Red. Everywhere there was red. Every cell in her body throbbed with pain. The roaring in her ears threatened to drive her back down into the comforting depths of the blackness of unconsciousness, but there was some need pulling her upward that fought the desire to sink into oblivion once more.
A voice. She could barely hear him at first, but slowly his words penetrated the chaos in her brain. He was comforting her. His voice was so familiar, but she couldn't force her mind to think. Her life whirled before her, projected on the back of her eyelids like an endlessly looped reel of home movies. She winced at a particularly painful childhood scene, and heard his reassurance as he thought she reacted to the less bothersome physical aches that coursed through her. A metallic taste filled her mouth and she mumbled a request for a sip of water.
There was a melodious laugh from him, "Oh no, my little artist, water would only make you sick right now."
Finally she forced her eyes open, her vision blurry, then clearing with almost a snap. He bent over her, his sandy hair falling into those emerald green eyes that she knew so well. There was love in those eyes, and a tiny glint of possessiveness. His lips quirked into that oh-so-familiar lopsided smile, "Welcome back. How do you feel?"
A tiny groan answered his question, and a puzzled look. "What...happened?"
Another one of those chuckles and he tilted his head, "You don't remember?" There was a weight of significance to the question that went above and beyond the usual, even for him. "You don't remember my offer? You don't remember the choice that you made?"
She blinked for a moment and then suddenly her world came crashing down around her as she realized how her old life had ended, and she had chosen a new life.
"You were serious..." she said, half dazed. "I ...I thought you were joking...I couldn't have known that you were really serious."
Michael rose, looking down at her with that same smile, "I was very serious. Welcome to a new world, Lara." He turned away to set the damp cloth he'd bathed her brow with into the basin beside her bed, the light gleaming for one brief moment from the smooth surface of his fangs.
"Welcome home." He finished, rising to move from the room. "Now rest. Tomorrow night you learn how to feed."
The door closed as he flicked off the light switch, leaving the darkness to roll over her like a wave. The velvet blackness enfolded her, never to fully leave her again.