Baby Batter

Havermouth, Present Time

“Do not fear,” Verina, Leighton’s mate, said from the doorway. “You will know if you begin to turn. First there will be a hunger and thirst that food and water cannot sate, and food and water will become nauseating. Then you will find your sense of smell heightened until you can smell the meat and blood of the people around you. When that smell becomes irresistible, only then do you become a danger to others.”

“Yay,” Rhett said with a grimace. “Good to know.”

“I’m sorry,” Verina’s expression was saddened. “I truly am.” She closed the door behind her leaving Rhett and Aislen in the room alone.

There was a desk pressed against the wall with an old-fashioned typewriter and a black and white photograph in a frame. The wall behind the desk had old articles about Havermouth and the surrounding areas pinned to it, and Rhett walked over and pretended to read them, his palms on the table surface, and his shirt straining over the tension in his shoulders. The white of t