Oasis

WHY had Mom never told her that people were filled with delicious red candy? It was better than jelly beans. Way better. She'd only gotten a taste of it, but she needed more. Right now. That mean, brown-skinned nurse had punched her in the face when she'd bitten her arm, and then everyone had rushed out, leaving Oasis alone in the treatment room.

She looked down at her hands--they weren't really hands anymore. They looked like monster claws.

The pain in her face was going away.

She could hear a lot of screaming on the other side of the door.

Screaming meant people.

People meant warm red candy.

Oasis jumped down off the gurney and opened the door.

Candy everywhere! On the walls, the ceiling, people covered in it, and straight ahead, two monsters were licking it off the floor by the nurses' station.

She bounded over and crouched between them, but she hadn't even touched her long, spongy tongue to the puddle when one of the monsters hissed at her and swung its claw at her face.

The blow knocked her back into the wall, and Oasis screamed, It isn't fair, you stupid dumbhead! But the words came out as a loud hiss, and now that monster was moving toward her.

She leapt away and exploded through a pair of double doors, sprinting now--faster than she'd ever run before, faster than she imagined possible--down a long corridor.

She came around a corner and skidded to a stop.

A man in pale blue scrubs stood before the closed elevator doors, pushing the UP button over and over and saying bad words.

When he noticed Oasis staring at him, he said, "Holy fucking shit," and backed away.

Oasis asked him if he would share some of his candy, but again, her words came out hissing, and the man screamed, "Get the fuck away from me, little girl!"

She was moving toward him now. He was so tall and big she figured he probably contained more red candy than most. She could smell it through his skin, and the odor made her legs crouch, and before she'd even considered it, she was jumping toward him, her claws outstretched, screaming with pure joy at the thought of sinking her pretty new teeth into the man's--

A metal trashcan connected with the side of her head and she slammed into the elevator doors.

She cry-hissed. Why was he--

The trashcan crashed into her head again.

She screamed, "Stop hurting me!"

The man hit her again.

Why was he beating her? She only wanted his--

That third blow was the hardest. Felt her skull crack open.

She blacked out and came back as the elevator doors were closing, the big candy-filled orderly gone.

All she could think about was her thirst for that candy, her head throbbing with her need for it.

She leapt to her feet.

Heard noise coming from the emergency room, and she wanted to go back, but it was full of adults.

Adults were strong and mean. They would fight her, maybe hurt or even kill her.

Her black eyes fell upon a placard between the elevators:

3rd FLOOR

Cardiovascular Services

Endoscopy Registration

The Birthplace

The words were too big for her to read except for the last line.

T-h-e B-i-r-t-h-p-l-a-c-e.

She smiled, and her huge teeth split her cheeks the rest of the way to her earlobes.

Maybe there would be babies there. Smaller, yes, not as brimming with red candy as adults, but...

How could they fight back?