Thea II

Chapter 1

1

A teenage girl is sitting next to me on a bench. She has blonde hair and is dressed in cream shorts and a tight-grey vest. The sun is glaring down on us, so I shield my eyes with my hand. Did I bring my sunglasses? I pat my jeans down and find them hanging from my pocket. The girl is wearing a pair of white-rimmed ones. They look so much cooler than my red ones.

A brown-haired woman walks over to us, smiling proudly as she hands me a tub of popcorn. “Here you go.”

“Where’s mine?” the girl asks.

“You can share with your sister,” the woman replies. “I’m not made of money.”

“Aren’t you having any?” I ask, stuffing a handful into my mouth.

The woman smiles and shakes her head. “Not for me, Thea. I’m watching my figure.”

The girl lets out a little snigger. “So you don’t want any of ours then?”

The woman reaches over and skims a few off the top. “Well, maybe just a couple.”

We laugh.

“Come on then, girls,” the woman says. “The fairground will be closing in an hour and we still haven’t gone on the rollercoaster.”

“What about the popcorn?” I ask, following the girl up from the bench.

The girl takes my hand and steers me towards the ride. “Don’t worry about it, Thea. We can eat it in the queue. It’ll be at least a twenty-minute wait.”

“Okay,” I reply with enthusiasm.

Joining the long queue, I look up at the giant red tracks of the rollercoaster. My stomach suddenly feels all knotted, and my hand is damp with sweat. I try to pull it out from her grip, but she won’t let go. “What are you doing?” I ask with a scowl.

“Keeping you safe,” she replies as she removes her sunglasses.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” I ask her, noticing how bloodshot they are.

“Nothing’s wrong with them,” she says, squeezing my hand even tighter.

I pull as hard as I can, but it won’t budge. “Tell her!” I yell at the woman.

“Stop telling tales, Thea,” she says, uninterested; busy playing on her phone. “You’re ruining our day out.”

“But she’s hurting me!”

The woman shakes her head in annoyance as she scoops out another handful of popcorn. I look down at the half-empty tub and notice something red on the surface. It looks like blood.

Then I see the woman’s forearm. There’s a deep cut across the skin; and there’s blood trickling down her fingers, dripping on the ground.

The girl’s grip is getting tighter, cutting off the feeling in my hand. As I yank as hard as I can, I notice her wrist. It’s been sliced as well. Blood is pouring out all over her hand and onto mine. Frantically, I manage to free myself from her hold.

“Look what you did, Thea,” the girl snaps; her blue eyes now pale, grey almost. “You killed them.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask, backing away from the two strangers. “I didn’t kill anyone.”

But then I look down at my hands; they’re covered in blood. To the left of me is an ice cream van, and in the window I catch a glimpse of my reflection. My mouth, lips, chin, even my neck is dripping red.

There’s something in my mouth; it’s soft and squidgy against the crunchy popcorn.

I spit it out onto the floor.

What is it?

I retch when I realise that it’s a piece of flesh, soaked in blood.

Where the hell did that come from?

The teenage girl has vanished. So has the rollercoaster and the sun. The only thing that hasn’t disappeared is the woman—because I’ve pinned her to the carpet, both my hands on her wrists. There’s a burning hunger in my belly, beyond anything that I’ve ever felt before. It’s crippling me, twisting my insides, compelling me to feed. She screams when I bite down on her neck. She struggles under my weight, but she’s too weak to move me. I swallow the blood. It tastes bitter, but I can’t stop myself. I need it.

The woman slips a hand from my grip and grabs a clump of my hair, prising my head from her neck.

“Get off me, Thea!” she shouts. “You’re hurting Mummy!”

I yank her hand from my head and angrily slam it back down to the floor.

“No, Thea!” she yells as I lock my jaws around her neck again and suck.

I don’t want to stop.

“Help me!” she shouts.

Struggling to breathe, I lift my head, take a quick breath, and then drop back down to her neck.

I can’t stop.

Suddenly I’m thrown onto my side. The woman starts to crawl through a doorway, so I pounce on her back, and bite down on the side of her neck as she tows me along the carpet.

Swallowing what seems like an ocean of blood, I close my eyes tightly and block out the sound all around me.

But then I hear a voice. It’s not coming from the woman. The tone is different, softer.

‘Stop’, the voice from my head whispers.

I can’t.

‘Yes you can.’

It’s too hard.

‘Trust me. You can do it. I’ll help you.’

Who are you?

‘My name is Kate…