I swing back and forth, my mind in a daze, staring into nothingness. The creak of the chains supporting my weight and the swing I am sat upon. Back and forth I go, a sinking feeling in my stomach quickly followed by a rising feeling in my gut.

  The swing buckles as I apply force unequally upon the chains, the momentum causing me to spin out erratically. I snap back to my senses, bancing myself so not to fall off the seat, using my arms to force stability into the chains. The swing stumbles to a sudden and jarring halt.

  I breathe deeply, looking down at the ground then up at the sky, yesterday’s events still fresh in my mind. The weight of my actions and the taste of her blood still lingering in my mind. I shake my head violently, my own thoughts fill me with concern.

  My mind is pgued with questions but I am quickly distracted by a group of young toddlers and their mothers wondering into the pyground. I sit silently on the swing hoping not to draw any attention to myself.

  I take a peek at one of the kids being spun on a roundabout by her mother, a little girl like I had once been. Except I didn’t have a mother, a dark cloud shrouds my thoughts as I am reminded of the loneliness I have to live with every day. Unlike these kids, I will never know a mothers love, a fathers discipline or encouragement. All I have are the cold exhausted second hand ptitudes given to me by the Sisters at the orphanage.

  These sad thoughts, while not ideal, keep me grounded in reality. A sobering feeling when compared to recent events.

  Thump-Thump! A sound grabs my attention.

  Thump-Thump! There it is again. It sounds unfamiliar yet strangely inviting.

  I look up and around me, curiosity quickly grabbing hold of me.

  Thump-Thump!

  I can see no source for the sound, no rational expnation for its existence.

  Thump-Thump! Thump-Thump! Thump-Thump! It grows persistent and consistent.

  Thump-Thump! Thump-Thump! Thump-Thump! It eclipses all other sounds.

  Thump-Thump! Thump-Thump! Thump-Thump! I`m going mad. There is no other expnation.

  Thump-Thump! Thump-Thump! THUMP-THUMP!

  Wait! That beat was different somehow. It sounded closer to me. That’s when I notice there are irregurities in some of the beats. THUMP-THUMP! Thump-Thump! Thump-Thump!

  Different sets of beats that go at different speeds and frequencies. Not one source, but multiple. I try to block them out but one beat refuses to leave me, it is the loudest of them all and only seems to grow louder the harder I try to block it out.

  Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump, wait a minute.

  My eyes grow rge as I begin to realise where the beating is coming from.

  Thump-Thump.

  I hesitate, not wanting to know if my suspicions are correct.

  Thump-Thump.

  I put my hand to my chest, Thump-Thump, over the spot where my heart is located, Thump-Thump.

  I begin to shiver as the answer to my question dawns on me.

  Thump-Thump.

  The sound of the beat timed perfectly with the beat of my heart.

  THUMP-THUMP.

  I draw my hand away terrified, standing up looking around startled as the other beats come back to me now.

  Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump, Thump-Thump.

  They are the heart beats of the mothers and their children.

  I take a step away from them terrified by the revetion. I turn and begin to run wanting to put as much distance as I can between myself and them. I sprint franticly, one foot in front of the other, away from the park into the suburban back streets where people tend not to wonder.

  The further I run the softer their beats become, but no matter how far I run I cannot escape the beating of my own heart. I trip and colpse onto the rough tar road, I sit up on my knees, my hands over my ears trying to block it out.

  Thump-Thump.

  Please make it stop.

  Thump-Thump.

  This isn’t real.

  THUMP-THUMP.

  “SHUT UP!” , I scream.

  Silence.

  I keep my eyes closed rocking back and forth slowing down to a halt as the beating disappears.

  “Who are you yelling at?”, asks a voice. A familiar voice.

  I look behind me to see Alice.

  Her hair is a mess and she stands uncomfortably in mismatched gym sweats soaked through with perspiration.

  What is she doing here? Why does she look so terrible?

  “There’s something wrong with you isn’t there?”, she asks hastily, getting straight to the point.

  “What?”, I answer back, confused, wondering how she found me or more so, why she was looking for me? She must have been looking to confront me about the other day. That made the most sense, but something felt off. Why did she look such a mess, where were her friends?

  “I followed you from the park, I’ve been looking everywhere for you”, her words are tired and irritable. “You did something to me yesterday, I know you did”.

  She means the bite, of course she does, “I’m sorry, please believe me I didn’t mean to bite you”.

  “Yeah you bit me, but that’s not it. It doesn’t hurt.”, she rubs her hand over the spot where I bit her, no mark in sight. “You did something else to me. I can`t sleep, I can`t eat, I can`t think straight.”

  Alice takes a step towards me, I can see now that she seems to have a fever. Her cheeks are flush and a cold sweat lingers on her forehead.

  “I know you did this to me. You drugged me, didn’t you or you gave me some kind of STD.”, her words begin to slur and her footing becomes unstable.

  I stay silent, confused and terrified by all this new information.

  “I just want to feel normal again”, she gasps out, before colpsing in front of me.

  “Alice?!”, I crawl towards her and lift her head onto my p, “Are you okay? Can you hear me?”.

  “Please”.

  “What?”, I lower my head putting my ear to her lips. She is completely silent.

  “Help me”.

  I don`t know what to do, panic grips me and illogical thoughts swarm my mind. Something deep within me screams out, offers me a solution, one that makes no sense.

  I bit down into my wrist, hard until I draw blood, an unfamiliar instinct taking hold.

  I lower my arm and open her mouth letting my blood drip down onto her tongue. A twitch comes from her arm as if the drop is giving her life. Another drop and she twitches again. A third drop and she jolts back to consciousness grabbing my wrist and drinking from it desperately.

  A warm tingling sensation grips me. I feel warm, a feeling of closeness worming its way between Alice and myself. Nothing makes sense, but in this moment I don`t care.