The Bitten.

Loose Ends.

After interrogating me, he had raised the window, and crawled up to the roof like a giant spider. The things he could do would always leave me speechless, but this moment in particular stood out. It was then I realized truly how outmatched I was. He was a being that could do anything, and it left me dreading what else he was capable of that I hadn't discovered. I was afraid to even think around him. He even managed make my own mind hell from the moment he repeated one of my thoughts.

It was hard to keep feeling pity for myself though, when I knew that Lorna had to be his next target. He was on a mission to destroy the door camera. It was difficult to explain to him, but I had tried to be calm and explain it without mentioning her much. I felt like anytime she was named, I was putting a target on her back. I told him to get rid of the phone, and the camera itself. He had seem the phone in Ryan's pocket, so I told him to look for a similar device and bring it back to dispose of it.

I had no choice but to comply, but I felt so dirty. He was going to seek out their apartment regardless, so maybe my cooperation would make him less likely to harm her. I knew better, but I was trying to be hopeful. I hated feeling like I was sending her to certain doom, but I didn't know what exactly what he had planned. For all I knew he had some way of distracting her or disabling the camera and her phone footage without harming her. I held the bridge of my nose and left the bathroom, closing the door behind me. I couldn't take being near Ryan's corpse another second. I kept expecting him to jolt awake and accuse and berate me for the injustices he suffered, instead he was just a stoic dent in the shower curtain.

The minutes felt like hours. I had no idea how long Aamon had been gone, but I was anxious for his return. And for him to leave, permanently. I just wanted him to come back in and tell me what's going on, or to at least move the body from the bathtub. I kept seeing things move from the corners of my eyes, and I had goosebumps all the way down to my toes.

I was more intimidating by Ryan's corpse, than I ever had been of Ryan himself. I would like to blame horror movies, but I reality I was a coward. I had locked the front door, and then my bedroom door. Then I tucked myself away into bed under the thick blankets to mope. My window was still raised, and I knew he would return the way he had left. So I lay staring at it, expecting him to leap through it at any moment.

My mind raced, and I wished like everything that I had not lost my phone in my episode at the hotel. I wanted to call my parents and hear their voices, just for comfort. I wanted to give them a good cover story so they wouldn't give me a surprise visit. Ryan was one thing, but if he harmed my parents I don't know what I'd do. He'd have to kill me too, because I would put up the fight of my life. I reached for a drawer in nightstand, and retrieved a photo album. I thumbed through it until I could find a rare photo of us all together, and I clutched it to my chest.

I could hear him now, scaling toward my window and I stashed the sebum away back into it's drawer and tried to fix my face. I looked to the ceiling and took slow, steady breaths. I blinked away unshed tears and smoothed my hair away from my face. I wiped my sweating hands on the blanket, and braced for whatever fresh Hell I'd face next.

He straddles the window sill, his legs holding tightly to stabilize himself. He was hunched, and when he straightened himself I could see he was pulling something up from below. I knew to sniff, and I wished I hadn't. My nostrils flared and I could smell baby powder and creams. Lorna?! I rushed to the window, but he shot me a look and raised his chin in warning. Something I noticed that he has done quite often.

He hauled Lorna up, and over the sill onto the floor. He stretched his limbs and bent again, carrying Lorna to the bedroom door. She hadn't moved, and I couldn't hear her beat. Or a single breath. I went to open the door for him, and he directed his head towards the bathroom, which told me my premonition was true. Lorna was dead. I was directly responsible for two deaths. No, four. He had killed the two wolves in the woods too.