NaNoWriMo day 06 – 21270 Words – Abomination Teaser

  

              Lucas looked at me and took a sharp intake of breath. He looked petrified. And, he was staring at me.

I arched a brow and canted my head a little to the left. “What’s wrong? I mean did you think I looked like a beauty queen when I woke up in the morning?” I tried to tame the rat’s nest that was my hair as I tried to make light of how absolutely terrified he seemed to be of me.

Lucas shook his head as if he was unable to form words. He lifted a small piece of mirror from beside his cot and showed it to me.

I gasped; my hands flew to my mouth. I was covered in blood, none of it my own. My left eye was no longer the golden color my right was. It was crimson, blood, red. “Wh-What happened? What did you do to me?!”

It was my turn to back away. My whole body trembled. I turned to run out of the cave and slammed into Gemma’s body hard enough to knock her, and myself, to the ground.

“What the fuck?!” Gemma growled as she shoved me off of her.

“Gemma.. Who was in those in four beds last night? And where are they now?” Lucas asked slowly, and a whole lot calmer than I would have.

Gemma shrugged. “Some drifters. They weren’t well I offered them a place to rest. Why?”

Lucas scurried over to us, grabbed me and forced my face into Gemma’s.

“Shit! I swear Lucas I didn’t know! You know I’m not down with that shit!” Gemma stammered.

I was even more confused now. “What’s wrong? What happened to me?” Panic was beginning to set in.

Gemma sighed and pinched the bridge of her button nose. “Fuck! This is why I hate fucking Uplanders!” Her hand absently moved to scratch at her left curled horn.

Lucas turned me to look at him. I did not understand the pity that laced his chocolate depths, until he spoke his next words.

“You’ve been infected… One of those ‘drifters’ must have been a Howler. It apparently didn’t infect you fully though.” Lucas sighed.

“A Howler? What do you mean I’m not infected fully?” I asked. My body began to tremble even more.

“He means, you aren’t a Howler. At least not a ‘real’ one. Whatever bit you didn’t infect you all the way. Which is why you haven’t gone Howler on us, and why you can still think with your own brain. And why only one of your eyes is red.” Gemma explained.

Gemma took a deep breath and pushed past me. She knelt by my cot and lifted the edge of the blanket which was brushing against the dirt floor. I screamed as the lifeless eyes of what had once been a dwarf stared emptily at me. His throat was nothing but a red pulp, He had been young too, his beard just barely coming past his chin.