Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Sluggishly and with a pounding head, I try to roll on my back.
My entire body hurts, a feeling like I’ve been run over by a car making every muscle and bone protest with any movements.
With great effort, I tear my lids open to slits, blinking fast, stifling the groan that wants to come out.
I have no idea where I am or what happened.
Better to be safe than sorry.
Rolling to my side, a scream is wrenched from my dry lips.
Cool metal yanks on my wrists, flipping me back.
Panic tries to overwhelm me, but I breathe through it.
Squinting in the darkness around me, my eyelids scrape as if they’ve been lined with sandpaper.
Where the hell am I? As soon as that question pops up, memories assault my brain.
Creeping around the city at night, the pharmacy, Sara being excited about the medicine I found, and at last me staring unblinkingly at dark eyes before I was pulled out of that damn dumpster.
I should’ve fought, scratched his eyes, or bit him.
Flailing around, or even screaming, would’ve been better than hanging limply, paralyzed by fear.
All the should haves are useless now that I’m tied up, awaiting my fate.
Waiting for my executioner.
Sounds drift to my ears as footsteps move closer, every one loud enough to be heard over the pounding of my heart.
With no idea how long I’ve been in this place unconscious, he might as well have taken me to those Italians I keep hearing about.
Jerking my hands a few times, the reality of my situation hits me like a ton of bricks.
There is no way to get free. No one will come to rescue me, and death has finally caught me.
No more running and hiding. It was good while it lasted, but in this moment, I can finally admit to myself that I knew it wasn’t going to last forever.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew my time was short.
Death was imminent, but I gave it a run for its money.
I didn’t give up. For some reason that makes me calm down.
I never gave up.
The squealing sound of protesting hinges when the door opens pulls my focus to the shadow looming at the threshold.
I don’t know how long I was stuck in my head, coming to terms with my predicament, but thanks to that, my heart doesn’t flutter like the wings of a dying moth when it sizzles, burning alive on a flame.
It beats calmly, waiting for my life to finally end.
It’s such a freeing emotion that I almost sob in relief.
I wasn’t living, no matter how much I convinced myself otherwise, just so I could keep going.
I was surviving. Scraping the dirt and trash from the world with some messed up sense that it meant something.
Watching the outline of whoever it is staring me down from a few feet away, chained like an animal, slaps the truth in my face.
It meant nothing.
It just prolonged my suffering. The miserable existence I’ve had.
“You are awake.”
The same guy that found me speaks, his voice slimy like slugs are gliding over my skin.
Still standing at the threshold, the light from behind him hides his features, making him look more menacing than he has any right to be.
He is human for God’s sake. Just like me.
Unable to stop myself, laughter bubbles out through my dry lips, the skin cracking, but I welcome the sting.
“A crazy person,” he says, mumbling under his breath.
Sounding disgusted by my lack of sanity, he shuffles inside the room.
I’m not even sure it is a room. I don’t even care at this point.
“At least you won’t understand what’s happening to you.
” Chuckling, he squats down on his haunches.
“I’m doing you a favor. We will help each other out. ”
My insane laughter stops, and I blink at the dark outline crouching in front of me.
This asshole thinks just because someone is not all there mentally, apparently, it’s okay to kill them.
Or trade them like some livestock. Anger surges through me, the yank of the metal on my wrists fueling it when I try to slap him.
He flinches at my sudden jerk but doesn’t move away.
“A fighter…” Snickering like a mad man, he yanks on the nest of hair sitting atop my head. “I’m told the vamps like it if you fight. It makes the blood taste better, or so I’ve been told. The assholes never tried to take any from me.”
The longer I listen to him, I’m not so sure which one of us is insane. Through the years, I had heard humans liked it when vampires drained their blood. I just thought they were lying or maybe trying to make themselves feel better for betraying humanity as a whole.
Maybe this idiot is one of those wanting what everyone has, even if it isn’t a good thing. If everyone is saying it, it must be true. Morons.
I haven’t had anyone to guide me through what was good or bad, but I would like to think I learned on my own. My morals might be screwed, but they were mine, and I was proud of them. No approval was needed to understand that I did the best I could with the shit of a life I was given.
This guy, on the other hand, is the reason why we are at the point we are. Selfish, unhinged, and screwed in the head ten ways from Sunday. At least I never turned my back on my kind. I can die knowing that.
“We have a short trip, you and me.” Lifting up to his full height, the creep rubs his hands together in anticipation.
“Soon, we’ll both get what we deserve. You’ll be put out of your misery.
” A hand reaches for my shackled wrist. “And I’ll get to be immortal.
Rising up in the chain.” I watch him, detached from the situation.
That calms the feeling from earlier blanketing my body.
Free.
I will finally be free from everything. Luck, hope, suffering.
Most of all, I’ll be free from life. I never realized how much I wanted that.
Hanging limply, I allow the idiot to unchain me.
Much stronger than I expected him to be, he drags me out of the darkness.
The tips of my boots scrape the floor. Through the matted hair hanging over my face, I take in the dingy apartment where I’ve been held prisoner.
Stained, brown carpet covers the floor. Yellow curtains that have seen better days are pulled closed over one window.
A checkered sofa with holes, springs and stuffing poking out of them in a few places is the only furniture I can see.
Empty cans and bottles of alcohol, mostly beer, litter the ground.
He kicks them out of the way as we pass towards the door, the cluttering sound reaching my ears like a peal of cruel laughter.
The night air washes over me as soon as we step foot outside.
Well, he steps foot out. I’m tiptoeing because his greater height jostles my limp body after him.
His apartment smelled just like the dumpsters I raided so I could feed myself.
Somehow, that thought makes me feel better.
I was living like a scum, and I am proud of that.
This asshole will never be proud of the life he has lived.
Descending the two flights of stairs takes no time at all while he practically runs down, impatient to end my existence.
When we reach his beat-up car, unwashed for as long as I’ve been alive, he wrenches the trunk open, shoving me inside.
My body hurts from being bent at awkward angles, but I don’t protest. Before he slams it closed, I smile at him, causing confusion to cloud his face.
“Thank you.” My whispered words widen his eyes. He slams the trunk closed so fast the sound hurts my ears. The engine rattles, coughing and spitting, before it starts. With a deep breath, I relax, smiling in the darkness.
It won’t be long now.