Chapter 10 – At the End of the Channel...

Claire's POV

When I woke, a feeling of dizziness washed over me. It wasn't so much that if I was to stand up at that moment I would fall flat on my face, but more the fact that if someone were to grab hold of my foot and begin to drag me away, I wouldn't be able to stop them – not that I expected anybody to be grabbing hold of my foot right this moment.

Trying to connect with the thought of reality, I opened my eyes as much as they could endure and tried to get my bearings.

There was the familiar stone wall, but it didn't look as it had before. The place was smaller, and a door stood to the right of me. Behind me, I detected some sort of commotion. And then the voice speaking became recognisable.

It was Myrnin.

But while it sounded like him, it didn't at the same time. The voice was stricter, more demanding. And the words that left his mouth made me more confused and completely terrified.

"Do you remember this? Our brilliant creation. This stake, the one that you helped to create, will be the death of you Amelie Bishop."

It was Amelie. He was talking to Amelie; whoever he was anyway.

My body was finally beginning to register everything around me; the cold stone that I lay upon, the dark wall that was oddly straight at this part of the Crypt.

I turned slightly to my left and saw a syringe filled with some sort of liquid. It had clearly been thrown there, whether on purpose or by accident I didn't know.

And then I heard Myrnin say, "Though first, of course, I have got to torture you in the same way that you tortured us for centuries."

And that was when I realised that he had been possessed. Just like Amelie, he had somebody else controlling him, controlling his body. Although Amelie didn't seem to have that problem anymore, because I was certain that if Amelie had still been possessed, the person possessing Myrnin would be calling her Sam, not Amelie.

I crawled toward the syringe, making sure to be as quiet as possible, and gently lifted it from the ground. If I was going to do this, I would have to do it now, and I would have to be quick because I could already hear Amelie's silent prayers and the footsteps of Myrnin's possessor.

I scrambled up and stabbed the syringe into Myrnin's vein with deadly accuracy, and using the advantage of surprise, I pushed the plunger and allowed the liquid to flood into Myrnin's vein.

He stopped, and I knew that I had done something – but what that was I didn't know. And the energy that I had used to get the element of surprise had been all the energy that I had had, so I quickly sat down before I fell down.

Amelie's POV

I sat and watched as Claire sat down. She seemed worn out, a dreadful side effect to having poison plunged into your vein, but even then she had just saved my life.

She didn't seem to be thinking so much as dreaming, her eyes had become slightly cloudy and her breathing had slowed down. I stood and walked toward her; this made her look up.

She smiled, "Hi."

"Thank you, Claire. Thank you ever so much." I bent down so that we were at the same level and wrapped my arms around her.

She didn't even seem to have enough energy to be surprised, so she just rested her head against my shoulder.

"Where's Shane? And Eve, and Michael, and Oliver? Where are they?"

"I don't know about the others, but I am right here and I am ready to get the hell out of this place."

It was Shane. He had just reached the top of the channel and was just climbing over the top. His eyes were set on Claire, love and happiness filling them; even in this terrible situation.

"Claire. I'm so glad that you're okay," he paused, and a questioning expression fell over his face. "You are okay, right?"

I looked at Claire and, with Shane, waited for her reply.

It was a nod of her head. "Yes. It's you guys I'm worried about; I've been unconscious for... Well, how long have I been unconscious for?"

"Three days," Shane answered, and Claire's face filled with sadness.

"Three days. I was unconscious for three days. You had the extra disadvantage of protecting me for three days."

"Don't you dare think like that."

I moved away from the couple as Shane reached us, and I watched their interaction from the sidelines.

"You helped more than you could have thought. Sam had put poison in your system, and when Amelie saw you like you were, the emotion made her come back to her old self. And the poison in your system, Amelie drank it, and it's keeping Sam away at this very moment. That's what you gave to Myrnin just there." He took her into a hug just as I had before, and she again rested her head on his shoulder. "So if you think about it, you did more than any of us did."

"He is right, Claire. You were brilliant. Myrnin will be very proud of you when he wakes up."

I looked over to where Myrnin lay on the ground. It hadn't been like that for me, but it's normally different for everybody.

"What have I missed?" Eve's voice spoke as she climbed up the end of the channel and jumped up. When she caught sight of Myrnin's still body and Claire's consciousness, she seemed to be caught with mixed emotions of joyfulness and uncertainty. "It seems the answer to that would be a lot." She skipped toward Claire and Shane and nudged the boy out of the way, taking Claire into her arms and leaving Shane sitting at the side glaring at her. "Hey, Claire Bear. Oh my god, that was a total three way rhyme! I think I should become a poet."

"Where is Michael?" I asked Eve, and she turned her head to face me but allowed Claire to continue to lean on her.

"He was just a little bit behind me, so he should be up soon." And just as she said the last word, Michael's head popped up from the top of the channel. "And there he is!" Eve chirped, and waved him over.

"Is she..?" He gestured towards Claire, and Eve nodded her head. He turned back toward the channel and shouted down to Oliver, "We're all up." He flew up like a rocket.

For the next five minutes, we all sat in silence, waiting for Myrnin to awake. And when he did, he looked as confused as he had so often been when he was a sufferer of the vampire disease.

"Why do you all look at me as if I am going to kill you all?"

And Shane barked a laugh that contained no humour but plenty relief.

"Well, it worked. Now we can go," I said, and everyone applauded.

It had worked. And now we were going home.