Flesh: Chapter 1 by Nicola Collings (best novel books to read txt) 📕

                     “Then, it seems there is a conflict brewing. One between a leader and her shadows. I wonder, will she be strong enough to control them, or will they control her?”

                     Luna looked at David. Then she looked at the fight. She let go of his hand and descended the stairs, towards the centre of the ring. Leather-clad men and women turned to look at her, bowed and then moved out of her way, giving her a clear path towards the centre. The dubstep track died down to a low mumble.

                     The fight between the girls stopped abruptly as she approached. David stood on the balcony, looking down.

                     “May I remind you,” Luna shouted, “that, although we share this world with another species, the knowledge of our existence would be catastrophic! This is not our world to do with as we wish!”

                     She looked at the two bloody girls and sighed, feeling little pity and more sorrow for their imminent deaths.

                     “Make sure you dispose of the bodies, properly! No more of this nonsense!” Luna turned and strode away, back up onto the balcony and into an old VIP lounge. She heard the music blare up again, and low mumblings, before screams and the sound of smacking lips.

                     “That wasn’t smart.” Came David’s voice from the doorway, before he closed the door and the sounds of the club room was muffled.

                     “It needed to be said. I am older. I know what needs to be done.”

                     “Yes, but they are younger and they think they know best. They don’t respect their elders, like I.”

                     “Unfortunately. What do you think they’ll do to me if I carry on?”

                     David sat on a sofa, looking up at Luna. “Re-educate you. Torture you. But, there is nothing they can do that has been done to you before, is there?”

                     Luna sat, refusing to gaze into her past, before the Purging of her species. “No.”

                     Part 2: Scottish Countryside.

                     Jesse sat bolt upright, breathing hard, the bed cloths soaked in sweat. He’d not had a dream like that for six months!

                     “Baby, is everything ok?” Fran stirred next to him, reaching for the bedside light.

                     Jesse swung his legs out of bed. “I...I had another dream...”

                     “Another one? About the game tomorrow, or...? Wait, another dream? You mean, large-scale prophetic dream?”

                     Jesse looked round, nodding.

                     “Well...what was it?” Fran’s voice turned grave. She sat up and shuffled over the bed, taking his sweating hand.

                     “A shadow. Well...no, lots of them. Different from the other dreams. Their wide awake! Their leader, I think they’re about to perform a Cleanse!”

                     Fran made a sharp intake of breath.

                     “I saw her, a shadow, she travels across countries. I saw her in Edinburgh.”

                     Fran took his shoulders. “We have to warn someone!”

                     Jesse looked at her, his grey eyes suddenly fearful. “But, you know what’ll happen if I go back! They didn’t believe me last time, they’re not going to this time!”

                     “Just because you prophesised an event that didn’t take place doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. This dream has come about because of the first dreams! If they’d have stopped it, then we wouldn’t be here now. This could be proof that you were right! You predict a shadow coming to Edinburgh, when it happens, they’ll see your right!” she smiled.

                     “I’ve never been wrong...”

                     “Exactly.”

                     “But, how do we make them see?”

                     “Did you get a time, or a place?”

                     “No. But it was snowing.”

                     “Great! I’ll go check the weather forecast! I’ll go into town to an internet cafe!” Fran’s face lit up. Jesse could see how badly she wanted them to be accepted back into the colony, but he didn’t want to drench her hopes with the fact that they just wouldn’t believe him.

                     “There’s something else too. A girl, pale as the moon, clad in leather. She’s a shadow. In bad shape, strangely. She looked...broken? She was crawling up the steps of the cathedral.”

                     As Fran stood to get dressed, she bent down, cupped his face and kissed him. “We’ll be back where we belong in no time! You’ll see!”

                     Jesse lay back in his bed, thinking back six months...

                     Blackness...

                     A dark field with grass. Behind him stood the city of Athens. Pillars rose around him. The grass turned black with the gust of cold wind that Jesse knew he would never forget.

                     The light of the city was fading, he felt himself weaken. The other lights weren’t with him any longer. They left him. Alone. Except for Fran.

                     The shadows thickened. White figures appeared from them, many, sleepy, yawning, naked. Before him came a girl. Black, curly hair. The leader. The oldest.

                     Her face the colour of the moon.

                     They came from the shadows, slowly opening their eyes and realising before them stood the world.

                     The shadows would awake and the lights would leave.

                     Only half of this statement came to pass. Or did it?

                     The lights had gone to Athens, and found nothing. Or had they? Something wasn’t right. Jesse was sure of it. He’d never been wrong. Had they not looked hard enough?

                     It was 9:00 AM before Fran returned with new of weather. 5 days till snow was expected in Scotland. Jesse breathed a sigh of relief. 5 days for him to prepare himself for the return. If there was one place he wanted to go so badly, it was back to Edinburgh.

                                                                                                *

                     Athens:

                     Luna shifted awake in her bed. It wasn’t a proper bed. A thick mattress layered with duvets and pillows. It was the one soundproof room in the derelict venue; the old VIP lounge still bearing some of its sophisticated fruits, sofas lining the walls, an old bar, enough room to fit a bed and two arm chairs and a coffee table probably scavenged from a dumping ground somewhere in Athens. She stared at the peeling ceiling and gazed into the darkness, feeling completely...

                     “You’ve been asleep for a long time.”

                     Luna looked over to where the armchairs stood, seeing David’s pale face beneath his blond 80s hair. The room was pitch dark, no windows, no light. It felt warm, like home.

                     “How long?” she asked, looking back up at the ceiling.

                     “Over 12 hours. Can you get up?”

                     Luna winced at the thought of getting out of bed.

                     “Why would I want to? I’m tired.”

                     “I thought so. When was the last time you fed?”

                     Luna sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t want to feed.”

                     David stood. “Look, there’s risk of exposure and then there’s starving yourself! You need to feed.”

                     Luna turned over and sat up. “I’m fine!”

                     David sighed; she could sense him shaking his head. “I hate it when you’re stubborn like this.”

                     Luna stood and dressed. “Is it night?”

                     “Yes, but it is almost day.”

                     “I’m going out. I need air.”

                     “I thought you said you were tired.”

                     “I am. Fresh air free from the stench of human blood will help me wake up.”

                     “But it’s almost day, almost time to go back to bed. And anyway, does human blood not sound like an appealing breakfast dish?”

                     Luna turned, piercing David with a glare that made him flinch in a way she hadn’t seen him flinch for eons.

                     “I’m going out, and nothing you can say or do will stop me.”

                     “No, it won’t.”

                     The streets of Athens were drenched in the kind of darkness that had just passed it’s peak. The darkest part of the night had only just passed and the darkness was beginning to lift. Luna felt herself lift with it. There was almost no one around and she was thankful for that. She could think without having to listen to the hungry thoughts and emotions of her colony.

                     She hated the position she was in. Not metaphorically, literally! If only some of her predecessors had survived the Purge or the confines of their own slumber, then maybe she would be the one looking up to an older face.

                     The recklessness of her followers was a weight on her shoulders that cut into her skin and made her bleed.

                     It would have been easier if they’d never have awoken.

                     She rounded a corner onto another cobbled backstreet, finding herself surrounded by bin bags, all manner of trash and junk on either side. Some of the dark shadows of bin bags twitched. Luna could feel through the shadows that she was not alone. The eyes of the homeless peered out at her sleepily, some hungrily.

                     As she neared the end of the street, one of them spoke.

                     “Our for a late night stroll, honey?” it was a man’s voice, by the sounds of it quite old. She didn't need to turn to know he was 56, been on the streets for around a decade and had so far, raped 3 young females and drank more booze that 10 times his body weight. She also knew he had a boner.

                     “I might be? Want to join me?” she replied, formulating a plan.

                     The man stood. “Well, that’s an offer I can’t refuse, now can I?” he slurred in Greek.

                     She could smell puke, alcohol, body odour; the foul stench of someone who thrived in his own greases and didn’t care who he contaminated along the way to his own sense of joy.

                     Luna looked at him, no one would miss him. No one would care.

                     “You really are a sorry excuse for a human.” She stated, more to herself than him.

                     “Bitch,” the man retaliated. He reached out for her shoulder. “I’ll show you who’s the real hoe here.” He pushed her onto her knees. Without thinking, she grabbed his crotch, shadows racing to her hand, turning her fingers to long, sharp points that impaled him on the spot! Before he could scream, she stood and grabbed his throat with her other hand, ripping it from his neck. He looked at her in horror and pain, blood bubbling from his body.

                     She pushed him to the floor, where the shadows twisted the melted, holding his arms. She straddled him, licking her hands of the blood, feeding off the pain and the horror.

                     She bit and ripped the flesh off his ribs as the life slowly drained from his body.

                     She hated feeding this way.

                     For her, it used to be memories she would feed upon. It was what gave human’s nightmares; the shadows sneaking through the dark to sleeping humans and forcing their subconscious to replay bad memories, bad feelings, thoughts, emotions, everything that had been a negative influence. Feeding this way at night was what caused nightmares. It was safe.

                     Now the shadows were awake again, it was the joy and the intensity of forcing someone to feel immense pain and horror. It filled you up. It gave you the most satisfaction. It was an adrenaline rush. It was the method that felt so good, lasted for so long and gave the shadows such a high.

                     It was also their downfall.

                     Luna was so hungry, that she could not help but let herself indulge.

                     But now, Luna flew through the streets, one ball of shadows, unseen by the humans of the night, feeling her freedom rush past her face, cold on her skin and fresh in her lungs.

                     And that was when she felt it; the sound of fighting, the colours of greys, black and whites and the feelings of a lone shadow, drunk on darkness and blood- the pure white of something else.

                     A light.

                     Luna approached the battle, staying concealed in the shadows, watching from above the narrow alley way. The shadow was one of her’s, she knew it’s mind. It was from her colony alright. The light it was fighting was a girl, her skin was a chocolate brown and her hair was a lion’s main, full of froth and fight. Despite her small figure