Chapter 10

I wake to something cold and wet soaking through my clothes and hitting my body with some force. My eyes immediately open and I take in my surroundings. It's almost pitched black in the tiny room I'm in, only two candles illuminating the dark rooms' dark green walls. I hear the creaking of the hard wood floor under the weight of the two different pair of footsteps I hear walking in the room. As I become more conscious, I hear whispering from a distance but I can't understand anything that the female and male voices are saying.

I sit up and the wood creaks under my weight the voices clearly hear this for the whispers stopped and I hear the creaking of the wood as they come closer to me. I back up quickly until I hit the wall behind me, I'm trapped, and I have nowhere to go. My heart races as the figures get closer and closer to me, fearing that they're going to kill me. I'm doomed; I wish I could tell my mom and Rachel how much I love them. I wanted to say goodbye to Daniel and tell him how much he means to me, I want a last kiss and one last embrace with Daniel. Now I can't because I'm about to die and be reunited with my father up in heaven or wherever it is when we die.

As one of them got closer, I could see a glimpse of the female, all I could tell of her was that she had blonde hair, pale skin, and the frame of her face, which looked to be gorgeous. Once the female got up to me she put her hand around my throat and pulled me up on the wall, holding me up there with just the hand around my neck. I gasp for air as she closes her hand tighter, I try to push her hand off of my throat by putting both of my hands around her wrist and try to push. But her hand doesn't budge.

"How do you know Gustave Chevalier?" The female says in a demanding voice with a French accent.

A look of confusion comes over my face. I have never heard of that name ever in my life, if I had I'd most likely remember it, it's an unusual name. "Who's Gustave?" I struggle to say with the lack of oxygen.

"Don't play stupid," she tightens her grasp, "The man that you have been in a relationship with for a month now hasn't it?"

I still have a confused look on my face. She means Daniel but she must have mistaken him for someone else. "You mean my boyfriend Daniel Westfall?"

Out of nowhere the female starts laughing darkly and drops me. I collapse to the wooden floor that creaks loudly as I make contact with it, making a booming echo. I take in a huge intake of air, gasping. I wrap my left hand around my throat to try and soothe the pain. "Gustave didn't do a good job making a good believable name did he?" She says to herself.

Once my breathing starts to return to its normal rate, I ask frowning, "What do you want with my boyfriend?" She better not do anything to him, hurting me is one thing but if she did anything to Daniel, that's not okay with me.

What I can see, she smirks, "What I want with my boyfriend is that I want him to myself after all these years of tracking him down. For 176 years to be exact."

Stalker ex girlfriend I immediately think to myself. And 176 years? She must be psychotic too. "What? 176 years, that can't be right?"

"Oh, it is. Gustave and I are vampires, or Daniel he's known as now. But, I'm sure you had already suspected that, with the whole rosary thing that happened," the female says nonchalantly,

How did she know about that? Daniel and I were the only people in the parking lot. Unless she was there watching from the woods, the day of Abbey's attack. I stiffen. She must have attacked Abbey, what a bitch. I glare at her, "You were the one who left Abbey well as dead in those woods weren't you?"

I can see that she has a dark smile on her face and laughs, "No, actually that part wasn't me. I wouldn't have been so sloppy with it. That was Henry over there." She points behind her to the other figure keeping his distance.

"I don't believe that either of you are vampires and I don't believe that Daniel is a vampire either, you're psycho." I stand up and she doesn't stop me, "If you'll excuse me, I just want to go home." And I hold my breath as I walk past her. But I don't get very far.

The female tackles me, throws me to the floor and chokes me again; now she's on top of me with her hand around my throat. 'That was a stupid move' I say to myself.

"Listen here, you arrogant bitch, you being with Gustave is screwing everything up between us. I could just kill you but I don't know if Gustave would like that, plus, I would want to make you suffer." She pauses, probably thinking of ways to kill me, while I'm lying under her, trying to get her off of me, but she eventually continues, "So, listen to me and stop trying to fight me."

When she tells me to stop fighting her, I do what she says, not because I needed to but because I wanted to do anything she said. It's like I was in her trance. She continues, "When you go to the ball this Saturday night with Daniel, you'll expose him as a vampire by stabbing him anywhere your choosing except the heart. And with that you'll have your proof that I was right. Do you understand?"

I nod in response, not wanting to talk but just to listen to her like she told me to. "Now, forget everything I had just told you. Forget ever being kidnapped, forget how and why you got in this place, and forget meeting me and Henry when I finish talking. Just know to stab Daniel anywhere except the heart and make it look like you did it on accident."

I feel like I just had a dream or something, my mind was fogged up. I look around in the clearly adjacent house wondering why and how I got here; there was no one here with me. I remember walking to Walgreens and the next thing I know I'm here. Where's Rachel and does she know I'm here? There are so many questions in my head and before anyone or any animals decide to show up, I find my way out of the house and pull out my phone, calling Rachel. She picks up on the first ring.

"Where are you?" She practically screams at me, she sounds like she's going to have a heart attack.

"In all honestly, I have no idea." I say with confusion, I look down the road and see the lights illuminating of the only gas station in Lamia. "Actually, can you meet me at the gas station in Lamia?"

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET BACK IN LAMIA?" Before I can say anything, she continues ranting, "I've been calling your phone for the past hour, I went to the Walgreens and you weren't there! I drove around all of Oak Park looking for you! Don't scare me like that EVER again!"

I've never heard Rachel get so worked up ever in my life. "I don't know how I got here; I remember walking on the sidewalk on my way to Walgreens and the next thing I know I'm on the floor of this old abandoned house on the road of the gas station. Where are you now?"

"Daniel and I are still in Oak Park. Don't worry; we'll be there in 30 minutes!" I stop walking at the mention of Daniel. There's a small part of me that at the mention of Daniel that makes me scared, but I shake off the feeling, I shouldn't be afraid of him. And why would he be there with Rachel? I don't remember him ever coming with us and why would he? "Why is Daniel with you?"

"I called him and asked if he picked you up or knew where you are, he said he didn't and he wanted to help me find you." It seemed believable, and I had no rejection to it. "Are you at the gas station now?"

"Almost, in about 5 minutes I will be. Where are you at?"

"On the highway, so it should be about 20 minutes not even," I hear a voice in the background, "Hey; do you want to talk to Daniel?" Again, Daniel's name being brought up brings me a feeling of fear and makes me want to run away. And again I ignore the feeling.

I hesitate before answering and look at my phone, "I can't, my phones about to die. So, I'll be at the gas station waiting for you. Bye." I snap the phone shut, not waiting for her to reply. Just when I did, I reach the entrance part of the gas station. There is hardly anybody there at the gas station only a couple of bikers that look fairly young, tough, and just plain scary. I better avoid them, hoping that the bad luck I carry isn't going to happen with these 2 guys.

I jog into the store to buy a bottle of water with a little snack to go along with it. For some reason, I'm dying of thirst and hunger. Once I walk into the convenient store, I notice that the place is empty except for the guy behind the cashier welcoming me. He is fairly young, probably in his late 20's or early 30's. I give my greetings and head to the back of the store towards the refrigerated. I grab a bottle of Aquafina and as I head to the cashier, I reach for a granola bar underneath the counter.

As the cashier, a look of the name tag says his name is Mike, rings up my things; I look over at the bikers again and ask Mike, "Do you know those guys?" I nod over to the bikers.

Mike looks over to where I nod and replies with wariness in his voice, "No, but, they have been out there for hours. Your total is 3 dollars and 25 cents," I hand over a 5 and he opens his drawer to give me my change, he continues, "They look like trouble, I recommend staying away from them and not talking to them." He gives me a friendly smile and hands me my change.

I smile back, "Thanks have a nice day." I say as I head out of the door. I decide and take Mikes advice to avoid the bikers and I head over to the side of the building to wait for Daniel and Rachel to come pick me up.

I sit there for a minute and decide to eat my granola bar, I finish it immediately. I chug my water to get rid of the granola bar left in my mouth. When I'm done with my water and granola bar, I walk over to the trash can in the front of the store to throw away the bottle and wrapper. Once I throw my trash away, I look over at the 2 biker's who have been eyeing me ever since I got here. I walk back over to the side of the building and at the corner of my eye; I see the biker's walking up to the store. At first I think that there were going to go in to buy something, but, I then realize they are walking over to me. I stiffen against the building, this can't be good.

I just look at them, not relieving how scared I really was to them. Once they're standing in front of me, I slightly start to shake at the expressions on their faces; they look angry and have a gleam in their eyes. "You got a staring problem?" The older biker says. I would say he was about 50 something and his brown hair was starting to fade to a gray color.

"N-n-no sir," I stutter. When he hears the shaking in my voice, he smirks. He probably enjoys making me feel intimidated, trying to make himself look like a bad ass.

The other biker steps up, "Well, I think you do." He's younger, probably in his early 30's, maybe the same age as Mike but taller and blonde. "How about we fix that problem of yours?" He pulls out a switchblade and looks over at the older man, "What do ya say Snake?" I was too scared to laugh at the name, even though I thought the name was pretty stupid.

"I say," Snake puts his hand on my face, "We should take her back to my place and we could have some fun." He winks at me and I'm filled with disgust, anger, and fear.

Snake strokes my face and places his thumb on my lip and leans down, about to kiss me. I gather up enough courage to bite his thumb and kick him in his groin. He kneels on my ground and groans in pain, and I try to run for it. But the younger man quickly grabs my arm and forcefully pulls me back and grabs my neck, pushing me into the side of the building. "You're going to regret doing that girl." He presses the knife to my throat, almost enough to break the skin.

Then, Snake recovers from my kick, gets up and walks over to me with an angry expression on his face and slaps me. I don't do anything about it because I can't. The other man presses the knife harder into my throat and I feel the jagged part of the knife barely going into me, I feel the smart amount of blood starting to surface. He gives me a dark smile, "Any last words?"

Just then I hear the screeching of tires onto the pavement of the gas station. I glance over to my left, the direction of the car and I see Daniel's Camaro and I slightly breathe a sigh of relief. Only slightly, Daniel might get himself killed protecting me from these 2 guys. He's out numbered and I don't want him to get hurt, especially if one of them was carrying a gun, it could all be over.

Daniel pulls up to the front of the store and immediately jumps out, not even bothering to wait for the car to stop all of the way. He strides over to the bikers and punches Snake with what looked like all of his might and I hear a crunching noise, making me cringe.

Daniel then strides over to the biker and I with a pissed off look on his face and grabs him by the throat and throws him down to the ground. He looks at me, "Go to my car and get in, don't leave the car. I'll be back once I'm done with these guys."

"No." I simply say, "I'm not going to leave you by yourself with them." Just then, they both get up. I look over at Snake and he has a crooked nose dripping blood and I look over to my right and see that the biker doesn't have a scratch on him… yet. Snake is the first to talk.

"Well, well, what do we got here?" Snake says as he walks slowly to us, "Are you her little savior? Well, what makes you think you can take on the both of us? You can't, so you might as well give up and just hand us the girl."

Daniel gets even madder and says through clenched teeth, "Over my dead body." Then he clears his face of any emotion and simply says, "And I believe that you understate me, I can take you two with my hand tied behind my back," he says this with his usual cocky smirk. "So, if you think you guys are as tough as you say you are, give it your best shot." Daniel opens up his arms to invite them to do anything they want to him.

I stand there silent and start backing away from them heading towards the car. I bolt for it and get into the passenger side. I'm still able to see everything that's going on and I watch intently, especially on Daniel and every move that he makes.

Snake is the first one to attack Daniel and Daniel fights right back. Snake tries to punch him in the face, but, Daniel grabs Snake's fist in mid fight and squeezes. From the looks of it, it hurt Snake because I could hear him howl in pain and he slowly gets on his knees. Daniel finally lets go since he has had enough, but then, he punches Snake in the face repeatedly with what looks to be all of his might.

While Daniel is punching Snake, the younger biker sneaks behind Daniel with his knife drawn above his head ready to strike. As I place my hand on the handle of the car door, to help Daniel, he whips around and connects his elbow with the biker's face. Daniel then kicks the biker in his stomach as he is wincing in pain on the ground from the blow.

I glance over at Snake still on the ground; it looks like he won't be getting up anytime soon. I feel worried for him, he has blood all over his face and I wonder if he's okay. Even though he wanted to kill me and do things to me, I would still feel bad because I would be the one responsible for his death.

I look back at Daniel and the poor biker that he is beating up to a pulp. I finally decide to step out of the car and step in and take matters into my own hands. Just then, Rachel's car pulls up and she immediately jumps out of the car. "What the hell is going on Lauren?" She looks over at Daniel in horror and shock, seeing the scene that I have been seeing for the past 10 minutes in disgust.

I ignore the question and speed walk over to Daniel who is still punching him and looks like he has no intention of stopping. "Daniel!" I shout at him, he ignores me and continues. "Daniel, stop!" I get to him and try to pull him off of the biker who is clearly knocked into unconsciousness, but he doesn't budge. I kneel down to his level, "Please!" I plead him, the tears starting to swell in my eyes, "Daniel, please stop!" I finally start to sob. "Please." I whisper.

That's when he finally stops and looks over to me with a hurt expression on his face. "Lauren," he lingers.

"Please, just stop, you don't need to do this to them, they have had enough, just please, for me," I plead him. I get up and pull him up with me, he doesn't argue. I wrap my arms around his waist and hug him, silently crying over the day's events and crying for the relief that he was here with me to make me feel safe and make me feel better.

Daniel wraps his arms around me and puts his head on top of mine and we just stand there for a minute content in each other's arms.

I then pull away and look over at the biker and Snake, still unconscious. "What do we do with them?" I ask Daniel, "Do we call the police and get some help?"

He looks over at their bodies also and replies, "If you want." And he starts to walk over to the driver side of his car, "But if it was me, I wouldn't do a thing for them." Once he gets to the car, he turns around and looks at me with angry eyes, "You know why? Because they got what they deserved and should suffer for it."

I'm shocked by his behavior; I've never seen him act this way. I know that they wanted to hurt me and he's right they deserved to be beaten up a little bit but to the extent Daniel when to, no. They didn't deserve to die, no one does. "Don't say that, Daniel!" I shout at him, "No one deserves that, they're human, just like us, and everyone makes mistakes."

He shouts right back, "Why are you defending them Lauren? They don't deserve the kindness you're showing them." He waves his arm over to Snake and the biker. "If anything, they deserve to die for what they tried to do to you." He walks right up to me, "You try to see the good in everyone, and I admire that about you Lauren, but, not this time. There is no good in those 2, not one spec of it." He pauses for me to reply, but, I don't, so he continues, "You know I'm right but you're too proud to admit it."

I just look at him, not one word coming out of my mouth. 'He's just on edge,' I think to myself, 'He'll get over this eventually.' This is the first actual fight we've ever had, to the point where we were yelling at each other. And I don't like it, but, I'm not going to apologize or admit I was wrong because to me, I really wasn't. But I guess I'm too proud to admit it.

I walk away angrily and head to the store, where Mike is sitting behind the counter with his legs propped up on the counter, reading a magazine. He looks up when he hears the door open and smiles, "Well, look whose back." I don't say anything and I walk up to him. And right away Mike knows something is wrong and asks, "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not okay; I need you to call the police right away please." He grabs the phone on the counter and dials 911, and I tell him what to say to the police, "I was harassed by those bikers out there and they tried to kill me. But luckily, my boyfriend came and helped me out. Now, the bikers are injured very badly and need medical attention."