Dystopian Dream

Chapter Nine

It had been a rough night and I felt like I had been holding my breath for most of the time. After getting back to the car and me getting into new clothes, we had resumed driving. James was silent which wasn't very alarming considering that he was silent most of the time. Dean made his snarky comments now and again but he seemed a little on edge. I was busy eating. As it turned out, the bag Dean had been carrying contained cans of more or less weird food. So far I had eaten another small can of peaches and half a can of something that tasted like vanilla pudding but looked slightly wrong. I was too hungry to care and after I finished eating, the world and possibility of being eaten alive didn't seem so grim anymore. 

We stopped one more time when James spotted two slender figures walking along the road. Whenever you saw someone walking around at night so confidently you could be sure it was a vampire. James slowed down the car next to them but it was Dean who spoke.

"Don't you know that it's dangerous walking around at night?" He asked with a cocky grin.

"Fuck off Dean," one of them said and kept walking.

"Now, now, that is no way to talk to an old friend," Dean said while getting out of the now standing car. The two vampires had stopped aswell and were regarding Dean with uneasy looks. 

"We're not exactly friends man," the other one mumbled,"last time we saw you, you nearly killed us." He seemed tense and his eyes only left Dean to quickly glance over to me. James had gotten out aswell but I had stayed in the car, knowing that outside I would only be a distraction.

"Have you seen Caine?" James sounded weary and exhausted not at all like his usually so controlled  self.

"We heard what he did," the taller one snickered and while keeping his eyes on me said," but I see you already found a new pet."

It happened so quickly that it took me a few seconds to realize what had happended. The tall vampire was lying next to the car. His body was, his head was lying about fifty meters down the road. James' hands were covered in blood and he slowly turned to the remaining, very scared-looking vamipre.

"Have you seen Caine?" He asked in the exact same voice as before.

"Y-y-yesterday" the other stuttered," saw him and a few others in a pick up, heading towards Old Vegas. Seemed to be in a hurry."

"Thanks," James replied and got back in the car.

Dean patted the vampire on the back before getting in the car. 

"Don't sulk to much about him he was an asshole."

Two hours later when the sun had started to come up we had once again taken shelter in an abandoned house. But this night things were very different from last. Last night seemed years away. This night James didn't offer me to come with me so that he could protect me from Dean. He just walked up the stairs without saying another word. Dean turned in the direction of the door that led to the cellar and for a moment I thought he might just vanish aswell. It would be nice to see the sun again, I thought to myself. 

"Are you coming Princess"? He was watching me from the top of the stairs that were leading into total darkness. I slowly walked over to him, already dreading what would happen down there. 

After my eyes had gotten used to the darkness I could make out a couch standing on one wall of the basement. Dean made sure, that no sunlight could come in anywhere and then walked over to the couch which he discovered could be pulled out.

"Almost five stars, don't you think?" He asked and even though I couldn't see it in the dark he was probably smirking. I tried to ignore him and sat down on one side of the couch. Dear God, help me.

When I lay down I suddenly felt something cold on my wrist. Startled, I tried to jump up and realized that the cold thing had been a handcuff. The other one was around Deans wirst.

"What the hell, Dean," I said between clenched teeth.

"Well, I need to make sure that you don't try to leave when the sun is up. I don't trust you to just stay here since you're probably a little scared that James might kill you. And because he wants you here I'm gonna make sure that happens, not to mention that you owe me something." 

I wanted to scream and rage and hurt him a lot. Instead I lay back down without another word and once again told myself to ignore him. For a few minutes after he lay down next to me I waited nervously if he would touch me in anyway. After our talk on the lake I had somewhat expected that he would force himself on me the minute we were alone. Curiously enough he didn't. 

Soon enough he had fallen asleep or whatever you might call the way vampires recovered. I once had asked James if there was a difference and he had said that for one thing vampires didn't dream. It hadn't seemed to bother him but it had made me very uneasy. Maybe they don't dream, I had thought, because they don't have a soul. 

For a whlie I tried to fall asleep aswell but I couldn't. I sat up and leaned against the the backrest. Even though Dean had checked if there was a way that sunlight could come in he had overlooked something. Under the door at the top of the stairs was a small gap which let some light through. It wasn't much more than a weak glimmer and certainly not dangerous to Dean. But it was enough so that I could see the basement a little clearer. On the opposite wall of the couch stood a massive closet with a chain around the handles. I spent some time wondering if someone had wanted to keep the inside of the closet save from the outside or the other way around. 

It's hard to be scared when you have an apex predator lying next to you so I moved on and examined the rest of the cellar. The two windows that were directly under the ceiling were barricaded with wood panels and a single, naked light bulp hang from the ceiling. On the wall to my right was a bookshelf wich was mostly empty except for a few dusty volumes. Finally my eyes wandered to the most terrifying thing in the cellar.

Like most people or creatures that resemble them he looked peacefull when he slept. A strand of his dark blond hair had fallen over his forehead and I almost brushed it aside. His green eyes were hidden under his longlashed lids. And his lips that were usually forming a mean smile were soft and relaxed. I was definetly too close. Our hands were touching and I could feel his cold skin which send a shiver down my spine. 

I shook my head as if to get rid of dizziness. He's like a siren from the Odysee the only difference is, that he is more dangerous when he is silent because then you might mistake him for something other than a monster.