WHO Sylvie [narrative] WHEN Christmas 1936 WHERE Stockholm WHAT A near death experience. WARNINGS blood, murder, eating people (nothing gory or detailed)
Stockholm over the last decade had become a surprisingly modern city and here Sylvia was, bleeding all over it.
The parade was passing close by to the space Sylvia had pressed herself into between two buildings, the sounds of Christmas songs from the band and the laughter of the crowd carrying to her easily. It was fortunate for her that by 5pm it was already dark, the coloured strings of lights bouncing off the snow.
Sylvia kept her hand pressed hand against her lower stomach, trying to hold together the flesh where her brother had opened it up with a long shard of metal, but her white gloves were soaked through and her emerald green dress was faring little better.
Once the parade passed she would move. Once the parade passed she would get to the sea and...
That far ahead she wasn't sure about. She had never been injured this badly before. She had never been able to practically see mysterious inside parts of herself trying to get outside. She honestly wasn't sure how much longer she could stand, even with the support of the building.
No. She was going to have to go now. She couldn't wait.
It took a lot of effort to get herself to stand, and then even more to take the first juddering step away from the wall. The crowd jostled her and Sylvia had little choice but to allow them. She needed to eat to heal this, but there were too many people here and she wasn't strong enough. She doubted she'd even be able to take down a child as she was.
Which was a real shame, because there were so many bite-sized children around.
Go towards the ocean.
Go towards the ocean.
Go towards the ocean.
With each painful step she thought it again.
Just get to the ocean.
She'd made it less than twenty steps when her legs refused to go any further and she collapsed, blood smearing across the snow as she passed out.
-
When Sylvia woke she still felt like death itself, but now she felt like death itself in a hospital ward with a sad lopsided Christmas tree leaning in the corner. Slowly she reached down to her wound, finding it bandaged.
It would do no good. The wound would not heal unless she worked to heal it.
Sylvia turned her head to find she wasn't alone in the ward, that there were others in the beds around her. Closest to her was a young woman, perhaps in her late teens. Thin and underfed, dying of something wasting from the look of it, but she would still do for a start.
Slowly - oh so slowly - she pulled herself up into a sitting position, feeling the wound trying to open up again. All the wounds she'd ever received would soon start opening up if she didn't eat someone soon.
A harried nurse appeared from nowhere. She started saying what Sylvia could only assume were meant to be words of comfort and assurance as she put her arm on the siren's trying to get her to lie back down.
Sylvia brushed her arm away and said - in German, as she had discovered that many in this city spoke it - "I don't speak Swedish."
The nurse paused and then, in slower German than her Swedish, she said, "You must stay in this bed. You are very injury. You almost die."
Lying down did sound nice and it would just be so easy to do. But it also wouldn't help her and so she pointed to the girl in the next bed and said, looking at the nurse, "bring me that woman."
The nurse frowned, looking between Sylvia and where she pointed. "What is this?"
Sylvia looked into the nurse's eyes and focused her voice. "Give me that girl so that I can eat her."
The nurse blinked, looked alarmed, looked confused. She must have thought it was a language issue, that Sylvia had meant something else. Either way, Sylvia's siren voice wasn't working. She was too ill, too close to death.
"Look at me," Sylvia commanded, grabbing for the nurse and pulling her close. She forced all her will and power to the base of her throat, to the place she thought about when trying to ensnare more difficult creatures. Humans were always so simple, but now she must treat it as a challenge. "You are going to help me. You will push that bed towards me and help me eat that girl."
A moment of silence from the nurse, her brow still furrowed, and then the expression softened. Sylvia relaxed, because she knew that expression. The nurse moved away from Sylvia but only so that she could unlock the wheels on the nearby bed and roll it towards Sylvia's own.
Sylvia sighed, wanting to lie back down and sleep, but she let the hunger guide her instead. She wasn't sure she even had the strength to eat but the moment her teeth were masticating live flesh, Sylvia forgot all about that. She tore through the girl while the nurse stood by and watched without a word.
Outside the hospital a greenfinch was singing in the dogwood and a cloudless Christmas day was dawning over the city.