Carey dipped her finger in the bloody wound and slid it down her cheek, leaving a scarlet line that arched like a smile across her face. She slowly licked her blood-covered finger, savoring the coppery taste.

She glanced up at the woman who knelt over her, forehead wrinkled in concern. Her eyes widened at Carey’s response and she stood, fear replacing the worry in her eyes.

“Oh, my dear, I have never been better.” Carey’s head throbbed deliciously, flooding her with satisfaction like nothing else. She relished the confused and horrified look in the woman’s face, but knew that if she tried to help or call the authorities it would only complicate matters. That wouldn’t do.

In one swift motion, Carey flicked open a switchblade, leaped up, and thrust it into the woman’s chest. She clamped her hand over the woman’s mouth to muffle her scream, and stabbed her repeatedly until the woman finally stopped thrashing and gulping and heaving. Carey slowly, tenderly, lowered the still body to the filthy pavement and rose.

“Thank you, my dear,” she whispered. She dipped a finger in the soggy mess of the woman’s chest and reverently lifted it to her mouth, sucking until her finger was numb. With her other hand, she caressed the woman’s face, then picked up her switchblade and thrust it into her own abdomen.

Glorious, stabbing pain pulsed through her body, flooding her senses and clouding her mind with a tantalizing haze. She pulled the blade out of her body, relishing the feel of the warm metal sliding through her flesh, and cupped her hand over the bloody fountain spurting from her. She must have hit something important. Good.

She dropped to her knees, feeling deliciously drowsy. She raised her hand, dripping with blood, and licked it. Once. Twice. The familiar taste calmed her, comforted her.

Her body wavered back and forth. She didn’t want to die. Not yet.

She lifted the switchblade and gazed at it. She kissed it softly, lovingly, bade it farewell. “I guess you’ve pleased me for the last time, old friend,” she whispered.

She fell forward onto the woman’s soft body. She closed her eyes, surrendering to the pull, and drifted asleep in a featherbed of pain.