Chapter Six
Darren's POV
A violent and horrible scream woke me up from my still sleep, my eyes ripped open in shock and I sat up straight in the small bed I was lying in. Dizziness overtook me and I clutched my head to steady myself, only to find that I was lying on the floor and clutching my sore shoulder a moment later.
"D-dammit..." I grumbled as I lifted myself onto my knees "That hurt...". I stared around at my surroundings, trying to remember exactly where I was and standing up shakily I gripped onto one of the bedposts to stop myself from falling again.. I blinked against the gentle candlelight of the room, it staining everything a dark topaz colour. The room was small with the bed in one corner of the room and a large chest in the other. The only other thing in the room was a rickety looking old chair which upon it sat a bundle of cloth. Finally finding my feet I walked towards it and picked up the bundle, finding it to be a white shirt and a pair of brown trousers. Looking down at myself I shrugged my shoulders before pulling on the trousers which surprisingly fit perfect and were warm. I slipped on the shirt, finding it to be warm and of perfect fit also.
"Interesting" I said looking at the clothes on me in wonder, turning to walk away my foot hit something under the chair and I looked under the chair to see a pair of thick boots. My eyes widened, they hadn't been there before. Stepping into them, not surprised that they fit perfectly I turned to the door. Before my hand had reached the door knob another scream sounded and my face paled. I thought I had been dreaming when I last heard it but what made me freeze the most, was that I recognised the person in which this pained noise resonated from.
'Mr Crepsley' I thought, my eyes widening as I flew through the door immediately and scared a rather disturbed looking Gibbs who was waiting for me on the other side.
"What's going on?" I almost screamed at him as I slammed the door behind me, quickly heading for the room that held Mr Crepsley. I was in a complete panic but by the time I realised that Gibbs had stood up and blocked my way, I was pissed.
"What are you doing Gibbs?" I growled at him, my voice like venom "Get out of my way!"
"I can't do that lad" He said, clearly terrified "Tia Dalma's orders"
"Orders?" I stood there confused and angry "What the hell is she doing to him?"
"Helping him Darren" He raised his hands and lightly pushed against my chest, trying to lead me to sit down but when another scream sounded I was back at the door again.
"That doesn't sound like helping!" I cried prying for the door handle and pushing Gibbs clean out of the way. Gibbs landed with a sharp cry of pain which I ignored, only focusing on helping my mentor.
"You open that door and he's as good as dead!" I froze, my hand inches away from the handle and looked at Gibbs who was now sitting up and clutching his elbow.
"What do you mean?" I asked him, my voice suddenly quiet as I stared into his serious blue eyes.
"I don't know lad" He grunted as he pulled himself onto his feet "All I know is that it is never good to interrupt Tia Dalma from her work... things go bad, they go really bad"
My hand slipped from the door then, the look in his eyes, how they shimmered with pity, told me that he was telling the truth and I knew that if I opened that door, Mr Crepsley could die. I pulled my hand away from the handle and turned completely towards him. He did his best to give me a reassuring smile.
"C'mon lad" he stood up and stretched "You're probably hungry, aye?"
It was only then that I noticed the horrible empty feeling in my stomach and I clutched it lightly. I hadn't eaten in days. In the panic I had had plenty of blood but neglected to eat any form of food. I nodded to him before following him into what I assumed was the kitchen of the strange little shack.
Mr Crepsley's POV
I stared into the woman's strange eyes in fear as she kept an abnormally strong hand on my shoulder and a small bowl in her other.
'Where am I?' I thought, terrified of what was happening around me. I thought of trying to move away from her again but found that I was too afraid and captivated by her dark eyes to move.
"Good" She almost purred at me "You is awake, you have been unconscious for four days". With that, she removed her hand and moved to the side of the strange room I was in.
'Four days?' I thought in shock.
"Who are you?" I asked her, trying my best to keep a poker-face "Where is this?".
She did not answer me. Instead she appeared by the side of the bed I was in once more and handed me the small bowl which was now filled was a rather disgusting looking green liquid.
"Drink" She commanded and when I looked at her sceptically she simply repeated the order again. I sat staring at the ugly liquid, unsure whether to trust her or not.
"Do you want me to hold you down again?" The woman asked, an unfriendly glint in her eye caused a cold shiver to run down my spine and the next thing I knew I was guzzling the liquid as if my life depended on it. The flavour of the liquid was... interesting to say the least. It first began with a sweet, light taste then degraded into a bitter and musty taste. I was then hit with a taste so spicy that I was almost choking and just like that the taste was gone. Nothing. It was like I had not even drank it. I eyed the small bowl in wonder for a moment before the woman took it away and moved to a short table in the corner in the room. She still had not answered my questions and I did not know whether or not to push for answers or to keep quiet. She was a lady after all, to be rude to her would have been unforgivable behaviour. Instead I settled with watching her work at this table. She took another small bowl and I watched as she took what appeared to be pieces of bones and placed them within it. Taking a pestle she began to grind the pieces of bone to dust. I couldn't help but tilt my head in wonder, just what was this woman doing. I sat and turned to the wall in silence, only the sound of the grinding mortar and pestle in my ears. I looked down at myself, seeing that I was undressed except for my undergarments – which I was thankful for – and I was covered in bandages. C-shaped pools of blood covered my body and slowly through the pool of confusion in my mind, I recalled the attack. My eyes widened and I froze as my eyes reached my legs to see, only one leg left, I reached out to touch it, as if that by some miracle that if I touched the stump it would magically grow back. It did not. In fact all I did was cause a sharp pain to generate through my body, causing me to rear my hand away and hiss.
"Not good idea to touch " the woman's thick accent rang into my ears as she set the bowl aside and poured the powder mixture into another, larger, bowl. My mouth was dry and I could not seem to form any words through the shock. My leg was gone. There was no way of getting it back. Instead I settled for asking the only question that was piercing the cloud of madness within my mind.
"Where is Darren?" My voice was hoarse and I stared at her back as she continued her work, at first I expected her not to answer me, but was relieved when she spoke the few words that I hoped to hear.
"Darren be safe" She then turned around to me and smiled but it looked hollow "Darren be a fine and full vampire".
At first I had smiled in relief and looked down at my leg, then her words sank in and I looked at her in shock.
"That is impossible!" My eyes were wide as my mind tried to process this new and ridiculous information "The purge takes several weeks to end, you said I had only been unconscious for four days, how is it that Darren is a full-vampire?, there were never any signs of the purge even beginning!"
She raised her hand and made a sharp hiss for me to be quiet and I sat there stunned and motionless.
"I helped him along a little" She said cryptically with a small smile before turning back to her work at the table and I sat there dumbfounded. I realised that this woman was not going to give me any straight answers and so I settled for lying back onto the bed and watching her at this table. I watched her hands move in slow and fluid motions as she appeared to be moulding something out of the clay and bone mixture.
'But what?' I thought in wonder.
Darren's POV
Gibbs watched with slightly wide eyes as I wolfed down any food he put in front of me. Bowl after bowl and plate after plate of food vanished into my stomach until I sat there with and gave a proud and satisfied burp.
"Hungry?" Gibbs laughed at me as he took a gulp from his canteen "Were you lad?". I laughed with him for a moment before burping again.
"I was" I said grinning, thankful of the full stomach I now had "Not any more though".
"That's good" Gibbs replied smiling at me "You looked like death warmed up".
"I felt like it too if I'm honest" I said laughing a little as I pushed the empty bowls and plates away from me, the table groaning slightly in protest. I sat staring around the small room where we sat, it opened onto the main room where I had dragged the alligator carcass into the night before. I stared at the table in there, noticing the large blood stain upon it. I turned to Gibbs once more.
"Hey, Gibbs?" I glanced at that table again "What happened to the alligator I killed?". For some unknown reason, Gibbs began to laugh hard, his fist pounding against the table. I looked at him, perplexed for a while before he finally sighed, wiping a tear from his eye.
"Why, lad" he giggled, trying to hold back another torrent of laughter "What did you think you were eating all this time?". At this, he exploded with laughter once more, gripping the side of the table as it gave large groans. I could do nothing but blink in surprise before laughing with him, my face slightly red in embarrassment. I assumed that he had taken the corpse outside and drained it of all it's tainted blood before it was cooked into the rather delicious stew he'd served me. I sat there occasionally letting out a small giggle as he stood and began clearing away the dishes. They scraped against the wooden table top and the table groaned again like an sickly beast.
"So..." I said hoping to make conversation "How do you know Tia Dalma?" I leant back on the rickety chair and watched his back as he cleaned the pewter bowls in a small basin.
"I...uh... know her through a friend of mine" He chimed rather happily as he said this as if the memory alone of this friend caused him to smile.
"A friend?" I asked wanting to know more moving the chair to sit in its original position and I leant on my arms waiting for him to say more.
"Aye" He nodded, placing a bowl aside to dry "A good friend and crazy to boot too, it was through him I met Tia Dalma". I couldn't help but smile at him. The grin on his face as he remembered all the memories he had of his friend made me feel a strange warmth in my heart as I remembered mine.
"He sounds pretty interesting" I leaned further on my hands smiling "Do you think I'll ever get to meet him?" Gibbs turned around once he had set the last dish down to dry, a huge grin on his face.
"Well, Lad" He laughed "You might just meet him one day". He sat down in front of me again and I asked him in curiosity what the man's name was.
"Well, it's-" he had barely gotten through his next word when a splitting scream of pain sounded from Mr Crepsley's room. It was horrifying, the sound itself cause my entire being to chill to the core as I listened, helpless. Knowing that if I dared to enter I might just kill him. And so I did the only thing I could think of. A childish act but still I couldn't help myself, I placed my hands over my ears and closed my eyes, a small part of me believing that it was all a nightmare and that when I opened my eyes Mr Crepsley and I would be back at the Cirque, performing with Madam Octa and stunning crowds of people. However the scream only continued and after it followed more and more, I instinctively curled in on myself, trying to stop myself from running into that room and ripping that woman apart for causing him such pain. I became aware after a while of Gibb's hand placed on my back in an attempt to comfort me. It didn't work very well but it was of some comfort which was better than none I suppose. I opened my eyes slightly to stare at the door, the screams barely muffled by it and I wondered. 'What could she be doing to him?'
Mr Crepsley's POV
I am still uncertain to this day exactly how long I watched this woman work at that small table. It could not have been more than an hour and yet it felt like an dragging eternity. I lay there, motionless and confused. I tried my best not to become distracted by my thoughts and questions but found there were too many to fight against and my mind became cloudy. Perhaps that is why it felt so long, watching her dark fingers press and mould the strange clay mixture, it slowly taking shape and her often adding an unknown ingredient to it. I noticed that the more she worked on it, the lighter the colour of the clay became. It had first began as a dark grey mound, a gritty and unattractive mixture which crumbled when touched. Yet now it was a pale peach, almost like a skin tone and was easily manoeuvrable in her hands. I tilted my head trying to catch a glimpse of what she was creating at that rotten table but her dress folded around her knelt form and blocked my view from her work so I simply waited for when she was finished. I had thought of asking her. However from the past few questions I had asked I had a feeling that she would not answer me straight and so I lay in silence, watching her shoulders move up and down. My mind filled with an unmoving boredom I moved myself to stare up at the ceiling of the small room, The rafters were cracked with age and damp and the candlelight in which she worked, tinged it a misty topaz. I lay, simply staring at it until the sound of footsteps approaching my bed caused my head to turn. The strange woman was staring down at me, an almost pitying look upon her features. This look caused me to become slightly irritable. I may have lost my leg but I refused to be pitied. I gave her a hard look which she responded with a small smile as she pulled a chair from the corner and sat at my side by my hips. It was only then that my eyes wandered to what she was carrying in her grasp. The grey mound she had been working on was now a very pale, almost white peach colour, it seemed to be hard but when she pulled on it, it moved without strain. I raised an eyebrow at this peculiar object, wondering exactly what she was planning on doing with it. Slowly and without words she pulled the top of the blanket which covered me and revealed my battered and bloody form up to my stump. I watched her carefully, trying to search in her eyes what she was planning. But something about this woman seemed, off. Her eyes seemed to be dark pits of pain and yet her face was beautiful and soft. Almost as if she was trapped in a body in which she did not fully belong. I could not help but feel almost trapped under her gaze as she stared at me, as if trying to assess my own mind. Her hand began to hover over my chest, moving slowly around each wound, strange and foreign words slowly whispering from her mouth. Her hand as it moved around my body felt cold. An icy chill ran up my spine and I felt it settle around my heart. Strangely I felt no pain with it, it felt... comforting in a mysterious way, like the feeling of the sea breeze brushing against your face on a stifling hot day. I closed my eyes as she worked, the interesting words still pouring from her lips effortlessly, until eventually any feeling of pain I had had before was almost completely gone. I felt more relaxed then I had been in years and I felt a smile of contentedness slip to my features. As I lay there, in a contented state I heard her move and lean her mouth to my ear in a whisper.
"This will hurt" her whisper seemed as dark as her eyes "But this should help ease some". Her accent rung in my ears for a moment despite her voice having only been a soft whisper and as I heard her shift I wondered exactly what she meant. I barely felt her lift my stump and remove the bandages before pressing something warm against it and I opened my eyes in curiosity. She had pressed the strange mound onto my stump and my eyes widened as I saw it move and wrap around the bone that was still visible. I turned to her in shock, about to ask in outrage what she was doing but before I could even form a word. The pain began. I cried out and stared at the strange mound as it burrowed through the inside of the bone, spreading out and coating the stump, attaching to my skin, twisting and pulling. It felt like fire, burning and searing as it attached, slowly becoming part of me. I could hardly bare it, I thrashed and screamed, ripping apart the bed beneath me and throwing my head back in roars of pain and agony.
'Make it stop!' I cried in my mind as I threw my head side to side, my thrashing causing me to break one of the bedposts 'Just make it stop!'. I tried to keep my eyes open but the pain proved too much for me to complete such a simple task and all I could do was scream, unsure of what the mound was doing now. Perhaps it had bore into the bone and was now moving to hollow out all the others or maybe it was spreading over the outside of my body, ready to suffocate me in a hard shell. Perhaps it was both. But my mind could not register anything but pain and so I continued to scream, helpless and... vulnerable.
