Wednesday Snippet - The tip of the blade looked sharp...

 

It's Wednesday, and that means it's snippet day! Dawn is fast becoming my favourite character to do horrible things to. She's just so done with everything and would really rather just not, you know? But she gets up and does it anyway, because she knows giving up is going to be worse than carrying on. I feel like I'm trying to keep a few plates spinning with her arc in Lich Queen, because whilst I do want it to be clear that this is a woman struggling with grief and depression, I also want it to be clear that she's a fighter. I have my own experiences of grief and depression to draw on, but I don't want to write about me. I want to write about Dawn.

Anyway, with that said, this snippet is not about grief or depression, and hopefully you'll enjoy it! Read on, fearless reader...

The tip of the blade looked sharp and it was an irresistible compulsion to test it. She pricked her finger, watching a bright bead of blood swell up with an odd sense of pleasure. Then she noticed something else hidden under the velvet, and sucked her finger clean. The copper-salt taste of blood exploded across her tongue and for a quick, hot second, the world went black around her. Sunlight vanished, shadows swallowed the room, and phantasmal white shapes danced at the edge of her vision. An intense aroma hit her, one she'd know anywhere, because Eddie wore the same damn cologne every day of his life. Tobacco and caramel, as strong as if he stood right next to her.

Terror seized her. She stumbled back blindly and hit the bed. Sitting down hard, she squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her bleeding finger on her jeans. She pressed her hand to her chest, feeling her heart thudding wildly, that caramel-tobacco scent thick around her. Only when her heart slowed and the scent faded did she dare open her eyes.

The room had returned to normal, all the shadows chased away, all those near-invisible shapes vanished. The cold air was gone too. Dawn rubbed her aching eyes, knees knocking. She didn't want to think about what it meant. The footsteps, the cologne...She couldn't deal with what it might mean. Not now, not on top of everything else. Eddie was dead. Dead was gone, forever.

 

Tell my vampires that, Isaiah said.