Lila Lovely - Revenge (parts 15-22)

Part 15
The Liar had a partner? Lila sucked on the nail of her little finger. A Partner. A Liar’s Partner. Mmm, tasty, maybe. The Man was staring at her. She put her hand down. “What?” “You look like you’re thinking about eating her.” Lila sniffed. “I don’t eat people.” “I was joking,” he said. She shrugged, flexed her fingers and thought about hunting.

Part 16
To anyone walking past her, Lila looked like any other young woman, albeit with a now blue Mohawk and hidden nails. It was her movement that left a lasting impression; a lasting, unsettling and somewhat nagging impression. An impression of being hunted.

Part 17
With money from The Man’s wallet Lila paid for more supplies at the drug store. The clerk eyed her. “You got someone hurt?” Lila nodded, “cuts and bruises.” The clerk frowned. “She need to see a doctor?” Lila stared at her. The clerk stared back. Hazel eyes? Brown? The clerk tilted her head. “Who said it was a she?” Lila asked. The clerk shrugged. Lila left. The clerk turned to her co-worker. “That girl’s got… gold colored eyes.”

Part 18
Lila strolled toward the motel. There were a lot of people out, she didn’t want to attract too much attention. “She need to see a doctor?” Lila replayed the clerk’s question. “She.” Why “She”? A screech of tires and someone laid on a horn. “Watch where you’re going!” Lila wanted to leap at the car and pull the driver out for interrupting her thoughts but… “watch where you’re going” and “She.” Lila went back to the drug store.

Part 19
At the drug store the clerk’s co-worker was behind the counter. Lila looked around. He motioned toward the back of the store. “She left. You forget something?” Funny, there was an element, a whiff, of fear coming from him. Lila slid her hand across the counter. He moved Back. “Why did your friend think my friend was female.” The man avoided her gaze. She smiled. “Never mind, I’ll find out.” Real fear this time.

Part 20
The Man paced the motel room. “She thought I was a woman?” Lila shrugged. “Either you, or your sister.” He paused in mid step. “You think she was asking if my sister was hurt? You think she knew about her?” Lila shrugged again. “Do you know who the Liar’s partner was?” He shook his head. “I’ll be back.” And she was gone.

Part 21
It didn’t take Lila long to find the clerk. She was already dead, not that Lila had planned on de-souling her. She’d just wanted a little information. There wasn’t much left of the body, external burning does that. The sound of sirens meant it was time to leave. But before she did, under the body, saved from the fire — she grabbed it and loped away.

Part 22
The Man turned the ring over and over in his hand. “Was she wearing it?” Lila shook her head. “It doesn’t smell like hers.” He put it in his pocket. “It wasn’t.” He stood. “I suppose there’s nothing more for me her.” She grinned and he stared as she unsheathed her nails. “don’t you want to get the people who did this?” “There are more?” The tip of her tongue traced the edge of her lip as she breathed “oh, yesssssss.”

Lila Lovely is Hungry (2)

The next 8 parts

Lila Lovely - Part 9

The blind girl’s fingertips caressed Lila’s cheek. Lila’d never felt anything like that before. The old woman at the kitchen table smiled. “She can tell a lot about you with that touch of hers, she can.” Lila tried to smile back. “What do you think, Olivia?” the old woman asked as Olivia’s hands withdrew from Lila’s face. “She has the soul of an angel,” she said. “An avenging angel.” The old woman laughed. “You can stay with us. But when you’re done with your business, you leave.”

Lila Lovely - Part 10

Lila sat in the middle of her room, all her senses down but one. She concentrated on the house, probed each room, felt the breathing of the sleeping women. She breathed with their rhythm. There was someone else. Outside. Circling, circling. But no malice? Her eyes snapped open. She’d fed from him that afternoon.

Lila Lovely - Part 11

She crawled down the side of the house, blending with the shadows and flaking paint. Anxiety, impatience, anger. The encroached on her psyche. The figure passed her hiding place in the bushes. He tried a window, paced, tried again. All locked. He sat and rocked back and forth. He didn’t move when she touched him.

Lila Lovely - Part 12

“I’m dead,” he said. “You already killed me. You can’t do it again.” He faced her with empty eye sockets. “Protect them. You have to protect them.” She drew back. No one had ever continued on after she’d fed. “Olivia, the old woman. They’re innocents.” Lila squatted on her heels in front of him. She touched him again. Golden globules flowed to him, and retreated back. He was beyond protection.

Lila Lovely - Part 13

Lila sat at the table in the dark room. She pressed her right hand down, hard, on the table. Blackness oozed from it, hesitated, and flowed back. She pressed her left hand down, hard, on the table. Little golden flecks scampered from her fingertips, then larger and larger pieces flowed like rivulets. She yanked her hand back and the golden glow faded down, down, down until it thinned and spread throughout the house. The women were safe. They would always be safe. Now she could hunt.

Lila Lovely - Part 14

She crawled carefully through the field where the nine bodies had been. She wished she’d had time to inspect the one in the bag. “Over here!” the hollow whisper of the Dead Man. She touched him again, the gold refused to leave her hand. He brushed it away. “Under this rock. I can’t lift it.” To her it weighed nothing. She carefully moved the grubs aside and covered them again with dirt. Then frowned at the uncovered hole. Ten vials. Poison? But where had the blood come from?

Lila Lovely - Part 15

The Dead man’s empty eyes stared at her. “That’s why you didn’t smell any fear. There was none.” He knew about the smell of fear? Did he know who she was and why she was there? She ran from him, down into the valley, into the town. She wished Daddy were here. Then the whiff. That unmistakable smell. Her pulse beat in time to her run. Her tongue moistened her lips. She could feed again.

Lila Lovely - Part 16

The cafe was quiet. He stood over her, looking down at the steam from her cup of coffee, intruding. Tall, slender, a nice suit and a slime crusted attitude. She knew what he thought by the way he looked at her hair. Mohawks weren’t proper here. “You’re staying with the old woman and the blind girl,” he said. She decided he wouldn’t taste good at all. But the curvy woman behind him would. She smiled sweetly at the woman. “What of it?”

A Taste of Lila Lovely in Lila Lovely is Hungry

Lila Lovely is Hungry
Part 1
Lila pushed at the body with her finger. Nothing. She sniffed. Nothing. The nail of her forefinger unsheathed and she poked again. Nothing. The tip of her tongue touched her upper lip. Death without fear? This was new. She loped down the road to the valley town.

Lila Lovely - Part 2

She walked casually through town, Daddy’s last words in her ear. “How many?” she’d asked. “As many as you want.” He’d whispered before releasing her. She wanted to howl and dance in her excitement. But walked instead, drinking in just enough of the essence of fear and hate to take the edge off her hunger.

Lila Lovely - Part 3

They stood in clumps, the people of the town. Gathered in doorways, on corners, looking out their windows. Hushed conversations were loud with contained terror. “At the edge of town.” “Did the police go?” “dead.” “Dead.” “DEAD!” Her smug smile faded. ‘Edge of town?’ What was dead? The body she encountered was on the hill.

Lila Lovely - Part 4

A fight at the end of the block distracted her. People left their groups and ran. She let herself get swept up with the crowd as fear and anger in the air buoyed her upward. She stretched and flexed and resisted a pirouette and then stopped. Someone was staggering down the street, dragging something big behind him. Something big, and bloody. “Ew,” she thought. “Too messy.”

Lila Lovely - Part 5

There was fear this time. It occupied the street; an omnipresent fat old uncle with a leering grin. Someone jostled her from behind. Her hand shot out to stop her fall and gripped a man’s arm. The blackness from her sheathed nails flowed onto him. For a moment they stared at each other in shock. As much as she would have loved to have enjoyed his death, she snatched her hand back. No one would know it was her.

Lila Lovely - Part 6

People stared down at the bloody sack made from an old decaying awning. The man who’d been dragging it dropped to his knees in exhaustion. “More bodies,” he coughed out. “Back there.” Lila didn’t dare to open the sack. She was a stranger here. She needed to blend in. The man she’d touched was backing away, choking, coughing, tearing at his collar. She wasn’t interested. But the “more bodies, back there” did interest her.

Lila Lovely - Part 7

Five, six… nine. Nine bodies. None smelled of fear. Lila walked among the dead, crouched over each. Unsheathed a nail or two to scrape across a throat, a chest, a thigh… no fear. Puzzled she sat back on her haunches and howled her disappointment. A rustle of leaves, a thudding of footsteps and she met her attacker full on. Instead of a touch she plunged her nails deep into him, and was satiated. She walked away as he writhed dying on the ground.

Lila Lovely - Part 8

The house was big and as gray as an unhappy day. The signs “rooms to let” was so old and beaten Lila didn’t know if it was still true but she walked to the door and knocked. Once. Again. Again. The door opened soundlessly on a young woman. “You have a room for rent?” Lila asked. “Yes.” The door opened wider. Then she realized the young woman was blind.