Hello all! Yes I know this chapter took FOREVER! I've had to balance college, social life, job, and a buttload of other things but it's finally done and I really like the way it turned out. I hope, as always, that you like it too. I luv reviews, they keep me motivated so even if it's just for something as small as "oh that was really well described" or "I know exactly what you mean" anything like that would be welcomed and much appreciated. Two minutes of your time lasts forever with me because each review is important to me! Thanks for reading! Enjoy.
~Chapter 10~
Everything was black. Utter pitch blackness. Darkness so hopeless and full of despair, it drowned everything in its wake. The suffocating abyss did not leave or falter. It had no weaknesses nor showed any mercy. Everything around her was surreal yet so full of turmoil, it felt more like swimming under water with the dangerous currents on a calm ocean night. Only there was no shining surface above. There was no reprieve from this darkness. It surrounded her, bound her, and consumed her in its mysterious depths. She felt every billow of its invisible current against her body while simultaneously floating in its deep sea of numbness. She felt everything and nothing at the same time. The only thing that even remotely pacified the empty feeling that plagued her was something she could not even begin to explain. A small light was burning. Not a light that illuminated the darkness. Not something she could see but something she could feel. It didn't glow or lift away the blackness around her but it somehow warmed it. It gave her a sense of feeling when the sea of numbness threatened to take over her body entirely; sending weak signals of warmth to what she was sure were her fingertips, her lips, and her toes. There was no sense of time in this ocean, only that she seemed to be floating for forever. Forever in the deep sea of nothing. She couldn't twitch, couldn't move, only float and stare at the darkness around her, if her eyes were even open. She didn't know. In her state of nothing, she couldn't even think properly. It was like swimming in a daydream you couldn't snap yourself out of only it was more like a black nightmare. She couldn't even feel herself breathe, if she was breathing at all. It was the worst feeling she had ever experienced in her life, the Nothing. Even in her despair, she couldn't even cry; the most natural expression of sadness was ripped away from her. She would have gladly welcomed pain just to be able to feel again, to be assured that her body was still there. But there was nothing. Slowly, she began to feel the emptiness seep in all over her mind, body, and soul, detaching her from all sense of being. The Nothing leached into her like poison, erasing every rationale she ever had. She no longer remembered who she was, what to feel, or even how to think. She was just an empty shell floating in the darkness, all alone, dead. No, worse than dead, she was alive but numb and lost in the Nothing for an eternity that did not pass.
At one point in time, after heaven knows how long, she began to feel things again. She wasn't sure if her lost mind was hallucinating those feelings out of desperation for her dying soul but she didn't care. All she knew was that those pleasurable little tingles seemed to reawaken her stale mind from its coma. She put as much of her will as she could muster from her dried out thoughts to focusing on those feelings, to each and every one of those quivers and prickles. Slowly, those sensations began to spread, past her toes, through her legs, up her thighs, beyond her torso, back down again through her arms, into her fingers, until they finally reached her face. She could almost feel it soften out of relief and pleasure. The eternity in the dark ocean made her forget how miraculous it was to feel again. As more time passed, she began to formulate pieces of thought like pinpointing where each sensation was on her body as well as her perception of where her limbs were. She was soon sure that her entire body was completely intact. Before long, the prickles and tingles of feeling intensified to small movements. She could, with great concentration, softly clench and unclench her hands. She continued to do so never stopping out of fear that she would become numb again. Next she learned how to clench her hands and curl her toes simultaneously. By far the most difficult part was gaining control of her facial features. She would intently focus on her forehead and eyebrows, but not so much as a twitch would ripple through her skin. She couldn't seem to learn how to blink either so she continued practicing with her mouth. The darkness seemed to sense her rebirth and began to churn violently around her trying to sweep her back into its black numbness. Her growing mind panicked when she forgot how to clench her hands and she determinedly pushed forward making sure to evenly exert every part of her body so the dark ocean would not erase what she had worked so hard to relearn. The more feeling and control she gained, the more the inky blackness fought to reclaim it. It pushed her and swept her through its waves, desperately trying to wash away all sense of feeling to her strengthening body. When it had gained yet another victory, this time claiming the movement of her arms altogether, blinding fury bubbled inside her. Why did the Nothing fight so desperately to keep her in its hellish darkness? Why couldn't it just leave her in peace? Was this hell? It had to be. But what had she done to deserve this fate? The flame quickly spread from within her soul throughout her body leaving every muscle burning and trembling for release. She angrily opened her mouth and forced out every silenced feeling and emotion she had ever been made to withhold. The sea of Nothing echoed with her fierce screams as the beautiful noise reverberated in her once deaf ears.
Victoria's body jerked forward as she snarled. Her eyes snapped open revealing a sight other than the inky blackness of the Nothing's ocean. She was lying on what felt like a bed in a moderately sized room. She blinked furiously in confusion as her mind tried, desperately, to process the overwhelming sight before her. She was panting and the forceful movements of her heavy breathing left her additionally wearisome. It had been ages since she could feel herself breathe like this. And there, in the corner of the room was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen. With blurring speed, she leapt off the bed and blew towards the window. There, outside, was the gorgeously glowing moon shining its luminescent silvery light on the forest below. The light, so there still was such a thing. Victoria only wanted to gaze at the moon for the rest of time. It was the most beautiful light she had ever seen after her years in the darkness. Victoria's eyes began to sting as she stared in awe at the sky's soft glow, it had been an eternity since she had to blink or bothering knowing how. Slowly dropping her eyes from the moon, she peered down at her hands. Her eyes immediately darted to the rest of her naked body. But before she could begin to think what had happened, a calm voice spoke up behind her.
"Ahh, you're awake."
Victoria whirled around. Her eyes quickly focusing on the smirking man lying naked in the sheets beside where she had awoken. His dark brown hair shined in the dim lighting of the room. Victoria's eyes easily stabbed through the darkness as she gazed warily at the stranger in the bed. But he was no stranger. She had met him before…the night she died.
"What are you doing here?" she growled.
Her mind buzzed as she listened to her once muted voice again. It was like hearing its delicate sounds and syllables for the first time in her life. She was surprised she could even remember how to communicate properly.
"Taking care of you, of course," the stranger replied simply.
Victoria's sharp gaze narrowed at his arrogant face. What did he mean taking care of her? Her eyes darted towards the foot of the bed and she immediately noticed a plain cotton blanket lying gently across the footboard. Quickly snatching it up, she wrapped herself within its folds. The small fire inside her flickered.
"Why am I naked?" she asked hesitantly, knowing all too well the answer to that question but nevertheless hoping she was wrong.
The stranger cocked an eyebrow, his smirk widening. The pit of Victoria's stomach dropped and bile filled her throat.
Oh God no! Not again...not to me.
She began to sway as an overwhelming wave of nausea swept across her body. Stumbling backwards, Victoria found relief upon hitting the wall. At least it would be able to support her weight even if she couldn't.
"What have you done to me?" she croaked, on the verge of tears as the once forgotten memories of the masque filled her mind.
The stranger recoiled his head in mild astonishment.
"Nothing you didn't want me to," he replied calmly.
Victoria clenched her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms to keep from vomiting. It was so good to be able to feel pain again.
"What's happened to me? Why don't I remember anything?...How did I get here?...I was dead…how could I…the ocean…oh God the ocean…it was so dark…there was nothing…I was nothing," Victoria nearly whispered.
"Your correct on a few things," interrupted the stranger, "You did die that night in the cave. Your dark ocean, as you call, was your place of damnation, a personal hell if you will. There your humanity fought for control against your own instinct driven animal. A fight you obviously won or you would not have awoken…ever."
The stranger's words whirred around repeatedly in her already overwhelmed head. Her own hell? The hell she was doomed into after she died that night? Fighting for control against an instinctual animal…against herself? But how could she possibly be awake? She died, there was no return from that? Then how was it possible that she was standing…conscious and speaking to this stranger? Too many things didn't make sense and what was worse was she still didn't know how in the world she was able to slump there, on the other side of the room, breathing.
"There's much to tell you before you truly understand how you came to be here but I warn you that failure to remain in control of your internal beast will send you back into the black ocean and there is no guarantee that you'll manage to regain control a second time," the stranger voiced darkly.
Panic flickered in Victoria's eyes and the awful memories of the Nothing flashed through her newly reborn mind. She couldn't go back to that. Forcing herself to take deep breaths, she weakly managed to slump into a nearby chair bathed in the bright cascade of the moonlight. She found great comfort near such light, light she hadn't seen for an agonizing eternity. All of the chaotic thoughts that rushed through her mind made little sense to her, yet despite the circumstances she woke up in, Victoria was more interested in understanding how all this had happened to her rather than wallow in the anger at what she had done with this stranger at night. She would make him pay for it later, she silently promised herself.
"What did you do to me that night in the cave?" Victoria asked almost in a whisper, "I…I'm not the same…there's something wrong—"
"There's nothing wrong with you, pet," the stranger interrupted, a hint of a smirk caressing his mouth.
He could tell from her fearful eyes that she was not convinced otherwise.
"Where are—" she began, but immediately stopped. Her eyes widened as she slowly scanned the room. A growing expression of horror slowly spread across her face as she took in the destruction that surrounded her. Deep slashes scarred the headboard of the bed and chunks of wood were missing from the bedposts. The walls were as badly clawed as the headboard. The entire space looked as if it had been ravaged by a feral wild animal. The pillows were ripped, strewing feathers everywhere. The once white sheets were now mere shreds of cotton. A few of the logs that made up the walls had long extensive cracks in some places.
"What happened here?" Victoria breathed.
The stranger's gaze sharpened, his mouth creasing into a furtive smile.
"…You did."
Victoria inhaled shakily and the stranger watched intently as she took in all of her own devastation. She was abnormally strong for a fledgling. He wasn't sure if he had ever seen one, especially a woman, who had this kind of strength before. She had been difficult to control during her first month. She had been so wild, so powerful, he hadn't even been sure on whether or not she would wake up at all. He wasn't an amateur when it came to turning victims either. He had his fair share of babysitting fledglings in his long years of life but there was just something about this one, something he couldn't pinpoint but could feel, something about her just seemed…wrong.
"How could I have done this?" she asked, wide-eyed.
"Well, you are a lot stronger since the last time we met…well since the last time we met consciously. We've been roaming the woods for the past month now. You wouldn't remember it though because, as I said before, you had about as much humanity in you as a wild beast," he replied calmly.
"What do you mean the past month?" Victoria asked, her attention snapping from the extensive damage of the room back to the stranger, "I've been gone for years?...In the black ocean. I was there for…longer than lifetime…it was an eternity," she finished softly.
"No pet, it wasn't. You were feral for a month and then you broke free. You gained control and now you're back in this world, not merely as a weak human…but a goddess…a master of both yours and many other's destinies. You were reborn with no fear. You rule the ground upon which you tread, immortal and living off the life elixir of other's. You are, my angel of the night, a cruor inhio, a blood coveter. Lethally strong and blindingly quick, you fear no one."
Victoria slumped weakly in her chair, too overwhelmed by everything this stranger had said. She fidgeted uncomfortably and tried to take in what he was saying. The room was beginning to feel suffocatingly small. The mangled walls seemed to loom ever closer around her and she began to feel dizzy again. She was trapped, caged in like an animal. The walls felt like they were caving in on her, ready to crush her without remorse. She had to get outside, had to be in the open. Pushing herself off the chair, she rushed out of the room in the blink of an eye, not even caring to notice the rest of the destroyed house on her way out the front door.
The frigid air burned across her skin as she stepped out into the clearing where the house stood surrounded by the dense woods. She gulped a lungful of the freezing air and tried to control her exhalations. Her heart felt like it would beat right out of her chest. She was no longer human. Victoria Rose Beckett had died that tragic Hallows Eve and with it had lost all that ever mattered in her life. She was no longer alive nor dead. She was stuck in between, doomed to feed off the life source of countless innocent others forever. Eternally unwelcomed in the Kingdom of Heaven and separated from her sister for the rest of time. Because of this stranger, she would never be able to see Olivia again. His decision had doomed her existence and now ruled her afterlife. Cold tears streamed down her cheek as the awful truth began to sink in. All she had wanted, while she lay there dying in the rubble of her home, was to be with her sister and family again, to reunite with them in Heaven and now, yet again, she was denied her one true happiness. How could any God do this to someone? Victoria opened her mouth to painfully gasp another lungful of air but a small sob escaped instead. The last evening she had with her family, she had pushed them away. The last night she had with her sister, she asked to be left alone until the morning and now she would never again have that sunrise. When was the last time she told them how much she loved them? How much they meant to her? Victoria's piercing sobs shattered the glass silence of the woods, echoing across the trees as they carried themselves on the midnight breeze deep into the forest where they would not be heard. The night of the fire, she had lost more than just her life, she had lost an irreplaceable portion of her soul. It was gone…forever. She felt incomplete, broken even, never truly realizing how much of her being rested on that one shard of her heart. The cold earth prickled its sharp blades of grass against her bare legs. Victoria did not know when she had fallen to her knees but wanted nothing more than to stay there on the ground, defeated,…finally forced into submission and willing to accept it. She knew the stranger was watching her in the doorway, she could feel his presence. How she could possibly know that, she neither knew nor cared. What did it matter? She wasn't whole anymore. She had nothing more to live for and would never die. Her freezing hands clenched the ground beneath them. Small snaps could be heard as the roots of the grass split and ripped away from their nurturing foundation. Victoria dug her nails deeper still, taking pleasure in tearing up the soft soil beneath her. It was nothing in her hands, so feeble, no resistance whatsoever. She could do anything she wanted to it and there would be neither questions nor mercy. Only actions, when and how she wanted them done. Something inside her momentarily flickered and then burst into life, flooding her body with burning power. The fire that had warmed her mind and body in the Nothing was still with her, aiding her, even now. It sung through her veins, rippled through every muscle, and sharpened every corner of her mind. Victoria kneeled still as a statue as she embraced the feeling of power that flowed through every fiber of her being. Shutting her eyes, she lifted her head, almost smiling it felt so good.
I promise you Olivia…they will pay.
The stranger stared at the figure that kneeled helplessly on the cold ground. His hard eyes showed no remorse for her pain. She would heal…eventually. If there was one thing that he had learned in his long years of life was that time did heal everything. It had taken him the better of several decades to accept his losses but he had managed just fine. This girl would soon forget her family and how much she thought they meant to her. She would, just like any other cruor inhio who lived long enough to realize that. She was no different.
A soft breeze blew through the clearing, forcing the weak grass to cower in its effortless wake. The frigid night was deathly calm, no owls hooted, no animals rustled in the woods, and even the crickets had ceased to play their midnight symphony. There was only her. Her dark brown hair shimmered in the pearly moonlight rendering her almost angelic as she kneeled down to her future. Slowly her head turned as she looked to gaze at the stranger behind her, deep burgundy eyes blazing with the fire that burned inside her.
