A Carnival Row short story✔️ Miss Green

3

Oh Elliott! I miss you so much! When will I see you again? I am not as strong as you think I am. I can't wait to be human like you, but I can't stand being away from you. Love consumes me. I should have been the one going to Witchveldt looking for the Grantor. Look at what I've done. Hunger devastates me. My cravings are getting worse and guilt is eating away from me. My Witchveldt's elixir will soon be empty. How will I hide my triangular head and my bold scalp without it? Oh, Darling! Something happened!

This morning, Sister Melissa came to check on me:

— "Oh Madonna Lyne, what a pale and greenish complexion you have! Poor child, don't you want to eat at least a bit of soup? "

Soup, I thought. But why can't they understand I needed some meat? I took the bowl she offered me and emptied it all at once.

—"Wow, you were hungry." She smiled. "Well, I suppose you don't feel shopping for groceries? I need vegetables..."

— "Yes!", I jumped on my legs. "I need fresh air. I need to keep my mind busy, please take me with you. "

"All right, my child. Let's go together. But stay near me. You know the row is plenty of those creatures the Great Martyre has not created."

I am so fed up with their Martyrs faith. Can't they understand, I have my own God? The Lord Nature...

So, we went to the row. The main street was packed with hawkers, vagabonds, prostitutes and all sort of Fae, policemen carefully watched. Once in a while a carriage rode by,  transporting a rich Lady's handmaid to a specific store.  We stopped at the creamery to buy milk and cheese, and while we were on our way to the grocer's, we heard the crying of a baby in distress. Screams came from an  intersecting backstreet. So we entered the dark alley and discovered, a small human baby crying in a basket, right on the pavement where any horde of fauns could crush him. The alley was probably very little used with regard to the piles of rubbish and debris that littered the way. We tried to distinguish whoever would run away, but clouds were overcasting the sky, and we couldn't see much.

Then the wind rose and drove away the clouds. Sister Melissa inspected the basket. The child seemed to be a boy, but all we could see was his face and arms shaking. Someone had wrapped a thick yellow and black blanket around him so he was not cold. He looked like a little daemon with curly blond air to me but obviously Sister Melissa did not see him this way:

— "Oh, sweetheart, don't cry. We'll find you a home. Don't be afraid. We'll take care of you." His large blue beads lit up, and he stopped screaming a few instants. Then his chubby little arms waved in anger.

— "He must be hungry." She said. "I will never understand those parents who abandon their child," she lamented.

Although he looked adorable at first sight, there was something about him. I could smell he was no human baby. At least, not entirely.

— "All right, as it happens I have some milk. Let's try to see if I can feed you some. It will not be easy as I don't have a proper baby bottle but let's try",she told the baby while she looked for the milk in the shopping bag.

— "Don't stare at him, like that" she told me. "He's a cute baby boy who needs to be loved. He is a creature of our Great Martyre!"

She couldn't be so wrong. But I don't know why I could not move nor say anything.

As she grabbed the baby, the blanket fell down, revealing a very long abdomen covered with eight legs on each side. At the end of what looked more like a centipede, laid a segmented tail. She was not fast enough to avoid the sting in her breast and she fell down with the creature in her arms. The venom quickly reached her heart, and she died. Laid on Sister Melissa's body, the half-human creature started crawling away.

I really liked Sister Melissa, and I was starving. With no hesitation, in a lightning movement of my forelegs, I snapped it up, and devoured it in a few minutes. It was only when I was finished that I started to panic. I heard a noise and turned my head over my shoulder. Hopefully, no one had seen us. Oh, poor Sister Melissa! It was only justice; you understand. But how would I ever be able to justify what happened? I had just eaten the evidence! So, I ran away.