RED

Red {7}

"Who are you?" Catus snapped.

"That isn't really the problem considering Leia is in a gutter, nearly dead," replied Melodie pointedly.

Catus called Melodie a few swear words under his breath - he wasn't used to being addressed so boldly - but bit his tongue at the thought of Leia dying. He picked her up easily.

"Where's the nearest hospital?" he demanded. He held Leia like a baby, or a doll, her head lolling against his chest as he caressed her hair. 

"It's like ten minutes away by car," Melodie answered.

"Where? Which direction?"

"I can drive-"

He glared at her. 

"Just behind the street," she huffed. "Foxhingham Lane..." 

The words were hardly out of her mouth before he grabbed her and jumped. Over the row of houses, past the street, running towards Foxhingham Lane. He knew where Foxhingham Hospital was, sometimes he and his friends had thrown eggs at the window or set fire to one of the wards, nothing personal but just something to do. No complaints were made and no action was taken. Everybody knew that vampires were behind it, and mortals didn't complain about vampires: not if they didn't want to become their next meal. Now, going there for help, he felt slightly guilty, but Leia's life was at risk.

He didn't have time to be choosy.

Melodie watched him go, flying over the buildings as if he had wings.

"So she's dating Prince Catus," she mumbled. "Interesting."

And Katy Mandon, watching out of her beady dark eyes, found that little piece of information wonderfully interesting too.

*

She was in a coma.

"Leia? Leia? Please wake up." Catus' desperate voice. "Leia."

He couldn't imagine a life without Leia, she was everything to him. Everything about her was absolutely perfect. He couldn't lose her: not like this, in a dingy little hospital with worn sheets and crabby nurses, her beautiful face wrapped in bandages.

"Leia? Please," he whispered.

"Leia, we need you to wake up," Melodie begged urgently. "Come on Leia."

Melodie's slight fondness for Leia ached inside her. Leia had felt almost like a friend. Melodie hadn't had a real friend in years: a waste of time, and you just got hurt. But she had allowed herself to get attached to Leia. Stupid, she told herself. But then, she needed Leia too. How else would her plan work without a girl in red to accomplish it? She wasn't risking her life - she never planned to. Now, with Leia there, she could pull out of the competition.

"Come on, Leia," she pleaded. "Come on."

"Leia, honey, please wake up," her mother pressed.

"Come on sweetpea," her father added.

Now that their daughter had finally made them proud, she had to go and get shot. Wake up, her father thought forcefully. Without Leia, their hoped-for ties to the vampires had gone, and so had any chance of riches and immortality: the two things that came with the Vampire Princess for a daughter. And anyway, she was their daughter. Selfish as they were, they felt some sadness.

"Leia, baby, please wake up."

"Leia? Leia, come on."

"Leia darling, wake up for Mummy."

"Leia? Leia, come on, Daddy's here."

"Leia?" Catus whispered one last time. "Please."