AN: SO IT SEEMS I´LL KEEP GOING WITH THIS ONE IF TOMORROWS EPISODE DOESN'T KILL ME. DEC 9TH… IM READY. NOT REALLY.
THANKS FOR READING.
D: LAW AND ORDER SVU AND ALL ITS CHARACTERS ARE NOT MINE.
CHAPTER 21
ARE YOU ALIVE?
The snow has covered the entire Adirondack region from end to end. From the top of the mountain, Olivia observes the white mantle covering the woods. She had spent three whole days watching the pines as they freeze slowly. It reminded her of a video camera left recording the entire process for then let people watch it in fast motion but here she has actually spent the whole process sitting still capturing every single detail with her own eyes. It also worked as a good excuse to keep her distance from their guest.
Raymond has acted as if the talk that they had never happened and Stephen had suspected nothing, and to maintain the appearance— trying to avoid any uncomfortable situations— she has decided that the farther she was from the guest the easier to conceal her anger.
But she knows she cannot spend much more time playing the fascinated neophyte, so she starts thinking what other options she has. Learning a new hobby is something that she would be pleased to do. She should ask Megan to teach her how to paint or Mario to teach her to carve wood or perhaps continue with her body fight lessons with Stephen. Anything to keep her distracted from the idea that Raymond was in charge of putting in her mind… to go away with him.
"Olivia!" She hears Megan screaming from the place where the house is located. "Come here please!" She says excitedly waiting for the vampire to decide to move from her place. Olivia stands up quickly making the snow layer that had covered her entire back to slide down to the floor. Trying to ignore the fact that there is no discomfort in her muscles despite having remained as motionless as a rock for days, she runs in search of the blonde thinking maybe she needs her help.
Within seconds she reaches the cabin and, seeing no movement outside, she decides to go in not caring about the humidity in her clothes. She enters the middle rock room to meet the three male vampires relaxed on the sofa while looking attentive to Megan who is standing on the other side of the room.
"Is everything okay?" She asks not knowing what else to say.
"I have finished my paint." Megan announces her. "And I'm about to show it to everyone. Have a seat please." She asks pointing to the place where the others are waiting for the revelation.
Stephen slides a little to make room for her on the couch and she accepts sitting beside him. She lets her body lean against his left arm which, instinctively surrounds her. It feels both good and weird how comfortable she is around him. She shakes the feeling away not wanting to deal with it, as much as she doesn't want to deal with her reflection on the huge ballet mirror that decorates one of the walls of the salon. So she decides to focus on the young blonde who's excitedly moving to where her artwork is strategically put so that others can't see it.
Olivia playfully dares to spy on Megan's mind trying to see the portrait and to her like she succeeds. She hides her surprise while watching the blonde's perfect job; she can see Megan's whole process of painting as if she was doing it herself. At the scene on her mind it is as if she were taking the delicate brush and watching Mario sitting motionless in front of her. She can see each of the details that Megan caught and identically copy them on the canvas; a canvas that had being completely white was transformed in to a portrait that seemed to be the same Mario in person. Olivia tries to hide her surprise preventing the others to realize her trap but mostly avoiding Raymond to realize about her gift.
"You weren't the only one that spent three days still, Olivia." Mario tells her making Stephen laugh by recalling how obsessed Megan was to finish the painting as soon as possible. Olivia smiles just a bit without much encouragement remembering that now she has to find a new distraction; at least while the guest decides to retire.
She dares to spy on the minds around her searching for Raymond's, which she finally finds with some difficulty. It seems that the vampire is really interested in seeing Mario's portrait, even a little impatient, but physically he looks so serene as if his mind was blank.
'Good actor' Olivia thinks for herself.
"Well are you ready?" Megan asks with a mischievous smile knowing that they are more than ready. She has kept them away from her canvas during the last three days leaving them in suspense. "Do not cheat Olivia." She says without thinking about her words. Olivia immediately reads how Raymond's attention flies direct to her so she remains calm and let out a slight chuckle.
"Megan, I will not move from here. I swear." She tells the blonde trying to make him think that the only trap she could do required her moving from her place. She immediately inspects Raymond's mind maintaining her warm look on Megan, who laughs and plays along smoothly. The vampire remains in doubt and watches Olivia expecting to see a body signal to indicate whether she was nervous, but Olivia remains as natural as always. She watches as Raymond take his look to the others who also remain in place as if there were no second context in Megan's words.
"You better not." Megan warns her with a look of seriousness that is immediately replaced again by her classic happy face.
"Can you show us already!?" Stephen says with evident impatience in his voice.
"All right." Without further, Megan proceeds to flip the canvas to her viewers.
"Oh! That's..." Mario says running out of words to see his exact copy in front of him. "It… is…"
"Wow! It's amazing!" Olivia expresses pretending to be as surprise as if she was seeing it for the first time.
"Oh no! Megan!" Stephen exclaims with an annoyed tone earning everyone's dubious eyes. "One Mario was enough!" He continues mocking Mario making the middle rock full of laughs.
"Hey! Another me wouldn't be that bad!" Mario defends himself from the innocent mockery.
"There could never be another you my love." Megan says running into the arms of her lover and giving him a big kiss to show her feelings. "I couldn't live without you." She ensures without releasing him one bit.
Olivia observes the scene and tries to divert her attention to anything other than the minds of the two lovers. Is not that their love bothers her, but something is broken inside her every time she inadvertently gets into their minds. They attach to each other's and in sync they shout their connection. Olivia can't help but feel a hole in her motionless chest to find there what she was used to feel with one person; and to witness it from a third party .
So she tries to take her attention to the nearest voice only to meet an annoying and uncomfortable thought. She pays attention without looking with her eyes and recognizes that voice; Raymond is upset watching the lovers and struggles as much as Olivia to think about other things. He moves from his place straight to the violin and Olivia keeps her attention on his actions hoping he doesn't ruin the moment with that melody that had made Megan run away a couple of days ago. But she soon realizes that the only reason he has moved was for surreptitiously observe the ice landscape painting. And then Olivia comes up with an idea, remembering Megan had already thought of getting rid of it.
"Where will you hang it up?" She asks making the lovers apart.
"Ahm… I dunno. It's Mario's so he decides." Megan answers turning to see her beloved again.
"It is a true work of art." Stephen decides to speak up getting beside the paint in half a second. "The middle rock is its place." He dares to decide for Mario.
'Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Olivia?' He tells her using his inner voice and bringing his gaze to the paint on the wall.
"This is its place." Olivia says running to the paint of the ice landscape and taking it in her hands as fast as possible to avoid any objection. "Isn't it?"
"Yes!" Mario exclaims finally understanding his friends' intentions.
"It's pretty artistic if it remains where it was painted." Megan smiles and rushes to take her new work in order to place it on the smooth wall. Raymond observes all without mentioning a word not feeling entitled to comment on the decoration of a house that is not his and also not wanting them to notice how much it affects him that they take off that painting.
Olivia is responsible for placing the old painting on the ground turning towards the wall to let Megan decide what to do with it later.
"It's wonderful." Raymond finally speaks looking at the new artwork. "Yours is an impressive talent Meguie." He dares to call her by her nickname which draws everyone's attention. Olivia had never heard anyone call her that way.
"Thank you, but the truth is that Mario's beauty is what makes this painting impressive." Megan answers intelligently trying not to notice how much the nickname can affect her.
"If of stunning beauties we are talking… I'd rather have Olivia's portrait on my wall." Raymond continues bringing his attention to Olivia and getting everyone in the room to focus on her. "Yours is a really extraordinary beauty." Olivia can't help but being mentally attacked by her own image from the different angles that each of the vampires in the room has of her.
"You should paint her, Megan." Stephen decides to talk trying to make them stop looking at her imagining how uncomfortable that must be for her. From what little he have come to know about her that is what he has noticed the most, she does not like being the center of attention.
"I would gladly!" Megan says happily giving a warm smile to Olivia who immediately shakes her head. "Well if she ever let me." Olivia immediately shakes her head feeling as if she was about to blush.
"Why Olivia? If you're so beautiful." Raymond approaches her and stares at her with intensity in his eyes that now are not as bright and purple as they were when he just arrived. "And not only beautiful, but also gifted." He continues with a smile bringing his hand to her cheek.
'Stay away from her.' Olivia listens to Stephen's mad though but she passes it as unnoticed.
"It was just a chess game." She answers as natural as possible to prevent him to notice that it is a response that she has thought ahead knowing what he was going to say. "Don't make a big deal of it." She returns the smile taking her face away from his touch.
'Chess?' Stephen thoughts keep invading her mind.
"Don't think I've given up." Raymond says letting out a slight smile. Olivia just forces a smiles knowing that those words have a double meaning. She knows that Raymond is not only referring to a chess match but he is also talking about the proposal that he made. A proposal that, not knowing exactly why, she has been actually considering.
"Talking about games…" Megan says calling everyone's attention again. "Our battlefield is now ready." She announces turning to the only window of the middle rock to observe the white-cold forest that's waiting outside.
Soon they are already outside the small cabin where they take care to explain to the new entrants the basics of the game.
Mario is in charge to explain a couple of times to perfection the limits of the field to Olivia. It is not that he doubted her; she has earned his trust and he is certain that she will not try to escape as when she barely knew them. Olivia would keep her word. However he must ensure that she stays within the limits cause at snow time humans like to go to the Adirondacks to the various recreational activities that the few hotels in the area offer, such as skiing, hiking, exploring frozen rivers or just camping in the snow. The Adirondacks are most visited in winter than in any other season. And, although they remain hidden in the side of the mountains that have been declared dangerous prohibited areas for humans, they must ensure that it is clear to her where the limit is reached.
Even Stephen takes a run with her around the periphery to show the checkpoints points and has led her to the top of the mountain to show her each of the cardinal points.
"Do you remember that at night there's a little light to the south?" Stephen asks Olivia who only nods perfectly recalling that yellow light that caught her attention one of the nights they've spent up there looking at the stars. "Well, that is the closest hotel. It is several miles from here, just after that lake there but you have to be careful. It is best that you avoid running south. We don't want human's to suspect."
"Or one ending up as my dinner." Olivia says letting him know that she knows what he really fears.
"Let's avoid that." He says smiling knowing that he can't deceive her. "Come on." He takes her by the hand to get back to where the others are waiting.
The five vampires are accommodated under the snow falling in a sort of circle around a large antique sand clock Megan has placed on the snow. The rules are simple; obviously they must throw snowballs at each other but, as this will not really cause them not the slightest tickle, the important point is that if one of them is hit by a snowball he or she will have to get frozen; literally stand still for thirty seconds to let the one that has hit them flee.
For starters, they all will have thirty seconds before running into the forest each in different direction, then another thirty seconds to enter the forest, once separated they will start looking for their opponents. The winner is the one who manages to freeze all the other players and the loser, therefore, who is frozen by everyone else. It sounds simple and, perhaps, if we were talking about five humans it would even be boring but when the players we refer to are five fast and agile vampires running through a vast expanse of forest the game becomes more interesting. Mostly because it can spend hours before any of them are reached by any snowball. So it becomes a hunt of strategy and skill to achieve been unnoticed by the find opponents.
"Good luck." Raymond whispers with a grin just before the last grain of sand falls down and all run into the forest.
Olivia rushes dodging rocks and trees struggling to get away from the other steps to get as far as she can from them. She knows she has the advantage of been the fastest of them all and soon she stops listening to them. Once she counts thirty seconds in her mind she slams and hurries to make a snowball in her hands and then be standing perfectly still.
She also has taken the liberty of using her gift to spy on the others' strategies and she knows that Raymond has already planned to go first after her rather than the others and, ironically, everyone else had already planned to run after Raymond first. So she remains completely silent focusing all of her attention on her surroundings.
She is able to hear everything; she hears the wind dancing around her moving the frozen pine needles making them tinkle as bells, she hears the sound of the snow falling on the soft white blanket beneath her feet, she hears a couple of birds that haven't migrated and are trying to hide in the treetops, she hears the gentle breathing of some squirrels that hide in some place not too close and the slow beat of their tiny hearts draws her attention. She strives to find any other sound that doesn't make her throat burn and finds the melody of a river's water still struggling to not freeze to death.
She dives into the music that the forest gives her recalling the time she visited to the waterfall with Megan and Mario. She finds everything fascinating and then she realizes that for the first time she is actually alone in the forest; they really trust her. That Mario has finally trust her is something that really makes her happy and makes her unconsciously smile.
'Are you serious?' The sudden voice make her out of her thoughts and she quickly flips back looking for Raymond only to find a snowball inches from her face. She tries to dodge it unsuccessfully feeling the soft snow crash against her skin. 'That was easy.' She listens to Raymond thought.
"Check." He says out load watching her in the eye with a grin before running out to the south between the large pines. A furious Olivia held still counting the seconds in her head without breaking the rules even though she would love to run after him already.
As soon as the thirty seconds pass she begins to run after the vampire gathering more snow as she nimbly dodges the large logs following the sound of Raymond's soft footsteps. Soon she sees him appear in front of her making her hasten her pace. Raymond dares to look over his shoulder and his expression is full of surprise at seeing the vampire so close.
"Did you start running before the thirty seconds?!" He asks without stopping a bit knowing she can clearly hear him.
"You know I didn't!" She assures him knowing that he has clearly heard when she started running. "You are underestimating me again." She says being already a few steps from his back. The vampire tries to change his route jumping to the high branches and sliding down the roots that stand up the ground but Olivia can foresee each movement. She takes a great leap getting ahead of his landing point and throws a ball directly to his face which he manages to avoid but then a second ball hits straight to his forehead knowing exactly which his movement was going to be.
"Aggh" The vampire complains immediately stopping and remaining stationary.
"Check." Olivia jokes returning him the grin.
"Okay. I've been underestimating you." Raymond says letting out a genuine smile. "Olivia, you're good."
"I know." Olivia says egocentric walking around the vampire knowing that now that they were both out for each other she has no reason to run.
"I propose you an alliance to hunt the others together." He says once the thirty seconds of immobility has passed. Olivia grimaces in disagreement without trying to hide her distaste for the idea.
"No thank you. I can't do it myself." She says with a glare before jumping to the branch of one of the pines. Suddenly she hears the hurried footsteps of some of the other players running not far from them and both vampires flip in the direction where they are heard.
"All right." Raymond whispers so just Olivia can hear him. "Then let the best vampire win." He challenges her before running swiftly toward the steps. But Olivia is held stationary in the pine branch trying to hear the nearby minds to know who it is but achieved only to hear Raymond's thoughts that vanish away. Maybe they are not close enough.
She lets out a breath and rolls her eyes up. It seems that Raymond only knows how to make treacherous proposals. That idea of going with him is still spinning in her mind and she starts to seriously dislike the fact that she is still doubting about her answer. And once again she has gotten lost in her big mind. She can't concentrate very well in the game.
The only time she has achieved to only focus on one thing was while hunting because all that mattered while standing before a huge wild cat was getting rid of her burning throat. But from then on she always ends up distracted by her own mind. She tries to concentrate again but now she can't hear the footsteps and she thinks whether if they are long gone. She jumps back to the ground and decides to go and find out but just before starting her run something else catches her attention.
"Aaaahhhhhhh!" The terrifying scream of a woman is heard not that far away. "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp! Nooo! Get off me!" Olivia freezes listening intently for a second trying to identify the voice, it has no resemblance to Megan's melodic voice. Is it a woman? A human one? She thinks to rush to the other side immediately but the memory of her own screams in the woods invade her head. 'Has Raymond decided to feed?' Is the first thing that comes to her mind but she knows that Raymond has run to the other side. 'Should I go see? Or should I stay away?'
"Nooooo please nooo! Daaaad! Heeeelp!" The cry is becoming stronger and more frightening. "Please!" The plea in obvious terror.
"Stop moving you stupid girl!" A second voice joins denoting aggression and anger. Olivia doesn't think twice and runs toward the voices. She hurries through the forest until she faces the lake that Stephen has shown her, she knows that it is the limit but she doesn't really care.
With more speed she runs listening the terrified screams getting closer. She takes a big jump across the wide lake ensuring to hold her breath and soon she hears the noise that the footprints made in the snow.
She achieves to see a man throwing a girl into some rocks while enraged yells her to keep quiet and listens to the terrified woman mourn. Olivia doesn't think twice and in less than a second she reaches the man throwing him hard through the air. She listens as the weak human body crashes against a rock. An evident crack from the bones invades her ears as all the air of his lungs is pushed out. Olivia looks at him and can't help but start to see all the images that pass through the drunken man's mind, his intentions with the young woman and his past actions with other victims.
A familiar anger invades her, but this time it is intensified. She looks at the man struggling to keep the air in her lungs inside without much success; his face is a grimace of pain as he hugs his ribs. Olivia listens to his heartbeat as it starts to become slower with every second.
She doesn't care anymore, is not the first time she wants to kill a beast like the one she is facing now, a real monster. But this is the first time she can actually do it without consequences. Without thinking twice she decides to take a bunch of air in search of that aroma that they have warned her to keep away from.
She feels as the air enters her nose right into her lungs and her throat begins to burn mercilessly. With a loud roar she lets out the air immediately finding that poisoned aroma, her vision starts to turn red and her body, unconsciously, inhales again. This time the aroma is followed by a strong flavor, it is fresher.
It's not the same, is not the dying man's. Olivia flips confused looking for that scent to meet the scared young woman's arm. The vampire observes as the girl's white skin is dyed in a bright red liquid; her blood. A voice in Olivia's head yells her, encouraging her to jump directly to the wound and take what she desperately needs. It almost orders her to do it. It tries to silence the inner voice that screams her to stop, to flee from there, but the burning in her throat soon stifles the voice out and the muscles in her legs are already preparing to jump straight to the young woman.
"O… Olivia?" The trembling voice says just above a whisper. "Are you… alive?"
TO BE CONTINUED…
AN: HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!