Veiled Demon

With a flutter of lashes and an avalanche of flakes that brushed frozen kisses down her cheeks, she awoke. A white landscape broken up by straggling trees lay before her. Her entire body lie covered with the white, as if she'd been buried with it.

She blinked away the collecting snowflakes. The forest was silent, but as she pushed up to her palms, doves soared up from treetops and disappeared into the white sky with a flurry. The only noise was a distant roaring inside of her, a hunger.

Where am I? She wondered, looking around. Then, as she caught sight of her cascade of black hair, her brows furrowed. Who am I?

Everyone knew their name. It was a given. But she, the girl with the roaring inside of her, couldn't remember anything of her life before. There was an ache in her gums and when she lifted a tentative, trembling hand to touch them, her finger came back with blood.

A vague memory surfaced, too blurry for her to make out, but she understood. Something horrible had happened to her the night before.

The girl with no name, Monster she called herself, pushed up to her feet. At first she swayed, her body feeling a lot lighter than she had expected. Monster didn't know where she was going but surely, she'd find shelter. A home.

As she went on her way, the forest seemed to stretch endlessly. That or, with the way the roaring was growing louder and threatening to drown out every other sense, she was moving too slow. The aching in her gums spread up through her scalp, down her neck and burned ice-cold over her entire being.

Hours or maybe minutes passed before she came upon a stream. The water fell from a bundle of caramel colored rocks, surrounded by bushes of rainberries, their ruby red bundles matching the trailing cloak crowning her shoulders.

Monster's eyes followed the stream and locked on to the small, honey colored baby deer lapping up the water. She took a few steps forward, her gaze tracking on the animal's neck. The way it moved with each swallow. Without realizing, she'd taken another three steps forward. Monster was so lost in the elongated throat, the burning within her own, that she was clusmy. A twig snapped beneath her booted foot and the deer's head snapped up, black eyes locking on her.

She halted as she stared into the eyes. The roaring was so loud, she'd missed the voice in the back of her mind begging her to stop. Now, she did stop. Monster didn't want to kill. She didn't want to sink her fangs into its neck, to feel it's body writhing beneath her, to taste the terror as its crimson life-force flooded into her-

The deer shot forward, scuttling to get its hooves beneath it as it sprinted from her. She shot forward too, only to catch herself on one of the trees. The urge to chase was potent in the ways her muscles locked up, preparing to spring forward.

Stop, the faint voice in her called, this isn't you!

But who am I, if not this? Monster replied. There was no response.

Taking deep, long breathes, Monster released the tree. She forced herself to bend to the stream and drink as her body yearned to chase the deer. And when she was done, the burning in her throat not even slightly abated, she rose and continued on her path.

Monster spoke to that voice as she walked, trying to reason with it.

You weren't evil. You loved, you cared, it said.

"But this is me now," the blood-crazed Monster reasoned, "maybe we should accept it."

No, the voice answered, it's tone hard like worked steel.

Monster's lips pressed thin and she glared down her path. The snow fell heavy now, whipping and whirling around her. Hours passed and the voice grew smaller until finally, Monster could hear it no more and she was racing through the forest, blind in her bloodlust.

"June."  A voice called. Monster froze, trying to decipher where it came from. When it came again, her ears perked, "June."

The wind blew, a scent like lavender and peony brushing her nose along with the heady red. Monster's lips curled back. It was a voice outside of herself, a human girl's.

Monster raced towards her, the roaring thundering in her head as snow flew up in waves at her feet. A red haze filled her vision. Her hunger was so blinding she nearly missed the girl who whirled towards her.

"June?" She croaked, black hair cut short to her tan shoulders, doe eyes round as she took in the monster. The girl jerked back a step but it was too late and Monster was upon her, muffling the screams as she dug her teeth into her smooth throat.

The girl's plump body jerked frantically beneath her, fear potent in her blood. It drove Monster into a frenzy. The world narrowed to that warm throat, to the river of red flowing freely from it and into Monster's mouth. It tasted of love, terror, innocence. It sent images skittering across Monster's vision.

In them, the girl was always with her. Smiling, laughing. Sometimes with a furrow between her brows as the hazy sound of them arguing filled the room. Thick, gentle fingers running through Monster's hair, a soft lilting voice filling her ears.

More and more of the memories infiltrated her mind until she tore away from the girl violently.

"Holly!" The voice inside of her cried. Monster repeated the name, the word tumbling from her wet lips as she watched the girl fall back onto the snow, honey eyes glazed and skin like ice.

"Holly," Monster - no - June said. She fell to her knees, the world trembling around her. The roaring was gone and left in its place was a thudding ache. Finally, she knew who she was, and all it had taken was the cold, heartless murder of the one person in her life who'd never failed to offer her the sun's healing rays from her own two hands.

Ice trailed down her cheeks and she sniffed. "Holly." Taking her limp hand and lying down in the snow beside her, June awaited her own cruel death.