Novels by Megan Bennett

The further I get into the book, the more I think about how Nightlings work. I’ve always wondered about the science behind mythical creatures and how they would work in the real world. Not things like, why do werewolves exist but, werewolves that grow in size when they change, were does the extra mass for that come from and were does it go?

In this blog post, I’m just going to clarify the science behind them to 1. Clarify what’s going on to my readers, and 2. A note to look back on when I change things and need to clarify them more. This is a non-spoiler post; it just clarifies the information that our Character Monday.

The Science of Nightlings

Nightlings in the simplest terms are the physical embodiment of human rage. This is based on the idea who stores of people who snap. Example would be the battered housewife who stabs her husband 30 times, it’s shocking and goes against common since but in a way, it’s understandable. To be a Nightling you need to things

The trigger is an event that cements the rage inside a person. Take Monday, she was abused by her step-father for years, but the event of the night that Alyson killed herself- Alyson tried to save Monday from her stepfather but Monday, scared of what would happened, turned on Alyson and defended her stepfather in court. Alyson, being bullied for “trying to harm Monday’s poor and innocent Step-father” kills herself but not before calling Monday to let her know. This is Monday’s trigger; the loss of her only friend to her stepfathers actions. This cements the rage in Monday against her stepfather, because Monday is not the only victim now. Monday also feels some rage against herself, which isn’t uncommon for Nightlings, for her roll in the event. This moment is what triggers Monday to follow Alyson’s body to Syringa and starts the Fledgling process.

Next comes the Nightling stage. To be a Nightling, you have to release that pint up rage in an inhuman way, such as killing. It can’t be done in self defiance either. You’ll notice that Monday escapes her Step-father in the kitchen in Chapter 5 with stabbing him in the chest, if she gone to a neighbor and called the police, she could have been spared from being a Nightling, but instead she goes back and stabs him to death instead. Dion would have probably died, but Monday’s rage is what killed him, not her self defense.

It’s important to note that not all people can be Nightlings, because react to different situations differently, going back to the metaphor before, not all abuse women are going to kill there husbands. Not all people are going to be Nightlings, being a Nightling is something that you a predisposed to. All it takes is the right events to trigger the change.

The next part is the first change itself. I’m not going into detail on the actual change itself, since that will covered in Chapter 7. The first change happens the first night you commit your first kill. Nightlings follow the sunrise and the sunset. Which means that at different times of year, the Nightlings phase is either shorter or longer? More detail about the change will come next week.

Now that you a Nightling, what is your lifestyle? First of all, Nightling drink blood (Monday sees Edith give Ezra a bottle in Chapter 3), but not on the nights that they kill. All of their victims are picked out for them ahead of time. If the victim’s blood type is known a head of time, then they may drink but it is not preferable. This will be explained more in alter chapters but what generally happens is that after a Nightling kills their target, Lenny is in charge of collect the bodies from the crime scene. Once he has he bodies, he has the blood test to make sure there are no drugs or disease and drains the body of blood. The blood is then typed and if the blood is compatible, then it is sent to the Nightling who killed the target. I the targets blood type is not known before hand and the targets blood doesn’t match, then Lenny will switch bloods to different Nightlings, depending on their blood type. The blood is then bottled up and Edith delivers the blood to the different Nightlings, sometimes with their next kill. Nightlings only kill about once every 6 weeks. Nightlings have to drink blood to keep the inhuman, animalistic side of them at bay. They won’t die, but they will become unstable and prone to outburst of aggression that can lead to accidental deaths.

I may be over thinking it but these are just the basic facts. In later chapters, I’ll post updated post on things like:

If anyone had any questions, leave them in comments. New blog posts this week to make up for the week I took off. Chapter 7 on next Monday; although it could come sooner, it’s a good chapter.