I'd Killed It
879 Words
Vespera’s Pov
The hunger woke me on the third day.
At least, I thought it was the third day. Time had become strange and slippery in the cabin. I'd drift in and out of consciousness, caught between fever dreams and moments of painful clarity. Sometimes I'd wake in daylight, other times in darkness. I couldn't tell anymore which was which.
But the hunger was real. Constant. Gnawing.
This wasn't the polite hunger I'd known before—the kind that whispered gently that perhaps it was time for a meal. This was violent. Vicious. It felt like my body was eating itself from the inside out, consuming muscle and fat and anything else it could find just to keep my heart beating.
I'd found a rusted bucket in the corner of the cabin and managed to set it outside to catch rainwater. That was all I'd had for days. Water and nothing else. There had been some berries growing near the cabin's foundation, but I'd eaten all of them on the first day. Now there was nothing.
My stomach cramped painfully and I curled around it, pressing my hands against my abdomen as if that could somehow help. It didn't.
*You need meat.* Nyx's voice in my head was tight with worry. *Real food. Protein. Now.*
"I know," I whispered. My voice sounded weak even to my own ears. "But I can't... I don't know how to hunt."
I'd never had to. In the pack house, meals had been prepared and served. Before that, in my father's house, same thing. I'd never so much as caught a fish, let alone hunted down prey in the woods.
*I'll teach you. But you have to get up first.*
That was easier said than done. My body felt like it was made of lead. Every movement was an effort. But Nyx was right—if I didn't eat soon, I was going to die here in this abandoned cabin, and Julian would win. He'd get to go on living his life with Lydia while I rotted in the forest like forgotten trash.
The thought made anger spark in my chest. Small, but real.
I used that anger to push myself upright.
The world swam sickeningly. I had to close my eyes and breathe through my nose until the dizziness passed. When I opened them again, the cabin had stopped spinning.
"Okay," I said. "Okay. I can do this."
*That's my girl.*
Getting outside took forever. Each step was a negotiation with my protesting body. My legs shook. My vision kept blurring. By the time I made it through the door and down the three porch steps, I was sweating and gasping like I'd run a marathon.
The forest stretched out before me, green and lush and utterly indifferent to my suffering. Morning sun filtered through the canopy in golden beams. Birds sang. Somewhere in the distance, I could hear running water—a stream or creek.
It should have been beautiful. Instead, it just looked like a thousand places to die.
*Focus,* Nyx said firmly. *Close your eyes. Let me show you how to use our senses.*
I did as she asked. The visual world disappeared behind my eyelids, but everything else exploded into vivid detail.
Smells hit me first. The rich loam of the forest floor. The green scent of growing things. The crisp smell of pine. And underneath it all, threading through everything else—animals. Prey. Life.
My mouth watered.
Good. Now follow your nose. Trust your instincts.
I opened my eyes and started walking. My body seemed to know where to go even though my mind had no idea. My feet found the easiest path through the undergrowth automatically. I moved between trees without conscious thought, ducking under low branches, stepping over roots.
After about ten minutes of walking, Nyx spoke again.
Stop. Downwind. There.
I froze. Ahead of me, maybe twenty feet away near a fallen log, was a rabbit. Brown and fat, its ears twitching as it nibbled at fresh shoots. It hadn't noticed me yet.
My heart started pounding. This was it. My chance. But how was I supposed to catch it? Rabbits were fast. I was weak and slow from starvation.
*Trust me,* Nyx said. *When I say go, you run. Don't think. Just move.*
I crouched down, muscles coiling without my conscious input. The rabbit was still focused on its meal, completely unaware. Every detail of it stood out in sharp relief—the way its nose twitched, the exact color of its fur, the small scar on one ear.
Now.
I didn't think. I just moved.
One second I was crouched twenty feet away. The next I was on top of the rabbit, my hands closing around its warm, squirming body. The speed was impossible. Inhuman. But I didn't have time to question it because the rabbit was struggling, kicking with its powerful hind legs, and if I didn't—
My teeth sank into its neck.
I didn't plan it. Didn't think about it. Some deeper instinct took over and I bit down hard. The rabbit went still. Hot blood flooded my mouth and the taste of it made som
ething inside me roar to life.
I'd killed it. I'd actually killed it.
- Writer
