Take Courage, My Heart

Chapter Five

I woke up to the scent of fresh linen. I scrunched up my face and with difficulty blinked my eyes open. There was a chandelier. I was in a room I had never been in before and there was a chandelier. It had about ten light bulbs on it and the lampshades were colored brown. It looked more worn-out than regal. 

I felt alive, which came as a surprise. But I didn't dare to move yet, opting to look around the unfamiliar room I was in. 

It was a bedroom with light gray colored walls. There was a window to my left that was covered with a lace curtain and next to it was a plush, velvet armchair. The bed I was on was large and so soft you barely felt like you were lying on something. I felt things.

All my limbs were functional. I was alive and I could move. With the important stuff out of the way, I braced myself mentally and sat up. The pain reached me before the covers revealed my arm. Bandages covered it from my shoulder down to my palm, but it was still in one piece.

The next thing that registered was that I wasn't wearing a shirt. I pulled the covers completely off and noticed that I was only clad in boxers. That was... worrisome. I couldn't remember taking my clothes off. I looked around the room again. There was no dresser or closet in sight, but some neatly folded clothes rested on the armchair. With slow movements, I stood up and moved to the armchair. My injured leg had also been dressed in bandages, pain was shooting out from where the bush branch had pierced my skin.

I reached the armchair while dragging my feet, leaned down to grab the shirt and sweatpants that were waiting for me, and groaned. My ribs were not happy with the movement. I remembered having trouble breathing, so I tried taking a deep breath and wheezed it out immediately. Okay, so clearly something was not okay with my ribs. The unfamiliar bedroom, the lack of clothing, and the stale knot that had settled in my stomach were also not okay.

Finding the vampire that must have brought me here was a crucial priority. I had no idea where I was or who was in the building with me. Dressed in the provided clothes, I opened the door and exited the bedroom.

A long hallway stretched before me, a Persian runner carpet covering it and old landscape paintings were hanging on the walls. I stepped on the carpet, trying to make as minimal sounds as I could, and started walking towards the side of the hallway that didn't end in a clear dead end. I reached a staircase and started descending it.

I found myself in another hallway, though this one was visibly shorter. Music and low voices were coming from one of the rooms at the far end of the hallway and on instinct, I started moving toward it. The carpet down here wasn't Persian-styled but the feel of it on my bare feet was the same. Goosebumps broke on my skin, and it wasn't because the house I was in was cold. It was in no way warm and cozy, but I wasn't shivering either. I stopped a few steps before reaching the archway that led to the room I could hear people in. A chill ran down my spine and I readied myself for whatever I was about to insert myself into. One of my legs started moving and then stopped when cold lips touched the side of my neck.

"Fuck," I hissed, jumping away, and turning around. At once, my body whined at me for the sudden movement and a handful of swear words fell from my lips in hushed whispers.

A young girl, with too perfect curls to be natural, stood in the hallway before me. Her hands were clasped behind her back, and she wore a long summer dress that didn't fit the season. Her eyes, big and brown, blinked at me innocently and she sent a crazed smile my way.

"Your veins are throbbing," she simply said, as if that wasn't the weirdest sentence to ever be uttered to me.

"Have you never heard of consent?" the question fell from my lips out of my volition. Her eyes lit up at that and she confidently took a step closer.