Fear's Heart

It's time for the next victim. I crawl out of my hole. I lick my claws clean before creeping from the cold delightfully dank bog I had slept in.

Tonight I want a lot of energy. I look around before deciding where to go. I go to a desert. I go to a place filled with the smell of sweat. I go to a place filled with despair.

I squeeze through the concrete into the barracks. There's energy here. I hear the sound of my claws across the floor as I scamper to the closest bed. I wrap my claws around the first man's arm. I can feel the energy moving with his blood. It is a sluggish flow, but quickly responds to me. I can feel the energy moving from him to me. I giggle and jump onto the top of the bunk. I take that man's energy. I jump across the room onto the next bed. Gleefully, I jump bed to bed, taking energy. I swing off the top of the last bed and stop just before I touch the last man.

But this isn't a man. This is a boy.

I almost want to leave, but then I see a dream. I lean closer and steal the breath out of the boy. His chest stops, but I could easily return his breath. I crawl to sit next to him on the small bed. Time to have some real fun. I return his breath and pry into his dream. He's dreaming of a girl…how sickening. Humans with their folly emotions. He is dancing with the girl. Love. Makes me want to puke up the energy I just consumed. I pry deeper and open up his memories of the girl.

They were best friends? They are in love? Sickening. I give him a new memory. I take that memory of their last moment and I kill her. I reach deep into the memory and throw her in front of a truck. I make her splatter and I make him watch.

He wakes with a start. He reaches for something under his pillow. A letter. I grab it from his hand and shove it into my mouth. I grin as his fear filled eyes finally see me. He fearfully studies my black scaly skin, my long sharp claws and my big red eyes.

"What's the matter?" I ask.

He shudders, but doesn't say a word. I narrow my eyes and catch his breath again. He falls back gasping for air. I laugh with glee. I give him back his breath.

"Splat," I whisper.

"Leave me alone," he says.

I laugh and pry into his memories again. I grab a random memory of the girl and make him see it again. He shudders as my new memory surfaces along with the random memory. I laugh at the pain pouring from him.

"What are you?" he asks.

I lean forward and hiss. He doesn't even flinch.

"You came here to die," I whisper. "You don't fear death, but you do fear me."

"I thought she was still alive," he whispers in a shaky voice. He is training to be a marine and he's going to cry? How disappointing.

I laugh. "She's not. She splattered. That teddy bear you gave her splattered with her."

He shakes his head as I laugh. Tears drip slowly from his eyes. He throws off the blanket and gets out of the bed. He runs to the door, but I make it lock. I go to the first corpse and dig my teeth into the cold flesh. The boy sinks to the floor, crying. I laugh accidentally spraying a mouthful of blood over the half flattened corpse. He's thinking of the girl now. He's thinking of the memory I created for him. I grab the next memory. This one's buried deep down.

"NO!" he screams.

I laugh again. This is getting hilarious. I drain the next corpse. He's rocking back and forth now. He's nails are digging into the skin of his forehead. I walk over and hold out a knife that was under the pillow of one of the men. His eyes focus on it. I grin happily.

"You don't fear death," I say, waving the knife in front of his face, "but you do fear me!"

He covers his face with his hands. And now...that he's gone...she's next.