OoN 6

There seemed to be some sort of festival going on in the village. It smelled like candy everywhere, which weakened her hunger for humans a bit. She had no money to buy anything though and didn’t want to draw any attention by stealing. The great masses of people made her uncomfortable. She felt watched by anyone. She looks like a normal human, aside from her teeth, but she was still afraid people might notice by her behavior. Did humans behave different than she does now? She doesn’t remember much from her life before the dark room. Had she even been a human before that? It doesn’t matter anymore anyway.

She found a less crowded place, under a gray bridge. It was lit with white light from a huge lamp at the side of the street. A young man dressed in a black hoodie and black pants sat underneath it with a guitar. With his pale face he kind of looked like the personified death. He sang a song. Jackie couldn’t make out the lyrics but it sounded good. Jackie decided to ask him her questions. When he was taking a break she sat down next to him.

“Hey!”, she said.

“’Lo”, he muttered without looking at her.

“Do you have a moment?”

“… sure.”, he said after examining her for a moment. “wanna coffee, too?”

Not really but she agreed anyway.

They both sat down under the bridge. Jackie just now noticed it crossed over a river that flowed through the city. The water was colored dark grey.

“So, whadaya need frum me?”, the boy asked. His singing voice sounded much better, Jackie found.

“I, um… have you heard of those… these monster people? The ones with these red claws?” She almost made her own claw appear to demonstrate but noticed it soon enough.

“Dose New-English people?”, he took a sip of his coffee.

“Is that what they’re called?”

“Dat’s what dey call demselves. “

“What does English mean?”

“I have no idea. But dey called deir settlement New-England so I guess de old England is where dey come from?”

“Oh, maybe? Where is this settlement?”

“Do ya wanna go dere? Ya know dere are better ways to c’mmit suicide…”

“No, no, I just want to… know where it is.”

“Or do ya have a score to settle? Is better to forgedda ‘bout it. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Listen, just tell me where it is and let me worry about the rest.” She grew  impatient with him.

“Fine, fine… Is in the norf-east from here. Just follow dat road dere until ya reach Blackwater,” he pointed to a road on the other side of the river. ”den go in de direction de big tower points to.”

“Thanks.” She got up to leave, but he grabbed her hand.

“Hey!” Jackie looked at the boy. “In case you have a plan… ya know… could you look out for a little girl? She should be eight now, chestnut colored hair, just like her eyes… dey took her you know. I don’t  fink she’s still alive but… her name’s Marlene. She’s my sister.”

“What’s your name?”

“Oh… David.”

“I’ll see what I can do, David!” He let go of her.

“Oh! And your name?”

“Jackie. See you later then!”, she said with a smile.

Just when she saw David’s face go even paler and his eyes widen she noticed her mistake.  She ran out of town on all four.