Cannibal Red

Adrienne was staring at a small jar on her coffee table when I came in. At first I thought she looked like she was in some kind of trance, but when she looked up and grinned at me I realized that she was watching something small and black moving around the jar.

“What the hell…?” I ask, shuffling over and plunking myself onto her couch and staring too at the jar. I noticed a small black spider frantically jumping around the jar. Adrienne had poked holes in the lid, but it didn’t seem to comfort the little creature.

“Why do you have a spider?” I ask the older woman, she was back to staring at the spider, the grin she had on when I came in still plastered on her face.

“Isn’t he awesome?”

I cringed, watching the spider jump on the lid and fall back down again, the laws of gravity defying him. “No, he’s creepy.”

Adrienne rolls her eyes, a soft giggle escaping her lips. “Dude…heard your screwing my brother.”

My heart leapt. What?!

“Excuse me?” I snap, narrowing my eyes at her.

Adrienne smirks, she leans back her jean clad legs folding over one another.

“I heard, that you are so to speak; opening your doors for Tyler.”

My jaw dropped. “I have not had sex with your brother!”

Adie laughs and leans closer, grinning at me. “That would so hurt.”

I stare at her blankly. “Huh?”

“It hurts to kiss other Cannibals…imagine fucking them!”

So I wasn’t totally alone, it hurt for Adrienne too which meant it must have hurt for Tyler.

“Uh, dude…” I look up, noticing the bored look on Adie’s face “listen, I don’t want to get involved, really, but…if you hurt him I’ll rip your intestines out and use them as a scarf!”

I was shocked, my face flushed a deep crimson as Adrienne looked like she was about to strangle me. Suddenly her face broke into a much softer expression.

“Don’t worry though, I told him the exact same thing. So, anyway, let’s get down to business.”
I stare blankly at her as she stands up and takes a sip of coffee that was sitting on the end table next to her. She then places the coffee back down and picks up the jar with the spider in it. “We’re going to work on provoking fear today.”

I blink, watching her grin mischievously at the little spider still jumping frantically around the jar. “Hey, Adie…”

Her head doesn’t even look up at me. “Hmm?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah…”

“I had a dream last night, that I was in the rain, screaming, and I was a fully fledged Vamp…like…like you…”

Adrienne’s head suddenly snaps up, for some reason her eyes looked darker, her skin paler, she almost looked fearful. “Go on.” She mutters when I don’t speak.

“Well, in the morning, I woke up all wet, like I’d actually been out in the rain.”

Adrienne almost looked sick, fear sick, like she was going to puke all over the floor sick.
Then, suddenly, there was a frantic knocking at the door.

“Mother fucking hell…”

Adrienne dashed across the room with the spider still clutched in her hand, she practically threw it into a bag that was just lying open near the bookcase and grabbed a few other things, running around the room frantically; gathering odd objects.

“Adrie-”

I began to speak, but Adie just pressed a finger to her lips and nudged her head towards the bathroom door, I followed her in there, she looked more frightened than I’d ever seen anyone before.

“Don’t speak,” she whispers, quietly shutting the bathroom door behind us “Get in the shower.”

“What?!”

Adrienne’s nails were turning black, her eyes a flash of red in the sunlight. “Get in the fucking shower before I shove you in there myself Lee!” She hisses.

I scurry into the shower; she follows me, the bag clutched in her hand swinging behind her.

“Adrienne what is going on?!” I ask as she shuts the shower door and turns the hot tap behind her. I expected hot water to come gushing out everywhere, but instead, the floor moved.

And then we were rushing downwards…down…down…down…my head was spinning, and Adrienne’s long black fingernails were holding onto me so I didn’t fall down; I could feel the panic in her, her heartbeat beating faster than it was supposed to be.

Then we stopped.

The shower door opened and it was pitch black, I couldn’t see anything, not even Adrienne who was still holding onto me for dear life.

“Just be quiet, okay?” Adrienne whispers in my ear, and I nod, even though I know she can’t hear me. She steps out into the darkness, and suddenly I can see everything. It was still dark, but all the objects around me were covered in a deep red light. I look down at my hands; they were painfully growing long black fingernails like Adie’s. I look manically at her, and she shakes her head, as if disappointed.

“You can see?” She asks me, I nod and she takes a few steps toward me, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the shower.
The room we were in was like a cave, only the walls were made of solid grey bricks and the floors were simply made of stone. It was a wide room, but it was almost empty. A bed of ratty old blankets sat in the corner of the room, and dead animal bones scattered the floor, I think I noticed a few human skulls but decided to ignore it.

“Hector?” Adie whispers, still holding tightly onto my hand, leading me further into the room.

“Hector honey…are you there?” Adie spoke in a sickly sweet voice that sounded nothing like her own. I wondered who Hector was.

All of a sudden there was a sharp hissing sound from another corner of the room, where there was no blue light for me to see. I figured this was because there was no objects there.
Adrienne dug deep into her pockets and brought out a flash light, switching it on. She shone it into the place where the hiss had come for. There was a louder hiss, and a creature dashed for the darker portion of the room.

“You…” the hissing voice spoke from the darkened corners of the room “…turn that bloody thing off!”

Adrienne switched the flash light off again, and looked over to the corner of the room.

“Hector…I brought a friend.”

“I can smell her…” the voice hissed creepily, and I heart pattering, my heart was beating fast, I was scared. “Young…fleshy…pure…oh, and she’s scared too…oh darling are you scared of me? Little old me?”

I could almost feel Adrienne rolling her eyes “Hector stop being so creepy, this is really important, Diana’s guys are upstairs looking for her.”

“What? Why?”

Adrienne gripped my hand tighter, I didn’t mind, it was all I could do to stop myself from running back into the shower and turning the tap on again to go back up to Adrienne’s bathroom, that’s if it does go back.

“She’s red.”

I blinked, it was silent for a while, and suddenly all the lights went on in the cave thing and my eyes stung. Adrienne’s eyes must have too because she was clutching her head and looking down, her eyes closed.

When my eyes no longer hurt like hell, I looked up. A man around Adrienne’s age was standing before us; he wore dark, dark, sunglasses over his eyes. He had and an extremely long fringe that almost covered the sunglasses and jet black hair. He was as pale as the snow, his skin flawless, he was extremely skinny, and stood with a slight hunch in his back. His fingers were long and black like ours and his lips were a deep red. He wore nothing but a long black robe.

Hector looked like he belonged on the Matrix.

I looked at Adrienne, who was watching him too. Hector reached out one long black fingernail and ran it down my neck, looking suspiciously at me as if I were someone trying to smuggle friends across the border.

“Your red?”

It was a question. The light really didn’t change his voice at all; he was still as creepy sounding as he did when I first heard him.

“Red?”

Hectors gaze snapped to Adrienne, he snarled at her and bit his teeth together.

“She doesn’t know?!” His voice almost shrieked.

“You leave her alone!” Adrienne says, pushing Hectors finger from my neck. “I know what you’re thinking.”

Relief washed over me as his finger was no longer connected to my neck, Hector scared me.
Hector, un-phased by Adrienne’s words turned back to me.

“Oh, darling girl…we do have much to discuss.”