Blood Red

He didn’t listen and came for her again. The anger bloomed inside of her, dwarfing the pain that gnawed at her. Her hand reached out and caught him by the neck, blocking his attempts. He slapped her across the face in an attempt to make her let go.

Maggie saw red; deep, dark red that washed the rest of the colors from her vision. Perhaps it was whatever Tom had slipped her, or maybe it was something else, but whatever it was, it felt good.

The kid slapped at her again, and she caught the hand, squeezing until she felt his fingers snap like twigs under her grip. He let out a moan of pain, and Maggie smiled.

“Never touch me again.” She leaned in close and whispered the words in his ear. He smelled of sex and lust and sweat and fear.

The pain inside her reacted to the smell, surging and driving the rage to an even higher level.

The kid tried to break away and she squeezed hard, his neck almost collapsing and his hand shattering under the pressure. This time, the sound he made was a scream of pure agony.

She liked it.

The red took over then. The red became everything. The door to the room opened and she saw faces looking in. She knew them. They went to school with her. They were faces in the crowd, men who had tried and failed to woo her in the past. Men who, in the long run, wanted only what the broken boy she was holding wanted.

Blood ran from the boy’s ruined hand and she caught the scent of it. The pain became a gnawing thing that devoured nerve endings and ripped across her mind and body alike.

She acted without thought and licked at the stain of deepest, richest red in her field of vision. That taste, so like what she had tasted the night before on the body of Jason Soulis, entered her mouth and invigorated her.

The trickle from her boy’s hand wasn’t enough: it didn’t whet her appetite as much as ignite it.

She bit his throat and felt his skin break, felt the hot flow of ecstasy run into her mouth and across her chest and face. The others were looking at her and screaming now, making noises that she hated, that distracted her from her pleasures.

There was a part of her that watched all of what happened with complete detachment. It observed on a nearly clinical level as she dropped the skinny boy and moved toward the door.

She was really much faster than she should have been. The people around her moved like they were suspended in amber, trying to swim through solid matter to get away from her.

Doug Clark was the first one. He had always looked at her as if she was nothing but an object, always talking nice and smooth while staring at her chest.

Yes, she knew his kind. “You want something, Doug?”

He backed away, his eyes wide and horrified. She knew she must be a mess; the blood that covered her face and front was probably leaving a trail down to the floor.

Doug looked at her hard, his expression a blend of terror, lust, and confusion. She pulled him close and kissed him, smearing the remains of his friend over his face as well as her own. Damnedest thing, she could tell he was terrified, but she could feel his erection pressing against her. On a whim, she reached down and gave him a squeeze. Something wet and red happened in his pants.

She kissed harder as he pushed against her, beating at her shoulders and chest with closed fists. Maggie bit into his face, ripping through flesh and tongue, knocking teeth aside as she drew the blood into her mouth.

That detached part of her was horrified by the carnage, but it kept watching. It saw her drop Doug Clark’s remains on the ground and turned with her as she eyed the rest of the boys standing around.

Maggie grinned and moved; the taste of red filling her and driving her on harder. She had a sense of urgency, a certainty that things needed to happen faster.

She also had an appointment to keep with Monkey Boy. Even as she cut through the people around her, even as the boys ran from her and tried to escape, she knew she had to leave soon.

Five naked men came out of the room on her right. She could see a girl in there curled up on the bed and crying softly. Liz. Her name was Liz. She was one of Tom’s girls, too. The rage grew hotter, the world grew redder.

They backed up and tried to stop her by slamming the door in her face. She pushed the door aside with ease and knocked three of them across the room with the same push of her arm.

Liz screamed.

The boys in the room screamed.

Maggie screamed too, but hers was a bellow of hatred.

The screams went on inside the fraternity house for quite some time, masked by the sound of a loud stereo blaring.

Several people got out of the house and tried to reach safety.

Jason Soulis, waiting in the darkness, made sure that none of them got away.

Her sounds were a symphony to him. She walked through the building in a wave of blood and fury, leaving bodies wherever she went.

So many bodies.

Young and fresh and his now.

Maggie came out of the fraternity house drenched in crimson stains. Her chest heaved in great gasping breaths and her eyes were nearly insane.