Seeing with the Shadows

Chapter 50

Lena shoved Vanessa aside and ran through the double doors of the operating room. She wasn't quite sure where she was going, but she had to get out of this place. She could hear Vanessa running behind her, and she knew the halls of this place a lot better than Lena did.

"You can't keep running forever, you're going to get too tired, and then I'll finally be able to get rid of you and your father!" Vanessa yelled, panting a little bit.

Lena knew that was true, but she couldn't just stop running. If she died, what would happen to everyone she cared about?

How had Vanessa even been able to stay alive this whole time? It didn't make any sense to Lena. She was definitely over 200 years old, and Vampires lived a long time, but not that long. It just didn't make any sense to her.

Lena turned another corner when she smacked into a wall. Oh, great. Now I really will die. Vanessa was just about a minute behind her. She groaned and slid down the wall. But the wall wasn't solid. It slid open, and she tumbled backwards into a room, letting out a small shriek.

The lights slowly came on as the wall slid shut silently behind her. She couldn't hear anything from the outside world. The room was almost completely bare, except for a small glass sphere, sitting on a stool. It had a little tangle of lights swirling around in it, like how Christmas lights look when you're just taking them out of a drawer and they've all knotted together.

"What is this?" She wondered aloud. Of course, no one answered her. She closed her eyes and tried to remember things that she had learned at school that might be able to help her. Nothing came to mind, so she walked up to the ball of light and gave it a little poke. At first, nothing happened. Then, it wobbled a little bit, like a bubble right before it pops, and it projected a scene into the air.

It was a nice day, the wind was blowing through the grass, and there was a girl sitting in it, alone. At first Lena wasn't too sure what she was doing, but looking closer, she saw that she was crying. It looked a bit like Vanessa.

A boy came up from behind her and quietly sat down next to her. "Go away, I don't want to talk to you." She muttered, burying her face in her hands.

The boy didn't answer, he just sat there with her. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, the scene disappeared.

Suddenly, it became clear to her. This was something she had learned about on her first day at Half Moon, when she was still adjusting. Of course she hadn't been paying attention to much, but she could remember this very clearly, out of the blue.

This was Vanessa's soul. She had taken it out, or someone else had taken it out, causing her to live forever. There was literally no way for her to die unless someone put it back into her body. If she did that, all of her aging would catch up to her, and she would die. She had lived much too long, even for a Vampire.

Had Vanessa purposely done this, or had someone else done this to her? It didn't really matter now, she had done so much evil, no matter how she started out. She had to be stopped, and Lena finally had the key,

She grabbed the bubble and slid open the door. The hallway was freakishly silent, it was like one of those moments in movies where the character will go back to their high school at midnight because they forgot one of their books in their locker, and they get murdered. Why was there no one here? She hadn't killed everyone...

And where was Vanessa? The woman was most definitely not stupid. Lena walked down the hallway, freezing cold. It was eerily quiet. She wasn't wearing any shoes, and it crossed her mind that if she ever did get out of here, it was going to be a problem if she didn't have anything on her feet.

"Come on Lena, I know you're here somewhere... Come out, I'll explain to you what this is really about! No one has to get hurt, I just need to talk to you!" Vanessa called from somewhere up ahead. Lena turned the corner and saw Vanessa creeping along the hallway, a knife clutched behind her back, similar to the one that Lena had.

Then again, maybe it is good that I'm not wearing any shoes... Lena thought to herself, She won't be able to hear me as well. Lena paid attention to her breathing, making sure to make it as quiet as possible. Where was everyone? Wherever they were, Lena was glad that they weren't here. It would have made this a lot more complicated.

She was twenty feet behind Vanessa, fifteneen, ten, five, one- Vanessa turned the corner, "Lena! Where are yoiu?"

For a moment, Lena thought that Vanessa was going to turn around. She crossed her fingers on one hand tightly, holding onto the bubble in the other just as tightly. This had to work - it had to! She didn't know what would happen if it didn't, but she didn't want ot go there.

Lena crept up behind Vanessa just as she was turning around, and shoved the bubble towards her. That is, where she was just moments before. She watched in horror as the bubble - Vanessa's soul, her mortality - went rolling down the hallway. She had no idea what to do... so she ran after it.

Vanessa was shocked, so that bought Lena a few moments, but not too many. Why did her soul have to be round? It could've been a triangle or a cube or something that wouldn't roll so easily!

Lena had never been very good at running, partially because she couldn't control her breathing very well, partically because her face got really red and that embarassed her, and partically because she just really hated it. If I get out of this alive, I swear to god... I'm never doing any running again. She thought to herself as her feet pounded down on the slick marble flooring.

The ball was slowing down, and Lena was close enough to grab it. Once it was in her fingers, she spun around and faced Vanessa again.

"I'm really going to kill you now!" Vanessa shrieked, holding out the knife. She didn't waste any time throwing it towards Lena.

It all happened in a moment. The knife was hurling towards her, and she was going to die. This was the end. This was most definitely the end. She held Vanessa's soul out in front of her, and the knife was coming towards her, and then... It hit its mark.

Lena dropped Vanessa's soul in shock just as it burst. The tiny lights flew towards Vanessa, and Lena watched in horror as her hair grew and became gray, her nails got longer, and her skin got more wrinkles than Lena had ever thought possible.

And then, she was gone. And it was all over.

THE ENDDDD

AUTHORS NOTE: I know it's been ages, but I've had major writers block and I just feel like this story really has been over for wa while now. I've worked on it for so long... I hope you guys enjoy it! I think I will be writing another story, once I get some inspiration. I'll put that up on here so you guys can know if you're not following me. Thank you SOOSOSOOOO much I never expected more than 100 views and I ended up with over 50,000, and that is just kind of unrealistic for me. Thank you all soososoo much for reading and voting and commenting and everything I love you all you're all perfect and omg wow I'm finally done <3 <3

tova