Guardian (Sequel to Fearless)

Chapter Forty

*WARNING -- Gruesome/graphic content.

IMPORTANT A/N -- Seriously guys, read this before you go on! I usually wait a good couple of days between chapters, just to give all of you time to read it, discuss it, and digest it. BUT, I already wrote this and decided to go ahead and post of it. That being said, make sure you've read the last chapter before moving on to this one! At this point, there is importance in every chapter and it would really suck for you to miss some development! Anyhow, I already posted a chapter at midnight (technically, today) but I'm going ahead and posting all of this for you. So make sure you read both!

Food was hard to get if you weren't fast. Cricket knew that with absolute certainty because she wasn't fast anymore. Her belly was round with the parasite she housed. How long had she been trapped --lost-- in these woods? It had been at least two months now. Cricket had lost count of the exact days. And they were chasing her! Chasing her! There were always enemies around. She didn't see them. She could only feel them all around her. She didn't know who they were... but they were chasing her. Cricket knew that too. Paranoia was her ally. Paranoia kept her alive.

She could hide. That's what she was good at. But they were tricky and clever... they wanted to starve her out. They took her food! Deer she'd chase would disappear, they'd catch up all the rabbits in snares and take them all away. At the beginning, Cricket would steal from the snares when she'd gotten hungry enough. But they'd figured it out! They'd always get to the traps before her now and take all the contents within. They took all she had to eat, and she was so ravenous lately with the sucking feeder in her belly. Oh, but they wouldn't take this food. Cricket gripped a makeshift spear in her hands and stared at the deer across the grove. The savage, primal creature she'd become calculated when to throw it, how to throw it. Her stomach growled hungrily at the thought of meat.

More! More! the belly-louse screeched from within. She couldn't ever feed it enough.

Cricket had stopped thinking of the presence within her as a baby anymore. No. It ate too much. Took too much. Asked too much. In her head, Cricket visualized a large worm with teeth was hiding inside her. One day it would eat her from the inside out.

She should have cut it from her when she'd had the chance. But it was too large now. Now, it was a part of her. To get rid of the worm was to die.

Cricket chunked the spear. It flew and hit the target. It wasn't a clean hit. It struck the animal in the side of the belly. A sort of shriek emanated from its throat and it started running. Cricket hissed at the fleeing creature and jumped up to scramble after it. The blood would make a trail for her to follow --but also for others to follow.

Cricket ran as fast as she could. If she wasn't the fastest, she'd go hungry. Something stopped her after a few minutes of running --it was a pain. From within. From the leech. It radiated in the core of her abdomen. She snarled and clutched it tightly. For a moment, there was fear. She'd made it angry, she just knew it. This had been a different kind of pain. It hadn't spawned from hunger.

"I'm gonna feed you," she said, though the words were more of a growl and barely comprehensible. The pain stopped.

She didn't give herself time to think about the new development. All she could think about was her life --how she had to satisfy her hunger.

The deer didn't make it awfully far before it had collapsed on the ground. Cricket stalked up to it. It groaned in pain as it bled all over the forest floor. There was once a time where that sight would sadden Cricket. Not anymore. It was kill or die. Starve or survive. Not breaking eye contact with the panicking thing, she grabbed a large rock from the ground.