Lenina stood outside her house, blinking at the warm glow in the windows through diagonal sheets of rain. She hugged herself and chewed her bottom lip. Though it bled, filling her mouth with sweetness, an hour of aimless wandering served to deaden the taste.
Standing over the body, Lenina had struggled with what to do next. The rational and law-abiding side of her demanded that she pull out her mobile and call the police.
The rest of her, coupled with the fight or flight reflex successfully keeping humans alive for millions of years, had other ideas. That part instructed her to hide the body. Anywhere. Quickly.
She wrestled with it at first. Guilt and fear crippled her thoughts. Then, on the far side of the park she saw three strangers hurrying through the rain beneath a trio of umbrellas.
Risk of discovery made the decision for her.
Lenina grabbed the woman by the legs and dragged her across the grass.
Her damp, cold hands struggled with the dead weight, eventually forcing her to heave the woman on to her shoulder.
That, by contrast, was easy. Lenina paused to marvel at her new strength.
She hid the body beyond a cluster of bushes in a corner of the park, pushing it into a deep hollow that had once formed a pond. Shielded by evergreen shrubs, she hoped it wouldn’t be found until she could decide what to do.
The dog she threw in as an afterthought.
Now, far from the park and back on the familiar paving slabs of her own driveway, Lenina stared at her house and wondered if she could enter.
Was it even her house any more? Did vampires and murderers deserve to live in beautiful, semi-detached properties in a quiet corner of the East Midlands? Did they have fiancés? Could they get married?
She didn’t think so, but neither did she think she could stay outside any longer.
Locking herself in the bathroom, she peeled off her wet clothes and left them on the floor, climbing into the bath to stand under the shower. In a curious mirroring of the night before, she let the hot water sluice blood and tears off her face and hands.
Steam filled the room, white and thick, hiding everything until Lenina felt lost and adrift.
The bandage on her neck flapped loose, useless against all the water.
She peeled it away, puzzling over how the events of the day had numbed even physical pain. But when her hands brushed the skin at the base of her throat she stopped and scrambled out of the bath.
With shaking hands, she cleared condensation off the mirror, a long smear across the glass through which she could see.
The bite marks were gone.
Her skin still dripping, Lenina perched on the edge of the bath and stared at the floor. Despite the water all over her body, the insides of her mouth felt as dry as sand.
It took several minutes, but eventually she convinced herself to have another look.
The result was unchanged.
The skin of her neck and shoulder were as smooth as they had been at the beginning of the week. No teeth marks, no bruising. On her face, the faint scratches from the park woman’s clawing fingernails were gone too. The only sign of any mark at all, was a thin red scratch from the point of Jason’s dagger.
In a distant way she recalled Saar, the Egyptian soldier from her dreams, telling his men that he could heal any injury. That he was strong and so too were they.
Lenina sighed. Bit her lip.
No more hiding. No more stalling. She knew what she had to do.