Chapter 10 - Relapse

It was going to be a bad day. Murph had lived through way too many lazy days and this particular one was going to be one of the worst. The full impact of what she had done to Sarah had finally hit her. The morning sun was seeping though the curtains but Murph couldn't tell the difference between then and two hours before when she had been staring at the same spot on the ceiling. When Mitchell came downstairs, he'd noticed straight away that it was going to be a hard day for the woman that he safely called a friend. He could tell that she hadn't slept much so before he even put the kettle on boil, he moved over to her and engulfed her in a hug that she willingly accepted.

After a few moments he pulled back. "Go and sleep in my bed. I'll tell George and Annie so nobody'll disturb you. Try and get some sleep." She looked up to him with sadness in her deep green eyes. Mitchell knew the stages that Murph went through when she started drinking again because they were rather similar to what he did when he did the same. Regret, Denial, Ignorance, Sorrow, Realisation, Depression, Admittance, Anger and finally Relapse. He knew that the last few would go quickly, she was currently at Sorrow and he knew that the next five steps would be taken within the next few hours. He knew that it was best to leave her and just be there if she needed him.

He watched as she stood up and plodded her way up the stairs and felt empathy tug at his feelings. He jumped when Annie appeared before him. "Tea?" she announced rather loudly causing Mitchell to push his finger to her lips and Annie looked taken aback like a scolded dog. He gestured upstairs. "Murph didn't sleep much last night, so I told her to sleep in my bed."

Annie nodded her understanding.

Murph collapsed on the bed. She was more than able to pass by Mitchell's untidiness considering that this was the third time she had lived with him and she had seen much, much worse. The blinds were drawn which was a good start due to the fact that she could feel a headache developing and sunlight would just make it ten times worse. She stripped of her jumper and hugged Mitchell's pillow, drawing in his scent like a drug and using the familiarity to relax her mind.

Within seconds she was deep in sleep.

Murph had slept the entire day away and when it got to the time where Mitchell and George needed to go to work, the vampire left a note in his quick scrawl on his bedside table.

'Gone to work. Call me if you need me. You'll be OK, promise. – Mitch." He knew that she wouldn't be in the best state of being when she woke up so before he left he told Annie to get hold of him if she woke up. "There are no guarantees that she'll be competent enough to so much as pick up the phone let alone be in a mood to talk to me." He said quickly, trying to speak quietly enough so that George didn't hear and get worried.

Annie nodded her understanding. "Should I try and stop her if she goes to leave?"

"That shouldn't happen but if it does, call me straight away. Don't try and keep her in the house, it'll make things worse." He went to leave but turned back quickly. "She won't hurt you Annie, I doubt she'll hurt anyone but . . ." he casted a glance up the stairs and sighed. "I've gotta be here, she'd do the same for me."

Monday, 12 January 1920, somewhere in Ireland -

Her eyes stayed glued to her boots as her arms wrapped awkwardly over her knees, flattening down her dress as she did so. She'd always hated corners but this corner was nice and safe, she had a horrible feeling that she would have to get a lot more used to corners, and the floor.

There was an almost inaudible sound from the other side of the cell – for lack of a better word – and her emerald eyes shot up to the cause of it. Mitchell met her gaze, he cocked his head slightly and she pulled her head away to force herself further into the corner.

Mitchell sighed, she hadn't moved since she'd woken up, blood still soaked the collar of her dress and her hair was still in its unruly mass of waves. They hadn't said a word to each other, Herrick had been the only one to communicate with her and the conversation hadn't been two way. She just stared. That was all she did. Stare.

He didn't blame her for being distant. He had seen the rosaries around her neck and read the Prayer for Forgiveness on her lips as she mouthed it to herself with tears in her eyes, he suspected that – like most in northern Ireland – she had been raised Catholic and if she had then he knew that the entire supernatural world had been something she had expelled from her imagination let alone thinking it could be possible to become part of it.

He sighed in sympathy for her as she buried her forehead in her knees, taking deep breaths to stop any sobs that threatened to finally hit.

His attention was suddenly pulled away as he heard footsteps from outside the cell. He noticed Brenna tense and try to force herself further into the concrete wall. The bolt on the opposite side of the heavy metal door opened with a violent clank and the door creaked open. A whimper left Brenna's lips as her breathing became ragged.

Herrick strolled into the room, clapping his hands once and making Brenna jump. "Now!" he announced. "How are we this morning?" that same false happiness was back and it made Mitchell sigh, he knew that Herrick had something horrible planned.

The Englishman strolled forward and crouched before the young woman who craned her neck as far away from him as possible. "Have you felt it yet?" he whispered. "The hunger?" Mitchell could see in her eyes that she had, he noticed the realisation of the fact that that was what it was. Hunger. She wanted something to eat. "Has it risen in your stomach? Can you feel it running through your blood? Compelling you to kill?"

She shook her head frantically, trying to expel the thoughts from her head.

Herrick sighed and stood up, moving back towards the door and reaching out. When he was fully in the room again, there was a young man being hauled behind him. He placed the man in the centre of the room and Mitchell watched as the man shook out of fear.

Herrick stared at Brenna. "I want you to kill him." He said, in that strange tone that made any sentence sound like an order. Mitchell crossed his arms over his chest. Brenna once again tried to move backwards but was already flat against the wall.

She stared at the human but tore her eyes away when she realised that her fangs had pierced her gums. She forced her face into the ruffles of her shirt and shut her eyes as hard as possible. When she looked back up her eyes were that entrancing emerald green once more.

Herrick growled and went to snatch her arm but she dodged and was before Mitchell before he could register her movements. "Help me please." She begged, tears pooling in her eyes as she fell to her knees and gripped onto his trouser legs. "Please. Please don't make me do it." He frowned and swallowed.

For the first time in a while he felt powerless. Everything else other than her request seemed petty; nothing else mattered other than getting her out of there without becoming a murderer. But he couldn't, because Herrick was there and he could do absolutely nothing to help.

Herrick grabbed the human and bit harshly into his neck. The smell of blood soaked the room and Mitchell had to concentrate to make sure his own eyes didn't seep black. Brenna's face went blank but she managed to look up one final pleading time with her human eyes before the back crept in. Herrick groaned and gripped her by the hair to force her towards the human, who whimpered at the close proximity of Brenna and Herrick. The older vampire forced her upon his bleeding neck but she never stopped struggling. She refused to swallow, she grabbed anything she could, she pushed against the human and lashed at Herrick, pulling at his fingers on the back of her head.

But eventually she swallowed.

And the room turned calm.

When he was sure she was safely latched onto the humans bleeding throat, Herrick released both of them, holding his arms out in triumph and looking to Mitchell proudly. He took a step back, admiring his work before looking back to Mitchell.

Mitchell swallowed and looked away.

Herrick smiled and joined him watching the display before them.

Mitchell couldn't stop staring. She had fallen to her knees again, taking the limp body of the man with her, he was long dead. He was gripping frantically onto his shirt trying to get a better hold, Mitchell sighed. Only moments ago, she had been latched onto his clothes, begging to keep her humanity. Now it was gone.

After a while she dropped the drained body, the shell of the human rolling from her knees and onto the cold floor. She stared at him, with empty eyes, unbelieving of what she had done. She let out a short sob.

Herrick turned to Mitchell. "Clean up the body. Do what you want with her now; she'll be sticking with you. You'll make a fantastic pair." He laughed joyously before leaving the cell.

Mitchell checked he was gone before rushing to the crying girl and enveloping her in a tight hug that she willingly accepted.

Murph pulled the jacket around her torso to battle off the oncoming rain. She bought the cigarette to her lips and took a gasp of the nicotine. She'd managed to successfully get out of the house without Annie following her; the dilemma was where to go.

She turned down the side of a house and into the back street that would eventually lead out into the town, she needed to be around people, if the hunger took over then so be it.

She rounded into the car park behind a block of buildings and hunched over to hide her face, just because she wasn't exactly herself didn't mean that she was going to be stupid. There was nobody around but she didn't let her guard down.

"And what do you think you're doing?" It was an English accent and she knew it all too well. She stopped dead, chills running up her spine. It felt like moments passed before she managed to calm herself down enough to turn around.

She finally saw him. She swallowed.

"Herrick?"

I'm so sorry. I don't like leaving you on cliffhangers but this was rather spontaneous and I needed something to end it one and this is what I got. Sorry.

So I feel like I lost it a little at the end but that was because I got further with this before I'd done the previous chapter and - like I said - the end of this was very spontaneous. I haven't really thought this through but it should all link together.

Thank you for reading. Please review.