"Shit!"

  I hissed and threw my hands over my eyes from the sudden confusing sting that crashed into my skin. It jolted me awake so harshly that I hit the back of my head on the headboard in my attempt to escape it, and was immediately met with a pounding headache. I scrambled under the covers for shade. My face was burning unbearably and I could feel every layer of my skin sizzling. The blistering light was supposed to be blocked out by the purposely thick curtains, but Victoria must've gotten curious, as I found her staring out the window blankly when I peaked out of a gap of the blankets.

  "Victoria! Close it!" I growled.

  She snapped her head around to me in a startle, but quickly did as instructed. As darkness once again filled the room, I let out a huff of relief and freed myself from my blanket fortress. I groaned into my hands at the lingering pain and could feel the heat emanating from my burns. I usually wouldn't be this easily affected by the light, but I had been growing weaker by the day, not able to find much time to replenish myself while also babysitting a walking corpse.

  Victoria stood in place, her brow slightly furrowed. I could never tell what she was thinking, if she even was. To my utter surprise, she cautiously reached out a hand and let her fingertips trace along my burned skin. I bit back my immediate reaction and let her do so despite the sheer pain it caused me. After the initial shock passed, I found her cool skin to be rather soothing. My eyes fluttered shut as I let myself indulge in the moment, it being the first time she'd touched me since the accident. I could almost imagine the girl I used to know cupping my face instead. Almost.

  She pulled her hands away after my skin quickly repaired itself, and she returned to her usual husk-like behaviour. As if it hadn't even happened, she wandered around my bedroom to explore again. I watched her with an aching heart. It was bittersweet. I'd sometimes get the rare reaction or act from her that would give me hope that she was still there, somewhere under the mountain of brain fog in her head. I'd learned to appreciate them, but not dwell on them, as they came and went ever so briefly. I snapped back to reality and got up to get ready for the day like everything was fine.

  "We gotta head into town today." I informed her despite knowing she wasn't listening. "I know you hate the temptation of being around people, but it's necessary. I'm all out of food for the both of us."

  I paused to give her time to reply. She didn't.

  "...yeah, nah, butcher shops don't usually deliver." I responded to the air. "Last time I left you here by yourself, you took a bite out of the neighbour's cat. You've lost that privilege, so you're coming with me."

  Victoria rummaged through my closet as I talked to myself like usual. She opened each drawer one by one, running her fingers across my clothes in search of familiarity. The textures of the different fabrics felt amplified to her in some way, as if her touch had grown hypersensitive. The cheap, scratchy material of one of the sweaters I never wore caught her off guard. She quickly retracted her hands and scrunched her nose with a shudder, backing off and deciding to explore the bookshelf instead.

  "I want you to try pig's blood. I know you say you hate pork, but it tastes way different," I followed her to the bookshelf and supervised her exploration, a hand on my hip. "You desperately need nutrients, and until we figure out what exactly you can and can't eat, you're gonna have to experiment."

  Victoria found a picture frame on one of the shelves. One I'd faced down for a damn good reason. I immediately reached out to try and take it from her, but hesitated, and bit my lip in defeat as she picked it up.

  Tap tap.

  She pointed a clawed finger to my face in the photo, her head tilting ever so slightly. Her lips parted, as if about to say something, but no sound came. My expression softened at the display of recognition; it was a good sign.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  It was a photo of us from high school, a little more than a month ago, before we both had to drop out thanks to our situation. It was... really hard for me to look at. In it, Tori and I were all dressed up in shitty makeshift costumes from the $2 store for the annual swimming carnival. She was drenched from the water and hugging me obnoxiously tightly with that damn grin of hers plastered on her face, while I was flinching away in disgust, trying to stay dry. There were two reasons I hated it. One being that it looked like I was disgusted by her, which only made me feel shitty in hindsight, and the other reason being that it was the last photo I had of her smiling. It was the last day she'd lived. At first I'd framed it in memory of who she used to be, but it had become a looming reminder of my guilt, so I faced it down. I wanted to throw it out, but I just didn't have it in me to get rid of it. Victoria must've also been somewhat affected by the photo, as her hands grew shaky the longer they held the frame, and she suddenly planted it back face down on the shelf again rather abruptly. She shuddered and marched away.

  I watched her leave before looking back to the picture frame. Sometimes I wondered if she hated me deep down for what I did to her, other times I accepted that she no longer had the lucidity necessary for strong emotions like that. I didn't really know which was worse.

  "Don't stare."

  Pushing my sunglasses further up the bridge of my nose, I dragged Tori through the underground entrance of the mall. It took a lot of planning to navigate the mall in the day while completely avoiding sunlight and it wasn't foolproof so I made sure I didn't have much skin exposed before taking her here. I could feel her tense every time she noticed another person in the vicinity. She was acting like a dog that was refusing to cooperate, leaving their owner to tug on their leash. Her wide, milky eyes tracked each passer-by one at a time with a hunger she still wasn't used to. It was a habit I'd been really trying to crack down on with her, but it wasn't her fault. The specifics of her current state were still fuzzy, and until I figured it out, I'd have to take risks like bringing her with me everywhere... even if she wanted to eat everyone.

  Any time we'd go out in public - which I thoroughly avoided - I had my rules. She'd have to be fully covered, gloves and all, to hide her stitches and greyish skin. Tori was to never leave my sight. She'd have to keep her face mask on to conceal the deep scarring around her mouth, along with dark sunglasses like mine. In all honestly, it sometimes felt like we'd draw more attention to ourselves like that than if we tried looking normal, but it was better to have people suspicious of you being some celebrity in disguise than two reanimated corpses.

  Once we reached the butcher shop, she snapped her focus to the meat the second she could smell it. While she pressed her hands against the glass and studied the many cuts on display, and made those nearby back away in turn, I spoke to the worker behind the counter. To be honest, I wouldn't have been surprised if the workers here knew what I was by now. I'd been coming here for years, dressed in my suspicious outfits and ordering everything that no one else ever buys. All the offcuts and parts they'd throw away. Sure you'd get the odd person asking to purchase animal blood or organs every now and then, either for some specific dish or for spiritual purposes, but doing so routinely as a teenager almost definitely gave me away. Either way, they were nice and never asked questions, which was all I wanted. Though I could tell they were wary any time I brought Victoria.

  "Now, with the kidneys, they are a little drier than usual, but they shouldn't taste much different if you cook them." The cashier, Jean, explained. She briefly waved to Victoria, but the girl was busy staring at a passer-by who had brought their dog to the mall. The dog growled at her gaze.

  I paused as I processed Jean's wording and raised a brow. "... if?"

  "Uh," Jean blinked and cleared her throat. "Y'know. Some people prefer to feed their dogs raw food and such."

  I don't have a dog. Jean knows that.

  I brushed it off and nodded in thanks as I took the bags from her. I'd made sure to get more variety this time, wanting to get Victoria to expand her diet if possible. Right now all she liked was raw chicken, raw lamb, and for some bizarre reason, marshmallows. Aside from the occasional meal out of a stray animal or the neighbour's cat that one time, she couldn't eat much else. I knew she was in some sort of limbo, frozen right in the middle of her transformation, but since she didn't have any fangs, I really wasn't sure how she'd go with human blood. Maybe one day.

  "Oh, there's also this." Jean passed me a container of congealed pork blood. "On the house. It expires today anyway."

  I had to suppress a reaction at the sight. Even after years of dealing with my hunger, and more than enough exposure therapy every time I came here, the sight of any more than a few millilitres of blood spiked my heart rate. I choked on my own breath before quickly composing myself.

  "Yeah, thanks." I muttered, quickly throwing it in one of the other bags so Tori wouldn't see it. "Okay, lets-"

  I fell silent as I turned around and found myself alone. Tori was nowhere to be seen.

  "... fuck."