The smell was intoxicating. I started to salivate enough that it dripped from my mouth and collected on the floor as I slid forward. A growling noise rumbled up from my belly. I was filled with a violent need.
I approached the platter and grabbed the food. Meat. I groaned in ecstasy as my teeth tore into the flesh. It was so rare that warm blood fell from my mouth and slid down my neck in rivulets. It felt so filling, so satisfying. I ate single-mindedly in greed until my hands reached out and there was nothing more on the plate. I gripped the platter and brought it up to my face. My tongue shot out, collecting leftover juices.
“Brandon,” Caspian said in a measured, calm voice. I groaned as the taste of tangy juice coated my tongue, a little oily from fats. I didn’t respond to Cas, couldn’t. I needed to lick every part of the platter to find every last taste of the meat. My tongue slid around the edges and trailed the rim before sweeping over the back of the platter.
“Your tongue…“ Caspian said as I swallowed the taste of gamey meat and blood. My tongue slid back out to try and find more juice. Caspian’s words finally permeated my head. I realized my tongue was hanging from my mouth nearly a foot and ended in a pointed edge. I jerked it back into my mouth and dropped the platter suddenly. It clanked to the ground as I shuffled backwards.
Ava groaned and I spun towards her, forgetting my issues as I shuffled closer, watching as she began to wake up. I needed to get her out of there. She needed protecting. The other two could protect themselves but she was different. She was softer, kinder. She was smaller.
It drew to my need to protect. I didn’t know how to live my life without having someone to take care of. I’d been doing it my whole life. I’d raised my sister while our parents were off being useless.
Eventually, my sister hadn’t needed me though. She graduated high school and got a full ride to college. That’s when I started to get closer to Matthias. He had been sensitive in a way; overly attuned to others and concerned about keeping the peace.
Fuck, I couldn’t really believe he was dead even if I could remember with crystal clarity the way his skin split at his neck and the taste of dirt in my mouth when I dove on the ground next to him. I wasn’t sure it would ever really sink in that he simply didn’t exist in this world anymore. How could he just not be here anymore? What was I supposed to do?
Everything had been a clusterfuck since then. I was barely staying grounded but Ava needed more protection than she could get.
There was something about her that seemed to draw out trouble. She needed me. I remembered her clinging to me, crying the day before. I remembered her kissing me. It felt right. I had gripped her tighter and made dumb fucking promises, feeling full again. Like I had a purpose, and that together we could recover from what had happened.
But now she was in a fucking cage.
“Ava?” I called as her eyes began to flutter and her face pinched up in displeasure.
“Fucking fuck,” she groaned, her hand going to her head.
“Are you okay?” I asked, reaching through the bars and touching her fingers. She jerked her hand back from my touch and popped her eyes open. Black shone out at me, no whites at all.
“Ava?” I asked.
“No,” she grumbled, her voice deeper than normal. She pulled herself up to sit, her black eyes swiveling around the room.
“Yeah, yeah you’re pissed. I get it,” she huffed, shooting an unamused glare at Mothman. His antennae straightened and the fur around his neck puffed up. I looked over at Caspian in confusion. He looked torn, his hands gripping the bars tightly, his eyes full of concern as he looked at Ava.
Mothman looked at me and began to sign.
“That’s not Ava.”
“What?”I signed back in confusion. He shook his head, red eyes sweeping back towards her. There was something she told me yesterday but everything was foggy. She’d been talking to herself.
“Ava, whatever is going on is fine. Everything is going to be okay,” Caspian said. She barked out a gruff laugh and made an amused expression.
“Ava is sleeping at the moment but I’ll let her know when she comes back around.” The timbre of the voice was a man’s—entirely different and likely impossible.
“Please, tell me what’s going on,” Caspian begged. “You told me before there was something inside you.” Ava gave him a scathing look and then ignored him.
“What are you?” I asked. Ava’s face slid to me, her black eyes taking me in.
“Me?” She leaned forward, wrapping her hands around the bars as she eyed the skull mask. “Boy, what are you?” My hands went to the mask, feeling around the edges. When I got to the long mouth of the deer skull I slid my fingers past the teeth, finding my own mouth. Tentatively, I stuck my tongue out, touching the sides to make sure it was real. It just kept spilling out longer and longer. I snatched my hand back out.
“Fuck!” I yelled before shooting a pointed look at Ava. “Who are you?”
“My name is Makwa,” he said, a sly smile sliding across Ava’s face. All the expressions and movements Makwa made were different from how Ava held herself. It was easy to conceptualize that this wasn’t her.
“You’re the climber from the caves,” Caspian bit out, looking enraged.
“Well aren’t you clever,” Makwa complimented. “And yes, that was me.” His black eyes swept back to me and pressed his face against the cage. “Please help me. I’m stuck. Please,” he said with a fake expression of fear. Rage bubbled up inside me.
“You fucker,” I spat out. He leaned back and smiled.
