Kill her.

‘She knows too much,’ the not-you voice whispers. ‘Even if she didn’t, do you have any evidence on her? She’ll just hurt more people. Is that what you want, for her to have more innocent people arrested or shamed or assaulted? I mean, if it is, just let her go. But … you know a better use for someone like her, don’t you?’

Your fangs drop down, completely uncaring of if Atlee sees it. Her eyes go wide for a second as you dart in towards her, covering her mouth with your left hand as the shadows pin her in place and your teeth viciously tear into her throat. Unlike your other victims so far, you aren’t gentle with Atlee. You can tell she’s screaming into your hand as you worry and wrench her neck, giving in to doing exactly what you want right now with no editing. You want to kill her. You don’t want it to feel good. You want her to die, and you want her to suffer while it’s happening. You don’t even know how you know feeding like this, tearing and jerking around, is guaranteed to counteract the soothing effect your bite normally has, you just do.

As her cries reach too high a pitch for your hand to muffle, the same fury that called up the tendrils around her limbs pulses out again, and the room is swallowed in a chilly, absolute darkness. The noises she makes become too muffled, the blackness pouring out into the guest room from every dark corner tugging all noise into its depths. Though you can see the room is shadowed, it still looks easily clear enough to you, at least as much as it did with the lights on. She starts to go limp as you suck mercilessly from her, a grotesque slurping coming from the much wider wound on her neck than you’ve handed out before.

You pull yourself back before you finish draining her, shadows slipping away into their normal shapes. Atlee collapses on the bed, breathing shallow as she bleeds heavily. Panicking at the sudden clarity that you’re about to kill another human being, you jump on her and quickly close the neck wound, but it hardly seems to even help. Her eyes are completely closed, the pulse from her veins weak.

You stop yourself as you lift your arm up, considering bringing her back from the edge like Eva. But … you think about how strong Eva is now. You think about how she’s described the feeling to you. The power. Imagining that in Atlee’s hands is harrowing. God, she’s a monster, you can’t do that for her! But if you don’t … oh, fuck fuck fuck.

The door rattles suddenly and you spin to face it. The handles twists insistently, then jerks back and forth.

“Jaq!” Eva yells out from the other side. “Are you in there?!” She sounds scared, and you can’t stop yourself from unlocking the door and pulling her in before securing it again. “Oh, thank God, HOLY SHIT! Are they dead?”

“He’s … he’s just **** …” you **** yourself to say, pointing to Kurt. “He knew about Savina, that’s the girl. And I got him to talk. But then I needed a drink, and we hooked up, and I did the whammy thing because I wanted to know where he was with no lies, because he’s a fucking liar, and it turns out that with no lies, he’d rather fuck passed-out girls than willing partners.”

“Jesus fuck, Jaq-“

“So, I knocked him out, and then Atlee came in, and when I asked her how she knew he was in here, because she sent me up here, she told me she **** me at the rush and sent him to find me. And that she’s done it before, with other guys and with him, to people who won’t get out of her little bubble when she tells them. And I just got SO MAD, Eva! I … I talked to the shadows and they listened to me and tied her up, and I couldn’t MAKE her answer, but she did anyway, and she’s blackmailed people and had them arrested and failed out of school, she’s a fucking psycho!”

“And then?” Eva asks, glancing between you and her. You’re having a hard time reading her expression in the panic, but she looks hard and furious. God, you killed someone in front of her, what did you do? Why did you do this, why couldn’t you just keep it buckled down?

“I … I just lost it. And I bit her, hard, and the shadows made her be quiet even though she was screaming and I almost drained her … I stopped. But, but Eva, I can’t give her what I gave you! I can’t make her stronger, but if I don’t, she’s going to die!”

“Shh, come here, baby.” Eva hugs you tightly, squeezing a little harder than is entirely comfortable, but it really helps in the moment. “Everything’s okay. I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

“Eva, I killed her!” you respond, able to tell you’re fully crying blood now. “God, I just … I couldn’t help it, and she’s going to die! I don’t get to make that call, do I? What’s different about that and her crimes? I’m a fucking murderer, Eva!”

“Okay,” she says, matter-of-factly, as she pulls away from you. She walks over the bed, where Atlee is heavily panting out attempts to hold on to life in the face of the massive loss of blood you inflicted on her. Eva reaches down, calmly and precisely, grabs her head, then twists it in one smooth, savage motion. Her neck breaks nearly-effortlessly in the face of Eva’s supernatural ****, a sickening crunch sounding before she goes completely limp, and the shallow rise and fall of her chest and stomach finally ceases. “We,” she finishes, grabbing your hands and looking you in the eye, “are murderers. We killed her. Not you.” You’re a little in shocked from the sudden spurt of ****, but her soft, worried eyes do help you come down a little.

“I didn’t mean to …” you tell her weakly.

“I know. But she’s better off dead. I’m not saying you should have killed her, or that me finishing her off is good. Just that she was getting away with so much, and even if there was a better way, it’s still a net positive she’s gone. I’m so sorry we split up, I didn’t mean to shove you in the middle of something like this again.” You notice Eva’s doing a hell of a job staying composed, but she can’t help a few tears running down her cheeks, either. Hers, of course, just looks like tears, an observation that makes you feel even less human.

“It is.” You **** your breathing to slow and try to calm down, squeezing Eva’s hands back. “And it’s not your fault. There’s no way you could have known how far she was willing to go. And I didn’t die this time, I won. Though it doesn’t really feel like it …”

“I will help you through this. We can handle this. Look, I learned some things we can talk about back home about the girl who turned you, but we need to handle this right now. What do you want to do? I’ll do whatever I can to help, sweetie, I’m right here with you.”