In the dead of night, a lone girl waits on the side of the road.
Aloka sits patiently on a blanket, enough to prevent the leaves and twigs from poking her, but too thin to keep out the chill of the cold ground beneath her. Raven-black hair spills out of the ragged blanket she has wrapped herself in, the holes worn in the fabric exposing patches of bare skin under the moonlight. At first glance, you might assume the young woman was lost, or perhaps homeless, and that would be a reasonable assumption to make—until you actually studied her.
Her bare skin under the frayed cloth was too clean, her hair was too neatly combed. Her hands were clean and her nails were neatly filed as she wrote in a book to pass the time. The dense forest rose high on either side of her, the trees and branches blocking the moonlight, making it steadily darker the further you strayed from the road. The darkness of the forest didn’t frighten her though. It was her haven, her home.
Aloka’s eyes strained as she struggled to write in the dark, even under the full moon it was still hard enough to see. She finally gave up and closed her book with a huff before stuffing it back in her backpack. She hated waiting, especially in the cold like this, but she knew it would be worth it. She just had to be patient. Hoping to calm her nerves, Aloka let her voice flow from her lips. While she couldn’t affect herself quite like she could affect others, its soothing power still slowly worked into her tense muscles and nerves, causing her to breathe a sigh of relief.
She could normally find someone camping, hiking, or hunting fairly easily, but lately she had trouble finding anyone secluded enough. Luckily for her, she already had a backup plan for times like this when she grew desperate. Times like these, which is why the barely covered girl was waiting on the side of the road, and why a smile touched her lips, and her song immediately died once she saw a set of headlights through the trees.
Aloka quickly pushed her legs out of the blanket, adjusting it so that her modesty was just barely kept. Finally she leaned back and closed her eyes, trying not to squint when she felt light on her closed eyelids. The sound of tires squealing grated against her ears before she heard it quickly back up. This wasn’t a method she particularly *liked* using, but it was by far the most successful she had tried.
Besides, she knew that she had to eat soon or else she wouldn’t have the strength to hunt at all.
She heard the driver’s door open followed by the crunch of hasty, unsure steps on loose rocks. “Hey, are you alright? Oh shit, are you hurt, lady?” A shaky, young male voice called out to her as he quickly approached. Aloka made sure to wait until he got close enough for her to be heard clearly over the car’s idle engine before she struck. One step. Another. He paused, and Aloka could barely hear him breathe as his steps slowed. “Oh. I— Fuck, where are your clothes? Can… you hear me?”
*Of course you poor idiot, and now* ***you’ll*** *hear* ***me.***
Aloka’s lips parted when her eyes opened, radiating a fierce green while a song sweeter than honey met his ears. The man jolted in fear, clearly unsure of what was happening as the light reflected in her eyes. It was all the time she needed. She could see his hands that had risen initially up to his chest in surprise now dip a little, his posture following suit as he relaxed. It was almost a shame it was too dark for her to see a dullness gloss over his eyes like a film.
She panicked when she noticed he was holding a phone, and she prayed that there was no one on the line. She couldn’t stop now though, it was too late! She *had* to keep him under. Just to be safe, she kept it up for a few minutes, before lowering her voice to a soft, occasional hum. “Will you hand me your phone, dear?” Aloka asked him, gently holding her hand out to him. The man looked down, almost like he had just now realized he was holding a phone at all before he nodded, placing the device in her waiting hand.
She squinted from the bright light of the device’s screen, breathing a sigh of relief when she realized that he had merely been recording and not on the phone with anyone. She hummed to him as she clicked away, and after a few minutes of trial and error, she managed to stop the recording and delete the video he had been taking. Wiping the devices down with her blanket, she placed it back in his pocket once she was satisfied it was gone.
“Get back in your car, please.” She commanded in between soft, short bursts of her song. The young man complied, turning and slowly walking back to the driver’s door and climbing inside as she quickly picked up her things. She opened the passenger seat door, wrapping her blankets around herself as she lowered herself down into her seat, not wanting to leave any stray hairs or other evidence. “There’s a bridge about three miles down the road, can you take me to it?”
The man nodded as she resumed her singing, and Aloka knew she didn’t need to give a reason for him to comply. Right now his sleepy, confused little brain couldn’t handle complex things like decisions, choices, logic—Or even self-preservation, to an extent. When they were like this, just her request was enough, and she could do almost anything she wanted with them. Not that it ever lasted long enough for her to truly test her limits, just long enough for her to feed.
He drove to the bridge calmly as she sang in the otherwise quiet car, her voice cracking a little at the shock of what she had become so accustomed to, and she quickly corrected her voice. Aloka knew it was the same bridge that people from a nearby town would leave parked cars by, never to be seen again. She also knew that one more here or there wouldn’t cause too much suspicion, just someone who didn’t get the help they needed.
An awful tragedy, not a crime.
She tried to shake her head from her spiraling thoughts, knowing that it had to be done. She looked for something to distract her, so she opened the glove box, searching for anything that may be useful to her that she could take home. She pushed aside stray papers and bags, in the end finding some bandaids, an empty coffee mug, a couple of partly used notebooks, a flashlight, and what looked like a small device that she didn’t really understand. Aloka quickly stuffed them all in her backpack but decided to leave the odd device, not wanting to risk if they had some way to track it and lead them straight to her.
She let out a sigh as she realized there was nothing left that would be of any use to her, and she leaned back in her seat. Aloka listened to her own song as it grew purposefully louder to drown out her thoughts, letting the soft melody help relieve some of her stress. Her fingers still tapped against her bare thigh as their destination grew closer. Once they were there, she knew what she had to do to survive. She told herself that he’ll enjoy it, which she also knew was true. It would be the single most pleasurable experience of his entire life… and it will be the last of his life.
*It’s necessary. I have to eat, and I’m already running low on energy as it is.* Aloka told herself again, for what felt like the thousandth time. While that was true, she was just running low, not completely empty. Still, that excuse might’ve worked, had her viridian eyes not skimmed over something taped to the dashboard. She squinted in the car’s dim lighting until she finally realized what it was. A picture of the man next to a woman and a young boy.
As she stared at the boy in the photo, images of her own childhood filled her mind, until the car coming to a stop shook her from her thoughts. They were here. Her melody died off to a gentle hum as she fought against her own hunger, her desperate desire to finally be sated. She was so close, why did it really matter? It shouldn’t! It shouldn’t change a thing, but she knew it did to her, deep down… it was a line she wasn’t ready to cross.
*Maybe—Maybe it’s not as necessary as I thought. I— Damn it.*
In a moment of weakness though, she leaned over the console and gently kissed him, letting her song vibrate through her lips. She could feel her lust and desire start to kindle, screaming at her to take what she so desperately wanted, only for her to pull back while she could still control herself. Her cheeks flushed as she took a few deep breaths for a moment, with her song returning to her lips once she was able to catch her breath again.
“It’s okay… Just lay still for me dear.” She instructed, and he did, still looking towards her, but not directly at her. She knew it was probably to display that he was listening, but his gaze still made her feel guilty. “Go to sleep now, honey.” She whispered to him softly and watched him as he leaned over, resting his head against the car window. She hit the button to turn on the vehicle’s emergency lights and stepped out of the car, gently shutting the door behind her with a click.
*I hope he’ll dream of me.*
The thought surprised Aloka as she stared through the car window, but she allowed herself a small smile at the thought—Even as her hunger burned in her, knowing that she would likely be dreaming of him tonight. She set her bag down and quickly pulled out a pair of worn running shoes that she slipped on. Finally wrapping her blankets tightly around herself to fight off the cool night air, she began to make her way off the bridge. She knew he would have no recollection of the night— Maybe seeing someone on the side of the road, but a beautiful, sparsely covered woman being the last thing he remembers, then waking up safe and sound in his car?
No one would hardly think twice about it, least of all him.
As she walked away from the bridge and into the woods, Aloka tried to convince herself that the weight of the haul in her bag should be fulfilling enough to her, that she didn’t need to feed yet. She couldn’t tell if it was working, but Aloka swore to herself that from now on, she’d do things differently. She subconsciously crossed her arms under the cover of her blanket, tapping her fingers to her arm in a steady, constant rhythm.
She told herself it was to entertain herself as she walked, not to keep her hands from trembling.
/=/=/=/=/=/=/
Hey everyone, Alena again!
Okay, so this is my second series submission to The Alena Archive! As I’m sure you’re able to tell, this one is fictional and is not a part of my own personal story collection– that one will still be continued, don’t worry!
The idea for this universe has been in my head for a while, and it’s one I’m super excited to finally share with you all! It was a little rushed for Halloween, but I’m hoping that it’s the beginning of something really, really special.
So to celebrate my own personal steps into building something big like this, I’ll be releasing another chapter every day until Halloween, with more chapters following as I’m able!
I hope you all enjoy, have plenty of safe spooks, and have a *very* Happy Halloween!! <3
Source: reddit.com/r/Erotica/comments/yezkw2/theseus_pt_1_prologue_a_hunters_compassion_f20s