Meet Melody: Part 5

I'm too tired to think of an intro, so here you go.

She pulled Melody back into the room, away from the crowded common room. “What are you doing here like this? I thought…” she hesitated. “Melody, what happened to you? Your eyes!”

“It’s a long story,” Melody said. She looked around as one of the cooks slipped and pricked her finger on a knife. The scent of blood filled her nostrils and she swallowed uncomfortably as the thirst began to return. “Mary, I need help. Do you have my room open?”

Mary hesitated again and nodded, leading her up the back stair to a small but cozy room on the inn’s third floor. The woman bustled about, lighting candles and oil lamps.

“I’ll have my girls bring up coal for the brazier,” she said as she worked. She looked at Melody in concern. “Are you sure you’re okay? Is there anything I can get for you?”

Melody shook her head, struggling to ignore the sound of her friend’s heartbeat. “No… no, I’m fine. I just need a place to rest.”

Mary stared at her carefully for a long moment and left with a nod.

Sounds of the inn and town outside filled her sensitive ears as she stripped off her coat and crossed to the frosted window. Her eyes pierced the darkness outside, cutting through the dark and the smoke. Clouds obscured the sky and it had started to snow. She glanced up, momentarily forgetting the burning of the thirst as she saw past the cloud cover and into the endless stars.

“It almost makes up for the thirst,” whispered the voice. It look Melody a long moment to realize that the thought was her own.

“I guess I’m getting used to this,” she mumbled, groaning as she dropped into the soft bed.

There were footsteps in the hall outside and she sighed, realizing that she could recognize Mary by the smell of her blood.

“Thanks for doing this Mary,” she said, closing her eyes as the door opened. “Something happened, I….”

There was a clicking noise and her eyes snapped open.

“What are you?” demanded Mary, leveling her husband’s flintlock pistol at Melody’s head. The weapon wavered slightly, matching her trembling voice. “I’ve heard the stories! You’re not my friend!”

Melody froze. “Mary, no, it’s me….”

The woman shook her head, frightened tears filling her eyes as she edged closer. “No! You’re a vampire, a demon! What did you do to Melody?”

Melody started to move, started to reassure her friend but Mary panicked, her finger tightening on the trigger. The gun went off with the sound of thunder and something hard hit her in the head, knocking her back into the soft pillows. The bullet, glancing off of her iron hard skin, slammed into the oil lamp on the stand by the bed. Shouts and screams filled the air as flames spread through the room, biting hungrily into the bedding and wooden walls. Mary dropped the gun and clapped her hands to her mouth in horror, screaming hysterically as Melody jumped to her feet and dove headlong through the window.

She landed easily on her feet in the street below, the voice screaming at her to run.

“No,” she growled, forcing the voice away as she looked up at the smoke pouring from the shattered window. “Mary!”

Guests inside, already unnerved by the gunshots and screams, turned in shock as Melody burst through the door.

“Fire!” she screamed. “The inn’s on fire! Everyone out! Get the buckets!”