~Until Your Heart Stops Beating~

A knock from the door to my cell wakes me from my nap and a dead sleep. I knew there was no chance of the visitor would be Edward, since Edward had been here the night before. So, my pickings for visitors were slim.

I run a hand through my hair, pushing it back and out of my face. I try to wake up by taking a deep breath, only to have it turn into a yawn. I slowly sit up and run a hand over my face, rubbing my eyes gently to rid them of sleep.

The door to the room opens after another knock and I watch as Bromley walks into the room with a smile on his flour white face with his golden eyes sparkling. Two soldiers follow closely behind him, each of them seeming to glare at me for some unknown offense I had done against them.

In one of Bromley's hands, I notice a rectangular box. Around it was a light pink ribbon tied into a bow. He outstretches his arm and holds the box out for me to take.

"I have something for you, my dear." He speaks up after a moment, his tone as bone chilling as his smile. I stand up from the cot and cautiously move closer. My eyes dart from left to right, watching both the soldiers incase this was some sort of trick Bromley had concocted. "It's alright. No one's going to hurt you."

"Do I dare state that I highly doubt that… again?" I mumble, Bromley's words doing nothing to comfort me. Bromley's smile falters slightly, but he recovers quickly. He hands me the box and folds his hands together before him. I stare at the box a moment, unsure of whether or not to open it, and then look to him.

"Go on. Open it." Bromley nods his head towards the box and waits patiently. I pull on one of the tails to the bow, unraveling the whole thing and sending it to the ground. I open the box to see something light pink inside. Slowly, I look to Bromley out of the tops of my eyes cautiously. I carefully pull the mess of pink fabric, letting the box fall to the floor, and hold it up against me.

"It will look marvelous on you. I'll wait outside while you change." Bromley and the soldiers walk back to the door. Bromley takes one last look at me and then steps outside, the door shutting behind him.

"You've got to be kidding me..." I stare down at the dress I was holding against me and cringe slightly. It wasn't the style or the color that made me cringe. It was the fact that Bromley had specifically picked this out for me and wanted me to actually wear it. I feel violated just looking at it.

I slowly undress and pull the dress on over my head, it being a little snug. I smooth it out and look down at it on me. It comes to the middle of my shins where pink taffeta from underneath peeks out. The middle around my abdomen was scrunched at an angle. The small spaghetti straps held the tube top of the dress up, covered in a beaded design.

I pick up the ribbon from the floor and tie it around my head vertically. I move the knot beneath my hair so no one would see it and run my fingers through my hair, smoothing it over my shoulders.

"Rosie, are you finished?" Bromley calls from behind the door. I stare at the door a moment. I didn't want to reply and I most certainly didn't want to be anywhere near Bromley.

"Yes!" I call back reluctantly and look down at myself again. The door opens and Bromley walks in carrying a pair of silver high heels. He hands them to me and I quickly step out of my converses, pulling on the heels.

"You look wonderful." He comments as he looks me over from head to foot. He then claps his hands together and grins at me. "Shall we then?"

"Shall we what?" I ask, my eyes narrowing at him at what was going on.

"We have somewhere we need to be." Bromley replies and then turns on his heels, walking back towards the door of my cell. One of the soldiers follows after him, then me, and then lastly the other soldier behind me. When I step into the hall I notice that Private Jenkins was nowhere in sight, which was strange. He was always there; morning, noon, and night he stood there waiting for his chance to kill me. At least that's what I felt he was doing.

"This way, my dear." Bromley's voice calls to me from up ahead in the hall. I feel the harsh push of the soldier behind me against my back and I look back at him over my shoulder. I continue to walk while having no idea where I was being led to.

We had ridden several floors in the elevator and had gone down several more hallways. We were now stepping into to a small room filled with the officials from the meeting with some added doctors. I tried to spot Edward, but he wasn't here. Another strange happening since he was the chief hematologist.

Each of the vampires in the room stood in front of a window that allowed us to peer into an adjoining room. I stand beside Bromley, curious as to what was going on or what was about to go on. The room before us had a lot of medical machines like a heart meter, IV drips, computers, and an examination table right in the middle of it. It reminded me of a testing room.

A door at the back of the medical room opens and I spot Private Jenkins come out in a pair of green scrubs. Behind him were two nurses with caps and masks covering the lower half of their faces. After they had gotten Private Jenkins settled, the door at the back of the room opens again and out sets Caruso and Edward, both also in scrubs.

"What's going on?" I ask and look up at Bromley for an explanation. I was being stupid if I thought he would answer me.

"All in good time." He replies and nods his head at Edward behind the glass. I look back to see Edward looking up at Bromley and then at me for a split second. He looks as if he was confused or surprised or worried that I was here. It put me on pins and needles.

He nods his head to everyone around me in the room and then turns to Private Jenkins on the examination table. I take a quick look at Bromley, seeing him smirking like a school boy as he watched what was going on in the next room. It made me nervous for what was about to happen.

One of the nurses picks up a vial filled with some dark red liquid. She hands it to Edward, who shows it to the rest of us in the other room.

"Are they testing a substitute?" I ask and look back to Bromley. He looks down at me and smiles, confirming my assumption. He looks away again as Edward attaches the vial to the tube running from Private Jenkins's arm that was closest to him. Slowly the dark red liquid moves through the tube and disappears into the Private's arm.

"Now Private, you may feel a slight increase in body temperature. That's just the hemacilin entering your blood system. It's to be expected." Edward's voice floats into the room from a speaker. Edward continues to administer the substitute into Private Jenkins's arm as he looks over at Caruso. A few moments go by and Edward looks back down at the Private, "How're you feeling?"

"No change sir." Private Jenkins replies, staring up at the ceiling. I take a step closer to the window and watch carefully at what was going on. I look over at Caruso, who seemed to be watching a heart monitor screen. Several beeps go off and then are silenced.

"Six degree increase." Caruso speaks up and moves closer to Private Jenkins on the table. Edward stares at Caruso a moment, looking a little worried, but then looks back down at Private Jenkins and smiles.

"Okay, that's slightly more accelerated then I had anticipated, but you're fine. You're fine." Edward tries to reassure the Private. A few more beeps go off drawing Edward's attention to the monitor Caruso had been at moments ago.

"Sixty-eight degrees and holding." Caruso announces and looks back down at Private Jenkins from the screen. Edward finishes administering the substitute and removes the vial from the end of the tube.

"Okay, how do you feel?" Edward asks, rubbing the Private's arm where the tube disappeared under his skin.

"I feel fine s-" Suddenly, Private Jenkins turns his head to the right and expels his stomach's contents over the nurse standing there. He begins to convulse as Edward and the nurses try to hold him down. Beeping starts to go off as lights blink rapidly on the meters.

"Get twenty CCs of amatol!" Edward yells at Caruso. I see the Private's face begin to boil as he continues to thrash on the table. Caruso moves back to the table and begins to administer the amatol into Private Jenkins's arm. I take a quick look at Bromley to see he wasn't smiling anymore.

I look back through the window and see that almost immediately the boils on Private Jenkins go down. The beeping slows and the lights fade away, everything returning to normal. The room falls silent apart from small beeps and heavy breathing.

Suddenly, Private Jenkins explodes in an array of bright red, splattering the window in front of me. I scream, a terror filled scream that could pierce ears and jump back. I slap my hands over my mouth and try to steady my breathing as tears race down my cheeks. I stare wide eyed at the blood on the window, watching as it slowly drips down in beads. I spot, through an opening, where Private Jenkins had been on the table, but what was left were chunks of flesh and scrubs.

Slowly, I move my gaze to Edward. My hands fall slowly from my face and rest at my sides, shaking slightly. I continue to stare at him, eyes wide and mouth agape. He looks to the window and at me. He knew I was scared by the expression I carry on my face. I beg through my eyes at him to tell me that this wasn't the substitute made from my blood. As I wait for him to shake his head though, I come to the conclusion that this was my blood… and it had failed miserably.

I hear voices around me in the small room, but I don't bother to look at who's speaking. Some of them were angry, some were disappointed, and some, like Bromley, were controlling their emotions and keeping a steady tone. My head races as does my heart. My fight or flight sense spikes and all I want to do is flee, but there is nowhere to go.

"Now what are we going to do!"

"We have plenty more substitutes to try." Bromley tries to calm everyone down.

"Surely this was just a mistake! Too much at one time."

"We're going to starve!"

"I assure you the others will work." Bromley tries again.

"And if they don't?"

"I assure you they will." Bromley moves his gaze to me. I see the anger, the disappointment, the familiar stare a predator looked upon a gazelle with. He moves closer to me and soon I feel a stony hand on my shoulder; Bromely's. He glares out the window at Edward, his breathing shallow and steady. He then starts pulling me away towards the door of the room. I stare at Edward, sensing that this was the end.

"No," I gasp as Bromley's hold on my shoulder tightened. "No!"

I see Edward take a step towards the window as Bromley leads me out of the room. I panic and try to pull away. Bromley wraps his arms around me and motions with his head for a soldier to help him.

"Take her back to her room." Bromley orders the nearest guard outside of the room. The guard grabs my upper arm and begins to pull me along towards my cell while the soldier wretched my left arm behind my back.

"No please!" I scream in a desperate attempt to save myself. The men dragged me away to the Abyss and my cell. Once there, I go to the corner and sit on the ground. I pull my knees to my chest and lay my chin on them, staring out blankly at the grey colored wall.

The substitute had failed. This meant that I had failed and Bromley doesn't accept failure. This meant that I was no longer useful to him. He would waste no time turning me into a human cow for milking and that frightened me more than death itself.

I hear the door to my cell open and watch the guard walk in with a tray. He sets it on the ground and slides it over to me before standing up straight with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Eat." He orders and continues to stand there, staring at me. I pull the tray closer to me and eat some of the goop they called food. It wasn't the worst tasting thing in the world, but it was close. I take a few more bites and then set the tray back on the ground, sliding it back towards the guard. He picks it up from the ground and walks out of the cell, slamming the door shut.

I stare at the door a moment longer, feeling my eyes start to sting and my vision become blurry. I can't help but to start crying. I felt so helpless against my ominous future.

I lay my head on my knees again. I continue to let out soft cries as tears roll down my cheeks and seep the dress that covered me. I quiet myself down as I start to feel light headed and my vision becoming scattered. I place a hand against my forehead and close my eyes.

Did they drug me? – I question as I feel myself slipping on the wall to the left until my shoulder collides with the other wall, keeping me sitting up. I open my eyes to see the room spinning. Slowly I fall asleep from whatever Bromley must have had someone put in my food. I begin to pray that I would die in my sleep so I would never have to wake up to this nightmare again.