Excerpt:

The man didn’t look like he saw Angelene, and was bending down to pick up Daphne when she hit him from the side. He was knocked off his balance, and dropped Daphne, who landed contorted on the ground. Around her, the mist thinned out, but was still thick enough to obscure the newcomer’s face- but Angelene knew who it was.

“You bastard!” She screamed, “I knew it was you!”

She’d managed to get her hands around his neck as they struggled.

He threw her off effortlessly and she landed hard on the ground; the coils of mist were sent spiraling up around her. It made no move for either of them, and was satiated- anyway, they didn’t have anything it wanted.

The man got to his feet easily, and swiveled in the moonlight. His hair caught the light like platinum; for a moment as he stood over her, his silhouette eclipsing the moon and crowning his head in a penumbra of silver while Angelene was on the ground broken, dirty, ground into the dirt.

She rose out of the mist like the living dead, her arms out in front of her as she struggled to regain her balance. The trees behind her were grey and looming tombstones. She lunged at him again, and felt her blade slip into the unprotected space between his ribs.

They both stood there for a moment as she pulled the blade out of his chest; the edge was clean like nothing had even happened.

He just smiled.

“I thought I’d find you here.”

Angelene wiped the blade on her cloak even though she knew there was nothing on it. She hadn’t even looked at it. Her mind reached out, trying to get a grip on him and failing.

He was smiling, but it was a dangerous smile.

The man punched her square in the jaw. She staggered back, hand on her chin, the other waving the knife. A root underneath her foot tripped her up, and she fell back; she reached up and pulled him down as well at the last moment before her hand slipped.

He wasn’t trying. Angelene knew he wasn’t trying- it was a game to him.

He stopped halfway through the fall, as if gravity had ceased to work for him, and rose silently to his feet again.

“Still trying, I see.”

There would have been blood in Angelene’s mouth if she bled. She spat at him, and tried to slice the blade cleanly across his neck in one vicious stroke- but he caught her hand just as the edge of the metal brushed his skin.

“I found her first.” he said, with his iron grip still around her wrist. “The humans
have a saying about it: Finders… something. Anyway-“ he trailed off.

Angelene watched his face, making sure to note any slight change that could betray his next actions. There was nothing.

“I’d hoped you’d died!” she spat.

The man snorted a laugh, playful malice in his eyes as he grinned at her. His hand still held her wrist, and hers still held the dagger touching his cold throat. She tried to twist her hand away, but it was to no avail.

“You and I know that-“ he started, but Angelene cut him off.

“Shut up!”

He almost slapped her.

From here she could see the wear and tear of age on his face, the faint lines that twitched slightly when he became annoyed- they were the same lines that she had, that made her look like a walking skeleton.

His waiting hand settled instead for pulling her up by her neck as she made a faint choking noise- her feet dangled useless off the ground like dolls legs. She reached for his face with her free hand, but it was just out of her arm’s length and she couldn’t gouge out his eyes. Panic rose inside her, not for choking- she couldn’t choke- but again for the glass heart. He could take it, steal it from her and leave her cold and dead; the image of him doing that was burned into her mind. She could already see the look on his face.

At a loss for what to do, she clawed at his arm and flailed her useless feet. Her mind reached out, but there was nothing she could do to his that hadn’t already been done.

His voice changed into something slightly more reminiscent.

“Remember the swamp?”

She glared down her nose at him because her head was forced back.

“I pried the leeches off myself.”

Angelene struggled harder within his grasp, without answering.

“That was the last time we’d really talked.”

He looked over his shoulder at Daphne, who was still lying in unconsciousness on the ground. She looked so at home, it seemed to be her natural state.

“And now…” he looked back at Angelene, who was still kicking feebly at him. Her determination had faded, and she looked like she was only doing it because there was nothing else to do.

“You’re still chasing these stupid human girls!” He threw her to the forest floor. She rallied magnificently. He appeared to calm down- after a while his breathing slowed, and his voice became softer, “They wouldn’t know it was your fault if you failed, you know.”

He went on after Angelene got to her feet again, rubbing her neck. When he’d thrown her down to the dirt, the knife in her other hand had nicked his own skin, but there was no blood coming from the wound.

“You could just fade away like the rest of us did, and let it happen.”

“You could have just done that too!” she spat.

He glared at her.

Angelene went over to Daphne, who sighed a little and brought her arm up to shield her face from something she could only see in her dreams.

“These humans are disgusting anyway!” He kicked the ground hard, sending dirt spraying into the air, and pointed at Daphne. “Don’t you see what she is? Look at her! She’s just a bag of flesh! I mean, look at that one-” He pointed to the body of Michael, who was still lying slumped over on his stomach where the mist had killed him. With one wave of his hand, and the body was sunk into the ground.

“Disgusting…”

“I know, John.”

He didn’t say anything until he turned, his clothes whistling and rippling through the air. He looked like he was going to say something, but instead he left his mouth just stayed open.

His resolve strengthened, and he stood up straight- extending himself until he was domineering over Angelene at almost seven feet. Gingerly, he raised his hand to his throat and made a little scraping noise as he prepared to say something.

“I’ve quite enjoyed our little chat, Angelene. I hope to see you again.” He paused, glancing at her over his shoulder. She wasn’t looking at him, “I will, that’s what I mean.”

Angelene still wasn’t looking at him. “I don’t intend to stop.”

“Good.”

There was a faint crackle like the snap of frost, and he was gone, and Angelene was left with her back slightly turned to Daphne in the silence. What had been the fire in the campsite was down to cinders now, and she knew that though their little chat had been much longer in reality, though it had seemed rather brief. The moon wasn’t longer peering through the forest canopy anymore.

John distorted time- he always had- around him, it ran slow and thick like molasses, barely touching his skin.

She was angry. She kicked a rock, then, turned and kicked Daphne in the side.

She groaned and rolled over.

She was lucky to be alive- now was the chance.

Angelene found her knife, which had ended up in the bushes nearby, and placed her hand over the girl’s mouth.