Aspen stood over the corpse as she licked her fingers, still tasting the sweet crimson as it glistened in the pale moonlight, appearing a deeper shade of red against her pale white flesh.
"Did you enjoy my gift?"
Aspen turned immediately, the stranger's voice still ringing through her mind, making her heart race with anticipation. In the dark, she could only see the outline of black on black. The man that stood before her seemed less human than she did.
His lips parted, as once again he asked. "Did you enjoy my gift?"
She cleared her throat, her mind now reverting back to normal as the animal inside her returned to her dark side. She stared down at the lifeless body at her feet, slowly coming to terms with what she had done. She tried not to let the stranger before her see the fear in her eyes. "Who... who are you?"
He simply smiled and walked towards her, his feet barely touching the ground, as he seemed to glide across the cool grass. "You know who I am..." He whispered as he approached her. "And you know why I am here.... the hunger that burns inside you, burns inside me as well... do not fear it..."
She leaned closer to him, mesmerized by his un-natural beauty, her head feeling light with the growing dizziness that surrounded her as he stood before her. She stepped closer, her body aching with anxiousness as she reached for him, longing for his touch. In the light of the setting moon, she could see the outline of his face.
His lips parted again, revealing his long, sleek fangs, as he curled his tongue over them, leaning closer and inhaling her scent. He pulled her closer abruptly, his hands moving over the small of her back; lower still as he nuzzled her neck softly. "Wake up, Aspen..."
She looked up at him a little confused. Why was he telling her to wake up?
"I said, wake up!!"
Aspen opened her eyes and blinked a few times at the blinding sunlight that shone in her face. "...What...?" She slowly sat up and looked around her room puzzled, her eyes slowly moving towards the moving figure.
"I told you to get up!" Her mom sighed in irritation of the laziness of her teenage daughter. "Honestly, sometimes I wonder about you.... you were never this lazy as a child..." She shook her head and sighed again. "If your father was still alive..."
"Yeah well he's not, so deal with it!" Aspen cut her mother off, her tone as cold as the winter wonderland outside her window. Her tongue had always been sharp towards her mother. She had always hated her with a burning passion. It was her mother's fault that her father had taken his life at the end of a double barrel shot gun, and after that day, her hatred for her amplified. She wished nothing more then her mother to die a slow horrible death, one where not even her grandmother could recognize her rotting corpse. She had thought of her death many a time before, each one more gruesome then the last. Aspen's mind began to wander into the world of torture that she had created just for her mother, as a smile crept upon her full, soft lips.
Her mother glared at her hatefully as the back of her hand hit her daughter's face. "Don't talk to me that way! And get out of bed before I drag you out! That blasted cat of yours messed on my bed again." She opened the last heavy drapes in her room. "And clean this mess up! You are not an animal!!" She exclaimed and then jumped at the hissing sound coming from being her.
Aspen rubbed her swollen cheek as she looked towards the door. Her cat hissed again and swatted at her mother as she quickly moved past the doorway. Aspen chuckled as her cat nailed the wretched bitch with its claws before trotting over to her bed. "Are you causing trouble again, Sir Damien?" She smiled and picked up the ratty old cat, his one blue eye looking into hers as the white one stared off into space. He must've been most vile cat that anyone had ever seen, though Aspen didn't care. He had saved her from the neighbor's bulldog, and she wasn't able to leave his side after that.
She remembered that day well. She had been taking care of her mother's garden that day, while her neighbor trained Max, and was paying no attention to what was happening. The neighbor swears to this day that Max had got rowdy on his own after being trained to fight and went for the first warm blooded creature that he saw, which, unluckily for Aspen, it had been her that day. Driven by the beat of the music playing blaring through her headphones, she did not see or hear the savage beast until it was upon her, trying to sink its fangs into her pale skin. She grasped at its neck, trying to keep it from tearing into her flesh as her mother stood emotionless staring at them. Another reason she hated her so. Out of nowhere, a very homely and savage cat had come to her rescue, sinking its claws and fangs into the bulldog's thick skin until it whimpered and backed down. Aspen scrambled to her feet and watched the relatively large, feral cat take on the muscular pup. He hissed, his fur standing tall as he stood between her and the dog. She had never seen such an act... she was in complete aw as the cat lunged at the dog, to quick for it to move away as the cat ripped at its coat again, tearing at its flesh until the dog's master came and got it. Her neighbor had gone to hit the cat, but Aspen got in the way just as her father came home to witness the act. Aspen paid no attention to the argument that her father and her neighbor were having, she merely picked up her savior and brought him into the house, cleaning the blood from his thick fur coat as he purred in enjoyment that his new master brought him. She also remembered the look on her mother's face as she walked by with him, protesting to no end that he had to leave. The moment that her father walked in the house and heard the protesting, he pulled her mother aside and said something that Aspen couldn't make out, not that she had been paying attention. Her father walked into her bedroom where she sat, cleaning her new pet. He smiled and sat down on the bed, watching her. He had told her that day that her mother didn't want her to keep the cat, which she thought it was too dangerous for her to keep him, though he didn't agree with her mother since the cat had risked his life to save her. From that day on, her mother resented her father. She had always been able to wrap him around her finger and now that Aspen was blooming into a young woman, she now had the power to wrap him around her finger, though she would never do that to him.
"ASPEN! I SAID NOW!!" Her mother yelled from the hallway, the tone in her voice showed that meant business.
Aspen sighed as she slowly got up. "I'll be back, Sir Damien... just wait here and I'll bring you back some tuna." She smiled and head butted him before throwing on her silk robe that her dad had brought her back from Japan before heading out the door. She paused when she heard voices coming from down the hall way.
"Honestly, Tom. I don't know what to do with her anymore... She never listens, it's as if she wants me dead..."Her mother sighed heavily, not noticing that Aspen was listening in on her conversation.
"I know, Beverly. But don't worry, things will get better... she's still dealing with Alex's death right now. She was the one who found him after all." The tall, stocky man stood beside her, resting his arm casually around her waist.
Whore!! Aspen's mind screamed as the anger filled her whole body, radiating in deep red hew for those who could see her aura. She was furious. How could she move on this soon?!? How could she even look at another man at this point? It has only been less then a month and the whore has already moved ... Aspen's attention revert to the conversation that Tom and her mother were having, no longer able to hear them. They must have moved to the living room she noted as she tried not to make noise walking down the hall way.
"Aspen? Have you cleaned up that mess yet??" Her mother heard her walking down the hallway, obviously spying on her and her lover. "Aspen, goddamn it I can hear you walking around! ANSWER ME!!" Her voice was stern and loud; loud enough for the neighbors to hear through the paper thin walls if they had been listening close enough.
Aspen stopped quickly. Damn, she heard me. "Yes, mother, I'm heading towards your room, that's why you hear me in the hallway!" Her voice was hard and cold. She didn't care if her mother had her new boy toy over or not, this was the way she talked to her. Her mother didn't deserve the respect that her friends did.