“I should confess something,” Howly sighed as Sophie sipped on the pine tea Howly had brought. She was feeling better after a restful sleep and with the pain meds, she barely noticed her leg. Unfortunately, they were running low. She had asked about food but Howly had abruptly changed the topic.

“What?” Sophie asked with a frown.

“When you were… ill I fed you. You were too weak to survive otherwise, too hungry,” she explained.

“Stop being cryptic, what?” Sophie sighed, but a sense of unease filled her.

Howly scowled, “It was Mark.”

Sophie dropped the tea. The hot water scalded her leg and made her curse with pain. Howly was there in an instant, placing her icy hand on Sophie’s thigh as she wiped away the tea. The only thing stopping Sophie from being entirely distracted by the pain and how close Howly was was what she had just confessed.

Sophie gagged and covered her mouth. “You fed me his leg?”

Howly nodded and picked up the metal mug off the ground.

“Okay,” Sophie shuddered. She didn't know what to do with that information. “Uh…. ok,” she repeated with a calming breath. For the millionth time, emotions seemed to whirl through her, her head felt like it was spinning.

Howly leaned down to her level, their faces only inches apart. Howly’s eyes were dark and serious. “Do you want more?”

Sophie couldn’t bring herself to answer. Because the answer should have been no. It really should have been no. But now that the idea was in her head… The answer wasn't entirely no. She could just have some… she could eat all of him, what better way to cement her own survival?

She and Howly could feast.

A claw under her chin drew her attention back to Howly. She seemed sad. “I am sorry, I did not mean for this.”

“I… I don’t understand?” Sophie managed to say.

Howly took a deep breath and took Sophie’s hand. “Look.”

Sophie did, it took her a second to realize what Howly meant. Her nails were blackening. It was faint, just beginning to grow in, but the base of her fingernail was black.

“My… magic influences the world, it is influencing you,” Howly explained.

Sophie opened and closed her mouth unsure of what to say.

“Your frozen heart is spreading.”

“How-how do we stop it?” Sophie finally asked.

“We take you home.”

“W-we can’t, you said I wouldn’t survive the trip.” Sophie didn’t want to go, but she didn’t dare voice that. Was that her own desire or was that part of this?

“Your heart will protect you.”

“How do you know?”

“I do.”

“What about Mark?” Sophie asked.

“I will… deal with him.”

“But…” Sophie sighed.

Howly rested and a clawed hand on her cheek. “It is time for you to go home.”

A tear slid down Sophie’s cheek and she wondered how that idea could make her heart hurt so much.

“Can I at least come visit?” Sophie asked, her voice small.

“Sophie, you are between worlds, you cannot stay here forever. This is simply where the veil is thin.

“But… how am I supposed to just go home? How am I supposed to go on with everything being normal when the world isn’t? I can’t forget about this.”

“There is a reason our worlds should not mix,” Howly offered with a sad smile as she tucked Sophie’s hair behind her ear.

Sophie pulled her close, wrapping her in a tight embrace, her nails digging into Howly’s back. She did not want to let go, reason be damned. She tried to keep her hiccuping sobs quiet as Howly hugged her back.

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Eventually, she pulled away, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Fine…. But I need to kill Mark. I need to know he’s dead and gone. One last meal… then you take me home.”

Howly seemed uncertain. “You understand your mind is being affected?”

“You don’t know me just as much as I don’t know you, Howly. The craving for flesh is new… but I don’t know if I could ever sleep soundly again knowing he might be back to finish the job,” Sophie offered with uncertain amusement.

Howly nodded. “Let us feast then, tomorrow you go home.”

Sophie clenched her jaw and nodded. She had spent so long being weak, maybe Howly had really changed her but maybe it wasn’t for the worst. Mark had taken advantage of her love, of her trust. He had betrayed her. Only one of them was ever going home, only one of them would ever have any power ever again. She wanted to destroy him.

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Sophie stared at the camping knife in her hand, rethinking every decision she had ever made up to this point as Howly once again carried her. Was she really going to kill Mark?

Could she stoop to his level? Worse, eat him afterwards. Yet as horrified as she should be, the idea felt right, it felt comforting.

Maybe Howly was wrong. Maybe this was just who she was. Half starved, almost dead, but unwilling to die. Maybe this had nothing to do with Howly and everything to do with her.

Her nails could just be melanonychia, and her desire to eat Mark could be… well that one was less clear. But it felt poetic, it felt just. He had wanted to possess her, to control her. And he snapped because he couldn't. Not to mention she was famished, it had been almost a week and she had barely eaten.

Her fingers tightened around the blade of the knife with determination.

Once again Howly ducked under the low-hanging ceiling they arrived in what would be Mark’s tomb.

“You’re back,” Mark spat, but he was not doing well. He barely had the energy to speak. Sophie felt no pity, if anything what she was going to do was a mercy. He wasn't handling the lack of food, water, light and leg well.

Howly put her down along with the camping light before simply watching what she would do. Sophie had the feeling Howly doubted she would even go through with this, she would prove her wrong. Maybe she couldn't stay but she would take what she could with her.

“Look,” Mark sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Sophie pushed herself to her knees, her leg sending blinding pain through her. But she didn't need to see, she knew where Mark was.

“Sophie… I fucked up, so badly,” he continued. “I really am sorry.”

Sophie lunged, her leg screaming at her but it didn’t matter. She stabbed the toothed blade into his throat. Mark looked at her with wide disbelieving eyes as he tried to swallow. Blood oozing from his neck. Sophie sat back leaving the knife embedded in him as he weakly reached a hand up towards it, gurgling on his own blood.

She wondered if vampires were real, she felt like a vampire. All she wanted to do was lick up every drop of blood before tearing into his shoulder. She wanted to bite, she wanted to rend and tear. She wanted to consume him, body and mind.

Sophie raised a shaky hand and grabbed Mark’s before he could grasp the handle. “Don’t worry, you won’t go to waste,” she absently told him. She was so very hungry.

A hand on her shoulder jolted her from her daze. She blinked up foggily at Howly who still towered over her even crouched down. Howly handed her the light. It took her a second to realize she had been asked a question.

“Do you want the stove?” Howly had asked.

Sophie shook her head, she wanted to taste him. She wanted to feel his blood between her fingers. She wanted to make a mess. She barely even registered it as Howly picked her up with one arm and dragged Mark behind back towards the surface.

Howly brought them to that first room with the bones and put Sophie down before laying Mark’s body on a large rock. He was definitely dead by now. She watched with rapt fascination as Howly cut his clothes away. Using her talons to slice open his abdomen vertically before with powerful hands breaking his rib cage open. It was beautiful. Howly was clearly an expert.

Howly gutted the body, washing her hands in a small stream Sophie hadn’t noticed the first time she had been there, how things had changed. Before she was scared to be eaten, but now she was the one eating.

Howly waved her closer with a bloody claw. Energy thrummed through Sophie. Something akin to arousal but it wasn’t sexual, not entirely. Howly pulled something from the body, dripping with blood but clearly a heart.

“It was your kill,” Howly explained, holding it out.

Sophie eagerly took it, her hands becoming stained with blood. She didn't hesitate to bite into it, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. It was wet and tough, and Sophie’s teeth struggled to bite through. But she managed, like a juicy rubbery apple, she tore piece after peace away.

A small smile crossed Howly’s face as she joined in. Claws slicing meat into precise strips. Teeth sinking into flesh.

“Here,” Sophie offered, breathing hard as she crawled forward and straddled Howly’s lap, raising the rest of the heart up to share. Her veins felt alight with electricity, a strange high that felt utterly divine. This was victory.

Howly licked the blood off her wrist before swallowing the last of the heart with a pleased rumble. Sophie’s blood thrummed. She had never felt so alive.

They took turns sharing a meal. The meat was warm and fresh. The tang of blood in the air and on their bodies.

“I’ll miss you,” Sophie said, licking the blood from her lips, her breath heavy and her stomach full. She leaned against Howly's shoulder, their clothes and body caked in blood. She felt the ennui returning, the realization this was coming to an end.

Howly wrapped a hand around the back of Sophie’s neck and placed a kiss on her forehead. “I am glad to have met you,” she purred.

Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat and looked up at her mysterious new friend. “At least give me a proper kiss goodbye?”

Howly leaned close, their lips brushing together. Sophie closed the distance, wrapping an arm around Howly’s neck as tears rolled down her cheeks. Howly tasted of blood and Sophie cut her tongue on her teeth, she couldn’t care less at that moment. A fraction of something far greater that could have been.

When they finally separated there were tears in Howly’s eyes too. “I had… forgotten what it felt like to be cared about. Thank you, Sophie.”

Sophie nodded and pulled Howly close, too many emotions roiling inside her to form words.

“Rest now, Sophie. You will need your strength,” Howly murmured, rubbing a hand over Sophie’s back.

“Please don’t leave me,” Sophie whispered against her. At least for what little time they had left, she didn't dare ask for more. She had grown to truly care about Howly. It was hard not to fall for the gentle giant who had nursed her wounds and cared for her. Shown her kindness when she needed it most.

She knew it was probably insane. To feel love in this moment after butchering and eating her boyfriend with an otherworldly monster. Maybe she had lost her mind. Maybe this was all a dream of a dying brain embraced by the cold. Either way, she wasn't ready to go home.

“Goodbye little human, I am glad to have warmed your heart,” Howly murmured as Sophie drifted off to sleep.

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The sun was painfully bright as Sophie blinked her eyes open. People were shouting, and something warm and wet was pushing against her face. A dog nuzzling into her.

“Over here!” a man called holding onto the dog's leash, he wore a police uniform.

Sophie felt drowsy and exhausted. Everything was somewhat of a blur after that as people strapped her into things.

“The man who was with you? Your boyfriend, where is he?” The officer yelled over the helicopter hovering above.

Sophie just shook her head. It was probably best she never answered that question. All the blood on her would cause enough… there was no blood on her. How was that possible? Her leg wasn’t splinted either and she was wearing the snow pants that Howly had torn through. She didn’t understand.

“Well you’re lucky a storm didn’t blow through,” the officer added with a pat on her shoulder. Sophie hadn't been paying attention to what he had been saying.

They had constantly smothered her in blankets all the way to the hospital. It was uncomfortably warm. The doctors poked and prodded, fed her food and got her rehydrated. She hated the taste.

Her leg was fractured, not broken, not anymore. In fact, the doctors were puzzled by how much healing had happened in the few days she had been gone. She didn’t tell them anything.

The doctors did not find her heart frozen, Sophie wasn't sure what to make of that.

Her parents soon showed up, offering sympathy, worry and optimism that they would find Mark and all would be alright. Sophie knew they never would.

The real world felt bland and gray, she felt hollow. Her meeting with the Howling One would leave her forever changed and Sophie was hungry.