#2- Kendra: Part Two

Blood Lust

Kendra: Part Two

Serah stared out at her masterpiece. Beautiful. Sickly beautiful. May as well have some fun before she goes, eh?

A secret control center stood below her. Before she brought Kendra into this, 215 people filled the army of Condemned. Now there would be 216, which was Serah’s favorite number. Each one sat at a table with black goggles that covered their pierced eyeballs, and each one thought they were living their lives just as they were before they met the creature. In fact, they thought Serah was nothing but a dream.

Her arm hooked around Kendra’s, as if she was a nurse escorting her.

“Sit down dear.” She looked at her victim.

“Okay… Where are we really?”

“At your house, honey. Your bed is right there, sit down.”

“I- I can’t see anything.”

“Sure you can,” Serah briefly patted Kendra’s back comfortingly, “Right there is a queen sized mattress with a light blue comforter and white pillows. In the room next door, your little 2 month old daughter, Melanie, is sleeping.”

“Oh, I guess- I guess it’s just the injury; I’m hallucinating that there’s darkness. That’s probably possible, isn’t it?” She stuttered. It was easy for the lady to cave. She was so confused that she had no choice but to trust this stranger. There was no other choice, right?

“We’ll talk to the doctor in the morning. Get some rest.” With that, Kendra tried to picture the scene. She knew her home, of course, but something didn’t fall into place. She shook off the thought, unwilling to contemplate any frightening possibilities. “Do you trust what I’m telling you, Miss Kendra?”

“I have to.” As she said this, Serah smiled.

“Yes, I would say that you do.”

“Then I’m choosing to trust you.”

Immediately, Kendra felt instantly at home. Her vision came back to her; she could see the bed she was sitting on, the door that separated her from her lovely daughter, and her nurse.

She was seeing all this, right?

Two days passed as Kendra continued on her way, thinking she was living just the way she should. She checked in on Melanie, made her meals, read her paper. It was a calm, easy life and that’s just how she liked it. No need to worry about anything bad happening and especially not that nightmare she had had the other day. Only Serah could see that she was really just sitting among two hundred other people, looking straight ahead vacantly. The scene never got old to her.

Walking up and down the aisles of metal chairs and Condemned soldiers, Serah brushed each sweating head with her long, demon black nails. The scraping against dry skin was fine music to her ears. She approached Kendra. Something about Kendra’s blood made Serah squirm. The fact that anything could possibly make her, of all people, uncomfortable, also made her desire it more.

Her hand hovered within an inch of the victim’s head, feeling the heat radiate. Serah sucked in a deep breath. She could almost feel her soldier’s blood pounding and rushing. A beat, like a heartbeat, pulsed in her ears. What was so special about Kendra that she would hesitate before drawing blood? Soon she began to smell it and taste it. Copper wafts encircled her, entranced her. She shook her head and the sensations cleared. Curiously and cautiously, she crept her hand back to the soldier’s head. The sensations came back, surrounding her once more. Serah’s tongue glided smoothly across her lips. What makes me ache for the sweet metal yet feel so repulsed by it? What could hold such agony on me, the Queen of Death?! Her anger at the power of Kendra’s blood swelled into rage. She was the Most High here, not some rat! Her instincts of ire told her to attack and consume the power, but she couldn’t. An invisible force, a mystic strength was putting a wall between the Queen of Death and this mighty blood! How dare anything stand for such foolishness?! How dare anything oppose the Leader of the Condemned?! Snap! Her fingers clicked together and she appeared crouched like a hunting cat on top of the table. She faced Kendra and lurched a bit closer, drawing a finger softly under the victim’s chin.

“What makes you so special?” Serah hissed.