Chapter Sixteen

“You have to be more careful with your emotions,” The man’s hands felt gentle as they cleaned her bloody arms, the cloth quickly darkening from how much had left her body. It burned when it came across her open wounds but he was careful not to hurt her. “Your human form is fragile without any flesh to maintain it.”

“I’m sorry. I heard everyone talking about the police and the missing people. It just made me lose control,” She winced as he finished disinfecting her wounds. It looked like someone had taken a razor and continuously dug into her arms until the cuts were beyond help. This was a normal sight for their kind but it still scared her every time it happened to her. “Are the missing person cases the same as what happened to Lea?”

About thirty people had gone missing over the last four months. After Lea, another ten were added to that list making the town’s panic worsen. A curfew had been set for any children under the age of eighteen and cops from all over the state were pooling into the town. Kaeo was scared, she didn’t understand how this could have gotten so bad and how they would escape if any leads traced to their involvement.

This wasn’t normal. Humans were their food but that didn’t mean they could treat them like a buffet. She was frightened with the realization that Lea may have been possessed to serve a similar fate. Her eyes teared up some more as the thought of so many innocent people being eaten or worse, losing their control over their bodies filled her mind.

“We’ve theorized that they are. Your aunt and I have been in contact with the other clan leaders in town about the recent disappearances and if it continues we’ll be forced to intervene.” Zachary helped her out of the bathroom as they walked to her bedroom.

Her eyes darkened as she felt her conflicted feelings grow. “I thought the other clans didn’t like to be in contact with us? And what do you mean by intervening? What can we do without the others in the town noticing.” Each clan was selfish and greedy like the rest of their kind. Hearing that they were willingly working with Zachary and auntie was too insane to believe.

“If humans continue to disappear, we lose the ability to work in the shadows to catch our prey. And without any prey to eat our forms will fall apart. They have less hunting ground with the authorities making their neighborhoods a crime scene, so they need us.” He answered, watching her carefully for a reaction.

The news that the other clans, otherwise known as families, might get closer to them made her feel ill. They were ten times worse than Momo, her mother, and her aunt combined in terms of aggression. It didn’t help that her family in particular were awful at maintaining a decent relationship with the groups.

Neither side liked one another. She was surprised no one had tried to kill someone in one of the many petty squabbles they had. Kaeo hoped that it never came to that, but with the situation, they were in it just might.

They needed fresh flesh for the best boost in agility, strength, and durability. They looked like humans but were crafted from some depth of hell to crave their insides. She wished there was some other way but she knew the clans had to work together. Not everyone could stomach human food like she could, almost vomited from the smell. And knowing that there would be authorities from all over the state made leaving the house to hunt a struggle.

“They’ll only speak to me if they ever come to our home,” She flushed realizing that she must have shown her fears without knowing. “The clans know that children are off-limits in any event that we have to get physical. And if they come here it’s only because things went south.”

Kaeo frowned, looking down at her ruined arms with her heart pounding in her chest. “But you shouldn’t have to go that far. I don’t want you to get hurt because of something that doesn’t even involve us. We didn’t kidnap those people.” If things went south, she could only think that meant a bunch of armed humans shooting at them and pinning them to the ground as they were handcuffed.

“But we do have to make peace with the clans who are more involved with the kidnappings. Whatever or whoever is doing this needs to have their power taken from them. It's our job to keep humans unaware of our kind and remain in contact with the clans.” She sighed knowing he was right.

“You should rest, I’ll come to get you when your meal is done.” He helped her go to her room and wait for a meal of flesh which she dreaded. But she felt too weak to protest this request, the man was trying to help her after all. It would be cruel to deny him this when he had spent the past month or so watching over her with care and dedication.

Hours later that following night, she stared at her phone with a broken expression. A video played showing people from outside the town reporting on the cases. Some of their comments were insensitive, calling the victims nothing more than country hicks in a backwater town. A lot of people hadn’t ever heard of the area until the disappearances hit the news. Others asked if the FBI would start to investigate and if it was actually someone trafficking the victims.

She set her phone down, unable to watch the comments pile on about the victims. It was hard for her to sleep with everything she had seen. When she turned on her phone the first thing she saw was a headline stating that another teenager had gone missing. A fourteen-year-old had gone to walk their dog during the morning before their mother served breakfast. When they weren’t home by the time everyone had eaten, their mother grew worried. Neighbors heard her screams minutes later when she found the family dog’s corpse.

The poor pit bull had been torn to shreds, their guts spilled onto the trail a few feet from the house. There was no sign of her child anywhere in the gore, besides a blood-soaked shoe. It was torn just like the dog with bits of its fabric strewn across the grass. Terrified the mother had her youngest child call the police as she ran around screaming her daughter’s name. No one had seen anything, not even the girl leaving her house with the pitbull in the first place.

Kaeo was sick seeing the pictures of the crime scene that had been leaked onto true crime forums by a neighbor. She had never seen a dog turn into a mess of flesh, ears and guts and eyeballs piled up as if its killer was waiting for the mother to find it. She cried when hearing that the poor woman was hospitalized from everything she had seen. They connected the fourteen-year-old to other missing person’s cases easily and now the hunt was on.

The girl was so small, she could crush her if they encountered one another. In the pictures they showed of her this empathized. School dances, family holidays, and every photo her family had were used for the missing person's posters. Her lip trembled as she tried to control her emotions. She feared for her, knowing that whoever took her would harm her.

‘She isn’t much older than me,’ The pictures became too much and people began to demand they be taken down for the mother’s sake. Kaeo was too disgusted to do anything but report them. ‘They took a middle schooler. A baby.’

She paced around her bedroom wishing that the disappearances would stop already. It was disgusting to her, the way they were taking people from their families without care. Children were losing their parents, mothers were losing their husbands and friends were losing their lives. The streets ran with the blood of innocents and no one knew what to do. She knew her kind saw humans as lesser but this was something she had never witnessed.

Everyone could be found out due to this. Before Lea could wake up they would turn apart by the body count that continued to rise. Kaeo sniffled as she went into her bathroom and was faced with the sorry sight that was her body. She was growing increasingly thin even with the meal Zachary had force-fed her. It was an awkward situation with his hand feeding her despite silent protests. She had been too scared to reject his offer and simply sat still as he prepared the food.

Touching her arms, she winced from not only how skinny they had become but from pain. She was healing slowly, the flesh not enough for her broken body. It was hard to stomach but it was a worthy punishment for her failures. The pain would only be temporary and her appearance could be worked on with time. Shivering she turned away from her mirror, catching sight of her thinning hair as she did so. The lack of nutrition was attacking every part of her body, including her mind.

Everything was becoming a weight on her shoulders that was impossible to bear. There was no way she could run away from what had happened, Lea was in the manor comatose. Visiting her left no feelings of relief or remorse. Instead, she wanted to fall to her knees and cry until someone finally closed the curtains. Seeing the seventeen-year-old full of tubes days after her rescue was like a slap in the face. No one knew when Lea would wake up, the transition period was irregular for a case like her’s.

It could be months or even a year before Lea woke up. And then, she doubted them reuniting would go any better than the teenager’s encounter with her cousin. She wanted the screaming and hatred to come as soon as possible. Having to wait every waking hour for the news of the girl’s state was like a ticking time bomb. Her emotions wanted to erupt but she found herself unable to no matter how hard she wanted or wished. All she could do was sit and wait.

Kaeo wondered if she should communicate these thoughts to someone, but there wasn't anyone there. Her mother was still giving her the cold shoulder. She refused to speak to her and didn't bother to read her messages, even her emails. Her stepmother acted more or less the same no doubt wanting to appease her mother with her actions. Zachary cared for her but she doubted he'd be able to help her properly deal with her emotions.

Still, she had to urge to vomit the words out before curling into a ball. She swallowed a lump in her throat as she grabbed her phone and held it to her chest. No amount of self-help forums and teen-friendly mental health groups could heal her pain. She wanted to text someone, anyone. She just needed to vent out her emotions and cry and throw up. All she wanted was for the guilt she had been bottling up to finally be free.

But she doubted she’d ever been free from the blood on her hands. The meal Zachary fed her had been a living, breathing human being. She had eaten someone’s family member that her family had butchered. Livestock. That’s what her father called them apparently. She was incapable of remembering them as anything but human. The others were so used to it by now that it didn’t even phase them to kill someone for their dinner.

Even Zachary, who had been human once, wasn't bothered by it. This frustrated her as she thought of the missing girl and Lea. What would they feel if they had been treated as nothing but livestock? A meal waiting to be slaughtered, given no sedatives but a gag and restraints. And for all she knew, this girl had already been devoured. Her mother would never find out what happened to her.

‘The last memory she has of her daughter is linked to that gruesome image.’ Kaeo prayed that night, but she knew no one would answer.

***

When she woke up the next morning everything felt ten times worse. Her bedroom was dark save for the sunlight coming out of the window. Sitting up she looked around, feeling unnerved from the dream she had just been in. They type of dream that could also be seen as a nightmare. A dream full of flames and ash clogging her throat and sinuses. The flames had licked up her dress, catching fire instantly.

She had been trapped somewhere, with someone’s arms around her. A person with long, white hair draped over them and went over her shoulders. Their hair was also on fire as she fought to escape. Her skin was hot as she panted, remembering the mysterious figure in the fog. Whoever they were, they refused to let her go even as the chaos consumed them both. She rubbed at her eyes feverishly trying to push aside the memories of such a troublesome dream.

The dream was even worse as she remembered the night before. The crime scene photos, Lea being comatose still, her mother ignoring her. The blood that was on her hands and the news of the other clans. It was too much to handle, making her feel sick to her stomach. Stumbling, she ran over to a nearby trashcan and vomited into it. She could feel all her anxiety bubbling over as the taste of stomach aside sat on the tip of her tongue uncomfortably.

And with this, she tasted ash as she finished vomiting. This scared her as in her dream the smoke had filled her lungs as she screamed. Her mouth had become sore and black as she was forced to inhale. Eventually, the smoke became too much in her dream and she lost consciousness. Kaeo coughed into her sleeve, snot running from her nose as she felt ill. It wasn’t just physically but emotionally she was drained of any energy she once had.

‘I need to talk to mom.’ Even if her mother was enraged with her decision, she’d have to answer her messages if she realized how much pain she was in. Right now she just needed her mom. Her mother was the only one who could comfort her.

She hacked up some mucus, spitting it into the trash can as she got up to clean her face. She didn’t need to look in a mirror to see how far she had fallen. Her body ached while she debated going back to bed momentarily. There was a part of her fearing another nightmare but another was practically begging to rest. Her muscles were sore from tossing and turning the majority of the night, along with her throat hurting from getting sick.

The two sides entered a fearsome debate as she grabbed her phone. She hesitated to turn it on, knowing that the situation could have gotten worse. And texting her mom was also a risk. Her mother wasn’t cruel but when she felt betrayed she made sure you knew it. So she might continue to ignore her messages by not bothering to check what she said. This would destroy her if it happened but she had to try and tell her mom what was going on.

Turning on her phone, she began to text her mother but was forced to stop. Her notifications flooded in with more news on the missing person case. Her fingers trembled above her incomplete sentence as she tried to catch her breath. She was frozen from all of the notifications added with an update on the whereabouts of the girl by the police. She decided not to look at it, quickly finishing and sending her mother the text.

As soon as the text was sent, a weight was lifted off her shoulders. She imagined her mother hopping on a plane to the states and rushing to help her. Taking her into her arms beaming her signature protective motherly aura as she held her close. Then they would be back home with her stepmother kissing her forehead, doting on her with a home-cooked meal. Thinking of them nearly distracted her from the flood of notifications.

Looking back, she wished she had thrown her phone on the ground and destroyed it. The messages she saw, the frightened comments people made was sickening. They would help lead her into completely losing herself to the doubts and fears that resided in her mind.

‘Child’s body found.’ ‘Missing teen’s body found in a horrific state.’ ‘Family releases statement on daughter’s kidnapping and murder.’ ‘Town tore apart by another life loss this month.’

“Oh god,” Kaeo was at a loss for words at the sight of the breaking news. The world had suddenly gone dark as a live statement began by the police. The girl’s mother looked broken behind the officer who was speaking, her face was ashen and she was trembling. “Dear God.”

No one's body had been found before. She stood frozen incapable of looking away from her phone. She eventually dropped it, the gravity of the situation hitting her like a punch. The breath was knocked out of her as she whimpered, the news report playing loudly in her room. The mother was crying as she spoke about the state her daughter was found in. The ground slipped from beneath her as she stumbled and fell to the side of her bed.

‘They allowed her body to be found? It doesn’t make sense! None of it does!’ Anxiously, she bit her nails as she looked at her now discarded phone. The screen had dimmed but she could still hear and see the video that was playing. It was like an endless loop in her ears. ‘They would never leave evidence. Oh god, is she even considered evidence now?’

The possibility of the poor girl being in bits and pieces made her fear rise. The mother spoke of wanting answers, but Kaeo knew she’d never get them. How many mothers would go without answers? How many mothers may end up being dead from this? She knew nothing about who these kidnappers were, but she knew her kind very well. The only way they saw mercy was to use it as an investment for their future endeavors. And that girl wasn’t worth anything in their eyes.