Free The Dead Saga (Novella Part 2): Odium Origins by Claire C. Riley Page A

to unclamp her child’s teeth from her neck, and I grab the gun from my lap and aim it at the little girl.
    “Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare!” the woman screams and reaches for the door handle, falling from the truck with her child still attached.
    I climb out and run around to the front of the truck, watching as she pushes her daughter away and stumbles backwards, one hand clutching at her throat even as blood bubbles between her fingers, tears and blood mixing across her chest.
    “Layla, sweetie, it’s Mama, stop, please stop,” she sobs over and over.
    I raise my gun again as the little girl crawls forwards on hands and knees, growling and snapping her jaws.
    The mother’s eyes go wide when she sees me aiming my gun. “Do not shoot my little girl!” she screams at me.
    I cock the gun, my chin trembling but my hands steady. The little girl has reached her mother. She grabs at her leg, and the mother feebly tries to kick her away without harming her.
    “She’ll kill you,” I yell back, uncertainty washing over me.
    “You do not hurt my daughter,” she sobs again, shuffling back once more. She looks toward the small child. “Please Layla, I know that you’re in there.” She reaches a hand out to the child, her palm opening up.
    The little girl looks at the hand, her pale eyes staring at the gesture of peace from her mother. She moves forward, and reaching forth she places her small hand inside that of her mother’s, and I let out a sob at the same time as the woman does.
    The woman looks to me. “See? See, I told you, she’ll be okay—” Her words end on a scream as the little girl bites down on her fingers and I hear the crunch of teeth breaking bone—or perhaps vice versa. Either way, the mother screams in pain as blood gushes from her hand.
    I take aim and shoot her daughter in the head instantly, and they both collapse in a heap.
    There’s a split second of silence shortly before the mother begins to painfully wail, calling her daughter’s name repeatedly. She pulls the little girl’s lifeless body into her lap and rocks her back and forth, kissing her head, and all I can do is stand and stare as sadness engulfs me, ripping me apart from the inside out.
    “I’m so sorry,” I murmur after several minutes of listening to the pained cries.
    She looks up at me sharply, her skin already beginning to pale, her lips turning blue. “I told you,” she chokes, coughing up blood. “I told you she would be fine.” She coughs again and continues to sob.
    I sit down on the ground, letting my gun fall into my lap. The blacktop is cold underneath me, but I am already chilled to the bone. Any happiness I ever thought I could have has evaporated, and I know after seeing this I’ll never feel any sort of happiness again.
    Rain begins to patter down on me and I take in a deep shaky breath before looking toward the mother. She’s still holding her child, but at least she’s stopped crying for now. She looks up, her eyes meeting mine, and I feel my own eyes fill with tears.
    “It’s nearly time,” she whispers, and licks a tongue across her lips. There’s so much blood everywhere that it’s hard to distinguish where it ends in the dark.
    I watch her in confusion as she continues.
    “I’m dying,” she clarifies. “I can feel it coming. It’s starting to take over. That’s how he knew.” She smiles and then chokes on blood, coughing up more of it and spraying it across her daughter’s lifeless form. Blood still bubbles from her neck wound but she doesn’t bother to try to stop it now, as if she’s given up on life. “Help me,” she asks quietly.
    I nod and stand, moving toward her. I put my arms around the child to lift her but the woman clings to her child’s lifeless body and shakes her head, so I let go. I move to the woman, lifting her up with difficulty as she clings to her daughter. She nods to the side of the road and together we stumble over. She heads to a large oak tree and I