Footprints [Raven Marie]

[Jesse Fforde]

The deed was done.

The blood did its work. It entered the girl's bloodstream, its magic attacking whatever was left of her humanity, slaughtering it one cell, one organ at a time. Normally, it should have only taken hours, a night at most. For Jesse and his brood, however, it took longer. It took a whole week. A week of pain and illness. Jesse was an expert nurse at this point.

As soon as the change started, Jesse gave Raven room to lay back. He pulled the blankets over her, only after removing the bulk of her jacket and her shoes. She didn't need those. For every other need -- for showers, a change of clothes -- he'd ask one of the many other women of the family to come up and help her. For now, however, he just lingered. If the girl passed out he would leave. Otherwise, he'd remain.

[Raven Marie (DELETED 9137)]

Raven laid there and tried not to close her eyes though that hadn't much succeeded. Her face soon became calm and she fell asleep. She couldn't imagine what would happen next yet she wanted so badly to know. All she could think about was her family. She could remember exactly what had happened that night, to her and her family. She could never forget the screams of her family even of her own. She didn't understand why everything had to change. Why couldn't everything just stay the way she wanted it to be. She remembered her mother. father and little sister screaming her name that night. Raven hadn't gotten there quick enough to save them. If she would have just stayed home maybe none of that would've happened. If she didn't like to explore so much then she would still have her family. She wouldn't have had to live on the streets for 11 years. She wouldn't have had to scavenge for food. She wouldn't have done a lot of things. She just wished that she could go back 11 years and redo what she did wrong. To try and save her family. To make things change and to have a real family. Though now she would have one if they excepted her. She dreamed about her family and about that night. For that was all she could think about.

[Jesse Fforde]

As suspected, the girl passed out. How long she would be asleep for Jesse couldn't tell. It was different for everyone. Some didn't pass out at all, only going to sleep after the illness had exhausted them to a point where they had no choice. Some passed out immediately, only to be woken by the wracking pain. Some slept through the pain, which was the more merciful route.

As soon as the girl was asleep Jesse left a note to explain the layout of the lair and that exploration should be kept to a minimum, lest the girl stumble into some traps and get herself killed before she'd had the chance to survive. Given how ill the others had been in the first week, however, he doubted that Raven would have the energy, much less the will, to explore at all. In the note he explained that he would be back.

He then left, sauntering out into the main space to take the elevator down. He had to find Clover -- he had to tell her what he had done. And he would have to deal with her wrath. Maybe she would call it a dumb thing, this thing that he had done. But he would defend himself to the best of his ability, and cave on the rest. Regardless, she had to be told. It had to be done.

[Raven Marie (DELETED 9137)]

Raven felt bad for letting her family die like that. She thought that there could be some things that she could've prevented. She was wrong. As she replayed that night in her head over and over again she realized that nothing she could've done would prevent it from happening. She didn't know how exactly she had survived that fire but, there had to be a good explanation to why. She had lit on fire herself but, had woken up perfectly alive. Her clothes had been burnt like hell but, otherwise she was fine besides her skin. She could remember the screams of her family the way they called her name. After she had woken up she had found her mother's, father's and sister's bodies laying there by the house. Dead. She had ran over screaming and had held her mother close. Most of their skin had been burnt off from the flames. It made them look terrifying. She had cried there for days holding her mother. It wasn't like she had anywhere else to go. She hated that memory but, she also cherished it. For it was the last memory she had of her family and parents.