LoveBite [2]

68

As Satine stumbles in her steps, she grabs onto the wall to attempt to steady her dizzy mind. Her hair hangs around her face as it grows longer, her roots fading into a light brown, as she breathes shakily and heavily, in through her nose and out through her mouth.

In this red room, she can barely see a thing. Every so often, her eyesight grows hazy and the most she can see is the glow of those LEDs and the steaming smoke that comes through the vents on the ceiling. The closer she is to those vents, the hotter she becomes, making her weaker in the moment.

Sweat trickles along her forehead and her armpits and back as she leans her shoulder and palm on the wall to attempt to find a steady hold that doesn't send her to the floor.

"Alyona." Haven sings a smile and she closes her eyes with a trembling chin. "Baby, are you feeling sick?" She pouts a chuckle and she takes a deep inhale through her nose as a tear slips from her eye. "Is this too much for you?"

"Haven." She breathes desperately and she tilts her head. "Stop this." She begs softly and she chuckles. "Stop it, Haven, please?"

"Oh..." She sighs cheerily before snickering. "No. No, instead we're going to take another trip down memory lane." She sits up and crosses her legs.

Satine lets out a small sob as she slides down the cool cement wall to lay her heavy head against it. Haven takes a deep breath as Satine's breathing quickly picks up its pace.

"Are you with me, Alyona?" She asks and she hesitates before she nods. "Good." She nods softly. "Try to remember. We were thirteen. This was days before they took you under and sterilized you." She states and she squeezes her eyes shut. "You found me in my room when all of us girls should have already been asleep. But I wasn't and you knew it, so you came to me and you took me away and we left that hell hole. We ran through the trees until you stopped just at the end and pointed towards a building in a small town. You took me to the alley just beside this building and showed me that a window was open and through it, we could hear the music coming from inside." She reminds while Satine listens closely, watching this moment in her mind on rewind. "Aly, you took my hands and pulled me in and you started to sway. It was so hard not to stare at your smile." She shakes her head, saddened and angry, as Satine turns away from the camera, letting her legs drop to the side. "I was mesmerized by you." She chuckles. "You've been a rebel your whole life and you dragged me into it. And, I loved you for it." She states painfully with tears in her eyes as Satine starts to into towards the sink. "And, then you left me."

"Do you really think I just forgot about you?" She whimpers, nearly just beneath the sink.

"You left me, Alyona!" She grabs the mic and she jumps. "You left me there alone when you could have taken me with you."

"I didn't know what happened." She cries while taking a deep breath and she turns away from the screen with a sigh. "I didn't know that the gas saved me. Haven, I'm sorry." She pushes her back against the wall with a sob to attempt to push herself up. "I thought about you everyday for a year and I wanted so bad to go back for you, but I was so scared they would pull me back in. It was selfish, but I was terrified. You meant so much to me, Haven." She leans her palms on the sink and she turns back to the screen, her jaw locked tight. "And, now we're here. You do this." She breathes, exhausted, wobbling where she stands. "Peter has never hurt me. Especially not like this." She speaks near a whisper tone.

"He would if he could." She swallows difficultly. "On the off chance that you make it out of here, he will do something to you that will make you hate him."

"No." She shakes her head while gripping onto the edge of the sink. "No, he won't."

"Hmph." She chuckles behind gritted teeth. "Yes, he will. Just wait, Satine. Soon enough, you'll be out of here, on my terms, and he'll tell you his secret to try to get you back." She states righteously as Satine begins pushing down as her face contorts with her cries. "And, you're going to kill him."

Satine's ears perk up at that as he hold slips, causing her to fracture the edge enough for the force of the hit to send her down to the floor. She looks down at herself as her heart drops to her gut and she gets up to her forearms.

"I will make you kill him." Haven nods and she exhales deeply as she rolls to her side and back. "He won't be a problem anymore."

The room spins around her as she lies in place and that tight feeling in her chest swirls too. She lifts her heavy arms and pushes her fingers in her hair with fast and choking breaths through her sobs of pain.

-

Rubbing his face where he lays on his back on the couch at home, Peter sits up and hangs his head in his hands. Now that it's night time, Anya is sleeping in her bed and he should be in his, but Satine's not there and he can't sleep without her. The woman he loves with his whole heart and nothing less is missing and sleeping is a waste of time. It won't bring her home. And, neither will sitting there and doing nothing.

So he yanks the throw blanket off of his legs and gets up. He pulls on his shoes and jacket and silently enters Anastasia's room. To keep his steps quiet, he slowly heads towards her, who lays peacefully calm and unaware. He gently pushes her to lay on her back before he wraps her blanket tight around her. He lifts her up into his arms and her eyes open as she takes a deep breath. This is only for a moment before her head falls heavy on his shoulder as she falls right back into a deep sleep.

Peter grabs her light jacket too and heads out the door, locking it behind him. He goes to his car and lays Anya in the backseat, where he wraps the belt around and beneath her before he gets into the drivers seat. He heads off to the compound, where he can then take Anya to her the bedroom that she has there. He tucks her in with her favorite stuffed bunny before he's gone.

Back to the car and back to the abandoned building he's only been to too many times. Even when it always seems so pointless to go back, he's already seen the entire building in the daytime, he just keeps going back. He has nothing else to go for and nothing else to lose. Without Satine, it's feels like he's lost it all. And, he may have Anya, but he doesn't have her mother and he needs her. Anya needs her.

While Satine has been gone, the range of emotions have been all over the place, but none of it has been good. And, as a little girl, she's supposed to find joy in anything she can come up with, but she's been miserable. And, she's already good at hiding it. With her abilities that she has yet to understand well enough to be able to control, the empathic part of herself has attacked everything good and as of right now, it takes over.

Now back in that same building as always, her father simply uses his phones flashlight to light his way. Searching through every hall, room for room, for the fifth time, inch by inch. To do this multiple times and continuously receive no answers and no Satine, is very disheartening, but he just keeps doing. Once again, it's all he has. But it's not enough. It is never enough to do what needs to be done. And, it's killing him.

Giving up is truly now the only thing that's an option, but he can't take that. Even so, as he stops in the first floor hall, he comes to the realization that he may never find her. And, this hits him like a freight train.

He takes a seat against the wall as a tear spills from his eye. With a locked jaw, his chin trembles through his heavy sigh. He rubs his face and lays his head back as he drops his hands on his lap. His eyes stay glued to the wall in front of him as they have nowhere else to go until his attention is caught by something else.

Above him, right in the middle of the ceiling, sits an old camera. At least, it was believed to be old he came to notice the red dot of light. And, a red light on a camera only means one thing. Somebody is watching.