A Collection of Creatures Read online

  A Collection of

  Creatures

  Short Stories by

  B.R. Grove

  A Collection of Creatures

  © 2019 Becca Grove

  All rights reserved in all media. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form, except as permitted by Canadian Copyright law.

  Published in 2019 by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

  ISBN for this edition: 978-1-0924-9555-4

  Cover Design & Illustration by Becca Grove

  To Nini & Papa

  Thanks for all your love and support.

  I love you.

  After Dark

  The girl raced down the sidewalk, her red sneakers pounding against the concrete. Her foot caught on a raised block and she fell forward with a thud, skinning her elbows. She quickly scrambled up and started to run again, but a hand grabbed her by the neck and dragged her back. She gasped for air as the man’s fingers dug into her throat, and her head ricocheted off of the brick wall as he slammed her against the brick building.

  The man slammed the girl against the wall once more before letting go. She crumpled to the floor, unconscious. Rasping, the man knelt next to the girl’s lifeless body and produced a syringe from his pocket. He inserted the needle into her jugular vein and took some blood. Then he removed the needle, brought it up to his face and jabbed it into his temple. He let out a rumbling sigh as the dead girl’s blood flowed into his veins and eased his pain. A moment passed and the relief was washed away by more agony. The man rasped and stood. “Need…more…” he muttered as he hobbled down the sidewalk, away from the body. “Need…more…”

  In the shadows of the alleyway, a figure emerged. It was a young woman wearing a hooded black cloak that covered her face so that all but her ethereal green eyes were enveloped in shadow. Damn, Eden thought, gazing down the slumped cadaver of the girl. She was so young.

  She regretted doing nothing to stop that man- that creature- from taking another innocent life, but she couldn’t have made herself known to him in case her hunch had been wrong.

  Now that she knew for certain that her target was not among the living, she would make sure to intervene.

  ~

  Lily tripped out the door of the bar and landed flat on her face in the alley. “You better not know your face ’round here no more, punk!” The fat bartender shouted at her and slammed the door.

  She flipped her black ringlets out of her eyes and glared up at the closed door. Then she stood up, dusted off her jean jacket & pink dress ensemble, only to run into a man in a leather jacket standing in the middle of the alley. He stared at her with glassy eyes, his face sickly pale and his lips blue and crusty. His short blond hair was the same colour and texture as straw. She thought he looked like a reanimated corpse.

  “Excuse me,” she said, moving past him and walking onto the street. The man grunted and followed after her, determined to get the fresh lifeblood that flowed through the young mortal’s veins.

  Once the two had left the alley, Eden appeared in the shadows again. She detached herself from their grasp and stepped out into the street, gazing in the direction her target went. It wasn’t long before she heard a shriek coming from the vacant parking lot at the end of the road. She sped over and saw the dark-skinned girl being menaced by the creature.

  “No! Let me go!” she cried.

  The man snarled like a beast and picked her up by the neck. “Need…more!” he bellowed.

  Before he could do anything else, Eden stepped in. “Hey!”

  The man looked over, startled. In an instant, Eden moved through the shadows to the other side of the parking lot and shoved the girl away from him. The girl fell to the ground, gasping for air. Eden grabbed the man by his worn leather jacket and lifted him up in the air. He rasped and clutched at her gloved hands with his own withered ones.

  “Need…mortal…”

  Eden snorted. “That’s not going to happen.” With that, she focused all her energy in him and the creature soon dissipated into thin air and was gone. She sighed and dropped her arms to her sides. Then she turned to the dark-skinned girl, who was still gasping, now staring into the space where the man had been with wide eyes.

  Eden offered her a hand. “Need help?”

  ~

  Lily was still certain she was having a nightmare. She had just seen a man vanish into thin air right before her eyes! There was no way that could have been real… right? Well, this Goth girl that killed him was certainly real, and she was reaching her hand out to her. “Need help?” The girl asked.

  Reluctantly, Lily took her hand and the girl helped her up. “Thanks,” Lily said, rubbing her throat where the man had grabbed her. She was certain it would leave bruises.

  The girl’s black-painted lips grew into a friendly smile, her eyes glowing a neon green under the shadow of her hood. “How about I walk you home? It’s not safe to be out here after dark.”

  Lily bit her lip. Go home with a stranger? She had just experienced what talking to people she didn’t know at nighttime would do. The girl in front of her seemed fairly nice, however, and she did save Lily from dying.

  “Sure,” she answered. “I only live a couple of streets over.”

  The girl nodded and they started walking. “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “Lily. What’s yours?”

  “Eden.”

  The two girls walked in silence for a while. In her mind, Lily had so many questions for Eden. Who was that guy? What did you do to him? How did you do it? She took a deep breath.

  “Who-”

  “You’re wondering who that man was that attacked you,” Eden stated. Lily nodded silently.

  “He is not a creature of this realm,” she explained further. “He was once human, but his soul had been warped beyond repair.”

  His soul? Lily thought. “What do you mean by this realm?”

  Eden sighed. She knew that it was not wise to tell mortals too much about the state of existence, but she felt that Lily had a right to know the true nature of what she had just been through. “This realm, as in this plane of existence. There are three: the mortal- or living- realm, the in-between, and the afterlife.”

  Lily was dumbfounded. She just stared with wide eyes, unsure of whether to believe what Eden was saying or not.

  Eden continued. “As for the man that attacked you, he was a mortal whose soul refused to pass on. Like all souls that remain trapped in the in-between, he became a hollow shell of a person. Those creatures seek the lifeblood of living humans because they think it will ease the pain they feel from not being truly connected to the body they inhabit. It won’t do anything, though.”

  “That sounds horrible,” Lily murmured.

  “It is.”

  She hesitated before blurting, “Are you human?”

  Eden stopped, her face expressionless. She answered, her voice little more than a whisper: “I don’t know what I am.”

  At last, they stopped in front of the boarding house. “We’re here,” Lily said, gesturing up at the rectangular grey building. Eden glanced up at it once nonchalantly, then held out her hands. “Give me your hand.”

  “Why?” Lily asked.

  “Please.”

  She sighed and rested her hand in Eden’s palms. Suddenly she felt a wave of sensation go through her. She looked up at the girl in front of her, whom she noticed had eerie green eyes. “Who are you?” She asked, jerking her hand away.

  The girl smiled sadly. “Be careful. It’s not safe to be out after dark.” With that, she walked down the dimly lit street and disappeared into the night.

  Monster

  Caitlyn avoided her mother’s stern gaze, unsure of what to say that could explain
her absence the past few nights. She could have said that she had been at softball practice, but her mother wouldn’t have believed that. Besides, what could possibly explain the bloodstains on her clothes and her newly sharpened teeth? She couldn’t say ‘I’m becoming a monster’ to her. Her mother would never understand.

  “It’s three in the morning,” her mother said. “Where have you been?” Her voice was soft, which meant one thing: she was beyond angry at her daughter.

  Caitlyn hesitated, her mind racing to think of what to say. “I was…out.”

  “Don’t give me that cryptic crap,” her mother snapped. “I asked you where you were. You’d better give me an answer, or so help me-”

  “It’s complicated, mom. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Really? Then try me.” She gestured to the blood on Caitlyn’s clothes. “Where did all that blood come from? Were you in a gang fight?”

  If a clan of vampires counts as a gang, then sure, Caitlyn thought. She fought back nervous laughter.

  “Are you in a gang? Answer me!”

  She could hear the tears in her mother’s voice. “No mom, I’m not.”

  “Then what’s happening to you?”

  Caitlyn took a deep breath and answered. “Mom…I’m a vampire.”

  ~

  The next morning, Caitlyn got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. Her mother was in the kitchen making pancakes. “Morning, mom!” Caitlyn greeted her.

  She said nothing and kept her head down.

  Is she ignoring me? Caitlyn thought. “Nice to see you too…” she muttered.

  Well, what do you expect me to say?” Her mother asked sharply, spinning around to face her daughter. “Do you honestly expect everything to be the way it used to be, even after what you told me last night?”

  Actually yes, Caitlyn thought. She was shocked by her mother’s response. “I’m sorry, mom. If it makes you feel any better, I feel like crap too.”

  “How is that supposed to make me feel better? Do you have any idea what it’s like to find out your child isn’t even human anymore?”

  “Well do you understand what it’s like to know that you’re slowly becoming a monster and you can’t control it? Or that there’s a whole group of those monsters trying to kill you? No, you don’t, so let me tell you how it feels. It feels like hell. So when you say I don’t know how it feels, I do. Only for me? It’s even worse!”

  Her mother was silent. Then she quietly spoke. “Go to your room.”

  Caitlyn blinked. “What?”

  “I said go to your room!” Her mother shouted. “Now!”

  The girl clenched her fists and fought back a scream in retort. “Gladly,” she growled. Then she stormed out of the room.

  Her mother leaned against the counter and burst into tears.

  ~

  Caitlyn’s throat was sore from shrieking into her pillow, and her face was sticky with tears. She sat up and hugged the pillow to her chest, hiccupping with sobs. As she wiped her eyes on her sleeve, she couldn’t help but think: Why did this have to happen to me? First her friends, and now her mother. Everyone had turned away. No one wanted anything to do with her now that she was a monster.

  Are you happy now, Cait? Everybody hates you. Was it really worth it?

  She choked back another sob. No, it wasn’t worth it.

  She never should have gone to that party. She never should have gone along with what Toby had wanted, even if it meant she would be more ‘popular’ or whatever. Popularity was nothing compared to her own mortality. But she had given that up, and in return? She lost everything and everyone. After all, who could love someone with a constant thirst for blood?

  I should just get Toby to finish it already, she thought that she lay down across her bed. She was on the road to hell anyway. There was no point in being in more agony than necessary.

  It was decided, then. She would go to Toby to complete her transformation and become a full-fledged vampire.

  ~

  That night, after her mother was asleep, Caitlyn snuck out of her window. She ran through the cold night air until she reached the empty lot where the party had been the week before.

  “I was wondering when you’d show up again,” a voice said. Caitlyn turned and faced the smirking blond-haired boy standing behind her: Toby. At the sight of his cocky expression, she snarled and went to shove him. “You piece of shit.”

  “Ouch,” he sarcastically responded, shoving her back. “What was that for? I thought you would be happy to see me.”

  “Happy?! You ruined my life, you selfish asshole!”

  “Hey, you were the one who said you’d give anything to be popular! I just assumed that included your mortality too.” Toby grinned, revealing his sharp fangs.

  Caitlyn shook her head, beginning to tear up again. “No. Not for this.” She sniffed. “I’m a monster.”

  Toby made a tut-tut sound and put his arm around her. “Hey, hey, it’s not so bad.”

  “I would argue the opposite,” she muttered.

  “So what did you really come here for?”

  She wiped her eyes and drew a shaky breath. “I need you to complete my transformation.”

  He paused. “Are you sure?”

  Please. There’s nothing left for me here.”

  Toby shrugged, brushed Caitlyn’s hair away from her neck and sank his teeth into the spot where he had bitten her before. She cried out in pain.

  I’m sorry, mom.

  ~

  When she returned home, the first thing she did was dump her school books out of her backpack. She pulled random articles of clothing out of her dresser and stuffed them inside. Then she picked up her notebook off the floor and tore a blank page out. With a heavy heart, she began to write.

  She apologized to her mother for what she had put her through. She had confessed what had happened between her and Toby. Most of all, she stressed that her mother would be better off once she left. Perhaps she wrote that as a way of convincing herself it was true as well.

  When she finished, she folded the note in half and wrote ‘To Mom’ on one side. She sat gingerly on the edge of her bed, throat burning and note clutched in her hands. She felt as if she had swallowed a lead weight, which made her heavy and nauseous. She would have given anything to undo what had been done.

  No, she snapped in her head. This is for the best. It’ll be much safer when you leave.

  She set the note on her desk, then bent down, zipped up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. As soon as she swung one leg over the windowsill, she heard the sound of a door creaking from behind. Her mother stood silently in the doorway, her mouth frozen open.

  Before she could make a sound, Caitlyn stepped onto the roof and disappeared.

  Blood in the Snow

  The blizzard ravaged the dark forest, but Oksana kept moving. Trudging through the thick snow was difficult in only a simple shirt and jeans- especially with such a deep gash in her side, though she knew it would heal eventually- but she had no time to dwell on such things. The pack was far behind now- no doubt they intended on leaving her for dead- and she needed to focus on getting somewhere warm and safe. Somewhere where no animals would pick up on her scent and come to her, looking for a fresh meal.

  The wind bit at her exposed face. Armies of flurries attacked her vision, and she lifted her free arm to try and block them out. Blood trickled over the fingers of the arm that she had clamped over her wound, and dripped onto the snow like hot water, melting the ground beneath them. She squinted and tried to look ahead.

  At first, there was nothing but trees and the blackness between them. Then she saw…lights! Yes, lights from a village! She let out a soft gasp of relief and trudged faster now, almost at the clearing up ahead.

  Suddenly, she found herself pitching forward and falling, tumbling down a hill. She landed in a heap at the bottom, causing the powdery snow to puff up like a cloud of dust. Pain rang throughout her body as she spat the stuff out of her mouth. She t
ilted her head to one side in an effort to flip her dark hair out of her face, struggling to prop herself up on one elbow. Then she looked up and squinted to take in her surroundings.

  The lights were even closer now. They shone from the windows of the small houses just a few feet away from where she landed. What luck, she had landed right beside a village! She was so close…

  She didn’t have the energy to get up. Her body ached, half-frozen from the cold, and was now soaked in blood. She tentatively pressed her hand to the gash in her side again, hissing at the pain. It didn’t help. She closed her eyes, exhausted and defeated, and waited for darkness to take over.

  Voices from up ahead caught her attention.

  “Over there! I told you I saw something!”

  “Shit, Vera! That’s a person!”

  She squinted and saw two black figures coming closer and closer; a man and a woman, as she could tell from their voices. The closest person, the woman, knelt down beside the fallen girl.

  “Hey! Are you okay?” Her voice was faint and distant.

  Somehow, Oksana was able to nod. The next thing she knew, she was being half-walked, half-carried through the door of the closest house. Heat blasted her as she entered the room, wrapping itself around her like a warm blanket. She found herself being led into a small living area, and the three lowered themselves down onto the battered couch. The man reached above her and tugged down the grey blanket draped over the top of the couch, and wrapped it around her shoulders.

  The woman looked up at him. “Get her something warm to drink.”

  The man nodded. As he left the room, Oksana noticed that he was young- early twenties, perhaps- with dirty blonde, spiky hair, and a scruffy beard.

  The woman turned to look at her again. She looked to be the same age as the man, but with brown hair that was cut short, like it had been hacked off with a pair of scissors. She had a silver ring in her left nostril, and her almond-brown eyes were rimmed with thick eyeliner and were currently full of concern as she looked at Oksana. “Are you okay?”

  Oksana nodded. She gently touched the area where her wound was and felt no pain. It had healed nice and fast.