The Deceased

Chapter Twenty Eight - Company

I've started to lose it.

What has happening to me was truly terrifying. The stuff vlad was injecting into my skin on an hourly basis is making me see things. Sometimes I'm sitting against the wall and i see, out of the corner of my eye, some sort of shadow moving through my cell and out the door.

Whenever I can get to sleep, even if its just for a minute or two, I have dreams that I'm a murderer, like Vlad. Though I'm not in control of my actions or i would put a stop to hurting anyone, it's like I am Vlad and I'm watching through his eyes as he mercilessly hurts others.

I cant stand waking up drenched in my own sweat. I've tried to hold in my needs to go to the toilet but my efforts were short-lived so there is now a corner of my cell I do not go near.

My arms i could tell were bruised to hell from being constantly stabbed with needles. I haven't eaten in so long and the only way i can get water is by licking the dew that seeps through the bricks on the other side. Even then the sand that comes with it dries my throat up right away.

I can only imagine what I would look like from the outside. Still in my dress, barefoot, hair a mess behind me.

Slowly but surely, I'm fading away. I dont know how long I have left.

Ive noticed since the scare I gave Vlad the first time he hurt me he has been wearing gloves, as if afraid the needle might break and the liquid would spill.

Then I'm met with a weird high each time. It made me feel energetic but at the same time I've never been more tired.
Something inside me felt off.

"I want to go home." The words barely leave my dry lips. "Its the same  everyday. Same walls. Same person, and it's just me."

Jane strokes my hair and looks down where i lay against the concrete. "Its going to be okay, Val. You're stronger than this."

I look into her sparkling eyes. It was so dark but she was the light in the room. "There's no way out. I cant even remember how long I've been here."

"It's up there." She looks to the far wall where ive been engraving a straight line each time I see Vlad in a new dress shirt. "Right where you left it."

It's been three days.

"Im glad I'm here with you," I tell her. I could see the line at the base of her neck where Vlad snapped it. Theres still remnants of mascara running down her face when she was crying.

She strokes the bruises on my face. Each time I stepped out of line and Vlad 'put me in my place.'
"I'm always here. It's never too late-not for you. There's still hope."

"But not you. You're dead. Youre dead because you betrayed me."

"Hey," she smiles. It doesn't look like the smile I'm used to. It's sad. Her smiles never used to be sad. "Ive never made good decisions. You were always the decision maker. You always talk tough. It's time to act, now. Dont you let him beat you."

She was right. Of course. Ive been thinking that non stop for three days. It's seems death has mentally aged Jane well, but it was easier said than done. There is no way out.

"I miss you," I whisper. "So much."

That sad smile returns. "Im right here until you're safe. Maybe even after."

"How can I see you?" I ask. "Am I crazy?"

"Not you, well you are a little, but it's because of what Vlad is giving you. A part of him is a part of you now."

I sit up and face her. The room wavered and i wasn't exactly thinking the clearest, but that stuck. "He's been injecting me with his blood. Why?"

"Dont ask me, I'm dead." She laughs, but again theres something off about it. It doesn't comfort me like it should. Instead the room was cold. I could feel her sadness like it was a jumper and i was wearing it.

"It's going to take some strength," she continues after I havent spoke for awhile. "Dont forget that you need to live. It's not your time yet. There is a way to get out of here."

"How?" I asked.

"The gloves he wears. Why does he wear them?"

"I dont know. He started wearing them when I almost escaped."

I noticed that my words echoe and hers do not. She's a figment of my imagination.

"You almost spilled the blood on him. Ever since then he was worried it would happen again. Why?"

I think about it, but my brain was cloudy and i couldnt think properly. I just needed a small glass of water and the answer would come to me.

"He doesn't like stains," I guess, closing my eyes.

That heartless laugh comes again. "He doesnt want his own blood to touch him. It must do some damage."

"And if he really is just a neat freak? It will be a lot of energy gone for nothing."

"It's a risk worth taking," she says. "Just think about it. It could be your ticket back home."

I open my eyes "and then what? I dont even know where I am. I have no water or food. If I'm far from home I wont last an hour."

"There's nothing in this place you could use to survive out there. Im sure he made sure of that. Its better to be out there than in here."

I wasn't convinced. The plan felt barely full. "He isn't human. He doesnt take pain like a human does. He can run fast. His teeth... how can I get away from that?"

Jane is unsure of that. She knows just as well as I do what he is capable of. Which makes me question. "Why does he want me here? Why doesnt he just kill me?"

Jane looks at me at that and she purses her lips. "I'm looking at you and I can almost see through you. By you being here, every second he is killing you."

"Hello?"

That wasn't Jane's voice, the words certainly did not leave her lips while I was looking at her. So I turned away to where i thought they were coming from. Another hallucination?

I moved from my spot and shuffled to the nearest wall. Jane, however, did not come with me, and when I looked back to ask her who she thinks it is, she was gone.

"Who's there?" The voice comes again. It was female. "I heard you talking."

"Who are you?" I ask. The voice sounded so real. Not frightened but genuinely curious, and I was too. It snapped me back to reality.

"Holyshit, is that Valerie?"

Definitely snapped back to reality. She knew my name. I stay quiet, but after a few seconds she laughs. This laugh was real and this laugh took me all the way back to my time in highschool. When I was an outcast, who would make fun of me everyday? Who, out of everyone in my classes, did i despise the most?

A gasp leaves my hoarse throat.

"Sara?"