Blood Brothers

For Science

I slowly opened my eyes and then wrenched in panic. I glanced around as I struggled to wrench my wrists loose from where they had been tied to a chair. My ankles wouldn't move either. I sucked in breath as I forced myself to stop struggling and think. I was in some sort of basement, with all manner of unpleasentness hanging on the walls and sitting on tables.

I did my best to ignore those implements as the torture devices they were most assuredly supposed to be and tried to figure out which of them would be useful for getting me out of here. I spotted something sharp and wiggled until the chair began to move. I shoved and jumped across the floor until I got to the nearest table and then strained to reach.

My fingertips could barely reach the edge of the tray holding the implements. I grit my teeth and strained against the ropes on my wrist, forcing myself to reach just that much further. Until I hooked the edge and tugged. Shiny metal things fell into my lap and scattered across the floor. I lifted my hips out of the chair to get the sharp one close to my hand, snatching it up and whirling it in my fingers to dig back into the bindings on my wrist.

A sound drew my attention and I froze, then sliced faster when I realized someone was coming. Probably coming to investigate the noise. Far too soon, the door to the torture chamber slammed open and a man in a white lab coat strode in.

He stopped still and blinked when I snarled at him. "Let me out of here you bastard! Where's Ciro?! What is this place?! What do you want from me?!" He regarded me, contemplating as he stepped forward and delicately took the knife from me.  Despite my best efforts to hang onto it.

"You slept off the sedative faster than I thought you would." He laid aside the knife to free up his hands, then tugged a little notebook out of his breast pocket and penciled in a note. "Not out of the ordinary enough to call you some sort of monster of the night, however."

I swallowed. "What are you talking about?"

The man slipped the notebook away again and smiled at me benignly. "I have been told that you are not human. I'm not quite sure I believe it, but I don't mind testing the hypothesis." He stooped and began gathering up all the implements that had dropped. "Can you imagine it, if it is true? That creatures from myth and legend still walk among us, hiding under a guise of humanity. The knowledge is astounding. Just think of the medical advancements to be made should it be true. A Werewolf's ability to shift. A Vampire's superior senses. And so many other things that were only stories until now."

He dropped the handful of implements back on the table and turned to me. I pressed my lips together for a moment. "Sounds terrifying to me."

The man smiled wide. "Oh, it is. Very much so. But that is why we must study this. Because, if creatures out of legend truly exist, the human race is not the highest predator on the food chain anymore. And that thought, more than any other, terrifies me. So I aim to prove one way or the other, so that we can plan accordingly. I hope I can have your cooperation on this."

I stiffened and narrowed my eyes.

The man bent a little, looking into my eyes intently. "Are you a Vampire?"

I shook my head. "No. Vampires don't exist."

My denial only made him smile. "We shall see."

The evil doctor was methodical. A physical examination yielded him nothing out of the ordinary for a human so he drew blood, hair, saliva, and a nail clipping for testing. All of it was carefully labeled and stored, then made note of in that little notebook.

The last thing he did for the night was to make a note of my apparent dehydration and offer me water. I eagerly drank down everything he pressed to my lips in offering. I wasn't sure when I would get more and it helped to fill the hollow emptiness in my stomach. I fondly remembered that half a sandwich Ciro had offered me yesterday.  And I shoved away the grief of losing Ciro as I bent my head and tried to get some sleep.