Red's Heart

Soul mate.

There wasn’t much I believed in. Soul mate topped the list alongside God and love. But, as my eyes trailed over Red’s delectable body, I realised. I realised that if this pathetic excuse of a world did, indeed, consist of soul mates; well then Red would be mine.

Eight years. It had been eight years since I ruthlessly slaughtered the girl I loved. Or thought I loved. No. I’d desired her. I’d wanted her. But I didn’t love her. You do not murder those that you love in stone cold brutality. I did not love the girl of the sun. She was not my soul mate. No. My soul mate was beautiful. Desirable. My ecstasy. And I would not kill her. Much as I craved to.

Such a canvas. Clean, white walls waiting to be painted. To be beautiful. A work of art. And Red had given it to me. Like a gift. Her feet pranced down the clean hall in sheer delight, startling patrons and patients. But they didn’t show the same fear to her that my presence emitted. The stench seeped from them in a sickly sweet perfume. My tongue traced my lips in hunger.

Piercing screams sang to me in an unnatural chorus, and yet the ringing was comfortable in the hall. It tugged at my dead heart. It enticed me to breathe in deeply, the wicked insanity. They didn’t scream for me. No, the echo was not as syrupy a sound. It was moaning and irritable. And fuelled my anger.

My tongue slid over my arms as I stalked forward, my eyes trained on the doe eyed nurse before me. Her eyes had grazed over the blood dripping from me until she turned those wonderfully frightened eyes to me. The guard’s blood was growing cold as I greedily licked it up, the wolf snarling at me to refresh the warmth. To feed it some more. To unleash it.

My blood pumped in exhilaration as I revelled in the madness of the asylum. My clawed hand wrenched into the nurses jaw, snickering at the choked scream as I tore the bone from her skull, and watched her eyes roll into the back of her head. Her face ripped with a sickening slurp, leading the shower of red that splattered marvellously across the tiled floor. A bloody line marked the hallway in a thick stripe as I threw the jaw carelessly away and dove my hand into her lifeless body.

My nails scraped along her brain, squeezing her fluids between my fingers as I held the limp doll by her hair. I groaned, throbbing in the elation of my kill. This was not like my hunt. Animals didn’t show the same thrilling fear. No. It was humanity. Humanity held them above the food chain, sinking their fear of death deep into their bones.

“Come on, baby,” whispered a voice at my ear. “There’s more where that came from, and I’m getting horny.”

I growled as Red’s hand slid over my skin, tracing my navel before sinking down to my shaft and pulling on it once. I groaned, scowling my deep hatred at the girl in red as she skipped away with a giggle. My hand clenched around the nurse’s brain, yanking it out with a hateful thrust before tossing her body parts away and smothering my face with her blood.

Screams echoed louder than before as the occupants scrambled in hysteric chaos. I laughed darkly at the magnificence, my eyes catching on another girl and lunging at her gracefully. Excitement tickled my skin as she ran, but I was faster, yanking her back by her hair and sinking my jaw into her throat. Wetness splattered across my face and dribbled down my cheek as I clamped tighter and pulled with ferocity. Her skin tore the buttons off her dress as it peeled back in a bloody mess to her breast and cut off at the nipple. I growled in satisfaction, pouncing on another patient.

The asylum had become my personal slaughter house. Red bled from the walls as bodies spilled the hallway. Nurses fled the premises leaving the patients to run amok in their absence. I smirked in amusement as they screamed terror. Lashing at their nurses with hatred and revenge.

“Wolf,” Red called, and I turned to see her face stretched into an eerie smile. “Come see.”

Snow had begun to fall as Red led me to the frozen gardens. The silence was a stark contrast in comparison to the hell broken loose in the asylum. This was how I liked it. This silence was what I preferred. But the silence was not what Red had wanted to show me.

A lone tree stood proudly in the centre of the garden, its trunk twisted around in itself in a tornado, its branches veining out in slivers above the courtyard. It was strange and entrancing, but what was more was what had been draped over the branches. My eyes widened in delight at the sight, not caring to wonder how my sweet Red had managed such a magnificent feat.

A familiar body hung sloppily over the nearest branch, staked perfectly through her core. My body trembled in overwhelming lust as I gazed at the flayed body of my jawless nurse, the whites of her eyes screaming in terror. I laughed darkly, stepping forward in wonder at this masterpiece, my fingers lightly grazing the closest corpse. I smiled, taking in the full figure, her skin hanging on only by her nipple.

“Do you like it?” Red asked seductively.

Almost reluctantly, my eyes drifted back to Red. Her hip jutted out to the side in obvious pride. I nodded, allowing another growl to escape my lips as I scooped the girl into my arms. Droplets of blood splattered her cheeks as the bodies above us drenched the snow in blood, raining down in a relentless downpour.

“I do,” I snarled, slamming her body against the beautiful tree.

Red’s legs slipped between mine in hunger as she thrust herself upon me. My breath bled deep puffs of white mist as our groans resonated in the empty courtyard. Empty, but for the mutilated bodies stabbed into the trees branches. The thought only made me thrust deeper.

“Alice.”

His voice was deep. Cavernous and dark, echoing loudly above the screams of the asylum. The single word spat through his lips disgustedly as if swallowing a foul and putrid odour. His face twisted into a grotesque mask, inflaming a repulsive purple, and I waited for that fat mug to pop. Oh, how I dreamed he would. And yet, his revolting body would taint my beautiful painting. I glared, my eyes piercing deep into the man who dared speak to my Red.

“Call me Sarah,” came Red’s snappy reply.

The man waited as Red gave a final thrust and a gasp of pleasure before sliding off me and turning to the man who had called to her. Meeting the man’s steady gaze.

“Hello, daddy,” Red smirked, completely unsurprised to the man’s presence. “Still raping your patients?”

My brow lifted only slightly. Watching as the girl tilted her head to the side tauntingly. By now, she’d stepped forward, turning on an angle as she peered at the man she called father. I saw no resemblance. This man was ugly. His voice was aching. His blood as tainted and grotesque as the diseased rats stalking the city.

“I should have known it was Eric,” the man sneered. “Tell me, what did you offer for his help?”

His eyes shot to mine briefly. Hatred and burning matching his tone. Only he didn’t realise. He didn’t see that my hatred burned deeper.

“Oh,” he smiled. “Like mother, like daughter.”

Red’s knife flew at the man at a speed I could barely catch but the blade missed, landing in a clutter in the red snow. The man leered in triumph and anger. His hand lifting lazily as his fat body loped closer to my Little Red. Just like the first time I had seen her. Red and the bear. Red and her father. The same fear etched deep into her eyes. Fear that only I could catch.

The single shot rang in the courtyard, slicing an eerie silence into the night.