Burning Horizon

Burning Horizon; Finally Safe - I think...

Chapter Fourteen: Finally Safe...I Think.

When I awoke from the drugs the small room had been brighter than before, filled with the natural bright light of dawn that filtered in through a narrow window on the wall behind me. I could block out some of the pain enough to move my limbs slightly and push some words out of my mouth starting with a mere 'Hey'. I noticed that it wasn't just my euphoric parents who sat on two padded chairs to my right that were in the room. Carlisle and Esme were stood by the plastic window. A white coat hung down to Carlisle's knees and a red, metallic stethoscope was draped around his neck. Esme had one hand over her mouth, evidently beaming underneath as her dimples grew larger.

"How are you feeling?" Carlisle asked, stepping over and scanning his eyes across the screen of the machine next to me that was obviously monitoring my heartbeat.

"Fine." Dad raised one eyebrow at me, still smiling underneath his concern. "Well, it still hurts, but a little less than yesterday".

"We've been so worried darling, you wouldn't believe." Esme spoke, her smile stretching even wider. I managed to squeeze out my own smile, immediately lighting the eyes of my parents. "Alice and Rose will be back in a minute, they haven't stopped pacing around ever since they stopped fighting."

"The fight..."

Mom placed her hand on mine, cooling my skin instantly. "Don't worry about that now, just concentrate on getting better."

I had completely forgotten that the rest of my family were battling while I was knocked unconscious. When I reached the top of the cliff above the forest, I could see fires flickering around the mass of people. Fires with huge columns of smoke towering into the sky, fires that had took lives but the lives of whom exactly? Who had died fighting for me and my family?

"Why is there venom in me from so recently? Its burning me like a fire."

Speaking hurt too, but only a spiky tickle in the back of my throat and it was so much of a relief to have control of my lips and tongue again without the screeches bursting in every second.

"I bit you, more times than one, so the venom would fix your breaks and heal your chest but it seems vampire venom isn't so compatible with you." Dad ran his fingers over a crescent moon shape on my wrist as he spoke.

"We think it's going to be in your system for a while, it can't fix what needs fixing and no transformation is happening." Carlisle said.

Oh great.

"I still can't get my head around it." Mom whispered, stroking my skin with her fingertips. "Will you show me, show me absolutely everything. I have a feeling that they did more than keep you hostage whatever your father says, and about Aymie ... show me."

I was reluctant. Whatever I would show her, she really didn't want to see - though she did not understand that yet because they did do more than keep me hostage. I couldn't see how she would enjoy watching what happened and my father would not enjoy watching the earlier parts all over again. However, Mom would manage to coax the truth out of me sometime soon so I may as well give it to her now. I stared up at the ceiling, touching her hand with my fingertip and remembering every torturing moment as clear as crystal. Re-enacting my meals in my mind was the hardest thing of all. It brought forward the realisation that I had not fed for three weeks and after drinking several pulsing humans each day I was in their captivity, the burn at the back of my throat was stronger than it should be. I changed the subject of my thoughts, showing Jane's torture sessions and Aro's attempts at pulling me to his side as an accomplice. Those discussions turned more and more into threats as time passed by. Threats of murderous 'accidents' and very unfortunate deaths of loved ones if I did not cooperate with them and agree to their wishes. Then as they left for the fight, Aro whispered something that chilled me to the bone.