The Embrace

Update: Slight revisions to first and second chapters.

A/N: Hello all this is the first fic I decided to make public. I've had this idea in my head since January. I hope you enjoy, whoever decides to read. And your thoughts are welcome. I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Disclaimer: I do not own VTM or any references from the game, credit for that goes to White Wolf. This is solely for fun and not profit in any way shape or form. Thanks.

Every night for so many nights he sought me out, compelling me from my home and to the rickety warehouse basement he used as a base of operations. For so many nights he tried to break my mind, corrupt it with false, twisted tales and fragmented distortions of my memories. Every night, though I tried, I could not escape this mans hold.

Tonight was different though. We're not alone! My eyes could not see them, but I could feel the presence of others. I could feel their eyes taking in the display with amusement and approval. If I unfocused my eyes for long enough, I could almost see them in my peripherals.

The hushed whispering stopped as I was again forced into the same wooden chair, facing the same simple bed. My eyes were never allowed to leave his face when he spoke. And if I did not respond when desired, punishment would ensue. Either yanked from the chair by my hair and forced onto the bed for a beating, stripped of my clothes tied to the chair and forced to endure psychological torture. Somehow he could force so much into my brain I would shriek and thrash and laugh, feeling like my head would explode and my mind would be torn to shreds from all of the voices screaming and howling and clawing at my brain and my sanity.

"Now, say it. Remember, I'm just trying to help you."

His grin was malicious as he spoke the words, his cold dead eyes locked with mine. No. No! I'm scared... I screamed in my mind, trying to hold on to the shreds of sanity I still had left, gripping them as tightly as the sides of my head as I wailed and screamed in agony.

"Say it! You wont get better if you don't comprehend and understand the truth. I'm only trying to help you understand your flaws and corruptions so you can be free of those chains. Now. Say. It."

"I can't! I can't say it. I cannot remember!", I wailed, my nails digging further into the sides of my head. The faintest of an inhuman growl rang in my ears before his shadow fell over me. He lashed out with claw like nails leaving gashes on my upper arm and knocking me from my chair. The hushed whispers broke the silence once more, growing louder with each beat of my frantic heart. He pinned me to the ground with a body like stone as he began to speak.

"You are weak, but I can give you strength. You are powerless, but I hold the key to your power. You are nothing, but I can make you so much more. You just have to say it!"

"I am mad...", I murmured, and the grin that broke out on his face was almost contagious. The whispers where almost hushed screams now as figures slowly started to materialize out of the shadows in the room.

"Go on. How? How are you Mad?"

"I am utterly deranged, rejecting the truth for my twisted reality to help cover the wounds instead of seeing the truth and allowing them to heal", I spoke the words, but they were not my own. Somewhere deep down I knew they held truth, but I just could not accept them as mine, "I blind myself to the abuse and corruption I receive, and take it as love and compassion. I am utterly Mad. And the only one who can save me from the delusional way I am is you."

My breath hitched as as he burst into a fit of hysterical laughter before grabbing me by the jaw, leaning his face closer to mine.

"You would have to be Mad to believe that", Grinning down at me, his eyes almost glowed in the darkness as he ran his tongue from the corner of my mouth to my temple, "You're utterly insane! You know it holds truth but is not true let you take it as fact even though its fabricated."

Pain flared through my body, burning from my throat, where this monsters mouth rested devouring my essence into his own, all the way into my limbs setting every nerve alight with pain. My heart felt it would beat out of my chest with panic, but it soon began to slow in speed and strength. Then the numbness set in and I knew I was cradled in deaths arms. A sweet embrace as my heart faltered in its beating and the darkness crept in. I teetered on that edged for almost an eternity, desperately clinging to life, while getting dragged down by the cold hands of death. I floated along in the darkness slowly being at peace with the last thoughts of death. My mind slipped, everything I wanted to do, all the ones I am leaving behind. Before I could be washed away in that oblivion, metal and fire was forced across my tongue, searing my throat and bringing my deadened fibers alive. There was so much pain as I was jerked from the blackness, dragged through the nails and iron grip of death. Seeing her sweet hauntingly beautiful face snarl in anger and hatred as I was torn from her embrace to be engulfed in a thousand voices, swimming around me in the crevices of the oblivion. Screaming, howling, begging, cheering. All of them greeted me and terrified me at the same time. I did not understand. I wanted out, to be free of this blackness and these disembodied voices. They cackled as I fought to break free of them. The shrieks and whispers invaded my mind, pulling it in so many directions that I could feel the strain on my sanity. Then I felt it - physically – felt it. I felt the shatter of the mirror, of my perception, of my sanity. Light appeared through the darkness, filtered through closed eyelids. And as I opened those newly living flaps of skin, I saw the world. This new, but old, but utterly mad delusional world. A hysterical laugh bubbled from my lips, breaking the silence as I took it all in. It was dark, but so bright. I was dead, but fully alive. I had the urge to take in a breath but my brain knew there was no need for that anymore. I had so many questions, but even more answers. And I knew. I knew! I knew what must be done. I barely registered that I was no longer in the basement on the floor, but somehow in a motel of sorts. But the only thing that registered to me was the fire in my throat causing the words that burst my brain to escape my lips.

"I'm so thirsty..."

Such a guttural sound, it didn't even register as my own voice. Movement from the opposite side of the room put me on high alert, an inhuman growl vibrating through my now still chest. I was on all fours in the blink of an eye, my eyes locked on the lean figure slowly sauntering towards me. A grin was wide on his face, his demented eyes holding my gaze as he drew nearer.

The Masked Men approach...

The whisper brushed the back of my mind as the door burst open behind him. I saw swift movement and he was on the ground, a stake through his chest. Before I could react, a figure was in front of me and pain flared through my chest before everything bled to black. I tried to fight the consuming darkness, but I was back in the oblivion, floating aimlessly barely registering the world around me.