Day Six - August

Well, I've managed to write 5,000 words on Blood Lines and finish a short story with another 2,000 words (Beauty is the Beast - which is on FictionPress) so I am fairly on track for the month. A smidge behind but I'm certain that I can catch up now that I've hit my stride.


And here' s a quote I found very inspiring whilst writing Daphne.

“If you bring out the devil within me, the consequences are on your own head.”
- Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby

And a quick excerpt from Blood Lines.

A deer watched me some hundred feet away. It seemed to know, shying away. I shifted my legs, it ran.

I smiled. My heart beat faster in my chest. I stood and ran after it. My shoes crushed the leaves and underbrush. Could I keep up? I could smell it, wet, young. The scent stuck in my nostrils. Something inside me sang.

I took a deep breath, leaping forward, over a log in my path. My stomach cramped, I winced. The pain did not last. I brushed it aside, trying to keep pace with the deer. I felt a smile tug its way across my face. A grin. I laughed. The deer flinched in it’s run.

“Come on!” I shouted. “Run faster!”

I wanted the chase. Not for the deer, for the thrill.

It came again, the pain in my stomach. And then my arms started to tingle, my legs. As though all the hair stood on end. My scalp itched. The world seemed to shrink, it was just me, and the deer. I tore at my clothes, shedding them as I ran.

I jumped again, over the stream that led to the lake. I twisted. My shoulders pushed forward, I fell onto my hands, and then I started to scream. My muscles were rolling under my skin. My teeth broke into my lip and I tasted blood. Something was wrong.

Claws tipped my hands, I dug into the dirt and clenched myself together. It hurt. It all hurt. The sounds and smells were stronger now. Everything alive, moving. I howled. Another joined me, in the distance. I raised my head, scenting the air with a misshapen face.

Erik.

He came out of the trees, gracefully avoiding the obstacles in his way. Even as a man he moved like a wolf. He ran to me, “Daphne, I need you to keep breathing.”

I screamed. “It hurts.”

“I know. You need to push past that.”

“Something is wrong.”

I knew it in my bones as they cracked. Something was so very wrong. I whimpered.

Erik stared for a moment, and then I closed my eyes. I couldn’t watch myself break, it was bad enough having to feel it. I felt him pick me up. I dug my hands into the fabric of his shirt.
“Hold on, Daphne. I’m going to fix this. I’m going to fix this.”

That wasn’t quite as reassuring as he thought it was, but I couldn’t get my vocal chords working around the words. I choked, and then I stopped breathing.