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Venus scowled down at the undead on the ground and kneeled to wipe the bloody knife off on their clothes, his teeth gritting together for a brief moment before small hands closed around his wrist.
“Venus!” Neith grinned up at him with ruddy cheeks, her eyes shining with an out-of-place excitement compared to the chaos in the air, the never-ending sirens and screaming from the city behind them. “You stopped the monster!”
“You need to be more careful,” he tossed out, his voice gruff—but he couldn’t hold back a slight tug at his lips as Neith just grinned wider, wrapping her arms around his waist and squeezing as best as she could.
“I don’t need to be careful when I have the best big brother ever,” she chirped. Venus heaved a sigh and pulled her back with a grip on the collar of her clothes; she just continued staring up at him with wide, innocent eyes, and already Venus was far too aware he’d do anything to protect that innocence. Eight years old and already part of an apocalypse—what a life.
“Stay close, Neith. Don’t talk to anyone, and don’t move an inch away from me.” He narrowed his eyes. “Okay?”
“Okay!” She clapped her hands together, and Venus stood up straight, his posture stiff as he let his eyes crawl over the neighborhood around them. The undead were drawn to sound, and the general chaos of the city was drawing them all in that direction, but if he wasn’t careful any number of them could get the drop on him. A hand clutched into the hem of his shirt, and Venus finally started forward, his grip so tight around the knife in hand that his knuckles ached. The wind whistled through the air, greenery in the trees and bushes shifting with it as it sent the horrid smell of rotting flesh through the air.
“It smells really bad,” Neith complained at his side. “I don’t like that.”
“Trust me,” Venus wrinkled his nose. “Neither do I.”
“Where are we going next? Can we go to the park? Maybe the monsters won’t be there, and I can play!”
Venus pressed his lips together and shot her a look, one eyebrow arched. “No, Neith, we can’t go to the park,” and his voice was sharper than he meant it to be, making Neith shrink into herself.
“Sorry,” she let out, her voice suddenly quiet. “I’m just scared. And the park’s always fun.”
Venus closed his eyes for a brief moment and huffed out a breath of air. “Just… I don’t know where we’re going, Neith. I’ll figure something out.” The sound of sirens approaching behind them made him stiffen—normally he’d be glad to hear them, but with how drawn the undead were to sound it only spelled trouble for the both of them. “Come on,” he sped up his pace and pulled Neith along with him as she made a protesting sound. “We’ve got to get off the road.” A house rose ahead of them, completely unfamiliar—but Venus couldn’t see any broken windows, and there was no car in the driveway, so he internally hoped for a moment that the house’s owners had been away when all of this happened.
He tested the door and scowled when it was locked—and then Neith pulled at his shirt and made a low sound, her voice making his head jerk around. “Venus! There’s—” and an eerie groaning rose from the direction of the street, so Venus threw the handle of the knife in his mouth and locked his hand around Neith’s waist. He moved faster than he thought he could, booking it straight for the tall fence around the house.
“Climb!” He shouted the word around the knife between his teeth, his eye twitching at the taste of leather in his mouth—but Neith listened to him, hands fastening at the fence as she heaved one leg over and then the other. Venus scrambled after her, tossing a look back once just in time to see a police car scream by, sirens blaring loud—and behind it, countless undead shambling along the road, groaning loud and eerie. “Go!” He scaled even faster up the fence and dropped to the other side just in time to lock his arms around Neith’s waist again, holding her tight against his side as she made a terrified sound and then screamed his name into his ear.
“Venus!”
He clapped one hand over her mouth and shook his head violently. “Shhh! You don’t want them to come here, too, do you?” Again, his voice was sharper than he meant it to be, words hissed due to the knife still between his teeth, and Neith’s eyes went wide, her face going pale. She shook her head violently, and Venus moved his hand away from her mouth. She mercifully kept her mouth closed, but squirmed out of his grip, dropping to the ground. “We’re going to hide, okay? Just like hide and seek. But we stay together.” He pulled the knife handle from between his teeth and wrapped his hand around it, ignoring the disgusting feeling of how his saliva had dripped onto the handle.
“I can do hide and seek,” Neith whispered. “I love hide and seek.”
“I know you do.” Venus swallowed hard and let his eyes find the back door of the house. Hopefully the owners had left it unlocked…or he’d just doomed them both to the worst death he could imagine. The eerie groaning only grew louder in the background, and Venus heard a wet smack against the fence a moment later. He jerked his head towards it before booking it towards the back door, Neith close on his heels.
He tested the doorknob, heart in his throat—and then it opened, and a harsh huff of relief slipped between his clenched teeth. “Stay behind me,” he warned Neith, who nodded violently again, her eyes darting towards the fence and the louder moaning of violently hungry undead, ready to tear them to pieces. Venus slipped inside the house and readied his knife, locking the door behind them a moment later—he noticed a dining room chair a moment later, and tipped it underneath the doorknob, a string of relief floating through his chest.
The eerie groaning outside was deafened by the walls of the house, but if Venus focused, he could still hear it and judging by the drawn expression on Neith’s face she could too. “Don’t pay attention to it,” he gritted out—but Neith just made a low sound before her expression crumpled, and she shoved her face into his stomach.
“I’m scared, Venus!”
Venus startled, his eyes wide. He lifted one hand, and it hesitantly wavered in the air for a moment before he thinned his mouth and pressed it against Neith’s back, petting in (hopefully) soothing motions. “It’ll be—okay.” He almost said I promise, but bit the words back, far too aware that he had no business promising anything to Neith. He’d barely kept them alive until now. “We just need to stay here until the und-the monsters go away.”
“I want Mom and Dad,” she cried, full-on tears falling down her cheeks—and with that, Venus grit his teeth, his own face going cold. What was he supposed to tell her? They’re dead, sorry. Probably food for the undead just like everyone else in this godforsaken city. Probably undead themselves, and then tears pricked at the corners of his own eyes, and he pressed his lips together even harder.
“Not right now, Neith. Not right now.”
“No!” She tore away from him, hands clenched tight down at her sides. “I don’t want you! I want Mom and Dad! I want to go home!” Neith turned and ran up the stairs, and Venus immediately followed, ice spreading through his chest.
“Neith! No! Come back!” He thundered up the stairs after her, and then she started screaming, and every thought screeched to a stop. He jumped up the last few steps only to find Neith cowering against the wall, hands up in the air as a woman with blood dripping down her neck groaned at her, hands reaching—and immediately, Venus darted forward and opened the closet nearest to Neith, shoving her in without thinking. “Stay there!”
He whirled around only to see the woman lunge at him with more energy than he thought the undead could have, and he was pushed straight down the stairs, fireworks of pain bursting through his entire body. The knife dropped out of his grip as he slammed into the ground with a low grunt of pain—and he was immediately accosted by the undead woman, who groaned aloud and pushed across the floor towards him despite the new bend in her leg and arm. “Fuck,” Venus gritted out, scrambling for the knife, his pulse pounding so fast he could feel it in his face.
He closed his hand around the handle of the knife just as a high, familiar scream erupted from upstairs, filled with absolute pain in a way that tore through his heart. “Neith!” He scrambled up onto his knees and just barely avoided the gnashing teeth of the undead as she lunged at him again—and with a newfound determination, he lifted the knife and drove it directly into her forehead, making her slump completely onto the ground—dead forever now. Before he could even register the movements, he was scrambling back up the stairs, his legs smarting with every movement (the fall down the stairs had surely bruised him up).
“Neith!” He didn’t even try to keep his voice low as another high scream erupted through the house, and he pulled the closet door open only for a ringing sound to erupt in his ears, his vision darkening at the edges as absolute agony cascaded through his chest, making the knife sag in his grip. “Neith…”
Neith screamed again, the figures crouched over her lifting their heads up with blood cascading down their chins. Venus dropped to his knees before he even realized what he was doing, and then the figures both lunged at him—and he swiped one straight down the stairs, catching the other in the forehead with his knife. “No, no, no, no, no,” he repeated, his voice devolving completely as he dropped to Neith’s side, pulled the closet door shut again, and turned the light on in almost automatic motions. “You’re okay, you’re okay,” but blood dripped down her chin as Neith stared up at him, making little whining sounds of pain.
“Venus, it hurts, it hurts,” she lifted one shaking hand towards him, and he immediately closed it within his own, eyes darting over her. Her shirt was ripped, a bloody gash in her stomach revealing red, more blood gushing out—and her collarbone was a mess of ripped flesh and blood, and Venus made a sound he didn’t even realize he could make.
“It hurts, Venus, make it stop hurting,” Neith sobbed, tears cascading down her cheeks. He looked up and ripped one of the shirts off the hangars, closing his hands over her abdomen and pressing down hard as she shrieked in pain. He heard a dull thump at the door and ignored it, his breath stuttering, caught in his throat. The hand within his twisted, and Neith pulled away, her eyes squeezing tight. Venus could only watch, his thoughts spinning in his head like an amusement-park ride, dizzying and impossible to catch. “Am I—” She sounded hysterical, older than she was. “Am I going to become a monster, Venus? I don’t want to be a monster!”
“No,” he shook his head violently. “You-” but his voice died in his throat. He knew what a bite from the undead did, and the realization was like a spear through his chest. And she was bleeding too much, the red already soaking through the material of the jacket, the wound on her collarbone staining her skin and clothes red. An agonized sound ripped out of him, and Venus grabbed for her hand again, squeezing tight. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” She looked up at him with tears dripping out of her eyes, slipping down the sides of her face.
“Venus?” and he realized with another spear in his heart that she was holding on for him, and he squeezed his eyes shut and grit his teeth before reopening them and forcing a wavering smile onto his face.
“It’s okay. You don’t—just go to sleep, Neith. It’ll stop hurting. I’ve got you.”
“You promise?” Her voice was weak, tiny and quiet in a way that hurt, tore right through his heart.
“I promise,” he gritted out, his smile wavering more.
Neith closed her eyes—and like his permission had been the final blow, her face slackened, the hand in his going completely limp. Blood continued gushing from her wounds, and the undead at the closet door continued groaning, continued trying to get in… but it felt like his heart had stopped, the blood in his veins freezing ice cold. This was his fault. He was the one who shoved Neith in the closet. He’d brought them into the house.
If he hadn’t—and suddenly the thoughts in his mind were too much, and he dropped his forehead against Neith’s and let the tears cascade, the sharp iron of blood overwhelming his senses. “I’m sorry,” he let out—and he wanted to cry more, but it felt like the tears were equally frozen now, burning his eyes in a way he almost thought he deserved. “I’m sorry.” His hand curled around the handle of the knife again, his heart frozen in his chest. His expression dropped completely, and Venus let the numbness carry him away as he lifted the knife and drove it forward into her forehead.
He wasn’t going to let his sister become one of those monsters.
And then he left the knife there as he dropped back against the wall and screamed, the sound high and agonizing, tearing at his throat and stealing all of his air away—and didn’t stop until he physically couldn’t scream anymore. When he finally spoke again, he stared at the opposite wall and rocked back and forth in small motions. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, his voice raspy and hoarse. “I’m sorry.”
He ignored the small body splayed across the floor and tried to comfort himself with the thought that at least she wouldn’t have to deal with the monsters anymore—but the thought didn’t comfort him, and instead his breath caught in his chest. Maybe… maybe he should open the door and let the undead have him. Maybe he deserved that ending—
But a small voice in the back of his mind drove his thoughts away, something that almost sounded like Neith. “If you die, she’ll have died for nothing,” and he let that thought carry him as he closed his eyes and pulled his knife out of his sister’s forehead, opened the door—and killed the determined child undead still scrambling at the door for good.
He was going to stay alive. Not for himself. But for Neith.