Moon Blood (COMPLETE)

Chapter Seventeen: A Question from the Dead

Ruby opened the door.

Neil was sobbing, inconsolable. He fell into her.

"Neil? How did you get here?" They dropped to their knees in the embrace. Neil sniffed into her tank top.

"Help me. I have to run away, or hide or anything. I killed her!"

"Wait, hang on a sec. Who did you kill?"

"I... I didn't know where else to go. I was trying to find you but something happened on the way. I need more than just your help."

"Neil? Neil." She carried him in and they sat on the sofa and pressed her palm to his forehead. "What kind of temperature is that? Wait here,I'll get you a cool cloth. Did you transform on the way here?"

"I ran here and changed in your garden. I left my bindle outside."

Ruby came back with a bowl of water. "Your what? You're sounding delirious."

Neil would have answered if he hadn't passed out in fatigue. The fatigue of running across the moorland, the mental exhaust of what he'd done. It was enough to knock out a grown man. Why now? Surely he would have known. Had he forgotten? Repressed it? He thought of the ribbons barely clinging to the tree outside the school, and wanted to vomit.

"You're still new to transforming, if you change too much you'll end up like you are now. It'll take a few days for it to go down."

"I killed her, I killed her."

"Shhh. Just calm down. You're exhausted."

A cool cloth pressed against his forehead, but he barely felt it. His mind was elsewhere, against his will. He saw Rachel's bloodied body over and over again. Stacked atop each other, repeating endlessly around him. Blood cascaded in heavy waterfalls down her legs and pooled at his feet. He hungered for her, for her blood and her flesh.

Neil passed out.

Do you like me, Neil?

Neil felt the night air blow past him in the moonless night and he shivered. He was in an alleyway, his hand up someone's shirt. Rachel's shirt. He looked at her.

She had no face. Do you like me, Neil? She repeated. The voice seemed to come from her very body as she had no lips. He recoiled, but didn't let her go.

"Rachel?" It sounded like a stupid question.

Do you like me, Neil?

Neil swallowed, and answered truthfully. "I do... I did."

Do you like me, Neil?

It was then her fingers dug into him like claws, Neil flinched but she seemed to cling harder.

Do you like me, Neil? DO YOU LIKE ME, NEIL?

She grew, her arms bristling with fur and her mouth extending outward into a muzzle. It opened and clamped over his own, silencing him despite his muffled protests. She wrapped him in a bear hug before he could struggle free and squeezed, pushing every last breath of oxygen from him. Neil could barely move, let alone protest or even scream for help.

Neil? Can you hear me?

He wheezed but his lungs were on fire. Only a strangled gasp came out of his mouth. Rachel loomed over his feverish body.

Lily, can you come home? Lowell's here and he's got a burning fever. I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

Neil wailed and tried, maybe for the last time, to break free of Rachel's iron grip. Hands that melted and flitted in and out of his vision where black spots were forming. He tried to breathe but nothing came of it. He was certain he was going to die.

Lowell.

A pause. A space to breathe in. Neil stood in the grey space, looking around for the origin of the noise. Rachel no longer held him, and a cool, muted breeze kissed his hot cheeks.

Lowell, it's me.

He recognised the voice, and walked towards it. A light was blooming in the middle distance that was intoxicating, enticing. His feet moved even without prompt.

Within that light Neil saw a figure. A silhouette he knew and wanted and needed. With hands that refused to stop shaking, he reached towards it. Even if it just looked like a smokey mirage, it was worth chasing and trying to reach. Neil couldn't see or feel Rachel - or maybe it was just his own guilt pressing on him - and didn't want to lose this chance to escape this place. Maybe it was his mind, or he was in a fever dream.

"Ruby."

Neil opened his eyes to see Ruby with tears running down her cheeks. All bravado gone, he just saw her as a woman, a person looking after him and caring for him. Neil's teenage worry and persona crumbled before the sight, and without even stopping to think he put his arm around Ruby and pulled her close. She didn't protest, and reciprocated.

"I killed Rachel, on the night I must have transformed for the first time. I don't remember what happened, I must have been drunk on her blood or something." Neil's words fell out of him in a barely comprehensible manner. "I still killed her though, whether I was in my right mind or not."

"Shhh, you're still feverish right now. Just rest."

"I need to turn myself in. They're still looking for her because they never found a body... Did I eat... I can't even say it."

*****

Neil slept for several days after that. Luckily, it was the half term break and he had spoken to his mother that he was staying a few days at Ruby's house.

Ruby stayed with him, keeping his forehead cool with damp cloths and watching the windows in case Hettie tracked them down. She looked up as Lily came in and shook the rain droplets off her fur.

"Any luck?" asked Ruby.

Lily had already transformed with barely a shudder and patting down her naked body by the towel they usually kept by the door. She shook her head. "I found the alley where they had been last, and definitely there was a scent of blood but not that much. Not nearly enough for someone to sit there and devour a whole person. It smelt like only a little blood was spilt."

"You think he bit her and she ran away?"

Lily shrugged. "It's possible. Anything's possible. There's not enough evidence to make a good guess; all I can tell you is what I deduced with my nose, and it's been months since she disappeared."

Ruby looked at Neil, who slumbered softly and his brow had lost that frown he usually wore. She stroked his hair and smiled. "I wonder," she mused to herself. "I wonder if there's any way we can find this Rachel, dead or otherwise."