Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is all just my twisted imagination.
Chapter 47
Sarah rolled restlessly under the warm blankets of her bed, sighing with frustration, she opened her eyes to find the bedroom pitch black.
Strangely even with her vampire sight she couldn't see beyond the end of the bed. She blinked and tried to roll over only to find that she couldn't move!
For a moment she panicked and then forced herself to relax, thinking logically, she concluded that the bed sheets must have just gotten tangled around her body.
Finding that she could move her head she strained her neck and looked down at her body.
The bed was perfectly made around her, nothing she could see was impending her movement.
Swallowing hard, she forced herself to remain calm; her breath began to come in shallow gasps…
Sarah froze. She was breathing!
More than that she found that she needed to breath!
She held her breath for a few seconds, relishing the feeling of her lungs burning in need and then finally drew an exquisite breath, almost drunk with pleasure at the sensation.
A quieter sound joined this one and she almost cried when she recognised her own heartbeat.
Her paralysis was forgotten as she relaxed against the pillows and listened to her body. She didn't care how it had happened, how day had turned to night outside the window or how she had awakened alive. She just lay there.
The first time it occurred, the rustling sound at the end of the bed didn't register with her, but the second time she frowned, jolted out of her joyful state. When it occurred the third time it was accompanied by a weight on the mattress.
Sarah's eyes shot open and blue met yellow. Sarah yelped and tried to sit up but was forcefully reminded of her body's disobedience.
"Marishka?" She asked in disbelief.
Dracula's deceased Bride grinned widely, giving Sarah a glimpse of her concealed fangs.
Van Helsing had already taken out Dracula's strawberry blond bride before Sarah and her friends stumbled into this world, Marishka looked exactly as Sarah remembered her from the movie.
"Hello dear." She said sweetly curling up on the bed next to the paralysed girl.
"How…You're dead! Van Helsing killed you!" Sarah said defiantly, she winced involuntarily as Mariska caressed her cheek giggling.
"Now, now Sarah dear it's rude to talk to the dead like that," said a no nonsense voice from Sarah's left.
Sarah started violently and whipped her head round to find Verona laying on her other side.
She opened her mouth to scream but was brutally stopped by a vicious backhand from Aleera who now crouched over her, a demonic grin twisting her lips.
Sarah whimpered, "This isn't real, you can't be here! You can't!"
The brides began to laugh pressing closer to her sides while she lay helpless.
"This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real." She repeated closing her eyes tightly.
"Your mind makes it real." A deep voice whispered.
Sarah's eyes flew open, the brides were gone and instead Dracula straddled her, his arms either side of her head.
Again Sarah tried to fight her paralysis.
The creature watched her with amusement. Sarah tried to scream for help but found that she couldn't utter a sound. Her throat constricted with her fear as he lent his head down to sit inches from her face.
"You can't fight me Sarah, it is foolish to try." He said amused.
A dark strand of hair came lose from his elegant ponytail and fell to tickle her cheek. She shivered at the sensation and his grin widened at her torment.
"Do I make you uncomfortable?" he asked mimicking himself in their first conversation.
Sarah glared at him willing him to feel her hatred and loathing, she forced herself to look past his handsome visage and see the real creature within. Still smiling he brought his mouth down to cover hers in a cold chaste kiss.
Sarah tried to turn her head away but he held her in place painfully with a handful of her hair.
Breaking away he triumphantly met her glare, "Why so defiant my love?" he asked in mock confusion.
He released her and traced her features with his fingertips, brushing her hair away from her face, to fall on to the pillow above her head.
Unable to move she cringed at his touch, anger and fear almost choking her with equal intensity.
"Look at you helpless, unable to call for help" he lent in again his lips brushing against hers teasingly.
Moving up to her ear he whispered, "The conclusion we must inevitably reach, my darling, is that you belong to me."
Sarah stiffened as he moved down to the identical puncture marks on her neck. He laughed and then mercilessly plunged his long fangs into her throat.
Sarah cried out and bolted up out of her bed, she spun around to look at it and found it empty.
Spinning she took in the room, it was lit by random rays of light that were not kept at bay by the curtains.
Sarah realized she wasn't breathing and her hand fluttered to her quiet and still chest.
No heartbeat could be felt. With a desperate sob of sadness and relief she dropped to the floor.
A dream, it had all been a twisted nightmare, but it had felt disturbingly real.
Sarah huddled in a darkened corner of the room rocking slightly, her knees drawn up tightly to her chest.
Her vampire senses told her that it was early evening and the sun was close to setting. A new ache rose in her chest, she wanted to see the sun.
Rising she walked towards the curtains. She reached out a hand to pull them apart and it passed through a random patch of light.
The pain was intense, gasping she cradled it against her body tears streamed down her face.
Below her room, her vampire hearing picked up the sound of laughter, she slid down the wall and listened to it grief crushing her chest.
She didn't belong near laughter like that anymore, she had almost fooled herself into thinking she could live along side her friends, but now she realised they were worlds apart.
A violent lonely sob ripped through her body and she crushed her ears beneath her hands trying to block the laughter out and not succeeding.
Minutes, maybe hours passed before she moved.
People had come and gone outside her door.
Some, like Amie and Jory, had knocked and receiving no answer, had assumed she still slept.
Each time they walked away Sarah reached out to them, willing one or the other to open the door, to find her and give her the comfort she craved.
But neither did, and she would not allow herself to cry out to them. She didn't belong with them now.
After a while she became aware that, she could no longer feel the prickling of her skin that signalled the presence of the sun.
Raising her head from her knees she took in the now darkened room, a jolt of fear going through her body as it resembled the way it had been in her dream.
Stumbling to her feet she drew aside the curtains. A storm had begun to rage outside and rain tumbled in torrents from the blackened sky.
A memory flickered in the girls mind. She was small barely eight, her arms about her mothers waist as they stood at the back door looking out at the storm. Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance and from her mothers other side she heard a gasp of fear escape her twin sister.
She smirked at the girl "I'm not afraid, it's only the clouds." She said smugly.
Kathryn looked round at her and stuck out her tongue darting back as a flash of lightening lit up the sky.
Their mother put her arm comfortingly around her girls smiling as she watched the rain pour down.
Sarah shrugged her off and ran out of the door to stand in the middle of the garden, laughing.
She spun as the rain tumbled down her body, her long plaits whipping around her in the wind.
"Told you I'm not afraid!" she called to her sister.
The memory faded and Sarah immediately turned and walked a cross the room to the door.
She met no one as she walked the halls of the manor and was glad of it. It took her a few minutes to find the Foyer and unbolt the heavy oak doors but she managed it.
Forcing the doors wide open she walked into the lashing rain, clad only in a thin sleeveless blue nightdress Anna had brought her.