CURSE OF THE BLOOD MOON
Chapter 13- HEARTBEATS

The next four weeks were easier than the first. The little girl Kayla was much more responsive to the doctors and parents. She formed a friendship with both Scarlet and Michelle. Her mother often thanked Scarlet for the help she gave her and this made her feel prouder of herself.

Kayla’s nightmares were occurring less often showing a sign of improvement. They moved her up to the children’s ward, they didn’t think it would do her any good to be in the psych ward where there weren’t any other children.

On her way to the wards, Scarlet peeped into the hospital nursery. She stood there looking at the newborn babies, admiring their scrunched faces and their tiny limbs. Scarlet gently patted her round belly, wondering if her child would look any different.

Physically she didn’t think his appearance would be any different. She had often had nightmares that she would give birth to a tiny black jaguar, but would laugh it off once she was awake. She looked forward to having her baby and being an ordinary mother. Counting his ten toes and fingers, being certain that he wouldn’t howl instead of cry.

She had wanted a normal pregnancy, but that was proven impossible but now she was happy to settle with a normal baby. One of the nurses smiled at her, pointing at her big bulge, obviously anticipating her child joining the rest in the cubicle. Scarlet smiled back, wanting nothing more than to have her baby with the others, but realistic to the fact that it would never happen.

Her baby wasn’t just a baby, he was an immortal.

She spent most of her time in Kayla’s room, playing dolls and letting her braid her hair. Scarlet already knew she was going to have a son, but she indulged herself with thoughts of having a daughter. Having little Kayla there with her only fuelled her fantasies.

She had told Kayla about the little Kayla she had met and couldn’t help but laugh at the jealously laced-on her voice.

***

Scarlet went to the emergency room to see Archie when Kayla fell asleep. Michele sat with her just in case she had another bad dream. She found the E.R in chaos, victims of a bus crash were being rushed in.

She looked around the room and all she could see in blood and all she could smell was blood. Scarlet took a step back to give way to a bunch of nurses pushing a gurney with one of the victims in it. His clothes were drenched in his blood.

Scarlet shook her head a couple of times trying to rid a rhythmic sound that was louder than all the moans and cries for help in the room. She closed her eyes trying to concentrate, trying to replace the origin. But it was all around her, the same sound but in different rhythms, different beats.

Hysteria began to root up from inside her when she finally realized what they were.

“Heartbeats. I can hear their heartbeats.” She backed into a bed with the patient in it.

“Ow!”

She quickly turned to see him hold his arm in pain. Her gaze shifted from his arm to his bandaged forehead. Blood was seeping through it, and the sight of it made her throat dry and her mouth water. Scarlet couldn’t hold herself back. She was leaning towards him, her eyes fixed on the spots of blood.

“Scarlet!” Archie grabbed her arms and lead her out of the madhouse. “Are you alright?”

He was shaking her out of her frozen state. He mistook her advance towards the patient as that of a person who wanted to help.

“Remember the last time you tried to help, you fainted.” His smile froze when he noticed that something was not right with her eyes.

“Scarlet look at me.” He took her chin in his hands and pushed her head up to look at him. “Did you get hurt or something? Your eyes are red-black, like a clot.” He was taking out his little torch to look into her eyes.

Scarlet knew he was saying something to her because his lips were moving. But his voice was being drowned by all the heartbeats around them, especially his own.

When he released her face, her eyes fell to his neck. She could see the thick vein on the side of his neck. Her finger lifted to it and she pressed down on it. She could feel the rush of his skin under her finger.

Scarlet was literary kicked out of the trance when the baby stirred inside her. Her hand fell to her stomach. She turned around and ran, she didn’t know for how long she would have this moment of clarity.

She went through the front door leaving everything she had brought with her behind. Scarlet could hear Archie’s footsteps behind her. She obviously couldn’t outrun him but she didn’t stop.

Contrary to the temperature outside, Scarlet felt her body heating up. He caught up to her just as she hailed down a taxi. She needed to get home, back to the four walls and the solitude.

“Scarlet. Wait.” He grabbed her arm and tried to spin her to face him.

“No. I need to go home. I can’t be here.”

“Ok, fine.” He let go of her arm and helped her into the taxi. He gave the driver twenty dollars and the address to her home.

Scarlet looked straight ahead, she was trying hard to concentrate on remaining in her seat.

“I’ll come by later with your things.”

She didn’t answer him, her eyes were fixed on the meter. She was going to stare at the numbers count along if she had to. She was determined not to look at the driver or his neck. She shouted the numbers in her head, pushing aside the sound of his heartbeat.

The second they got to her building, Scarlet jumped out. The driver had already been paid so she didn’t have a reason to look back.

It was only when she got to her door that she realized her keys were in her purse and her purse was back at the hospital. She tried to relax first before climbing up two flights of stairs to the superintendent. She sat at her door and took deep breaths, her hand patted the side of her belly while the other cradled it from the bottom.

“Why does this keep happening?” she looked down at where her hands snugly cradled her belly. “Is this because of you, little guy? How could I be so stupid, this is the child of a vampire and a beast and I’m waltzing around hospitals where blood is inevitable.”

She needed help, she needed Kayla there with her.

Scarlet could hear a lot of commotion coming from the floor above her. She didn’t care to look or replace out what was happening, she continued to sit down her hands firmly in place on her protruding stomach.

She only knew that something was wrong when the far-away sirens were getting closer to the buildings. The loud footsteps of a couple of dozen men got her to her feet.

The super ran down the stairs and met half a dozen policemen on their way up. He directed them upstairs before turning his attention to her.

“You should get into your apartment miss.”

Scarlet looked past him and watched as the policemen ran up and down the stairs. The movement and the confusion of it were making her dizzy.

“I forgot my keys. What’s going on up there?”

The superintendent moved her out of the way as a new tea of people ran up the stairs. Their jacket read ‘forensics.’

Scarlet was getting worried hundreds of scenarios ran through her mind, robbery, murder-suicide, or an attack. She didn’t know what to think.

“What’s going on here mister...” she had never bothered to know his name, she looked at his jumpsuit thanking whoever stitched his name to it, “Billy?”

“Something terrible happened to Ms. Smith.” He recognized the blank stare and immediately knew she didn’t know who he was referring to. “The old lady in one-o-two.”

Scarlet felt even worse knowing that someone had died and she didn’t even know them or where they lived. She decided to abandon the pretense of knowing who he referred to and asked for the details.

“Her neighbors have been complaining of a bad smell. When I knocked, she didn’t open so I used my master key. I found her dead in her bed, her neck ripped out.” He took off his baseball cap, revealing the shine of his baldness, and held it to his chest. “Poor old girl someone killed her.”

Scarlet had to steady herself against the wall. The description of her dead body made her nervous and faint. There was something about it that seemed too familiar.

“Could you please open my door for me?” She swallowed hard her eyes fixed on the floor.

He opened the door for her and looked up at her when she said thank you. He stopped and stared at her, leaning towards her as if trying to get a good look at her.

“Miss? Your eyes. Are you hurt?”

“Yes, I ran into a wall thank you for your help.” The excuse was lame she knew that all too well. Scarlet hoped the events taking place upstairs would distract him.