Chapter 9:
I don't even remember when I last wrote this story, let alone updated it.
I don't own anything.
Claire's POV:
I feel unnaturally cold arms lifting me and stir awake, unable to help myself. In Morganville, if you feel something cold touching you, you react first and decide if you were being unreasonable later.
Better to have the chance to rather than be dead.
My eyelids flutter open to reveal Myrnin's face bent close to me, my body clutched in his arms. He appears almost startled by my return – albeit reluctant - to the land of the living, something instantly being hidden as a barrier seems to slide over his near ebony eyes.
"You were supposed to be sleeping," he says disapprovingly, standing still as I wriggle in his arms. All I want is to be able to identify my location, which I think he realises since he releases the iron clad grip enough for me to turn my head. We're around the back of the lab, near Granma Day's house, and it's eerily quiet. I guess it's near to dawn, so the straggling vampires will be returning from the party now, but I don't really care. All I want to do is lay my head against Myrnin's chest – strange, I know –and leave this world to return to the mishmash of bright lights and colours I was dreaming about before.
Yet I force my eyes to remain open as he begins to slowly walk with me towards his lab shack thing in an attempt to stay awake. I don't want to sleep yet; I'm absolutely shattered, but I know I have to carry on working to find Sam.
If I don't, I die.
"Go back to sleep, Claire," Myrnin whispers to me, his tone seductive in a way, though I presume that that wasn't his intention. He probably meant to make it seem as if he is luring me to sleep… and now I know I'm overtired since I'm overthinking things now.
"No, we need to work," I respond, forcing myself to not even blink as we descend into the doom and gloom of his lab: no lights are on and it is so much harder to keep myself awake down here, even only on the third step. "You can put me down now," I allow a touch of irritation into my tone as he continues to hold me in his arms, even as we are at a standstill in the dark lab.
"Allow me one more minute," he says, striding forwards with a grin on his face… well, not really a grin, more of a satisfied smirk that slightly worries me. "You see, incase of attacks when I am not home, when the lights are out it means that the mines I placed around here are activated and if anyone but myself treads on the boards, it would kill them. Whilst it would be a nice touch to show Amelie you are capable of killing yourself, I didn't plan on ending my life today, and I believe the futility of your death, as well as my own, wouldn't pacify Amelie."
Whoa. Wait… bombs?
"Myrnin, you mean to say that you have placed bombs around here?" I ask in alarm, curling further into his side in peril of my existence setting them off.
"Don't be so dramatic," he sighs, as if there is nothing to be dramatic about: he's planted bombs! "They aren't bombs, simply mines. There's a distinct difference between the two!"
"Well, Myrnin, do enlighten me to the difference between a bomb, which explodes, and a mine, which also explodes!"
"A bomb goes boom, whereas a mine is more contained."
"Face it, Myrnin, they're the same thing!"
And, for the first time since I have known him, he doesn't argue back.
He negotiates a path through the bombs/mines, though if they're only sensitive to his feet, he needn't be so careful, before finally flipping a switch. A noise that I previously thought was background suddenly stops, leaving the lab eerily silent. It reminds me of the time when he was in his self locked cell in prison and I had to come in here by myself… it was soooo quiet – pretty much like this.
"All done," he says, as if this is something that requires showing off.
"Well you can put me down now, can't you?" I snap at him, suddenly feeling the reformed wave of tiredness wash over me.
He shrugs and sets me down on the floor in a very 'you want to get down so I'm going to throw you down' sort of way. Well, if that isn't childish, I don't know what is… oh, wait, probably the entire rigmarole of booby trapping your own lab with bombs makes it on to the list!
"Go to sleep," he tells me, and I really want to do as he says. But simply because he has said it, I'm not going to.
"No," I stick my chin out defiantly, refusing to do as he says.
He sighs slightly and shakes his head. "Go to sleep, Claire, we need to work later on."
"We need to work now, whilst I can still remember, and I don't want to sleep."
"Stop being so childish!"
That gets me.
"Me being childish? This is coming from the man who made his own lab a minefield on the off chance someone would come and go, ooohh look, nobody lives next to the Day house, there must be a secret lab there! Let's go have a little nosy and see if there are any world class secrets in there or something! Of course that bloody well isn't going to happen, but you think so, Mr 'I'm never going to grow up'!" I completely lose it with him, screaming as loud as I possibly can in frustration.
"I never said I'm not going to grow up," he responds, seeming slightly confused by my word choice. Urgh, so annoying!
"I never meant it literally… I meant it in the sense that you've redecorated your lab to include bombs, incase people visit! Nobody visits you, Myrnin, that's sort of the point of a secret lab!"
"A secret lab that won't be secret very much longer if you continue to yell at such a volume!" this is the only response he can give me, the ridiculous statement when he normally yells louder than this.
But I don't dispute the point. I can't actually remember the amount of arguments I've had tonight, which isn't something I'm particularly proud or happy about. After all, it used to be me sorting out the arguments between people, rather than being the instigator of them!
"So what are we going to do now then?" I ask, plonking myself down on the ghastly sofa on the edge of the lab. He sighs, getting the idea I'm not going to go to bed before moving across to me, handing over a sheet of paper and a pen.
"We're going to make a list of all the possible places he could he," he says, so I write "Possible hiding locations for a red-headed vampire who is supposed to be dead but isn't" on the top of the paper.
"Well, he could still be in the graveyard," I start with the most obvious one. "I mean, we didn't canvas the entire area incase he was there. And he could be in those tunnels where Morley hid for so many months or whatever… or…" I run out of ideas, realising that, though I've lived here for almost two years, I don't have a clue where any of the hiding places for vampires are.
"I doubt he has remained in the graveyard, now he has regained a little ability to think clearly," Myrnin muses the point, thinking of other places Sam could be hiding, now he's back from his state of comatosis or whatever he's been doing for six months. Maybe he's been writing a book in his head, saving each chapter in his brain for a chance to copy up when he's back. With Sam, this wouldn't surprise me.
"Well, if you're done disputing one of the most probable ideas, want to replace it with a few others, since otherwise he's going to be found in the tunnels," once again, I find myself snapping at him. I force myself to take a deep breath but don't apologise, since he'd just think he could be a crazy ass idiot all the time on this mission, the one that I got roped into because I slagged off Amelie to her face but only was made possible because Myrnin had to interfere to make Oliver angry with everyone.
He sits down opposite me and sighs slightly, shrugging his shoulders. "He could be in the area behind Amelie's house, since there is nothing there besides old warehouses that went out of use many years ago, according to the map of Morganville in Frank… or perhaps the wasteland behind the City Hall – there's a lot of shade there for during the day, not that he'll be thinking about that."
He continues to list places which I have never heard of, meaning I just write them down without questioning. Why would I bother to question them? I mean, I'm not him, having to dispute everything that someone says!
After about fifteen minutes, he tells me that he doesn't know anywhere else – and we have about ten places on here. after all, this is Morganville, where security is everything – I doubt there can be many places to look, especially ones where Amelie won't be searching… even though she doesn't know that Sam is actually walking and talking (well more biting and running, but you know what I mean), she'll still be searching those places for the body of Sam, since I presume she won't think that someone has taken his body back to their house…
"So, what do we do now?" I ask, flopping back against the sofa. I barely force my eyes open as I feel the beginnings of hunger setting in – I haven't eaten since those mini pizzas in the foyer of the ball all those hours ago.
"You are going to bed, no exceptions," Myrnin informs me, his voice sounding like Amelie's earlier: entirely inflexible and not letting me argue.
"Fine… where?" I sigh, standing up and walking towards the portal.
"No, you have to stay here," he stands up and zooms in front of me, blocking me from going through a portal which isn't actually present in the room since I don't have the strength to summon one. "Stay where you did the other month – I'll be staying out here working… so take the bed and sleep."
"Fine," I repeat, sighing once again as I walk towards the bedroom. As I pass the sofa, I throw my bag down onto the cushion, instantly regretting it as soon as I remember the zip was open and realise that everything has fallen out.
But I'm too tired to be bothered to deal with cleaning it up. All I want to do now is to sleep…
I head into his bedroom and climb into the sheets, slipping away into unconsciousness within seconds of my head touching the pillow. My last thoughts I can remember are regarding realising how strange it is to be going to sleep with the sun being up! Oh, it makes me feel like a vampire...and that is not something I desire.
Two chapters in a row with her falling asleep – sorry, I've just remembered what I want to happen next chapter, where she has to be asleep!
15 reviews, or you won't see an update till after my exam results much further into next year than my actual exams are.
Don't fav/alert without reviewing.
Vicky xx
