Vampire Sunrise

Mind Games

"Jane, what's going on? Why are you wearing a white coat? Where's Goliath, and why are you trying to give me pills?"

"Alice, there was a mistake with your medication yesterday; that's why you feel like you do. We need to get you back on track. Take these, and you'll start feeling like your old self again."

"What do you mean, my medication? You know I don't take anything. I didn't even take the cancer medication I was given."

"I know you're thinking about Angel. All you need to do is take this, and in a matter of minutes, you'll be asleep and back with her, but we don't need to rush if you're not ready. I can stay here and talk if you like?"

I was so confused; I didn't respond to Jane.

"It's been a while since you've told me about the witches in New Orleans. Last time we spoke, they were helping you prepare to face Dominus; how did that go?"

Everything felt wrong. My head was killing me; I needed for the pain to stop. I sat on the couch, placed the paper cup with the three pills on my milk crate coffee table, rolled my head back, and then put my hands over my face. I was going crazy.

"Alice, do you want to tell me about the witches?" Jane said again.

"No, I want to talk to my Jane, not whoever you are."

"Alice, you're sick, and you didn't contract the vampire virus, and you don't have cancer. You are not part of some demonic society, and you don't live in New Orleans at a blood bank.

"There are no such things as vampires, witches, or demons. Sometimes it makes us feel better to step outside of the ordinary, and that's ok. I'm here with you because it's my job to help you find your way back to reality." Jane said.

"You're saying my Decatur Blood Bank Apartment is a figment of my imagination? If that's true, why does this room look like my apartment, and why is Buddy here?"

"This room was constructed from what you told us about your fantasy world in past sessions we've had. You have a wonderful imagination, but your mind is fragile, so we built this to ease your move from that reality to this one. We are doing our best to help you, Alice."

I was so confused. I needed to think and wrap my mind around what was happening. Was I crazy? Did I dream up my life?

"Jane, would you give me a moment? I'm doing my best to understand what you're saying, but nothing makes sense."

"Most of our conversations start this way. I'll give you some time to adjust. When you're ready, take the pills, they will relax you. We will start over when you are ready."

Jane turned from me and headed toward the door. She opened it, and through the crack, I saw something. It wasn't the rundown hallway inside the blood bank apartments; it looked like a hospital setting, maybe an operating room or lab. Was she telling the truth?

If I wasn't in New Orleans, where was I? I walked over to the window and looked outside. Decatur Street looked normal. I saw people walking and cars driving by.

I reached for the latch to unlock the window, but there wasn't one. I also couldn't find a place to lift the window to raise it. I looked around the apartment for something to break the window with. The rusty rod from the bathroom that my one towel hung on should do the trick.

With all of the force I could manage, I swung and hit the window. The bar made a thudding sound as if something covered the window. Again and again, I swung, but nothing happened. I was trapped.

I went to the bedroom and laid on my bed. It was soft and clean. Buddy jumped up and curled his body in a circle close to me. He wasn't next to my hair but instead touched my body because I wasn't cold. They had somehow found a cat that looked exactly like him.

It must be true. I wasn't some demon queen on a mission, but instead, a lonely girl with a mental condition. There were no Decauter Blood Bank Apartments and no Chester. Christina had only sung inside my mind in a delusion. Katie's witches were not in some struggle with Dominus Strum, and there had been no Angel.

Angel would never come looking for me, and the fiends would stay in oblivion, where all fantasies lived. My life had been a cruel lie, and the saddest part of all was that lie made me who I was. The lie gave me something that I didn't want to live without; it gave me her. I couldn't live without her.

I felt a tear escape from the confines of my eye. It was all I could do to summon the strength to raise the back of my hand and wipe the tear away. I pulled my hand back. It was stained red.

At that moment, I knew I wasn't crazy. Something had happened; something terrible had happened. I stood up and took the key from my back pocket. I walked to the window, where the light was the brightest, and looked at it closely.

I focused on the tiny writing and made out the words, "You are my queen too."

I became enraged. "I will not be trifled with by the likes of vampires and witches," I screamed. I didn't know what was happening to me, but I knew one thing, I was the queen of the demons, and someone was playing mind games with me.

I went over to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. I grabbed at the handle, but it was an illusion, flat against the door.

I drew back my fist and struck the door. I hit a barrier, and it stung. I yelled, "Wake up, Alice Masters!" I punched the door again, "Wake up, Alice Masters," I chanted over and over.

My hand became bloody, but I kept punching the door. The pain was unbearable, but every so often, a flash of light would streak across my mind.

"Wake up, Alice Masters, I yelled again and again. The pain created more flashes; it was my beacon. I was under some kind of spell.

"Open your damn eyes, Alice Masters," I said. Everything went white. "Open your eyes, Alice Masters!" It rang in my ears repeatedly. I blinked; everything was white.

"Open your eyes, Alice Masters!" The voice sounded again, and I blinked faster; color faded in.

"Kill her; she broke the spell." Someone said.

A sharp pain ran across my forehead, then everything stopped, and my eyes focused.

A spelled blade was being thrust into my head. Only the tip had penetrated my skin before I was able to move into my demonic rhythm. I had broken free just in time.

Around me were four witch vampires, and we were all under a magical dome. The dome must have prevented any magic or my demons from finding me.

Chains were around my ankles and wrists but had just been broken, and pieces of them were being pushed away from me. Everything around me was being moved in slow motion.

I pulled a needle out of my arm; it had been spelled to penetrate my skin. A tube cyphering my blood into a bag was in the process of being flung away, caused by my change into demonic speed.

We were in what looked like a mad scientist's laboratory. The vampires had cast a kind of hallucination magic on me that used my memories against me.

Without a second thought, I used my hands and ripped the throats out of three vampires and left one alive for questioning. The moment my hand left the throat of the third vampire, the ward started to fade. I felt a multitude of hands grab me at that moment. Everything went black.