CURSE OF THE BLOOD MOON

She ran to the bathroom mirror, she had to see what they all saw in her eyes. Scarlet flicked on the light and stood in front of the mirror. She gasped at what she saw and gripped the sink for support. The white in her eyes had been replaced by a blood-red color and the hazel part of it was black. She blinked a couple of times then closed her eyes, hoping to look into her eyes when she opened them again.

“No! No! What’s happening to me?”

As she looked at herself in the mirror another vision was creeping into her mind. It wasn’t clear like it had been blocked out by a red spot. A sharp pain ripped inside her, she bent over her hand falling to the origin. The baby was kicking her again.

Scarlet sank to the floor as her partially clear vision began to make sense. She saw the old lady in her blue-flowered duvet with matching sheets and pillows. She saw her try and push something away from her, and then she could taste blood on her tongue. Then she saw the three numbers on a door, one, zero, and two.

Scarlet buried her face in her hands and started sobbing. She knew it was a memory, she wasn’t like Kayla or Solara to see or hear anyone else’s thoughts. It was her she was the one who killed the old lady. She finally fixed the puzzle of her weekend. It had to be her or more specifically the baby. Scarlet needed help, she needed Kayla to come and be with her. Not to protect her, but to protect everyone else.

Scarlet scrambled to her knees and crawled into the main room. She patted around her bed before she gave up. Her purse was still in the hospital.

She sat between the bed and the wall and slowly rocked herself back and forth. She wished Stephan was there with her, she wished they were all there with her. She had to be stopped before she killed anyone else.

***

Archie walked around the police officers and the civilians who had filled the stairway. He heard them murmur about a murder, he panicked and ran up the stairs. He was relieved to find the spectators were focused on one of the floors above Scarlet’s.

He knocked lightly on the door, and when she didn’t answer more urgently.

“Scarlet, it’s Archie.”

He was banging on the door now and the people around him shifted their gaze towards him.

Scarlet didn’t want any attention drawn to her, not now especially with the knowledge that she had killed the old woman. She got up and walked to the door.

She didn’t open the door for him. The last thing she needed was for him to see the state she was in and offer to stay with her. Scarlet was sweating and trembling, the color hadn’t come back to her eyes. She was scratching her throat, trying to get to the irritation inside through her skin. Her mouth was dry all of a sudden and it hurt.

“I have your things with me, Scarlet.” He was knocking midst talking.

“Drop them on the ground and leave,” Scarlet called out through the door.

“I want to make sure that you are alright. Let me in Scarlet.”

His insistence was getting on her nerves. “Just leave them there.”

“No!”

Scarlet gave up on the tug of war. She opened the door just wide enough for her to snatch her purse from him. He could keep the coat, the purse was more important.

He stood there stunned for a second then hang the jacket on the doorknob before he left.

Scarlet returned to her spot behind the bed. She sat there with her phone in her hand, not exactly sure of what she was going to tell Kayla. She put it on the floor she had to calm herself down first.

***

“Kayla, what’s wrong?” Solara massaged her shoulders.

“Something isn’t right but I can’t place my finger on it.” Kayla sighed and returned her focus on the game they were playing.

“Has anyone heard from Stephan? It’s been almost five weeks since he left.” Vincent directed the question to everyone in the room, but no one knew the answer to that.

“Nikki saw him last, but he didn’t tell her where he was going,” Kayla added. She wasn’t pleased that she had to rely on Nikki for anything, especially where it concerned Scarlet.

All their gazes shifted towards the door, when they recognized one of the scents they went back to their board game.

“Hey, Xavier,” Eric called out as he shook the dice n his fist before tossing them on the board.

Xavier walked in with Mathias behind him. His company startled them making them abandon the game for good. They knew it wasn’t something pleasant, besides them, no vampire and beast would exist in the same place without killing each other.

“He has news about Stephan,” Xavier said as he walked to the far end of the room.

Solara stared at Mathias and Kayla followed his lead. She couldn’t help but gasp at what she saw.

“What?” Vincent demanded. He didn’t mind the mental conversations when they didn’t concern him, but this time it did. It was about Stephan.

“Stephan has gone mad and if he doesn’t stop what he is doing he is going to cause bigger problems.” Mathias’s face was in an angry scowl.

Vincent shifted his gaze to Xavier, the two mind readers seemed too shocked to speak and the messenger wasn’t making any sense. “What’s going on, in plain English please?”

“Stephan is attacking the Council hunters. He is killing and drinking their blood. The vampires think that the beasts are more capable of killing them now. They think drinking blood is a beast thing.” Xavier moved to the center of the room, he always did so when he was talking about something serious.

Solara glared at Vincent. He was the one who told them about drinking vampire blood and now that Intel was working against them.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that I didn’t know he would do it.” Vincent held his hands up defensively.

Victor interjected in an attempt to draw attention away from his rash brother. Unlike him, he never acted on impulse he had always thought things through. “They are going to attack the beasts now. Someone should warn your people.”

“I already did, they are all prepared for different outcomes to this. Sam is on his way back.”

“Why would he do something so reckless?” Mathias still stood at the door his arms behind his back.

“Because it’s their fault Scarlet left him,” Solara answered him almost immediately.

“He saw Scarlet with a human man and thought she didn’t want to be with someone like himself. Stephan thinks it’s their fault for making him what he is now.” Kayla held on to Solara’s arm. She didn’t know what to make of his actions. An act of insanity or a result of his rejected love.

“What’s to say he won’t come after our kind?” Xavier asked, what Kayla had said made him uneasy. Stephan was just as much a beast as he was a vampire.