Sabriel

I wrote this at 330 am after waking from a dream I don't really remember. This simple idea has grown throughout the day into something that I can't wait to put time into writing. Enjoy the first brainstorm of Sabriel.

They were trying to help me. That was what they kept telling me. They said they were trying to restore my memories and that I should be patient. I inspected the details of my cell in the pitch blackness of the night, shifting my weight on my bare feet.

            I couldn’t remember what I had been, and no one knew what I was now. I had a feeling I had been human once. I had this feeling that something was wrong; like it was all terribly wrong. And whenever they tried to help me, I knew in the pit of my soul that they deserved to be bitten for it. There was shame in their aid. I couldn’t explain why I knew it. They swore they were only helping me. At first, I had no reason to suspect them of anything sinister. But I just knew; the way a dog knows that you are bringing it to the vet to be put down. There was a constant tension in my body like I was expecting a blow, or a storm. I had no explanation for it. No memory to explain my fears. They gave me the name Max, but it tasted foul on my tongue; caught on my fangs. They never thought to ask my name, even after I remembered how to speak. It all seemed pointless. Why give a thing a name anyway?

            I shifted my weight on the ledge in my cell. The thick chain scraped against the platform with a metallic whine. I scratched at the collar around my neck. You don’t chain humans. They told me over and over they were helping me, but I knew they were somehow to blame; that I was some horrible mistake and their gentle treatment of me now was in compensation; every touch, every look, burned of guilt and disappointment.

            I ran my tongue along my teeth, tasting blood as my fangs sliced a shallow wound. I felt the claws growing on my human-like hands. I clicked them against the chain just to hear a different sound. I had no memory except for my name; a name only one sad helpless girl had thought to ask me. I didn’t know anything, but I knew everything. The next one to put a hand out to feed me was getting bitten…