For the next few hours, the only thing he was allowed to have was water. In that time, the hunger within him made lying still almost impossible. Thankfully the light outside dimmed and evening came, giving his eyes much needed relief. 

Ambrose watched as most of the other patients were fed some sort of meal.

“I’m so hungry,” he told the nurse that had taken over for the evening.

“Sorry, love. I can only give you liquids tonight. Water or soup broth.”

Ambrose could drink water without much trouble. The soup broth smelled as good as anything he’s ever had at the orphanage but bringing a spoonful to his lips caused him to gag. He didn’t understand, and neither did the nurse. The nurse urged him to try to sleep, but as the minutes drew out into hours slumber proved to be elusive. 

“What were these for?” Ambrose asked the nurse at one point, tugging on the restraints hanging from the side of the bed. The nurse glanced at him and then the bindings with a guarded expression.

“Those are usually just for precaution, dear.” And without another word she went about her business. 

It must have been after midnight, not long after the nurse had made her rounds checking on the patients. Ambrose detected something in the air, that set his teeth on edge. 

The persistent hunger flooded his body with anticipation!

Before he knew it he was out of bed, crouching on his hands and feet trying to suss out the origin of this olfactory trigger. It was mostly dark in the room, but there were a few lanterns strategically throughout the room so no corner was in complete darkness. Ambrose checked each bed along his side of the room until the far end. The bed next to his had a young woman who looked like she was sleeping. He hadn’t seen any movement from that bed since waking up. The next two beds were empty, as was the very last. In the second to last bed was a young man, who might have been eighteen or twenty. It was hard to tell because most of his face was bandaged up. His breathing was shallow and laboured. 

At the end of the other row of beds was another patient who was lying peacefully, as if asleep. This one was a woman who was older than the first. The next bed was empty, but as Ambrose came around he spotted a nurse walking by, stopping at the entrance. He ducked down and hid under the next bed. After a few quick heartbeats her footsteps continued down the hallway. 

 He breathed a sigh of relief then froze again.

The strange alluring scent seemed to be originating from the patient in the bed above him. Slowly, he crawled out from underneath and carefully peered at the person resting there, a patient that must have arrived sometime during his bath time, earlier. A boy who was probably older than him by a few years was lying quite still and snoring lightly. He had a couple of scraps along his brow and his jaw. Also, Ambrose saw fresh bandages near his collar bone, just under the collar of his hospital gown. There was another bandage on the forearm. A spot of red showed through.

His stomach twisted and growled suddenly. The pain caused him to wince and grip at the side of the bed. Then movement caught his eye. 

Ambrose stayed stone still as someone sat up in their bed and rubbed their eyes. It was the girl across from his bed. She looked around for a moment then obviously spotted his bed empty. Her head started to swivel around searching the dimly lit room. When her gaze spotted him she gasped. Ambrose didn’t know what to do. He had been discovered but he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Sure, he was just sneaking around, but that’s all. The girl was still staring at him when the wound on the boys arm reclaimed his focus. 

He stared down at it, mere inches away from his face. He reached up and pulled back the sleep of the gown to see how much of his arm the bandage covered. The boy in the bed twitched and his other arm reached over and scratched at the bandage. 

It was a near minute before Ambrose dared to breathe again. He looked up and a saw that the girl was still watching him but then he noticed that the gauze of the bandage was now loose. Slowly he reached up and carefully tugged at it. It was a slow process and the boy did twitch a few times—each time giving Ambrose an anxious and breathless moment. 

There was a strong desire to expose the wound rising deep within him that confused and concerned Ambrose. His jaw clenched in anticipation and his breathing became quick and shallow. When he finally could pull the bandage off he saw that the main wound was deep, like a puncture. Then there were a few other shallow cuts and scrape as well.

The metallic scent filled his lungs as he marvelled at the wound. Ambrose absently wiped his mouth and realized that he had been salivating excessively. The momentary distraction passed just as swiftly when his stomach churned again began to rise to his throat as a low growl. 

His next action was thoughtless. 

Ambrose leaned forward opening his mouth wide. When his teeth and lips made contact with the skin around the puncture wound the boy in the bed flinched. He continued to stir and Ambrose began to feel panic set in, but he reached up and gripped the arm on either side and bit harder. Everything he was doing was making everything worse! The boy’s eyes opened wide just as the blood from the wound filled his mouth. 

BLOOD

The warm red liquid coated his tongue and throat and something ignited within! Ambrose clenched his jaw even harder and suddenly something within his skull shifted and some of his teeth had sunk effortlessly into the flesh, increasing the blood flow. The fear and shock that had flashed across the boy’s face melted into a dull drowsy look. He had initially gasped and seemed like he was going to yell, but instead what came forth was a lazy grumbly moan. 

The hunger that had plagued him all day now was sated. The relief and contentment that filled Ambrose now was intoxicating. That first gulp coated his throat thickly with the patients blood and the heat that spread throughout his body was comforting. He continued drawing from the wound in a fervour. 

Only when he noticed the girl again did he pause. After a moment he realized that she wasn’t looking at him any longer. She was staring at the face of the patient he was feeding from. 

Ambrose shifted his eyes over and saw a visage that immediately reminded him of the girl at the orphanage. 

And of Charlie’s.