Carnivores

Not once in her life had she enjoyed the foul smell of blood.

Not once in her fourteen years of life had Betty felt so nauseous.

She felt the horror rising to the utmost, filling up from her innermost organs.

The bedroom where she would sleep from day-to-day now soaked in a red, slimy liquid, spattering up her garments whenever she took a step. The whole room, comprised of nothing but a single bed and a desk, was now a mess with the liquid leaking from every nook and cranny. Betty prayed that it wasn't what she thought it was, but the scent was the last straw. It was a strong, putrid odour, activating all her nerves at once, causing her fight-or-flight response to kick in, the scent of blood. The girl was quick on her feet and in an instant, she kicked the door open, dashing out of the house, into the open air, where she thought would be a lot safer. If there were blood, not to mention it was a pool of blood in the safe shelter which she had always called "home", she would not be safe and sound around it, something odd was going to happen and Betty knew it better than anyone in this rotten world.

As for her second prayer, she pleaded that the situation were not as horrible as she thought it was. It happened to be even worse.

With shrieks and screeches from every corners of the suburban, she began to lose sanity, her body motioning on its own with the rapid and powerful beating of her heart the loudest thing she could hear. She didn't want this to be her demise, there were a million things she hadn't gotten to do. Then, she saw it, first appearing in the shape of a dark shadow on the cement ground, looming over her, not for long had she seen its shadow that the whole figure appeared. Neither animal nor human, it was triple the size of a black bear, moving on all four, its scent the worst thing she had ever experienced, the scent of flesh with all kinds of tyranny in the world. It was fast but Betty used her size to hold the upperground. She was grappling with fate, taking every shot, turning at every corner, trying to lose sight of it. Sometimes, she would hear the pedestrians murmuring quick words of prayers. Although the chase was witnessed by everyone, no-one bothered lending a hand. They turned a blind eye to her situation, walking past her as if nothing was unfolding in front of their eyes, their faces colder than the frost in Antarctica, their eyes sharper than those of the eagles, she had never seen something so lifeless.

Then, as the chase kept on happening, she was lost in the flashback, reminded of the cause of why everything happened.

Because humanity had degraded.

For such a long time, men had made it their ambition to live for themselves, no-one but themselves, make others bite the dust to rise to the top. Humans had become so selfish that the higher beings just couldn't ignore it. Humans was punished with something far greater than their shallow knowledge, those monstrosities, feeding on humans, hence, the name Carnivores. At first, there were reactions in communities with humans fending for others in such a long time, they stood together, fight together. Heartwarming indeed, but it didn't last for long. The moment men realized that the Carnivores only feed once a month, they stopped grappling with the beasts, they let others fend for themselves, ignore it whenever people die. They questioned the need of going through such a hassle for strangers.

"Not many are going to die anyway, only around a dozen a year and humanity has suffered worse. Come on people! We have a population of 8 billion! A few dozens don't matter."

With that, life went on. Only when their lives were at stake that they reckoned about their selfishness, that they started to know how the victims felt. Soon, those beasts duplicated and from a a few dozens people dying a year to it, the number ascended to a few hundreds, a few thousands.

Only when her life was at stake that Betty reckones the effect of her life on others, how the girl refused to help when she could had. As an orphan, she was raised without much love by a distant relative of hers, soon, he passed and Betty was left with his house. A motto that she was taught to be her ideal.

"Fight for yourself, fend for yourself."

Just now had she realized how detrimental it was, how foolish she was.

"Help! Please help me!" She screamed words of pleadings, she felt her lungs torn apart, slowly reduced to tatters, hot streams of tear flooding down her cheeks the moment Betty learned that no-one would help. If her kin were still alive, would they rescue her?

Dusk started rolling in with the sun slowly dying, leaving his crimson essence on the sky, filling its whole like a blood sea. She knew that she would be dead by midnight because when the sun was down, those beasts became even more active.

However, just as she intended to turn left at a corner, a door of a house budged open and an old lady, seemingly in her 80s, beckoned for her to come inside. She leapt over the wooden fences, not bother opening the gate and ran into house, slamming the door shut. Betty fell onto the ground in fatigue for she had been running in ten minutes or more.

"Oh dear...you must be exhausted..."

The lady said, her voice came out as a whisper, the resemblance of a steaming teapot.

"Those creatures...they are driving us all crazy, it is cruel how people are so apathetic about them!"

She spoke, sitting on a chair, looking at the exhausted girl on the ground. Betty was thankful but her mouth was dry, as if sand was clutching in her throat, if only she could make out some words to express her gratitude. Although Betty was anxious about her survival, she was actually more concerned for the old lady's safety.

'I can't just spend my time on the ground...' Betty thought, so she rose, picking herself up from the ground and made her way through the one storey building, into the kitchen and downed a glass of water.

"Thank you miss, if it wasn't for y-"

Words spurted out of her mouth but was cut short by the hand gesture of lady, asking Betty not to talk.

"It was only common sense to help someone dear, it is what set us apart from those things out there, now, I have a spare bedroom, you may sleep there if you wish, I am going to mine."

She stood up from the wooden chair she had been sitting on and unlocked a wooden door to the far left side of the room, slowly closing it behind her. With her guidance, Betty also went into the spare sleeping room, lying on the rock-like bed and fell asleep.

That night, Betty didn't dream but she was snapped awake by a noise in the middle of the night, the sound of groaning, like those of the dogs from her neighborhood, the unpleasant scent of blood. As she made her way towards the door, she heard the deafening scream of the woman on the other side. Betty slightly slid the door open to take a peak of it. The teenage girl was greeted by the sight of the creature, along with the lady on the door, her face disfigured with her body torn open, revealing her inner tissues, her limbs nothing left but pieces of shattered bones.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

An involuntary scream.

Frozen right on spot.

Betty was helpless.

Run run run run, she told herself.

Paralyzed, her nerves responded.

Unable to move, all she could do was witnessing how the beast approached her.

Its foul breath got stronger and stronger.

Her eyelids got weights on them, closing on their own as Betty began to accept her fate.
...
The girl slowly fell down the ground…

With a lone heart that beat one final time.