Crimson (2 page)

Carefully attempting to control her thoughts, lest she lose pay for upsetting another customer or spilling someone else’s food or drink, Anna resumed her duties a short while. However, soon, seemingly caught up, she took a few moments to relax in the kitchen with the rest of the staff while Wilson manned the bar. Shoving through the kitchen door, Anna nearly collided with Kristen, a woman in her early forties with blonde hair and a more than ample bosom. Apologizing for her clumsiness, Anna stepped aside to allow Kristen to pass, holding the door for her. Kristen very nearly did exactly as expected, stepping into the open door, but then she spun upon her heel to stare at Anna. Immediately Anna felt uncomfortable, even having known Kristen her whole life. Something about the woman’s gaze was unnatural. It was as if this day the woman peered beneath the flesh to see all her secrets and shortcomings. Turning her head to look away, Anna was again surprised when Kristen grabbed her chin and pried her head to the side, though not violently.

“Wow!” Kristen exclaimed. “I don’t believe it.”

“Believe what?” Anna asked, worried what secret her soul had divulged to Kristen.

“Your cut is completely gone,” Kristen answered, still looking at Anna’s neck intently.

“What cut?”

“You had a jagged cut on your neck from falling when you blacked out yesterday,” Kristen reminded her. “I cleaned it myself!”

For a long moment Kristen tugged Anna’s neck this way and that, peering closely at the skin of her neck for any sign of the vanished injury. Wilson rounded the door frame to see for himself too, and before long the entire kitchen staff abandoned their duties to witness the absence of the cut. Each of them gave their own imagined reasons for its disappearance, but within seconds it was decided that it must be a blessing from the gods that Anna had been healed so quickly.

All the undue attention made Anna extremely uncomfortable. So much so that she began to sweat, and her knees to shake slightly. As her body temperature seemed to rise, and the morning’s nausea began to return, Anna simply could not take any more. Before the small crowd made any notion of being finished gawking at her, Anna pushed past Wilson. Entering the tavern once again and rounding the bar, she strode across the room. Without an explanation, or looking back to assure herself she had not angered the proprietor, Anna made her way into the privy where she leaned against the door, allowing no one else entry.

Panting hard Anna closed her eyes as sharp pain lanced through her skull. For long minutes she gritted her teeth until it abated. Waiting further still, the trembling and nausea stopped as well. If her cycles were going to be like this every four weeks, Anna did not know how women lived as long as they did. The whole ordeal was overwhelming, and Anna questioned whether or not to take Momma’s advice and return home after the pain and nausea she had just endured. If she did, though, she knew they would both suffer for it, and Anna could not bring herself to make Momma suffer for her weakness. Shrugging off her fear and uncertainty, she left her post against the door to rinse her face in the bowl across the room. This singular decision would reveal another fact about the night before of which Anna had been unaware.

Approaching the water bowl, Anna first noticed the bloodstains upon the cobblestone floor. Although the vast majority of the blood had been wiped up, some of the floor had not been properly cleaned and showed just how much blood she had lost the night before. Even with little knowledge of her body’s inner workings, Anna found it hard to believe that she had survived such extensive blood loss. If the stained floor were not evidence enough, the bowl upon a small wooden table was filled with water stained crimson. Rags soiled with blood remained in the bowl and the scent of sweet iron was overwhelming, filling Anna’s nostrils with the smell of blood. Anna inhaled, enjoying the uncommon scent as her stomach turned once again and the sudden urge to vomit returned.

Closing her eyes and breathing deeply through clenched teeth, Anna waited once again as the nausea subsided. A moment later she opened her eyes and worked quickly to restore the room to its original condition lest she suffer some consequence for the bloody mess. Though she hoped to finish this unforeseen task discreetly, it took two very uncomfortable trips through the tavern and kitchen for fresh water to complete the job properly. The eyes of everyone else employed at the tavern rested heavily upon Anna each time she exited the privy. She wished that they would just forget that the previous night had even happened and, more fervently, that they would not call the fact that she had healed quickly a miracle of the gods. Perhaps the wound had simply looked worse than it was. Maybe it had not even existed at all and those whom she worked with were mistaken. Maybe they had all eaten something spoiled and they had all imagined the incident.

Many more thoughts passed through Anna’s imagination to explain away how she felt, but eventually, as she finished cleaning up the mess, her mind returned to Gavin. Somehow, amidst her fantasies, she had imagined everyone had become ill by eating bad meat. Dying, each of them had risen from the dead as flesh-eating zombies. Someone had to save the village of Traiven and who better than Gavin with his thick arms and sandy hair?

“Anna get your ass out here! You have customers with empty mugs,” Wilson whispered loudly through a crack in the door.

Anna jumped, instantly roused from her reverie. She had not even heard him approach the door, let alone had she expected to hear another voice in the room. Sighing loudly as her heart began to slow to a normal rhythm, Anna strode out to resume her mundane duties of serving food and drink to the many passers-through of the day.

Little more than two hours came and went, and thankfully for Anna they were much like any others working at the tavern. The stares from her coworkers came less and less often, and for the most part Anna was beginning to have a good time at work, including better than average tips from her patrons. The kitchen staff was hard at work stirring pots and cutting vegetables when Anna shoved through the door for the hundredth time of the day to fill an order when events took an unexpected turn for the worse.

No more than had the door swung closed behind her than agonizing, stabbing pain exploded in Anna’s stomach. Instantly she clutched her belly. As she doubled over to ease the pain, Anna lost her footing, collapsing in a heap. As she screamed in pain, everyone in the room rushed to Anna’s aid, though without injury none knew how to help the girl who now began to trash upon the floor as if she were on fire.

Anna felt as if her insides had been torn asunder. Convinced she would die of the pain, she coped as best as she was able, struggling to remain conscious. One second it felt as if she had been gutted, and the next she was overwhelmed by unbelievable cramping throughout her entire body. One instant she was folded in two as her body was wracked by spasms, the next she writhed upon the floor as those around her watched on in horror, unable to comfort her in any way. For more than an hour Anna clung to consciousness, her nails biting into the stone floor on several occasions, peeling them back to leave bloodied stumps. It wasn’t until yet another symptom added itself to the already overwhelming list that Anna was finally overcome.

As if something had ruptured, a loud popping sound reverberated through her skull as her head exploded in pain, causing her to retch upon the floor uncontrollably. Blood spewed like a crimson river from her lips. If that were not enough, after vomiting blood several times, still squirming upon the floor in puddles of her own fluids, it suddenly felt as if something hit her in the jaw. It was as much pain as the young woman could take, both mentally and physically. With the added agony in her head and jaw Anna lost consciousness.

Anna flexed her taut muscles. Twisting her neck to an extreme angle, she smiled as the bones in her neck cracked several times. Spinning upon the bar, her nude body was an abomination, as if created by an insane person’s darkest thoughts. Pale white, milky, supple skin shone out between patches of blood-stained flesh. Her young body bore the traces of rivers of blood that had begun at her mouth and spilled from her chin like crimson waterfalls to fall upon her perky breasts before spattering upon her abdomen and thighs, and everywhere in between. Her fiery red locks hung in tangles, with dried blood and gore clinging like scabs between the strands. Her arms to the elbows were pure red as if dipped in blood, and her legs looked much the same up to her knees, as if she had spent hours stomping around in puddles of spent life.

Anna’s lips parted in a wicked smile. Something about it was unnatural, almost predatory. In that smile was a sign of the monster she had become. More than that, her eyes shone with a hue that was demonic and screamed that something evil had been spawned and now lived within the awkward body of the young woman none would suspect. Seeing something across the room Anna began to giggle, her small breasts bouncing slightly with the sound. Upon the floor a young man moaned in agony, trying in vain to roll himself over with broken limbs. Anna began to laugh harder.

Hopping down from the bar, she strode across the room like an agile, predatory beast. Her adolescent hips swung from side to side, slightly over-exaggerated, obviously accentuating the motion. She moved fluidly. Graceful to extremes, Anna walked among the dead and dying, each of them covered in gore, like a dancer upon a stage. So light she appeared, that had anyone witnessed the scene they would have imagined her floating among the dead, like a ghost come to mourn those lost.

Kneeling beside one of her favorite victims of the night, Anna began to undress the woman, peeling blood-soaked leather from the body. One by one she removed the shapely garments, and one by one she donned them herself. Only moments passed before Anna rose once again. Dressed now from head to toe in black and buckles, she strutted towards the door. She smiled again. Pulling the door to the tavern open upon its hinges, Anna watched as the last rays of the sun vanished from the sky. With naught but a wicked grin she stepped out into the night.

She was now a creature of singular purpose. Pleasure was her only want, her only need, and her only desire. Fortunately for Anna, she had learned well this day that pleasure could easily be found with a lover. But it could also be found feeding upon the blood of others. Anna could not help but to decide that Momma had been wrong; it was definitely better to play with one’s food.

Anna awoke to find herself propped up in a corner of the kitchen, a damp rag wrapped about her head. Perhaps she had become ill and had fever. At least that would explain the nightmares. Nothing at all today seemed to make any sense. Closing her eyes she tried once again to recall the details of the previous night, in hopes of remembering what it was that had happened in the privy. Try as she might, however, she did not succeed. She remembered serving Lord Seth, the Death Mage, and his young wife. She remembered speaking to Mack on their behalf, as it was the young couple’s desire to purchase a cloak.

Upon this train of thought it was only then that Anna recollected another detail of the night before. She remembered the woman’s eyes. The Death Mage’s wife had the same red-hued eyes as Anna herself in the nightmares. That explained at least a portion of the dream. Many in the tavern had been frightened of the young couple, instilling an uncomfortable feeling in the room while they were present. Their appearance, in dark armor that looked wholly evil, menacing and wrought from nightmares, could explain Anna’s peculiar dreams. She was simply recreating that which she had heard the night before within her own head. The young mage was said to slaughter other men by the thousand, and this could explain all the bodies and blood in the nightmares, couldn’t it? Anna could not help but to try and explain the unnatural subconscious thoughts away. Nightmare or not, it could not explain why she had blacked out, now on two different occasions. Something more was at work here, and Anna hoped to figure out just what it was before it was too late.

Opening her eyes, Anna looked upon her clothing and was instantly disgusted. Dried vomit and blood clung to her clothing, staining her favorite dress in such entirety that Anna knew the fabric would never be rid of the evidence of this day. Shaking her head at the discovery, she rose to her feet to find that she felt... amazing. She had anticipated feeling ill, but in fact she felt rested and energized. Stretching her body, Anna craned her neck to one side and could not help but grin when it cracked twice. Feeling both hungry and thirsty, she looked around the kitchen to find several pairs of eyes had fallen upon her. Oh, how she hated the attention. Every day of her life she tried her best to blend in and not be noticed by the rest of the staff. Most days she succeeded but occasionally her clumsiness got the better of her. Today Anna wished it was only clumsiness that garnered her such attention. With her chin falling nearly to her chest in an attempt to hide her shame, Anna spoke quietly, not even focusing her words towards any particular person.

“I’m hungry and thirsty,” she merely whispered.

Without a reply her colleagues began to move again and Anna listened as someone came nearer. Knowing she looked repulsive Anna instinctively stepped backwards away from whoever it was that approached. Then Anna discovered something amazing.

Retreating, Anna stepped unevenly upon something on the floor. In an attempt to shift her weight off the object, she lost her balance as the item moved. With her ankle rolling beneath her, Anna began to fall. She anticipated her knee giving way as she plummeted to the floor, where she would undoubtedly injure herself further. Instead, however, just as she imagined the impending fall in all of its embarrassing glory, something completely unnatural occurred.

Reacting as if by instinct alone, Anna lowered her body, thereby taking control of her center of gravity. Balancing her weight above the leg with solid footing, Anna leapt into the air high over the head of the woman who approached her carrying a bowl of steaming soup and a mug of water. Twisting in the air, Anna’s red locks created a trail behind her, making it look as if her head were on fire. Repositioning as she fell, Anna landed in a crouched position, spreading her weight across both legs and one arm, like a cat stalking its prey. Taking a moment to realize what exactly had just happened, Anna remained crouched low to the ground, swiveling her head this way and that, taking in her surroundings. Again all eyes were upon her, but she decided quickly that she preferred them like this, rather than if she had fallen and split her head upon the stone floor.