Created by blood

Chapter 2

Every fibre of Odessa's body feels as if it is on fire as she wakes suddenly, her chest rising and falling once before going still as her breath catches in her throat. My throat , something small and faint in her head, says as a hand moves to touch the thing in question.

Despite being hyper-aware of every muscle in her body, there is no pain or stiffness as the warm feeling slowly recedes.

There is a strange deafness, Odessa notes as she carefully climbs to shaky feet, a deafness that is accompanied by an all-encompassing grey film. She tries to rub the offencive thing away, but like her throat, no matter what she does, it persists.

As she takes a single step, her mind reels; what the hell happened?... where... Where am I ? She manages before focusing on a gnawing weight that has grown in her stomach, a weight that quickly becomes painful as a single word takes her.

HUNGRY

Odessa is so excruciatingly hungry as if she's gone a whole lifetime without food. The feeling has a tight grip on her as it drives her feet forward, one step at a time, in search of...In search of... Something, anything that could help drive the weight and feeling away. Yet, to her dismay after searching for a few minutes, nothing calls to her; nothing stands out against the bleak colourless world. The nurse frowns dejected as she sucks in a useless yawn.

As she does a second lap of the building she awoke in a soft rhythmic lub-dub lub-dub passes by outside, quickly catching her attention. From the second she heard it, her head tilts up and to the side as every one of her senses latch on to it.

The thumping is not only beautiful but it's the first clear sound she's heard thus far.

So very hungry... Need to eat... to feed , something inside of her coos, louder this time as the beating slowly becomes faint.

"Wait!" She manages to say as a tiny crease appears between her eyebrows, follow it. The voice says, compelling her to stumble outside after the sound.

Sadly, within seconds of stepping outside, Odessa's body crumples forward as a myriad of new sounds hit her at once. It's loud, so annoyingly loud, that it causes an animalistic sound to radiate from somewhere deep in her chest.

The rolling of the lazy waves against the wharf, the hiss of burning oil in the streetlamps, a discarded newspaper fluttering in the wind. All sound as if they are right against her head.

It's painful, disorienting even as her hands move to cover her ears, eyes squeezed tightly as she waits for a few agonising seconds.

When the world has stopped spinning and she manages to tear focus away from the intense background noise, Odessa begins to walk again, hoping and praying she quickly finds the sound that lured her outside.

Feet drag on slick streets for the next 10 minutes, before she finds the same rhythmic beating, though now it's accompanied by a brilliant red spider web of lights.

As she draws near, the thing housing the web speaks, though what it says is unintelligible, as the nurse collapses into arms she does not yet recognise. Odessa clings to the beating spiderweb-like her life depends on it as her head lays limply on a thin boney shoulder. With the pulsing liquid so close, she can do nothing but breathe deep, rolling the smell on her tongue, as her eyes flutter closed.

Seconds tick by as a quick stinging sensation passes over her gums, causing something razor-sharp to tease the inside of her lower lip. Odessa's mind tries to focus, as the body she clings to speaks again while grabbing a fist full of her hair; the small action causes Nurse Walker's eyes to open and her jaw to go slack.