Thank goodness for Eve this could have been so much worse if Eve hadn't have come in when she did. Not that things were all that great at the moment, Claire was fighting the final waves of blackness. How could this have happened in the middle of the day. She had come home from school, trying to get rid of a headache before heading off to the lab, where she knew her headache would only get worse depending on what kind of mood Myrnin was in. When she walked through the door Eve was blasting music, she asked that she switch to headphone since she was off to take a nap. Michael and Shane were at work so it was just the two of them. Things were finally starting to get back to normal after the draug, well at least as normal as things could be in Morganville. Claire reached her room and changed into a tank and yoga pants and after many turns finally got comfy, she could hear Eve heading down to the basement to start laundry, she faintly heard a crash and giggled to herself, Eve could be so clumsy sometimes. That's when it hit her, literally someone had creeped into her room and punched her right in the face. Instantly she looked for a weapon and started to fight back, but she was caught off guard. She opened her mouth to scream and let Eve know that she desperately needed help. She looked up to see who attacker was and couldn't believe her eyes it was Dean, has was supposed to be dead! But here he was covering her mouth with a wash cloth full of coraform and he was crazed. Panic didn't even begin to describe her feelings at this moment, she still had nightmares from their last encounter. She was now choking on the wash cloth and his hands moved to her throat. She knew at that second she was going to have to fight for her life. She began scratching and clawing at his hands and face. Blindly kicking and tossing about, but all this seemed to do was make him squeeze harder. She was starting to see black, when finally she felt her fingernails made contact with his eyes and she scratched for all she was worth. His hands let go of her throat and he again punch her in face. She spit the wash cloth out and was gasping for air. She tried to scream but her throat was so raw that nothing would come out. She took this opportunity to make a run for it, but as she scrabbled to the edge of the bed he managed to catch her by her left wrist and yank her back with so much strength that all that could be hear was a loud pop in her shoulder and then came the pain as he seemed to unleash hell. If she thought he was crazed before that was nothing. There was pure fury and hate in his eyes that she had never seen in anyone before. Though she did feel a very small since of satisfaction looking at the damage she had caused to his face. His eyes and cheeks were bleeding from her scratches, but that satisfaction quickly faded as he punched her in the stomach knocking the wind out of her, he then climbed on top of her roughly pinning her wrist above her head, stuffing the wash cloth back into her mouth. He then began to rip open her tank top. She struggled and kicked for all she was worth but nothing could move him and all she was doing was wearing herself out and she was getting nowhere but adding to her numerous bruises. She could start to feel the blackness of the clora form over take her as his hands started to roam her body. Her last real thoughts were of Shane and how much she loved him. Then her world went black.
Eve was walking up the stairs with her arms full of nice clean laundry. She was proud of herself with how much she manage to get done on her day off. She was going to show Michael what a good wife she was making sure the house was clean and he had clean clothes although her cooking still needed some work, she was determined to show this town that she and Michael were meant to be by any means necessary. As she reached the landing and the songs on her ipod were changing she heard strange sounds coming from Claire's room, since it was almost time for her to get up and head to work, she decided to go investigate. As she opened the door she couldn't believe her eyes, she quickly grabbed to baseball bat that was next to the door through open the door and screamed at the top of her lungs "GET OFF OF HER!" she ran toward the stranger and swung the bat with all her might, but he was already running out the door. She could have sworn that was Dean running from her, but that couldn't be he was dead. She stood there in shock as she heard the stranger make his way out the front door. How did he get in? why didn't the house warn them, oh yea they had broke the house bringing Claire back from the dead. CLAIRE! Eve snapped out of it and took action. She ran to Claire to make sure she was okay, but already from where she stood she knew that she wasn't. Panic was starting to set in, she ran to the bed, where Claire was laying there motionless, but thankfully Eve could see she was still breathing. Eve let out a breath that she didn't even know that she was holding. Thank god Claire was still alive she couldn't go through that again, she knew that Michael and especially Shane couldn't go through that again. Although what she was looking at wasn't much better. Claire lay there still as could be in her underwear surrounded by ripped clothing, it was right then and there the tears started. Claire's left arm was hanging off the bed at an awkward angle and her whole body was covered in bruises and her right eye was swelling shut. Eve covered her with a blanket, she couldn't look at Claire like that. Then she grabbed the crossbow from Claire's closet and her phone.
Shane was waiting outside of work just finishing up an I love you text to Claire when Michael pulled. Shane slide in the passenger sit and buckled up. Michael was a much better driver then Eve but that wasn't saying a lot. They were driving up Lot street, Michael was just finishing up a funny story about some beginner who came into the music store trying to play something that was way out of his league. When both saw Hannah's police car parked outside their house. "Well this can't be good" Michael said "Where were you last night?" he asked Shane trying to make a joke. They both had a feeling this wasn't a social call. Just then Michael's phone started ringing. He looked down, they screen read Eve. Shane glanced over to see who it was secretly hoping it was Claire. His blood started to turn cold. Michael answered. Eve's voice was shaking she was now on the verge of hysterics "Where are you?" she cried "We need you home NOW! Make sure Shane's with you! You better call Oliver too!" then she hung up. Michael looked at Shane "fuck this is going to be bad." he parked the car and they both ran to the house as fast as they could. "EVE, CLAIRE!" Michael shouted. "Upstairs in Claire's room" Eve shouted back. They ran up the stairs only to be met by Hannah. "I can't let you go pass here" Hannah said in a sad tone "This room is now a crime scene" they both peered into Claire's room. It looked like a tornado hit it, and there sat Eve on the edge of the bed holding a crossbow aiming it at the door, guarding a heap of blankets. She looked like hell, black tear tracks running down her face and what was left of her white rice powder make was smeared in her attempt to wipe away those tears. As soon as she saw Michael, she ran into his arms. Then she started sobbing uncontrollably. " What happened?" Michael asked. Shane just stood there, waiting for Claire too to walk out of the room and tell them this was all some kind of silly misunderstanding. "That's what I would like to know too" Hannah said. "Eve refused to tell me until you two showed up, she said that she could only tell this story once." Shane could feel himself start to shake this was going to be bad, really really bad. Michael was lightly rubbing Eve's back trying to get her to calm down so they could find out what happened and where was Claire. "Did you call Oliver?" Eve sobbed "you might also want to call Theo."
"No hunny not yet we got here as fast as we could, I'll call as soon as you tell us what happened here."
Michael answered. "Okay, but I only wanted to say this once, it's going to be hard enough to get though now." Eve sniffled. Shane stood there like a statue, half of him wanted to shake Eve and yell "just spit it out" while the other half just want to go hide and was it was a half hour ago and just waiting for Michael to pick him up from work, back when everything was okay.
"I don't know everything that happen" Eve started out "I was in the basement doing laundry, wait no first I was cleaning the kitchen when Claire came home, she was complaining of having an awful headache and that she was going to take a nap before heading to the lab, she asked that I throw my headphones on, so I did, then she went to her room and I grabbed the laundry and when to the basement, I was trying to surprise you, get the chores done, before you came home, I was even going to make you dinner" Eve started sobbing again. " I was on my way back to our room to fold clothes and oh my god thankfully the song was changing and I hear a noise coming from Claire's room, oh what if I hadn't have heard it, what if the song was just a little bit longer, or changed when I was on the stairs" Eve was really sobbing now thinking of all the what ifs. "it was almost time for her to head to the lab so I decided to wake her just in case, and that's when I saw him. He was supposed to be dead, after what he did to her before he was supposed to be DEAD!" Eve buried her face in her hands wiping tears that wouldn't stop falling. "Who's suppose to be dead Eve?" Hannah asked looking up from her notepad as she had been writing down Eve's account. "Dean" Eve whispered as she looked up at Michael. "Are you sure sweetheart? All reports say he was executed after he was caught." Eve glared at Michael, she was starting to get angry now. She broke out of Michael's embrace stood up straight looked right into his eyes and replied her voice a lot stronger now "Yes Michael I'm sure you don't forget someone how does something so horrible to your best friend and then comes back for seconds!" "Okay Eve I believe you and then what happen?" Hannah quickly stepped in breaking up the tension and getting them back to what was important. Eve took a couple deep breaths as she was coming to the most difficult part of the story. "He had Claire pinned to the bed and she wasn't moving and her clothes were torn to pieces. That's when I grabbed the bat and ran at him." Shane who had been standing behind Michael listening to Eve's horrific tale felt his blood drain and his legs give way, he couldn't support any longer and slide down the hallway wall. "No" was all he could whisper. They all turned toward him, Eve slide down the wall and sat beside him wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "She fought him, sweetie, our Claire Bear's a fighter and she did some pretty good damage herself, I got a good like at his face and she scratched the shit out of him." she told him hoping that would give him a little bit of comfort. "In fact Hannah I think you could get some of his DNA from her fingernails. Hannah turned all business at this point. Her sole purpose right now was to catch that son of a bitch and fry his ass. "She turned towards Michael " I need you to call Oliver and inform him of the situation and get Theo here NOW! As soon as I get done taking pictures we need to get Claire medical attention and find out exactly what happened to her and what the damage is, until then the three of you need to stay out of this room until I give you the okay to come in. Now Eve I need you to tell me exactly what you touched." Michael was already walking down the hall Theo had already been called and he was now talking with Oliver at vampire speed. Eve looked up at Hannah " the only thing that I touched was to cover Claire with a few blankets, she was shivering, but I didn't touch her as much as I wanted to, I grabbed her crossbow from the closet and sat on the edge of the bed where you found me" Eve replied. "Good" Hannah said and got to work "You guys should go down stairs I don't think that you want to see this" but she knew there was no way the three of them were going anywhere. Hannah started with the easy stuff first taking pictures of the room, when she finally finished with that she moved toward the bed. She had taken a few shots when she was joined by Theo Goldman, Hannah was secretly relieved she did not want to be alone doing this. Theo gave her a slight nod and Hannah throw back the blanket, she the heard a collected gasp coming from the doorway she quickly looked back a saw Michael, Eve and Shane staring at the bed with matching looks of shock and horror, she turned back to her work, she had to disconnect from her feelings right now and do her job. It was a terrible sight, the only good news was that Claire's breathing was strong and steady, but that was the only good thing. Theo immediately went to work assessing the situation, he started first by finding her pulse, Hannah handed him her recorder so he could report his findings. "Her pulse is steady which is good, her right eye is swollen shut, also her lip is split open doesn't appear it will need stitches though which is good" he gently grabs Claire's chin and slowly turns her face "she appears to have a bruise forming from being slapped this looks to be the first hit. He continued to name off the bruises from her throat to her ankles. "Even when she does wake up she most likely won't be able to speak as her vocal cords are bruised as well.' Theo told them. Then what followed was a horrible pop as Theo reset Claire's shoulder. "Well" Theo started " Physically for the most part she's fine, although she's going to be extremely sore for quite some time, I'm going to give her a shot of pain killers that will keep her asleep until most likely tomorrow, then I'm going to write her a few prescriptions that will help with the pain and inflammation." he turned toward the three standing in the doorway "Someone will need to pick those up for her." They all nodded, although they all knew that he was just prolonging the worst of the diagnosis, how far did Dean get before Eve walked in. They were all wondering how he was going to go about this. That's when Hannah called Eve in and told her to close the door. She gave Shane and Michael a tight hug held her head up, took a deep breath and walked into the room and closed the door. When the door clasped something inside Shane broke. Seeing what that animal did to her and knowing what they were checking for now, he just couldn't stand it any longer. He punched a hole in the wall. Then he just sunk to the floor his fight was gone. Michael sat on floor across from him "dude I can't even imagine what you're going through if that was Eve…" he trailed off. Shane looked up "There's a huge part of me that just wants to go numb, but I know that when she wakes up she's going to need me to be strong and help her through all this, that's the part that I'm really trying to focus on, but honestly I just keep think why is it always her or us! It's just to much sometime I mean Claire died for fucks sake! And now she's going to have to go through this. I mean I'm sure with your vamp hearing you've heard her nightmares. FUCK I'm just not sure how much she can take before she breaks and we can't get her back!" There was really nothing more to say after that so they just sat there in silence and waited. Oliver showed up not long after that. "So Dean finally showed his face huh?" "YOU KNEW HE WAS ALIVE!" Shane shouted. " He was very well contained, until all hell broke loose with the draug, we lost track of some of the prisoners, we have had people looking for them ever since." Oliver told them like it was no big deal. "Why was he even kept alive?" Michael questioned "We were planning on executing him, but turns out he has a very rare blood type, that a few vampires find very appealing, so we kept him captive for his blood, we found it a fitting punishment to fit his crime." Oliver replied "So how did Dean manage to make it into the Glass House?" Oliver inquired "So far it looks like he stole a ladder and broke in through the bathroom window according to Hannah." Michael said. "So how much damage did Dean manage while he was here?" Oliver asked "We're still waiting to find that out" Shane hissed at him