Witch by Jay Mirano (ebook reader with highlight function .txt) 📕

elbows and knees into the ground as she writhed, covering herself in dirt and debris. The fire in her heart was hotter than ever, hotter than the sun it seemed. Her heart was putting up a furious fight against the invading flames, but eventually, it lost. With a whimpering splutter, her heart beat once, twice, and then stopped altogether. With it, Alice's pants ceased, and her entire body was washed with a sublime silence.

***

Alice was dead, she was sure of it. There was no way she could still be living when she had no pulse, no breathing. Surely.

She eased herself into sitting position, taking a moment to register everything that was around her.
Everything was so sharply defined, like she'd been living in a fog her entire life and it had finally cleared.
She could hear the beating of an eagle's wings as it soared through the air, miles above her head.
She could smell the release of pollen as a honey bee tip-toed around the petals of a flower on the other side of the clearing.
There were so many new colours, new smells, new sensations; so many, in fact, that she didn't even have a name for them all.
A breath of wind whispered past her, bringing with it even more scents. On that breeze came the most tantalising aroma she had ever experienced; it was intoxicating, heady. It was beckoning for her, and she needed it more than she'd ever needed anything else before.
This foreign scent ignited the burning in her throat once more, making her splutter with shock. It was persistent, insistent. It needed

to be quenched, but Alice had no idea how she could do that. She suspected that the seducing scent had something to do with the answer, and she took after it, desperate to come to the root of this mystery.
At first, it felt alien to use her legs, like she'd never walked before this day. They trembled under the introduced weight of her body, before melting into comfort and aching to be stretched out. Alice obliged, tearing through the forest like a streak of colour. Despite her speed, her eyes could make out every defined vein on branch's leaf as it brushed passed her face, every splinter in a tree's bark. Her feet threw up plumes of forest stench, and she filled her lungs with it, an action that had once been so familiar once which was now so strange.
As the scent Alice followed intensified, came with it a dull, rhythmic thumping that resounded inside her mind and drove her crazy with thirst. It grew louder and louder with each passing moment, until, finally, Alice came to the source of the noise.
It was a deer, grazing in a patch of grass bathed in a single ray of sunlight. It didn't even raise its head as she approached; her movements were so fluid and elegant that she barely even touched the ground.
She could smell the scent so clearly now, knew that the only thing that kept her away from that intoxicating aroma was the skin that encased the deer's flesh.
And then, her instincts just took over.
She lunged at the deer, an action that would have been undetectable to human eyes. The impact of her knees on its ribs shattered them, splintering its lungs. With a wheezing submission, the deer gave into death.
Alice sunk her teeth into the deer's fur, sending up a wave of gurgling crimson liquid. She drank it hungrily, sighing blissfully as the blood gushed down her throat and soothed the flames there.
After just a few moments, the deer was spent, the entirety of its blood completely drained from its lifeless body. Alice let the corpse fall to the floor with a thud, and the realisation of what she had just done hit her like a wall of bricks.
She had just killed a deer, drunk its blood. Did that make her a... Vampire

?
It was almost too much to accept. She wasn't evil, she wasn't a monster. She didn't want to kill people, as vampires so infamously did.
Without warning, Alice was assaulted by a violent pang of white light, which made her entire body freeze. The blinding light eventually gave way to something else, almost like she was seeing through her eyes but her sight was muted, hazy. What she saw was a blond man, with intense crimson eyes that blazed with fury and betrayal. Something stirred deep within her when she saw this man, almost like longing. She could see this man needed help, needed to be freed from the emotional prison he was in, and Alice knew she was the one that must rescue him.
As soon as it had come, the vision released her, leaving her stunned and gaping for breath. In her former life, Bertie had showed her these visions, but they had never been so crystal clear. In her human life, Bertie had merely whispered in her ear. But now, she could see

everything, know

everything. It was almost as though Bertie was now inside her, a part of her.
Without further adieu, Alice went off in search of the man from her vision, desperation to meet him consuming her whole.

Imprint

Text: Copyrighted to Jay Mirano, 2011
Publication Date: 05-19-2011

All Rights Reserved