Vampire's Hostage

Vampire's Hostage chapter 3

Three

I woke with a start. I was just as cold now as I was in the dream, but as I examined my arms, my stomach, my legs, I realized that, though it all felt real, it was really just a dream. Either way, my body still hummed with adrenaline. I thought back to more specific pieces of the dream, trying to decipher them. I absentmindedly  traced the bite marks on my neck and felt, upon further inspection, that they were not sore, they were not even irritating, aside from the fact that they make me defenceless and weak. That's irritating. 

My dreams had always had a rather prophetic note to them. Like I was intuitive, but only in my subconscious.

I love you.

I could not believe my own brain had sought that kind of sickening terror out and dragged it into the only safe haven I've got left, unconsciousness.

Life is cruel. This isn't life though, this is worse. This is.. this is...

This is horror, pain, sadness, hopelessness.

If it was just me captured, and not one other soul here was in danger, I would probably submit. Just go with it you know? I would give in to the fact that I had no chance of escape. But I'm not alone here.

Never underestimate the power of a crowd.

There was a crowed here alright; there were about a hundred of us here. But there were more vampires than humans here, and the vampires were superior.

It absolutely sucked that there was no way to judge time in here. I could have been sleeping for minutes or hours, but the way my stomach was screaming at me, I guessed it was the latter.

I shook a few cheerio’s from the baggie. I was so thirsty though.

I slid a few under each of my neighbours gates and returned the bag to its place.

Screams. Already? That's crazy. Why so soon? I guess the sooner they drain us the sooner we have mercy.

I slipped back into my top that I’d been using as a pillow and pushed myself as far into the corner as is could. I made myself a ball and made sure my neck was protected.

The door was thrown open but I didn't look up, I didn't acknowledge that he was here.

“I brought you juice.” He whispered. “It's grape.”

I didn't reply. Grape was my favourite.

“Hey, look at it this way; I get something to quench my thirst and so do you.”

I shivered.

“I also brought you sleeping pills.” He said. “I had a feeling you were having night mares.”

My head whipped up involuntarily. How did he know about the dream, had I been screaming and he’d heard?

“What was it about?” he asked.

“You.” I replied.

“What happened?”

I told him. I didn't want to but the words just tumbled out, one after the other, like a waterfall.

“huh.” He said at the end. “That's odd. I had the same dream but I was watching you from the side. All I could feel was pain but I knew it wasn't mine. In the dream I said the words and I was so confused after.”

He sat next to me against the wall.

“Do you love me?” I said. I don’t know why I even asked, but I wanted to decipher this dream, it was really nagging me.

“I just met you like... three days ago.” He said, skirting the question.

“So no.” I said.

“I never said that.” he argued.

“It was implied.” I countered.

He lifted me into his lap. I knew he was going to drink from me again, and I braced myself.

He kissed me passionately, set me down, and walked out.

He left the grape juice and the sleeping pills, along with another bag of cereal, frosted flakes this time. The grape juice was warm, like heated up warm. I remember when I was young and my mom used to make crystal juice and heat it up in a big pot on the stove for me and my brother in the winter, or when we were upset. I bet my brother and mom are drinking it now as the sit huddled in a police station with a bunch of other scared parents and siblings trying to find us.

I took a sip. It tasted like home. Like trudging inside after a huge fort-making-turned-snowball-fight when I was nine, or like curling up on the couch sobbing over my first bad break up.

I indulged in the warm homey feeling for a little while longer, not willing to share this bit of my only possessions with anybody else. Besides. My neighbours are still screaming.

Eventually I swallowed a sleeping pill and drifted off into peaceful abyss.

Despite the pill I still dreamt.

I was laying in a vast field of grass, it spanned so far I couldn’t see the end. Maybe it never did. I stared up at bight twinkling stars, Stark against the pitch black sky. I looked to my left and stared at Jace’s profile, he was looking at stars too. When he felt my gaze he turned his head so he was looking at me too. I stared into his electric blue eyes, in that moment utterly captivated. His eyes were very dark when he was angry, but they were still beautiful, they shone in this way that it was almost physically painful to look at. But when he was peaceful, content. That was when it got amazing, there was so much behind them, intelligence and humour, and so much of a raw emotion I couldn’t name. When he was happy, like when he was drinking from me, his eyes had gotten so light they were almost like crystal balls. I looked into the clear blue orbs now. Crystal balls were supposed to tell the future, hold secrets. What secrets will I unlock from Jace? “Can you sing?” I asked him. I don’t know why. I guess, the last dream I was in so much pain, maybe I can get some happiness from this one. He nodded. From his mouth came a chorus of sounds so complex I wondered it was all real. We were in a dream after all. His voice hit the high notes and the low of the song. I couldn’t name it, but it stirred something in the back of my memory, like a lullaby my mother used to sing to me of something of that sort. I closed my eyes. The song had no lyrics, just strings tangled into a web of perfect.

Wow, he was so good he could sing people awake.

I looked up and he was there.

Huddled as far away from me as possible, sitting with his legs to his chest. He was just looking at me.

“How were you here and in the dream?” I asked.

“The dream ended a few hours ago, you floated in semi conscious for a bit. You know, awake but out of it. I'm guessing you don’t remember any of that. But it's fine. Not very important, you were just kind of rambling on about my eyes and crystal balls and secrets.” He dismissed.

“And you sat here, through it all?” I asked. “You came here when you woke up?”  

He nodded. “Are you thirsty?” he asked. “I brought more warm juice.”

“Yea.” I said. “Thanks, how did you know I liked it?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes I get these feelings about you. Like the song in the dream, I had never heard it before, but I knew it had something to do with you. So I sang it, and it was as if I was unlocking some part of my brain that had been hidden.”

It was weird talking to him like this.

“How about you, are you thirsty?” he shook his head but I knew better. I didn't want to feed this Vampire, or any really, but I wasn't going to let him starve plus he’s tried to comfort me, cereal, hot juice. I moved closer to him and bared my neck. “Drink.” I ordered.

 He did.

When he took his fangs from my neck I shivered. He licked the wound sealed.

I went back to my corner, and he went back to his.

“Thank you.” he said.

I just nodded silently.