes started to open and I saw light from in between the trees.  I didn’t recognized the place where I was.  Trees surrounded me, but it was not silent like I would have thought.  I could hear noises close by, but, how close?  I could hear cars driving by, but I didn’t see the road.  I heard someone coming.  I could smell it.  I could smell it?! Yes!  There was a sweet scent getting closer, becoming stronger.  The crunching of the leaves felt as if they were right next to me.  It was almost deafening.  But where?  I looked around me, and saw nothing.  The smell, sweet scent was getting closer.  I slowed down, calmed down, and saw a path close by.  A trail deep in the woods?

I try to stand up, and was up faster than what I thought I would be capable of.  I thought to myself “how could this be?  Wasn’t I disabled?”  I checked myself to see if I had any wounds, broken bones, where did the pain I had come from?  Nothing in what I could see on my body showed any sign of struggle, but my clothes, my hair, had blood on them, but no wounds.

The scent was so clear, it made my throat burn with thirst.  I sat on the ground, and waited, but not a second later I saw her walking closer to me.  What kind of perfume is she wearing?  So sweet and desirable.  I felt so hungry and thirsty.  I turned and saw her closer and closer with every step, not even noticing my presence in the deeper part of the path.  I felt a monster inside wanting for her to get closer.  The burning was getting worse and worse, and some sort of an instinct told me to walk, no, run towards this person I did not know.  This instinct pushed me to jump in front of her, and then what?  I followed it, but still didn’t understand it.  I wasn't certain of what I was doing.  I jumped right in front of her and startled her.  There she stood motionless, looking in to my eyes, as if time and space had stopped.  I could hear her heart beat though, as if it was beating outside her chest and right in my ear.  It was strong and fast, and loud, clear, healthy.  I grabbed her arm, and still she did not make a sound, but she did looked terrified.  What did I look like?  Was I a monster?  I brought her closer to me and she turned her head to one side, still not making a sound, just a quiet weep, as if she was going to cry.  Instinctevely I brought her closer.  Still not understanding, I let her face rest on my hand, and she stood still, like if she was hypnotized, or immobilized by something.  Then, something inside, the monster, showed me the source of the sweet scent.  I could see the throbbing motion of the flow of her blood through her neck; the smell was like sweet vanilla, sugar cookies, honey.  I couldn’t place what it was, but it was so inviting, so engaging, it made my mouth water, and it came from inside her neck.  How could that be.  The monster told me to bite, as if I was biting a piece of delicious food.  YUM!